Adventurous Appetizers: Recent Episodes
Alignment May Vary
Let’s talk about Dungeons and Dragons. Each appetizer episode features our DM, and sometimes with a guest or friend, discussing an aspect of the game. Topics include tips for DMs, reviews of products, suggestions for campaigns, and ideas for players … it’s all part of Adventurous Appetizers.
In this oh-so-seaworthy episode of Adventurous Appetizers, we talk about Tomb of Haggemoth, a classic 3rd Edition campaign that has now been updated to 5th Edition, in a collaboration between Alignment May Vary and Robert Kendzie.
Tomb of Haggemoth begins with a quest from an old roguish adventurer and takes players across many islands filled with adventure in a mad treasure hunt that feels like a mix of Indiana Jones meets The Goonies in Dungeons & Dragons. The decisions players make at each island will change the lives of their inhabitants forever, and builds up towards a final, awesome decision at the game’s end game, in the Tomb itself! Players will grow from level 3 to 9 in this blast of an adventure, and its 149 pages are filled with new monsters and items, new NPS and magic, for use in any of your own campaigns.
In this episode we talk with Robert Kendzie about our fond memories of the campaign and get some behind the scenes details on how the campaign was designed and what its inspirations were.
Pick up the Tomb of Haggemoth today at DM’s Guild: Link to Product
Music in this episode was provided by Ambient Environments, by Gil Luna.
Today’s episode is for anyone who has ever had to justify why they love or play RPGs.
About ten years ago, writer and publisher Steven Parton and I met at a party and talked about the future of the world that we might be living in. Steve and I were both Transhumanists, people interested in the study of technology and its effect on society and human evolution. Ten years later, the future looks very different than we thought it might, but we have remained friends. And recently, I discovered we both share another love: Dungeons & Dragons.
Steve is currently writing a book about human evolution and as we started to talk about his book, we realized that there is something about RPGs that is important to human evolution. Join us as we delve into that and discover how playing RPGs could be benefiting you, psychologically.
Steve’s work, including more podcasts about human evolution and society, can be found at his website: https://www.curiousapes.com/
Surviving the massacre of the Kai Lords… hunting a traitor in the frozen wastelands of Kalte… tracing the path an ancient artifact traveled ages ago across the Kingdoms of Despair… exploring the depths of the Maakengorge, where a dead God lies. All of these quests and more await a reader of Joe Dever’s classic gamebook series Lone Wolf. First printed in 1984, the series was a huge success, rivaling Fighting Fantasy and even Dungeons & Dragons at one point. But then, in the late nineties, it suddenly ended… or so it seemed. Much like the Kai themselves, fans did not allow this series to die. Learn more about Lone Wolf’s survival with the help of someone who was there to help revive it, game designer and writer August Hahn.
And discover the series yourself, for free, at Project Aon! Literally hours of some of the best adventuring of your life await you there.
Guest Star: August Hahn! August Hahn’s Lone Wolf campaign can be experienced on youtube or as a podcast.
I’m very excited for this episode of Adventurous Appetizers! In this episode, I’m talking directly to Dungeon Masters and will explain in less than 20 minutes how to take a 250+ page module and in six easy steps turn it into your first game session. We’ll build upon this in future episodes to show you how to make officially released Wizards of the Coast modules easy to run!
The six steps are, briefly:
- What’s it about: Get a sense of the overview of the plot through a quick skim.
- The first point of action: What’s the goal of the session, the hoped for end point?
- Set up the bomb: what gets the party off their butts each session?
- Identify the hooks: what keeps the party moving each session?
- The four c’s: combat, checks, conversations, chests
- Player desire: how do you work in what the players want?
As a long time game designer and creator of the world of Eberron, Keith Baker has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to building a powerful experience for gamers. Today on Adventurous Appetizers, Keith joins us to share some of that knowledge, answering questions from fans, discussing the world of Eberron, and even letting us in on which die he likes best.
Guest Star: Keith Baker
To see more of Keith’s work, visit http://keith-baker.com/
To pre-order Keith’s latest game, the Adventure Zone story game: https://theadventurezonegame.com/
Music and sound effects in the episode were provided by the following artists:
https://tabletopaudio.com/
Freqman and Chimerical: https://freesound.org/home/
Punch Deck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8WiMWhhDsc
We asked for questions and you delivered… too many! Now we’ve got the remainder of our answers in this double length episode. Does the perception skill suck? How should a DM handle and run NPCs in a party? What is the best color for a wizard’s robe? Find out by tuning in!
By paying attention to just a couple details, you can handle your Total Party Kills better and make them less devastating to the enjoyment of your players. Dungeon Master Jonathan talks about how to cut down on the frustration and maximize the value of a TPK. Note from our lawyers: Alignment May Vary does not condone the massacre, disembowelment, or murder of your player characters.
Worried about overpowered characters? Don’t be. In this episode, Dungeon Master Jonathan dives into why nothing can be overpowered in Dungeons and Dragons and how to stop worrying about it.
We asked for questions and you delivered! Now we’ve got answers in this double length episode. Can an atheist be revived in Faerun? What ever happened to the Golden Box video games? Why do rules about weight and inventory management suck? Find the answers in this episode!
Over the course of your campaign, you will deal about 100,000 points of damage. Let’s talk about how to make that mean something.
Debut Episode of Adventurous Appetizers. Explore the world of Dungeons & Dragons through a ranked summary of our favorite 5th edition campaigns.