Episode 255 of Mastering Dungeons!
Main topic: Draw Steel Negotiations and Montages!
Shawn and Teos discuss how the new Draw Steel RPG’s systems for montages and negotiations felt during their recent game, reviewing the lofty goals and interesting design.
News: Is Dark Sun Coming? Critical Role Chooses D&D West Marches, Shadowdark Org Play, Why Crawford and Perkins Joined CR, and more!
Contents
00:00 Teos at PAX West
02:28 Dan Ayoub Confidence in 2024?
12:03 Insight Check as Lie Detector?
22:36 Unearthed Arcana - Dark Sun?
25:59 CR Chooses 5E West Marches
33:00 Crawford and Perkins' Motives
39:41 Shadowdark Org Play
41:01 Draw Steel Summoner Playtest
42:01 Free Draw Steel Minis
42:22 Pirate Borg Localizations
44:10 Exodus RPG Encyclopedia
45:17 ARPIA Award Finalists
46:21 Grim Hollow Transformed on D&D Beyond
48:30 Negotiations and Montages
51:19 Montage Rules
54:05 Negotiation Rules
56:43 Larger Gameplay Concepts
01:07:23 Our Play Experience
01:18:39 Montage Outcomes
01:26:17 Negotiations in Our Game
01:34:59 Considering Alternate Systems
01:40:57 Shout-Outs
01:44:54 What Are We Gonna Do?
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Show Search Engine: https://mdsearch.alphastream.org/
Our intro and outro music is Metropolis Fanfare, provided royalty-free by Tabletop Audio (https://tabletopaudio.com) under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
MP3 file metadata populated with Online MP3 Podcast Chapter Editor, built by Dominik Peters. https://mp3chapters.github.io/ and customized for Mastering Dungeons by Vladimir Prenner from Croatia.
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1:45:40
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1:45:40
Draw Steel at Level 1! (MD 254)
Episode 254 of Mastering Dungeons!
Main topic: Draw Steel RPG at Level 1!
Shawn and Teos play Draw Steel on the D20 Play channel. We discuss how the game plays at level 1, including the goals of the RPG and how well they worked. We also discuss how it felt to play a Talent (psion) and Troubadour.
News: D&D in the Heart of London, D&D at the Ballpark, Starter Set Delays, and more!
Contents
00:00 Beloved Corrections
04:36 Future of Organized Play?
18:35 Wild West Campaign?
21:43 Is Complexity Good?
27:03 How to Hook Friends and Family on D&D
39:41 Starter Set Delayed in EU and UK
41:05 Baseball and D&D
43:22 D&D in London
44:36 Legends of Greyhawk Videos
45:50 Cosmere Print Date
46:18 Battlezoo Secret Tomes
47:07 Surviving Strangehollow on Gamefound
48:09 Aetherial Expanse: Dreasm of the Drowned God
49:25 Draw Steel at Level 1
50:42 We Love Games!
53:33 Tactical Heroic Cinematic Fantasy
56:28 Tactical and Heroic Play
59:51 Cinematic Play
01:03:09 Talent at Level 1
01:09:00 Troubador at Level 1
01:15:56 Complexity
01:23:03 Monsters in Draw Steel
01:28:51 Designed to Make Players Into DMs
01:31:57 Shout-Outs
01:35:08 What Are We Gonna Do?
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Show Search Engine: https://mdsearch.alphastream.org/
Our intro and outro music is Metropolis Fanfare, provided royalty-free by Tabletop Audio (https://tabletopaudio.com) under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
MP3 file metadata populated with Online MP3 Podcast Chapter Editor, built by Dominik Peters. https://mp3chapters.github.io/ and customized for Mastering Dungeons by Vladimir Prenner from Croatia.
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1:35:48
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1:35:48
How to DM Parenting with Shelly Mazzanoble! (MD 253)
Episode 253 of Mastering Dungeons!
Main topic: How to DM Parenting with Shelly Mazzanoble!
D&D’s Shelly Mazzanoble joins us to discuss her new book: How to Dungeon Master Parenting! This hilarious and insightful book offers a lot for DMs and parents. We discuss how the two compare and Shelly’s storied past where she has worked to promote women in D&D and D&D’s philanthropic efforts.
News: Japan’s D&D Initiative, Diablo RPG, Tropes that Ruin RPGs, and more!
Contents
00:00 We're 159!
03:18 Is D&D Scrutiny New?
07:55 RPGS Cannibalizing Each Other?
14:48 If We Knew 1 Spell?
18:28 Criminally Overlooked Game Design?
26:14 D&D in Japan
28:04 New Fallbacks Novel
29:27 5 Tropes Ruin D&D
33:36 Stranger Things Minis
35:11 Metaphor vs Mechanics
39:00 Diablo RPG
40:21 Shelly Mazzanoble
41:15 Shelly's Amazing D&D Contributions
43:45 Shelly's and Global Philanthropy
48:59 Women and New Players in D&D
57:37 How to DM Parenting
01:10:07 Child Stat Blocks
01:13:10 DM and Parenting Styles
01:21:06 Find Shelly and Her Book
01:24:24 Shout-outs
01:28:45 What Are We Gonna Do?
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Show Search Engine: https://mdsearch.alphastream.org/
Our intro and outro music is Metropolis Fanfare, provided royalty-free by Tabletop Audio (https://tabletopaudio.com) under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
MP3 file metadata populated with Online MP3 Podcast Chapter Editor, built by Dominik Peters. https://mp3chapters.github.io/ and customized for Mastering Dungeons by Vladimir Prenner from Croatia.
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1:29:27
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1:29:27
New Era of RPG Revolution? (MD 252)
Episode 252 of Mastering Dungeons!
Main topic: New Era of RPG Revolution?
Huge Gen Con announcements and kickstarters have us asking… is this a new era of RPG Evolution? We look at why it is so hard to compete with D&D and why maybe companies should not want to compete at all!
News: Daggerheart Makes Big Moves, Draw Steel Released, FR DLC, and more!
Contents
00:00 Climb Gen Con Harder
01:36 Shawn on Tabletop Journeys
02:25 Gen Con Review
06:20 WotC Out of Adventure Ideas?
12:16 Forgotten Realms DLC
13:50 Netheril's Fate
15:27 Astarion's Book of Hungers
18:07 Draw Steel Released in PDF!
21:44 Daggerheart is Serious
24:50 How Many Demiplane PCs?
33:42 Cosmere Minis
34:29 ENNie Awards
36:36 Cypher Revised Announced
37:52 DeMinimis and Tarrifs
39:39 Era of RPG Revolution
40:55 2025 May Be Different
42:39 The History of D&D Challengers
44:38 D&D's Market and Brand Advantage
48:44 Licensing
49:51 Actually a Great Game
55:23 Economies of Scale
58:49 What Does Competition Look Like?
01:02:51 Ocean vs Pond
01:10:41 Competition Isn't the Only Endgame
01:18:22 Dan Ayoub and How WotC Evolves
01:23:19 A Rolling SRD
01:24:30 DDB Maps for All Subscribers
01:26:24 D&D Advisory Group
01:27:19 The Future We Envision
01:32:43 Shout-Outs
01:37:23 What Are We Gonna Do?
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Show Search Engine: https://mdsearch.alphastream.org/
Our intro and outro music is Metropolis Fanfare, provided royalty-free by Tabletop Audio (https://tabletopaudio.com) under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
MP3 file metadata populated with Online MP3 Podcast Chapter Editor, built by Dominik Peters. https://mp3chapters.github.io/ and customized for Mastering Dungeons by Vladimir Prenner from Croatia.
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1:38:03
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1:38:03
Listeners Have Their Way! (MD 251)
Episode 251 of Mastering Dungeons!
Main topic: Listeners Have Their Way!
It’s a Listener Corner extravaganza as we fill our regular segment with tough questions from our awesome listeners!
News: Hasbro Disastrously Beats Q2 Expectations, Critical Role Expands Shows, and more!
Contents
00:00 Transforming News
04:10 Teos Ghostfire Breaking News
04:55 Happy 251st Show!
05:44 Hasbro Q2 Disastrously Beats Expectations
08:48 WotC Q2 Results
12:38 D&D Q2 Revenue
14:16 Comparing 2024 to 2014 Revenues
15:04 Critical Role Expands Shows
17:01 Cover Reveals for FR Books
19:37 Cthulhu by Torchlight Exclusive DDB
22:15 Weapons of Legend for Draw Steel
22:59 Kobold Ancestry for Draw Steel
24:10 Listener Corner Extravaganza
25:32 Dragon Delves and Arora?
29:18 Resolving Player Conflict ?
36:22 Comparing Non-D&D RPGs to Each Other
46:27 Favorite RPGs and Adventures to Read?
55:42 What We Wish Designers Would Stop Doing?
01:00:38 Shout-Outs
01:05:52 What Are We Gonna Do?
Thank you for listening! Get the full show notes with links on Patreon.
Show Search Engine: https://mdsearch.alphastream.org/
Our intro and outro music is Metropolis Fanfare, provided royalty-free by Tabletop Audio (https://tabletopaudio.com) under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
MP3 file metadata populated with Online MP3 Podcast Chapter Editor, built by Dominik Peters. https://mp3chapters.github.io/ and customized for Mastering Dungeons by Vladimir Prenner from Croatia.
RPG veterans and game designers Teos Abadía and Shawn Merwin look at the game and the hobby of D&D from a variety of viewpoints: reporting the news, understanding the business, reviewing the products, and illuminating the design. Whether you’re a fan, a player, a DM, or a designer, Shawn and Teos cover topics of interest to you!