Dueling GMs by Epic Blunders

Dueling GMs by Epic Blunders

By EpicBlundersLeisureGames
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Dueling GMs by Epic Blunders episodes

  • Dueling GMs 8- Faction Building 101 Workshop

    Welcome to our new show, Dueling GMs! We're offering tips, tricks, and years of experience to improve your play sessions and GM styles. Some episodes will focus on the structure in which you play. Others may provide insight into the mechanics of your games. Whether you're a fan of D&D, Pathfinder, or any number of less familiar (but still amazing) systems out there, we hope to be a helpful resource to you in your gaming.

    In episode 8, we apply some of the tips from episode 6 in another workshop. This time, the challenge is to create two factions that a character is or has been associated with. The workshop walks through ideas for fleshing out organizations in your tabletop games in a similar manner to how you would do it for your own characters or NPCs in your world. In a good world, the factions themselves should be emblematic of important and influential characters. We often don't give them the weight or focus they deserve.

    And then we tackle two non-player characters related to those factions but look at them through the lens of the faction itself. How do they differ? How are they similar? Where might our PC connect or disconnect from those individuals? All this and more!


    If you're liking the podcast, tell a friend or two! And as always, leave a review on your favorite podcasting platform. These two things are vital for our little show to get more listens and more episodes.

    1 hr 48 min
  • Dueling GMs 7- Who Wants Pudding? (An NPC Design Workshop)

    Welcome to our new show, Dueling GMs! We're offering tips, tricks, and years of experience to improve your play sessions and GM styles. Some episodes will focus on the structure in which you play. Others may provide insight into the mechanics of your games.  

    In episode 7, we put those goals and ideals for the perfect NPC to the test and turn one of the Monster Manual's most gooey creatures into... a nemesis? A swarm? And... a deity? What were we thinking? Tune in and find out! Please like us and leave a review on any of your favorite podcasting platforms. And let us know what you want to hear about! We'll tackle nearly any subject you can think of that's tabletop-related.

    You can find the statblock for this creature here. Now you, too, can go forth and ruin your characters' armor and lives!

    2 hr 28 min
  • Dueling GMs 6- Making Unique NPCs and Factions

    Welcome to our new show, Dueling GMs! We're offering tips, tricks, and  years of experience on how to improve your play sessions and GM styles.  Some episodes will focus on the structure in which you play. Others may provide insight into the mechanics of your games.


    In episode 6, we focus on what makes for interesting and compelling Non-Player Characters for your tabletop games. In addition to NPCs, we also spend time discussing how Factions can and should operate just like a good NPC, with motives, flaws, and traits that help personify them. Take a listen now!

    Please like us and leave a review on any of your favorite podcasting platforms. And let us know what you want to hear about! We'll tackle nearly any subject you can think of that's tabletop related.

    1 hr 31 min
  • Dueling GMs 5- Living World vs. Paused World

    Thanks for tuning into our new show, Dueling GMs! We're offering tips, tricks, and years of experience on how to improve your play sessions and GM styles. Some episodes will focus on the structure in which you play. Others may provide insight into the mechanics of your games.


    This week, we're taking a look at the differences between running a campaign with a living world versus a paused world. In a nutshell, does your game revolve around the player characters or is it alive in a way that doesn't wait for the characters to show up? What are the pros and cons to each approach? Tune in and find out!

    Please like us and leave a review on any of your favorite podcasting platforms. And let us know what you want to hear about! We'll tackle nearly any subject you can think of that's tabletop related.

    55 min
  • Dueling GMs 4- Session 0 and Character Creation Workshop

    Welcome to Dueling GMs! Every week, we're offering insight into how to improve your tabletop play sessions and GM styles.  Some episodes will focus on the structure in which you play. Others may provide insight into the mechanics of your roleplaying games. All of it with the hope that every player and Game Master at every table has more fun!


    This week is the culmination of our first mini-series. We're capping it off with a workshop that brings in a few friends to test what we've already discussed. We go through Session 0, Session 0.5, Character Creation, and start off on our first sample adventure.

    Music and sound from today's episode is thanks to tabletopaudio.com and Monument Studios. If you like what we've been able to give you so far and are finding it helpful for you to bring to your table, leave us a like, review, and rating on your favorite podcasting platform. It helps others find us too! And if you're listening on the Spotify app, be sure to check out our polls and questions built right into the app interface. It's a pretty nifty new feature.

    3 hr 14 min
  • Dueling GMs 3- Designing Characters with Depth

    Welcome back to our new show, Dueling GMs! Every week, we're offering insight into how to improve your play sessions and GM styles.  Some episodes will focus on the structure in which you play. Others may provide insight into the mechanics of your games. All of it with the hope that every player and Game Master at every table has more fun!


    Part three of our mini-series on starting a new tabletop campaign continues to narrow down our focus as we zero in on character creation. We give a broad overview of the specific mechanical and personality aspects that make up a typical RPG character. There's a lively chat about how important it is to decide from square one what level or tier you're starting at, the value of backstories, setting yourself up for a great character arc, and much more! Check it out now.

    And if you're at all able, please like us and leave a review on any of your favorite podcasting platforms. And let us know what you want to hear about! We'll tackle nearly any subject you can think of that's tabletop related.

    1 hr 38 min
  • Dueling GMs 2- To Build a Cohesive Adventuring Party

    Welcome to our new show, Dueling GMs! We're offering tips, tricks, and years of experience on how to improve your play sessions and GM styles.  Some episodes will focus on the structure in which you play. Others may provide insight into the mechanics of your games.


    This week, part two of our mini-series on starting a new tabletop campaign. This episode addresses the various roles within an adventuring party, building a group that has a reason to be together, and how to both create and handle PC to PC conflict. Check it out if you want to hear more!

    Please like us and leave a review on any of your favorite podcasting  platforms. And let us know what you want to hear about! We'll tackle nearly any subject you can think of that's tabletop related.

    1 hr 18 min
  • Dueling GMs 1- What the Heck is Session 0?

    Welcome to the first episode of our new show, Dueling GMs! We're offering tips, tricks, and years of experience on how to improve your play sessions and GM styles.  Some episodes will focus on the structure in which you play. Others may provide insight into the mechanics of your games.


    Today, we're starting a mini-series about beginning a new RPG campaign. There's so much planning and work that goes into a good tabletop roleplaying campaign and we wanted to talk through some best practices on making yours a success from start to finish. We focus this episode on how to handle a Session 0 and even introduce a Session 0.5! What are they, why are they important, and what should be covered? Tune in to find out!

    Please like us and leave a review on any of your favorite podcasting platforms. And let us know what you want to hear about! We'll tackle nearly any subject you can think of that's tabletop related.

    1 hr 9 min
  • So You Want to Start an Adventure?

    Starting a new tabletop roleplaying campaign is really hard sometimes. And that's not just for DnD. New setting ideas, story hooks, building  characters that are naturally cohesive- it can seem daunting. Not to mention the amount of time and energy it seems to require on the part of both the DMs and players.  

    Well, allow us to blow some of those myths out of the water. Maybe you struggle with getting your PCs integrated in those first few sessions.  Maybe character creation takes forever. Maybe as a DM, you feel like if you don't have months of prep work done or entire adventure modules  ready, you're not able to start. Watch and listen as we start a new low-level adventure with virtually no prep- including by the DM. I let the players help build out the world and introduce vital NPC connections and names. Their backstories and connections provide more than enough plot hooks for months to come. All it takes is a few starting parameters...  

    Join us most weeks as we continue our main campaign, Wildemount: Lost Requiem! Watch the video with maps and character sheets here.

    4 hr 44 min
  • He Who Hesitates (Episode 18) - Wildemount: Lost Requiem

    Actual play D&D 5e homebrew campaign in the Critical Role world of Wildemount. Utilizing DnDBeyond's Avrae bot for Discord and TaleSpire 3d digital mapping.

    Feeling pulled in so many directions with hints of dire consequences at every turn, Nona, Awna, Whisky, Link, Ryohn, Picks, Willam, and Grolyd  struggle with the question of how to prioritize and desperately want to be in two places at once.

    Leave a comment and tell us what you think about the campaign so far!

    Missed the stream? Watch the VoD! It really has the best combination of edited audio and original video of what the players see.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRAiAYcuLV_JmSLKEO2M4bQ

    If you like us, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and tell  your friends! It really does help. Special thanks to Monument Studio,  Dark Fantasy Studio, krackatoa, Andrew Sitkov, Miguel Johnson, and  Tabletop Audio for the additional backing music this week. Our theme  song is "Noahs Stark" from krackatoa.

    4 hr 13 min

About Dueling GMs by Epic Blunders

From the publisher's feed

Two real-life friends and experienced Game Masters take on the world of TTRPGs. One is a specialist in machine learning and loves to plan ahead. The other is a content creator and entrepreneur who thrives on spontaneity. Together they give insight for GMs and players with both designs and details for making your game sessions entertaining, engaging, and impactful.