The Exemplary DM Podcast

Season 2, Episode 7

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:19:55 PST

The Penetration Episode!

How to get through to the players at your table who aren't really into the whole role-playing thing, and perhaps treat your DND table like a video game. Lots of tips and tricks to engaging even the most douchey of players!

Show Notes:

The next edition of DND
If it isn’t fun, it’s probably the DM.
If you’re the DM, it’s probably your players.
To summarize, if you’re playing a game with five other people and not having fun, it’s almost certainly not the game system.
Chad signed up to be a DNDNext playtester, did you?

Tips to Try for Player Penetration:

Show them maps, pics, letters, etc. Visual Aids.

Even if they don’t care about the story, everyone reacts to an awesome dragon pic.
"Holy fuck that's a badass dragon."

Keep the story simple, but more importantly, keep the story clear.
Picture a day in the life. Not everything is warring factions and dragon attacks. What do people do when there’s nothing going on?

You don’t have to explain this to players unless they ask, but it helps to answer questions and get a clear view of your world.

Reward contribution and creativity heavily.
Center your story on the PCs individually, instead of on your own story.
Center your story on loot grabbing and important items.

Optimizers will love the bonuses that they’re working towards; roleplayers will love the journey.
"You gotta go reunite me with my hilt, bitch! What's this hilt? Fuckin pewter?"

Encourage skill feats as opposed to attack/damage feats.
If a player likes to optimize in combat, reward them for optimizing OUT of combat.
Challenge your combat monkeys

The more they get invested in combat, the more they’re going to get invested in other stuff.
They’ll want to boast!

Don’t dwell on lack of role playing , remember DM's do not take things personally. Get over it!
Be subtle when enticing role playing from munchkins.
Ask for specifics in a backstory, not just generalizations or wide-sweeping stories. Gladly give them time to prep this answer if need be.
Let them world-build. Optimizers have an great time making stuff. Ask about places in their past, then put them in the game.

Make sure players know they have permission and leeway to create in your world.

Gadgets of the Podcast:

Encounter: The ambush into the setting sun
T-shirt Idea: the dice are trying to kill me
Character Concept: the revenge-bound aborigine, Suanzi
Player Tip: Re-skin your mechanics
DM tip: take a break during sessions

Big Thanks:

For music, once again big thanks to the Diablo String Orchestra and The Kobolds! Also big thanks to super-fan Joshua Bentley, who provided some more great voice work for us.

Right-click and Save-As below, or us the RSS feed built into this page.
Mirror 1 (128kbps) (Atlanta US) (47.4mb)

Mirror 2 (128kbps) (Atlanta US) (47.4mb)

Mirror 3 (128kbps) (East Coast US) (47.4mb)

Check us out on iTunes and give us some reviews and/or ratings and/or hurtful criticism!

What do you think?

Welcome all our new listeners to the family of ExemplaryDM! Give us reviews in the comments below, hit us up on Twitter @ExemplaryDM, or shoot us an email at exemplary d m at gmail dot com

The First Exemplary DM Art Contest

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:48:15 PST

The Contest:

Create an original work of art that depicts one of our Top 10 Worst Character Concepts from Season 2, Episode 6. That's it!

It should be obvious from the picture which of the Top 10 Worst Character Concepts you are showing. So yeah... you kinda do have to listen to S2E6.

The art can be a full body shot, a portrait, a Spielbergian movie poster, an impressionist masterwork, or a macaroni noodle arrangement. Just as long as you can email us a quality picture of it, we'll accept it.

Rules:

Any digital still media. We don't care whether you create it with charcoal, photoshop, MS Paint, ASCII code, machinima, photography, candy art, insane scribblings, stained glass, or body shaving. We really hope you make it pleasant to both look at and to imagine the creation of.
Minimum resolution is 1600 pixels squared. (It doesn't have to be square.) If it is bigger than a 1000 pixels, we'll have to resize (constraining dimensions).
It has to be original. Don't shamefully or shamelessly steal someone else's art or idea.
It has to be free of copy-written material. A Star Wars parody is fine as long as it doesn't actually include any licensed Star Wars images.
The extent to which you follow the criteria of the contest, make laugh and create something awesome will determine the winners.
Email it to exemplary dm at gmail . com. Email as many as you like, as often as you like, up until the deadline of March 1. We'll announce the winners in the first podcast episode after March 1.
By emailing it to us, it becomes the shared property of Exemplary DM, ya da ya da, we get to use it on our website, album inserts, toilet seat covers, and tattoos. And no, we don't make any albums or toilet seat covers. If you'd like to withdraw your submission, do it before we announce you the winner, got it?
It can't be pornographic (which I know rules out half the submissions) because we wouldn't be able to show it on our non-adult-rated site.

The Prize:

You get your art, with full accreditation, displayed on our blog, which gets tens of unique visits per millenia.
You get eternal fame and glory, plus a mention on twitter.
You get four thousand experience points, which can be applied towards your geekiculum vitae.
You get to show it to all your friends at your DND table and make them jealous of your newfound podcasting immortality.

Seriously, what more do you want?

If you have any questions, email us.

Season 2, Episode 6

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:45:41 PST

This episode focuses on the Delve game format, a concept that has been pushed forward by DND 4th edition but is good for any gaming system. The idea is to have a combat-only, role playing-lite three-battle night that focuses on education for new players, ground-breaking for experienced players, solid experience for new DM's and fun for everyone.

Read more »

We're like GLaDOS

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:32:46 PST

As in, yes, we're still alive.

And yes, we've got plenty of ideas for a whole slew of podcasts. If podcast ideas were cats, we'd be widowed spinsters. With lots of cats.

And we've been playing DND recently too, campaigns and delves alike. Check out some of our picture tweets.

And we've been enjoying pleasant repartee with our tweety friends, and confirming more people who know Chamberlain. (suck it, Chad! -w)

We did actually record most of an episode last month, but then realized that we didn't cover our mic while enjoying a pleasant autumn night's breeze. #doublefacepalm

But, like we told Exemplary DM super fan @countjoshula, we are "just doing it at our pace. We are both busy busy sexy busy people."

And this is true. If anything, our podcast has been defined by doing things our way, at our timing.

And we like the results, so we're going to keep doing things our way. Thanks for sticking around, reading this, following us and listening to our catalog.

Season 2 Episode 6 coming soon, promise.

Season 2, Episode 5 - Listener Feedback Episode

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:26:59 PST

It's our one-of-a-kind Listener Feedback episode, where we read the best feedback of the summer from our awesome Legion of Listeners!

Why did we do a Listener Feedback episode? We had a bunch of it. No kidding!

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Season 2, Episode 4

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:27:12 PST

In season two, episode four we wrap up a three-part series of houserules gathered from far and wide. We thank you for all the good feedback and we've got more to read for future episodes. If we haven't read or responded to your emails yet, don't worry, we will! We try not to dedicate too much time in any given podcast to reading listener email and try to keep things topical.

Season 2, Episode 3

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:27:30 PST

Season two, episode three is part two of three of our house rules series. Beforehand we discussed the new WotC 4e rendition of the TSR classic Gamma World game. As a loyal gamer in the post-apoc genre, William joins Chad in a discussion on Gamma World, who can enjoy the new version and what we can bring from the new Gamma World "green" box to our DND table. Also, has anyone heard anything about Daggerdale? Looking for user feedback and reviews...

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S2E2 kersplodes

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:56:20 PDT

Wow, Chad and William can't thank all of our listeners, supporters, twitter buddies and wives enough for checking out our last podcast episode.

Hard at work on S2E3 and we happened to get a notification from our host- our bandwidth is tightening up, thanks to more than 300 downloads of S2E2. Wow!

S2E3 coming soon...

Season 2, Episode 2

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:27:58 PST

Our topic for season two, episode two was house rules- a broad and sweeping topic that prompted our first listener feedback segment. We've gotten a wave of activity towards us on twitter and in email!

Meanwhile, welcome to all our new listeners, soon-to-be loyal!

Read more »

Provoking a response

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:35:52 PDT

Hello, listeners!

For future episodes, we're looking for your input on ANY of the following topics:

Your favorite DND4e House Rules or general RPG "table" rules

Examples of excellent/poor/hilarious on-the-spot DM decisions, not rule-based, from your campaign or from one you played in

Your favorite custom DND Delve concepts, themes, gimmicks or scenarios

Your ideas on how to make a Delve (or one-night session) special, including ideas, scenario rules, house rules, game format

Your favorite made-up DND-related curse words (fewmets!)

Shoot us your ideas in an email ("exemplary dm at gmail dot com", no spaces of course)! If you've already blogged about a topic, shoot us the link and we'll be happy to share your content on our podcast and link to it on our shownotes.

In exchange for your ideas and input, we'll give you the attribution, praise and/or unholy scorning that you deserve!

Season 2, Episode 1

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:45:58 PDT

Thanks to all who enjoyed our first season, we are sure you'll love the second! As always, we had blast recording and trying to clumsily insert curse words into our podcast to please the gods of podcast scheduling. Witness our filth first hand as we fumble around with curse words!

We open season two with an examination of a homebrew rules tweak, and then we delve into what may be a newfangled experience for many: co-hosting a DND game. Can't thank our listeners enough for the positive feedback, we look forward to more of it!

Intro discussion:

A recap of our season one
TheAngryDM's diatribe on short rests and encounter powers

Main Topic: The Multiple DM Quandary

Gadgets of the Podcast:
Encounter - the vignette
Tee Shirt - DM's do it on Tables
Character Concept - the kenku arena fighter
DM tip - Create urgency for the players
Player tip - Take pictures and share

**A reminder- if you've seen the Dark Crystal, the podcast tells you what to do.

Right-click and Save-As (48mb) Mirror 1 (East Coast US) Mirror 2 (Atlanta)

Check us out on iTunes and give us some reviews and/or ratings and/or hurtful criticism!

What do you think?

Give us reviews in the comments below, hit us up on Twitter @ExemplaryDM, or shoot us an email at exemplarydm at gmail dot com.

Looking for multiple-DM case studies

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:36:42 PDT

So, Chad and I were just planning our next recording session via IM when...

Podcasting Progress Goes "Boink"

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:32:01 PST

Just checking in with some updates and pics.

We don't update this blog nearly as often as we tweet. If you like our blog posts, you'll probably get sick of our tweets! One of the reasons why is that we're both pretty flippin busy people, what with Chad and his advanced studies in underwater basketweaving and William working for "the man". Twitter is stupidly easy to update, and there's near-constant opportunity to say "that's what she said!" to yourself outloud.

We've posted a bunch of pictures of our recently-painted figurines, plus a pic of the epically nerdy cake that William got for his birthday from his wife.

Chad's got a pretty decent schedule for his campaign going every two weeks, but William's campaign is being ravaged by scheduling issues and hasn't played since November. Blerg. On the other hand, he's running a delve group at work, though that sometimes feels like skipping across the surface of a game.

We're hoping to podcast again soon, always open to feedback on our next topic - multiple-DM campaigns. The podcasting gawds are surely still not pleased with us, since last episode was downright PG-13 (mostly on account of the wimmins). We're cursed with busy schedules. Next episode, we'll be sure to bring the cuss and smut. Promise!

Season 1, Episode 7

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 06:04:53 PST

Happy new year!

In Season One, Episode Seven, Chad and William invited their wives, Meghan and Christine respectively, to join the podcast with the topic of:

How to help your players build their characters?

Decide some things before going to your players:

How much will I require of my players to do by themselves?

What preparation will be optional?

Will you use a reward system for voluntary content?

What will be required to play in the campaign?
Questionnaires
Short term hooks and long term hooks
Background stories
Pictures/figurines?

Generalizations are fine. Ask them to draw comparisons to characters in other fiction.
Are there any specific mechanical instructions need to give?

Hard cap/soft cap on stats?
Power/feat restrictions?

What will players know about each other?

Give your information/instructions to your players.

How much information about the world will you share with my players, and what will you share with their characters?

William - gave rough information on the general layout of a region without much specifics unless the players justifiably knew them.
Chad - lots of player-specific information that is not supposed to be character knowledge, such as specific demographics, nations and a detailed history of the geography.
In the dark - the players will be going somewhere new anyway, they'll discover as they go.
A mix - players will be in someplace familiar with information, but they'll be interfacing with a new geography too. Examples:

The party has business to do interfacing with another world - like they fey, they have to go back and forth
The city that appears out of no where, or a civilization is discovered underground or deep in a forest.
A parallel world is discovered: bizarro world where the players themselves change!

Make sure the players have time to think about it and take it into account before the first [planning] sessions.

The player, the party, and the DM collaborate on character concepts, character hooks, and party interaction.

Two different basic methods:

Move from individual creation to collaborative development.
Move from collaborative creation to individual refinement.

The DM is involved at all steps providing bits of world knowledge.

Oh, you want to be this? Here's a great way to fit that in to the world.

So what should the players be doing during the collaborative parts?

Have players think of two or three (shallow) concepts for characters, they'll chose one.
The players can bring together what information they wish and share with the other players.

These can be as simple as race/class combinations,
or common backgrounds or archetypes (e.g. meathead, scholar, assassin)
or common goals
establish personality ties and conflicts

Perhaps the first campaign session or half of the session is talking only.

or perhaps this happens on the second campaign, or via email

By the end, the players should finalize:

a background
a list of hooks both short and long term
their wiki entry? (wink)

Our Gadgets of the Podcast:

Encounter: The raid on Baron Tornash
Tee Shirt: Guns don't kill people, Magic Missiles do
Character Concept: The Last of his kind
DM Tip: Shuffle the deck, switch players.

This was an actual three-table Delve at our house one night, DM'd by William, Christine and our most excellent, most now-distant friend Drew.

Player Tip: Use one of these links below:

Links for Character Questionnaires:

More info on starting a campaign:

Right-click and Save-As (42.8mb) Download here!

Check us out on iTunes and give us some reviews and/or ratings and/or hurtful criticism!

What do you think?

Give us reviews in the comments below, hit us up on Twitter @ExemplaryDM, or shoot us an email at exemplarydm at gmail dot com. We're also looking for comments and thoughts on our next podcast topic: how to run a campaign with multiple dungeon masters.

The Xmas Delve: Dark Kringle

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:11:15 PST

Inspired by the season, the PVP gag and a strange childhood playing RPG's, on Monday I ran a Delve for five level 4 characters.

Here's the scoop, in case you want to run an Xmas Delve during the holidays.

Read more »

Season 1, Episode 6

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:12:30 PST

Huzzah!

Boy, did we miss our podcast. We've got special surprises all up and down our sixth episode! What are you waiting for? Download it!

Also, don't miss the listing for the must-have holiday gift of the season (and we mean that sarcastically), complete with thesauratical goodness.

Our Gadgets of the Podcast:

Encounter: The Shambling Mound Party
Tee Shirt: Move Minor Standard
Character Concept: The River Folk Mercenary
DM Tip: Engage the Senses
Player Tip: Powers, you explain them

Right-click and Save-As (34mb) Download here!

Check us out on iTunes and rate us!

What do you think?

Give us reviews in the comments below, hit us up on Twitter @ExemplaryDM, or shoot us an email at exemplarydm at gmail dot com. We're also looking for comments and thoughts on our next podcast topic: character concept building and hooks, plus feedback on the new web-based Character Builder.

Hark! The Herald Angels Podcast!

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 07:42:52 PST

(Who's this Harold guy anyway?)

What do you want for Xmas?

A pony? A red shiny fire truck? A new Exemplary DM podcast?

Well, if you wanted that last thing, you're in luck!

No joke! We're serious this time! We've already recorded it! No kidding. Serious! Why are you looking at us like that.

Jinx, buy me a podcast

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 23:31:49 PST

So, I totally jinxed us a few weekends ago with a premature tweet on recording. We didn't, and we've been so stupid busy that we haven't gotten a chance to record. We have played a little (will post pics) in our respective campaigns but no recording... yet. Pardon us for not recording at Chad's Halloween party too... we totally could have done a remote podcast. Oh well. (That would have been lame anyway.)

We will record though, the holidays should be merciful on us.

So thanks for your continued interest and support, we'll be back and audible again before you can say Shirokinukatsukami.

What we've been up to

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:00:49 PDT

William here, with an update on we've been up to:
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Season 1 - Episode 5

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:39:33 PDT

We're back and joined this time by guest host Ian to talk about tips and pointers on how to create your own Campaign Setting.

No, we're not trying to put WotC out of business, just giving pointers on things to think about when starting a new campaign in a custom world, without using any pre-written material!
We present an outlined list of things to think about before starting your custom setting campaign.
The exemplarypastrychef.com is a lie.
Did you hear that bromance is now in the Oxford English Dictionary?
Our apologies to the fine, sturdy people of featureless Topeka, Kansas.

This podcast is full of suggestions on building your campaign setting world, from geography to civilization, and ofcourse, our five Gadgets of the Podcast:

Encounter: Primitive Village Defense
Tee shirt idea: A matter of weight ratios from shirt.woot!
PC/NPC Concept: Tumult the Revenant Barbarian
DM Tip: How do players acquire magic items?
Player Tip: Feats, you explain them

Right-click to Save As: DOWNLOAD HERE! (55mb)

Check us out on iTunes and rate us!

What do you think?

Give us reviews in the comments below, hit us up on Twitter @ExemplaryDM, or shoot us an email at exemplarydm at gmail dot com. We're also looking for comments and thoughts on our next podcast topic.

Reaper Ron - solving all my figurine problems (well, just the one, really)

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:23:31 PDT

William here, just oversharing a bit.

I ordered a dragonborn-ish looking figurine for my upcoming dragonborn fighter/rogue hybrid character for Chad and Ian's startup. I wanted Golanth, with the optional "boneyard" piece to give the fig a left-hand sword instead of a left-hand shield.

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We're recording today!

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:08:17 PDT

Just when you though we were dead in a gutter somewhere (how could you think that?) here we are, prepping for recording Season 1, Episode 5 today. Woot!

A future topic in the making for sure

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:23:46 PDT

Last night we had a kickoff discussion night for Chad's new campaign that he is co-DM'ing with his friend Ian.

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Hot Action: Pics from two nights of DND

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:24:02 PDT

We've been playing DND, we just haven't been recording us talk about playing DND...

So, to slake the thirst of our listeners (I write this sarcastically) we've posted some new action pics!

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Exemplary irregularity

exemplarydm@gmail.com (The Exemplary DM Podcast) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:24:20 PDT

What's funny is that my brother Dave fears that his guest appearance podcast was so bad, it actually is preventing Chad and I from recording again.

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