DMs After Dark

What's more magical than an incredibly crowded nerdy convention in ... Indianapolis? We can't think of anything either! In this episode of Modified Rolls, half of the DMs After Dark crew (Amber, Jess, and Troy) sit down with two guests Alex and Kent to discuss their 2022 Gen Con experience!  While Gen Con is a big one, there is some great advice for conventions in general, especially any you'll need to travel to!

Thank you to Alex & Kent for jumping in to discuss their experiences as well! Check out Alex's Twitch channel for his D&D and tabletop game content at https://www.twitch.tv/l8nitelex/

We're hoping that the DMs After Dark crew can start attending more cons together and spreading the word.  What your favorite convention you've attended?  Have you discovered any underappreciated gems? Share your stories with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

If you like what we're doing here, please consider giving us a rate on your podcast app of choice and catch our live streams alternating Friday nights over on Twitch or catch up on our games over on our YouTube.

Music in the episode:

Thorne - Call On Me [Arcade Release]

The crew of the Lady Saskatoon find themselves sailing blindly into a thick fog and mist with no land in sight.  The stars have betrayed them and are unfamiliar to all aboard.  The old woman, Mari, shows no fear, but is beginning to show remorse.  Tailed by an English ship with an old enemy and a fleet of French ships with something valuable of the strange old woman's, the promises of this island might be more trouble than they're worth.

If you enjoy our streams, podcasts, or just our general nerdiness, please consider giving us a rating on your podcast app of choice! Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.  

And, as always, come hang out and catch our live streams on our Twitch or catch up on our YouTube.

Music in the Episode:

Sailing Through The Wide Sea by MusicLFiles

The Wellerman by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)

Ever feel like you're in a fight that there's no chance you can win? Maybe it's the dice betraying you or maybe it was a hint that you weren't supposed to pick that fight (yet or maybe ever).  Balance in RPGs is an expectation that both players and GM need to communicate clearly during a session or campaign.  Sometimes imbalanced encounters function as "gates" to areas you shouldn't explore yet, other times they're purposefully overwhelming but provide alternate win conditions or survival is the victory itself.  Some games have designed "balance" in bestiaries, stat blocks, or just vague power levels, while others are entirely narrative and the concept of balance is part of the conversation. 

Key takeaway from this episode: Games don't need to be balanced, but obstacles do need to be appropriately communicated so the goal is clear to the players.

If you like what we're doing here, please consider giving us a rate on your podcast app of choice and catch our live streams alternating Friday nights over on Twitch or catch up on our games over on our YouTube.

Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Feel free to email us with questions, comments, or just to tell us how awful our ideas are at [email protected]

Music in the episode:

Endless Space by WinnieTheMoog

Rock Guitar Intro 13 by TaigaSoundProd

The March Of The Final Battle by MusicLFiles

Captain Red's come down with something after the escape from the villa, while the rest of the crew aboard the Lady Saskatoon race toward the mysterious island, led by a more mysterious old woman.  As the Lady sails her way to the treasure and destination, secrets are uncovered, stowaways found, and treachery may yet be afoot.

If you enjoy our streams, podcasts, or just our general nerdiness, please consider giving us a rating on your podcast app of choice! Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.  

And, as always, come hang out and catch our live streams on our Twitch or catch up on our YouTube.

Music in the Episode:

Sailing Through The Wide Sea by MusicLFiles

The Wellerman by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)

Have you ever played in an RPG campaign where the DM makes a character to be a member of the party?  Were they mostly in the background or did they happen to always be the strongest, best, or have the best treasure?  There are definitely wrong ways to do DM PCs, but we're here to talk about the ways to make them work for your game.

In this episode, we dive into a hot topic and come out the other side with maybe a surprising take!  Amber's ready to brawl it out, and Rene has a change of heart.

Do:  Remember that DM PCs are fully fleshed out and experiencing the story alongside the players, let them have moments, but don't steal the spotlight; make them generally less competent and more of a support role than a main character; use them as "knives," emotional attachments and backstory tie-ins to keep your players invested in the bigger story.

Don't: Have them conveniently find the answers or move the plot forward just because you, as DM, have information the players don't; outshine the PCs; be the central figure the whole campaign revolves around (Gary Stu / Mary Sue).

If you like what we're doing here, please consider giving us a rate on your podcast app of choice and catch our live streams alternating Friday nights over on Twitch or catch up on our games over on our YouTube.

Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Feel free to email us with questions, comments, or just to tell us how awful our ideas are at [email protected]

Music in the episode:

Victory by Alexander Nakarada

Fantasy Chamber Adventure by Rafael Krux

Out there in the vast expanse of ocean lie countless islands full of opportunity, treasures unclaimed, and mysteries waiting for fortunate, or maybe unfortunate, souls to come bring back into daylight...

100 years ago a French ship went missing - its crew and cargo assumed to be lost to time... until now.  Recently, a survivor has been spending the gold long thought gone with that ship, and rumors are swirling about an island with more gold than you can spend in a lifetime left for the taking.  The French and Spanish are already looking for clues, and our rowdy crew of pirates are being hired by the British to beat them to it. 

Can they retrieve the mysterious map from a bustling Spanish villa?  Will the pasts of our pirates (and penitent man of the cloth) come back to haunt them?  What awaits our crew on this strange island?

If you enjoy our streams, podcasts, or just our general nerdiness, please consider giving us a rating on your podcast app of choice! Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.  

And, as always, come hang out and catch our live streams on our Twitch or catch up on our YouTube.

Music in the Episode:

Sailing Through The Wide Sea by MusicLFiles

The Wellerman by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)

Before it even starts, before a sword is swung, a blaster pulled, or punch thrown, the dramatic dance of words, taunts and snide remarks sets up that tension, the stakes, the honor on the line...

Welcome to our 2 player one-shot of Jess Levin (Jess from Online)'s wonderful new game I Have the High Ground, a wonderful collaborative game about banter, posturing, and capes in the moments that lead up to a confrontation. 

Christian & Rene reprise their roles from the very first series we ever streamed, Dragomir and Jaoved from Troy's Shadows of Esteren series.  First, it was a blast to revisit these characters and the world of Esteren.  Second, this game is so good at staying simple in its mechanics and out of its own way to just keep the drama high, help you come up with fun banter between rounds and interactions.  And third, it's concise with us playing in less than an hour and a half, two players is so accessible for people without big gaming groups, and even if you do have a big table, you can EASILY use this game as a little bonus mini-game to ramp up tension and roleplay in a pivotal scene (in fact, Rene already has a plan to use this in his homebrew game)!

Please, please, don't sleep on this one and go check it out, it's a BLAST!

If you enjoy our streams, podcasts, or just our general nerdiness, please consider giving us a rating on your podcast app of choice! Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.  

And, as always, come hang out and catch our live streams on our Twitch or catch up on our YouTube.

Music in the Episode:

Behind The Sword by Alexander Nakarada

Yo ho! Ahoy! Arrgh ya landlubbers! Other vaguely piratey things to say!

Welcome to the Session 0 and Character Creation portion of our new series for Honor + Intrigue, a swashbuckling adventure RPG by Chris Rutkowsky, published by Basic Action Games.  Jess will be running us through her first series and we have a lot of fun exploring this game system and building some pretty cool characters, if we do say so ourselves.

If you enjoy our streams, podcasts, or just our general nerdiness, please consider giving us a rating on your podcast app of choice! Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.  

And, as always, come hang out and catch our live streams on our Twitch or catch up on our YouTube.

Music in the Episode:

Sailing Through The Wide Sea by MusicLFiles

The Wellerman by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)

You know what time it is! Chaos time courtesy of Sara's brain child 1d6 | 1d4!

For the first time we only have 1 minute each to talk about our topic, and this week's topic is...

Our first ever hopefully annual award show - The DMies!  We're going full Hollywood and making a big ol' spectacle of ourselves to pat each other on the back, laugh about dumb stuff we've said on the internet, and occasionally actually compliment one another on awesome moments from our first year in streaming.

The DMies will be live sometime in late September, because (I think) that's when the awards season is, but I don't actually know.

Anyway, if you enjoy our streams, podcasts, or just our general nerdiness, please consider giving us a rating on your podcast app of choice! Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.  

And, as always, come hang out and catch our live streams on our Twitch or catch up on our YouTube.

Music in the Episode:

Queen Of Hearts (remake) by Mikael Hellman

Well hello there campers! Welcome to Camp Pine Island, a wonderful little tract of wilderness you'll be exploring all summer long!  Nothing at all is haunted, dangerous, or creepy at all, and the summer's going to be just peachy... right?

Thank you for checking out another installment of our one-shot shenanigans, this time with Rene running the DMs through he and Christian's original game Pine Island, a summer camp horror game using Caltrop Core, a d4 system by Lex Kim Bobrow and designed as part of DriveThruRPG's Pocket Quest game jam!

Join Christian, Sara, and Troy as they create campers to experience a pretty awful first night at summer camp!

If you enjoy our streams, podcasts, or just our general nerdiness, please consider giving us a rating on your podcast app of choice! Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.  

And, as always, come hang out and catch our live streams on our Twitch or catch up on our YouTube.

Music in the Episode:

Headless Horseman by Alexander Nakarada

Atmospheres #6: Lost by Brian Holtz Music