Grumpy Dungeon Masters

This week Jay opens the podcast with a story from a recent game of D&D where using a magic item completely went the wrong way. Chris follows it up with a story of killing another character and how the new Arch-mage in Dungeons & Dragons 5.5 is a bit of a let down.

Dan and Kristian visited Level Up Games Convention in Atlanta recently and talk about some of the fun things they got to do, including playing a game of Daggerheart for the first time. Seems like a Con worth checking out.

Kristian talks a bit about Demeo Dungeons & Dragons, the video game we discussed last week on the podcast. He played through the demo and got pretty much what we expected. He does however also talk about the demo for The Secret of Weepstone, which sounds incredible if you like old school RPG’s.

Jay brings us home with the ecology of the Lammasu. Listen in as he completely loses his train of thought while listening to Christopher’s cat snore into the microphone. Yes, this really happened.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 10% 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 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 is an episode that is all over the place. Christopher finally figures out that Vampiric Touch is a concentration spell in D&D 5E. This of course leads to a dive into the history of the spell and all of the different versions of it through the years. Is the spell any good? We’ll let you know.

Jay talks about a newly licensed Dungeons & Dragons video game titled Demeo X Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked. It’s an RPG game that is not D&D, but will be licensing to use the brand with a game. Could be interesting.

Dan gets to go through some of his recent purchases of old D&D items, which includes the Encyclopedia Magica and Random Encounter cards from 2nd Edition D&D. If you’ve ever wanted a random encounter with an Aboleth that’s a good way to get one.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 10% 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 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 back to their normal ways this week. Christopher talks about running the new starter set for Dungeons & Dragons at his Adventurers League games. He’s running the module The Keep on the Borderlands for them, but has already run through all of the material. Fortunately he has alternatives.

The guys each take a look at the modules that they feel are some of the worst of all time. Specifically they are looking at officially written modules that did not stand up to the test of time or were never that good to begin with. You may be surprised with some of the answers.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 10% 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 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 Dan is missing, but Christopher’s wife and owner of the podcast joins in to talk about Crooked Moon. For those not familiar it is a folk horror setting for D&D 5E/5.5 which had an incredible Kickstarter last year. Normally the guys don’t devote an entire episode to a review of the product, but this one is a grand setting with a lot going for it. Listen in and enjoy learning more about Crooked Moon from the Grumpy Dungeon Masters.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 10% 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 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…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Apologies for any skips in the recording. Craig was doing his best to ruin the podcast early on.

Have you ever been a part of a Mega Dungeon? This would be a dungeon with over 100 rooms. There have been tales as old as time of dungeons with infinite layers and infinite rooms. While that may not be realistic for any Dungeon Master it certainly does sound fun. Well our Grumpy Dungeon Masters are going to tell you about their favorite Mega Dungeons of all time.

Christopher gets to run the new starter set for Adventurers League. This lead back to the conversation from last podcast about spoon feeding players the adventure. Maybe the old guys aren’t hip with the times or maybe the youngsters don’t know how to find the adventure.

Kristian finally got to start running his Shadowdark campaign set in the Planescape setting of Dungeons & Dragons. Dan was a “lucky” participant and had some stories about how poorly he can roll dice and the best way to fight slimes.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 10% 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 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 take a look at the new Dungeons & Dragons starter set to see if it’s any good. It comes with a lot of tokens and some maps along with a decent sized remake of a 1E adventure. Dan and Chris both have copies of it and generally are happy with it. It wouldn’t be the Grumpy Dungeon Masters though if we didn’t find something to grump about.

Jay takes a look at an old version of the starter set for Becmi from 1991. Often referred to as the black box. Apparently there were 3 expansions to the set also of which the guys weren’t aware of.

Chris take us on another journey of Adventurers League and tries to create a term for failure that ends a campaign, but not a total party kill (TPK).

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 10% 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 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…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

There is a right way and a wrong way to use cursed magic items. Using them the right way can provide entertainment and story telling. The wrong way will derail an entire campaign or ruin a players fun. Listen in to the Grumpy Dungeon Masters on how to do it correctly.

Christopher gets to regale us with a story of his players not dying for once, but instead steamrolling his challenge.

On the topic of magic items the guys talk some about the crafting of magic items in game. Should you allow players to craft magic items, buy them, or find them?

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 10% 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 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…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Dan’s back at it with his deep dive on Dragons. This time he talks about the Cult of the Dragon and Dragonlance, finally wrapping up all of first edition Dungeons & Dragons.

Christopher wonders if WotC will do with D&D like they did with Magic and just start having mass amounts of crossovers. Most of the GDM guys don’t think so, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Jay ran his Dungeon Crawl Classics game Caverns of Thracia. Surprisingly though he used AI to help him get the ball rolling. Has that grumpy old man changed his tune about AI?

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 10% 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 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 are taking a look at a whole bunch of games on Kickstarter or Backerkit that they are interested in. Shadowrun Anarchy 2.0 is one of the main ones. Shadowrun is a really great game which was always bogged down by the rules set. Shadowrun Anarchy is a more rules light version of the game, which may fix many of the problems.

The guys also talk about Vaults of Vaarn, which just wrapped up it’s Backerkit. It’s another rules light game set in a dying earth style setting using an eerie art style akin to Moebius’ works. If you enjoy swords, sorcery, and synthetic beings in your world this might be a good one for you.

Chris also talks about Shadow of the Demon Lord. It’s a Grimdark setting which takes parts from 4E & 5E D&D and makes them into something unique. While it’s not currently on kickstarter or anything it’s still a game of note.

Lastly, Christopher killed another of his players characters at Adventures League.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 10% 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 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…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Wizards of the Coast released an Unearthed Arcana this week with Apocalyptic sub-classes for Dungeons & Dragons 5.5. The 4 sub-classes are very obviously carryovers from Dark Sun, which along with the Psionics UA that was recently released makes it look like Dark Sun may be coming back. Is this a good thing though? The Grumpy Dungeon Masters will tell you all about it.

Christoper ran adventures league this week and had a couple of his players characters die to a mummy. More specifically a mummy curse. The guys take a look at mummies and what risks that entails for characters.

Jay chats a little bit about the latest Wizards of the Coast release, Dungeons & Dragons in space. They released a TTRPG called Exodus, based on the upcoming video game. There was no fanfare or hype around this release. Is it dead on arrival? Magic 8 ball points to “seems likely”.

Visit Zenergy Gamers for all of your gaming needs. Use code word Grumpy for 10% 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 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…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––