PODCAST · leisure
The GM's Guide
by Dan Felder
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.
Episodes
-
Trail of the Behmoth is Out!
Check out Trail of the Behemoth 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.
-
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,...
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.…
more -
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).
-
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. Link to the adventure notes: Cold-Blooded
-
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.
-
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…
more -
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
-
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.
-
GM's Guide 36 - LIch-Disney Magic
Part 2 of our epic Disney World adventure.
-
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.
-
GM's Guide 33 - The Most Common Mistake
The most common mistake GM's and adventure designer's make, and how to avoid it.
-
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…
more -
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.
-
GM's Guide 29 - More Worldbuilding with Mark
Part 2 of the great conversation with the creator of Primordia about world-building.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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....
-
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...
-
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...
-
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.
-
GM's Guide 22 - Gothic Horror and Hallowed Ground
We start creating the foundation of Ravenshadow's world and design a way to get the most out of our player's characters.
-
The GM's Guide 21 - Michael Bay D&D
The beginning of my richest stories was within the ashes of transformers style action.
-
The GM's Guide 20 - Building a New World
It's time to play god.
-
The GM's Guide 19 - Bringing your World to Life
We all have worlds we love. Let's make them feel as real as possible.
-
The GM's Guide 18 - The Great Debate about PCs
"Why would anyone play a human fighter?" "Why would anyone ever play anything else?"
-
The GM's Guide 17 - Dan Makes an Adventure
Dan designs an adventure from scratch live on the podcast.
-
The GM's Guide 16 - Villainous Practices
Tips and tricks and example villains.
-
The GM"s Guide 15 - Creating Great Villains
Three principles go into making a great villain for a heroic campaign.
-
The GM's Guide 14 - Traps I've Made
Here's a bunch of traps I've made and run for my players. Feel free to introduce them to your own players.
-
The GM's Guide 13 - Puzzles and Traps
Traps have a huge history in RPGs and they're a MOUNTAIN of missed opportunity.
-
The GM's Guide 12 - Adventure Deep Dive
Dan takes apart some of his adventures to show how they work. It's also an example for how Climactic Event Structure and Four Act Adventure Structure work in practice. Feel free to take any of these ideas for your home games.
-
The GM's Guide 11 - Dungeon Design
When new GM's ask me for advice on how to build a great dungeon, this is the foundation of it all.
-
The GM's Guide 10 - Four-Act Adventures
When new GM's ask me how to create great adventures, this is what I go through first. No, it's not the hero's journey.
-
The GM's Guide 9 - Story Structure
We're back! Story Structure is one of my favorite topics and I've spent more time studying it than probably anything else. If there's anything I can give to new GM's to help them set up great adventures, it's this basic Story Event Structure.
-
The GM's Guide 8 - High Difficulty, The Epic Finale!
It's The GM's Guide's Christmas gift: The third and final installment of the epic difficulty trilogy! Today we dig into the secret of weaving in the benefits of high difficulty adventure design into any campaign, while sidestepping the problems that sometimes pop up. We also answer some listener...
-
The GM's Guide 7 - High Difficulty is Still Awesome
One podcast wasn't enough. Today we dig further into why High Difficulty is the sonic screwdriver of rpg adventure design and how to implement it successfully into a campaign.
-
The GM's Guide 6 - Why High Difficulty is Awesome
High Difficulty is the sonic screwdriver of RPG design. While not technically necessary, it does SO many things, comes with SO many advantages to make your games extremely difficult that I can barely imagine a running a game without it.
-
The GM's Guide 5 - Environment of a Battle
Don't set your encounter in an empty box.
-
The GM's Guide 4 - Combat Encounters
Why does D&D's own Creative Manager include "Throw out what the rulebooks say about building encounters" in his advice to new DMs? Because the rulebooks have been leading us wrong for years. Tune in to find out how you can shake things up and make your players scream. Whether it's in delight or...
-
The GM's Guide 3 - Creating Awesome NPCs
DMs have to create tons of characters to fill their world. Here's how to make them interesting and memorable.
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
Dan Felder
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The GM's Guide have?
The GM's Guide currently has 52 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The GM's Guide about?
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.
How often does The GM's Guide release new episodes?
The GM's Guide has 52 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The GM's Guide?
You can listen to The GM's Guide on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The GM's Guide?
The GM's Guide is created and hosted by Dan Felder.
URL copied to clipboard!