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
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.
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1:06:52
Daggerheart Monsters and Adversaries! (MD 250)
Episode 250 of Mastering Dungeons!
Main topic: Daggerheart Monsters and Adversaries!
Does Daggerheart provide a compelling system of monsters for GMs? We take a look at the design and whether it might hook GMs into running Daggerheart for years to come!
News: Stranger Things Boxed Set, D&D Staffing and Franchise News, Eberron Delay, and more!
Contents
00:00 Grimhollow Transformed
03:54 D&D Stranger Things Boxed Set
07:22 Jess Lanzillo at White Wolf
08:36 Dan Ayoub Franchise VP
13:46 Cynthia Williams Departs Funko
15:27 Starter Set Higher Price
20:03 Eberron Delayed
23:20 PAX West DMs Wanted
24:56 Critical Role Video Game
27:26 Black Flag in CC
28:49 Daggerheart Adventure
29:34 Daggerheart Incredible Creatures
30:15 Six-Gun Doomsday
31:41 Daggerheart Monsters and Adversaries
32:37 Why Monsters Matter in an RPG
36:04 Daggerheart Stat Blocks
38:51 Creature Type
45:34 Experiences
48:33 Monster Features
54:45 The Adversary Types
01:00:56 Looking at the Overall System
01:16:11 Shout-Outs
01:20:03 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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1:20:41
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1:20:41
Daggerheart Campaign Frames! (MD 249)
Episode 249 of Mastering Dungeons!
Main topic: Daggerheart Campaign Frames!Daggerheart provides an interesting structure for campaign settings. How well does this work? Let’s find out!
News: What is Narrative-First, D&D Italian Translation Problems, Offset Printers, and more!
Contents
00:00 Naprage Week
01:40 Daggerheart Adventure Differences?
09:57 What is Narrative-First?
22:52 Italian PH Problems
25:12 Wolfgang on Offset Printers
26:51 Quickplay Maps on Beyond
28:07 Daggerheart Campaign Frames
30:38 Campaign Frame Components
33:42 Lore Dump?
36:54 Frame Breakdown
37:53 Step 1: Pitch
41:50 Step 2: Foundations and 3: Characters
45:43 Step 4: Build the Map
48:42 Step 5: Session Zero and 6: Adventure
51:40 Age of Umbra Campaign Frame
01:04:34 Included Campaign Frames
01:06:52 Shout-Outs
01:09:55 What Are We Gonna Do Now?
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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1:10:29
Leveling Our Daggerheart Characters! (MD 248)
Episode 248 of Mastering Dungeons!
Main topic: Leveling Our Daggerheart Characters!We level up our Rogue and Warrior all the way to level 6 and share how the design enabled our concepts.
News: Dragon Delves Pre-Release, Daggerheart New Classes, Cosmere Hiring, and more!
Contents
00:00 MVP is Sleep
01:08 Leaving Blanks?
08:24 Daggerheart Demands Good GMs?
15:22 Dragon Delves Pre-Released
17:47 UA Arcane Subclasses
19:31 Gen Con Needs DMs
21:36 New Daggerheart Witch and Assassin
26:12 Demiplane adds Playtest Classes
26:37 Updated Daggerheart License
27:35 Origins Awards
28:18 Cosmere RPG is Hiring
34:13 Leveling Daggerheart Characters
36:51 Daggerheart's Tier Leveling System
37:39 Tier 2 Benefits
40:43 Level 2 Choices
48:19 Level 3 Options
52:56 Level 4 Options
58:31 Tier 3 Benefits and Multiclassing
01:09:35 Level Choices
01:12:42 Design Considerations
01:24:30 Gear and Leveling
01:27:33 Shout-Outs
01:30:45 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.
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!