THAC0 with Advantage

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, the last time we made a Survival check, we followed the tracks back to D&D. Dungeons & Dragons has established the three tiers of the game as combat, roleplaying, and exploration, and while the definition of these three tiers is native to Dungeons & Dragons, it's easy to see and apply the concepts to other fantasy RPGs. We’ve taken a look at roleplaying and combat, and now we’re going to dive into exploration. What does the exploration tier encompass, how much does it interact with the rules of the game, and what do we need to do to make exploration in the game meaningful.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, the last time we made a Survival check, we followed the tracks back to D&D. Dungeons & Dragons has established the three tiers of the game as combat, roleplaying, and exploration, and while the definition of these three tiers is native to Dungeons & Dragons, it's easy to see and apply the concepts to other fantasy RPGs. We’ve taken a look at roleplaying and combat, and now we’re going to dive into exploration. What does the exploration tier encompass, how much does it interact with the rules of the game, and what do we need to do to make exploration in the game meaningful.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is readying its action to cast hold person on us if we try to leave. Sometimes no matter how much talking you do eventually you end up in a fight. It can be exciting to do big amounts of damage or to barely survive due to your low hit points, but sometimes the numbers game just isn’t as compelling as it could be. That’s why we’re looking at ways of making your D&D and other fantasy gaming combats more exciting and varied.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D gives us permission to be social with people we don’t already know! What are the rules for social interactions? We’re not talking about personal space and active listening skills, we’re talking about the rules in fantasy roleplaying games that govern our interactions with other characters. What are some best practices for those scenes where our characters keep their weapons sheathed and try to flex their soft skills? That’s what we’re looking at in today’s episode.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D gives us puppy dog eyes from our bookshelves if we don’t pick it up and play it once in a while.  In the past we’ve looked at the history of D&D and how it has interacted with diversity and representation, as well as why its important to be mindful of this topic. This time, we’re revisiting the topic, but from a slightly different angle. We want to talk about why its not just the right thing to do, its the smart thing to do when it comes to running a better game. We’re going to look at the benefits of good representation in your fantasy campaigns.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is the game always stocked in our pantry at home. Whether its at a convention, when you want a change of pace from your regular campaign, or you want to introduce new players to a fantasy RPG, compelling one shots can be an important tool for you to have at your disposal. We’re revisiting the topic of one shot games, put them in context of the history of RPGs, and give you some tools for making them work for you at your table.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D changes over time when we’re not looking. When your NPCs has personalities and goals, it can make your world feel more dynamic. But what happens when that NPC depth remains static over a campaign that spans years? How can we advance our NPCs so that they’re not just two-dimensional, but they actually travel through the fourth dimension. Today on the show we’re going to look at how and why to change your campaign NPCs over time.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D has the lucky number that keeps coming up. Have you ever heard someone explain to a new player that the great thing about RPGs is that you can do anything you want? Have you ever thought about what that really means, and if it's actually true? How do you create a space where everyone can share their imaginative choices, where everyone’s imaginations live in the same space? We’re going to look at the limits of player agency in today’s episode.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D convinced us that if we get high enough level, we’ll start attracting followers Sometimes your worried that any wrong move will get your character killed. Sometimes you feel like you’re so powerful, only the big bad is going to be a challenge. But there’s a magical spot in the middle, where you feel challenged, but also badass. We’re going to look at why those middle levels of D&D feel like the sweet spot, and maybe if we look hard enough, we can figure out how to bring some of that tier 2 magic to either side of that sweet spot.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D grants us XP for doing the show. When should your players level up their characters? Beyond gold and magic items, advancing a character can be the greatest reward in fantasy gaming. Traditionally that meant tracking and awarding XP, but increasingly, RPGs, including D&D, are embracing the concept of tracking advancement in other ways. Is there still a place for XP, and why might it still be a good system for your table? We’ll explore that in today’s episode.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, we’re still processing our game notes It's natural for a GM to wonder if what they presented in the last game session is what their players wanted. Did that section that you spent hours outlining provide the response you were hoping? Is the secret mastermind going to be rewarding for the PCs to uncover? What if I asked for too many ability checks? What if I forgot to ask for the ability checks that one player just put all of their effort into increasing? In today’s episode, we’re going to look at gathering feedback and putting that feedback into action in our games.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D can still be unpredictable. We all know the fantasy archetypes that spring from fantasy RPGs. The naïve but steadfast paladin, the stoic ranger who relates better to animals than people, the arrogant wizard that looks down on anyone less intelligent than they are. But we also know people that intentionally play against those archetypes. The hard drinking hedonistic paladin of the goddess of love, the ranger that has friends in every tavern in every city along the Sword Coast, the wizard that loves teaching and explaining new things to others. Today we’re going to look at playing against type, why you may want to do it, and how sometimes it can be very similar to playing a rigid archetype.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D still isn’t on its last breath. Only two things in life are certain. Death and Taxes. Or in D&D, Death Saves and Upkeep rules. In this episode, we’re going to look at character death. How should you handle it? Can you run a game without it? How does it affect the stakes of your game? What does it mean to have a meaningful death in the game? We’re going to teeter on the boundary between life and death today in this episode of THAC0 w/ Advantage.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is a spawn point for new players. On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about zero level humans. But in this case, we me people that haven’t played D&D before. We’ve talked about new players before, but what about specific techniques? How do you introduce concepts in bit sized chunks that will go down easy? We’re going to talk about setting up your D&D sessions with new players by looking at video game tutorials in today’s episode.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends who have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D collects stray fantasy elements the way English accumulates unrelated words.  The lore of D&D was pieced together from a ton of fantasy and folklore. But what if you took that approach to the mechanics and procedures of your game? What can you steal from Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark games that will help you run your D&D games, or any other fantasy RPG? We’re going to podcast to find out.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends who have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D collects stray fantasy elements the way English accumulates unrelated words.  The lore of D&D was pieced together from a ton of fantasy and folklore. But what if you took that approach to the mechanics and procedures of your game? What can you steal from Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark games that will help you run your D&D games, or any other fantasy RPG? We’re going to podcast to find out.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is our computer’s eternal desktop theme. Once again, we’ve rolled high enough to have an encounter, and this time we’re going to talk about what goes into making a thematic encounter. How do you tailor your encounters to fit the theme of your campaign and communicate the wider story you want to work toward? We’re going to look at the building blocks that go into creating thematic encounters. The Mind Flayer first showed up in TSR’s Strategic Review publication, the precursor to Dragon Magazine, in 1975. If you had a really low intelligence, their mind blast would kill you outright, and if you had a really high intelligence, you risked permanent insanity, so its best to be just kind of mediocre around a mind flayer. In the Ecology of the Mind Flayer in Dragon Magazine #78, in 1983, Mind Flayer’s alternate name, Illithid, courtesy of a Githyanki hired to provide information on them. Apparently Illithids aren’t willing to eat the brains of lycanthropes or Grimlocks. So the safest person to interact with a mind flayer is a Grimlock wererat with average intelligence. I wonder if there’s a Baldur’s Gate III mod to add one into the game.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D cast Guards and Wards and it makes it really hard to leave. Now that we’ve talked about what living in a dungeon is like, this time around we’re going to look at how to design a dungeon that doesn’t eat up your life for months at a time. We’re going to look at five room dungeons, and how to use them in your games. Make those rooms count. Saving Throw categories have changed a bit over time in D&D. Instead of saves based on ability scores, the saving throw categories were obviously logical Death Rays and Poison, Wands, Turn to Stone, Dragon’s Breath, and Spells and Staffs. This certainly didn’t lead to long discussions at the table about what happens if a wand casts a spell, or a spell creates a death ray, or a dragon’s breath causes petrification. Thank goodness we never get confused of what saves are logical now.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D gives us a closed set of places to explore. What is a dungeon? Well, that depends on what kind of podcast you’re listening to. But since this is D&D, a dungeon is a closed location with a limited set of options to explore, usually containing traps and monsters. We’re going to look at how dungeons function, and how far you can push that suspension of disbelief when beholders, a dragon, some kobolds, and a whole mess of grimlocks share the same address.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D has regeneration and we forgot to use fire. We’ve talked about making sure you use iconic elements of epic fantasy in your games, going big so that your players will get what they want from the kind of game they signed up for. Today we’re going to talk about doing that early in the campaign. How do you introduce those big iconic elements of epic fantasy without overwhelming or annihilating new player characters just starting their career?

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, someone told us that if we stuck with D&D everything would turn out okay. We're talking about news in this non evergreen episode. We hit Perkins and Crawford going to Darrington Press, Daggerheart in general, some state of the industry stuff, and the laying off of Todd Kenreck. Heck, we missed Ivan Van Norman leaving Darrington Press, Jess Lanzillo leaving Wizards of the Coast, Daggerheart selling out their second printing of the core game, the leaked video of the cancelled DnD video game, and the Horrified D&D board game coming out soon.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, someone told us that if we stuck with D&D everything would turn out okay. Once upon a time, one of the greatest sins you could commit was to perpetrate the iniquity of metagaming. Thou shalt not act on information you know, but your character wouldn’t. But is that always a bad thing? Why do we assume that every time we act on information our players don’t have, that we would do it in a way that would be detrimental to the game? We’re going to look at metagaming and why you may not need to be banished to the depths of Nesus for participating in the activity.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D wants us to justify all those dice we bought by rolling them at the table. We’ve talked about how being a better player can be just as important to a good game as being a better DM, but what about combining both of those concepts? How important is it for a DM to understand the player experience, and what can they learn from being on the colorful side of the screen? We’re going to talk about the benefits of being a player on your DMing skills in today’s episode.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D’s second edition mining rules has us digging for player input. Some modern RPG discourse has framed RPGs as a writer’s room, with the PCs being the primary contributor to their character’s story in the collaborative scheme of things. But what if your “writer’s” have broader ideas for the story beyond just the character that they shepherd in the narrative? How can you collect player feedback and input, and how do you incorporate it into your campaigns? We’ll be looking at that in today’s episode.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, but D&D is having us execute Episode 66. Have you ever had the perfect idea for your campaign, but by the time you made it to a notebook or a computer, you completely forgot what it was? Where do ideas for campaigns come from, and how do we capture them? How do we put the ideas we have into game terms and make them sing for our players? We’re going to look at that today on THAC0 with Advantage.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D knows where we’ve buried the bodies. Sometimes you run the entire night with the assumption that a spell works the way it did from two editions ago, and some poor PCs pay the price. Sometimes the player characters spend three hours exploring something based on what they thought you said, instead of what you actually said. Or maybe what you actually said, instead of what you meant to say. We’re going to talk about mistakes at the table, what they look like, and how to roll with them.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, we keep needing to hit the reset button to get another chance to conquer D&D. Not every fantasy adventure story ends with a big fight, but many of them do. During major conflicts, it’s typical for fantasy heroes to face a singular embodiment of their antagonists: a dragon, demon lord, lich, or a conceptual representation (thanks JRPGs). We’re going to talk about what makes a boss battle interesting and challenging and explore ways to use the concept in your games.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D still encourages us to spend our currencies. Multiple classes have resources they can use, but what happens when you want to manipulate the narrative outside of what your character can do? What happens when you’re running a game, and your combat just isn’t unfolding in a satisfying manner, but you don’t quite want to rebuild an encounter on the fly. That’s where metacurrencies can come in handy.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D has too many fiddly bits to leave it alone. What happens when you want just a little bit more game material to fit in between two other scenes you’ve already got in mind for your game? What can you do if you can only snag half the time you usually have for your regular game night? What if you have a great idea for a scene, but it doesn’t fit into what you’re doing right now? We’re going to look at modular encounters, building blocks you can store and pull out when you have just the right place to put them.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends who have been playing D&D for a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D keeps us trying to find new ways to start over again. We’ve talked about starting campaigns from the perspective of setting expectations, getting buy-in, and incorporating information from your session zero, but what about one step beyond that? What does the actual beginning of the campaign look like, and how can you frame your beginnings in new and different ways? That’s what we’re going to look at today on the show.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends who have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D has taught us to fill empty voids with creative material It has become almost standard for gamemaster guides to discuss player types. It's important to identify what your players want from the game and how to balance the expectations of the table. But how many people fit into these categories? Can you mix and match player types in the same individual? Is someone always the same player type? That’s what we’re going to look at today.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends who have been playing D&D for a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is a funhouse that has a mind of its own. Have you ever had that feeling that you just walked into a dangerous area, where at any moment, something bad could happen, you just don’t know what? We’re going to be talking about mechanizing that feeling for your D&D campaigns with lair actions. This episode will start playing on initiative count 20, losing initiative ties!

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends who have been playing D&D for a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D  This past year was a busy, chaotic thing, even if you just look at RPG gaming. Today’s episode will look at what fantasy gaming looked like over this past year, both in the broader industry and in all our gaming groups. We’re set to recap 2024 in fantasy gaming, and talk a little about 2025.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends who have been playing D&D for a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D keeps us company on the long roads we travel. Sometimes, when an adventuring party loves an NPC very much, they start traveling together and setting common goals. We’re going to talk about the companion characters, those NPCs with their own goals and sidequests, that we love from CRPGs, why you might want them in your campaign, why you might not, and how to make a standard NPC feel like a companion character.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends who have been playing D&D for a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D keeps us company on the long roads we travel. Sometimes, when an adventuring party loves an NPC very much, they start traveling together and setting common goals. We’re going to talk about the companion characters, those NPCs with their own goals and sidequests, that we love from CRPGs, why you might want them in your campaign, why you might not, and how to make a standard NPC feel like a companion character.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

The Heroes of Hovel's Way is an epic fantasy story about two young heroes, Odie and Eremon. These heroes have the potential to deal with a dire threat from an ancient time that is poised to return to the world. A titan destroyer, Valhalmorris the Mountain Strangler, stirs. The fate of the Barony of Kastakin may be in their hands. We play the game to find out. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D. A few episodes ago, we talked a little about homebrewing and setting building, but much of that was hypothetical. This week, We’re getting practical by talking to Chris about his homebrew ideas and how he’s used them in our play, The Heroes of Hovel’s Way. We’ve custom-crafted a new episode just for you.