Grumpy Dungeon Masters

Need to start off by saying Cr’aig messed up the recording at around the 4:45 mark and it couldn’t be saved so if it skips conversations you’ll know why. Don’t worry, he has been punished properly behind the wood shed as usual for this transgression.

This week GDM Jay finally wrapped up his Pathfinder 2E campaign and goes into a rather long story of how the players got into the mess and how a single joke created an entire campaign.

GDM Christopher talks about the idea of “I know a guy” and how to use it in your tabletop games. It’s the idea of everybody knows somebody who can help with a situation and how the players can actually use it. GDM Jay talks about the contacts skill from other games such as World of Darkness and Marvel Superheroes as an alternative.

GDM Jay in his never ending quest to find stupid ideas in table top games comes across a 2nd edition spell that the Chronomancer would be proud to wield. The Reverse Time spell. A spell so incredibly broken even GDM Jay would be scared to use it.

Also the holidays are upon us and the guys start chatting up the Holiday one shots that are going to be run soon. They involve Whoville and the Great Christmas Beast Mariah Carey. Best of luck and happy holidays!

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 5% off any order!

Follow the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

Join our Discord to chat with the Grumpy DMs. Bring us your toughest DM questions or ask us to review your of TTRPG work.

Be sure to join us every Saturday at 8pm EST on Twitch for our Live Play D&D session.

Intro Music Provided by:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hit N Smash by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5360-hit-n-…
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The Grumpy Dungeon Masters are spending a bit of time doing some speculating on the future of Dungeons and Dragons and what comes next. With the deadline for D&D 5.5 fast approaching they are wondering when it will actually be released. There is also the long tail debate of D&D going to online VTT mostly and what happens then. Could Critical Role take it’s place as the top RPG?

GDM Christopher wonders if D&D still used the Vancian magic system that it’s always been known for or if that’s a dinosaur of the past? While a tiered system is part of the requirement so is memorizing spells, which is mostly used by Wizards at this point. Certainly a debate worth having.

GDM Christopher also changes his way of thinking and has finally come around to just giving everybody spells as special powers in 5E, since that’s what WotC already does.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 5% off any order!

Follow the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

Join our Discord to chat with the Grumpy DMs. Bring us your toughest DM questions or ask us to review your of TTRPG work.

Be sure to join us every Saturday at 8pm EST on Twitch for our Live Play D&D session.

Intro Music Provided by:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hit N Smash by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5360-hit-n-…
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The Grumpy Dungeon Masters have finally gotten a wish to come true. A TV channel of just D&D TV shows. GDM Jay has been dreaming of this day since he first began dungeon mastering in the days of yore. Sadly nobody will ever hear of or find this channel without the Grumpy Dungeon Masters help. It’s buried somewhere on Amazon free TV near the bottom of the depths.

GDM Jay ends up taking issue with there not being enough Dungeon Masters and tries to put a pin into exactly why this is. Is it because the game is too rules heavy, too much work, or maybe people are intimidated by seeing DM’s like Matt Mercer. The truth is that all of these things are true, but creative types should still give it a try.

GDM Jay also spends a little bit of time talking about the 2nd edition Dark Sun setting and is making plans to dive deeper into it in the future. GDM Chris however is looking forward to running the Tank Girl RPG. Yep, it’s a thing.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 5% off any order!

Follow the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

Join our Discord to chat with the Grumpy DMs. Bring us your toughest DM questions or ask us to review your of TTRPG work.

Be sure to join us every Saturday at 8pm EST on Twitch for our Live Play D&D session.

Intro Music Provided by:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hit N Smash by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5360-hit-n-…
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The guys had tons of topics this week and were all over the place. With the completion of the Crooked Moon RPG on Kickstarter the guys spend a little time diving into the known specifics of it and speculating on a ton more. GDM Christopher is the naysayer as usual and isn’t holding his breath on it being completed by next year where as GDM Jay takes a more optimistic approach.

They also spend some time talking about Wotc specifics on sales and actual numbers. Naturally GDM Jay makes up numbers to get his point across, but it seems Hasbro is staying afloat mostly due to Magic the Gathering.

With the Book of Many Things on the horizon the guys turn their attention to it as well. The Deck of Many Things has been a part of D&D lore for decades and usually brings a campaign to a crashing end so the guys toss out there thoughts on the item and why it should probably never be used.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 5% off any order!

Follow the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

Join our Discord to chat with the Grumpy DMs. Bring us your toughest DM questions or ask us to review your of TTRPG work.

Be sure to join us every Saturday at 8pm EST on Twitch for our Live Play D&D session.

Intro Music Provided by:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hit N Smash by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5360-hit-n-…
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

So Planescape hasn’t been a thing since 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons, well over 20 years ago. With the announcement of a new set of books coming the guys were interested to find out more. They had their friend Kristian come on the podcast recently and talk to them and explain more about the setting.

For GDM Christopher it was all new information. For GDM Jay, he’d never actually played the setting before so even he learned some things. Well the new books have dropped and they have invited Kristian back again to go over the new material with them. As the resident Planescape expert his knowledge is helpful on whether the books are a good investment for a DM.

The overall verdict appears to be positive with some issues here and there. With the beating WotC has taken lately, this seems like a good thing. Sadly it’s at the end of the 5E lifecycle, but we’ll have to see if Planescape gets some love in 5.5 edition.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 5% off any order!

Follow the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

Join our Discord to chat with the Grumpy DMs. Bring us your toughest DM questions or ask us to review your of TTRPG work.

Be sure to join us every Saturday at 8pm EST on Twitch for our Live Play D&D session.

Intro Music Provided by:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hit N Smash by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5360-hit-n-…
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The guys are joined by a returning guest, Dungeon Lord Jay to talk about the state of Dungeons and Dragons among other things. The topics were truly all over the place and even include GDM Christopher ranting about the current state of the Incredible Hulk. Never thought we would see the day.

GDM Jay, despite having no topics managed to have discussions about the naming of characters and hype up Bridgetown and Dungeon Crawl Classics even more. Oddly enough the topic of naming characters leads into the game that Dungeon Lord Jay had prepared of Name That Character. Listen in to see how bad our Grumpy Dungeon Masters truly are at coming up with names on the spot.

The guys also dive into the important topic of whether or not Wotc is going to start doing crossover versions of D&D in the same manner as Magic the Gathering. Could it be possible to have D&D 5.5 as a Marvel game or Star Wars and would it be good? Only time will tell.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 5% off any order!

Follow the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

Join our Discord to chat with the Grumpy DMs. Bring us your toughest DM questions or ask us to review your of TTRPG work.

Be sure to join us every Saturday at 8pm EST on Twitch for our Live Play D&D session.

Intro Music Provided by:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hit N Smash by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5360-hit-n-…
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

This week we found out that GDM Christopher thinks that Drow and Ettercap’s are best buddies. He’d probably be surprised to find out that Duergar and Sverfneblin don’t really get along either.

Fortunately GDM Christopher did manage to get his hands on a physical copy of the new Planescape setting so the guys talk some about it. More specifically they dive into the Ancient Time Dragon and it’s lack of Time abilities.

With the release of a new setting though, the guys have to do their usual summary of what’s wrong with it and what in the world is Wotc doing. They don’t dive too deeply though since they are waiting to have their Planescape expert friend back on soon to really dig into things.

GDM Jay has been reading up on Bridgetown lately and Troika!, the system that Bridgetown runs off of. In the process he managed to find a really creative initiative system using poker chips, beads, coins, or anything else that’s uniform.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 5% off any order!

Follow the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

Join our Discord to chat with the Grumpy DMs. Bring us your toughest DM questions or ask us to review your of TTRPG work.

Be sure to join us every Saturday at 8pm EST on Twitch for our Live Play D&D session.

Intro Music Provided by:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hit N Smash by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5360-hit-n-…
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

This week the guys get to sit down and chat with David Schirduan. He is the co-creator of Overpowered, and the publisher of BridgeTown. For those who are unfamiliar, Overpowered is a single player (or multi-player if you have the will) game where you read through a module and find interesting ways to overcome challenges and earn points along the way. Bridgetown is a pastoral, liminal RPG setting of a never-ending, ever-crumbling bridge. Built for Troika, but usable anywhere. He also manages Technical Grimoire a shop for the games he has built, and there are many more, but also a blog for game review and design. \

The guys get some time to chat with him about what being a publisher is all about, what mistakes he made along the way, and thoughts to help anybody who wants to get into something like that. GDM Christopher and GDM Jay both gush over how awesome the recent book BridgeTown is.

As usual they also ask him about his grumpiest gaming moment and David gets to add an incredible piece of lore to Cr’aig’s history. Make sure to check out his website at Technicalgrimoire.com.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 5% off any order!

Follow the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

Join our Discord to chat with the Grumpy DMs. Bring us your toughest DM questions or ask us to review your of TTRPG work.

Be sure to join us every Saturday at 8pm EST on Twitch for our Live Play D&D session.

Intro Music Provided by:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hit N Smash by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5360-hit-n-…
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Both the GDM guys actually got to run some tabletop games this week so naturally they have stuff to talk about. GDM Christopher’s D&D game is back to streaming on Twitch and he presented his wife’s character with a gift. Don’t ever accept presents from fae, random game masters, or GDM Christopher. Now shes a warlock.

GDM Jay on the other hand ran a Pathfinder game without a single ounce of combat, despite writing the scenario for it. Although he naturally forgot to require persuasion and deception checks his players did such a good job of role playing they managed to talk their way through the encounters.

The guys also chat some about a sad battle between Netflix and the RPG company called Evil Genius Games. It stems from an upcoming product for the soon to be released Netflix movie Rebel Moon. Netflix says one thing, Evil Genius Games says another. Lets hope it all gets worked out in the end.

GDM Christopher is also really grumpy about the state of Adventurer’s League and dives deep into the muck on it.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 5% off any order!

Follow the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

Join our Discord to chat with the Grumpy DMs. Bring us your toughest DM questions or ask us to review your of TTRPG work.

Be sure to join us every Saturday at 8pm EST on Twitch for our Live Play D&D session.

Intro Music Provided by:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hit N Smash by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5360-hit-n-…
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

GDM Jay had the pleasure of playing Dungeons & Dragons Trivial Pursuit again and talks about a question nobody should know the answer to, until now. It involves the mating habits of Ettins. Nuff said.

He also got his first look at the Skyraiders of Abarax, the upcoming RPG setting by Dragonlance creators Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. He takes a precursory look at the good and bad from what he has seen. The setting looks amazing, but still has a long way to go before being completed.

GDM Christopher was able to run a module this weekend for the Bigby’s Glory of the Giants titled Starforge. The guys chat about the difficulties of the module and how his players ended up dealing with the scenario. GDM Christopher was also lucky enough to find himself a physical copy of the Book of Fiends for 5E D&D. While they have talked about it before it was worth going into again now that he had an actual copy.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 5% off any order!

Follow the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

Join our Discord to chat with the Grumpy DMs. Bring us your toughest DM questions or ask us to review your of TTRPG work.

Be sure to join us every Saturday at 8pm EST on Twitch for our Live Play D&D session.

Intro Music Provided by:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hit N Smash by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5360-hit-n-…
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––