Episodes

[#89] We tackle the back half of the 15 WORST DM tips ever uttered. Spoiler: they pretty much earn that distinction honestly. Greg's computer is sadly toasted this week. Read the original list of Bad Advice. We tackled the front half of the list in Episode 77. Find out everything you could possibly want about the classic 90s RPG Dark Conspiracy. Jim reminsiced about learning to play D&D with the classic Holmes Basic Set. Everything we love can be found at curmudgeonsanddragons.com Hosted by ...

[#88] Jim delivers a charming Horror Short Story about some Imperial Entanglements. Read the original post. Speaking of delightful, chek out this list of obsolete unites of measurement. Check here if you need more accurate conversions than those offered in our show . For more stories of terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories every Friday! Check out our other episodes! Hosted by Jason Portizo, Josey Diaz, Jim Crocker, and Greg Genovas Produced and...

[#87] It's a DM Advice Episode! We offer our takes on questions from the DMAcademy subreddit . Submit your own burning RPG questions to us for a future DM Advice segment. Everyone is here this week! Some people think that playing the exact plot of a classic film is a great idea, but that's just your opinion, man. Jim mentioned an Agon playset based on Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? We offer advice on how to handle the World's Worst Scout. The actual designers are pretty clear on when you can us...

[#86] Josey reminds us that introducing the Deck of Many Things is literally the worst thing that anyone can do to thier game. Yes, even a nerfed version of it. That only destroys up your campaign more slowly. Greg is off this week. Read the original post and comments here . Seriously, The Deck of Many Things will break your game. Jason mentioned OctaneRender as a keyword for AI art. For more stories of terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories every...

[#85] In this semi-regular feature, we take a break from horro to remember that RPGs are supposed to be fun, and that players and GMs are supposed to be awesome. Jim's brings a tale of the bullet-journalisng newbie. Here's a picture of thier amazing character journal! Josey tells a story about a partner who brought a player back to gaming. Jason's heartwarming tale is about a DM who went above and beyond to accomodate an ESL speaker at their table. Because you could learn to speak fluent Elvi...

[#84] Jason brings us the story of a DM frustrated by a player not interested in learning much about the cool class features of her PC. Jim is maybe-sorta-kinda on her side and it makes for an interesting back-and-forth! Josey is off this week. Read the original post and comments . Here's a guide to exploiting the heck out of those class features. Jim mistakenly heard one of the class features as whale from the grave. We all discussed the merits of cheat sheets for new players. For more stor...

[#83] The entire crew gathers to go over how we'd stat out a bunch of fairy tale/Disney characters! There's some confusion over which versions we're working with but it gets sorted eventually. Check out the orginal article we used as our inspiration. Here's Rolling Stone on the much-loathed 'Disney Adult' . This is the Tangled trailer that confused Jim with its lack of actual Rapunzel. The Three Rules of Genie Wishes are a best practice for any D&D game. Everything we love can be found at c...

[#82] This week, Greg brings a tale of the DM who didn't know how creature types worked. Jim is stil travelling this week. You can read the original post and comments. The campaign in question was set in the Warhammer Fantasy World (Note from Jim: Not 40k like Jason said). Here's a pretty good overview of how creature types work in 5e. There is apparently a Pokemon called Grapploct . For more stories of terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories ever...

[#81] This week, Jason shares the tale of a young player who didn't really get how D&D works. Or maybe understood it too well. Jim is on the road this week. Read the original post and comments. Josey mentioned the stages of cognitive development. Jason mentioned No Thank You, Evil! For more stories of terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories every Friday! Check out our other episodes! • Theme Music: º Crunk Knight by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://inco...

[#80] The party gathers 'round as Jason tells the tale of the player who "won" Call of Cthulu: Old Man Henderson. You can read the original post and comments. Catch up on the Call of Ctulhu RPG. For stories of currently terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories every Friday! Check out our other episodes! • Theme Music: º Crunk Knight by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3566-crunk-knight License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-l...

[#79] We dive into the DMAcademy SubReddit to offer our takes on a handful of D&D-related conundrums. How do you feel about Saying NO? (Spolier: We're mostly fine wth it!) Recruiting and the challenges of playing with strangers . How to make things easier for your DM. Murder Hobos: Threat or menace? Keeping the peace when handing out magic items . A question that goes much better than we expected it to. How clear about the consequences of your party's actions is clear enough? Join the co...

[#78] In this episode, Jim brngs a horror story about the difference between problematic jokes in private games with your friends and making strangers uncomfortable in public settings. CW: Veiled discussion of sexual abuse of minors by clergy. You can read the original post and comments here. The BBC has a good overview of the history and scope of the scandal the post refers to. There's lots of good, actionable advice ut there for dealing with creeps like the one in this story. For more stor...

[#77] It's an anti-advice espiode, as we delve into the Top 15 WORST Pieces of DM Advice, (possibly) Ever. Follow along as we cover the first half of the list. Everything we love can be found at curmudgeonsanddragons.com • Theme Music: º Crunk Knight by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3566-crunk-knight • Transition Music: º Thatched Villagers by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4481-thatched-villagers License: https://filmmusic.io/standard...

[#76] In this Horror Story, Josey is our host (at least for the into)! Jason brings us the tale of miscommunication between the DM and the party. Jim is off this week. You can read the original post and comments here. Josey invoked Skyrim's Golden Claw Quest . For more stories of terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories every Friday! Check out our other episodes! • Theme Music: º Crunk Knight by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/so...

[#75] In this NEW segment Jason, Josey, and a very laggy Greg (sorry! I tried fixing it!) talk about their favorite books published by anyone other than WotC, Jim is off this week. THis week, we're talking about the pretty brilliantThe Monsters Know What They're Doing. There's MORE The Monsters Know What They're Doing! These books spin out of the long-running blog of the same name. Everything we love can be found at curmudgeonsanddragons.com • Theme Music: º Crunk Knight by Kevin MacLeod: ht...

[#74] This week's Horror Story comes from Josey. Jim and Greg are off this week. You can read the original post and comments here. This story is about a superheroic game using the Savage Worlds system. We talk a lot about Session Zero. Josey mentioned a book about the Stamford Prison Experiment. For more stories of terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories every Friday! Check out our other episodes! • Theme Music: º Crunk Knight by Kevin MacLeodLin...

[#73] Jason and Josey discuss the trailer for the forthcming D&D movie Honor Among Thieves. Greg and Jim are off this week. Josey admits she's never seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (I Know, right?) The very first D&D media property was... not exactly big-budget. The Y2K D&D Movie was universa lly panned by just about everyone. THIS IS NO GAME! We're all cautiously optimistic about the Easter Egg-rich trailer for the new blockbuster. Everything we love can be found at curmudgeonsanddrago...

[#72] This Horror Story of a player overstepping another PC's boundaries in a pretty problematic way comes to us via Greg. Josey is off this week. You can read the original post and comments here. We talked about The Mandalorian, who's never supposed to take his mask off (with others around). For more stories of terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories every Friday! Check out our other episodes! • Theme Music: º Crunk Knight by Kevin MacLeodLink: ht...

[#71] In this week's DM Advice segment, we cover questions we wanted to weigh in on from the DMAcademy advice subreddit. We covered a lot of ground on this episode! It's OK to be sad even when a campaign ends, no matter how nice the players are about it. Seasoned professional monster hunters will not forget to reclaim thier swords. How to reward your players for not being jerks to a djinn . Jim has some thoughts on the best way to handle librairies in your campaign. Riddle me this, pineappl...

[#70] In this Horror Story, Josey regales us with an extremely dubious accusation of meta-gaming. You can read the original post and comments here. Josey mentioned the Boston Tea Party chain of UK cafes. We invoked the sublime sport of Calvinball. Josey also name-checked the Dead by Daylight co-op video game franchise. For more stories of terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories every Friday! Check out our other episodes! • Theme Music: º Crunk Kn...

[#69] It's a nice episode as we complete our review of the Top 50 Tips for DMs. This week, it's #41-50. Our Top 50 Tips list come courtesy of MT Black Games. Halfling Hobbies has this great overview on building great backgrounds with PCs AND NCs. Josey calld out Ghosts of Saltmarsh for the cool dueling pirate factions. And, of course, we regularly praise The Monsters Know What They're Doing. Everything we love can be found at curmudgeonsanddragons.com • Theme Music: º Crunk Knight by Kevin...

[#68] In this episode, Jim brings a tale of pedantry and the bad kind of axe-grinding. Check out the original post and comments . No matter how you pronounce them, firbolgs are pretty cool and have been around for a while in D&D. For what it's worth, this is not a new debate. For more stories of terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories every Friday! Check out our other episodes! • Theme Music: º Crunk Knight by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetec...

[#67] It's time for another round of RPG Wholesome Stories! We've got the whole crew this week, and each of us came with a tale of gaming done right. Jason talked about a fun new game that started in a VR chat. Greg had a great tale of specialization and letting the dice help tell the story Josey brought us a heartwarming tale of a septugenarian gnome druid. Jim brought the tale of a tamed ochre jelly that looks ot have since been taken down, so no link. If you're VR-curious, you can get the...

[#66] In this horror story, Jason brings the tale of a very weird and uncomfortable transformation. Jim is off at Origins for this episode. You can read the original post and comments here . This was apparently all kicked off by a portrait like this . For more stories of terrible games, check out the RPG Horror Stories subReddit. We tell horror stories every Friday! Check out our other episodes! • Theme Music: º Crunk Knight by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3566...