Inside the GM Studio cover art

All Episodes

Inside the GM Studio — 282 episodes

#
Title
1

Side Quest-ion: What do you like about RPG events?

E
2

Familiars, Pets, and Companions

E
3

Rival or Villain

4

Side Quest-ion: NPC Actions

5

Lore and History

6

Keeping up the Tension

7

There's More Than Death

E
8

Side Quest-ion: Push the Rules Aside

E
9

Phandelver Emails

E
10

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

E
11

Actual Plays

E
12

Mounted Combat

E
13

When Players Leave

E
14

What's Your Fantasy?

E
15

Religions, Dietys, and Theocracies

E
16

Side Quest-ion: Is He Being Derailed?

E
17

Rests and Downtime

E
18

Side Quest-ion: How to Lie

E
19

Listener Emails

E
20

Side Quest-ion: Pulling Rank as a GM?

E
21

Why Medieval Fantasy

E
22

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

E
23

Side Quest-ion: Be a Better Story Teller

E
24

Table Horror Stories

E
25

XP and Progression

E
26

Side Quest-ion: Another Adventure in the Sandbox?

E
27

Feats are Better than Subclasses

E
28

2025 Year in Review

E
29

Side Quest-ion: Working the GM Muscle

E
30

Initiative, Which Fits Best for You?

E
31

Side Quest-ion: Expecting the Power Gamer

E
32

Side Quest-ion: Framing a Faction

E
33

Do We Really Need A GM?

E
34

Does Multiclassing Suck?!?!?!

E
35

Side Quest-ion: Making a Module for the PCs

E
36

Cultures of Play

E
37

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

E
38

GM Tools

E
39

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

E
40

GM Myths

E
41

Side Quest-ion: OSR Love

E
42

Designing Your Dungeon Crawl

E
43

Side Quest-ion: RP in Combat

E
44

Writing for a PC

E
45

Side Quest-ion: PCs Loosing Memories

E
46

Our GM Mistakes

E
47

Games for Daves

E
48

Side Quest-ion: Prophesy?

E
49

Yes And... With Dice?

E
50

Side Quest-ion: What Should be Asked?

E
51

It's All About Timing

E
52

Side Quest-ion: Raw vs Rai

E
53

Get to Know David

E
54

Side Quest-ion: What Makes Horror Really Scary?

E
55

Inside the GM Workshop

E
56

Forging Character Relationships

E
57

Side Quest-ion: Stealth is Unfair?

E
58

Inside the Character Studio

E
59

Side Quest-ion: Long Intro

E
60

All Day Gaming

E
61

Side Quest-ion: Main Campaign Getaway

E
62

Tier Lists

E
63

Side Quest-ion: Ambushing Player Agency

E
64

The Differences of Story and Plot

E
65

Side Quest-ion: Notes and Story

E
66

What We Miss Through the Editions

E
67

Side Quest: How to Murder Mystery

E
68

Our Favorite Mechanics and Homebrews

E
69

Choose Your Own Adventure Games

E
70

Side Question: Speed Up Combat

E
71

Homebrew and Player Agency

E
72

Side Quest: How to Start a One Shot

E
73

(Dot) .Dungeon Review

E
74

Side Quest: Survival Campaign

E
75

How to Homebrew

E
76

Side Quest: Ballroom Quiz

E
77

Rolling with Purpose: Why Mechanics Matter in TTRPGs

E
78

Side Quest: Don't Give a PC a Kingdom

E
79

Inner Demons

E
80

Who are Vampires and What Do They Do?

81

Recaps are the best Icebreakers

82

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

83

May the Fourth Special

84

Side Quest: How Important is Theme

85

Introduction of the Main Villain

86

Side Quest: What's Your Process?

87

How to Warlock

88

Side Quest: Fluid Narration

89

Horror Stories, at and between the Table

90

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

91

Testing Homebrews and Fleeing the Plot

92

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

93

Skill Challenges

94

Side Quest: Heist Night!

95

Keep That Spark Alive

96

Side Quest: Lost the Magic

97

Aerial, Underwater, and Mounted Combat

98

Side Quest: How to One Shot

99

What Makes the Movie?

100

Side Quest: How to Write My Story

101

News Week

102

Side Quest: Know Your Roll

103

Character Development

104

Side Quest: Wrap it Up

105

Goals and Motivations

106

Side Quest: Is Failing Really That Bad?

107

Cloudbreakers Alliance Review

108

Side Quest: Random Encounters

109

Reusing Adventures

110

Cliches and Avoiding them

111

Side Quest: Players Notes

112

Plot Armor

113

Side Quest-Navigating Character Driven Campaigns

E
114

What is Storytelling

E
115

Side Quest: Epilogues

E
116

2024 Year in Review

E
117

Side Quest: Our Favorite Dice Mechanics

E
118

Good Character Deaths

E
119

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

E
120

Stormlight Review

E
121

Side Quest: Speed Up Large Dungeons

E
122

Bastions? Home?

E
123

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

E
124

Espionage...

E
125

Side Quest: Turn Up the Tension

E
126

Meta Currencies and OSR's

E
127

Side Quest: How Many Sessions Should You Plan Ahead?

E
128

Impromptu Social Scenes

E
129

Hirelings!!!

E
130

Side Quest: What Makes a Good Role Playing Game?

E
131

What Would We Do?

E
132

Side Quest: Fear and CR Management

E
133

Rules Over Rulings

134

Side Quest: Too Many Puzzles?

E
135

Why Do We Love Horror Games?

E
136

Low Magic Setting!

E
137

Redemption Arcs

E
138

Side Quest: Tournaments!

E
139

TRAPS!!

E
140

Side Quest: Sentient Weapon

E
141

We're Back with RPG News

E
142

Side Quest: Endearing my Villain

E
143

The Final Fantasy 14 TTRPG Review

E
144

Side Quest: Adventure on a Global Scale

E
145

The Darkest Hour

E
146

Teasing out Flavor from the Players

E
147

Side Quest: Work those Backstories

E
148

Dungeons and Drama

E
149

Community Question: Extending Quests

E
150

Raising the Stakes of the Story

E
151

Community Question: Low Magic Settings

E
152

Define the Stakes

E
153

New Crafting Rules and the Future of D&D

E
154

Community Question: Magic Law and Order

E
155

Fantasy Age System 1st Edition Review

E
156

Side Quest: Spell Component Shenanigans

E
157

Plot Devices

E
158

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

E
159

Dilemmas Part 2 and some RPG Horror Stories

E
160

The Art of Creating Dilemmas for your Players

E
161

Community Question: NEXT!! How to role play Rank

E
162

Character Secrets

E
163

Exposition

E
164

Community Question: Wrapping Up A Campaign

E
165

Episode 100!!!!

E
166

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

E
167

Tools that could be a Punishment?

E
168

Community Question: Make the Party Love a New City

E
169

Ryuutama Review

E
170

Inside the GM Game Show Special

E
171

Creating Expansive Lore

E
172

Community Question: Lack of Feelings

E
173

Going from short campaigns to longer forms

E
174

Community Question: Highlights from the Past

E
175

The Problem with Notes and how to take them effectively

E
176

Community Question: Players and their Money

E
177

Power Gamers

E
178

Community Question: Linear to Sandbox

E
179

Ups and Downs of Published Adventures

E
180

Community Question: Long Combats

E
181

For those First Times

E
182

Plot Twists!!

E
183

Daggerheart Beta Review

E
184

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

E
185

The GM Curveball

E
186

Community Question: Epic Battle Skill Challenge

E
187

Having GMs at the Table

E
188

Community Questions: Hard Choices

E
189

Why we GM

E
190

Community Question: Travel Options

E
191

Atmosphere

E
192

Community Question: Help bring sports into the game

E
193

Death of NPC’s and the Impact it has

E
194

Community Question: Player Stress

E
195

Mail Bag

E
196

Community Question: Dungeon of the Mind

E
197

Initiative and the ways to use it

E
198

Community Question: First Fight Balance

E
199

Spell Points and Variant Rules

E
200

Community Question: Players Can't Take it Seriously

E
201

Dungeon Delves and the Women who love them

E
202

Fudging the Rolls

E
203

Our Year in Review!!

E
204

Running Large Scale Encounters

E
205

Memorable NPCs

E
206

Character Intros

E
207

Managing NPCs

E
208

Pulling Rank in Play

E
209

RPGs and Whiskey

E
210

Designing Homebrew Monsters

E
211

Rounding out Battle with other mechanics

E
212

State Your Case: Rules Lite is Better for Combat

E
213

The Mechanics of Traps

E
214

Welcome to Mechanics Month

E
215

Using description to liven up combat encounters

E
216

State Your Case: Railroading

E
217

Plot Hooks

E
218

Players Comeuppance

E
219

Shoe Leather

E
220

Incorporating Backstory

E
221

Setting Tone

E
222

High Tier Play

E
223

Creating a Good Villain

E
224

New and Old GM Mistakes

E
225

Making a good Ally

E
226

Plot Point Campaigns

E
227

House Rules. How and When to Use Them

E
228

Why we play the roles / classes we play

E
229

Story Items

E
230

TPK! TPK! TPK!

E
231

Teaching the Rules, is there a right way?

E
232

The new DM, Chris

E
233

Initiative! What is it good for?

234

Cinematic Descriptions

E
235

Marvel Superhero Special

E
236

Difference Between Railroad and Sandbox

E
237

Troubleshooting an Adventure

E
238

What we miss about being players

239

Recurring NPC's

E
240

Dave Makes a Movie

E
241

Creating a One Shot

E
242

Rotating Gm's

E
243

Keeping the Players Invested

E
244

The Balance of Encounters

E
245

The Right Reward for the Right Quest

E
246

Giving Permission

E
247

Dealing with that "Problem Player"

E
248

The Spotlight Quest

E
249

WTF is an OGL?

E
250

Gritty Realism

E
251

5 Bad Rules

E
252

Gifts for Gamers

E
253

Dave's Quiz

E
254

Infusing RP into combat encounters

E
255

Game of the Month

E
256

Spicing Up Downtime And Travel

E
257

Minis vs TotM

E
258

The Rule of Cool

E
259

All About the Players

E
260

Halloween Special

261

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

E
262

The Importance Of Creating A Character

E
263

The Most Difficult Things To Balance As A GM

E
264

Time Management And Moving The Adventure Along

E
265

Building Party Cohesion

E
266

Table Etiquette

E
267

Things You Learn GMing That Make You A Better Player

E
268

RPG Horror Story's

E
269

Make the world as alive as the characters

E
270

How to create scenarios to test the party temperament

E
271

The Apocalypse!!

E
272

Heroic Moments and Player Egos

E
273

We answer your emails

E
274

So you're new to the hobby

E
275

Mechanics & Homebrew

E
276

Player Power

E
277

All about Notes

E
278

Episode 5: Spelljammer and other new settings

E
279

Episode 4: Creating a good villain

E
280

Episode 3: Creating flavor through challenges

E
281

Episode 2: New racial modifiers in D&D

282

Episode 1: Cyberpunk