The DM‘s Book Club

Show notes This week, Hamilton shares his experiences playtesting Cubicle 7's ' Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game ' from UKGE 2025 whilst Fiona went to her very first Renaissance Fair and was left...unimpressed. Consider using our affiliate link when using DM's Guild! #SupportyourFLGS Credits The DM's Book Club is hosted, recorded, edited, and produced by Fiona Howat and Hamilton . The DM’...

Show notes This week, Fiona and guest co host Alan are live IN person at DMBC HQ exploring ' Unearthed Arcana 2025: The Psion ', a new class for the current revised 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. The playtest includes base class rules plus four subclasses - the body-shifting Metamorph, the reality warping Psi Warper, the offensive-minded Psykinetic, and the Telepath. From the ' Unearthed A...

Show notes This week, Fiona and guest co host Tay from the Backwater Bastards chat about ' For The Queen ', a collaborative storytelling card game of love, betrayal, doubt, and devotion. ' For the Queen ' is a card-driven collaborative storytelling game that invites you to tell a dramatic narrative about a Queen’s journey with you, her companions! What will you learn about her (and yourself) along...

Show notes This week, Fiona and guest cohost Nathan from the RPG Reanimators Podcast discuss ' Improv For Gamers 2nd Edition ' by Karen Twelves, published by Evil Hat Productions. From the ' Improv For Gamers 2nd Edition ' blurb: 'Based on hundreds of hours of professional workshops, Improv for Gamers provides fun and easy exercises designed to take your tabletop or live-action gaming group to the...

Show notes This week, Fiona and Hamilton head back into Unearthed Arcana and check out the recently released ' Horror Subclasses ' which explores horror themed subclasses using the rules from the 2024 Player’s Handbook. This playtest document presents revised subclasses for the Bard (College of Spirits), Cleric (Grave Domain), Rogue (Phantom), Sorcerer (Shadow Sorcery), and Warlock (Hexblade Patro...

Show notes Welcome to The GM's Book Club, from the hosts of The DM's Book club! A new(ish) monthly(ish) show where hosts Fiona and Hamilton take a roleplaying game, read it cover to cover, and rate, review and discuss what they think about it. In this episode, Fiona and Hamilton discuss ' Mothership ® , the award-winning sci-fi horror RPG where you and your crew try to survive in the most inhospit...

Show Notes This week, Fiona and guest co host Benjamin Gray , from Roleplay Retcon , take a gander at ' Silverplate Campaign Setting ': A tasty 5E campaign setting that includes edible and tasty player options, and adventures! Chapter discussed: 'Chapter 2: The Land of Silverplate' Book discussed: ' Silverplate Campaign Setting ' published by DRS Publishing (August 2023) Consider using our affilia...

Show Notes This week, Fiona and guest co host Benjamin Gray , from Roleplay Retcon , take a gander at ' Silverplate Campaign Setting ': A tasty 5E campaign setting that includes edible and tasty player options, and adventures! Chapter discussed: 'Chapter 1: Character Options' Book discussed: ' Silverplate Campaign Setting ' published by DRS Publishing (August 2023) Consider using our affiliate lin...

Show notes This week, Fiona and Hamilton finish their deep dive into ' Thay Land Of The Red Wizards ', a regional sourcebook about the land of Thay, a mysterious and terribly powerful magocratic nation in east Faerûn, that was long-governed by the Zulkirs of the Red Wizards and ruled by the necromancer lich Szass Tam. From the ' Thay Land Of The Red Wizards ' bio...

Show notes This week, Fiona and Hamilton continue their deep dive into ' Thay Land Of The Red Wizards ', a regional sourcebook about the land of Thay, a mysterious and terribly powerful magocratic nation in east Faerûn, that was long-governed by the Zulkirs of the Red Wizards and ruled by the necromancer lich Szass Tam. From the ' Thay Land Of The Red Wizards ' b...

Show notes This week, Fiona and Hamilton continue their deep dive into ' Thay Land Of The Red Wizards ', a regional sourcebook about the land of Thay, a mysterious and terribly powerful magocratic nation in east Faerûn, that was long-governed by the Zulkirs of the Red Wizards and ruled by the necromancer lich Szass Tam. From the ' Thay Land Of The Red Wizards ' b...

Show notes This week, Fiona and Hamilton start their deep dive into ' Thay Land Of The Red Wizards ', a regional sourcebook about the land of Thay, a mysterious and terribly powerful magocratic nation in east Faerûn, that was long-governed by the Zulkirs of the Red Wizards and ruled by the necromancer lich Szass Tam. From the ' Thay Land Of The Red Wizards ' bio:...

Show Notes This week, Fiona and Hamilton look at one of Hamilton's favourite prompt tools for creating character backstories: ' Better Backstories '. Better Backstories is a card-based brainstorming system for authors, role-players, educators, songwriters, and more! Created by Jay Stilipec, Better Backstories is genre-neutral and system independent, so it works it can provide inspiration for any s...

Show notes Welcome to The GM's Book Club, from the hosts of The DM's Book club! A new(ish) monthly(ish) show where hosts Fiona and Hamilton take a roleplaying game, read it cover to cover, and rate, review and discuss what they think about it. In this episode, Fiona and Hamilton discuss ' Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) ': a role-playing game set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting, originally publ...

Show notes This week, Fiona and Hamilton go through one of the most recent Unearthed Arcana playtest document, ' Forgetten Realms Subclasses ', featuring eight new Dungeons & Dragons subclasses that will appear in the upcoming Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. From the ' Forgetten Realms Subclasses ' bio: ' In this new Unearthed Arcana document, we explore material designed for upcoming books,...

Show notes To start of our latest season, co hosts Fiona and Hamilton check out ' Hold Back the Dead ': a promotional adventure for 5th-edition Dungeons & Dragons released on February 5, 2025, as a free digital-only product on D&D Beyond (as of this episode's release - it is no longer available to download) From ' Hold Back The Dead ' bio: ' Ironspine Keep is all that stands before a monst...

Show notes This week, Fiona and guest co-host Shaghik delve into the dungeon-crawling, story-forward TTRPG Heart: The City Beneath ! From the award-winning designers which brought you Spire , Heart is a roleplaying game about delving into a nightmare undercity that will give you everything you’ve ever dreamed of – or kill you in the process. It focuses on what characters have to lose in pursuit of...

Content Warning: Fascism, War, Nazis, Blood, Ultraviolent and Vampires. Show notes Welcome to The GM's Book Club, from the hosts of The DM's Book club! A new(ish) monthly(ish) show where hosts Fiona and Hamilton take a roleplaying game, read it cover to cover, and rate, review and discuss what they think about it. In this first episode, Fiona and Hamilton discuss ' Eat the Reich ': a tabletop role...

Show notes Note: Yes Hamilton's mic gain was indeed set too high and could not be fixed in post. Apologies for the audio quality in advance. This week, Fiona and Hamilton check out a land full of fairytale creatures great and small with ' Monstrous Compendium Vol. 4: Eldraine Creatures ', based on the Magic the Gathering set: ' Wilds of Eldraine '. From the ' Monstrous Compendium Vol. 4: Eldraine...

Show notes Note: This episode was recorded prior to the updated Unearthed Arcana 2025: Eberron Update release. This week, Fiona and Hamilton head back to Unearthed Arcana to look at one of the latest playtest document: The Artificer , which presents a revised Artificer article to go with the 2024 Rulebooks. From The Artificer Unearthed Arcana bio: ' This playtest document presents a revised Artifi...

Show notes This week, Fiona and Hamilton read through ' Scions of Elemental Evil ', one of the free adventures made available as part of a yearlong celebration of Dungeons & Dragons and its 50th anniversary. Spoilers: They didn't like it. From the ' Scions of Elemental Evil ' bio: 'Beneath the Temple of Elemental Evil lies a labyrinth of tombs and ritual chambers. For years, these dungeons hav...

Show notes This week, Fiona and Hamilton wrap up warm and head out to explore Ten-Towns, a loose confederation of frontier villages found in Icewind Dale in the western Frozenfar, as described in ' Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden '. The communities of the Ten Towns attracted those people of Faerûn determined to find a life for themselves, and those desperate to leave their former lives behin...

Show notes This week, Fiona and Hamilton continue their actual book club of The Legend of Drizzt series of fantasy novels by R.A Salvatore . Starting in chronological order, our hosts continue with ' Sojourn ', the third book in The Dark Elf Trilogy , a prequel to The Icewind Dale Trilogy . Published in 1991, ' Sojourn ' follows Drizzt as he travels to the surface to escape the Underdark and his p...

Show notes This week, Fiona is joined by guest cohost Michelle Kelly to talk about her love of ' Blades in the Dark ': a tabletop role-playing game about a crew of daring scoundrels seeking their fortunes on the haunted streets of an industrial-fantasy city. Written by John Harper and published by Evil Hat Productions, ' Blades in the Dark ' tells tales of heists, chases, occult mysteries, dangero...

Show notes This week, Fiona is joined by guest cohost Benjamin Gray from Roleplay Recon to talk about how the Perception Check, the go to information gathering move in D&D and other TTRPGs, isn't all it's cracked up to be! They discuss their thoughts on ways such sight based checks could be improved, thanks to 3 articles which focus on making both D&D more accessible and manageable, and ho...