In today's episode we talk about improving your play styles. What makes a good player? How you should look to improve as a player? How to you mesh well with your GM? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star rating wherever you get your podcast. Leave us an em...
Jul 28, 2021•45 min•Ep. 78
In today's episode we talk about communication between players in character development. What are important things to discuss between players? How do you avoid overlap in development? What subjects are off limits and how to you communicate them? How do you develop intertwined backstories during development? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage wit...
Jul 21, 2021•46 min•Ep. 77
In today's episode we talk about experience systems. What types of experience systems are there? Is there a best choice? What if I don't want to use experience? How to I augment systems to create my own experience system? What are some things to avoid when giving experience? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/...
Jul 14, 2021•42 min•Ep. 76
In today's episode we talk about salvaging a game that is failing. How do I identify the problem? What if it's a GM problem? What if it's the players? Do we need to start all over? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star rating wherever you get your podcast....
Jul 07, 2021•41 min•Ep. 75
In today's episode we talk about critical failures. What are critical failures? How do we use critical failures? How do you prevent them from hamstringing your players? How can you use them to improve your game? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star rating...
Jun 30, 2021•41 min•Ep. 74
In today's episode we talk about your recurring bad guy. How do I give them proper motivation? How do I hook my players into finding them? How do I handle underlings? When do I let my players finally see the villain? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star r...
Jun 24, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 73
In today's episode we talk about 9 more things we probably shouldn't be doing as GMs. Below is the list. You probably shouldn't have in game tasks take too long or have too many steps. You probably shouldn't limit NPC knowledge in the moment. You probably shouldn't role play out a whole scene of NPC's talking to one another. You probably shouldn't require overly detailed backgrounds from your players. You probably shouldn't run games to teach your players lessons. You probably shouldn't keep run...
Jun 16, 2021•56 min•Ep. 72
In today's episode we talk about creating emotion in your players. How do I get my players to feel emotion? What types of emotion should I be shooting for? How do I handle emotional scenes? What if my players don't feel the emotions? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review...
Jun 09, 2021•49 min•Ep. 71
In today's episode we talk about improving your dungeons. Why do I need to add story to my dungeons? Why do I need to care about the monsters or traps in my dungeons? Do I always need to force my players through the dungeon. We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a fiv...
May 26, 2021•41 min•Ep. 70
In today's episode we revisit music and sound in games. Why is it important to use music and sound in game? What do I gain from it? How should I get started and what should I avoid? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star rating wherever you get your podcast...
May 19, 2021•49 min•Ep. 69
In today's episode we talk about improving your mass combat. How do I handle mass combat? How to I make sure it doesn't get boring and slow? What are the purposes of mass combat? How to I engage all players in large extended combats? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review...
May 12, 2021•53 min•Ep. 68
In today's episode we talk about saying yes to your players instead of requiring rolls for everything. Where did we get this idea? How has it worked so far? Are the players finding it enjoyable? What are the pitfalls with the system of saying yes? What are some modifications you can put on the system to still have player engagement? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us ...
May 05, 2021•41 min•Ep. 67
In today's episode we talk about handling character deaths. How should I handle a character death? Why am I killing the character? Should this death be epic? Is killing the character the only way? How to I reintegrate the new character after a character death? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGami...
Apr 28, 2021•41 min•Ep. 66
In today's episode we talk about leading your players with the Carrot or the Stick. Which is a better technique for moving my players through my game? What is one better than the other? Is it an all or nothing thing? How do I execute either method? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please le...
Apr 21, 2021•41 min•Ep. 65
In today's episode we talk about stonewalling your players. How far off the set path do I let my players stray? Why are my players moving completely outside of the story I have designed? Is it ever alright to stonewall players? How do I limit my players without completely shutting them down? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://...
Apr 14, 2021•41 min•Ep. 64
In today's episode we talk about setting difficulties in your game. How do I handle my players with their different power gaps? What if my players don't have optimal characters? How do I get my players to work more in character in combat regardless of difficulty? How do I create tension and challenge without blowing out the difficulty? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow ...
Apr 07, 2021•47 min•Ep. 63
In today's episode we talk about The World of Darkness RPG Werewolf the Apocalypse. What is The World of Darkness? What is Werewolf? What does a game look like? What do you like about Werewolf? How can I improve my Werewolf games today. We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a rev...
Mar 31, 2021•45 min•Ep. 62
In today's episode we talk about telling a connected game. How do I segment a long game idea into shorter games? How do I keep engagement with the game being disjointed? How to I stay organized in planning this game? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star r...
Mar 24, 2021•42 min•Ep. 61
In today's episode we talk about character classes and being stuck in a lane. Why do I have to choose the most optimal class/race combinations? Are my players just trying to obtain a specific power? Can you give low level players high level powers? How can you get better role play out of your characters by breaking class molds? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Fa...
Mar 17, 2021•44 min•Ep. 60
In today's episode we talk about the session zero. Why should I run a session zero? What should we accomplish in this planning session? Should we cover themes? Should we create character concepts? We discuss all this and more in today's episode. From our listener Chris the Session Zero tool Decuma https://goldenlassogames.com/decuma Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/...
Mar 10, 2021•56 min•Ep. 59
In today's episode we talk about using random events in your games. How can I use random events? What should they focus on? How many good vs how many bad events? How do I create modern events? How to I avoid duplicating events? We discuss all this and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star ...
Mar 03, 2021•33 min•Ep. 58
In today's episode we talk about gaming online and using technology in your game presentation. What are good tools to use for online gaming? Is there a single good tool I can use? What is the best voice/video tool I should use? How can I bring in technology to improve our local gaming table? We answer all these question and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://w...
Feb 24, 2021•45 min•Ep. 57
In today's episode we talk about improving your locations. How do I make a random location more interesting? How can I drive lore or story with my locations? How much time should I spend on dressing up my locations? What are some of the tools that I can use to improve my locations? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebo...
Feb 17, 2021•43 min•Ep. 56
In today's episode we talk about pregen characters and their motivations. How much motivation should I give the pregens? What motivations do they need? How do I ensure someone will play a specific pregen for the story's success? Should I have multiple pregen options? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpY...
Feb 10, 2021•42 min•Ep. 55
In today's episode we talk about what do do when players miss sessions. What are my options for handling this? What are some rules I should follow? If I let someone play the character how do I moderate that? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star rating whe...
Feb 03, 2021•49 min•Ep. 54
In today's episode we talk about why we cheat as GMs. Why would we do this? Why would we even talk about it? Isn't cheating against the rules? Is cheating always bad? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star rating wherever you get your podcast. Leave us an e...
Jan 27, 2021•46 min•Ep. 53
In today's episode we look at our podcast over the last year. What are our thoughts on some of our favorite episodes? What is coming down the pipeline for the next year? We answer all these questions and think about the podcast in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star rating wherever you get your ...
Jan 20, 2021•45 min•Ep. 52
In today's episode we talk your next game after a long campaign. How much time should I wait to start a new long game? Should I roll into my next multi year game right away? How do I find time to take a break? How can I get others to step up to the plate and GM? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGa...
Jan 13, 2021•45 min•Ep. 51
In today's episode we talk about the long campaign. How do I start a long campaign? How do I plan the game? How much do I need planned ahead of time? How do I establish theme? How do I keep track of everything? We cover all these questions and more in today's episode. Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.com or Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGaming Please leave us a review or a five star rating w...
Jan 06, 2021•50 min•Ep. 50
In today's episode we talk about the final battle and the epilogue to your story. How do I make the final battle epic? What makes a good epilogue? What if I'm not a prolific writer? Why is it important to include this in my game? We answer all these questions and more in today's episode. There are two songs that accompany our reading of the epilogue in today's episode. They are below as we cannot embed them due to copywrite reasons. Black Hawk Down Soundtrack: Gortoz A Ran Track 11 https://www.y...
Dec 30, 2020•45 min•Ep. 49
