RPG veterans and game designers Teos Abadía and Shawn Merwin look at the game and the hobby of D&D from a variety of viewpoints: reporting the news, understanding the business, reviewing the products, and illuminating the design. Whether you’re a fan, a player, a DM, or a designer, Shawn and Teos cover topics of interest to you!
Episodes
Wednesday May 03, 2023
Wednesday May 03, 2023
Episode 137 of Mastering Dungeons!
This week's main topic: Roll20 on VTT Updates
Morgan Buck and Andrew Searles visit Shawn and Teos to discuss the history of Roll20, upcoming improvements, the company’s role in the industry, international growth, and much more!
News: New UA, Class as Content, Acquisitions Inc in Libraries, Strong Hasbro Q1, and more!
Contents
00:00 Smile Like You Mean It
01:09 Advanced Rules?
10:39 New UA
18:01 Class as Content
27:16 Library Acquisitions
28:28 Hasbro Q1
30:45 Roll20 Morgan and Andrew!
34:58 Roll20 Origins
38:02 Strategic Changes
41:33 OBS Acquisition
46:43 Upgrading vs New
52:19 Industry Role
59:04 Upcoming Changes
01:06:03 Creators
01:12:06 international Growth
01:16:09 Partnerships and D&D
01:24:13 Find Roll20
01:26:58 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Wednesday Apr 26, 2023
Wednesday Apr 26, 2023
Episode 136 of Mastering Dungeons!
This week's main topic: Looking Back at the 2014 DMG - Intro!
Shawn and Teos revisit the 2014 5E DMG. How well does it help DMs and what would we change for 2024?
News: Critical Role RPGs, World Record D&D, Into the Motherland Green Ronin, Gloomhaven RPG, Ghostfire on Beyond, and more!
Contents
00:00 High School Redux
03:24 Half-Mechanics?
10:57 Home vs Published?
20:47 CR RPGs
24:59 Ronin Motherland
26:42 Gloomhaven RPG
29:05 World Record
34:45 Ghostfire Beyond
36:03 Back to the DMG!
38:26 Revised Chapters
41:48 Additions
49:23 Show Don’t Tell
56:06 Design Time
01:01:43 Monster Manual
01:02:50 DMG’s Intro
01:09:41 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
Episode 135 of Mastering Dungeons!
This week's main topic: Dungeon World and Powered by the Apocalypse!
Shawn and Teos move to examine Dungeon World and the Powered by the Apocalypse games. We compare the design to D&D and share what we love most about these innovative story-focused RPGs.
News: Big Bad Con Online, Diana Jones, Ampersand Boxers, Design Dash, and more!
Contents
00:00 Boys Are Back
00:59 Reinforcing Tone?
08:27 New Class?
14:29 WotC CC?
17:26 Mystery Guidance?
27:23 Design Dash
29:05 Big Bad Online
29:52 Diana Jones
30:48 Trials of Tempus
32:38 D&D Boxers
34:17 Weird Wizard
36:12 Lorecast Crossover
37:44 Dungeon World Overview
43:14 GM Advice
45:10 Powered by Apocalypse
47:00 Character Playbooks
52:42 Moves
59:19 Monsters
01:04:27 Fronts
01:08:22 Find PbtA and DW
01:09:05 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
Episode 134 of Mastering Dungeons!
This week's main topic: Kevin Kulp and the many GUMSHOE RPGs!
Designer Kevin Kulp joins us as we discuss how TimeWatch, Night’s Black Agents, Swords of the Serpentine, and many other amazing games all build on the excellent GUMSHOE system. We compare the design to D&D and share what we love most about these innovative RPGs.
News: D&D Summit, PH in the Top 100, Stranger Things animated show, Tales of the Valiant, and more!
Contents
00:00 D&D Summit!
04:19 VTT Hands-On
10:10 D&D Beyond
13:33 QA and 2024 Rules
23:02 PH Top 100
24:07 Stranger Things Animated
24:50 Tales of the Valiant
26:06 ORC License
29:05 Kevin Kulp!
31:49 GUMSHOE Overview
40:51 TimeWatch
42:20 Campaign Gameplay
57:19 Investigative Characters
1:11:26 Find GUMSHOE
1:14:54 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Wednesday Apr 05, 2023
Wednesday Apr 05, 2023
Episode 133 of Mastering Dungeons!
This week's main topic: Themes and Genres in RPGs!
What is meant by an RPG’s theme? What impact does it have, and why are some games better for a particular theme than others? Shawn Merwin and Ben Byrne discuss themes and genres and present examples in RPGs.
News: D&D Direct, Movie Success, VTT Preview, Hobby Grows, and more!
Contents
00:00 Ben Byrne!
02:11 Playtest Strategy?
05:58 WotC Taking CC?
10:20 Casters the Same?
14:04 Rogue Speed?
17:51 D&D Direct
28:09 VTT Preview
33:18 New Products
38:52 Movie Success
45:28 RPGs Grow
47:42 Alamo
49:55 Genre/Themes in RPGs
51:56 Why it Matters
54:42 Theme Types
1:29:06 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Episode 132 of Mastering Dungeons!
Support the Forge of Foes: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/the-lazy-dms-forge-of-foes-for-5e?ref=e2zf6e
This week's main topic: Rich Lescouflair and the Esper Genesis RPG!
Rich Lescouflair joins Shawn to discuss the latest D&D news and Esper Genesis - his amazing sci-fi version of 5E D&D.
News: D&D Community Update, Choose-a-path Before the Storm, Donjon & Dragons, and more!
Contents
00:00 Rich Lescouflair
01:04 Fate Examples?
02:48 Narrative D&D?
09:28 Treasure in DMG?
13:23 Mundane Treasure?
18:28 D&D Community Update
25:55 Before the Storm
29:58 Donjon and Dragons
32:14 Kickstarters
34:02 Esper Genesis
35:39 Differences from 5E
37:33 Origin
42:08 Barrier Peaks
43:03 Design Decisions
48:24 Building Worlds
49:41 Game Loop
54:26 Dragon vs Spaceship
57:40 Advice on SciFi in DnD
59:30 Sourcebooks and Adventures
1:02:57 Find EG
1:06:56 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Wednesday Mar 22, 2023
Wednesday Mar 22, 2023
Episode 131 of Mastering Dungeons!
Support the Forge of Foes: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/the-lazy-dms-forge-of-foes-for-5e?ref=e2zf6e
This week's main topic: The 13th Age RPG!
We take a look at 13th Age, an RPG inspired by the 3rd and 4th editions of D&D. Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet encourage greater storytelling and even a bit of chaos. Learn about these innovations and bring them into your game.
News: D&D Surveys and Playtests, Old Spice commercials, Action Figures, Movie Previews, and more!
Contents
00:00 Entertained
02:03 Playtest Quality?
06:59 How to DM?
10:52 Influencer Standards?
14:52 Key Anachronisms?
20:14 Surveys and Playtests
31:52 Old Spice
33:33 Sneak Previews
34:57 Weird Wizard
35:58 Action Figures
37:07 Kickstarters
38:09 13th Age
39:59 About the Game
42:02 Designers
43:52 Icons
51:13 One Unique Thing
58:37 Escalation Die
1:04:40 Monsters
1:07:57 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Wednesday Mar 15, 2023
Wednesday Mar 15, 2023
Episode 130 of Mastering Dungeons!
We both have Kickstarters:
Grim Hollow - Vallikan Clans:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/977277590/grim-hollow-valikan-clans
Forge of Foes: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/the-lazy-dms-forge-of-foes-for-5e?ref=e2zf6e
This week's main topic: Fate campaigns with Mike Olson!
Mike has worked on many Fate projects, so he helps us look into Fate’s collaborative character and campaign creation rules, as well as comparisons to D&D and why Fate is such a great game.
News: D&D Community Update, Creator Summit, Movie Reviews, Nebula Awards, and more!
Contents
00:00 Ebullient
01:26 Edition Names?
08:32 Swapping Lineage?
12:41 D&D Community Update
18:32 D&D Movie Reviews
21:50 Movie NPCs
23:55 Nebula Awards
24:36 Creator Summit
39:06 Kickstarters
41:12 Mike Olson and Fate
48:26 Words Instead of Numbers
55:48 Dice and Success
59:59 Conceding
1:02:01 Character Creation
1:04:39 Collaborative Campaign Creation
1:11:11 Storytelling Aspects
1:27:54 Fate into D&D
1:29:37 Find Mike and Fate
1:31:41 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Mastering Dungeons
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