How do you create your own RPG campaign from scratch? Do you build a railroad straight through the story, or an open world for the players to explore in their own way at their own pace? Or do you do what DM Dave does, and try to split the difference between a tight story and an open world without getting lost along the way? In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about how they build their campaigns, from what they want to accomplish to how they prepare week to week. Along they’ll way, we’ll...
Nov 01, 2020•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 20
Gold and jewels are all over the treasure tables in the Dungeon Master Guide. Player characters can get filthy rich from adventuring! But then … What can they do with it? After a 1,500 GP suit of plate mail, the only expensive things left for players to buy in the D&D PHB are boats. How many boats is a level-15 wizard supposed to own? Does high-level play morph into some weird naval combat sim we haven’t seen yet? The DMG has a few more options, but the entire D&D economy is underwhelmin...
Oct 25, 2020•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 19
Some players come into any RPG they play with a 4-page character origin and personal history that drives them to adventure — others can barely pick a name. What do you do with player character backgrounds like these? Would you rather have the deep story, and the story baggage that comes with it, or the blank campaign canvas? Do PC backstories ever lead to unfair play, special treatment or other problems in the TTRPGs you play? In this week’s episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave dig into what they want...
Oct 18, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 18
It’s the heart of every D&D story: The player characters did something crazy and their whacky adventures in getting themselves out. That’s what tabletop RPGs are all about, no video game will ever let players embrace free will and agency like a pen-and-paper role-playing game, and we’d never want it any other way. But it’s also where playing by the book stops and the real art of being a dungeon master (or any game master) begins. Can you think on your feet to keep the game running as the pla...
Oct 11, 2020•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 17
Dungeons & Dragons is the biggest role-playing game in the world, and frankly, it’s our game of choice. But that doesn’t mean it does everything great. There are design choices, and in some cases design shortcomings, that shape how a game of D&D plays and separates the experience from other systems. From D&D’s own basic roots (and the old-school renaissance — OSR — games recreating it) to the 3.5 spin-off Pathfinder to investigative games like Call of Cthulhu to completely different ...
Oct 04, 2020•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 16
Role-playing games, at their heart, are all about adventure! But are the stories you’re telling and sessions you’re building really creating “an adventure” your players will enjoy? How do you build focused, engaging, self-contained quests that span 3-6 sessions (roughly) with a tight theme, clear goals, fun ways to achieve them, and satisfying rewards at the end? In this episode of 3 Wise DMs, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about how they build adventures — and sometimes fail to — to keep players ha...
Sep 27, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 15
How do you handle a TPK? How do you get players to do their homework? What are some good D&D 5E monster combos? From Facebook to Twitter to the 3WiseDMs.com website, these are the top Dungeon Master questions listeners have asked the wise guys at 3WD. We answer them all and more in this week’s episode. If your question isn’t here, send it to us on any of those platforms or 3wisedms@gmail.com , and we’ll do our best to answer it in an upcoming episode! 4:00 DM Question 1: What do you do with ...
Sep 20, 2020•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 14
Whether you have an epic story to tell or just hope your new RPG campaign survives week-to-week, mastering long-form storytelling is an essential part of being a Dungeon Master or game master in any game system. And it’s not easy. As the person running the show, you experience the story in a way that’s completely different than the players. It may be a big picture in your head with tendrils in everything the party does, but for them it’s a series of immersive, detailed episodes that may or may n...
Sep 13, 2020•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 13
The encounter is the heartbeat of most D&D games, especially in 5E. A lot of the system is built around them, and that’s where you get to play with the toys: Characters get to use their neat powers and DMs get to bring out cool new monsters, traps and challenges. Get your encounters right, and the players have a great time. Get them wrong, and your session may not be very fun. In this episode, we talk about how we lay our own dastardly plans for encounters. We get into our philosophies for w...
Sep 06, 2020•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 12
New to being a dungeon master or game master and not sure how to get better? Been doing it for a while and still don’t feel like you know what you’re doing? Well, we’ve been there. In fact, all three of us were the DMs the very first times we played, and it’s been a long, strange ride ever since. From getting comfortable with your material to avoiding over-prep, here are 39 things the 3 Wise DMs wish they knew when they started running role-playing games. Along the way, we’ll talk about how play...
Aug 30, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 11
Have you ever wanted to give your PC party a pet dragon? What about when it turns out to be unbelievably OP? Well, we’ve done it and hundreds of other DM stunts that ranged from “unconventional” to “ill-advised” to “Are you C-R-A-Z-Y?!” Here are the stunts we’ve pulled DMing TTRPGs that even we thought might have gone too far. Including how we implemented them in the game mechanics, how they worked out, and what we wish we did differently. These stories cross many editions of D&D, including ...
Aug 23, 2020•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 10
Players know speed kills, but DMs know lack of pace can wipe out whole games. How many encounters should you get through in a session? How long should combat take? What do you do when the players are board? How can you adjust pace if things are going to fast or too slow? In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave reveal the details of their three wildly different pacing strategies and how they play out at the table, along with how they spot trouble and the adjustments they make when things aren’t go...
Aug 16, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 9
A lot of what we see around the Dungeons & Dragons culture is so focused on how dungeon masters can be good DMs — and how you can ruin a game if you’re not — that we lose sight of the fact that DMs are players, too. What’s fun for you? What interferes with that fun? How do you try to keep things fun? And what happens when it stops being fun for you? Hear what Thorin, Tony and Dave think is fun — and not fun — for them as DMs, along with a bunch of anecdotes about how games turned out in unex...
Aug 09, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 8
In an ancient tome — the 4th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide — WotC broke down what it considered to be the eight main types of players and gave DMs tips on how to handle them. Understanding who your players are, what they want and why they play can be a big help in DMing them. At the same time, how much should a DM have to adjust their game to fit different kinds of players? In this episode, we revisit the eight player types to talk about whether the advice still applies, how we relate to differ...
Aug 02, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 7
As much as DMs like to take responsibility for the success or failure of their games, you’re one person running a group that could be six or more players. Their personalities, attitudes, relationships, and a hundred other factors will have a big impact on the game. Some players are going to be very easy for you to work with and others may not be. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about the struggles they’ve had with player-DM relationships, including: What makes “good” players for thei...
Jul 26, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 6
From accidental party kills to evil campaigns that went … well, evil … we’re only Wise DMs because we’ve made all the mistakes more times than we care to remember. What happened, what did we do about it, and what do we wish we’d done differently? We get into all the details and what we’ve learned from them in this episode. And maybe the real treasure was the TPKs we made along the way. 1:00: What do we really consider “DM mistakes”? 3:00 TPKs: Epic memories, The Red Cap Incident, and how to save...
Jul 19, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 5
As a DM, the world is your character. And sometimes the rules as written, what they call “RAW,” may conflict with the way you want your world to work. How do you handle those conflicts? What do you do when a character ability disrupts the way you want that world to work? Perhaps you’ve found yourself saying things like, “There’s no way a monk could stun a dragon with a punch!” and then had to face a disappointed player whose character no longer works the way they built it? In this episode, the 3...
Jul 12, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 4
Wizards of the Coast recently announced that they’re doing away with “evil” alignments and intelligence penalties as racial attributes. But that's left some traditional gamers crying about PC culture run amok. How can you build a campaign without “evil” races? Does this undermine your bad guys? Does assuming “orcs are evil” make you look racist to your friends? (Maybe it’s not just a look?) In this episode, the 3 Wise DMs talk about what's happening, why it’s about time, and how hackneyed racial...
Jul 05, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 3
COVID-19 forced the Wise DMs to put their games on hiatus or take them online with Roll20. And they were not wise to that! Hear how Thorin, Tony and Dave stumbled through the new platform with tips, tricks, and adjustments they’ve made to keep the online campaigns as vivid as their nights around the gaming table. Plus, the guys discuss theater-of-the-mind vs. battle-maps, how much search is too much, and what your details teach players about how to play your game. The Roll20 Rundown 1:00 Our pre...
Jun 28, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 2
In the first episode of 3 Wise DMs, meet the so-called "Wise Dungeon Masters" Thorin, Tony and Dave, and hear how they handle some of their biggest DMing struggles. Along the way hear how the guys are running Storm King's Thunder, Curse of Strahd, and their own homebrew/improvised stuff. 2:00 Dealing with unexpected and keeping players on the rails 11:00 Letting the players lead 20:00 Staying on track (or not) 27:00 Traumatized players 31:00 Single-point plot failures and whose job is it to deci...
Jun 21, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 1
Meet the guys behind the 3 Wise DMs podcast and hear what this podcast for roleplaying game Dungeon Masters and Game Masters will bring to you and your game.
Jun 20, 2020•56 sec
