Game Master's Journey - podcast cover

Game Master's Journey

Lex Starwalkerlexstarwalker.com

Game Master’s Journey is a discussion podcast for GMs and players of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop RPGs hosted by Lex Starwalker. The show explores strategies players and GMs can use to enhance the gaming experience for everyone at the table. Lex also discusses the creation of his homebrew D&D setting, Primordia, providing a valuable worldbuilding resource for DMs creating their own setting.

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Episodes

GMJ 201: Hinterlands of Elandria Prelude 6: Craig as Quincy

Hinterlands of Elandria is a new D&D campaign set in Lex's homebrew campaign world, Primordia. Five years after the beginning of the Breaking of the World, the Time of Rifts and the Retreat of Humanity, a new team of adventurers leave the safety of the city of Elandria to explore rumors of a lone village somehow surviving in the Hinterlands to the east. Very few cities survived the Breaking, and it's believe no smaller settlements did. If there is a village out there, how has it survived on ...

Jan 15, 20181 hr 9 minSeason 12Ep. 201

GMJ 200: DMG Chapter 3: Creating Adventures

Lex returns to his exploration of the Dungeon Master’s Guide with a discussion of the first part of chapter 3: Creating Adventures. Lex covers the elements of a great adventure, running published adventures versus adventures of your own creation, location-based adventures, event-based adventures, mysteries, intrigues, framing events, moral quandaries, side quests and more!

Jan 09, 20181 hr 36 minSeason 12Ep. 200

GMJ 199: Hinterlands of Elandria Prelude 5: Danielle as Gitfirhan

Hinterlands of Elandria is a new D&D campaign set in Lex's homebrew campaign world, Primordia. Five years after the beginning of the Breaking of the World, the Time of Rifts and the Retreat of Humanity, a new team of adventurers leave the safety of the city of Elandria to explore rumors of a lone village somehow surviving in the Hinterlands to the east. Very few cities survived the Breaking, and it's believe no smaller settlements did. If there is a village out there, how has it survived on ...

Dec 31, 201736 minSeason 11Ep. 199

GMJ 198: Hinterlands of Elandria Prelude 4: Brett as Wahl Part 2

Hinterlands of Elandria is a new D&D campaign set in Lex's homebrew campaign world, Primordia. Five years after the beginning of the Breaking of the World, the Time of Rifts and the Retreat of Humanity, a new team of adventurers leave the safety of the city of Elandria to explore rumors of a lone village somehow surviving in the Hinterlands to the east. Very few cities survived the Breaking, and it's believe no smaller settlements did. If there is a village out there, how has it survived on ...

Dec 29, 201751 minSeason 11Ep. 198

GMJ 197: Hinterlands of Elandria Prelude 3: Steve as Maligar

Hinterlands of Elandria is a new D&D campaign set in Lex's homebrew campaign world, Primordia. Five years after the beginning of the Breaking of the World, the Time of Rifts and the Retreat of Humanity, a new team of adventurers leave the safety of the city of Elandria to explore rumors of a lone village somehow surviving in the Hinterlands to the east. Very few cities survived the Breaking, and it's believe no smaller settlements did. If there is a village out there, how has it survived on ...

Dec 27, 201747 minSeason 11Ep. 197

GMJ 196: Hinterlands of Elandria Prelude 2: Phoebe as Bryn

Hinterlands of Elandria is a new D&D campaign set in Lex's homebrew campaign world, Primordia. Five years after the beginning of the Breaking of the World, the Time of Rifts and the Retreat of Humanity, a new team of adventurers leave the safety of the city of Elandria to explore rumors of a lone village somehow surviving in the Hinterlands to the east. Very few cities survived the Breaking, and it's believe no smaller settlements did. If there is a village out there, how has it survived on ...

Dec 22, 201756 minSeason 11Ep. 196

GMJ 195: Hinterlands of Elandria Prelude 1: Brett as Wahl Part 1

Hinterlands of Elandria is a new D&D campaign set in Lex's homebrew campaign world, Primordia. Five years after the beginning of the Breaking of the World, the Time of Rifts and the Retreat of Humanity, a new team of adventurers leave the safety of the city of Elandria to explore rumors of a lone village somehow surviving in the Hinterlands to the east. Very few cities survived the Breaking, and it's believe no smaller settlements did. If there is a village out there, how has it survived on ...

Dec 20, 20171 hr 1 minSeason 11Ep. 195

Game Master's Journey 193: Enhance Your Worldbuilding with Anthropology

Martin Hébert, a professor of anthropology, joins Lex to talk about how anthropology can help us create more realistic and more interesting cultures and worlds for our RPGs. They discuss some of the most common mistakes made by worldbuilders, and they tell you how you can avoid making those mistakes yourself.

Dec 05, 20171 hr 15 minSeason 11Ep. 193

Game Master's Journey 192: Xanathar's Guide to Everything: Dungeon Master's Tools

Lex continues his exploration of Xanathar's Guide to Everything , the latest rules supplement for Dungeons & Dragons. This week he digs into Chapter 2: Dungeon Master's Tools. Topics include basic rules & assumptions of the game as well as expanded rules for falling, sleeping, adamantine weapons, tying knots, identifying spells, random encounters, downtime activities and awarding magic items.

Nov 24, 20171 hr 45 minSeason 11Ep. 192

Game Master's Journey 188: Tour of Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Lex begins a series of episodes discussing Xanathar's Guide to Everything, the new D&D rules supplement. Today he gives an overview of the book with a tour of its contents. Whether you're a player or a DM, Xanathar's Guide has something for everyone.

Nov 08, 20171 hr 25 min

GMJ 184: Behind the Screen 01: Introduction to Primordia

Behind the Screen is a series of GM commentary companion episodes to Lex's new D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria. This week Lex gives an introduction to his homebrew D&D world, Primordia.

Oct 25, 20172 hr 17 min

GMJ 183: DMG Chapter 2: The Astral Plane

Lex returns to his discussion of the Dungeon Master’s Guide with an exploration of the astral plane. This is the first part of a two part discussion. We'll go over the basics of the astral plane. We’re not given a lot of details on this plane in the 5e DMG compared to previous editions, so in part two we’ll refer to the Manual of the Planes from 3rd edition to fill in the gaps. This week Lex also discuss some of the spells used to travel the planes--plane shift, gate and astral projection.

Oct 16, 20171 hr 53 min

Game Master's Journey 182: Livestream 006: Upcoming Campaign, Future of the Show & More!

In October's livestream episode, Lex discusses his upcoming D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria, which he'll be livestreaming on YouTube. He also talks about the future of Game Master's Journey, adjusting encounters in a published adventure for PCs of a lower or higher level, Tomb of Annihilation and Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

Oct 10, 20171 hr 10 min

Game Master's Journey 181: House Rules & Game Balance

Lex discusses why game balance is important. We often think of game balance when coming up with campaign-affecting house rules, but we should also keep it in mind when making rulings on-the-fly during play. These spontaneous house rules can have just as much impact on our games as the ones we spend time designing.

Sep 27, 20171 hr 23 min

Game Master's Journey 180: Hacks for DMs, Handing Out Powerful Magic Items & Is Worldbuilding a Waste of Time?

Lex covers a variety of RPG topics today including getting PCs back to town at the end of the session in West Marches campaigns, Limitless Adventures' Limitless NPCs, stepping on toes, Jeremy Crawford's DM hacks and handing out legendary and other powerful magic items. Finally Lex discusses the belief that worldbuilding is a waste of the GM's time because the players won't care about the setting anyway.

Sep 21, 20172 hr 19 min

GMJ 179: DMG Chapter 2: Creating a Multiverse

Lex shares what he learned from his latest D&D campaign. Then he begins a discussion of chapter 2 of the Dungeon Master's Guide: Creating a Multiverse. He covers the different types of planes and different ways you can fit them together into a cosmology. Finally he discusses some of the ways PCs can access and travel the planes.

Sep 18, 20171 hr 43 min
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