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 31, 2023
Wednesday May 31, 2023
Episode 141 of Mastering Dungeons!
This week's main topic: The 2014 DMG Chapter 3 – Creating Adventures, part 2!
Shawn and Teos revisit the 2014 5E DMG. From event-based adventures to the encounter building rules, does this tell a would-be-author how to craft a great adventure?
News: D&D Marketing Summit, 2023 Product Reveals, Price Increases, Planescape Hopes, and more!
Contents
00:00 Geeky Guardians
01:42 Limit or Oversight?
11:23 Homebrew vs Published?
17:42 D&D Marketing Summit
23:50 Demographics
27:32 5E is 2E
30:23 Staggering for Printers
32:04 Price Increases
37:35 Bigygnome Presents
39:07 Guide to Dragons
40:36 Phandelver
41:49 Planescape
49:52 Deck of Many Things
50:46 DMG Chapter 3
51:22 Event-Based Adventures
59:09 Mysteries
01:05:00 Intrigue
01:08:05 Complications
01:09:51 Creating Encounters
01:21:23 Random Encounters
01:30:20 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Wednesday May 24, 2023
Wednesday May 24, 2023
Episode 140 of Mastering Dungeons!
This week's main topic: The 2014 DMG Chapter 3 – Creating Adventures!
Shawn and Teos revisit the 2014 5E DMG. We look at Creating Adventures. Does this tell a would-be-author how to craft a great adventure?
News: UA Survey, D&D Producer Job, Russ Nicholson Remembered, Flummox, Dungeon Secrets, and more!
Contents
00:00 Speaking of Geeks
02:19 Automating Complexity?
07:33 Weapon Persona?
14:26 Weapon Templates?
26:04 UA Survey and Videos
37:47 D&D Producer Job
39:34 Russ Nicholson RIP
40:47 Secrets to Dungeon Fun
41:35 Jeff Stevens Flummox Heist
43:26 Crowdfunding Round-Up
45:18 DMG Chapter 3
46:10 Creating Adventures Intro
51:03 Great Elements
54:53 Published Adventures
56:48 Adventure Structure
58:47 What is a Story?
01:03:54 Location-Based
01:14:58 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Wednesday May 17, 2023
Wednesday May 17, 2023
Episode 139 of Mastering Dungeons!
This week's main topic: The 2014 DMG Chapter 2 – The Multiverse!
Shawn and Teos revisit the 2014 5E DMG. We look at Creating a Multiverse and whether it even belongs in Chapter 2. If it does, what should it look like in the 2024 DMG?
News: Unearthed Barbarians, New Hasbro eOne Streaming Channel, Critical Role Launches New Stream and RPG, and more!
Contents
00:00 Hydration
00:57 Rejoin at Level 1?
06:22 Golf Bag?
17:03 2024 Barbarian
29:56 Community Update
39:04 D&D Streaming Channel
45:17 CR New RPG and Stream
47:57 Crowdfunding Round-Up
48:57 DMG Chapter 2 across Editions
51:09 Creating a Useful Multiverse
01:02:23 Planar Travel
01:04:25 Astral and Ethereal
01:06:56 Feywild and Shadowfell
01:09:30 Inner Planes
01:10:47 Outer Planes
01:12:26 Other Planes
01:13:58 Closing Thoughts
01:16:20 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Wednesday May 10, 2023
Wednesday May 10, 2023
Episode 138 of Mastering Dungeons!
This week's main topic: Looking Back at the 2014 DMG – Chapter 1!
Shawn and Teos revisit the 2014 5E DMG. How well does it help DMs and what would we change for 2024?
News: Weapon Mastery analysis, Keith Baker closes KB Presents, Diana Jones awards, Crowdfunding Spotlight, and more!
Contents
00:00 Kids Am I Right?
01:52 Valiant Resistance?
06:07 Polymorph Woes?
13:20 Weapon Mastery
46:01 D&D Movie in Digital
46:34 Diana Jones Emerging Designers
47:20 Keith Baker Closes KBP
49:17 Crowdfunding Round-Up
52:29 2014 DMG Chapter 1
55:07 Worldbuilding
57:04 Core Assumptions
58:04 Utility?
01:03:53 World vs Encounter
01:10:36 Session Focus
01:15:15 Shout-Outs
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
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.
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