The Exemplary DM Podcast
By The Exemplary DM Podcast
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Podcast Description
In this podcast we hope to provide examples and reusable material for you, the DM, to use in your stories and campaigns. We hope to inspire you with functional content that you bring to your own table to the delight (or potential misery) of your players.
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ExplicitSeason 2, Episode 8 - Season Finale | How to End a Campaign The finale of season two is a somber one - how to successfully end a campaign. We give lots of ideas on how and why. First, after our intro, we recapped our Dungeon Master's Credo, a declaration of sorts of how the game of Dungeons and Dragons should be approached from an interpersonal relationship sense. We introduced the credo two years ago. Try not to do the math on how many episodes/month that is. After dealing with William's abandonment issues, we begin on the first of many plots spoilers in this episode. Then into a number of emails from listeners that with regrettably unreplied-to. Notes from emails: Jonny's article recommending the The Last Unicorn on paperflyingmachine.wordpress.com. Dave (from episode 4) wrote in twice in two days. Sam the Kiwi asked about more tactful player background exposition. Chuck gave us a review on iTunes and sent us some sweet smooth bumper music. Robert from Australia sent an upside-down email to tell us he got his gaming group back together, but not before airing his personal grievances against Bruce. Then he exemplifies the "savage noble" char concept. Adam wrote in about MythWeavers and dropped his handle on that site, ocelotdie, and requested more PbP podcast episodes. Shawn (there are multiple ways to spell it) asked if there are any new podcasts planned. Dick. (Yes.) William then stepped up on a soapbox about a great article, "You are responsible for your own orgasm." In summary, it is the player's responsibility to engage themselves and their character in the game. It is not the GM/DM's responsibility to pull your character concept out of you with forceps. Summarized, the main topic of the podcast can be summarized with "How to change out the PC's," because that's really what the end of a campaign is. No campaign is your last campaign. Tips to ending a campaign: Address each character, loose end, and plot thread. The Temple of Elemental Evil All four Fallout games Make sure every character feels important, even if in a small way. Make sure the characters' past lead towards their destiny. Pregnancy? Just a trope. The epilogue is a time to do something that couldn't be roleplayed "in engine." Keep things relevant and realistic enough to see the impact that characters had on the world. Point out unseen connections that might have been. Align the ending of the story with credibility with the past. Don't get us wrong. We think you should end your campaign. Ending you campaign well can be extremely satisfying. Tools you can use to end the campaign: Novelize the ending The final, climactic battle featuring cutscenes within/around Insurmountable odds, but the honor of brotherhood leads you to battle to glorious death Reintroduce old characters that come back to aid or oppose Remember that little girl with the puppy you punched? The NPC's help the characters make a final discovery It was all a dream. (Like when Patrick Duffy walks out of the shower. Don't do this.) Cataclysm - a perverse version of your previous campaign's world. Comet wrecks everyone's s**t, collapse of a kingdom, an invasion from a distant army, meteor strike, plague, crickets, frogs, babies, some sort of regional disaster The speedbump death and restart from @Costontine: http://dungeonsinthekitchen.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/from-the-ashes/ Two kind of fast-forwards: Peaceful fast-forward to the future (LOTR, Harry Potter) The less-peaceful fast-forward (you die a week later and/or go on to battle gods) The cliffhanger gamble (be careful of taking too much power away from your players) Thanks, but no thanks. Fallout and the water chip, the end of the cold war, Dragon Age and the quest where you can't go back. Gadgets of the Podcast:Encounter: The Vertical Drop T-shirt Idea: I’m Skeksis and I know it http://www.redbubble.com/people/nikholmes/works/8623714-skeksis-and-i-know-it | 16 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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ExplicitSeason 2, Episode 7 | The Penetration Episode! How to get through to the players at your table who aren't really into the whole role-playing thing, and perhaps treat your DND table like a video game. Lots of tips and tricks to engaging even the most douchey of players! Show Notes: The next edition of DND If it isn’t fun, it’s probably the DM. If you’re the DM, it’s probably your players. To summarize, if you’re playing a game with five other people and not having fun, it’s almost certainly not the game system. Chad signed up to be a DNDNext playtester, did you? Tips to Try for Player Penetration: Show them maps, pics, letters, etc. Visual Aids. Even if they don’t care about the story, everyone reacts to an awesome dragon pic. "Holy f**k that's a badass dragon." Keep the story simple, but more importantly, keep the story clear. Picture a day in the life. Not everything is warring factions and dragon attacks. What do people do when there’s nothing going on? You don’t have to explain this to players unless they ask, but it helps to answer questions and get a clear view of your world. Reward contribution and creativity heavily. Center your story on the PCs individually, instead of on your own story. Center your story on loot grabbing and important items. Optimizers will love the bonuses that they’re working towards; roleplayers will love the journey. "You gotta go reunite me with my hilt, bitch! What's this hilt? F****n pewter?" Encourage skill feats as opposed to attack/damage feats. If a player likes to optimize in combat, reward them for optimizing OUT of combat. Challenge your combat monkeys The more they get invested in combat, the more they’re going to get invested in other stuff. They’ll want to boast! Don’t dwell on lack of role playing , remember DM's do not take things personally. Get over it! Be subtle when enticing role playing from munchkins. Ask for specifics in a backstory, not just generalizations or wide-sweeping stories. Gladly give them time to prep this answer if need be. Let them world-build. Optimizers have an great time making stuff. Ask about places in their past, then put them in the game. Make sure players know they have permission and leeway to create in your world. Gadgets of the Podcast:Encounter: The ambush into the setting sun T-shirt Idea: the dice are trying to kill me Character Concept: the revenge-bound aborigine, Suanzi Player Tip: Re-skin your mechanics DM tip: take a break during sessions Big Thanks: For music, once again big thanks to the Diablo String Orchestra and The Kobolds! Also big thanks to super-fan Joshua Bentley, who provided some more great voice work for us. Right-click and Save-As below, or us the RSS feed built into this page. Mirror 1 (128kbps) (Atlanta US) (47.4mb) Mirror 2 (128kbps) (Atlanta US) (47.4mb) Mirror 3 (128kbps) (East Coast US) (47.4mb) Check us out on iTunes and give us some reviews and/or ratings and/or hurtful criticism! What do you think? Welcome all our new listeners to the family of ExemplaryDM! Give us reviews in the comments below, hit us up on Twitter @ExemplaryDM, or shoot us an email at exemplary d m at gmail dot com | 6 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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ExplicitSeason 2, Episode 6 | This episode focuses on the Delve game format, a concept that has been pushed forward by DND 4th edition but is good for any gaming system. The idea is to have a combat-only, role playing-lite three-battle night that focuses on education for new players, ground-breaking for experienced players, solid experience for new DM's and fun for everyone. Read more » | 22 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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ExplicitSeason 2, Episode 2 | Our topic for season two, episode two was house rules- a broad and sweeping topic that prompted our first listener feedback segment. We've gotten a wave of activity towards us on twitter and in email! Meanwhile, welcome to all our new listeners, soon-to-be loyal! Read more » | 22 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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ExplicitSeason 2, Episode 1 | Thanks to all who enjoyed our first season, we are sure you'll love the second! As always, we had blast recording and trying to clumsily insert curse words into our podcast to please the gods of podcast scheduling. Witness our filth first hand as we fumble around with curse words! We open season two with an examination of a homebrew rules tweak, and then we delve into what may be a newfangled experience for many: co-hosting a DND game. Can't thank our listeners enough for the positive feedback, we look forward to more of it! Intro discussion: A recap of our season one TheAngryDM's diatribe on short rests and encounter powers Main Topic: The Multiple DM Quandary Gadgets of the Podcast: Encounter - the vignette Tee Shirt - DM's do it on Tables Character Concept - the kenku arena fighter DM tip - Create urgency for the players Player tip - Take pictures and share **A reminder- if you've seen the Dark Crystal, the podcast tells you what to do. Right-click and Save-As (48mb) Mirror 1 (East Coast US) Mirror 2 (Atlanta) Check us out on iTunes and give us some reviews and/or ratings and/or hurtful criticism! What do you think? Give us reviews in the comments below, hit us up on Twitter @ExemplaryDM, or shoot us an email at exemplarydm at gmail dot com. | 28 6 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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ExplicitSeason 1, Episode 7 | Happy new year! In Season One, Episode Seven, Chad and William invited their wives, Meghan and Christine respectively, to join the podcast with the topic of: How to help your players build their characters? Decide some things before going to your players: How much will I require of my players to do by themselves? What preparation will be optional? Will you use a reward system for voluntary content? What will be required to play in the campaign? Questionnaires Short term hooks and long term hooks Background stories Pictures/figurines? Generalizations are fine. Ask them to draw comparisons to characters in other fiction. Are there any specific mechanical instructions need to give? Hard cap/soft cap on stats? Power/feat restrictions? What will players know about each other? Give your information/instructions to your players. How much information about the world will you share with my players, and what will you share with their characters? William - gave rough information on the general layout of a region without much specifics unless the players justifiably knew them. Chad - lots of player-specific information that is not supposed to be character knowledge, such as specific demographics, nations and a detailed history of the geography. In the dark - the players will be going somewhere new anyway, they'll discover as they go. A mix - players will be in someplace familiar with information, but they'll be interfacing with a new geography too. Examples: The party has business to do interfacing with another world - like they fey, they have to go back and forth The city that appears out of no where, or a civilization is discovered underground or deep in a forest. A parallel world is discovered: bizarro world where the players themselves change! Make sure the players have time to think about it and take it into account before the first [planning] sessions. The player, the party, and the DM collaborate on character concepts, character hooks, and party interaction. Two different basic methods: Move from individual creation to collaborative development. Move from collaborative creation to individual refinement. The DM is involved at all steps providing bits of world knowledge. Oh, you want to be this? Here's a great way to fit that in to the world. So what should the players be doing during the collaborative parts? Have players think of two or three (shallow) concepts for characters, they'll chose one. The players can bring together what information they wish and share with the other players. These can be as simple as race/class combinations, or common backgrounds or archetypes (e.g. meathead, scholar, assassin) or common goals establish personality ties and conflicts Perhaps the first campaign session or half of the session is talking only. or perhaps this happens on the second campaign, or via email By the end, the players should finalize: a background a list of hooks both short and long term their wiki entry? (wink) Our Gadgets of the Podcast: Encounter: The raid on Baron Tornash Tee Shirt: Guns don't kill people, Magic Missiles do Character Concept: The Last of his kind DM Tip: Shuffle the deck, switch players. This was an actual three-table Delve at our house one night, DM'd by William, Christine and our most excellent, most now-distant friend Drew. Player Tip: Use one of these links below: Links for Character Questionnaires: Chad and Ian's Ridiculous Questionnaire Character Profile Template RPG Character Characterization Character Questionnaire Tips and Tricks Generic Character Questionnaire Questionnaire to Define a new Character A character's personal code Interview to your character to discover motive The 100 Most Things to Know about your Character More info on starting a campaign: Symatt: Let's get this party started eHow's article on How to Create Your Own DND Campaign Gnome Stew: Start a campaign with DND's 10 Stupidest Monsters Right-click and Save-As (42.8mb) Download her | 21 2 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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ExplicitSeason 1, Episode 6 | Huzzah! Boy, did we miss our podcast. We've got special surprises all up and down our sixth episode! What are you waiting for? Download it! Also, don't miss the listing for the must-have holiday gift of the season (and we mean that sarcastically), complete with thesauratical goodness. Our Gadgets of the Podcast: Encounter: The Shambling Mound Party Tee Shirt: Move Minor Standard Character Concept: The River Folk Mercenary DM Tip: Engage the Senses Player Tip: Powers, you explain them Right-click and Save-As (34mb) Download here! Check us out on iTunes and rate us! What do you think? Give us reviews in the comments below, hit us up on Twitter @ExemplaryDM, or shoot us an email at exemplarydm at gmail dot com. We're also looking for comments and thoughts on our next podcast topic: character concept building and hooks, plus feedback on the new web-based Character Builder. | 21 12 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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ExplicitSeason 1 - Episode 5 | We're back and joined this time by guest host Ian to talk about tips and pointers on how to create your own Campaign Setting. No, we're not trying to put WotC out of business, just giving pointers on things to think about when starting a new campaign in a custom world, without using any pre-written material! We present an outlined list of things to think about before starting your custom setting campaign. The exemplarypastrychef.com is a lie. Did you hear that bromance is now in the Oxford English Dictionary? Our apologies to the fine, sturdy people of featureless Topeka, Kansas. This podcast is full of suggestions on building your campaign setting world, from geography to civilization, and ofcourse, our five Gadgets of the Podcast: Encounter: Primitive Village Defense Tee shirt idea: A matter of weight ratios from shirt.woot! PC/NPC Concept: Tumult the Revenant Barbarian DM Tip: How do players acquire magic items? Player Tip: Feats, you explain them Right-click to Save As: DOWNLOAD HERE! (55mb) Check us out on iTunes and rate us! What do you think? Give us reviews in the comments below, hit us up on Twitter @ExemplaryDM, or shoot us an email at exemplarydm at gmail dot com. We're also looking for comments and thoughts on our next podcast topic. | 27 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 8 Episodes |
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