We Speak Common

This week, after finally playing a game of D&D after the dry spell, we talk about what when down in our games and how to work with players doing things you just don't plan for. Plus, this week it's all about how to move on when you have a bad session. We're all human, so we'll talk about some of our bad sessions and what we do to pick ourselves back up. We Speak Common is bought to you in part...

Can you believe it? 100 episodes. Thank you so much for joining us here in our community, even if this is your first stop by, it means a lot to have you here. To celebrate we'll announce the 4 winners for the 100th episode giveaway in this episode. Plus this week we're talking about our best bits and favourites, and we'll delve into what the new book, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, means for your...

This week we're talking about puzzles, traps and how they fit in to every D&D game. Got a Dungeon? TRAPS. Got a thief hitting a shop? TRAPS. Puzzles on the other hand... they might be used the way you expect.  We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice for your D&D game at https://thedicedungeon.co.uk/ Use Code 'We...

This week we'll finish off naming and building the lore for a brand new set of Arcane Prison dice by the Dice Dungeon. We'll talk all about the betrayal in our recent games, and how to create and reward with Epic (and less epic) boons!  We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice for your D&D game at https://www.thedice...

This week we'll talk about our interest in the spell point variant rules and talk about an altered death save system. Plus our partners at the dice dungeon have a mission for us as we get closer to our 100th episode.  We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice for your D&D game at https://thedicedungeon.co.uk/ Use Code...

This week we'll delve into what's going on in our games! The stories, the tales and how we pulled them off - plus how the players went in completely different routes than we planned for. We'll also talk about AC and a floating rule variant.   We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice for your D&D game at https://www.t...

How do you approach running a 'famous' NPC? You've picked up Dragon Heist and all the villains are well known characters, so where do you start? We'll talk about our approaches to setting up and successfully using NPC's with LORE.  We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice for your D&D game at https://www.thedicedunge...

This week we'll talk about our experience using digital character sheets and then get into breaking down the new Unearthed Arcana Feats that are available to download and use now! Spoiler alert, don't be a chef.  We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice for your D&D game at https://www.thedicedungeon.co.uk/ Use Code...

This week we'll talk about how we explain D&D to the people in our lives that have no clue what we spend so much time doing! We'll also get up close and personal with our character sheets and talk you through our build guides! We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice for your D&D game at https://www.thedicedungeon.co....

This week we'll get our creative hats on and help a listener build out their wizard tower based on all of the schools of magic. We'll coming up with a base you can run in your game! But first, we've mentioned Vignettes many times, so today we'll tell you how to use them effectively. We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice fo...

This week we talk about how to cope with writers block and burnout. We'll tell you what it looks like for us and whether you should power through or not. We'll talk about how we combat them, and when it's best to take a break.  We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice for your D&D game at https://www.thedicedungeon.c...

This week we're talking about narratively linking published and homebrew adventures. How to tease up coming plot lines so they don't feel sudden, and we'll give out thoughts on Rime of the Frostmaiden!  We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice for your D&D game at https://www.thedicedungeon.co.uk/ Use Code 'WeSpeakCommon' at...

This week we invite a member of our party to the podcast to talk about DM'ing in a shared campaign setting. We'll talk about what it's like as one of the DM's, and get a players perspective on the difference it has to the game.  We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifully crafted metal sets of dice for your D&D game at https://www.thedicedungeon....

This week we're talking about character death. We'll talk about our experiences with not only the deaths we've run as DM's, but how we felt about our own characters dying and what it meant to us as players. We'll chat about making those deaths satisfying and meaningful even when they creep up on you.    We Speak Common is bought to you in partnership with The Dice Dungeon. Get beautifull...

We're talking all about level disparity on this weeks episode. How to you plan encounters for a party with big level gaps? Should you play and run games with larger level differences? We'll go through the pros and cons, the ups and downs and how to balance your game to create a fun time for everyone involved, from the level 5 Barbarian to the level 3 Paladin.   We Speak Common is bought...

This week we talk all about our games and the meaningful moments that happened within them. We'll talk about how we achieved those moments and show you its really not that hard! Didn't hear the one thing that'll get your creative brain going? let us know: Find us on twitter: @WeSpeakCommon Email us at wespeakcommon@hotmail.com Visit us online at https://wespeakcommon.com/ Music: "Street Dancing" b...

This week we're talking about loot. We all love getting shiny new toys after our deadly battles, but how do you make the most out of the loot you hand out to your players? How do you integrate the randomly rolled items? And what do you do when your players loot the character that doesn't ave much on them? We'll get into it all this week. When you're done listening to this episode, why not go and c...

This week we get to take a look through the halls of the greatest library in Faerun! We'll be looking at the Lore, Spells, Magic items and character options available to you in this supplement. We've also got 4 digital copies to give away! Just head over to our Twitter to enter.  Didn't hear the one thing that'll get your creative brain going? let us know: Find us on twitter: @WeSpeakCommon E...

This week we're taking on a listener topic and joining every faction in the city! We'll talk about how to have your party interact with factions in a natural way, how to have the factions be seen and their wants known without giving out a load of exposition, and how to make them interesting and a little different!  Didn't hear the one thing that'll get your creative brain going? let us know:...

This week, we get distracted by catching up and having a proper good, passionate fire side chit chat about TTRPGs and D&D. We'll talk about recent realisations we've had, experiences, game tales and classes. Why everyone should be terrified of wizards and what happens when you hang out with one. Didn't hear the one thing that'll get your creative brain going? let us know: Find us on twitter: @...

This week we delve into how we create our encounters. The nitty-gritty of numbers, abilities, stats and balancing them to create an encounter that gives the right experience you are building for. How many bugbears is too many? Will the PC's walk out of this unscathed or nearly dead? We'll break it all down this week and talk about how we use CR.  Didn't hear the one thing that'll get your cre...

This week, after introducing his players to a new region of his world, Joe talks about how building and crafting culture for your fantasy setting can bring depth and relativism to your games. Ben give's insights on the technique from a players perspective.  Didn't hear the one thing that'll get your creative brain going? let us know: Find us on twitter: @WeSpeakCommon Email us at wespeakcommo...

We're back, still recording  from home but this time coming through a little clearer. We've been playing lots of D&D to distract ourselves from the crazy way of the world. Like many people we're using the simple and easiest route to keep our games going - jumping on a video call and playing theatre of the mind!  We've been playing this way for a while now, so have put together some t...

Okay, so lets level with you here. The worlds a bit mental at the moment and we're trying a couple of new set ups to stay safe while recording. So the quality in this episode isn't great, but the content is so please bare with us! Next week we should sound somewhat more normal as we've nailed a new system that works much better. In the mean time, thanks for putting up with it! This week we'll talk...

This week we tackle the tricky subject of called shots. Does the rule work? Which system should you use? Can we build our own?  Plus, could called shots be what the ranger needs to make it feel more fun? Didn't hear the one thing that'll get your creative brain going? let us know: Find us on twitter: @WeSpeakCommon Email us at wespeakcommon@hotmail.com Visit us online at https://wespeakcommon...