Dungeon Master of None

As iron sharpens iron, so one worldbuilder sharpens another. Matt and Rob discuss your homebrew campaign settings and ideas in this special bonus episode! Thank you to everyone who sent us your work!   Music: Roll the Dice - Pac Div  Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum Big Rock Candy Mountain - Harry McClintock Princes of the Universe - Queen

The professors are in! It's an advanced worldbuilding class focusing on gods, faith, and magic systems.  Links: Brandon Sanderson's Laws of Magic    Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down Gillian Welch - Old Time Religion 

Happy New Year! After alienating every listener from the UK, your DMs of None answer some unwanted advice and then use real historical artifacts to build new magic (and mundane!) items for your campaigns.  Image Gallery Historical Magic Items 2: The Dragon's Maw, the Cyrosiphon, and the Mirror of the Exalted Ancestor    Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa, and Ty Dolla $ign - Shell Shock  Nicki Manaj and Eminem - Roman's Revenge 

Happy new year! Welcome to a brand new episode of Dungeon Master of None on Old School Rules and mega-dungeons with special guest Andy.  [00:19:20] What is OSR? Andy discusses what types of campaigns and players work best with Old School Rules. [00:49:00] The art of the mega-dungeon design. Plus, Andy gives his trademarked 1d4 rules for creating a mega-dungeon.   [01:04:45] Matt and Andy riff up some sweet mega-dungeon  concepts for you to steal.  [01:10:20] How to raise money for charity at your convention games.    Links: Goblinoid Games' free Labyrinth Lord rules  Labyrinth Lord rules for purchase  Give to the Houston Food Bank   Music: Roll the Dice - Pac Div Gravitas - Little People Old School - 2Pac Christmas in Hollis - Run-DMC Texas - Fat Tony 

It's your mega-episode for the holidays! DMs Rob and Matt review two successful kickstarters that are now available for public purchase: Savage Worlds Adventure Edition [00:11:05] and Strongholds and Followers [00:44:00]. Then, on to your DM questions and letters [01:20:00]!   Gerard asks, "Will I destroy my game giving my players opposing goals?" [01:21:10] Scott says, "Quidditch is trash." [01:25:45] Ryan asks, "What are quick tips for creating interesting NPCs and setting their CR?" [01:26:05]   Recommendations:  Strongholds & Followers, MCDM Running the Game, Matt Colville Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, PEG Press    Music: Roll the Dice - Pac Div  The Passenger - Iggy Pop Sweetback's Theme - Earth, Wind & Fire  Seein' Red - Unwritten Law Power - Kanye West Marathon - Rush 

DMs Matt and Rob sit down for a deep dive into Tolkien, race, drow, Game of Thrones, and Euro-centric campaign worlds. Listen to a discussion of how to think critically about ideas of race in fantasy RPGs. We hope you will leave with some ideas about to tell anti-racist stories in our games.   You can do your DM of None homework by reading Paul Sturtevant's article on the Public Medievalist, "Race: the Original Sin of the Fantasy Genre."   Recommendations:  Saladin Ahmed - Throne of the Crescent Moon  N. K. Jemisin - The Broken Earth Series    Music: Roll the Dice - Pac Div Fantastic Man - William Onyeabor 

WARNING: Spoilers for Skulls & Shackles begin at 37:30! Have your players ever wanted to acquire a ship? Pirates are the murder-hobos of the sea, so let them! DMs Rob and Matt discuss how to plan open-ended nautical adventures for your players. Stick around for a review of Skull & Shackles, one of the best pirate modules ever published!   Music: Roll the Dice - Pac Div Black Is the Color - Lucette Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid - Luigi Boccherini You are a Pirate - Lazy Town

DMs Matt and Rob cover the essentials of building your own world for RPG campaigns: scale, theme, and conflict!  If you want to join us on this worldbuilding epic quest, then join us on twitter. Let's all build new campaign worlds together!    Music: Roll the Dice - Pac Div Drunk as Dragons - The Woodbox Gang Dungeon Master - Visigoth 

It's a mailbag episode! We. Answer. Your. Letters. But first, DMs Rob and Matt chat about surprise Yog-Sothoth as well as the new errata and unearthed arcana for DnD 5e. Here's a link to Matt's homebrew rules for 5e Naval Combat. Also, because we live in Hellworld, we talk more about the Flaming Sphere of Shit that is White Wolf (now featuring Instagram despot Ramzan Kadyrov).  Here comes the letters: Jai asks, "Did you here some other stuff about Nolan T. of Roll20 being a jerk?" [00:21:00] Sally asks, "I have a player with a character with a build centered around disarming enemies that doesn't work mechanically until the build has reached a higher level. What should I do to alleviate his dissatisfaction until the character comes into its own?" [00:26:30] Sally also asks, "How do I create memorable combat encounters for my players?" [00:35:45] Anthony asks, "I enjoy the interstitial music on the podcast. Can I find a list of the songs and artists?" [00:39:00] Darrin asks, "What's a good one-shot to run for my parents?" [00:41:45] Other Matt asks the greatest question of all, "How great are we?" [00:48:20] Conner asks, "I'm making custom werewolf race at a player's request. Should I share this race with the other player's in the game or the let the player keep their lycanthropy a secret?" Also, send us your campaign bibles!!! [00:51:40] Scott asks, "I have a final encounter with my campaign's big bad coming up. What level should my characters be?" [01:01:05]   Music: Roll the Dice - Pac Div Starman - David Bowie  Date with the Night - Yeah Yeah Yeahs Disarm - The Smashing Pumpkins  Better Off Alone - Alice DJ Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon  The Time is Now - John Cena

Hoooooo boy. So remember back when the CEO of Hasbro said that D&D was going to be the new "E-Sport?" Well, it didn't take long for someone to try to put that together.  DMs Matt and Rob watched the very first competitive PvP game of D&D on Twitch and are here to talk about it. We aren't saying you can't have competitive RPGs. You can. But, uh, this ain't it, chief.    Music: Roll the Dice, Pac Div He Got Game, Public Enemy & Stephen Stills  Fight Night, Migos