2020: A Year in the TTRPG Lab

In March of 2020, we were getting ready to record our first episode of this podcast. We all got together in our planned recording space and cut the trailer. … Then COVID happened, and that entire plan went into the garbage along with concerts, vacations and sending kids to school. But as the year went on and we figured out online gaming and recording, the podcast and our games took off.2020 was an “interesting” year for everyone. But if you had access to a computer and some friends, it was a pretty great time to be gaming online. For a lot of us, it was our first time playing on virtual tabletops, and that blossomed into more gaming than we’ve ever done before.For some people, 2020 was a quarantine lockdown. For us, it was a year in the lab doing intensive DMing and podcasting. Here’s how it went, what we learned and our resolutions for gaming in 2021.2:00 How COVID almost derailed 3 Wise DMS but wound up letting us do more gaming than ever8:00 2020 as Dave’s intensive DM workshop12:00 Holiday one-shot games became our personal TV holiday specials·        Dressing up as the Avengers for Halloween·        Rescuing Kidnapped elves from Evil Frosty and his Krampus minions·        A Very Marvel Christmas Carol·        Spending a Barovian Yule in Charlie Manx’s Christmasland from NOS4A2·        Tips to come up with good magic items gifts on the fly·        Curse of Strahd tip: An off-brand vampire encounter lets you scout how the party might fight Strahd34:00 Lessons of 2021: Mix theater-of-the-mind combat with battle maps to speed up the game38:00 Resolving to use more splash images and fewer maps (and tips for finding them)44:00 Getting players to ask the right questions and look for clues (and how Call of Cthulhu can help)51:00 Our 7 most memorable gaming moments of 202058:00 The 8 most important lessons we learned in 2020·        Get more player buy-in with a session 0·        Have players make their characters together so they already know each other·        Better table communication·        Drop more clues and don’t be afraid to point out options the party isn’t seeing·        Sometimes your story-heavy campaign needs a one-shot palette cleanser·        One of us LOVES running published WotC adventures·        We’re not afraid to go beyond module level-limits·        Play in more games to be a better DM (and maybe watch some live play streams)67:00 Honorable mentions and superlatives: Who does what best in our games70:00 Why we want to play more games and more game systems in 202174:00 Curse of Strahd vs. Castle Ravenloft and older versions80:00 Tony’s version of Storm King’s Thunder, with a Gummi ship84:00 Lesson: How does a Vampire’s charm work, anyway?90:00 Final thoughts and 2021 gaming resolutions