Game Master's Journey

Lex continues his exploration of Xanathar's Guide to Everything, the latest rules supplement for Dungeons & Dragons. This week he digs into the outstanding work done to improve the value of tool proficiencies in the game.

Lex begins a series of episodes discussing Xanathar's Guide to Everything, the new D&D rules supplement. Today he gives an overview of the book with a tour of its contents. Whether you're a player or a DM, Xanathar's Guide has something for everyone.

Behind the Screen is a series of GM commentary companion episodes to Lex's new D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria. This week Lex discusses running session 1, Into the Wilds.

Behind the Screen is a series of GM commentary companion episodes to Lex's new D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria. This week Lex discusses how he prepared for the first session, Into the Wilds.

Behind the Screen is a series of GM commentary companion episodes to Lex's new D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria. This week Lex discusses his preparation for the campaign.

Behind the Screen is a series of GM commentary companion episodes to Lex's new D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria. This week Lex gives an introduction to his homebrew D&D world, Primordia.

Lex returns to his discussion of the Dungeon Master’s Guide with an exploration of the astral plane. This is the first part of a two part discussion. We'll go over the basics of the astral plane. We’re not given a lot of details on this plane in the 5e DMG compared to previous editions, so in part two we’ll refer to the Manual of the Planes from 3rd edition to fill in the gaps. This week Lex also discuss some of the spells used to travel the planes--plane shift, gate and astral projection.

In October's livestream episode, Lex discusses his upcoming D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria, which he'll be livestreaming on YouTube. He also talks about the future of Game Master's Journey, adjusting encounters in a published adventure for PCs of a lower or higher level, Tomb of Annihilation and Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

Lex discusses why game balance is important. We often think of game balance when coming up with campaign-affecting house rules, but we should also keep it in mind when making rulings on-the-fly during play. These spontaneous house rules can have just as much impact on our games as the ones we spend time designing.

Lex covers a variety of RPG topics today including getting PCs back to town at the end of the session in West Marches campaigns, Limitless Adventures' Limitless NPCs, stepping on toes, Jeremy Crawford's DM hacks and handing out legendary and other powerful magic items. Finally Lex discusses the belief that worldbuilding is a waste of the GM's time because the players won't care about the setting anyway.

Lex shares what he learned from his latest D&D campaign. Then he begins a discussion of chapter 2 of the Dungeon Master's Guide: Creating a Multiverse. He covers the different types of planes and different ways you can fit them together into a cosmology. Finally he discusses some of the ways PCs can access and travel the planes.

Brett joins the show again for a GM to GM discussion of some general GM philosophy and tips, and Lex goes into some detail on his upcoming campaign and his homebrew world of Primordia.

Encounters seldom turn out in practice as they appear on paper. Today Lex discusses some ways to scale an encounter on the fly during play.

Today Lex discusses feedback from Listener-GMs on recent topics. He discusses his opinions on Professional Game Masters. He also talks about "random" encounters, player honesty, competition, theater of the mind and the impartialness of the GM in West Marches style campaigns.

Lex wraps up his exploration of chapter 1 of the Dungeon Master's Guide with a discussion of the flavors of fantasy.

Today Lex talks about what he's done to prepare for his next campaign, The Hinterlands of Elandria.

Lex returns to the DMG to discuss play style and tiers of play. Not all D&D campaigns are the same, and this is the point in your campaign creation where you decide exactly what kind of an experience you’re going for.

Lex discusses preparation for his new campaign.

Today Lex moves to the other side of the GM screen to talk with his DM, Brett. Lex has been playing in Brett’s campaign quite a while now and having a lot of fun. Lex asks him about his GMing style and about his homebrew setting of Terindal. They also talk about how to avoid railroading the PCs, and Brett's experiences running D&D at the higher tiers of play.

Lex discusses some variations you can consider to tailor the West Marches formula to the needs of your own campaign. He describes the variations he's using for his own campaign, The Hinterlands of Elandria.

Lex discusses Wizards of the Coast's new product announcements: Xanathar's Guide to Everything and Tomb of Annihilation. He also discusses West Marches campaigns, Mearls' crazy initiative system, and more.

Welcome to the first episode of the Game Master's Journey Livestream. Lex introduces the show and explains what you can expect.

In the second of a series of episodes on West Marches campaigns, Lex discusses how to prepare and run a West Marches-style campaign.

Lex and Christopher discuss West Marches campaigns--a style of campaign that features wilderness exploration and player-directed action. Everything from scheduling, to party makeup, to game session objectives is up to the players!

Lex returns to the Dungeon Master's Guide to discuss creating campaign events. These events are the perfect way to begin or end a campaign, or to renew flagging interest in a campaign that's grown stagnant. Finally, Lex discusses ending a campaign.

Lex returns to his exploration of the DMG and discusses creating a campaign. Whether you’re creating your first campaign, or you’ve created so many you’ve lost count, the DMG has some tools to help you.

Lex returns to his in-depth exploration of the DMG with a discussion of how you can use magic to flesh out your world. Whether magic is rare or common, low-powered or high-powered, reviled or respected, the consequences of your decisions will trickle down throughout your setting.

Mike Schley joins the show to discuss art, mapping and worldbuilding in RPGs. He discusses his new Schleyscapes Kickstarter and his setting of Fernweh.

Factions and organizations are a great way to add richness to your world and increase your players' engagement and investment with your setting. Lex discusses how to create organizations, and he illustrates the process with his Honorable Guild of Adventurers Explorers and Scholars and the mystery cults of the gods of Primordia.

Even the best published adventure can be improved by tailoring it to your players and their PCs. Lex discusses some issues with The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, and he details some of the changes he's made to the adventure to address these problems. Hopefully this example will help you put your own spin on the next published adventure you run, leading to an even more enjoyable experience for both you and your players.

In this special, Patron-sponsored bonus episode, Lex discusses whether or not we need mass combat rules in our tabletop RPGs. He also presents a listener-GM's fantastic strategy on how to turn player absence into an opportunity for the rest of the group. Finally he gives some thoughts on keeping real-world religious conflicts from ruining the game for everyone.

Lex continues his series on the Dungeon Master’s Guide with a discussion of creating settlements for your campaign.

Lex discusses designing The Trickster’s Labyrinth, his first published D&D adventure. He also talks about some of his experiences thus far running The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.

Lex continues his exploration of the DMG with a discussion of creating maps for your campaign and world. He discusses the bottom-up and top-down approaches to mapping, giving some pros and cons of each. He also considers what to do if you don't have any skills with mapping and provides some campaign map resources to help you with your campaign and world.

Lex discusses developing gods and a pantheon for his homebrew world of Primordia. Lex first attempted to base Primordia's gods on the domains in D&D, but finally realized it wasn’t working. Lex shares what he's learned from this and what he thinks is a better approach to creating gods and pantheons for your homebrew world.

Lex continues his exploration of the DMG with a discussion of gods and deities in your world. Lex explores different types of pantheons and religious systems, and provides examples from his own homebrew world of Primordia.

Today Lex discusses Tales from the Yawning Portal, an adventure supplement for Dungeons & Dragons. Lex gives a full review of the book overall and each of the seven included adventures.

Lex begins a discussion of the first chapter of the Dungeon Master's Guide with an exploration of the core assumptions of the published D&D settings and how you can alter them to create a world that’s truly unique. Lex accompanies this with an introduction to his own homebrew D&D world of Primordia and how he's approached these core assumptions. Finally, Lex talks a bit about his continuing journey in designing the god, pantheons, portfolios and domains of Primordia.

This week Lex begins an in-depth exploration of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. He spends some time discussing the different aspects of a roleplaying game and how you can engage players who enjoy those different aspects.

Lex discusses how he prepared for an upcoming D&D session. He explains how he took a problem encounter and used it as an opportunity to reinforce the themes of the campaign and further the goals he has for this particular session and the campaign overall.

Stephen Rhodes joins Lex to discuss the craft and art of running RPGs. They discuss the similarities & differences between writing for video games & running RPG adventures and Stephen points out yet another way that theater of the mind play is an invaluable tool in the improvisational GM’s toolbox. They also discuss the difference between a DM-PC and an NPC that travels with the party, how to know which side of that line you’re on, and how killing off a beloved NPC can be exactly what your story needs.

Stephen Rhodes joins Lex on the show today to talk about how being a Game Master helped him get where he is today as a writer for Ubisoft Games. They also discuss writing & publishing RPG adventures, the pros & cons of class-based games, their thoughts on the ultimate RPG super-system, insights on starting a new campaign, & techniques for running RPGs for both new and veteran players.

Lex discusses D&D Beyond, a new online tool for players and DMs. He also discusses how cutting words interacts with initiative rolls, a few initiative variants and using potions. He gives thoughts to consider when making house rules or rules variants—there’s more to it than what makes sense logically. Finally, he gives an update on his upcoming D&D adventure, The Trickster’s Labyrinth.

This week Lex concludes his in-depth discussion of the D&D Player's Handbook with an exploration of the spellcasting, conditions and exhaustion rules.

Lex launches into an in-depth discussion of the combat rules of D&D. If you have any questions about the rules, or you'd just like a refresher, this is the episode for you.

Today I continue my series on the Roles of the GM. In this episode we discuss the GM as a teacher. As GMs we often find ourselves teaching players a new game, or even teaching players who’ve never played an RPG before. I give you strategies to set yourself up for success and ensure your players come back for more. I also give some tips specific to teaching 5th edition D&D to new players, and finally I give some tips for new GMs preparing to run D&D for the first time.

I continue my discussion of chapter 8 of the PHB. We’ll talk about food & water, & interacting with objects. We’ll also discuss social interaction and the difference between descriptive and active roleplaying. I have some thoughts on how you can encourage more immersive active roleplaying from your players. Finally, we’ll go over resting and downtime activities.

I begin discussing chapter 8 of the Player’s Handbook, Adventuring, which includes travel pace, special types of movement, activities while traveling, falling, suffocating, vision and light.

Today I’ll discuss an excellent Ted talk I saw about how playing RPGs like D&D is good for us. Before that, I’ll discuss Wizards of the Coast’s product replacement policy for D&D fifth edition. Their website is misleading, and the process is much easier than you may have been led to believe.

I dig into chapter 7 of the Player’s Handbook and discuss ability checks. I tell you how you can determine which ability and skill to use for a check and how to assign the DC for a check. I also touch on helping, group checks, encumbrance, and hiding in combat. Finally, I provide some insight on how to know when to ask for a roll, and when not to.