Tycho's Tales

This week's episode is a grab-bag of random topics, including the role of deities in tabletop RPGs; whether warlocks should lose their powers if they have a falling-out with their patron; the abomination that is Leomund's Tiny Hut; a new movie review segment; note-taking at the table; and, of course, our regular Spell of the Week section in which we abjectly fail to talk about a spell, a...

Elly and Lars join us again to wrap up our discussion on multiclassing in 5e. We go into a bit more detail on how spellcasting works when you're mixing two casters together, then do a semi-deep-dive into each class (except Rangers, for some reason; we blame Walt for this).  Tycho's Tales is an informal discussion podcast about tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) like Dungeons & Drago...

Heds and Walt are joined by special guests Elly and Lars to talk about multiclassing in 5e! We yarn about why you might want to multiclass; some need-to-know details around ability score prerequisites and some other limitations; do a deep dive on how proficiencies work, and implications for choosing your starting class; and talk about how you might roleplay a multiclassed character. We also debut...

Why are taverns so cosy for roleplaying games? In how much detail should you describe that NPC in the corner? Should you leave your axe at the door? Is it worth it to spend a bunch of time crafting 3d terrain, or are 2d combat encounters perfectly fine? Is this too many questions for a podcast episode description?  Tycho's Tales is an informal discussion podcast about tabletop roleplaying gam...

What do people mean when they talk about "the meta", or "metagaming"? What are a few meta (or off-meta) feats and abilities? How about some OP combinations? We give our customary GM tip-of-the-week, and finish with a shout out to all the rogues in the house who spend most of their time running around corners. Tycho's Tales is an informal discussion podcast about tabletop r...

Pretty much everyone uses some sort of variant rule for 5e's Inspiration or PF2e's Hero Points. We talk about some of the issues with these metacurrencies using rules-as-written, as well as a bunch of variant or homebrew rules to spice things up a bit.  Referenced in the episode:  - https://rpgbot.net/metacurrencies-remastered-from-hero-points-to-inspiration-rpgbot-podcast-s4e15/  - http...

Should you choose your class based on existing characters, or just YOLO it? How do you manage combat when you have a large group of player characters? Exactly how screwed is your Bladesinger Wizard when your Cleric casts Silence? For any statisticians in the room, this one's dedicated to you. This episode has minor spoilers for the Dragon of Icespire Peak module.  Tycho's Tales is an inf...

This episode contains spoilers for the Dragon of Icespire Peak D&D module.  We review the Dragon of Icespire Peak module from the D&D Essentials Kit, from the perspective of both a GM running the game, and also players experiencing it. The module takes new characters from level 1 to 6, culminating in a (hopefully) epic encounter with the eponymous dragon.  Tycho's Tales is an informal...

We yarn about our first experiences playing a tabletop RPG (in this case, D&D 5e). How did you get into it? What was it like jumping into roleplaying with a bunch of strangers? Is there anything you wish you knew before starting? We finish up by dispensing a couple of tips of questionable quality for players and GMs, new and experienced alike.  Tycho's Tales is an informal discussion podc...