Becoming a Great GM with Guy Sclanders: Recent Episodes
Guy Sclanders
I'm Guy from How to be a Great GM! Welcome to our very first podcast! I have been playing TTRPGs, game mastering TTRPGs, teaching, making videos, writing books about role playing and being a great GM for many years and I've seen the channel and the community grow. This roleplaying community is a special one and I am honoured to be a part of it and to have the space and opportunity to contribute in my own way.One of the things that I've learnt doing this is that not any one of us has it all figured out really. There are some questions that I don't know the answers to but we always rally together to find the common place to rest our swords. And on this podcast, that is exactly what we will be doing. We will talk about what's on my mind, what's on your mind and answering your questions on all things TTRPG related. So join me every week as we talk, discover and challenge each other on this podcast.
What I did and didn't do right at the castle...
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Use Star Trek as inspiration and learn from it!
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Here are some magic spells I hate and what I do to fix them.
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How do you run a game for just 2 players? This is how I do it!
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What are these beasts? These horrors? How do we make them love to hate?
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Dealing with weight can be an issue for some folks, this is what I'm trying to do to keep my weight down...
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The Duskmourn Chronicles is my actual play game of D&D and this is my review of the first 6 episodes, or first 6 hour session.
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What are the 4 E's and what do they do? They change your game! That's what they do...
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Designing better traps is critical if your game is going to remain fresh and exciting...
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What's the best way to do that? Here's what I do...
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How to work out a quick or fun idea for your next adventure...
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Making travel an adventure in itself!
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Having and NPC that your PCs can hate is really useful. Especially if that NPC is untouchable. Here's why.
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What makes magical items challenging? Instead of just being a cool ability or stat mod, magic items can be so much more!
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It's time for a lovable NPC this week. Time to add yours!
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How a breakfast morning changed my entire 3 day mini-campaign and made it so much better!
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Just how do you work with PC backstories to get the most out of them? Here's what I do.
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How I have run my clubs in the past, and what you should and should not do!
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This is the process I take to publishing my own books.
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I select just a few of the top 100 character questions to explore.
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Keeping it short and sweet is sometimes very effect in keeping your players focused and giving you a rewarding experience as a GM. Here's how!
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What do we need to think about when designing and underground lair?
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You asked some great questions - these are my answers!
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Taking five very different adventures, I combine them into a single campaign which, as it happens, is AWESOME!
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How can everyone build the world and all the characters at the same time? Here's how!
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Let's talk about diceless TTRPGs - Mage Hunter is here!
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Tying your campaign up into a nice neat bundle is a great feeling. How do you do it? It's really easy and a lot of fun!
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Let's dive deep down into the underground and see what we can build... dark mines full of death! Or perhaps a working mine and thriving colony?
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I've made many mistakes in my decades of playing. Here a just a few!
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We are back folks!
And today we're talking about the undead and why I have a big problem with how they are played in roleplaying games.
The undead have a few problems which I don't think have ever really been questioned. It's time to shake up what you know about the undeath menace and make your next zombie something to be truly feared!
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One idea, four villains = 16 adventures!
In today's episode, I'll be walking you through the process of coming up with 16 adventures from just a single idea.
String some of these together and you get a complete mini-campaign.
This example is for all TTRPG systems, so if you play D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, Starfinder or Savage Worlds - it makes no difference. These apply to all roleplaying games!
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Of course I don't hate my players. But here are 10... er... 9 reasons why I could hate them and don't!
What do you love about your players? Or perhaps hate?
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Do you want to start GMing but are afraid to?
Do you feel like you lack the imagination?
Do you struggle with where to start when beginning to GM?
Well then, this episode is for you!
After listening to this episode, you'll be able to run a game for your friends round the table or online.
Dungeons and Dragons? Call of Cthulhu? Pathfinder 2? All of them work like this and you can learn to do it in under 20 minutes.
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There are campaign ideas and then there are bad campaign ideas.
What makes a campaign idea a bad one and how can you avoid creating a campaign from a bad idea?
These are the 5 common campaign ideas that I see time and time again, and I really wish folks wouldn't ruin their TTRPG games with them!
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You are always going to need a tavern, or a cantina, or an inn, or a whatever. Regardless of genre and whether it's D&D, Cthulhu or Star Trek etc. This walk-through video is all about what needs to go in to your inn and why.
We cover topics like:
- Why do we need a tavern?
- What do we need to create a tavern?
- What makes a good tavern?
- How do we begin to create the perfect tavern map?
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Theatre of the Mind is a great, fast, and cool way to play your favourite TTRPG but are there drawbacks? Yes! Oh yes.
These are the things to look out for, so that your theatre of the mind experience is amazing!
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This Nordic LARP concept seems to be a major hit within the roleplaying community from the north but can we use it in our own games and does it make roleplaying games better? Will Cthulhu play to win or play to lose?
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Guy looks at how he turns up his creativity whenever he's trying to come up with a Campaign or adventure idea.
Join him as he explores some concepts like marmalade, flying a plane, and who knows what else!
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There are some habits that just don't work for the DM to have.
If you have any of these, either change your ways or change to being a player!
Agree with me or disagree but these are awful habits which must go!
What are your thoughts on the matter?
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We all wanna run a satisfying game and sometimes we don't have a lot of time to do it in. How do we plan and what do we include in that planning?
Follow these simple steps to create a fun, short campaign that will leave your players begging for me and won't bury you under a mountain of DM admin!
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In the last episode, we spoke about how societies collapse and how this affects your worldbuilding for your RPG.
This week, we take a look at how nations survive, how empires grow and how it happens that empires get too big and ultimately fail as a result. What can we do to prevent this from happening in our worlds - take a listen and find out!
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As societies and civilisations evolve and grow, there is always the possibility of the fall and collapse of that society.
How does this happen and how do we prevent this from happening to our societies that we develop within our roleplaying games?
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What traits do we need animals to embody in order to domesticate them?
What unifies people and groups of people?
How do you build an empire?
Why is all this important for our RPGs?
Well, when building your RPG world and the people in it, everything needs to evolve and move forward with the times, and this is how you go about doing that. Making sure you allow your world to grow and evolve with the times makes for an enriching experience both for you and for your players!
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Hierarchy
Factions
Sense of time
Music
What do all these things have to do with your RPG world and creating a human population within your world?
Well in my opinion, quite a lot! Here is my take on the matter...
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What is it like to play RPGs with people from different countries and cultures? I've had the honour of roleplaying with a huge variety of people from all over the world and I've observed the differences between each group of people and they way that they roleplay.
These are my thoughts and ramblings on the differences between different groups of people - how they roleplay, they way in which they approach rules to the games and my favourite types of people to play with.
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Join me this week as I ramble my thoughts and let you in on what goes through my mind when developing and growing people and new species in my RPG world.
This is the final episode where I talk about developing and growing these people and discuss how to allow for natural evolution of the species through the ages - drawing on my own past experiences.
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Join me as I continue to unpack the 'Karoo' people that I have slowly been developing for my RPG world. Today, I begin to add some structure to the species and their way of living - the complexities and nuances that come with creating an entirely new species.
Its fun, its interesting and perhaps you'll be able to make this species your own for your next game!
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In today's podcast episode, we continue our journey in evolving and developing our world for our roleplaying games.
As you may be able to tell, I tend to overthink a lot of things - including how to populate and develop the world for my TTRPGs.
How do certain species exist? How did they come into being? How do they live and survive? These are just a few of the questions that I ask myself when developing my TTRPG world.
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In today's episode, we're talking about something that I happen to be very passionate about - designing new worlds and races for your tabletop roleplaying games.
How do we create new worlds for our games that feel real and that come to life when we present them to our players?
These are my thoughts on this topic - what are yours?
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Splitting parties in your roleplaying games - it's a controversial topic. And many people are very back and white in this debate - you either split the party or you don't!
But what if there was another way? What if you could 'split' the party without actually splitting the party? Would that even work and in what scenarios?
Take a listen to my take on this matter and perhaps you could give it a try the next time you're faced with the tough decision of splitting parties.
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Playing TTRPGs has always been a wonderfully social experience - sitting around a table with friends, having fun and connecting. However, in the last few years with the arrival of the pandemic and restrictions on socialising, we were forced to move on to virtual table tops in order to continue doing what we love.
And it seems that even now when there is a sense of normalcy, the world of VTTs is something that is here to stay. But what does that mean for us and our games and is that a good thing? These are my thoughts on the matter.
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Finding the right fit fit of players for your table can be challenging! Sometimes we get to make the choice but there are other times when we just have to make it work with the players that are around our table. But the questions still remains - how do we find the right fit for our table and once we do, how do we keep all of our players invested in the game?
Its something I believe we all struggle with as game masters and I hope that this episode and my stories in it help you on this journey.
If you're looking for players for your table - take a look at Tabletop Wizard where you can find players for your games - Tabletop Wizard - Tabletop Group Finder For Online and Face to Face Games
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Tuesday at 5pm BST.
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Mind control is definitely a thing that happens in our roleplaying games and I've been asked how as game masters do we address this in our games.
So, in today's episode, we're chatting about how to address mind control - what category should we put the various mind control powers into and then how do we allow it into the games whilst having fun with it at the same time, and letting it enhance our games.
Perhaps you'll begin to view mind control a little differently within your games, or perhaps not - either way, it's a fun topic to discuss!
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Today I'm talking about my 2 different parties that play in the same campaign, in the same world as each other - but without each other.
I'll be chatting about the world that I developed and my experiences of having 2 parties in the same campaign - the mistakes that I've made along the way and how I have managed to make it work for me and for my players.
Is it madness to do this or does it make complete sense to you? Take a listen and decide for yourself!
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Do you as the dungeon master or game master use a DM/GM screen?
Do you even need a DM/GM screen?
And if so, what should you be including on your screen?
It's an interesting topic that many people (myself included) have different and sometimes somewhat contradictory views on.
In today's episode I discuss all these questions surrounding this topic and the items I believe you need for your GM screen to make your game easier for you.
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Tuesday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
With all of the noise surrounding the new OGL from D&D, many people are thinking of leaving D&D and converting to new roleplaying systems.
But the questions remains - what kind of roleplaying systems are out there that we can shift to and how do we make the change?
It's a tricky topic, particularly if you've been playing in one system for many years, but it can be done and the transition can be successful - if done right.
These are my thoughts on changing roleplaying systems and doing it right - for both the game master and the players.
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Tuesday at 5pm BST.
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Today, we're diving into the tricky idea of setting up a castle for your PCs to use as a base in your roleplaying game.
This topic is well worth getting into as it is a really wonderful tool to add into your game but it can also be an awful trap for both you as the game master and for your players. So, to help you with this, I share with you my thoughts, ideas and tips on the best way to create a castle for your PCs - from day to day activities to running costs, it's all here.
So next time you're thinking of setting up a castle that your PCs can call home - take these tips and make them and your castle - your own!
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Tuesday at 5pm BST.
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The new and (potentially) upcoming OGL 1.1 document from Wizards of the Coast for Dungeons and Dragons has been recently leaked and there is a lot of opinion out there and it has become the hot topic of conversation lately.
For the most part, the sentiment is very negative and the pushback is hard. Fans and creators are up in arms about the changes that are coming our way and everyone has a ton of questions they want answered.
Is what they're doing greedy and evil or is it just their right to protect what is rightly theirs? Should we be boycotting them or should we be rolling with the changes?
Here are my thoughts on the matter, what are yours?
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As a game master - I hate D&D 5e! However, as someone who works in this industry and makes a living because of it - I love it! It's a tricky situation to be in - I wouldn't be where I am today if not for the success of D&D.
What I do get tired of though is the disdain that I see for 5th edition and this episode is my vent on why. There is just no perfect roleplaying system - there most likely never will be and so I believe it is important to take what we do enjoy about the game and make it the best that we possibly can.
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Tuesday at 5pm BST.
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Today, we have a special guest with us on the podcast! Dear friend and CEO of DungeonFog - none other than Till Lammer!
I was fortunate enough to host Till in the UK during his visit for the Dragonmeet Convention and so I took the opportunity to have him as our podcast guest.
We speak about our worst DM experiences as well as the challenges facing DMs - both old and new. From technical issues to the dilemma of running a game for family - we chat about it all. This was a really fun conversation and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Tuesday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
Think of the following three things: the colour black, someone named Imogen Sepp and curiosity.
Hmm...sounds like a curious Christmas adventure is brewing!
In today's episode, with the help of the imaginative folks in the Discord chat, I create a fun and exciting Christmas adventure. It's a little bit of Hallmark movie cheese mixed together with 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' - definitely one to keep your players on their toes.
Whether you're roleplaying with your friends or running a game for your family this festive season - try this adventure and let the fun begin!
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Tuesday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
Today we are talking all about mass combat rules!
There are currently no rules in 5th Ed D&D that handle combat between 5000 participants on either side, and I had hoped that with the release of Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, we would have been given a hint of what to do.
However, mass combat was addressed with the Warriors of Krynn boardgame - something that the creators had to do, but something that I didn't quite love.
So I created a different mass combat system to combat this problem - I personally believe it's a great fix but perhaps you will disagree? Take a listen and tell me what you think!
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Tuesday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
Where do you start when creating a villain in your campaign?
And do you know the difference between a villain and a nemesis?
In today's podcast, I chat about the difference between villains and nemeses and where to start when creating a villain for your game.
Together with the folks in the live chat in Discord, we create a villain set in the wild west - what they look like, their ultimate goal and how they will achieve their goal.
Join the conversation and perhaps you'll have a new villain to use in your next game!
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Tuesday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
Not too long ago, I was fortunate enough to DM for the epic D&D in a Castle experience at Lumley Castle in the UK. If you're wondering what the heck this D&D in a Castle is, then stay a while.
Today, I'm chatting about what D&D in a Castle is, my most recent experience there and the game that I ran for the players at the castle and lastly what it was like to have the one and only Jeremy CrawfordDM the final session of my game!
It was a wild ride and I'd love to let you in on the fun!
Find out more about D&D in a Castle here: Guy Sclanders — D&D in a Castle (dndinacastle.com)
Check out the YouTube video I made covering my time at D&D in a Castle: https://youtu.be/GFRUmFifhQ0
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
Natural disasters! I personally believe that they're fun and very exciting to add into your game! So today, we're chatting about natural disasters - why they're exciting and how you can begin to add them into your game & create adventures with them.
Together with the Discord community chat, we string together an adventure around a volcanic eruption.
Topics covered:
- The first step to including a natural disaster into your game.
- How to introduce NPCs within the natural disaster adventure.
- Building up to the disaster.
- Running the actual disaster & using real world research to make it believable.
- What happens when the disaster has run its course?
- Rewarding your player after the disaster has passed.
- Thinking about the larger & long-term impacts/ramifications of the natural disaster & how to weave them into your campaign.
- What to do if your players show no interest in the natural disaster adventure.
The AnyQuestion App: Stop searching.... start asking.
Ask a question, and get video answers from Experts in Health & Wellness, Sports, and more!
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
We talk a lot about fantasy roleplaying campaigns on this channel and podcast, so we thought we'd change it up a little with some sci-fi chat!
Today I'm talking about sci-fi campaigns, the common pitfalls that I come across in these campaigns and how to move past these pitfalls to start creating sci-fi campaigns that are awesome and fun to GM and play in.
Maybe you've been trying to run a sci-fi based campaign and stumbling on one of these pitfalls - if so then this episode is definitely for you!
Star Wars: Knightfall
Season One: The Book of Syu Zee. The Clone Wars have ended, and the Jedi Purge has just...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Vampires are quite a hot topic within the geek space and they can bring a certain level of awesomeness to your games. There is just enough complexity to their way of life and their characters that make them interesting additions and there is so much that you can do with them.
Today, we chat all about vampires and vampirates - how you can not only start to include them into your game but also how to get the most out of them to make your game more exciting!
Maybe there is a vampire just waiting to be added to your game - join me and get some vampiric inspiration!
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
Ever wanted to plan a big murder mystery for your roleplaying games? Me too! And they can be somewhat tricky to get just right.
So today, we're talking all about how to plan a murder mystery adventure and while we're at it - we plan one together with the live chat with the folks on Discord!
Think necromancer who pretends to kill himself - now that's a mystery worth planning (and solving!)
Perhaps you'll be able to use this mystery in your next game?
The Gaming Blender
Could you design a video game? We create a new randomised hypothetical game every episode
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
What do you think of when you hear 'desert location'?
Perhaps you think 'arid, dry and isolated'. But what if you could create a desert location for your next adventure that is interesting, exciting and filled with tons of unique elements?
In today's podcast episode, I chat all about how to make deserts interesting locations and how to use the desert location to create exciting adventures for your games.
Topics covered:
- The idea of the desert location
- The tone of the desert
- Creating a narrative for the location
- What are the challenges of a desert location?
- How to use a desert location to come up with adventure ideas.
If you'd like to learn more about how you can create epic natural locations for your games - check out the Kickstarter for The Creators Guide to Epic Locations: Nature.
Find it here: https://bit.ly/3zAQtHx
The Gaming Blender
Could you design a video game? We create a new randomised hypothetical game every episode
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
Join me today as we create 3 NPCs using the newly revised COGASS system and portraits from the amazing PortraitWorks.
Then, once we have our 3 characters ready, we link them together and create an adventure around them. It's a fun and easy way to get your creative juices flowing and get ideas flowing for your next adventure.
Create your own character portraits using the new PortraitWorks app. Find them here: PortraitWorks
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Great GM Discord server - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
What are epic locations? Do you have them in your roleplaying games?
With the launch of the Kickstarter for The Creators Guide to Epic Locations: Nature, today's podcast episode is dedicated to chatting about all things locations and how to make the locations in your games epic.
Topics covered:
- What is an epic location?
- What steps do you take to make your locations epic?
- Applying the 3 P's of locations
- How to utilise NPCs to make your locations epic.
Join the weekly live recording of the podcast episode and ask Guy a question live! Every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
If you'd like to start creating your own epic locations, back the Kickstarter for the new book here:
The Creators Guide to Epic Locations - Nature by Guy Sclanders — Kickstarter
The Heroes Tried Their Best
A bi-weekly Canadian based comedic Tabletop campaign with supernatural and steampunk...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Something that we all struggle with - perhaps more often than we realise, is finding ways to keep both our RPG campaigns and players on track. So often, our campaign can be derailed, or our players go off on tangents and it can be tricky to bring things back on track or figure out how to roll with the new direction.
In today's episode, I give you the tricks that I use to keep or bring my players and campaigns back on track.
Note This is not going to be helpful for you if you already have a pre-determined outcome for your campaign or adventure. Here at Great GM, we like to shift from a being plot focused to becoming more reactionary to what the players choose to do.
Topics discussed:
- How making sure your player characters have an ally in the game can ensure that they stay focused on their objective.
- How do you keep your players engaged and interested in the game?
- How do you keep your campaign going of the players are derailing the main story?
- What I do to keep players aware of their situation.
- What do you do if the players plan to do something but then decide to investigate a minor detail that you have no information on?
- How do we make sure that the PCs don't miss a time sensitive goal or deadline?
- What do you do when the players build backstories that go against the original idea of your campaign and how to redevelop the campaign for them. AND should you redevelop the campaign for them?
- How often is too often when it comes to changing plots to 'wow' your players?
Join the weekly live podcast recordings on the Discord channel - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
The Heroes Tried Their Best
A bi-weekly Canadian based comedic Tabletop campaign with supernatural and steampunk...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
In today's chat, with the help of those in the live Discord chat, I think aloud about an adventure for my roleplaying game - a werewolf plague!
What kind of plague will it be?
How will I introduce it?
Join me and get some adventure ideas of your own!
Join the weekly recordings, live on the Discord channel here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
The Heroes Tried Their Best
A bi-weekly Canadian based comedic Tabletop campaign with supernatural and steampunk...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
As a game master or dungeon master, do you send your player characters on adventures all over the world that you've created? Do you want to try to do this more?
Or perhaps you're a player who wishes that their GM would send you to different parts of their world to explore?
Well, today we're talking all about why and how I send my PCs ALL over my world. I love a great, big epic campaign and doing this helps me achieve that! Maybe this conversation will help you to take the steps to do the same.
Topics covered:
- Why I send my PCs all over my world.
- How do I send the PCs all over?
- How to entice your PCs to explore places in your world they might not be interested in.
- What happens when you're running multiple campaigns with different PCs in the same world?
- How you as a player might be able to encourage your GM to send your PC to different parts of their world.
- Having NPCs ready for each game or creating them on the fly.
Join the weekly recording of the podcast episodes - live on the Discord channel! Bring your questions and I'll discuss them in the live recording.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
The Gaming Blender
Have you ever wanted to design your own video game?
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
So you have your RPG world space in your minds eye, but how do you go about populating your world?
What plants, animals, food portals, herbs do you place into your world? How do you decide where to put these things and then how do you let your players know all about them?
These are all really great questions and can inform how real and rich your world feels. In today's episode, I chat all about the best way to go about populating your world and help to ensure that your players take interest in the things that you've added to your RPG world.
I also chat about the idea of solo RPGs and voice my reservations, thoughts and questions on the topic.
Topics covered:
- How expectations play a role in populating your world?
- Why expectations are one of the most powerful tools that we have.
- How to add your own 'flavour' to your world.
- The parameters around which we should be building stuff into our worlds.
- Solo RPGs - it is possible and how does it work?
- Is there a rise in solo gameplay?
- What about the lack of collaborative effort within solo gameplay?
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Discord server - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
Casual Friday
Where 2 friends sit back, celebrate the week that was and talk about nothing in particular
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Do you use cultural symbols in your games? Imitate accents to bring your game to life? In today's episode I chat a little about cultural appropriation within the GM space - when it is inspiration and when does it become appropriation? I also talk about one of the more commonly asked questions - becoming a professional GM. How do you make the change to being a paid GM? What should you charge? All questions we discuss in this episode.
Topics covered:
- Inspiration vs. appropriation.
- Doing your research and understanding the meanings behind cultural symbols.
- Is performing accents appropriate?
- Drawing the line between inspiration and mockery.
- Professional GMing and the complexities that come with it.
- What should you charge as a professional GM?
- Managing conflicting personalities at the table as a professional/paid GM.
- The ramification of running paid games.
- How do you build an audience?
- The trouble with streaming TTRPG systems other than D&D.
Join in the weekly podcast recording live on Discord! Bring your questions and views and join the conversation.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
This week, together with all the wonderful folks in the Discord chat, we created a stand alone adventure for a D&D game.
The adventure is one of horror, devotion, and an alchemist in search of a dragon heart!
Get you pen and papers ready - this might just be your next RPG adventure!
Topics covered:
- What do we expect from the adventure?
- What is the tone/theme of the adventure?
- Creating the villain using the OGAS system.
- The type of villain in the adventure.
And more!
Join the weekly podcast recording live on the Discord server and get involved in the chats!
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
How do we as Game Masters get our new players at the table into the habit of creating backstories for their PCs?
Perhaps we should be asking how do we as GMs make sure that we utilise the backstories created? How do we create an environment and games that are better because of our players backstories?
In today's episode I talk all about player character backstories and how they could be useful in our games.
Topics covered:
- How to balance adventures out in such a way that backstories will advance the campaign as a whole.
- How much in enough information from your PCs backstories & how do you communicate this to them?
- Is it more important to have an expansive backstory as opposed to just a filler?
- What is "A-HA" adventure?
- How to build "A-HA" adventures around your players backstories.
- The different types of players and how to adjust your approach to backstories to suit each player.
- Is there a way to pull out more more information from players who provide vague stories?
Lastly, on a completely unrelated note, I answer a question about a campaign idea related to reptiles and amphibians!
Join the weekly live podcast recording on the Discord channel - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/6H6eKVeqAF?event=1009376423808610314
The Gaming Blender
Could you design a video game? We create a new hypothetical game every episode.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
I am finally committing to something that I have been putting off for years! I am going to begin writing a fantasy novel! But where do you being when you decide to take on such a huge endeavour?
Join me as I express my thoughts on the writing process - particularly related to fantasy novel writing.
Perhaps, like me, you've been toying with this idea for a while - let's make the commitment together to start...just start! And see where the journey takes us.
Topics covered:
- I talk about my own homebrew world - Braxia, the campaigns played within this world and how this has shaped my thoughts & ideas for my novel.
- The different way that everyone approaches writing - the planners and the exploratory writers.
- The reasons for writing a book and making sure you do it for the right reason.
- The various challenges to the different types of writing.
- The steps to take to begin writing a novel.
- What is the "triangle formula" in writing and why does it work so well?
- Recognising the triangle formula in many of the greats, like Star Wars for example.
- How to apply the triangle formula to your writing.
Join the weekly live podcast recording on Discord - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Join here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
One of the questions that I get asked most often revolves around creating RPG campaigns. How do you create a campaign? Where do you start? Do you start with an idea that you've conjured up?
In today's episode, I talk all about where to start when creating your own campaign and along with the participants in the Discord chat, we come up with a campaign in 30 minutes!
Topics covered:
- What is your goal for the campaign?
- What is your intended tone for the campaign?
- How do you express that tone?
- What world setting do you use?
- What are the parameters of your chosen world setting? Including:
- The reality of the setting, world knowledge, travel options, species and communication options.
- What characters are significant in your campaign? And how can you create adventures using these characters?
- The 4 types of nemeses and which one is best for your campaign.
- What is the nemesis' goal?
- What is the nemesis' plan?
This episode was recorded just before the UK Games Expo - the expo took place in June in Birmingham in the UK and was awesome! Check it out for next year's dates!
Join the live Discord event where the podcast is recorded - every Thursday at 5pm BST.
Find it here: https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
In today's episode I talk about all things game design. Have you been thinking about designing an RPG from scratch? What should you be thinking about or considering when designing a roleplaying game? All questions that I attempt to answer in this episode.
Topics covered:
- Why what you think you will design is very rarely what you actually end up designing.
- What separates those thinking about designing a game from those who are making or who have made a game?
- My tips to help prevent you from feeling discouraged in the process.
- Why having a core concept is vital in game design.
- What decisions will the players in your game need to be making during each turn? Are there too many or too few decisions and how this affects your game.
- Why statistics in dice throwing are great but also let us down.
- Creating a TTRPG system purely out of curiosity and how it can be successful.
In our first podcast episode, I reminisce about my Spelljammer days.
Back when I was a youngling in South Africa, I had little access to D&D settings, so Spelljammer was my go to. These are my thoughts on Spelljammer coming to 5th edition soon.
I also answer some of your questions from the Discord server. Some of the things we cover in the episode:
- I get put on the spot and am asked what my 'sentence' for a Spelljammer campaign would be.
- What class would Worf from Star Trek be?
- Why do I dislike the Starfinder ship combat so much?
Join our Discord server here where you can ask your questions for each week's podcast:
https://discord.gg/hdWecCYbaW
Hello! I am Guy from How to be a Great GM!
Welcome to the Guy's Guide to becoming a Great GM podcast!
I have been playing TTRPGs, game mastering TTRPGs, teaching, making videos, writing books about role playing and being a great GM for many years and I've seen the channel and the community grow. This roleplaying community is a special one and I am honoured to be a part of it and to have the space and opportunity to contribute in my own way.
One of the things that I've learnt doing this is that not any one of us has it all figured out really. There are some questions that I don't know the answers to but we always rally together to find the common place to rest our swords.
And on this podcast, that is exactly what we will be doing. We will talk about what's on my mind, what's on your mind and answering your questions on all things TTRPG related.
So join me every week as we talk, discover and challenge each other on this podcast.
The first episode drops on Wednesday, the 27th of July. New episodes will be released every Wednesday.
Before you forget, follow the Becoming a Great GM podcast so you'll get every show as soon as it's released.