Mastering The RPG

Game Mastering (GM) By The Seat of Your Pants or I Meant To Do That. (Season 3; Ep 3)

The crew answers an email asking about favorite characters and NPCs. Another email asks about how to find and vet players when Looking For Group online.  The main topic discusses ways a GM can be creative and handle curve balls thrown at them from players moving in unanticipated directions during our tabletop RPG sessions.
 
00:00 - Introduction
02:54 - Email
20:57 - Main Topic
 
Visit us at https://masteringtherpg.com and mail gamemaster@masteringtherpg.com for comments and questions! 

Bringing Player Characters Together or Why Is It Always a Tavern (Season 3; Ep 2)

James, Eric, and Carl talk about different ways player characters could be introduced to each other at the beginning of a tabletop RPG campaign.  They include the ways players might link backstories and why a tavern isn't such a bad place to meet after all.
 
00:00 - Introduction
04:29 - Email
12:10 - Main Topic
 
Visit us at https://masteringtherpg.com and mail gamemaster@masteringtherpg.com for comments and questions! 

Introducing New Players to the Hobby and Group or You Can Checkout Anytime but You Can Never Leave (Season 3; Ep 1)

The crew talks about ideas for bringing a new player into the RPG hobby. They touch on how do you introduce them to rules, character creation, and RPG concepts.  In addition, they also cover bringing a new player into an existing group (both new to hobby or experienced).  
 
00:00 - Introduction
03:50 - Email
10:40 - Main Topic
 
Visit us at https://masteringtherpg.com and mail gamemaster@masteringtherpg.com for comments and questions! 

RPG Best of Times and Worst of Times or Gaming is Sweet Sorrow (Season 2; Ep 14 - Season Finale)

The crew talks about some of the greatest games they played or GM’d … and some of the not-so-great.  Just a fun discussion for the season finale about our memories of games past.
 
00:00 - Introduction
02:50 - Email
15:00 - Main Topic
 
Visit us at https://masteringtherpg.com and mail gamemaster@masteringtherpg.com for comments and questions!  

Running a Horror RPG or Ruh Roh Shaggy (Season 2; Ep 13)

Eric, Carl and James talk about how to run a horror game in a tabletop RPG.  Ideas on how to engage players, set expectations, and drive the narrative are presented.
 
00:00 - Introduction
04:20 - Main Topic
 
Visit us at https://masteringtherpg.com and mail gamemaster@masteringtherpg.com for comments and questions!  

The Essential GM and Player RPG Toolkits or How Many Dice is Enough. (Season 2; Ep 12)

Eric, James, and Carl talk about what essentials are in their RPG GM toolkit.  Everything from websites, books, and tools for running their role-playing game in person or online.  
 
Some of the items mentioned in the episode:
 
Savage Worlds Characters - Saveged.us
Carl’s OneNote template - https://youtu.be/41_HXccph1k
Lazy DM Notion Template
TokenStamp - https://rolladvantage.com/tokenstamp/
Tokens: Splattered Ink Tokens, Forgotten Adventures, Jan Loos and David North
Battlemap Creators: DM Andy, Morvold Press, Mythos Maps, Tych Maps 
Music: Syrinscape
 
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Visit us at https://masteringtherpg.com and mail gamemaster@masteringtherpg.com for comments and questions!  

Using Lore and Knowledge Skills or How to Use Lore That Doesn’t Dump (Season 2, Ep 11)

James, Eric, and Carl discuss ways of providing the lore of your setting without the dreaded lore dump. They also discuss how knowledge skills play into discovering this information.  The team walks through the good and bad ways to provide information to players during the game.
 
Visit us at https://masteringtherpg.com and mail gamemaster@masteringtherpg.com for comments and questions!  
 

Creating Interesting Fights and Combat in Tabletop RPGs or I Am Not Left-Handed

Carl, Eric, and James discuss ideas on how to make combat and fights in RPGs more interesting and engaging for players regardless of the game system.  They offer advice around four pillars-maps, enemies, victory conditions, and narrative aspects. Thank you to a listener for a cool stuff found this week!
 
00:00 - Introduction - Fun talk about 150th episode of Tabletop Tango and Jame’s campaigns
09:55 - Cool Stuff Found:  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/391108/Backstory-Cards-for-Foundry-VTT?manufacturers_id=17009
16:40 - Main Topic
 
Visit us at https://masteringtherpg.com and mail gamemaster@masteringtherpg.com for comments and questions!  
 

Creating a Cohesive RPG Party or All for One and One for All (Season 2, Ep 9)

James, Eric and Carl talk about how to create a cohesive party in any RPG such as Dungeons and Dragons and Savage Worlds.  They look at how the GM can help and what players can do to help make an effective and narratively interesting group of adventurers. The discussion includes how partnering with other players, sharing backstory, complementing mechanically, and other ideas can lead to success.
 
00:00 - Introduction
01:20 - Cool Stuff  
150th Tabletop Tango Episode livestream: https://youtube.com/live/j58YM7-NRbA?feature=share
“Monster Manual” Song:  https://youtu.be/VAxDqAzKY9U
04:55 - Main Topic
 
Visit us at https://masteringtherpg.com and mail gamemaster@masteringtherpg.com for comments and questions!  

Leveraging Narrative Breaks in RPGs or Remember That Time at Band Camp (Season 2 Ep 8)

Eric and Carl discuss using small narrative breaks (such as Savage Worlds Interludes) for additional role-playing opportunities for players to explore backstories or share character information between intense parts of an adventure. The information is inspired by Savage Worlds but is applicable to any RPG—including D&D (Dungeons and Dragons).
 
00:00 - Introduction
01:30 - Cool Stuff
07:35 - Main Topic
 
Visit us at https://masteringtherpg.com and mail gamemaster@masteringtherpg.com for comments and questions!