Rutskarn’s Gambit | Creating Political Intrigue with Boot Hill | Wandering DMs S06 E30
Dan and Paul are joined by special guest Adam “Rutskarn” DeCamp, author of the blog Chocolate Hammer. Rutskarn will share his experience running a highly political campaign using the original TSR Western RPG Boot Hill, first published in 1975. How…
D&D Beyond Update Fail! | Backward-Compatibility Blues | Wandering DMs S06 E29
Dan and Paul wrap up the most recent Wizards D&D Beyond fumble — a decision to retract all the items, magic, and spells from the 2014 version of D&D 5th Edition, and replace all content globally with the 2024 revised…
Creating D&D Pre-Gens | Character Creation for One-Shots | Wandering DMs S06 E28
Paul and Dan discuss creation of pre-generated characters for one-shot roleplaying games. From the fastest and easiest ways to quickly generate stats, to crafting unique back-stories that fit (or fight) with the plot. How does it differ between styles of…
The Measure of Man in D&D | Statting Real People in TTRPGs | Wandering DMs S06 E27
Dan & Paul scope out principles for statting out real people in D&D and other role-playing games. What do the standard ability scores really mean, anyway? How have they varied over editions of D&D across the years? And how can…
Creeping Doom Playtest | Co-DMing Social Encounters | Wandering DMs S06 E26
Dan & Paul give a postmortem on running their fourth Dungeon Design Dash product, Creeping Doom of the Pumpkin King, in a co-DM fashion. It’s their first DDD wilderness adventure, and surprises abound! What happens when the party pursues mostly…
Original vs. Basic D&D Part 2 | Sweep the Leg | Wandering DMs S06 E25
In Part 1 Dan and Paul barely scratched the surface on the differences between Original D&D (1974) and Basic D&D (1981)! Due to popular demand they’re back for more. Hopefully this time they’ll escape the character creation section and get…
Original vs. Basic D&D | Who Wins the Crown? | Wandering DMs S06 E24
Let’s chat about two of our favorite editions of early D&D — Original D&D (1974) and Basic D&D (1981)! Dan & Paul run most of D&D in similar ways, but their instincts sometimes differ in which of these traditions they’re…
D&D on the Clock | Games with Time Constraints | Wandering DMs S06 E23
In this last-minute, condensed episdoe of Wandering DMs, Dan and Paul discuss using real world time elements in games. From timers in D&D adventures to board games that include a ticking clock, they’ll cover everything in under 45 minutes. They…
Jon Peterson | 50 Years of D&D | Wandering DMs S06 E22
One of our all-time favorite guests, Jon Peterson, D&D historian extraordinaire, returns to talk all things about the 50th anniversary of D&D. From his official “Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977”, participation in Gen Con 50th anniversary celebrations, inclusion…
Drugs and Alcohol in D&D | Roleplaying Under the Influence | Wandering DMs S06 E21
Dan and Paul discuss the presence of drugs and alcohol in D&D and other tabletop roleplaying games. They’ll touch on how state alterning substandces are represented in the fiction, rules for handling characters under the influence, and even what happens…