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Post by blakeryan on Dec 5, 2016 7:13:05 GMT
Lots of guests, lots of great advice learned the hard way.
Re Chris leaving.
I had to listen to that a few times to believe it.
Damn.
Hope we can keep things rolling for 200 and 300 episodes and he can come back to visit or even stay.
Over the course of the episodes we've heard about his journey from Novice DM to world builder and DMing Jedi.
His decency and honesty came through every episode and shines as a good example of a fun game without everyone being mercenary psychos.
I will miss him but wish him the best in all things, good health and happiness.
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Post by galakan on Dec 5, 2016 19:45:04 GMT
We will miss you Chris!!!! Podcasting can be super time consuming and I cannot stress enough how grateful we all are for everything you have done with the show. That said, props to putting life first.  As you guys mentioned in your own episodes, don't let gaming (or podcasting) take over! Just don't be a total stranger  |
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Post by friartook on Dec 7, 2016 19:08:10 GMT
Confession time: I'm about 10 episodes behind. But I jumped ranks to listen to this one, both because it's an important milestone and because I'm in it (no, YOU'RE a narcissist who's obsessed with hearing their own voice!). I must say, after months of not listening, hearing the voices of DM Mitch , DM Chris and joatmoniac felt like coming home from a long trip. DM Chris : Very sad to hear you're leaving! Thank you so much for creating this podcast and community! Your voice will be missed. Good luck with all your endeavors! Its ironic that this came out now. I recently made my worst DM mistake ever. It led to the breakdown of a group and the collapse of an AP podcast project we were working on. One group I was gaming with was comprised of three women and one man. The women brought concerns to me about the man's behavior in game. It was nothing overt, intentional or obscene, and perhaps because of this, I failed to respond in a timely or appropriate manner. They eventually got fed up. Two of them told me off and the group collapsed. In the aftermath, I've realized two things: 1) That they were 100% right. About the other player and about me. 2) That this was the first time I've ever gotten to game with a group that was majority female. They brought something different to the table than any other group I've been with. I sincerely regret how things went. If I could resubmit my "Confession", it would be about this. Male gamers and especially male DMs: Don't make the same mistake I made. Pay close attention to what the women your game with are telling you. Ignoring the contributions of women to the hobby is nothing but a detriment to our game tables and the TTRPG hobby/community in general. James D'amato's advice hit me hard. His mention of the social contract of being a DM/GM. That's real. Our responsibilities go beyond just being storytellers and game wranglers. We have a responsibility to those we game with, to our players, to provide the best environment possible for their creativity to flourish. I failed to honor that covenant, and its the biggest mistake I've ever made as a DM. |
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grinningdwarf
Commoner
Posts: 20 
Favorite D&D Class: Fighter
Favorite D&D Race: Dwarf
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Post by grinningdwarf on Dec 9, 2016 8:13:47 GMT
I just caught up with this episode today. Great one, as usual. Congratulations on #100! May it be the first of many sets of 100!
Really bummed to hear about DM Chris's departure. You will be missed, good sir!
Mistakes are some of our biggest learning opportunities! Here are some thoughts on the program:
James Introcaso: In hindsight, he probably shouldn’t have said ‘no’ to the rogue’s idea, but I can understand your initial ‘no’. Sometimes when I’m running a busy scene, it feels like I’m juggling a dozen balls and trying to keep them all in the air. Sometimes a player throws just one more thing into the mix, and on the spur of the moment it’s easy for me to say “No. I’m barely keeping what I have in progress together. I can’t put one more thing into this mix without it all crashing to the ground!” That’s my limitation as a DM, I understand, but that’s usually the reason why I say ‘no’. As I’ve gained DMing experience, I find that I can juggle a lot more balls than I used to, so now I can say ‘yes’ much more often.
Jeff Stormer: Great reminder that your players are the stars of the story!!
The biggest mistake that comes to mind for me occurred in high school: don't go off half-cocked with an idea!
I'd been sick with the flu, and one night in the middle of a fever I had a dream about a bridge. This was a HUGE bridge, kinda like London Bridge, big enough for a row of buildings down each side with a city street down the middle between them. I was on this bridge with my friends. Everybody else on this bridge, it turned out, were ghosts. They couldn't see us and just went about their business as usual, just like they were still really alive. My friends and I walked for a LONG time on this bridge, and then we noticed that WE started turning kind of ghostly around the edges. And the ghostlier we got, the more the 'resident ghosts' noticed us. We turned around and made a mad dash to get off the bridge before we turned permanently into ghosts. I woke up before we got off the bridge.
What a great idea I had! Now...how to put it into a game? I'll make a long story short, and say that the idea needed a LOT more work than I gave it before it ever made it into a game. I really had to railroad my party to get them onto the bridge, and then nothing really happened once they got there, except that after a while they realized that they needed to get off. There was no other point to it than that, and it fell kind of flat. Obviously.
So...my take away was that I really need to flesh out those great idea kernels that pop up and figure out all of the whys and wherefores, and figure out how it moves the story forward instead of just being there. Maybe some day that bridge will sow up in another game, but it will fit a LOT better than it did in 1980.
Thanks for reading!
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SouldiamondDM
Squire
Stay safe, don't talk to strangers, don't do drugs, only you can prevent forest fires, etc.
Posts: 41
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Human
Gender: He/Him
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Post by SouldiamondDM on Dec 12, 2016 1:18:18 GMT
Listening to this episode was very helpful. Like Neal said, it's a reminder that I'm not alone in DMing. I'm the only DM in my area, so it's good to get that reminder every once and a while.
So, I wish I had a good confession story to share, but I really don't. I've only been DMing for a year and I've been inactive for about half that. My biggest mistake has mostly been ending games early instead of trying to work things out with my players. Make a big plan for the game (not in a railroad sense, more in a "I want this to happen at some point" sense), but then freak out and break down.
I would realize the scope of the game and worry at the thought that I would have to figure out real life (in a public school crawling with the teenage equivalents of the War Boys from Mad Max, no less) alongside my D&D game and just call off the game. I guess the lesson in that is that you don't need to have a grand master plan or worry about the game all that much and just to have fun with it.
(Also, grinningdwarf, I've had the same problem. Part of the whole "realizing the scope of the game" thing.)
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As you guys mentioned in your own episodes, don't let gaming (or podcasting) take over! Just don't be a total stranger 
