The GM's Guide

In-depth podcast on how to improve your campaign, focusing on the adventure, world and character design. We apply proven and practical game design techniques to the world of running pen and paper campaigns. There's a lot to get into, so let's get started.

Trail of the Behmoth is Out! 10/24/2022

Trail of the Behmoth is Out! Check out on Drivethru RPG! Seamus and I go deep behind the scenes and talk about the favorite parts of the adventures we made for the system and other cool aspects you can steal for your own games. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/24776124

I'm Releasing a Game! 06/25/2021

I'm Releasing a Game! Trail of the Behemoth is an game about hunting giant monsters, a TTRPG you can bring to a boardgame night. I'm working on it with Seamus Allen, and we're going to talk about what we're doing and when it might be finished. I might even hand out some playtest files to listeners. If your interested, contact me on twitter @designerdanf. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/19289093

Dealing with Evil PCs (and Paladins) 05/31/2021

Dealing with Evil PCs (and Paladins) A listener sent me a question on how to deal with evil PCs, and how to deal with lawful-stupid paladins. I answer. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/19295915

Designing Your Own RPG System (Part 3) 05/07/2021

Designing Your Own RPG System (Part 3) How do you identify an inherently fun mechanic anyway? What's this 'Decision Engine' thing Dan loves so much and how do you make one yourself? Listen and find out. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/18934616

How to GM for New Players 05/01/2021

How to GM for New Players Want to run RPGs for new players? Want to get them hooked on this hobby we love? Here's how Dan does it. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/18934280

Live World Building Part 2 04/09/2021

Live World Building Part 2 The second part of Dan and Reuben's live world building session. This time we're digging into Adventure Hooks and Sample Locations in the Necropolis. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/18447179

Live World Building! 04/02/2021

Live World Building! Dan and Reuben recorded a live session of their world building. They had fun recording it. Will you have fun listening to it? Let's find out. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/18447086

Designing Your Own RPG System (Part 2) 03/26/2021

Designing Your Own RPG System (Part 2) We didn't finish everything about this topic in one podcast? Huh, who would've thought? Game Designer Dan Felder breaks down how he starts working on a game and the common pitfalls new designers get stuck in when starting a project. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/18415277

Designing Your Own RPG System 03/21/2021

Designing Your Own RPG System I get a lot of requests to talk about designing and hacking TTRPG systems, so here we go! I make my own systems for nearly every campaign I run. It's a huge topic, so today we're going to lay the foundation. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/18403907

Content Forge - The Gardens of Ynn 03/15/2021

Content Forge - The Gardens of Ynn First example of the Content Forge, where we talk about a setting, system, or adventure we've found inspiring and pulled pieces from to use in our own games. Sometimes it'll be the royal we, but this time we're joined by Reuben Covington to talk about the whimsical and creepy Gardens of Ynn. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/18324962

Boss Battles 02/12/2021

Boss Battles Designer Reuben Covington returns to chat about designing Boss Fights in TTRPGs. The two give some advice, and tell a LOT of stories about memorable boss battles they've made and played against. Feel free to steal them (like always). /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/17856884

Prepare to Improvise! 02/07/2021

Prepare to Improvise! Dan and guest Reuben Covington break down how to design and run Dynamic Adventures, where the GM role is treated more like a player than a job. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/17850932

One-Page Settings 02/07/2021

One-Page Settings Prepare a full adventure setting, a full region of your world, with just a single page of notes. This format, the one-page setting, is what I use to prepare vast open worlds with diverse and interesting regions with just a little bit of work. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/17850611

Let's Build a Sandbox! 02/01/2021

Let's Build a Sandbox! A great sandbox campaign is incredibly fun to play in, and it’s a great introduction for new players. I often start new groups in sandboxes rather than carefully constructed narrative games. It’s a simple pitch: Here’s a fantastical wilderness filled with monsters, treasures, dungeons, and dragons. Want to go explore it? However, while sandboxes can be a lot of fun to play in, they can be intimidating to think about building. Preparing one adventure is hard enough, how are you going to prepare dozens? In fact, I think a sandbox campaign is actually much easier to build than a linear campaign and takes me much less work to set up. There are a lot of tricks I use in my own sandbox campaigns and we’re going to go through the big ones today. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/17767700

Give Players a Chance to Shine 01/31/2021

Give Players a Chance to Shine I love making combat encounters. I have a lot of advice on how to make them, but there's one point that I come back to more than any other: Attack the players' STRENGTHS, not their weaknesses /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/17754365

Designing Great Random Encounters 01/31/2021

Designing Great Random Encounters Random Encounters are a classic element of TTRPGs, but most aren't fun in practice. Often the table just turns up entries like "2d4 wolves" or "two gnomes are arguing about which way the nearest town is". Here's the secret: Random Encounters are Micro-Adventures. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/17753723

GM's Guide 36 - LIch-Disney Magic 12/10/2018

GM's Guide 36 - LIch-Disney Magic Part 2 of our epic Disney World adventure. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/7860110

GM's Guide 35 - We're Going to Disney World! 08/05/2018

GM's Guide 35 - We're Going to Disney World! /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/6888612

GM's Guide 34 - Lore Dungeons with Gabe! 07/09/2018

GM's Guide 34 - Lore Dungeons with Gabe! Lore Dungeons are a concept that have worked out incredibly well for my circle of gaming friends. We're talking about them. It's fun. Gabe's here too. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/6787370

GM's Guide 33 - The Most Common Mistake 03/18/2018

GM's Guide 33 - The Most Common Mistake The most common mistake GM's and adventure designer's make, and how to avoid it. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/6379030

GM's Guide 32 - Plot Twists and How to Write Them 08/06/2017

GM's Guide 32 - Plot Twists and How to Write Them The GM's Guide is a podcast all about writing and game design through the lens of RPGs and how to run a great game. Today we're tackling Plot Twists, one of the most powerful and easy to misuse devices there is. We go through the five essential criteria of executing a good plot twist with examples from my own games and mass media. Sound fun? Then you're the strange type of person that I can get along with. Let's get started! /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/5614652

GM's Guide 31 - Building Ravenshadow's Characters 07/03/2017

GM's Guide 31 - Building Ravenshadow's Characters We apply the principles of how to create great characters and start building Ravenshadow's key NPCs. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/5502282

GM's Guide 30 - Ravenshadow Continues 05/21/2017

GM's Guide 30 - Ravenshadow Continues /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/5376176

GM's Guide 29 - More Worldbuilding with Mark 03/05/2017

GM's Guide 29 - More Worldbuilding with Mark Part 2 of the great conversation with the creator of Primordia about world-building. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/5141852

GM's Guide 28 - Conversation with Mark Yohalem 01/30/2017

GM's Guide 28 - Conversation with Mark Yohalem The brilliant Mark Yohalem, brilliant writer and designer of the cult classic Primordia, drops by for a chat about world building. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/5038182

GM's Guide 27 - The Final Player and Destroying Writer's Block 01/22/2017

GM's Guide 27 - The Final Player and Destroying Writer's Block We establish our final adventurer's character arc, then lay out the core process I use to destroy writer's block and build the materials for my campaigns. We even start putting together a soundtrack. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/5013112

The GM's Guide 26 - The Unworkable Character 12/26/2016

The GM's Guide 26 - The Unworkable Character Not all characters are easy to work with. Even the best players sometimes pitch spitballs at a GM. Chad's character was a nightmare for the campaign. While the character would be great for a novel, in an RPG it featured an unworkable inner conflict that would be a weak experience to roleplay. Worse, Chad's own joys as a roleplayer ran directly counter to my campaign's setting and theme. Here's how we made it work. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/4942002

The GM's Guide 25 - Building Campaigns Around Your PCs 12/20/2016

The GM's Guide 25 - Building Campaigns Around Your PCs Premade Adventures train us to build a campaign first, then figure out how to 'hook' a group of players and drag them into it. Here's how you can build a campaign where your players are truly the main characters. They aren't the random action heroes sucked into the story, they belong here. It's their story. The results can be absolutely extraordinary. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/4928593

GM's Guide 24 - The Triumphant Tragedy 12/12/2016

GM's Guide 24 - The Triumphant Tragedy We return to building a campaign step by step and create the core character and history of the setting's arch-villain, as well as many of the important locations we'll use throughout the campaign. In the process, we break down what makes great tragedies work and why so many inexperienced writers fail when they try to create unhappy endings. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/4904176

GM's Guide 23 - Black Holes and Intimidation 09/23/2016

GM's Guide 23 - Black Holes and Intimidation How do you make something scary to your players, when they know they're the heroes? We develop the core concept of the camapign's key setpiece and build Ravenshadow's creative playlist. /episode/index/show/danfelder/id/4674891

The GM's Guide

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