Hook and Chance

The Bulette is such a cool monster. A deadly tunneling, armored hunter, a leaping surprise attacker, a vicious apex predator. So then why does running one exactly as they allude to feel so lackluster? It turns out the answer may all be in the build-up.

Ever find yourself scrambling to hit the gas, or notice that something is getting stale, but you just can't tell what? Well, this episode is packed with techniques that will keep everyone on the edge of their seats. The wisdom comes from the experience of our incredible guest Roz Young, the masterful storyteller of Ready to Roll, a boundary-pushing actual play YouTube series.

Ever thrown in a sentient item, thinking it would be an epic fantasy moment, only to have it become a joke? Or forgotten? A forgotten joke? Nothing worse. In this episode, we get into how to avoid their pitfalls and what you can do to unleash the many wondrous powers they give not just the heroes of your story, but you as the DM.

We also discuss The Beasts of the Dissonance, an incredible new resource for dark fantasy loving DM's.

Those great sessions that are packed with character moments, epic fights, and emotional highs seem almost magical. Well, this episode unlocks a piece of that magic. We talk to Ollo Clark from Escape Plan Games all about how the storytelling concept "show, don't tell" can apply to all the elements of TTRPG's, and help us encourage those memorable moments.

If you listened to our last episode, you've got an original cult to grip your players with their twisted, dastardly plans. Well, now it's time to play out those plans. And it's not always easy to prep for a game that needs to give players a plot to unravel, horrifying cult activities, and a captivating villain to lead the way. There are so many missteps that can quickly derail the tension and terror you want to build in these games. That's why in this episode we explore how to use a collection of our resources to create a cult mystery horror adventure by making one ourselves, and we're pretty excited about how it turned out. It's got shadow demons, brood mothers, dark rituals, and more!

D&D cults have some entertaining details, to be sure. Chanting, robes, and funky daggers are fun for the whole family. But what we've always run into is that beyond this, they're simply another group of evildoers that must be stopped, most likely with a mace to the face. But when we take a look at real cult-like behavior, from the charismatic leaders to the psychological manipulation they use to induct the innocents of your world, they become a force to be reckoned with. Your party is going to need not only their most explosive abilities, but their most cunning words, their most deceitful tactics, and their heaviest moral choices. The real-world details in this episode come from the books Cultish by Amanda Montell and Cults Inside Out by Rick Alan Ross.

We've all sat down in the tavern, only to not know where to go next. As GM we've accidentally described the blandest, most cookie-cutter fantasy drinking hole, and can't conjure up an NPC that does more than asking "what're ye havin'?" while everyone looks around, hoping for something to engage with. Well, that's why Mike Pisani and Colin Heffernan from Escape Plan Games join us in this episode to bring us techniques and tools to create more dynamic and inspiring taverns.

Have you ever felt the backstory pains that we used to? This was our strategy: We write an elaborate backstory full of murder, mystery, and utter loss. We imagine telling our friends around the gaming table, hearing their "oohs" and "aahs" as their minds are blown by our creative genius. Then we get to the game and realize that it's probably inappropriate to give a half-hour monologue about how Goretrax the dragon emperor tricked us into shooting our family into the sun. And so the backstory is forgotten. To top it off, we play a character that exists completely separately from the backstory we labored over! Well, since then, we've grown and considered how the tragic backstory can not only be interesting to the party but create incredible moments for our characters.

When you're in the middle of an epic fight, whether you're the one inspiring the darkest fears in your enemies, or they're the one summoning the terror within you, it feels like that should be a big deal, right? Yet what we so often end up with is a restrictive mechanic slapped down that makes someone hang out for a turn or two. But we're talking about one of our most primal human emotions here! The one that can reduce us to a shivering pile, or cause us to funnel it all into pure rage and explode against our foes! Shouldn't this be a moment? We think it should, so that's what this episode is about.

Playing good vs. evil games is great! You get to take down baddies, fighting your way towards ultimate and definitive justice! Morality, though? That's a whole different kind of fun. For the role-player, it’s the fun of putting a character through the trenches of what defines them. For the DM, it’s turning the party into a group of philosophers, debating the best path forward, and accepting its consequences. That's why in this episode we break down moral dilemmas, and figure out a way to build them up so we can present the most powerful, customized problems for our party.