It takes more than just a Wise DM to make a great roleplaying game campaign. No matter how thoroughly you plan or brilliantly you improv, the DM (or GM, judge, storyteller, or whatever the system you’re playing calls it) is only one person in a group of 2 to 10 or more people making this thing happen. When push comes to shove, the players are the ones who really make the game what it becomes — whether that’s an epic cooperative tale imaginative high adventure or a series of glorified minis skirm...
Jun 06, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 50
Dungeons & Dragons used to have cursed treasure that would suddenly cause big changes in player characters — like the Helm of Opposite Alignment and the Girdle of Opposite Gender. These were transformations that could ruin a character for some players, so we see less of that in most RPGs today, but they can still be powerful tools for the DM and players to make a narrative twist have a lasting impact on the game. Sometimes big character changes like these — changing alignment, class, subclas...
May 30, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 49
Of all the roles the DM takes on, none is more important than bringing new players into the hobby. DM a game, and your player has fun for a night. Teach someone to play, and they may have fun for the rest of their lives (or think you’re a gigantic weirdo — it’s a win either way). DMing new players has its own rewards and challenges. On the one hand, they haven’t played anything before, so every goblin, dragon and rogue demigod is new and awesome! On the other hand, you have to help them learn th...
May 23, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 48
It’s the Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG)! The font from which all the pain in your campaign should spring. … So, how do you make sure that NPC is epic and inspires your PCs to true desperation like Darth Vader and not a sniveling mama’s boy like Joss Whedon’s Steppenwolf? It can be a fine line to walk. You need to make the villain powerful, intimidating, and willing to do things that the players will hate. But you can’t make them so bad that the players will come to hate your game. There are levels to t...
May 16, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 47
“Alignment doesn’t matter!” We’ve heard it all over the place, but alignment has been a part of D&D — and most RPGs in some form — for decades. And it’s been played differently through every edition. Is it worth your time? Does it make things worse instead of better? Does it have any benefits players today are overlooking? Once upon a time, violating alignment could cost a character a level, which meant acting against alignment lead to fighters forgetting how to swing a sword as well. It got...
May 09, 2021•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 46
For the first time ever, we brought the whole team together to recap DM Tony’s very highly customized version of Storm King’s Thunder. Hear what all 5 players and Tony thought of the game and what they have to say about the CRAZY MAGIC ITEMS in it, his changes to the campaign, fitting in their backstories, and more! Along the way, we talk about fighting the Kraken, befriending (most) of the giants, and how we all became The Avengers in a Halloween game. If you’re wondering just how far a DM can ...
May 02, 2021•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 45
When is a book module not a book module? When the DM throws in birthday games, a modifiable Spelljammer airship, legendary weapons tied to every character’s backstory, and more deviations from the standard campaign than we could count. That’s how DM Tony made Storm King’s Thunder his own. We just wrapped this epic campaign at level 11 after 16 sessions. Now the 3 Wise DMs are comparing notes on the episodic, exploration-lite, story-focused approach Tony took with it, how that felt to play in, an...
Apr 25, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 44
Do your players feel into the campaign setting you’re running, or is it just generic D&D world #124 to them? What can you do to bring that world more to life and make it feel unique to you and your players? What makes a D&D session feel like more than just a glorified board game? With about a half dozen campaigns running between the 3 of us, making each of those worlds and settings feel unique is important (especially with Strahd running around in two of them). Over the years, we’ve buil...
Apr 18, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 43
Party balance: It’s the most important thing every new campaign needs, right? Maybe not. Is there anything a party really NEEDS to have? Can your players survive without a healer? Or a thief? Or a meat shield warrior? Will they still have a good time? In general, we’re big fans of letting each player play whatever they want to play and working out party balance as we go. But what do you do when that leads to overlap and obvious weak spots? Is party balance as important as some players make it ou...
Apr 11, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 42
The biggest variable in any TTRPG campaign isn’t the dice, the monsters, or even the unbalanced psyche of an exasperated DM. It’s the players themselves and the party dynamic they create both in the game with their characters and around the table as the people they are. How do you want the party in your campaign to work? Are you OK with a little role/skill overlap? Are the players? How well do the players themselves need to get along? Are you approaching the game as a bunch of friends hanging ou...
Apr 04, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 41
The ultimate BBEG for any tabletop RPG is the calendar. And judging by the vast gallery of memes about this topic, that villain is nigh unbeatable. Whether our schedules are hard to align or players have important things that come up or someone in your group is just flakey, every DM has to deal with some level of absenteeism. It’s always a little bit disruptive, and sometimes it can outright kill your campaign … How do you handle it? We all deal with this. Every game Thorin, Tony and Dave run se...
Mar 28, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 40
One of the old, unwritten rules of most TTRPGs is “Never Split the Party!” We tease our players with the risks and watch things go haywire when they don’t listen. But is splitting the party actually so bad? Can you play “Character Karaoke” and make sure everyone still has fun? In truth, though, we usually try not to split the party up as DMs. After all, that just means you’re now trying to juggle 2 or more stories instead of the one you came to tell. But we’ve had a few split-party incidents lat...
Mar 21, 2021•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 39
Every campaign gets to level 1, but how many make it to level 20? How do you challenge players who wield actual cosmic power? Is it fun to be kings, queens, warlords and arch-mages — and take on the responsibilities that may come with those titles? How does the DM/GM make epic-level enemies feel challenging and satisfying to defeat? How do you bring it all to a satisfying end? There’s a time for fighting rats, goblins and thugs … And that time is long gone. High-level play, in any TTRPG, should ...
Mar 14, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 38
Downtime: It’s when we play, when we sleep and when we record podcasts. Everyone needs some downtime, right? … Maybe. Do you actually give your player characters downtime? Or do you keep them slaloming down the plot with barely a weekend to get their equipment sharpened? What do you let the PCs attempt when they do get a weekend off? Is it taverns and tax collectors, or can they create new spells, magic items and heists? In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about different ways to handle ...
Mar 07, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 37
You studied the RPG books. You recruited the players. You started a New Game. Every week (or weeks or month) you get everyone together and run them through a world you control! … What if you don’t like it? What do you do when you find yourself running a TTRPG game you don’t enjoy? The DM is a player, too. If you’re not having fun, there’s no game. We’d never recommend trudging through a campaign you hate just for the players or your pride. Your time’s too valuable. For the game to go on, you mus...
Feb 28, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 36
No matter how much we say it’s the DM’s world, the players know the game too. They have access to all the books, all the lore, even all the monster stats! Sometimes that’s a big help. Other times, it can be a problem for the campaign you want to run. Have you ever had players who actively spoil what all the monsters do? Or players who think they know what your NPCs are all about? Or a fellow DM who’s DMed every Ravenloft module D&D has produced and is trying not to spoil your run through Cur...
Feb 21, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 35
Characters bring a story to life, and that goes double for your TTRPG campaign. The best of your NPCs will become legends, most of the rest won’t be any more memorable than the thousands of monsters your players slay along the way. But how do you bring those NPCs to life in a way your players will engage with, trust and remember? Does the DM make an NPC memorable, or is that something the players decide? Does it all come down to who lives, who dies and who tells their story? In this episode, Tho...
Feb 14, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 34
At some point, every DM sees their party get lost in the woods … or the weeds … or the brothels … Whatever the specific distraction, it’s easy to get caught up in the session-to-session filler content and see the game grind to a slog of travel encounters or petty larcenies or extended haggling sessions that bore everyone at the table. How do you get the party back on track and involved with the big, bad plotline? How do you make it epic again if the game’s gotten a bit mundane? How do you link t...
Feb 07, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 33
RPG tables tend to grow. Once you get the game going and people are having fun, they start talking about that fun, and new players come in quickly. The only problem is, most TTRPGs are optimized to run with 3 to 5 players (plus the DM), and DM gets tougher are you expand to 6, 8 even 10 players. Throughout our DMing careers, we’ve run a lot of large tables. Most of our current games have 6 or more players, and we routinely have 7 or 8 at the table. We’ve all had some experience running even more...
Jan 31, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 32
What drew you into role-playing games? Was it the movies, TV, myths and legends you experienced as a kid? Was it video games? Was it the first time you picked up a gaming book and fell into the world? Once you got into the games, what shaped the stories you tell and worlds you build? Where do your characters come from? Where do your mechanical parts come from? We all stand on the shoulders of giants in games, whether those are metaphorical giants, literary giants or literal giants. In this episo...
Jan 24, 2021•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 31
There comes a time when the dice cease to sparkle, when the monster loses its luster, when the DM screen becomes a prison, and all that is left is a DMs love for their players … Those little campaign-ruining jerks! Or not — maybe your players are victims of your burnout just as much as you are. Every TTRPG campaign is different, but one thing never changes: Without the DM, there is no game. And a burned-out DM is one of the biggest game-killers in any table-top RPG you’ll play. What does burnout...
Jan 17, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 30
Every DM needs to run their first game, and you don’t need a Ph.D. to do it! If you’re new to the system, and especially if everyone is new to the system, how much do you really need to know to start a game? Do you need to read all the rulebooks cover to cover? No. Do you need to design a minimum of 6 dungeon levels and populate it with monsters like Gary Gygax first intended? Absolutely not. So, what do you actually need to know to bring some friends together, throw your first game, and help ev...
Jan 10, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 29
In March of 2020, we were getting ready to record our first episode of this podcast. We all got together in our planned recording space and cut the trailer. … Then COVID happened, and that entire plan went into the garbage along with concerts, vacations and sending kids to school. But as the year went on and we figured out online gaming and recording, the podcast and our games took off. 2020 was an “interesting” year for everyone. But if you had access to a computer and some friends, it was a pr...
Jan 03, 2021•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 28
Older players who look at the D&D 5E rogue would be forgiven for thinking traps aren’t in the game anymore. In fact, throughout the 5E Players Handbook, traps are given less attention than in previous editions. But that doesn’t make them any less important to the game, or any less tricky for the DM to get right. D&D Traps require the DM to walk a fine line. Balance them right, and your PCs will find themselves in a world of trouble that’s entirely their fault. But overdo it, or make trap...
Dec 20, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 27
A few weeks ago, a listener reached out and asked how we manage players with special circumstances. She was DMing for her brother, who’s on the autism spectrum, and hit a trigger that made him feel like his character was ruined. And even though she’s a therapist, that reaction surprised her. None of the 3 Wise DMs have DMed a player diagnosed with autism before, but we have had many players with special circumstances. We’ve learned a lot from playing with them — sometimes from our mistakes. In t...
Dec 13, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 26
It’s one of the hardest things for any DM to handle: What do you do when the way you see the game and the way the players see the game is no longer in sync? You describe something as super dangerous, and a PC runs up to give it a hug — then the players get angry when it attacks them. Or the players come up with a plan, but when they try to execute it, the actions they take work out more like the Keystone Cops than Seal Team 6. Or the tough, henchmen-level bad guys seem too hard, and players star...
Dec 06, 2020•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 25
WotC as a company has long used errata as a way to keep its competitive games, like Magic: The Gathering, working as intended. But just several years into D&D 5E, they’re still releasing new errata that impact books printed years ago that have been used at tables for years since. Some of it just clarifies rules interactions in a helpful way, but other errata literally make books we bought obsolete. The most recent changes significantly change Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade, which no lon...
Nov 29, 2020•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 24
There’s a myth that “old-school” Dungeons & Dragons was mostly a minis game. That may have been the case in the very earliest days, but throughout 1st and 2nd Edition, we played without minis and maps. Our game happened entirely in “The Theater of the Mind.” And, in many ways, it was a different experience from the maps-and-minis style of game most DMs run today. Some DMs still prefer theater of the mind. Thorin, for one! Dave’s not as hot on the idea, and Tony kind of likes it both ways. Wo...
Nov 22, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 23
The dice never lie, but they don’t tell great stories, either. (We mean, they’re dice, they don’t even talk!) So how much of your game do you want to leave up to the dice? When should you roll them and why? What kind of game are you teaching your players to play? Can rolling the dice even discourage role-playing? In this episode of 3 Wise DMs, Thorin, Tony and Dave dig into everything you always wanted to know about rolling polyhedral dice but were afraid to ask. From random encounters to fudgin...
Nov 15, 2020•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 22
How do you feel about a player who wants to play a famous fictional character in your game, like Drizzt, Riddick or Gandalf? Do you let them or ask them to come up with something more original? How much do you adjust the game world or homebrew mechanics to support it? That’s a question one of our listeners recently asked on the website, and Thorin, Tony and Dave have come across it before. As DMs who’ve played PC knockoffs of Hulk Hogan, King Arthur and the Buddha (two of them currently), they’r...
Nov 08, 2020•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 21
