Rising Phoenix Recap | Live Dungeon Design Dash #8 | Wandering DMs S08 E12
Dan and Paul review how their live dungeon design dash turned out at Rising Phoenix Game Con, and how the resulting adventures played at the table. Both ran Pleasure Palace of the Pirate Prince, created live during a Friday night…
Pre-Gen Power Levels | Magic Items in D&D Modules | Wandering DMs S08 E11
Dan and Paul dive into one of the trickiest questions in D&D adventure design: how many magic items should player characters actually have? Looking at classic tournament modules, treasure tables, and real-world convention play, we break down expectations across different…
Scarlet Stockade Playtest Review | Live Dungeon Design Dash #7 | Wandering DMs S08 E10
Dan and Paul review the Scarlet Stockade of the Bear Druid, the dungeon they designed live with fans at GaryCon during Dungeon Design Dash #7! After building the adventure in front of a live audience, both Dan and Paul ran…
Gary Con XVIII | In the Books | Wandering DMs S08 E09
Paul & Dan chat about their amazing experiences at Gary Con XVIII! From playing games with some of their personal heroes, to running a bunch of tournaments, designs sessions, and playtests, to fascinating seminars with the elite of D&D gaming…
Purple Worms & Sea Monsters | The Kaiju of D&D | Wandering DMs S08 E08
Paul & Dan grapple with the biggest of all monsters in original D&D: Purple Worms and Sea Monsters! Why were these beefy guys picked as the apex predators of D&D? What are some alternative ways they could be represented or…
Outdoor Adventures in D&D | Hex Crawls, Point Crawls, and Big Journeys | Wandering DMs S08 E07
Dan and Paul discuss techniques for running tabletop RPG adventures that span large outdoor regions and long journeys. From classic hex crawls and wilderness exploration to point crawls and node-based travel, outdoor campaigns present unique challenges for pacing, mapping, and…
The Dungeon! Boardgame | The Essence of D&D | Wandering DMs S08 E06
Paul and Dan pull out and analyze Dave Megarry’s famous Dungeon! boardgame, developed at the same time as D&D, published in 1975. How much were the games similar, and were do the differ? What changed in the half-dozen iterations over…
How Not To Be a Potato | Showing Up at the Table | Wandering DMs S08 E05
Dan and Paul tackle a deceptively common table problem: the potato player – someone who shows up, sits quietly, and never quite engages. Coined as shorthand for disengaged play, “potatoing” can look the same from the outside but come from…
Rangers in D&D | Wilderness Experts | Wandering DMs S08 E04
Paul and Dan chat about the history of Rangers in D&D. Inspired directly by Tolkien, they’re one of D&D’s earliest and most appealing sub-classes! With abilities to surprise, track, cut down giants, and even cast spells, they’re not your normal…
Puzzle Dungeons | Chris “Directsun” on Designing Meaningful Puzzles | Wandering DMs S08 E03
Dan and Paul revisit one of Wandering DMs’ earliest topics – puzzles in tabletop RPGs – this time with special guest Chris M, aka Directsun. Back in Season 1, we wrestled with why puzzles so often fall flat at the…
