Good GMs Podcast

James and Chuckie tackle one of the most underrated GM skills — pacing. Not going fast. Not going slow. Knowing the difference between a scene that's supposed to breathe and a scene that's just bleeding out.

What We Get Into:
- Slow isn't always wrong. A scene that feels slow might be doing exactly what it's supposed to do. The question is whether it's moving the story forward, not whether it's moving fast.
- The silent timer trick: James puts a kitchen timer on the table without saying what it's for. Players immediately start making decisions. No explanation needed.
- When players are genuinely stuck vs. when they're just spinning their wheels — and how to tell the difference by watching the table
- How to introduce new information without being obvious about it: NPCs, matchbooks, news reports, a name on a character sheet the player forgot they wrote
- Quick encounters and dramatic tasks: taking a whole scene that would eat three sessions and collapsing it into one meaningful roll per player
- Lay out two hooks at the end of every scene. Not one. Two. Give them the library and City Hall. Now they're moving.
- Don't be afraid to throw the villain at them when they're stalled. Nothing unsticks a table like a surprise attack.
- Shane Hensley's combat countdown: if a player isn't ready when their turn comes, smack the table, count down from five, and move on. Chuckie thought it was harsh until he tried it.

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James sits down with Cam Rogers, novelist and fomer rlead writer for Warframe, one of the biggest game universes ever built, and the guy who's going to be running Mothership on the Good GMs Twitch channel. No Chuckie this week. Just James and someone who has been building worlds for a living for over a decade.
What We Get Into:
- Character is plot. Not the farm boy, not the chosen one...the farm boy's conflicting motivations rubbing up against everyone else's conflicting motivations. That's where the story is.
- Don't build Middle Earth first. Start with a simple person in a simple place and let the world expand around them in layers.
- Pressure mechanics: the bomb under the table, the rent that's due, the Death Star approaching Yavin Four. Tension is narrative currency - you bank it and spend it strategically.
- You're not a navigator. You're the cartographer. The world is a blank map and you're dispelling the fog of war as the players move through it.
- Don't have a death grip on your plot. The players are at least the missing third. Let them run off into the hills. Your job is to make the plot work for wherever they end up.
- Cam's closing tip: understand the structure of your story well enough that you can re-skin any narrative piece to fit the context your players have created.

Check out Cam's podcast I Love This And I'll Tell You Why, launching this week - Thursday, October 1st!  

First guest: Mikko Rautalahti,  senior writer on Alan Wake and Quantum Break from Remedy Entertainment, and their newly released video game, Control Resonant. 

https://www.patreon.com/ILoveThisIllTellYouWhy

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James and Chuckie are joined by Kelly Clark, creator and game master of Dork Tales, to dive deep into the world of Actual Play GMing. From the thrill of live audiences to the technical realities of recording, Kelly shares the secrets of turning a home game into an entertaining show. Check out Kelly and the Dork Tales crew at https://www.youtube.com/dorktales  and https://www.twitch.tv/dorktales !

✨Pro-Tips✨

• The Archive Impulse: why starting an actual play helps preserve tabletop moments that would otherwise fade away like sculptures made of butter.
• Table Game vs. Actual Play: why you shouldn't run a slow hex crawl on camera, the importance of pacing, and avoiding the "Canadian Standoff" of talking over each other to keep the performance moving.
• The Rules Attorney: how to handle rule disputes live by making an executive call to keep the tension up while a deputized player looks up the actual rule in the background.
• Actual Play Etiquette: the social rules of streaming, from hiding your branded drinks to muting your microphone when typing or eating.
• Directing the Story: why talking to players off-camera about major story beats or character heel turns isn't cheating, but rather co-writing a cinematic first draft.
• The Hospitality Mindset: Kelly's ultimate GM tip is to treat your game like you're hosting a party where your main job is to ensure everyone, including yourself, has a good time.

Actual Plays Mentioned in this Episode:

• Savage Sessions RPG: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nTTZOPB6D7wskZxakPeCG
• The Film Reroll: https://www.filmreroll.com
• Ain't Slayed Nobody: https://www.aintslayednobody.com
• Wildcards (Saving Throw): https://www.youtube.com/savingthrowshow
• Not Another D&D Podcast (NADDPod): https://naddpod.com
• Miskatonic University Podcast: https://www.mu-podcast.com
• Dice Legends: https://www.youtube.com/@DiceLegends
• The Dragon Friends: https://thedragonfriends.com
• Friends at the Table: https://friendsatthetable.net

Plus, the Good GMs are planning the wrap-up from their 2D20 actual play with James Gordon Ross. Join us October 24th & 31st on Twitch for the final Fallout! Check out episodes 17 &18 for the existing story!

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James has been watching movies. Specifically he's been thinking about what Kurosawa, Spielberg, Hitchcock, Sergio Leone, and Guy Ritchie figured out about storytelling — and whether any of it works at a TTRPG table. Spoiler: all of it does.

What We Get Into:

- Chekhov's Gun: put the rifle in act one, fire it by act three — and why not doing it is secretly training your players to stop paying attention to your world

- The Ticking Clock: Hitchcock's bomb under the table. Chuckie's live demo of running both sides of the clock simultaneously — the players prepping, the villain also prepping, tension building on both tracks

- The Delayed Reveal: the Jaws technique. The animatronic shark kept breaking so Spielberg shot a fin in the water. Your players' imaginations are scarier than your description.

- The Calm Before The Storm: James performs it live — dust settling on a battlefield, a beam of light through the clouds, one breath. Then hit them.

- The Rule Of Three: introduce, reinforce, pay off. Why the third beat is where the magic lives.

- False Victory: the Irish goodbye of horror — just when they think they've made it, one more hit. Use it once. Never twice.

- The Unreliable Narrator: one player is drinking sludge from a rusty can, completely convinced it's a glass of water. The other player just failed their sanity check.

FIND US!

Check out Chuckie’s Actual Plays at Savage Sessions on Spotify and Youtube

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What happens when a longtime player steps behind the GM screen for the first time? In Episode 19 of Good GMs, our producer Rainey Robertson sits down with James and Chuck to break down her first time ever GM'ing: a four-session Vampire: The Masquerade (5th Edition) murder mystery set in a blue-collar Michigan town that she wrote herself. Think "Roseanne" meets "What We Do In The Shadows". 

Rainey shares real-world GMing tips on organizing player skills, handling accidental plot twists, and avoiding classic first-timer mistakes (as a first-timer herself, she made a LOT of mistakes, and we think she recovered from them in some cool ways.)

✨ Pro-Tips 💫

• Centralize Player Skills: Collect player skills in a single reference doc before starting to check stats silently.
• Never Lock Essential Clues Behind Rolls: Deliver critical plot clues automatically; use skill checks for extra context or bonuses.
• Write Immediate Post-Session Notes: Jot down major events, deceased NPCs, and current locations as soon as a session ends.
• Roll With Mistakes & Pivot: If you mess up narrative continuity, lean into logical player theories to guide the resolution.
• Leverage Session Transcripts: Use recording platforms with summary tools to streamline prep and editing.
• Start With Friends & Passion: Run your debut for a supportive group in a system you love so prep feels rewarding.

FIND US! 

Check out the Savage Sessions team that played Rainey’s game (including Chuckie and Rainey!): Chuckie’s Actual Plays at Savage Sessions on Spotify and Youtube.

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James and Chuckie are back with a theory episode on something every GM eventually has to deal with — problem players. The ones you can actually help. The ones who maybe don't even know they're doing it.

What We Get Into:

• The Spotlight Hog: probably the most common, and as two enthusiastic GMs James and Chuckie admit they can both fall into this one. How to recognize it, how to redirect it off camera, and how to weaponize their enthusiasm to bring other players in instead
• GMs as players: why it's important to sit on the other side of the table, what you learn from a good GM, and why a GM as a player can either be the best or worst person at the table — there's almost no middle ground
• The Distracted Player: James tells the story of the player on her phone who needed the coloring game to pay attention. The fix isn't punishment — it's giving them a job. DJ, note-taker, sketch artist, in-game currency for recap contributions
• The Reluctant Adventurer: the loner, the lone wolf, the guy who just wanted to be a farmer. Chuckie's rule: it's the player's job to figure out why their character keeps showing up. The Lone Wolf and Cub solution — give them an NPC to be responsible for
• When to have the aside, how to frame it with empathy, and when to accept that the subplot is just going to stay lost
• The nuclear option: be honest, be direct, think of it as a breakup

Every Friday we're streaming Monster Hunters Club on Twitch from 7-930 PM EST! Join us, won't you? 

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James and Chuckie welcome Jon Hook - award-winning writer, legendary keeper of cosmic horror, co-host of Modern Mythos with Seth Skorkowsky, and one of the original voices behind the Miskatonic University Podcast. He's written for Call of Cthulhu, Goodman Games, Golden Goblin Press, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and more. If anyone knows how to run horror, it's this guy.

What We Get Into:
- Good horror is a roller coaster! You need the highs so the lows hit harder. Jon explains exactly when to load your players up and when to bring the hammer down
- Terror vs. horror: fear of the unknown vs. the sickening realization of it. Jon tells the story of a squirrel in the Tennessee woods that explains both perfectly
- Tropes aren't a crutch if they're a tool. When players recognize a trope, even subtly, they respond the way you need them to. Jon's steam corridor scene works every single time.
- The player who just wanted to survive: Jon's convention story about the guy who avoided every plot hook — and how Jon handled it
- Scenarios are written for an audience of one...the GM. Feel free to reinterpret the telephone game before you pass it to your table
- James pitches his unpublished horror scenario Class of 86, Chuckie talks My Father's Work and the free RPG day at Voss Media Board Game Cafe in Galesburg, MI!
- Jon is running Spawn of Azathoth and playing Gunga, the wild boy raised by Amazon Sasquatches, in a MörK Borg pulp game. Yes, really.

Support the Show: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
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#GoodGMs #TTRPG #TabletopRPG #GameMaster #CallOfCthulhu #GMTips #Horror #TTRPGCommunity #PodcastForGMs #CosmicHorror

James and Chuckie go back to basics this week with one of the most useful and most underused tools in any GM's kit — Theater of the Mind. No maps. No minis. Just words, and the picture they paint.

James is prepping for his Monster Hunters Club livestream and wants to lean into Theatre of the Mind so audiences aren't watching him count squares. Chuckie points out he's probably already doing it without realizing it.

What We Get Into:
- Where Theatre of the Mind actually comes from — radio drama, Steve Allen, and the early days of D&D with no maps
- The Three Senses Rule: don't describe a bar, describe the smell of tobacco and stale beer and the sound of fists slamming tables
- The camera technique: wide shot, medium shot, close up — Chuckie uses it every game and Sounds Like Crowes built a whole methodology around it
- Three anchors: pick three things in the room and build the scene from there. Tables, crowd, the frustrated bartender. Done.
- Zones instead of inches for combat — melee, close, far, very far — and why "plot appropriate distance" sounds condescending until you think about it for two seconds
- Maps aren't cheating. But they're also not required.

Also: the Good GMs Discord book club is starting with Mothership, Cam Rogers is joining the show soon, and Rainey's idea for a GM tip booklet might actually happen.

Support the Show: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
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#GoodGMs #TTRPG #TabletopRPG #GameMaster #GMTips #TheatreOfTheMind #TTRPGCommunity #TabletopGaming #PodcastForGMs #RoleplayingGames

James and Chuckie sit down with Mike Mason, Creative Director for Call of Cthulhu at Chaosium, co-author of the ENnie Award-winning 7th Edition Keeper Rulebook, Pulp Cthulhu, the Starter Set, Warhammer 40k: Dark Heresy, and over 40 other titles! If you've ever lost sanity at a table, this is the man who took it from you!

What We Get Into:

• The biggest crime in every roleplaying game
• What makes a good GM? What sets a Keeper apart from other kinds of GMs? Mike's answer will surprise you.
• Sandbox vs. linear! Mike doesn't care, as long as nobody's talking to the librarian at five to midnight, when the cultists are already at the hill…
• Pulling strings: how tension in a horror game works like a slow build, not a jump scare
• Comedy and horror: why Evil Dead works and why your players' guard needs to come down before the scary thing hits
• Genres! Sci-fi, Westerns, Deadlands, and a Savage Worlds crossover you might not know about...

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#GoodGMs #TTRPG #TabletopRPG #GameMaster #CallOfCthulhu #Chaosium #GMTips #TTRPGCommunity #PodcastForGMs #Horror

•  One simple rule for session cancellations will save your campaign.
•  Session negative one: the pitch that happens before session zero. The email, Discord message, phone call where you get initial buy-in before anyone shows up
•  The three pillars: combat! exploration! roleplay! Why asking your players to rank them tells you more about the game you need to run than any rulebook will
•  Tone and expectations: are you running The Boys or Mystery Men? Don't make them guess.
•  Lines and veils: the hard stops and the fade-to-black moments. Why they go on the table before character creation, not after
•  The X card, and why it isn't a question
•  Chuckie once ran The Haunting without asking about rats. Find out why he'll never do it again!
•  Accessibility at the table! Light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, mobility, etc. and why it's the same as moving a chair out of a doorway
• Phones: fidget spinners and colouring apps are fine; mobile game sound effects are not; remember GMs, you are God at this table!

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