Podcasts by Level Up Your Gaming: Tabletop RPG Podcast
The Level Up Your Gaming Podcast is a tabletop RPG podcast. Assisting GM's DM's and Players, the Level Up Your Gaming Podcast is here to help you take your games to the next level. Each Wednesday your hosts, Aaron and Josh, talk about a new topic to help you improve your tabletop role playing games. You can email us your questions, comments, and episode suggestions at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.comOr Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGamingAlso leave us a review on apple podcasts or your favorite podcast site here. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/level-up-your-gaming-tabletop-rpg-podcast/id1494186757
Further podcasts by Aaron & Jared
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Better NPC Creation Again from 2022-02-23T14:00
In today's episode we discuss how to improve your NPC's even more than before. How do I make these characters feel more real? How do I create connections? What are the most importan...
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Combining Actions from 2022-02-09T12:00
In today's episode we discuss combining player actions. How do I combine actions? What are some examples in all three phases of the game? How to you balance power creep with combining ac...
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Narrative Over Rolling from 2022-02-02T16:00
In today's episode we discuss using narrative technique over rolling. When should I use rolls? Why should I use narrative? How do I keep my players interested in outcomes? What if my pl...
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Extra Episode: The Cortex Prime System Ft. Chris from 2022-01-27T07:00
In today's episode we have a listener provide his thoughts on the Cortex Prime system. Chris does an excellent job describing the system today. We hope you enjoy the episode.
Lea...
Your Best Game from 2022-01-19T15:00
In today's episode we celebrate our hundredth episode and talk about your best game. What is your best game? What made it so memorable or good? We want to know and hear from you in today...
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Better Character Creation from 2022-01-12T16:00
In today's episode we talk about better character creation. What makes a good character? How to I create unique characters? How can a session zero help this process? How do I define my ...
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Deep Dive Into The World Of Darkness: Malkavian from 2022-01-05T16:00
In today's episode we take a deep dive on the Malkavian clan from Vampire the Masquerade. What type of vampire clan are they? How should I play one? What are things to consider with the ...
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Adjusting Your Game In Maintenance from 2021-12-30T08:00
In today's episode we talk about updating your game in maintenance mode. When should I update the game? Why would I make changes to a game in flight? How much time should I spend updatin...
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Challenging Genre Expectations from 2021-12-15T11:00
In today's episode we talk about challenging genre expectations. Why would I change my genre? How far should I go? What if my players don't like the changes? What should I avoid do...
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Fitting Games To Your Players from 2021-12-08T13:00
In today's episode we talk about fitting games to your players. How do I create games they will like? What if my players like a wide variety of game types? How do I make my players more ...
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Destiny And Fate from 2021-12-01T12:00
In today's episode we talk about destiny and fate in games. Why would I want to avoid destiny and fate? How can these be used effectively in game? What can be done if a player wants to t...
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Pushing Characters Outside Of Comfort Zones from 2021-11-17T15:00
In today's episode we talk about pushing players and characters outside their comfort zones. How much should I push the boundaries? How fast should I introduce new content? What if my pl...
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Deep Dive Into The World Of Darkness: Stereotypes from 2021-11-10T15:00
In today's episode we talk about tabletop rpg stereotypes and try to focus on World of Darkness. Why would I lean into these stereotypes? When should I break these stereotypes? How are thin...
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Maintaining The Tension from 2021-11-04T07:00
In today's episode we talk about how to maintain tension in your games. How do I create tension? What do players fear? What makes a scene exciting? What if the players know you sometimes...
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Breaking The Fourth Wall from 2021-10-27T15:00
In today's episode we talk about breaking the fourth wall. What's the fourth wall? What are some ways we can break it? Why would I want to break the fourth wall? Should I let my pl...
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Preview Of Coming Weeks from 2021-10-20T13:00
We are off this week from podcasting. Here is a preview of some upcoming episodes. Thanks for listening we will be back next week
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Building An Epic Game from 2021-10-13T13:00
In today's episode we talk about building your epic game. Where do I start? How to I organically bring characters into the quest? How do I gate my players progression without limiting th...
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Outside Game Activities from 2021-10-07T13:00
In today's episode we talk about extra activities outside of game. What is an extra outside of game activity? Why should they be avoided? Are there any cases when we should have players ...
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Action Economy In Games from 2021-09-29T14:00
In today's episode we talk about action economies in games. What is action economy? How do I improve action economy? How to I manage action economy in combat to improve flow and experien...
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Social Situations Expanded from 2021-09-22T16:00
In today's episode we give examples on how social roleplay and rolls can be used in social situations. How do I take into account social merits in roleplay? How do I give my players infor...
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Story Above Success from 2021-09-15T14:00
In today's episode we talk about how GMs overlook success of their game in order to execute their story. How does a GM fall into this pitfall? How do you achieve a successful story and su...
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Bringing In Elements From Other Game Systems from 2021-09-08T11:00
In today's episode we talk about how to bring in other game systems into your current game system. How do I work out the rules with a system change? Can I use any story element? Are ther...
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How Much Detail To Prep from 2021-09-01T15:00
In today's episode we talk about how much detail you need prepared to run a game. How detailed should my NPCs be? How much time should I spend creating locations? Do I need an ending to ...
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How To Make Your Games Standout from 2021-08-25T16:00
In today's episode we talk about how to make your games standout from one another. How do I keep things fresh? Why would I want to change what I do best? What are some other conflicts I ...
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Checking In With Players from 2021-08-18T12:00
In today's episode we talk about checking in with your players in your game. How to I read feedback visually? How should I approach for feedback? How can I change direction if I notice p...
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Expanding Social Roleplaying from 2021-08-11T12:00
In today's episode we talk about how to expand social roleplaying in a game. Do I require my players roleplay out all social scenes? How do I incorporate my characters social benefits int...
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Handling Problems In A Game As A Player from 2021-08-04T14:00
In today's episode we talk about how to address problems as a player in a game. What are some of the problems we may face as players in the game? How do we approach each problem? What if...
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Level Up Your Playing from 2021-07-28T14:00
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...
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Player Communication In Character Development from 2021-07-21T15:00
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? Wh...
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Experience Systems from 2021-07-14T13:00
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 sy...
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Salvaging A Game Headed South from 2021-07-07T14:00
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 ...
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Critical Failures from 2021-06-30T14:00
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 ...
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Recurring Bad Guys from 2021-06-24T13:00
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 p...
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You Probably Shouldn't Do That Again from 2021-06-16T15:00
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 ...
Eliciting Emotions In Games from 2021-06-09T14:00
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 scen...
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Improving Your Dungeons from 2021-05-26T13:00
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...
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Revisit Into Music And Sound In Games from 2021-05-19T14:00
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 ...
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Improving Mass Combat from 2021-05-12T15:00
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? H...
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Say Yes Or Roll from 2021-05-05T13:00
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 en...
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Handling Character Deaths from 2021-04-28T13:00
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 th...
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Carrot And The Stick from 2021-04-21T16:00
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? ...
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Stonewalling Your Players from 2021-04-14T13:00
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? ...
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Setting Difficulty from 2021-04-07T15:00
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...
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Deep Dive Into The World Of Darkness: Werewolf The Apocalypse from 2021-03-31T13:00
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 W...
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Telling A Connected Game from 2021-03-24T13:00
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 or...
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Character Classes And Being Stuck In A Lane from 2021-03-17T14:00
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 spec...
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Session Zero from 2021-03-10T13:00
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 characte...
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Random Events from 2021-03-03T10:00
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 ...
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Gaming Online And Adding Technology To Game Presentation from 2021-02-24T13:00
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 i...
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Improving Your Locations To Make Them More Meaningful from 2021-02-17T15:00
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...
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Pregen Characters And Motivations from 2021-02-10T12:00
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 ...
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When Players Miss A Session from 2021-02-03T14:00
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 ho...
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Why We Cheat As GMs from 2021-01-27T13:00
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 al...
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Your Next Game After A Long Campaign from 2021-01-13T14:00
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 fin...
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How To Build A Long Campaign from 2021-01-06T12:00
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...
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The Epic Final Battle And The Epilogue from 2020-12-30T13:00
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?...
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Game Concepts And Group Sizes from 2020-12-23T13:00
In today's episode we talk about different game concepts and group sizes. Which concepts work better for large groups? Which ones work better for small groups? Is there anything I should...
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Our Evolution As Storytellers from 2020-12-16T14:00
In today's episode we talk about our evolution as storytellers. Where did we start telling stories? How have we changed as storytellers? What different things did you try? What worked b...
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When Players Leave The Table from 2020-12-09T15:00
In today's episode we talk about how to handle players leaving your table. What shouldn't I do? What are some techniques for handling this? Can I avoid awkward moments when the play...
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Improving Your Side Stories And Encounters from 2020-12-02T15:00
In today's episode we talk about improving your side stories and encounters. How do I make an encounter more meaningful? How do I add flavor to my side stories? How do I keep my players ...
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Player Agency And The Illusion Of Choice from 2020-11-25T13:00
In today's episode we talk about player agency and player choice. What do I do when my players don't want to follow my story? How do I handle players making different choices than I ...
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Creating Your Own Monster from 2020-11-18T15:00
In today's episode we talk about creating your own monsters. Where to I start when I create my monster? What should it look like? How should it act? How much detail do I need on where i...
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Rules Lawyers And Order In The Court from 2020-11-11T14:00
In today's episode we talk about Rules Lawyers. How do I handle my Rules Lawyer? Should I dismiss them outright? When are they useful? What if I have multiple Rules Lawyers? How do I r...
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Player Backgrounds And Player Motivations from 2020-11-04T15:00
In today's episode we talk about player backgrounds and motivations. Should I care about player backgrounds? What are the purpose of player backgrounds? How do I use my players motivatio...
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Tactical Play VS Non Tactical Play from 2020-10-28T14:00
In today's episode we talk about tactical play vs non tactical play. How do I do more tactical play in my game? What are the benefits to a more tactical game? When should I scale back th...
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Making Your Players Center Stage from 2020-10-21T14:00
In today's episode we talk about putting the spotlight on your players. How do I create moments for each of my players? Should I focus on skills, class, or what the character likes? How ...
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Telling A Mystery from 2020-10-14T12:00
In today's episode we talk about telling a mystery in a game. How do I leave clues for my players? What if my players miss clues? How do I get my players to move on the evidence? What if...
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The One Shot Game from 2020-10-07T15:00
In today's episode we talk about the one shot game. How do I tackle running a game like this? Why would I want to run a one shot game? Should I use pregens or have my players make charac...
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Running Your First Game from 2020-09-30T16:00
In today's episode we talk about running your first game. How do I manage my time with the players? What type of story should I tell? How long should the game be? We answer all these qu...
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When Players Don't Fit In Your Game from 2020-09-23T16:00
In today's episode we talk about the difficult subject of what to do when players don't fit in at the table. Is this a player problem or a character choice problem? Can this be rectif...
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Bringing New Players Into Your Games from 2020-09-16T14:00
In today's episode we talk about adding new players to your table. How do you insert them into an existing story? What do I do with an experienced player? What do I do with a new player? ...
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Incorporating Social Play Into Your Games from 2020-09-09T13:00
In today's episode we talk about adding social elements and encounters into your games. How do you let your diplomat shine? How do you prevent a power gamer from ruining their experience?...
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Interview with The Dungeon Masters Dojo from 2020-09-02T08:00
In today's episode we change up the format and conduct our first interview with a group of guys from The Dungeon Masters Dojo podcast. Luis, Scott, and Bill have been gaming for 30 plus ye...
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Miscellaneous Accounting: Equipment and Others from 2020-08-26T14:00
In today's episode we talk about your players equipment, supplies, and money. How do you keep track of all those things as a GM? How do you make those items scarce and prevent players fro...
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Episode 30: Helping Your Players When They Are Lost from 2020-08-19T16:00
In today's episode we talk about helping your players out when they lose their way. How obvious should I be? When do my players need help? What are some techniques for helping them out? ...
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Episode 29: Adding That Something Special To Your Game from 2020-08-12T16:00
In today's episode we discuss adding adding a special element to a well crafted game to take it from a good game to a great game. How do you pack an emotional punch that will leave your pl...
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Episode 28: Creating A Collaborative Universe Part 2 from 2020-07-23T13:00
In today's episode we continue our discussion from last week on collaborative universe building. This episode is more focused on the tools we use to execute the collaborative world buildin...
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Episode 27: Creating A Collaborative Universe Part 1 from 2020-07-15T14:00
Today we discuss creating a collaborative universe. This episode is more about the theory and definition of what collaborative universe building is. How do you trust that the other GM's i...
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Episode 26: Episodic Storytelling from 2020-07-08T14:00
In today's episode we talk about Episodic Storytelling. What is Episodic Storytelling? What are the benefits of running a game like this? Shouldn't a game be an epic chronicle? How...
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Episode 25: Cheating In Games from 2020-07-02T12:00
In this episode we discuss players cheating in games. Why would someone want to cheat in a tabletop game? What should you do about it? What types of cheating are common to see in games? We a...
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Episode 24: Table Talk And What To Consider from 2020-06-24T15:00
Today we discuss player table talk and what you should admit or ignore as a GM. We boil it down to two pretty simple rules and it gets us going on some interesting tangents. This episode event...
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Episode 23: Splitting The Party VS Group Play from 2020-06-10T16:00
In today's episode we discuss splitting your party vs group play. How do you handle the group once they've split up? How can you avoid metagaming? Why might you encourage this type ...
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Episode 22: Ending A Game from 2020-06-04T08:00
Today we discuss ending your game. Why is an ending important? What if I'm doing a short game or a one shot? What if the game wasn't very successful to begin with? How do I create ...
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Episode 21: Writer's Block from 2020-05-27T15:00
Today we talk about GM Writer's Block. How do you get past writer's block? Should you shelve the game you are working on or muscle through it. We'll discuss several techniques ...
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Episode 20: Sandbox Games from 2020-05-20T15:00
In this episode we dive into the Sandbox Game. How do you run a sandbox game? How do you do a story in a sandbox game? What happens if my players zig when I want them to zag? How do I end th...
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Episode 19: Impactful NPCs from 2020-05-13T16:00
Today we discuss impactful NPCs in your games. What details do I need to know about the NPC? How do you give them more life? How do you add them to the group? How can you make players care ...
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Episode 18: How To Do Horror In Games from 2020-05-06T15:00
In this episode we dive into how to do horror in your games or incorporate scary scenes. How do you put players in scary situations? How do you make your monster scary? How can you use atmosp...
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Episode 17: Deep Dive On Player Types: Specialist And Power Gamer from 2020-04-29T15:00
In this episode we dive into two specific player types from Robin's Law, The Specialist and The Power Gamer. We look at what makes these two types tick and how they meld together well. Ho...
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Episode 16: Time In Games from 2020-04-22T14:00
Today we talk about time in games. How do you manipulate time and manage it in game? How can you move the passage of time without breaking immersion. How do you merge two time streams that ar...
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Episode 15: Metagaming from 2020-04-15T15:00
In this episode we talk about your players and when they metagame. How do you handle your players when they are metagaming? Do you allow any metagaming at the table? What if you just let it c...
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Episode 14: House Rules from 2020-04-09T11:00
Today we discuss house rules in games and the differences between spoken and unspoken rules. How do these rules come into play? Doesn't the core game have everything you need? How do you...
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Episode 13: Quarantine Episode from 2020-04-01T15:00
Given the global crisis we felt it important to talk about how you can continue gaming with your group via online tools. We discuss what you should set up and tools we've used over the yea...
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Episode 12: Consequences In A Game from 2020-03-25T16:00
In this episode we talk about consequences for your players in game. How should you use consequences? How harsh should they be? What's the point of having consequences? We answer all the...
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Episode 11: Heroes And Villains from 2020-03-18T18:00
Today we talk about playing heroes and villains in games. We discuss some pros and cons of playing each type in games. What are the challenges we face with playing villains? Why is it so rewar...
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Episode 10: You Probably Shouldn't Do That from 2020-03-11T13:00
In this episode we talk about 9 things we think you should avoid when running a game. We've done them and found they just don't work very well when it comes to running a game. Jared ...
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Episode 9: Controlling Your Table from 2020-03-04T14:00
Today we talk about the important task of controlling your table. You are the host to those who join your games and it's important to ensure everyone is engaged in the game. We talk about...
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Episode 8: Music And Atmosphere In Games from 2020-02-26T16:00
In this episode we discuss how to set a tone using music in your games. We discuss how to spice up a combat or pack that emotional punch with a sad song. How do you make a scary scene even mor...
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Episode 7: Improving Your Combat from 2020-02-19T17:00
In this episode we discuss how to add more description and flavor into your combats. What happens when you swing and miss the enemy? How should they react when they take damage? How do you scal...
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Episode 6: Planning A Game v2 from 2020-02-12T17:00
This is a continuation of our previous episode, Planning A Game v1. We dive deeper into the win loss conditions mentioned in the previous episode and give some more background as to why it&apos...
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Episode 5: Planning A Game v1 from 2020-02-05T15:00
How much time should I put into planning my game? What do I need to have ready before my first night of game? How should I design my game? These are just some of the questions that we answer i...
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Episode 4: Best Laid Plans from 2020-01-29T15:00
In this episode we talk about what happens when your plans for your game go off the rails. Your players decide to go left when you want them to go right and are screwing everything up. Not to ...
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Episode 3: Building A Better Villain from 2020-01-23T05:00
Aaron & Jared talk about how to build a better villain in your games. What motivates the individual and how to you give more life to your villain to impress your players. We talk about the...
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Episode 2: KYP (Know Your Players) from 2020-01-15T08:00
On today's episode we talk about knowing your players and how that makes for developing better games around their play style. We do get a little off topic but we cover the important "...
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Introduction from 2020-01-08T09:00
Just a little about your hosts, Aaron and Jared. We talk about how we got into gaming and how long we've been doing the hobby. If you'd like to get right into content please see Epis...
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Episode 1: The Gathering from 2020-01-08T09:00
In our first podcast we talk about one of the most crucial parts of starting a good game, The Gathering. We discuss different types of gatherings and their effectiveness in engaging your player...
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Introduction from 2020-01-08T09:00
Just a little about your hosts, Aaron and Jared. We talk about how we got into gaming and how long we've been doing the hobby. If you'd like to get right into content please see Epis...
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Introduction from 2020-01-08T09:00
Just a little about your hosts, Aaron and Jared. We talk about how we got into gaming and how long we've been doing the hobby. If you'd like to get right into content please see Epis...
Listen