Anatomy of a Campaign - A Dungeons and Dragons Podcast

Season 2, Episode 4: Understanding the two official methods of combat encounter design, where I think they help and where I break the rules when constructing a combat encounter.

Season 2, Episode 3: In consideration of Theater of the Mind style play. Recent life distractions forced me to employ a purely TOTM approach and it reminded me of the benefits to the game when you put aside the pretty minis and maps.

Season 2, Episode 2: A complex morale scenario traps the players in a town about to be overrun by undead from without and within. Alignment, morality and what makes a character proactive.

Season 2, Episode 1: Discussing methods for designing a city based on the purpose, history and alignment of the location. Unless you're intending to publish your city, you'll need to be efficient and prioritize where you should focus your design efforts. My goal is to provide my players a place to engage and interact that feels unique and distinct within the game world.

Episode 35: The Season Finale! Part 5 of 5 covering the lessons from the Adventure at the Temple of Borlane. What are the components of an ending and how do you pivot into the next story? We have another Player audio contribution and special ending to this episode.

Episode 34: Part 4 of the final 5 part series of this season. Exploring conflict and how it can be used to enhance drama in your game across all manner of scenes, including combat.

Episode 33: Driven to Adventure - integrating character motivation and backstory into the plot. Part 3 in our 5 part series centered on the party's 5th level milestone adventure in the Temple of Borlane. Characters are the centerpiece of any game, but how do you use them, what are the pitfalls and how much or little of their backstory should be included?

Episode 32: The second of the final five episodes for the season. Dungeons can be a challenge, but they remain a viable staple of the game. What are the pitfalls and how did I approach adapting Against the Cult of the Reptile God's dungeons for my adventure?

Episode 31: Season One Finale Part 1

In the first of the final five episodes of this season, we're taking a broader view of the end module at the Temple of Borlane. There are a number of dangling threads and new ideas as we enter this final adventure. Many things have been bubbling up since the beginning and it can be hard to tie things together in a satisfying way. This is about pulling those ideas together so they can work for you.

Episode 30: We went a different way. Events in the session, driven by player choice and the dice, served up a different scene than I expected. Seizing on the opportunity, I changed things up to feed into the emotional impact at the end of the battle around the farmhouse.