Inside the GM Studio cover art

All Episodes

Inside the GM Studio — 280 episodes

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Title
1

Rival or Villain

2

Side Quest-ion: NPC Actions

3

Lore and History

4

Keeping up the Tension

5

There's More Than Death

6

Side Quest-ion: Push the Rules Aside

7

Phandelver Emails

8

Side Quest-ion: What Books to Read and How to Read Them

9

Actual Plays

10

Mounted Combat

11

When Players Leave

12

What's Your Fantasy?

13

Religions, Dietys, and Theocracies

14

Side Quest-ion: Is He Being Derailed?

15

Rests and Downtime

16

Side Quest-ion: How to Lie

17

Listener Emails

18

Side Quest-ion: Pulling Rank as a GM?

19

Why Medieval Fantasy

20

Side Quest-ion: Do you Have a Tail in Low Fantasy?

21

Side Quest-ion: Be a Better Story Teller

22

Table Horror Stories

23

XP and Progression

24

Side Quest-ion: Another Adventure in the Sandbox?

25

Feats are Better than Subclasses

26

2025 Year in Review

27

Side Quest-ion: Working the GM Muscle

28

Initiative, Which Fits Best for You?

29

Side Quest-ion: Expecting the Power Gamer

30

Side Quest-ion: Framing a Faction

31

Do We Really Need A GM?

32

Does Multiclassing Suck?!?!?!

33

Side Quest-ion: Making a Module for the PCs

34

Cultures of Play

35

Side Quest-ion: Cyberpunk Bad?!?!?!?

36

GM Tools

37

Side Quest-ion: Don't Let the Players Know

38

GM Myths

39

Side Quest-ion: OSR Love

40

Designing Your Dungeon Crawl

41

Side Quest-ion: RP in Combat

42

Writing for a PC

43

Side Quest-ion: PCs Loosing Memories

44

Our GM Mistakes

45

Games for Daves

46

Side Quest-ion: Prophesy?

47

Yes And... With Dice?

48

Side Quest-ion: What Should be Asked?

49

It's All About Timing

50

Side Quest-ion: Raw vs Rai

51

Get to Know David

52

Side Quest-ion: What Makes Horror Really Scary?

53

Inside the GM Workshop

54

Forging Character Relationships

55

Side Quest-ion: Stealth is Unfair?

56

Inside the Character Studio

57

Side Quest-ion: Long Intro

58

All Day Gaming

59

Side Quest-ion: Main Campaign Getaway

60

Tier Lists

61

Side Quest-ion: Ambushing Player Agency

62

The Differences of Story and Plot

63

Side Quest-ion: Notes and Story

64

What We Miss Through the Editions

65

Side Quest: How to Murder Mystery

66

Our Favorite Mechanics and Homebrews

67

Choose Your Own Adventure Games

68

Side Question: Speed Up Combat

69

Homebrew and Player Agency

70

Side Quest: How to Start a One Shot

71

(Dot) .Dungeon Review

72

Side Quest: Survival Campaign

73

How to Homebrew

74

Side Quest: Ballroom Quiz

75

Rolling with Purpose: Why Mechanics Matter in TTRPGs

76

Side Quest: Don't Give a PC a Kingdom

77

Inner Demons

78

Who are Vampires and What Do They Do?

79

Recaps are the best Icebreakers

80

Side Quest: Should I Let My Players Write Their Own Ending?

81

May the Fourth Special

82

Side Quest: How Important is Theme

83

Introduction of the Main Villain

84

Side Quest: What's Your Process?

85

How to Warlock

86

Side Quest: Fluid Narration

87

Horror Stories, at and between the Table

88

Side Quest: Does Skill of the GM or Mechanics Make the Game?

89

Testing Homebrews and Fleeing the Plot

90

Side Quest: Should I Do This, You May Ask?

91

Skill Challenges

92

Side Quest: Heist Night!

93

Keep That Spark Alive

94

Side Quest: Lost the Magic

95

Aerial, Underwater, and Mounted Combat

96

Side Quest: How to One Shot

97

What Makes the Movie?

98

Side Quest: How to Write My Story

99

News Week

100

Side Quest: Know Your Roll

101

Character Development

102

Side Quest: Wrap it Up

103

Goals and Motivations

104

Side Quest: Is Failing Really That Bad?

105

Cloudbreakers Alliance Review

106

Side Quest: Random Encounters

107

Reusing Adventures

108

Cliches and Avoiding them

109

Side Quest: Players Notes

110

Plot Armor

111

Side Quest-Navigating Character Driven Campaigns

112

What is Storytelling

113

Side Quest: Epilogues

114

2024 Year in Review

115

Side Quest: Our Favorite Dice Mechanics

116

Good Character Deaths

117

Side Quest: Old School Players and the Connection to Their Characters

118

Stormlight Review

119

Side Quest: Speed Up Large Dungeons

120

Bastions? Home?

121

Side Quest: Attacking an Outpost!! How to Run It

122

Espionage...

123

Side Quest: Turn Up the Tension

124

Meta Currencies and OSR's

125

Side Quest: How Many Sessions Should You Plan Ahead?

126

Impromptu Social Scenes

127

Hirelings!!!

128

Side Quest: What Makes a Good Role Playing Game?

129

What Would We Do?

130

Side Quest: Fear and CR Management

131

Rules Over Rulings

132

Side Quest: Too Many Puzzles?

133

Why Do We Love Horror Games?

134

Low Magic Setting!

135

Redemption Arcs

136

Side Quest: Tournaments!

137

TRAPS!!

138

Side Quest: Sentient Weapon

139

We're Back with RPG News

140

Side Quest: Endearing my Villain

141

The Final Fantasy 14 TTRPG Review

142

Side Quest: Adventure on a Global Scale

143

The Darkest Hour

144

Teasing out Flavor from the Players

145

Side Quest: Work those Backstories

146

Dungeons and Drama

147

Community Question: Extending Quests

148

Raising the Stakes of the Story

149

Community Question: Low Magic Settings

150

Define the Stakes

151

New Crafting Rules and the Future of D&D

152

Community Question: Magic Law and Order

153

Fantasy Age System 1st Edition Review

154

Side Quest: Spell Component Shenanigans

155

Plot Devices

156

Community Question: My player can't pick up on plot hooks!!

157

Dilemmas Part 2 and some RPG Horror Stories

158

The Art of Creating Dilemmas for your Players

159

Community Question: NEXT!! How to role play Rank

160

Character Secrets

161

Exposition

162

Community Question: Wrapping Up A Campaign

163

Episode 100!!!!

164

Community Question: Give "ALL" info when casting identify?

165

Tools that could be a Punishment?

166

Community Question: Make the Party Love a New City

167

Ryuutama Review

168

Inside the GM Game Show Special

169

Creating Expansive Lore

170

Community Question: Lack of Feelings

171

Going from short campaigns to longer forms

172

Community Question: Highlights from the Past

173

The Problem with Notes and how to take them effectively

174

Community Question: Players and their Money

175

Power Gamers

176

Community Question: Linear to Sandbox

177

Ups and Downs of Published Adventures

178

Community Question: Long Combats

179

For those First Times

180

Plot Twists!!

181

Daggerheart Beta Review

182

Community Question: Scripting?!?!?!?!

183

The GM Curveball

184

Community Question: Epic Battle Skill Challenge

185

Having GMs at the Table

186

Community Questions: Hard Choices

187

Why we GM

188

Community Question: Travel Options

189

Atmosphere

190

Community Question: Help bring sports into the game

191

Death of NPC’s and the Impact it has

192

Community Question: Player Stress

193

Mail Bag

194

Community Question: Dungeon of the Mind

195

Initiative and the ways to use it

196

Community Question: First Fight Balance

197

Spell Points and Variant Rules

198

Community Question: Players Can't Take it Seriously

199

Dungeon Delves and the Women who love them

200

Fudging the Rolls

201

Our Year in Review!!

202

Running Large Scale Encounters

203

Memorable NPCs

204

Character Intros

205

Managing NPCs

206

Pulling Rank in Play

207

RPGs and Whiskey

208

Designing Homebrew Monsters

209

Rounding out Battle with other mechanics

210

State Your Case: Rules Lite is Better for Combat

211

The Mechanics of Traps

212

Welcome to Mechanics Month

213

Using description to liven up combat encounters

214

State Your Case: Railroading

215

Plot Hooks

216

Players Comeuppance

217

Shoe Leather

218

Incorporating Backstory

219

Setting Tone

220

High Tier Play

221

Creating a Good Villain

222

New and Old GM Mistakes

223

Making a good Ally

224

Plot Point Campaigns

225

House Rules. How and When to Use Them

226

Why we play the roles / classes we play

227

Story Items

228

TPK! TPK! TPK!

229

Teaching the Rules, is there a right way?

230

The new DM, Chris

231

Initiative! What is it good for?

232

Cinematic Descriptions

233

Marvel Superhero Special

234

Difference Between Railroad and Sandbox

235

Troubleshooting an Adventure

236

What we miss about being players

237

Recurring NPC's

238

Dave Makes a Movie

239

Creating a One Shot

240

Rotating Gm's

241

Keeping the Players Invested

242

The Balance of Encounters

243

The Right Reward for the Right Quest

244

Giving Permission

245

Dealing with that "Problem Player"

246

The Spotlight Quest

247

WTF is an OGL?

248

Gritty Realism

249

5 Bad Rules

250

Gifts for Gamers

251

Dave's Quiz

252

Infusing RP into combat encounters

253

Game of the Month

254

Spicing Up Downtime And Travel

255

Minis vs TotM

256

The Rule of Cool

257

All About the Players

258

Halloween Special

259

The “Transfer” between stories. Going from one bad guy to the other.

260

The Importance Of Creating A Character

261

The Most Difficult Things To Balance As A GM

262

Time Management And Moving The Adventure Along

263

Building Party Cohesion

264

Table Etiquette

265

Things You Learn GMing That Make You A Better Player

266

RPG Horror Story's

267

Make the world as alive as the characters

268

How to create scenarios to test the party temperament

269

The Apocalypse!!

270

Heroic Moments and Player Egos

271

We answer your emails

272

So you're new to the hobby

273

Mechanics & Homebrew

274

Player Power

275

All about Notes

276

Episode 5: Spelljammer and other new settings

277

Episode 4: Creating a good villain

278

Episode 3: Creating flavor through challenges

279

Episode 2: New racial modifiers in D&D

280

Episode 1: Cyberpunk