In this episode, we are discussing Boss Battles in D&D and TTRPGs and especially how you can make them more memorable, interesting, and engaging for your players.

For us Boss Battles can and should do a lot of things for your Games, like give closure on certain parts of the story, reward your players for a victory, but also leave them on the edge of their seats for the whole fight. This is a big task and oftentimes can be achieved through so many different ways that you really are spoiled for choice. You do not have to use every single way but one to three are totally enough to make your battles memorable and engaging.

Boss Battles should also be dangerous and tipping points. You might not want your players to lose but some of the best bottles are the ones where it was felt the whole fight through that every decision, every action, and every dice roll could decide fate. You achieve this through the ways we will be discussing in this episode.

For more information see the Timestamps below:

12:00: What is a Boss Battle?

16:00: Why are Boss Battles important?

19:00: What makes a Boss Battle good?

26:00: How to make a Boss Battle good, memorable, and interesting?

26:00: Legendary Actions

27:30: Lair Actions

29:00: Environmental Effects

31:00: Build Up

34:00: Interaction

39:00: Stages or Phases

40:30: Ambiance

43:30: Uniqueness

44:30: History

48:00: Timers

49:30: Objectives

52:20: Minions

55:30: Once per Encounter Actions

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

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Episode 76 of DoubleDM discusses the Topic of Using Environments for your D&D and TTRPG Sessions and Campaigns.

We discuss a lot of different ways Environments can be used to create Immersion, Challenges, and so much more.

For Example, we discuss how they are Influential Factors in Worldbuilding and how you need to pay attention to a settlement's environment when creating it as it will have a lot of influence on its infrastructure, people, and appearance. Another way is how they are needed for great Encounter Design as not just a Backdrop for your great Boss Fight but also how they can be used in the combat by either side using Lair Actions or Area Effects.

As you can see they influence every scene and encounter you have in your games and are therefore an important topic to think about. This episode is focused on helping you understand how to make use of environments in the game and how to better play with them in the future.

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

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In this upcoming episode, we discuss Theater of the Mind vs. Battlemaps for D&D and TTRPGs and what the Advantages and Disadvantages of both are.

We have a lot of thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of both and especially how both can be used together. Maps provide a certain Consistency and Accuracy for your games, while Theater of the Mind provides Freedom and Collaboration. Both however also have some Disadvantages that will influence which might be better for your situation. 

As always remember that it's not about which of the two is actually better than the other and more about what fits the situation you have going on. so a lot of our talk is focused on identifying aspects of both that can help you understand which of the two you should go for

For more information see these Timestamps:

13:00: What do we mean when we say Theater of the Mind?

19:00: Why even use maps?

23:00: Accuracy in Combat

26:00: Maps keep Track for you

28:00: Benefits of Theater of the Mind

31:00: Theater of the Mind allows for Collaboration

35:00: Maps are static

40:00: What do you want to accomplish?

43:00: It's also about Fairness

48:00: Theater of the Mind has less and more Room for Error

You can find our friends at Snyders Return right here:

https://twitter.com/ReturnSnyder

https://snydersreturn.squarespace.com/

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we discuss Power Creep at your D&D and TTRPGs Tables. We will describe a lot of different ways how you can identify and deal with different kinds of Power Escalation and Threat Levels and why Power Creep can come from both sides of the table. We highlight a lot of different ways how you can handle power escalations by creating different new challenges that will challenge your players more than their powers only.

Often times Power Creep can also creep into Storytelling where we are compelled to design greater and greater challenges that become more and more ridiculous for our players to deal with which pushes us to deal with a more and more increasingly hard challenge to come up with these challenges themself. We give guidance and advice on how to make sure you slow down on your threat development.

For more information check these timestamps:

16:20: What do we mean when we say Power Creep?

22:00: The Actual Problem of Power Creep

26:30: Why Power Creep is not Universal

29:00: The Many Ways to deal with Power Creep

36:00: Power Creep is not outright bad

40:00: How do you prevent ridiculous Threats

45:00: Slow Down in Escalation

50:00: Power Creep is a Perception Thing

54:00: You will need to change it up

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

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This is the Trailer!

The Trailer for our very own D&D 5e Actual Play Podcast called Titans Call.

A story of Angry Titans, Cunning Cultists, Dubious Magic, and 3 Humans having to find a way to uncover the Mysteries of Ages Past to maybe save their world.

Subscribe now to this Podcast Feed to stay up to date with Titans Call and DoubleDM News.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's episode, we are talking about Story Telling, especially Story Paths and Branches, and Why TTRPG Stories are so unique. We discuss different Storytelling Media How Storytelling works in each of them and how to use that to your advantage when telling a story in the respective medium. TTRPGs are a special medium that allows you to not just tell a story but rather experience a story while telling it. It combines all sides at the table into one experience and that comes with its own benefits and challenges. We give advice on taking advantage of the benefits and working with the challenges to create an incredible TTRPG Story with your Players around the table.

Join us as we discover what it means to have infinite Story Paths and Decision Outcomes, what this all means for a Story ending, and why it is great that your players have the agency to fully influence a story in their own way.

Check these Timestamps for more Information:

16:00: TITANS CALL TRAILER

19:00: What are Story Branches?

21:00: What is Linear Storytelling?

27:00: What is Image Storytelling?

30:00: What is Multiple Path Storytelling?

34:00: Multiple Endings 

37:00: What is Non-Linear Storytelling?

40:00: Infinite Path Storytelling? The Open Field Story

46:00: How do you write a TTRPG Story?

51:00: Time as the Key Component

57:00: Listen to your Players

1:02:00: Create Events

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week join us as we discuss Campaign Length and Why it Matters to have a defined Campaign Length. We discuss why you should have a defined length for your D&D and TTRPG Campaigns before even playing and what a defined length can give you, like a more defined scope of the game. 

A Defined Campaign Length can give you and your players a lot more visions for stories, characters, worlds and games that can actually fit that scope so you can have more fun at the table. By creating a better idea of scope for the game you allow everyone around the table to manage investment and expectations more easily which in turn will create a more rounded and fun experience at the D&D and TTRPG Table.

For more Information see these Timestamps:

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR NEXT WEEK

15:30: What do we mean with Campaign Length

19:00: Ways to Define Length

24:00: Talk about it in Session 0

27:00: Why This also applies to Actual Plays

29:00: What are the Benefits of Campaign Length

32:00: This is not a Limitation

39:00: The System plays a big part

42:00: Balancing Pros and Cons

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

Website, Twitter, Instagram, Ko-Fi

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we will discuss presenting your TTRPG and D&D Worlds lore to your players and how you can get your players to care about your setting as well as remember the lore you have presented in the past. We discuss all the different ways you can present lore and why you want to present lore in the first place. We talk about Loredumps and why Loredumps are badly executed most of the time and give guidance on how to create better more engaging lore dumps. 

If you want to know more you can check out these timestamps:

18:00: What even is lore?

22:00: How can you present lore?

24:00: Written vs. Spoken

27:00: How does Lore Evolve?

31:30: The Driving Forces behind Lore Dumps

34:00: Why Lore Dumps are Bad?

36:30: When to Present Lore?

39:00: How to make Lore Dumps better

43:00: Passive vs. Active Presentation

49:00: Present the Lore easier

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we talk to Tom and Bodhi from HOMIEandTheDude a Father and Son MMA and D&D Content Creator Duo & Team. Tom and Bodhi talk to us about how you can create unique and exciting content for an audience and how you can connect to that audience.

We discuss creating a TTRPG Actual Play Show, conducting Interviews, and generally getting yourself out there and creating the content you want to see. All 4 of us give peaks behind the curtains of being a content creator and how hard it sometimes can be.

We talk about all the Steps of Content Creation, Coming up with Ideas, Executing those Ideas, Dealing with Problems, Connecting with a Community, Developing Content Further and so much more.

To top this off there is lots of great vibes to go around as we bounce the ball around between each other about how awesome the content is we produce and how we can learn from other creators.

HOMIEandTheDUDE:

https://homieandthedude.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/HOMIEandTheDUDE

https://twitter.com/HomieandTheDude

https://discord.com/invite/rCu6H52Nwk

We Support The TTRPGs for Reproductive Rights and you should too, with this link you can get up to 275+ Games by over 200 Creators for just $5 and support Reproductive Rights: https://itch.io/b/1375/ttrpgs-for-reproductive-rights

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

Website, Twitter, Instagram, Ko-Fi

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we are joined by Navaar from Secret Nerd Podcast to discuss One-Shots, the Joy of Playing, and just general TTRPG Goodness.

Navaar hosts an Interview Podcast called Secret Nerd Podcast, where he invites all kinds of folks to talk TTRPGs, Nerdom, and just general Fun Stories to showcase these Games and Nerdculture is for everyone.

But for this episode, he is talking to us about One-Shots and especially what they provide to you as a GM and as a Player and why you should play more One-Shots. We all 3 enjoy One.-Shots for the Care-Free Environment they provide and the Environment to be creative and zany but there are a lot more Benefits as we discuss in the episode.

Find Navaar and SNP:
https://twitter.com/NavaarSNP / https://twitter.com/SecretNrdSocial

secretnerdpodcast.com

We Support The TTRPGs for Reproductive Rights and you should too, with this link you can get up to 275+ Games by over 200 Creators for just $5 and support Reproductive Rights: https://itch.io/b/1375/ttrpgs-for-reproductive-rights

You can find the Show on Social Media and the Web to stay up to date with the latest content, schedules, and more:

Website, Twitter, Instagram, Ko-Fi

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.