Dungeon Master of None

DMs Rob and Matt are ready to get groovy under the electroplasmic sun of Blades '68. This time they're joined on their heist by DM Sean Foer, our favorite Forged in the Dark Game Masters. Turn on the show for our discussion of new playbooks, mechanics, and crews in Blades '68. Tune in for some mid-century Game Mastering tips. And drop out as we discuss Sean's awesome new booklet on RPG cultures.

Archipelago of Play by Sean Foer

Check out more of Sean's stuff here: https://www.seanfoer.com/

Blades '68 by Tim...

Matt and Rob come to you in the form of grainy footage on a VHS and scratchy audio on a battered cassette to talk to you about Public Access, a very cool analog horror game built on the Carved from Brindlewood system! We talk about nostalgia, horror, analog media, memory, and more!

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Pac Div - Roll the Dice

It's time to move on over to a Story Game system. Or is it a "modern" game? Or a "fiction-first" game? Who knows! Special Guest Mason Allen, is here to help DMs Rob and Matt navigate the wide and wonderful (apocalypse) worlds of Story Games, and how to pick the right system for your next campaign! 

Plus, check out Mason's own Story Game (it's Succession with Archmages at the End of the World) now funding on Game Found:

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/riftkid-games/ivory-tower 

You can get the original edition (which reviewed ba...

Matt and Rob talk about how to give your players hard choices. Let's make 'em sweat folks!

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Listen to THE ORACLE, a little side project from DM Rob. Down on his luck retro gaming YouTuber Jeff discovers a strange video game that leads him down a path of mystery and unsettling revelations.

Spotify
Apple
YouTube

Howdy Ophoi-heads, game designer Federico Sohns joins DMs Rob and Matt to chat about social science as game and world-building inspiration and the two brilliant TTRPGs they have designed: Zephyr and Nibiru!

Zephyr: An Anarchist Game of Fleeting Identities

Nibiru Revisited: A Science Fiction Game of Lost Memories

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Matt and Rob talk about the greatest city of Khorvaire, Eberron's Sharn, and the very good 2004 campaign setting book that covers it. Grab your trenchcoats, fedoras, wands and featherfall tokens, because we're headed into the city of a thousand towers folks!

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Crows: Fortune or Death is the newest TTRPG system from MCDM productions! DMs Rob and Matt are joined by designer and game director James Introcaso to discuss what makes Crows different from other fantasy adventures. Strap on your pack, pass some equipment cards around, and get ready to head out beyond the light of the beacon and into a dungeon.

Crows: Fortune or Death on Backerkit

MCDM's Crows

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Joi...

Matt and Rob discuss the news, and there's a lot of it! Dark Sun returns, World of Warcraft and Star Wars will be 5e-ified, there's a new King of Kickstarter, and more! https://www.ttrpginsider.news/p/fighting-oppression-in-new-ways-d-d-s-designers-on-adapting-dark-sun-to-modern-times

https://www.enworld.org/threads/dungeons-dragons-icons-line-announced-bringing-back-classic-creators-to-classic-settings.720054/

Out—out are the lights—out all!

And, over each quivering form,

The curtain, a funeral pall,

Comes down with the rush of a storm,

While the angels, all pallid and wan,

Uprising, unveiling, affirm

That the play is the tragedy, "Man,"

And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.

DMs Rob and Matt are back for another classic Actual Prep, in which your hosts prep their next game "live" for your listening enjoyment. This time, it's a Mothership adventure!

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Matt and Rob recorded a cheeky little episode from their hotel room before heading out on the final day of GenCon -- listen to our SPICIEST takes, reserved just for you, dear listener.

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DMs Rob and Matt journeyed to Indianapolis, Indiana for Geneva Convention LIX! Here's the episode as it was broadcasted from the beautiful Tennessee Ballroom in the Marriot Hotel.

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Matt and Rob discuss Travis McElroy's second foray into gamemastering on The Adventure Zone: Abnimals! What can we learn from a comedy podcast about animal-human hybrids with huge muscles? Well, how much time do you have...

Travis's hyperfixation

The Abnimals

Well met, traveler! Welcome to our isolated and dangerous corner of a distant realm...the realm of Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons. DMs Rob and Matt explore the greatest (or worst?) D&D campaign setting that never quite was...Nentir Vale. Tune in if you want some inspiration for a wilderness crawl, a West Marches game, or just some cool factions to steal for your campaign.

Links:
Dungeon Master's Guide 4e: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/56694/dungeon-master-s-guide-4e

Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale 4e: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/158948/monster-vault-threats-to-the-nentir-vale-4...

Matt and Rob review Hull Breach, an anthology of Mothership assets that includes horrible monsters and adventures of course, but also horrible legal procedures, horrible shopping malls, horrible bosses, and more!

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Did you want every single WotC book (from bonus bestiaries to campaign guides) ranked? DMs Rob and Matt hope you do because that's exactly what we did! Think of this as a reference list if you need a quick guide to decide where you may or may not want to invest your DM time and money. Don't forget that we have review episodes of almost all of these books in our back catalogue!

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Matt and Rob talk about all the various and wonderful ways to reward your players beyond just loot and experience.

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Every couple of years, DMs Matt and Rob get curious about what systems people are playing. While there isn't a lot of data out there over the last couple of months, we've been blessed with a couple interesting new TTRPG datasets:

Bob the World Builder's RPG Poll

Foundry VTT's System Percent Installed Time-Series (2024-2026)

ratInASuit's Reddit /rpg TTRPG Community in 2025 Poll

GenCon's Latest Events

ICV2 Retail Survey Data compiled by EN World

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Matt and Rob work through some thorny issues in Rob's ongoing West Marches-style Mothership campaign. We talk about balance, character progression, loot, combat, and more! Remember, in space, no one can hear you scream (unless you pay your monthly scream subscription).

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/53237/roleplaying-games/tempest-cluster 

https://smamwise.itch.io/weapon-stat-block-gen

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Sometimes a Game Masters needs something open, full of possibilities, a mother sauce for a GM and players to build on. Join DMs Matt and Rob to explore six generic universal role-playing games systems for when you need something vanilla for your campaigns.

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Pac Div - Roll the Dice

Matt is reporting live from the hometown of Steve Jackson Games and as a...

Matt and Rob do some actual prep, but this time it's a linear adventure (boo! hiss!) We sketch out a quest to bring down a decadent nobleman who is cheating death and causing mayhem with his party that never ends! Can the intrepid DMs beat the odds and make a direct line a little bit more interesting? Listen and find out!

Magnolia's Blog

Get ready to grind, because this installment of the Dungeon Master Book Club is entering Dungeon World: Earth (no, not that Dungeon World) to discuss the first several installments of DCC (no, not that DCC), the new hit LitRPG (no, not that LitRPG) series by author Matt Dinniman. Join Crawler #7137 Matt and Crawler #5039 Rob and listen, listen, listen!

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG + Unstoppable Backerkit by Renegade Game Studios

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Matt and Rob discuss a very good blog post about old-school renaissance games: The OSR Onion. We ask important questions like: What is the philosophy of OSR? What kind of games does this philosophy enable? What does 'old' mean? Does anyone read blogs anymore?

Further reading:

Principia Apocrypha
A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming

(And many more linked in the blog, check it out!)

Feeling down in the DM dumps? DMs Rob and Matt conclude the big 400 with a discussion of campaigns, worlds, cities, places, and even histories that delight us as Game Masters. 

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Matt and Rob continue to celebrate the big 400 by talking about some more of the many activities and delights of being a game master! Mysteries and mapping and secrets and more!

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Hey, it's our 400th numbered episode! Check it out. Big announcements about the podcast, plus the 400 (or so) reasons/feelings/vibes why we love being Dungeon Masters.

The Oracle: https://open.spotify.com/show/6imtB64oHORHtrxVVoyZOm 

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Matt and Rob sit down to talk with Tim Denee, designer of Deathmatch Island and the upcoming Blades '68! We all get groovy and talk about the electroplasmic cold war, bell bottom jeans, and cool spy heists with weird gadgets!

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Brando Sanderson's multiverse of madness begins now! We review the Most Successful Crowdfunded Tabletop Roleplaying Game of All Time: Cosmere!

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Are your players gamers? Do they enjoy digital entertainments like Dark Souls, Red Dead Redemption, or Grand Theft Auto? Are they constantly badgering you about bringing such delights into your TTRPG sessions? Well never fear, we've got the episode for you!

Planet Fist
Cowboys With Big Hearts
Over War
Adrenaline

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Slips. Cicadas. Science-Fantasy.

Welcome to the world of Cloud Empress, an ecological far-future fantasy TTRPG. DMs Rob and Matt love Mothership's PANIC Engine, and this game applies it a weird world of far-future environmental change, magic, and hyper-intelligent wizard giant bugs. Oh, and the rules are free! 

https://cloudempress.com/ 

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Matt and Rob talk about the Havoc System from Rowan Rook and Deckard, best known for Eat the Reich but also the framework for last month's Havoc Game Jam, which Rob (and a couple friends of the show) participated in! Come hear about this super simple, modular, high-energy system and how you could design your own Havoc game or just use it to come up with ideas!

Agents of FREAK by RiftKidGames
Free Like the Moon by Andy Pressman
Only Trust Your Fists by Rob Guthrie

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The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite held aloft The Bright Sword from the bosom of author Lev Grossman, signifying by divine providence that DMs Matt and Rob, were to discuss knights, faeries, quests, questing beasts, and mythic fantasy. THAT is why this is your podcast episode.

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The soft boys teach you how to win friends and influence people.

Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice

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The Neopets Role-Playing Game is the ideal kickstarter. It's got it all: licensed IP, lazy 5e mechanics, nostalgia mining, kitchen sink promises, missed deadlines, alleged missed wages, a combat system for a cozy setting, potential OGL violations, and drama! DMs Rob and Matt try their best to chart the history of Neopets, Geekify's missteps, the system, the playtest adventures, and the fallout. Plus, stay tuned for late-breaking Neopets News! 

Neopians, hack or play these TTRPGs instead:

Golden Sky Stories by Ryo Kamiya

Monster Care Squad by Sandy Pug Games

Ryuutama by A...

Matt and Rob return to the world of GAMERTHRONES to talk about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which dares to ask "What if a Game of Thrones show was good?"

Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice

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We don't have games, we got family. 

Have you ever wanted to play a Fast & Furious-inspired TTRPG? John Harper (of Blades in the Dark, Lady Blackbird, and Agon fame) has got you covered. Welcome to Ride or Die, a fast-paced, double-clutching game where you are invulnerable as long as you are in your car. Look at this dope draft character sheet! If are ready to jump into your souped-up Honda Civic to stop a global arms smuggling ring that also has mega computer virus with nothing but the power of expensive cars and found family, then stayed tu...

Matt and Rob sit down with Cristina of I Seduce the Dragon to talk about Knife Theory -- a way to think about character creation and a tool for DMs to use to create drama. Have fun! Stab your friends!

Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice

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It's back to the archives of Dragon magazine for DMs Rob and Matt. When is giving characters too much information too much of a good thing? Tune in to find out!

Dragon Magazine #161: https://archive.org/details/DragonMagazine260_201801/DragonMagazine161/page/20/mode/2up 

Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice

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Matt and Rob go to hell! Hell-lite, anyway, specifically the nation of Cheliax, in Paizo's twin APs, Hell's Rebels and Hell's Vengeance. One of them is good and one of them is not so good, and you probably don't need to even listen to the episode to guess which is which (but you should listen to it anyway).

Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice

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DMs Rob and Matt are joined by a special guest: a random table!

But this isn't just any random table, but a table of your over-used, loved or hated, fantasy tropes. Listen in as Matt and Rob attempt to remix and reuse these tropes into a workable bit of region, adventure, and faction prep. 

d12

Fantasy Trope

1

The Dark Lord in his Dark Tower Ruling his Dark Land

2

Metal, Elemental, Color-Based Powers or Magic 

3

A Not-Arthur Rules a Not-Camelot

4