Between Two Screens: A D&D Podcast

In this episode we talk about different ways to spice up your D&D combat, make your battles more dynamic, and keep your players on their toes. We talk about using flavorful descriptions, unique monsters, and tactical thinking to keep your players engaged in the flow of combat. We also discuss adding more complex elements like reinforcements, objectives, and time pressure to up the intensity of your battles. Lastly we talk about those big climactic boss battles and how to make them fun and deadly for your players.

Jargon Cheat Sheet

• 3.5: A revised version of the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Often referred to as “three five”.
• 5e: Short for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, the current edition of the game.

Kagan recently brought in a guest player to infiltrate the party, gain their trust, and ultimately attempt to assassinate one of the PCs. It ended up being one of the most memorable moments in his DMing career and in this week’s episode we dig into it.  We discuss what went well, what didn’t go quite as planned, and share advice on how to pull off this sort of delicate subterfuge while making sure that everyone has a great time.

In this episode we plan an upcoming adventure full of pirates, dragons, and merfolk. We dig into how to lay down subtle, optional side quests for your players to discover and how to place clear objectives in their path. We also discuss how to set up encounters that will lay the groundwork for future allies and rivals, and how to wrap up your adventure with a satisfying payoff.

We lay the food analogies on thick in this one, so it’s advised to not listen on an empty stomach or you might end up craving bread, cake, or both!

This episode contains spoilers for the adventure Rise of Tiamat and players in Joe’s Monday night campaign.

In this episode we explore how to find the right balance between challenge and frustration for your D&D game. D&D is supposed to be fun, but sometimes the greatest rewards come from feeling like you overcame an immense challenge. Finding the right challenge level is really tricky, depends entirely on the preferences of the people at the table, and is often a moving target.

We tell stories of games where we were able to find that perfect challenge level, talk about what it feels like when a game is too easy, share horror stories from games that were super frustrating, and give tips on how to find that right balance for your game.

This episode contains spoilers for Out of the Abyss.

Jargon Cheat Sheet

• 3.5: A revised version of the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Often referred to as “three five”.
• APL: Average Party Level. For example, APL 12 is a group of level 12 adventurers (on average).
• Min-maxed: How optimized a character is to the fullest extent within the rules of the game. In D&D, this usually means maximizing for combat.
• Mod: Short for module, which is an old school term for a written adventure.

This episode is all about getting into character and bringing your NPCs to life through vocal qualities, dialects, and physicality. We also give tips on getting over the nervousness that many people have with acting, discuss the different ways that we practice our NPCS, and the tricks we use to get back into the voice of a character.

Remember that you don’t need to be a professional voice actor to be an awesome DM! It’s okay to be nervous and it’s okay to be terrible at it! Lean into it, have a good time, and trust that you players are going to laugh with you, not at you.

In this episode we talk about playing D&D online. Since the onset of Covid, tons of games have moved online. Luckily there are a TON of great resources out there to help you make the most out of playing virtually. We discuss the different tools that we use, the pros of playing online, and the numerous things we miss about playing in person.

Jargon Cheat Sheet

• APL: Average Party Level. For example, APL 12 is a group of level 12 adventurers (on average).
• Living Greyhawk: A massive shared campaign played by thousands of people in the 2000s.

This episode is all about physics in 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons (or lack thereof). We discuss rules like falling, jumping, and encumbrance and talk about whether it bothers us that they’re so ridiculous. We also talk about how to handle situations that are based on physics or real world parallels that you as a DM might have a tough time coming up with a ruling on. Lastly, we talk about how to handle the tricky situation when a player challenges your world or your ruling based on their understanding of real world physics/science.

Jargon Cheat Sheet

• 3.5: A revised version of the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Often referred to as “three five”.
• 5e: Short for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, the current edition of the game.

This episode is all about running one shot adventures. One shots are great for introducing people to D&D, trying out creative ideas, mixing things up from your normal games, and most importantly are a ton of fun!

We dig into what makes one shots so fun, give advice on running one shot adventures, throw out some crazy ideas that we would love to run, and encourage you to kill your friends! 

Thanks to Emily for requesting this topic. If there’s something you’d like to hear us talk about you can find us on Twitter at @B2Screens or at [email protected].

This week’s episode is all about taking your hands off the wheel and letting your players take control of the story.

As dungeon masters we invent storylines, plant secrets, and build up anticipation for them to experience our awesome content! But what if the players miss those secrets? Or steer the story in a different direction? It can be difficult to deal with that disappointment, but this episode is all about the joy of letting your players be in charge of the story.

We also dig more into Joe’s history of convention style D&D, talk about the consequences of player actions, and discuss the concept of failing forward.

Jargon Cheat Sheet

• 5e: Short for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, the current edition of the game.
• Living Greyhawk (LG): A massive shared campaign played by thousands of people in the 2000s.
• Mod: Short for module, which is an old school term for a written adventure.
• Stat Block: The statistics and abilities of a creature.

This episode we discuss guest players in D&D. Guest players are a great way to mix things up, get a fresh voice, or introduce the game to a new player. But there’s a lot to think about when you’re considering throwing someone into your game! We talk about how much information to give them, what type of character is good for a guest player, and how including a guest player might change your session dynamics. We also plan for a guest player coming up in one of Kagan’s games.

This episode contains spoilers for players in Kagan’s Storm King’s Thunder campaign.