DoubleDM

Character Development is a crucial aspect of playing and enjoying a Tabletop Roleplaying Game. It's what Characters revolve around, yet how do we create moments for it at the table?

Let's discuss that today. We feature stories of how development works in our games and give a ton of advice on setting the stage for development and creating characters that are open for development.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Evil Campaigns are a big old fascination of the TTRPG space, but what do they actually mean, and if we need them?

We also discuss Character conflict and why Campaigns using a denominator like "Good" or "Evil" might not be that great in the end and why just playing campaigns with strong themes and even better defined characters will still lead to the same outcome just in a more natural better way for storytelling.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Pets are often a minor thing in TTRPGs and yet everyone wants to have an Owlbear Baby (Thank you Baldurs Gate) or a Dog, Cat, Bird, Snake, Arachnid and so on.

We think pets are as stated a minor thing but still believe this is a great topic to talk about since pets can do great things at the table for roleplay and even mechanical reasons, however at the end its really up to you what you do with pets.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

A discussion that always makes the rounds in the TTRPG Space is the discussion about Realism and how it can help you or hinder you in play.

As you might already guess, we think it's neither and both simultaneously. We discuss what Realism can do for you, how discussions around Realism are sometimes not what they are and how you can use Realism in your games to the degree you want to!

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Magic Items are some of the coolest parts of playing D&D and TTRPGs, cool items to give your players an edge over your monsters and villains? Yes please! But what goes into making these good magic items?

That is todays topic and we talk about making magic items, what magic items we've created, errors we've made and lessons we learned. We talk about Inspiration and the Creative Process going into items, so you get a great grasp on making even better ones for your games later.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Today we discuss the topic of raising the stakes at your TTRPG tables and dealing out consequences for your Players actions and what's the best way for you to have fun doing it.

For us, stakes are mostly the threat of a consequence for a character's actions coming to be, it's not the threat itself but just that that threat is likely to happen, so how do we play this unseen gambling game in our TTRPGs? This episode answers that question and many more!

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Today we have an incredible topic and episode for you that discusses chaos at the D&D and TTRPG tables. But what does that mean and why do you want more of it?

What we understand as chaos is the innate randomness and creativeness of TTRPGs that allow for truly unexpected things to happen. Living in the Moment of the Game and Experiencing it is what you want from most games and today we're here to help you understand how you can invite more and let loose when playing.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

We've talked a lot about Worldbuilding so far and today we focus on Worldbuilding Places and Locations but even more so we highlight fundamentals in our worldbuilding and how you can lay your own.

Our discussion focuses on locations and what you need to create in order for your locations to work, geography, economy, people and so much more, but we also focus on more general aspects of worldbuilding and what makes worldbuilding a great foundation for play.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

This time we're talking about Lairs in D&D and other TTRPGs. Lairs are places your Monsters, Villains and just Entities are at home and feel safe, but how do we make these places actually interesting and not just a place for another combat?

Our discussion focuses on all aspects of a lair, be it the vibe you want to evoke, the combat you want to hold in it, or the Personality and Facettes of the Villain it should portray. Lairs are more than just a place, they are a reflection of whatever lives here and we will help you make them feel that way!

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

This time we're joined by Leigh also known as the creator of Albyon Abseys Geographical Almanac, a D&D 5e Supplement that provides you with some of the most interesting and evocative locations for your home games!

We discuss where Leigh and his team get their ideas from, what inspiration they use for creating their content and what that creation process looks like. We talk about the absurd, bizarre, and unconventional locations they've created and what you can do with all the information provided to you. They also had a Kickstarter Run successfully funded just a few weeks ago that you can still order from.

Click right here for the Almanac:

Today we're finally talking about the biggest Gaming Hype of this year. I don't know if that's true but it sure felt like that in the D&D Space. And for good reason, Baldurs Gate 3 is one of the best video games I've ever played, and it's based on a TTRPG... but how can the video game relate back to the TTRPG and how does it bridge the medium gap?

Today we discuss the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Baldurs Gate 3 and how this incredibly immersive RPG Video Game can help us learn something about DMing D&D and creating adventures, encounters and characters.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Today we talk about Actual Plays again, could this be a sign for something coming soon? This time around we talk to Ben Newbon of Cybertopia, a new Actual Play, about creating and running your first Actual Play.

Ben and We've been friends for years and when he started to produce his own new show we got talking about the hurdles and problems in starting an actual play. Today you will find out everything about starting your first actual play, what you need to do beforehand, what goes on in recordings, and what editing is really like.

You can find Ben at any of these links:

Today we talk to Eric Silver of Multitude Productions and specifically the Actual Play Show Join the Party. Eric has the self-proclaimed title of "Best GM in Podcasting" and has the 5 Tools of every GM, the 4 Pillars of a Bad Show, the 3 Campaign Experience, the too (2) great laugh, and the 1 personality to prove it.

We discuss Actual Play Creation, Production, and Hosting as well as the Artistic Medium that is TTRPGs and Actual Play Podcasting and how the medium is developing, where it's headed, and a whole lot more.

You can find Eric Silver under the following links:

Horror is a topic that is being talked about all the time in TTRPG spaces and has been on DoubleDMs Showroom before, but today we get a new perspective from DoubleDMs resident Horror DM.

We discuss running a horror scenario for D&D and TTRPGs and what it means to truly create a horror environment that goes beyond just having a few spooky vibes. We give advice on handling horror as a GM and as a player, we discuss what makes horror actually horrific and what that means for you running this game, and what simple tricks you can deploy to evoke great (horror) effects.

Elli can be found on the web but would rather you check out DoubleDM and our (hopefully) soon upcoming shows.

In a game of slaying dragons, dispelling evil curses, and saving the land from impending doom you need to make a place for celebrations. And that is what we're discussing today.

We discuss creating and running festivals for your games of D&D and TTRPG where players can experience a more jovial side of your world and it's people. They can eat food from all around the world, play fun games and meet new friends. But why do all this for your games? There are a ton of benefits festivals and traditions have, they help with pacing your story, worldbuilding your world, giving your players a moment to rest and they also work great as a plot device. So jump right in and build your next festival with us.

Curses are one of the fantasy tropes you just cannot avoid. They are part of every world that has magic in them and for good reason. Dark Twisted Magic used to make someone's Day miserable is a perfect fit for the fantasy genre.

That is what we are discussing today. We will discuss what makes curses fun to use for your D&D and TTRPG games and how you can create the best curses for your players to deal with and perish under. We also highlight how to deal with curses in a sensitive and respective manner as they often can be quite disruptive to a character's play.

There are a few Discourse topics that always come up in TTRPG Discussions, especially in D&D Circles, one of these topics is Optimised vs. Unoptimised Characters often also referred to as Min Max Discourse.

That is what we are discussing today. We want to shine a light on why this is in our opinion a pointless discussion and why saying one side is clearly better than the other feels disingenuous to what it actually means to build a character. We give Game Masters helpful advice on "dealing with a min-max player" and how to handle the actual real problem at the heart of this discussion. So start Min Maxing your Characters and join us for this episode!

When we create stories for TTPRGs we often like to think of the Player Characters as the Good Guys. They are the Protagonists but that does not make them Automatically "Heroes".

That is what we are discussing today. We talk about the Balance between Good and Evil in your Games and Stories in D&D and TTRPG. We talk about what it means to be good and what it means to be evil and why you as a GM should look at stories not just in this evil vs. good mentality. It can be outright harmful to think of someone as pure good or someone as pure evil and you will always have to consider a more nuanced approach to storytelling here. That's why we discuss the topic of Morality and Good vs. Evil for you here and highlight the important parts of the discussion.

As a GM we often make decisions in prep and play often weighing how they will affect play. And sometimes when we put something in we create moments of frustration and game halting.

That is what we are discussing today. We talk about complexity and simplicity and how you can balance them in your D&D and TTRPG Sessions. How complex and hard should a D&D puzzle be? Why do players take so long with puzzles for 5th graders? Why do my players not know what to do? We answer all of these questions and even ask some more so you can better manage the complexity of your games.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

When talking about different types of D&D and TTRPG campaigns people often have a certain campaign style that is referred to as "Sandbox Campaigns", but what does that mean?

That is what we are discussing today. We talk about what we perceive as Sandbox Gaming, why we think the term Sandbox might not be a perfect fit, and what it means to play creatively free (or more free than usual), is it good, or is it bad? We cannot make that judgment but we can discuss what we hear, see, and feel the style does well and how it works.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Player Characters get progressively stronger and more powerful as they level up in games like D&D, that means that we also have to level up the world around them to still provide a challenge to them, but how do we do this to make it not feel like a video game?

That is what we are discussing today. We highlight a few different techniques you can use to challenge Player Characters that have reality-altering abilities and magic at their disposal while not just making the threats bigger and meaner. We talk about types of challenges you can throw at them, strategies for making your enemies more powerful, and a lot more. We also highlight using challenges other than combat and action challenges to provide a different form of challenge.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

TTRPGs run on inspiration, it's like the fuel to the fire of the games we play. So how do we get inspired to write that intricate world, that gripping NPC, that captivating story?

That is what we are discussing today. We know inspiration looks different for everyone so we can't tell you exactly what you have to do to get inspired, especially cause its different from day to day even. But what we can advice you on are a few tricks that have helped us and others to grip their inspiration and turn it around for them to create all the amazing stuff you see, hear, and feel.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

When we play TTRPGs we need a place to set the adventure in and often it's the GMs job to keep track of and play the world around the Player Characters, but how do we make sure to have a world to set the adventures in that feels like it allows that adventure to flourish?

That is what we are discussing today. We talk about the process of worldbuilding and especially how you can start when building your first one or what steps you can take to improve your current world. We talk about the abstraction of worldbuilding and why we even do it in the first place and how that knowledge will help you to focus your worldbuilding on what really matters while leaving enough room for the little details you enjoy.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

When playing D&D, a very heavy combat-focused TTRPG, and we set our players out to face off against the Big Bad of our Campaign we don't want the combat to be over in just a single round with one side triumphing over the other in a flash. But how can we create combats that leave our players wondering if their character will even survive?

That is what we are discussing today. We talk about combat and especially what you can do to make a single combat an experience that your players won't forget cause it left them with so much tension in their minds. We talk about the factors that you control and how you can control them to push the combat to the edge. We also shine a light on the things that actually make your combats close and explain why HP and Stats are not a good measurement for how close the combat was.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

When worldbuilding our own worlds for our TTRPG Campaigns and Games we often look to our real world for inspiration, but there are a ton of elements in games that do not exist in our real world, like magic. How do we make magic work when we don't even understand it?

That is what we are discussing today. We discuss magic in worldbuilding and how someone being able to throw a fireball around would completely shatter reality as we know it. We talk about ways to understand and explain magic just enough to create a more grounded and foundational fantasy world while still keeping the fantasy alive. We give worldbuilding advice and inspiration so you can start your next worldbuilding session right.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Something that we've heard and said ourselves quite often is that TTRPG and D&D Characters are supposed to be special in regard to the world around them, but what does that mean, how do we achieve that and what consequences can we draw from it?

That is what we are discussing today. We talk about Players and their Characters being unique in the context of TTRPGs. We talk about how the fact of characters being a unique presence and the knowledge of that fact can help you in your games, your prep, and your worldbuilding. We also highlight different ways for you to use and highlight that uniqueness yourself to create gaming experiences that won't be forgotten so quickly.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Have you ever dreamed of swashbuckling action among the skies, battling across flying airships? Then this episode and this Kickstarter is right for you!!

Today we talk to Tom and Bodhi from HomieandtheDude, the Father and Son Podcast for all things MMA and TTRPG, Tom and Bodhi are long-time great friends of the show and we are so thrilled to have them with us again to talk about their latest project, their Sky Zephyrs Kickstarter which will allow you to build and board Airships in an easy and yet tactical way in your D&D 5th Edition games. We get a special inside scoop on how and why they designed their Kickstarter the way they did and what will await you once the Kickstarter launches.

Use our Ref Link below to get notified when it launches and back it once it releases, giving back to us as a Podcast without any extra charge.

Go check out everything from Homie and the Dude right under these links:

Murderhobos are a specific subset of players everyone has heard about in TTRPGs. They murder everything, violence is the solution to all the problems and they just don't learn from the consequences. But how do we deal with them? Should we just kick them from the table? Should we show them new ways?

That's what we discuss in today's episode! We talk abut much more than just murderhobos in D&D and TTRPG but more generally playstyle differences and how to communicate across different playstyles to create an amazing and engaging table experience for all at the table. We talk about ways to prevent murder hoboing from ever happening and also how to steer a group away from violence in systems that are geared towards a lot of violence (like D&D). We talk about handling out-of-game problems out of the game and in-game problems in the game and not mixing the two to solve problems where there aren't any.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

when playing TTRPGs we want the challenges to be hard but beatable. We want something that gives us that feeling of actually having overcome a challenge but how can we do that in a more creative and engaging way instead of just making the combats deadlier, the limits higher and the rolls harder?

That's what we discuss in today's episode! We talk about creating unique new challenges for your D&D and TTRPG tables and campaigns to allow players to use their creativity, their characters features, and teamwork to beat the challenges we throw at them. We talk about the design aspects of these challenges and the different situations we can create using them. We talk about Victory and Defeat and why both have their place in TTRPG challenge design and we also discuss balance.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

TTRPGs are like a Movie, TV Series, or Video Game but they are something entirely of their own. They are a medium of Entertainment and Creation at the same time. But in creation, we often hit hurdles things like writer's block where we don't know how to move the fiction forward. This can be due to any number of reasons but sometimes it happens that TTRPGs grind to a halt and a table sits in silence not knowing what to do. These moments mean nothing is happening which arguably is a bad thing to happen to a TTRPG Table, so how do we fix it?

That's what we discuss in today's episode! We talk about the moments of stillness, option paralysis, and fiction halting to figure out how you can make sure your D&D and TTRPG Campaigns keep on rolling creating more awesome moments for you and your players to interact with without them having to be forced. We discuss the flow of the game and how to keep it going, how to stop it without breaking it, and a lot of different techniques and tricks for you to implement to make your games run more smoothly.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Players are the Protagonists of the TTRPG and D&D Campaigns we play. But often times they can be a little detached from the World and Plot of our Campaigns, we can easily mitigate and erase this feeling by having players create backstories that connect them to the world, NPCs, and plot. But how do we use these Backstories to create awesome adventures and give the character and player the resolution to their story? That is the topic of today!

We discuss what makes a great and engaging Player-Focused chapter to give each character the awesome story moments and character development they deserve. We talk about connecting them to the main plot of a campaign instead of making them sidequests alone. We talk about what players can do in chapters designed for characters other than their own and how they can become the best supporting cast and so much more on how you can enrich your D&D campaign with a few chapters that focus on the characters rather than the plot of the world.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Danger is an ever-present Theme in Tabletop Roleplaying, constantly Characters face off against Mages, Demons, and Dragons in stories that put the fate of an entire world on the line. Player Characters put themselves on the line to fight off a villain, save a town from destruction, and destroy a magical artifact, they face danger every day in TTRPGs, but why is that?

That is exactly what we answer today. We discuss why it is dangerous situations that put everything on the line that we crave so much when playing D&D and TTRPGs. Danger often means Challenges, Risks, and Choices, these things create Player Agency and Drama, two things we desperately seek when playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. And we will discuss exactly how you can create Drama-filled Moments of Bold Choices, Incredible Storytelling, and Risky Action using Danger in today's episode!

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Lore is an interesting topic for TTRPGs, it creates an immersive world filled with rich places and people. Lore can give your world its heart and its character. The past influences the present and while the future will be influenced by your player's actions the lore will inform the way the world reacts to your players. So lore is pretty important to TTRPGs, right?

Well, kinda. Lore can give you all of those things but it often is not that relevant to actual play and to your players, they can invest themselves in it and learn more about the world you present but you need to remember that lore should serve the purpose of supporting players and the play at the table. And today we talk about how you can create lore that will support play and help your players immerse themselves in the games you play. We discuss techniques in making your lore open but informing and how to create the best setting for your needs.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

As a Content Creator, you face many unique and interesting challenges and Russell joins us today to talk about some aspects of Content Creation, What he has been up to, and how he was able to build meaningful relationships with other brands and creators so you can do the same and shoot your shot!

Russell is the Game Master for the TTRPG Actual Play Channel that is D20Tales where they go on amazing adventures in outer space and fantasy realms. They create incredibly well-polished content and Russel joins us again to give you a peek behind the curtain of how D20 Tales came to be and what challenges they face and what he thinks is important for content creation. We talk at length about what it feels like to have an audience and the unique responsibilities that come with it, the amount of work that goes into creating a great TTRPG Actual Play, the best advice Russell has for creating one, and we also discuss how to build partnerships and relationships in the TTRPG Space to help you grow your brand and projects.

Find Russell E. Welsh III and D20Tales at these Links:

Your Villains are one of the big building blocks your D&D and TTRPG Campaign runs on and making them compelling, grand, and villainous is crucial to feel of a Campaign with a Villain. But how do you make that Personality, the Acts they commit, and their Motivation actually matter? You need to bring them to the players so they can be a present force in the game. And that's what we'll discuss today!

We discuss about what it means to make your villains a present driving force in your Campaigns and how to make their Actions and Plans matter to the Players. We highlight different forms of interactions between players and Villains to make sure your players get the personal motivation to stop the villain and not just a feeling of having to do it because they are evil. We give a lot of advice on making your villain present and perceived by your players to make sure your games become that much more compelling and driven.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Exposition can be tedious and boring to sit through but it is needed to make sure your audience can fully buy into the immersion of your narrative and world and TTRPGs are no different, however, exposition works differently in such an interactive medium and we are here to help you make your next D&D Campaigns Exposition an Engaging, Interesting and Immersive experience that will lay the first stones for your awesome D&D campaign.

We talk about exposition as a whole from a writing and filming point of view, what it is for and how it works to inform an audience with necessary key information without revealing too much or too little, and how you can write and create awesome and immersive exposition for your own stories. We then talk about the TTRPG Spin on Exposition and how you can use that spin to create expositions more easily with greater effect to immerse, inform and interact with your players to create an unforgettable campaign opening!

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Time is a Resource that we don't have much of in our lives so how can we make sure that every moment of that time that we use for TTRPGs can be used to create the most joy and fun around our tables? That is exactly what we are here to talk about and discuss today.

We talk about how you as a Game Master can improve every single aspect of GMing by using time effectively. From taking a few seconds in the game to think about reactions and outcomes to taking needed week-long breaks from TTRPGs altogether to beat D&D and TTRPG Game Master Burnout. There is a lot to cover when it comes to making sure your TTRPG moments are the greatest they can be but we are here to help with this episode.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

In this episode, we talk about if you should split your D&D and TTRPG Parties. This is a meme as old as Tabletop Roleplaying itself and came from the first Editions of D&D where characters would run through dungeons and splitting the party just increased the difficulty of each encounter. But TTRPGs evolved since then, so is it still true to never split the party?

We discuss everything around Splitting your D&D and TTRPG Party. Spoiler Alert: We believe you should and sometimes will have to split the party. So we talk about when you should or shouldn't do it, how to do it as a player, and how GMs can split the party to achieve certain narrative, dangerous and suspenseful moments at the table.

If you ever asked yourself: "Should we split the party in my D&D Game?" This is the episode for you!

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Today we talk about ways you can make your D&D and TTRPG combats more interesting, difficult, and engaging by using monster and enemy tactics.

In this episode, we talk about what it means to use tactics and how even the most simple tactic can already have a great impact at your tables. We also discuss how you can come up with tactics easily for every single monster and enemy by just using them the way they are already designed.

We discuss and advise on creating tactics and the most simple ways to spice up your combats and make your players sweat. We talk about what different Monster features mean and how they would be using their features to their advantage or how a simple structure and a leader on the enemy's side can already make combats better for everyone involved. We talk about how they heighten immersion, make the world feel more natural, and create a sense of complexity in your world too.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Today we talk about the reason why TTRPGs are becoming bigger and bigger and more and more mainstream. Obviously, there are many reasons working together here but we are here to talk about the aspect that experience plays.

In this episode, we talk about the difference between consuming content and experiencing content and why our world has evolved from just wanting to consume specific content to make the experience of said content unique and exciting. This is where TTRPGs play a crucial part for us since they are a way to experience, create and explore our own content without many extra requirements.

We discuss what it means to consume content and why the experience of content consumption and creation is different and more important in todays world. We talk about the factors that lead to this development like Social Media and the Availability of the Internet and bring it all back around to talking about why TTRPGs are such amazing tools for everyone to use. We give out advice on creating and heightening immersion at the table, how to experience a story rather than telling it, and what you can do to make your games spectacles no one will ever forget.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Today we talk about how you can hand the right magic items to your D&D and TTRPG players to reward them, spotlight them and level them up. We also answer questions like: "What Magic Items should i give out?" or "How many D&D magic Items are too many?"

In this episode, we talk about magic items in D&D and how generous you should be in handing them out to your players to not boost their power too much but to still make them feel rewarded and powerful. If you ever asked yourself the question of what kind of magic items, how many of them, or how powerful they should be this is the right episode for you.

We discuss what it means to be generous and if there is something like being too generous or not generous enough when it comes to magic items and rewards for players in D&D. We highlight that different TTRPG playstyles will call for different levels of generosity and that players should have some say in what way they are rewarded. We give out advice on creating the right balance of power and danger using magic items and rewards, how you can work with your players to create the best magic item rewards possible, and what you can do if you ever gave your players too many magic items.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Why Your World Matters is back!!

This is the 4th Instalment of Why Your World Matters - A TTRPG Worldbuilding Panel aiming to bring together creative people to discuss creating more immersive, wonderful, inclusive, and creative worlds.

Why Your World Matters message is simple, everyone can be creative and create wonderful worlds and stories. This time we once again bring you 5 new Content Creators that create Podcasts, Streams, Books, and Worlds for you to enjoy, they reveal their techniques for creating worlds, what inspires them, and how you too can create even more wonderful things.

Click here to get to know our amazing Cast:

Sage:

WE'RE FINALLY BACK!!

Join us today as we start Season 2 of DoubleDM, where not much changed and we are still doing the same discussions in the same format!

This time we talk about how to always improve as a Game Master, that you are never the perfect Game Master and can always seek to improve your skills to weave even greater stories, craft even grander worlds, or roleplay even better villains. There is always something you can do and improve on but it's important to look back once in a while too to appreciate where you came from and what Mistakes and Past Experiences helped you the most in becoming who you are today.

We discuss making the best of every moment at the table and playing with a focus on improving your games to have the best time possible and give advice that will help you in shaping future sessions to come and especially how to evaluate the games you played and moments that happened.

Our Midroll Music is "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License 

We're supposed to be on break but we need to talk about the news now so we thought to at least make a short update including all the information currently available and what we are doing with the information available and also Wizards just updated on D&D Beyond so it's the perfect time to upload. :)

This new OGL is not about empowering their own game and its creator space but an attempt to control and squash the market in their hands to make D&D not only the world's greatest roleplaying game but the world's only roleplaying game. Wizards of the Coast has shown their intent to control and with this short update, we want to just tell you what that means for us, you, and the content creation space.

Please make your voice heard and support an #OpenDnD in whatever way you feel comfortable, cancel your D&D Beyond Subscription, File Support Tickets with Wizards, and talk about this online and offline. If you want to look further than D&D and play new games I encourage you to do so too.

Please inform yourself further using these links:

It's been 2 years since we started DoubleDM. Thank you for joining us on this incredible life-changing journey into TTRPG Content Creation. This episode is us looking back at the amazing 2 years we had and what we learned about Content Creation, TTRPG Game Mastering, and just us as Human Beings. We talk about how our lives, our Game Master Style, and our Content changed in those 2 years and talk about what it means to us that we have been able to produce content for you all this time. 

(I'm getting a little teary-eyed writing this Description)

This episode also features some of the best things, practices, and ideas we have learned about content creation and D&D and TTRPG Game Mastering and kind of serves as a recap of 99 Main Show Episodes. We also look into the future of DoubleDM and what will happen next for us in the next 2 years of Content Creation.

Once again, thank you for joining us on this journey and we hope we can stay together for another 2 amazing years.

Reminder: We're on break till February 6th and won't be releasing any Main Show Episodes (there might be other Content dropped) 

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

Join us for this episode where we talk to Alec Azzam a Professional TTRPG Game Master and Content Creator.

Professional Game Masters run TTRPGs and D&D for a living and today we talk about what it means to get paid for running a session of D&D. Alec runs 12 to 15 sessions of TTRPGs a week and with that Alec runs more games a week than most of us do in a month. We talk about how he is able to balance all that and what it means for a session to be a paid session. We ask Alec all kinds of questions many people have when they first meet a Pro GM and also dive deeper into how to get started as a Pro GM, what it means to be a professional GM, and how being a professional GM changes your views about playing and running games than a normal kitchen table game master.

For more information see these timestamps:

9:00: Let's meet Alec Azzam

12:30: How do you prep as a Pro GM?

16:30: Whats the difference between Hobby and Job GMing?

24:30: How does being a Pro GM work?

34:00: Does it ever get boring?

39:00: Pro Gming is a new concept how does it feel to be in this new field?

45:30: How much of Pro GMing is D&D?

47:30: What happens before Session 1?

56:30: Consume a lot of Content

60:00: Don't plan for the party

You can find Alec with these links:

Join us for this episode where we discuss creating and telling wonderful stories and how TTRPGs help (and/or hinder) you from telling the best stories.

Different building blocks are needed for a Story to exist and in this episode, we talk about exactly those building Blocks and how TTRPGs help you in creating them and the story. We go over simple tricks and tools you can implement to use these building blocks to tell the story you want to tell. We talk about what it means to experience a story using TTRPGs instead of just telling it and a whole lot more! We talk about Balancing Tension, Buildup, Themes, Storyrules, and the Basic Building Blocks of a Story today so you have easy guidelines and helpful tips for creating the stories you want to tell.

For more information see these timestamps:

15:00: What makes a good Story?

19:00: A Story makes its own rules

27:00: Your Storyrules need to persist

29:00: Themes are the Baseline for Stories

35:00: Balance is needed in a Story

38:00: Buildup as a Tool 

41:00: TTRPGs are about experiencing a Story

44:30: What does a Story need to be great?

55:00: TTRPGs help you tell a Story

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

Join us for this episode where we discuss creating the most exciting, spicy, engaging, and/or memorable combat for your D&D and TTRPG tables!

We talk about what makes D&D and TTRPG combats fun and what makes them boring and some easy simple tricks you can use to make combats better for your table experience.  Combats are supposed to be tense, dramatic, and engaging experiences for the whole table that shape the story just as much as impactful decisions and with just a few simple tricks and a little know-how, you easily can make your combats feel like epic high stakes situations. Often it really comes down to what you want from combats in the first place and that is why this episode talks about a whole lot of different types of combats and how you can achieve them.

For More Information see these timestamps:

13:00: What do we want from combat?

15:00: Making Combats Flashy!

19:00: Change the rules of the combat

23:30: Think about the Setting of your combat

26:00: Increasing Danger and Risk in Combat

35:30: Better Statblocks lead to better Combats

39:00: Movement is crucial to Dynamic Combats

43:30: Combats should breed Creativity

49:30: Combats are Story Devices

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

Join us for this episode where we discuss creating the best Homebrew Rules for your D&D and TTRPG Tables.

We talk about what Homebrew Rules in D&D and TTRPG do and why we use them at our tables so often. Homebrew Rules are supposed to nudge a game a little more into the direction you want it to go not outright change the fundamentals of it and that is why this episode discusses which Homebrew Rules are the best for your D&D and TTRPG Tables and how you can create and formulate better rules to get even more out of your already great games.

For More Information see these timestamps:

13:30: So let's talk about Homebrew Rules 

17:00: Homebrew Rules should bring more Fun

23:30: Homebrew Rules should reflect what you want

29:30: Learning from other games

35:30: Adding something that is missing

39:00: Why playing RAW is good

42:00: Major vs Minor Homebrew Rules

47:00: Make sure you know the system before creating rules

52:00: Every Table enjoys the game differently

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more: