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by The 3 Wise DMs
3 Wise DMs is a podcast for dungeon masters (for Dungeons & Dragons) and game masters (any other RPG) with problems. And when we say problems, we don’t mean the kind of things you find answers for in the gamebooks. Think of it as a gaming philosophy show with a strong emphasis on applied knowledge. We all want to be great DMs, so what do we do to try to get there?
Latest Episodes
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- 1 weeks ago1h 3m
Two DMs Share Best Tips To Combine Call of Cthulhu and D&D into One Adventure!
Birthday games are 3WDs specialty… and it has now begun to grow. New DMs are joining in on the fun and running new, unique, and exciting games in all types of systems and taking on the challenge of one-upping the Wise DMs.In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down with returning guests, Bonnie and Elizabeth, to review, unpack, and discuss the steps they took to take a one-off Call of Cthulhu investigation from last year and transform it into a massive 9-player adventure that spanned both Call of Cthulhu and D&D! For anyone that has ever thought of mashing systems and players together… this is the episode for you!2:00 The 3 Wise DMs review the overall experience.3:45 Our Guest DMs, Bonnie and Elizabeth, provide the high overview of approaching a large adventure combining 2 separate systems.9:35 The inciting incident for our current Investigation.16:15 Providing spotlight for all the characters.19:05 The power of narrative-focused TTRPGs.22:38 Time management in one-shots.30:50 Developing a mystery that will allow the players to discover it and NOT blow your clock budget.36:40 Bringing the tables back together for the finale and the “Psychology of the Sheet.”50:05 Final Thoughts.
- May 3, 202648 min
3 Wise DMs Reveal the 7 DM Styles To Make You Run The Best D&D Game Ever
Recently, Matt Colville of the Running the Game YouTube series and author of the new Draw Steel TTRPG, discussed the concept of “DM Style.” With someone who has been involved in all things tabletop for over 40 years, you would think that he would believe in developing a DM Style. However, his hot take was that he wasn’t sure there even was such a thing.In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to discuss DM Style: Is it a thing and, if so, what are the things that make it up. Along the way, we discuss how to take all these lists and types of DM Styles and make them work for you in putting together a better game.2:55 The flip side of the coin to Episode 7: The Eight Player Types.3:22 The first issue with DM Style: It probably changes with the group you’re running for.4:30 Lists can be helpful if they are prescriptive – not just descriptive.6:15 DM Style is a lot like Personality Tests: you’re a mixture of all the different metrics that keeps changing.9:55 DM Tony takes some inspiration from his MBA Program “Back in the Day…”15:00 Management “styles” read more like DM Style metrics: Autocrat, Laissez-Faire, Democratic, Collaborative, Inspirational, Strategic, Results-Oriented.18:00 The idea of “DM Signature” as opposed to “DM Style.”20:00 These metrics, or dials, are always being adjusted – even in real-time during the game.22:15 DM Chris’ 5 Metrics: Rules, Story Focus, Session Style, Prep, and Conversation Style.25:15 Does “DM Style” change with the system you’re running?27:15 The DMs character: the World. We return to the 8 Player Types.37:07 “Are You Not Entertained?” Fun Gameplay supersedes rules, styles, and the like.40:45 Final Thoughts.
- Apr 19, 202656 min
First D&D Campaign Tonight? The 6 Must-Have Tips To Making It Memorable and Stress-Free
Maybe you’ve run some one-shots or even multi-night campaigns. But now you’ve made the decision to run a long-term campaign for many levels – maybe all the way to 20th. How do you make the jump? What do you need to know that will make the transition seamless? What are the differences between running a single session and many sessions that tell an epic, massive story?In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down with our recurring special guest and player – the Monster Wrangler himself, Matt! Along the way, we discuss the tips, tricks, and pitfalls to making the jump to running a whole campaign. For all you new DMs, check out Episodes 29, 90, and 113 for more tips!4:00 What made Matt want to take it to the next level?6:40 Matt’s next level of immersive play: costume changes!8:30 What are you going to run? Homebrew? Published? What made Matt want to run Tyranny of Dragons?10:15 Tip #1: Published material is just information: use what you want.14:10 Tip#2: Balance out the stronger and weaker play styles.15:10 How to go forward when you have to have actions and consequences affect later sessions?20:38 Tip #3: How the make-up of your table will affect how you run the campaign.23:30 Tip #4: Let what the players offer to you about their character guide the campaign.26:55 What did Matt take away from the first session?30:00 Finding inspiration for the adventure hook and introduction.31:50 The consistent lack of good adventure hooks in the early 5e campaigns.33:50 How do you make a general campaign unique? Answer: The Players.36:30 Where do we go from here? Weaving the sessions together.42:20 Tip #5: Not every session will start as exciting as a dragon attack and that’s okay.43:15 Tip #6: “I wouldn’t have changed anything.” DM Matt reveals the best tip. You didn’t mess up or ruin anything. Don’t carry things with you into the next session. 45:25 Final Thoughts.
- Apr 5, 202652 min
Join the Quest: Unearthing the Mysteries of Boomtown’s 5e Western Wonderland!
Over the course of twelve episodes, we have enlisted the help of all our listeners to create the first-ever crowdsourced and collaborative campaign setting – what we call Boomtown! In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to reveal the end of this very successful experiment… well, maybe not the end, but a very solid foundation from which to launch Boomtown.For anyone who is new to the podcast, as well as for all the listeners that have helped us craft it, this episode puts it all into perspective and wraps it with a nice bow. Stay tuned for next steps!1:50 Boomtown is here!3:25 Boomtown is one of the few western settings available to set your 5e campaign in.8:15 The Trivium, our Romanesque totalitarian Regime to the east of Boomtown.14:00 Your starting Boomtown: Gallow Springs!17:45 Our specific Economic Mechanics to make resource management matter in Boomtown.25:45 Guns! How the idea of firearms really forced some mechanical and philosophical choices.30:30 We nail down Unarmored Defense for all classes.35:45 Making Critical Failures Matter – Misfires.36:55 Our updated Skills for Boomtown.39:15 Your starter adventuring party in Gallow Springs!42:25 Our updates to magic that make it special and unique in Boomtown: Prophets and Technology.46:15 Final Thoughts.
- Mar 22, 202652 min
Super Heroes: When DMs Go to Marvel’s Secret Wars
You’ve seen the trailer. You saw the #MinisMonday post… Tony’s birthday game where Chris and Dave teamed up to run our group through a tabletop wargame in our own custom Marvel Universe of 6-1-SHIT, where the heroes were brought to Battleplanet to fight the SECRET WARS!In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of our custom, simplified, Heroclix system that allowed for a game that reflected the scope of the Secret Wars: The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Heroes of Hells Kitchen, and our homebrewed heroes as they fought the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, The Masters of Evil, Doctor Doom, Ultron, and Galactus!This is another in the long line of adapting wargaming to your table, regardless of your experience!3:00 DM Chris provides the background for the game.7:55 DM Tony’s initial reaction to the game.10:00 The difficulty with introducing wargaming into your games and how to simplify it for everyone to enjoy.14:45 We start breaking down the mechanics and set-up of the game.18:43 The benefits of co-DMing.21:50 An easy system to adapt to any table and any game.30:20 A run through of the basic mechanics and set-up. We use Captain America as our example.36:10 We discuss the difficulty of integrating our Journey System into the game.43:22 Final Thoughts.
- Mar 1, 202644 min
Elevate Your TTRPG: Discover New Dimensions of Magic!
One of the easiest ways to make your campaign and your setting feel real, immersive, and unique is by taking away the certitude that magic is always going to act the same way. This mysterious, world-altering energy should not ever be completely understood by your characters, as the discovery of it is a big part of the fun.In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to respond to a listener question about their homebrewed idea of making magic work differently in different areas of their world. They ask how we might approach it in our ever-growing, crowdsourced Boomtown campaign setting. 1:35 Our listener question from The OMG Father, Wyman!3:15 Simple ways to approach making magic change, altering Difficulty Classes and Damage output.4:15 DM Chris harkens back to the Green Lantern Corps and leans into our use of Components as trackable resources.6:05 How DM Dave altered magic in the world in our recent Dragonlance campaign.8:05 Making the zones of magic random, and DM Chris’ concern of specifically targeting arcane casters.10:25 Motivating players to adventure by seeking tech.12:12 Employing more narratively focused elements by having the player and DM work together to create something new.16:45 Leaning into the resource management for spellcasting.21:45 Allowing the tech to be utilized by any character. A Gunslinger with a Staff of Healing? Why not?25:25 Good stories come from the characters having to struggle. Always beating the monsters is fun in a one-shot, but makes for a really boring campaign.26:35 DM Tony asks what the tech looks like in Boomtown?31:10 Charging up mundane tech… the Battery of the planet Oa and bringing in a usable Craft Item skill.35:50 Final Thoughts.
- Feb 15, 202659 min
The Magic Man – Building a D&D 5e Wizard in Boomtown
We continue to build upon Boomtown - our real-time worldbuilding experiment - armed with the comments of our listeners. Having been playing through the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, we’ve experienced firsthand how alterations to the classes available for players really helps to lend a unique and immersive quality to the campaign setting – setting it apart from all others.In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to discuss the class that is most effected by the inciting incident of Boomtown – namely, that arcane magic is derived from ancient technology being recovered in the Wastes. We take him from 1st to 3rd level and, along the way, discuss the changes that reflect our weird west setting. Make sure to Join the Conversation!3:50 Naming our western Wizard.5:55 Do we rename the Wizard class like we changed Clerics to Prophets?7:55 We continue to nail down the idea that all classes receive Unarmored Defense.13:30 The idea behind low hit points for Wizards.16:05 Our customized Saving Throws.17:20 The all-important stat rolls.20:30 The changes to our Skill list.23:00 What do we mean when the technology is “warping”people?25:00 The Component Pouch.30:45 One last Frontier Pack and his starting equipment.33:45 We delve into how spellcasting works and some changes to make the Wizard preparing spells.45:30 Do Schools of Magic make sense in Boomtown? The idea of Wizards taking a Technology Path.53:15 Our 3rd Level Engineer!54:05 Final Thoughts.
- Feb 1, 202658 min
Prophets of Doom – Reworking the D&D Cleric for Boomtown
We continue to build upon Boomtown - our real-time worldbuilding experiment - armed with the comments of our listeners. Having been playing through the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, we’ve experienced firsthand how alterations to the classes available for players really helps to lend a unique and immersive quality to the campaign setting – setting it apart from all others.In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to discuss Clerics in a world where all the magic that is known seems to be technologically-based. We take them from 1st to 3rd level and, along the way, discuss the changes that reflect our weird west setting. Make sure to Join the Conversation!4:00 The Name! Always start with the name. Introducing Sister Mercy Cain.5:30 Renaming the Cleric: The Prophet Class.7:20 Rolling Mercy’s stats.10:50 Customizing Saving Throws.13:30 A short step back into Sneak Attack and finesse weapons in regards to Firearms.16:50 No Plate Mail in the western setting - Unarmored Defense for all classes.21:12 Skills and a discussion on a Preach skill instead of Religion.28:00 Everyone gets a Frontier Pack! Building out equipment and weapons.34:30 We begin to discuss spellcasting for the Prophet class – 3 separate ideas.42:50 Leveling Sister Mercy to 2nd level and our discussion on Channel Divinity, Domains, and Deities.53:00 Our 3rd Level Prophet!53:30 Final Thoughts.
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About 3 Wise DMs
3 Wise DMs is a podcast for dungeon masters (for Dungeons & Dragons) and game masters (any other RPG) with problems. And when we say problems, we don’t mean the kind of things you find answers for in the gamebooks. Think of it as a gaming philosophy show with a strong emphasis on applied knowledge. We all want to be great DMs, so what do we do to try to get there?
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