Wandering DMs Season 01

Episode 35: PAX Unplugged

Dan and Paul discuss their trip to PAX Unplugged 2019 in Philadelphia.

Episode 34: Endings

Dan and Paul discuss how to plan for ending your roleplaying campaign. How do you give your players a satisfying conclusion without just fizzling out?

Episode 33: Languages

Dan and Paul discuss fantasy languages in D&D -- from monster and racial languages to alignment languages, the magic used to understand them, and how restricting access to them can benefit your game.

Episode 32: Puzzles and Riddles

Dan and Paul discuss how to effectively use puzzles and riddles in your D&D game.

Episode 31: Dreams, Visions, and Prophecies

Dan and Paul discuss all the mechanisms for foretelling and enforcing fated outcomes in D&D.

Episode 30: Time

Dan and Paul discuss the passage of time in D&D games, from hours of torchlight, to weeks of spell research, to what their game calendars look like.

Episode 29: Horror Gaming

Dan and Paul discuss horror in roleplaying games, if D&D is a horror setting, and make several other exciting announcements.

Episode 28: DH Boggs

Dan and Paul are joined by special guest DH Boggs to discuss the history of D&D as run by Dave Arneson.

Links from the Show

Episode 27: Gaming Gear

Dan and Paul discuss the gear they've bought for gaming over the years - what works, what doesn't, and what has turned out to be just plain silly.

Episode 26: Advice for New DMs

Dan and Paul go over words of advice for new DMs thinking of running their first game.

Episode 25: Mind Control

Dan and Paul discuss magic that takes over your character, from paralysis to charm, and how to deal with it from both the player and DM's perspective.

Episode 24: Metagaming

Dan and Paul discuss metagaming in D&D - what it is, how to prepare for it, and how to deal with it when it catches you by surprise.

Episode 23: Introducing New Characters

Dan and Paul discuss how to introduce new characters into a game, whether due to new players showing up to the table or an unexpected character death mid-game.

Episode 22: Basic Dice Math

Dan discusses the basics of D&D dice math and probability, and dispels some common misunderstandings. There will be a quiz!

Torben Mogensen's Troll dice roller: http://hjemmesider.diku.dk/~torbenm/Troll/
Second Best D&D Adventure podcast: https://secondbestdnd.simplecast.com/
Paul's Gameblog: https://www.paulsgameblog.com/

Episode 21: DM’s Role

Dan and Paul discuss what is unique about the role of the DM at the table, and why they enjoy DMing games.

Episode 20: Humor in Gaming

Dan and Paul discuss Humor in Gaming, including systems that have supported to to various degrees, and how best to write and prepare for including humor in your game.

Episode 19: D&D Art (1974-1980)

Dan is joined by guest artist and educator Isabelle Garbani, who works from Brooklyn in sculpture, recycled materials, and public installations. Together they look at and discuss the evolution of D&D art in the 0th and 1st Editions of the game (1974-1980). A stark contrast in Dan's decades of awareness of those art pieces, and Isabelle's observations seeing them for the first time. Things get heated! Opinions expressed not necessarily those of Wandering DMs.

We should also mention that Isabelle teaches art courses at Wagner College on Staten Island, NY -- notably, the site of the first release of the Holmes Basic D&D set (Origins '77)! See more of Isabelle's work at: http://www.isabellegarbani.com/

Episode 18: Player vs. Character

Dan and Paul discuss the separation of player and character - should you do it, when should you do it, and what problems does it create or solve?

Episode 17: Sub Classes

Paul and Dan discuss additional classes beyond the big four - from AD&D sub-classes to the current list on D&D Beyond.

Episode 16: Learning D&D

Dan and Paul discuss how they were first exposed to the hobby, and how that process has changed for new players over the years.

Episode 15: Infravision

Dan and Paul discuss infravision in old school D&D. We touch on combat vs. exploration, how it plays into other visibility effects such as invisibility and detection magic, and a variety of other related topics.

Episode 14: Technology and Software

Dan and Paul discuss technology and software they have used or in some cases created for their D&D games.

Episode 13: Level Disparity

Dan and Paul discuss how to deal with level disparity in your D&D campaign.

Episode 12: Henchmen

Dan and Paul discuss the pros and cons of hiring in some help to your D&D adventuring party.

Episode 11: Intelligent Swords

Dan and Paul discuss the frequency of intelligent swords, their powers, how to adjudicate battles for control, and share some stories of using intelligent swords in their own games.

Visit Paul's Gameblog for:

Episode 10: Death, Crits, and Resurrection

Dan and Paul discuss the deadliness of old school gaming, and how they handle critical hits, death, and resurrection.

Episode 9: HelgaCon

Dan and Paul wrap up their experiences playing at a local house-convention.

Episode 8: Conventions vs. Campaigns

Dan and Paul discuss the differences between running an ongoing never-ending home campaign, and a short 4-hour convention session.

Episode 7: Dragons

Dan and Paul discuss dragons, and how they differ across editions.

Episode 6: Hex Crawls

Dan and Paul discuss their experiences playing and running hex-crawls. They explore what worked, what didn't, and give advice on what they think makes for a really good hex-crawl adventure.

Episode 5: Tomb of Horrors

Dan and Paul discuss the module S1: Tomb or Horrors, including the history of the module and their experience running and playing it.

Episode 4: Clerics

Dan and Paul discuss the cleric class, and why they have been removed from OED.

Episode 3: Thieves

Dan and Paul discuss the history of the thief class, and how they use thieves in their own campaigns.

Episode 2: Improv and New DMs

Dan and Paul chat about improvisation as a DM tool, and how we teach such things to bourgeoning DMs.

Episode 1: What is Old School?

Mon, 10 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Dan and Paul discuss what exactly qualifies as "old school", or at least agree that it's impossible to qualify.