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Hello all, Here is Episode 16 of our DnDNext Actual Play podcast. In this Episode The PC's go off-script in a beautiful way and finally take charge of their circumstances. We also introduce a new player/PC. Travis, just back from a tour in Afghanistan joins our table again and plays Quarian an Elf, unlike any the Pc's have ever known.     As always, thanks for listening and please take a moment to rate us on Itunes. The more ratings (and the better the ratings) we get helps us stay on the top of lists and searches so more people can find us. Communicate to us on our Forum at RPG Crosstalk E-mail us at Podcast@dndacademy Follow us on twitter @dnd_Academy   Thanks!! Michael – AKA Mumbles.

Hello all, Here is Episode 18 of  Dungeon Talk; our General advice/discussion podcast.   We had Niko and Rob joining us tonight. We have moved back to recording my house again and there's a little background noise to deal with. We've actually invested in some higher-end recording equipment which should drastically improve our ability to mitigate that backgroud noise, so hopefully this will be the last DT with those problems (we're still backlogged on Made Men Podcasts by about 8 or 9 episodes before the new ones will start).   Here are this week’s segment topics:   1. Next News: We review the current Death and Dying rules in DnDNext. 2. Table Topics 1 - we transition into dealing with a PC's death. Evan (as a DM) had his first PC death (Niko's Rouge Flynn) in our last game. How it happened and how to move on. 3. Mailbag - We cover a couple different techniques for keeping up with various and multiple status effects that might be on a PC at a given time. 4. Table topics  2 –  We go back to the one we missed last week and talk about understanding that DM's and Players generally have a different level of investment in a game and how to maximize the Players investment.     As always, thanks for listening and comments/feedback are welcomeThanks!!   Michael – AKA Mumbles. E-mail us at Podcast@dndacademy Follow us on twitter @dnd_academy visit our forums at RPG Crosstalk    Thanks!!   Michael – AKA Mumbles

Hello all, Here is Episode 15 of our DnDNext Actual Play podcast. In this Episode Zaine meets with the Elven Chief and learns more about his Father's last days before disappearing.  The sound quality of this episode was very up and down. I spent way too much time trying to equalize the highs and lows.   As always, thanks for listening and please take a moment to rate us on Itunes. The more ratings (and the better the ratings) we get helps us stay on the top of lists and searches so more people can find us. Communicate to us on our Forum at RPG Crosstalk E-mail us at Podcast@dndacademy Follow us on twitter @dnd_Academy   Thanks!! Michael – AKA Mumbles.

Hello all, Here is Episode 17 of  Dungeon Talk; our General advice/discussion podcast.   When ran a little long this week because of a new segment we tried, so we don't quite get to all our the Topics we said we would. Thought both our Table Topics intertwined quite a bit so most of it came out in one form or another.   Here are this week’s segment topics:   1. Table topics  1 – Changing your presentation style as a DM, based on Player's reactions. 2. Mailbag – Barriers from becoming a DM/GM 3. Syngergy - Evan and I open a pack of Magic cards and create a campaign/session starter. 4. Table topics  2 –  we didn't get to it this week.     As always, thanks for listening and comments/feedback are welcomeThanks!!   Michael – AKA Mumbles. E-mail us at Podcast@dndacademy Follow us on twitter @dnd_academy visit our forums at RPG Crosstalk    Thanks!!   Michael – AKA Mumbles

Hello all, Here is Episode 14 of our DnD Next Actual Play Podcast. In the last Episode, the PC's entered the Wastelands and headed toward the Old Stone Fort Tower.   In this Episode we pick up right as the PC's enter the tower as the entire Elven Nation sits and watches.   From a technical standpoint, I was able to figure out NOISE REDUCTION in Audacity and fixed the major issue of the last episode which had a terrible amount of background noise in it. This one sounds much much better.   As always, thanks for listening. Comments and Feedback are always appreciated. Join our Forum on RPG Crosstalk E-mail us at Podcast@dndacademy(dot)com follow us on twitter @dnd_academy   Until next time . . .   Thanks!! Michael

Hello all, So, here is Episode 13 of our DnDNext Playtest game.  In this Episode the PC's brave out into the Wastelands in an effort to reach the Old Stone Fort Tower. As I cover in my Intro; this was the first game I ran since having my surgery and I was definitely a little off my game. Our most recent game we started recording at Evan's house. He has a better set up and less kids so the quality should be better once we get to those games.   As always, thanks for listening and please take a moment to rate us on Itunes. The more ratings (and the better the ratings) we get helps us stay on the top of lists and searches so more people can find us. Communicate to us on our Forum at RPG Crosstalk E-mail us at Podcast@dndacademy Follow us on twitter @dnd_Academy   Thanks!! Michael - AKA Mumbles.

Hello all, Here is Episode 15 of our Dungeon Talk Podcast. We kept to the segments again, but we added some special guests;  Niko, who you may know as Grexil, and Jared, who played Wang for a few sessions on the the Made Men Podcast, joined us for Ep 15. Segments 1. Table topics  1 - Giving your players their "MOMENT" in a game. 2. Mailbag - If you use battle maps, which is better; pre-published or hand drawn? 3. Table topics  2 - Changing an encounter on the fly 4. Next news - We discuss the current chatter about the Warlord Class   As always, thanks for listening and comments/feedback are welcomeThanks!! Michael - AKA Mumbles. E-mail us at Podcast@dndacademy Follow us on twitter @dnd_academy visit our forums at RPG Crosstalk    Thanks!!   Michael - AKA Mumbles

Hello all, Here is Episode 12 of our Made Men DnDnext actual play podcast.   Had a return of a few technical glitches this episode. Lots of background noise and pops and clicks. Also, in two different places there are side conversations going on that muddle the sound pretty badly. Luckily both times it is pretty brief, but I will make a point going forward of having the side conversations wait for a pause. In both cases it's good stuff happening,just bad timing.   As always, comments and feedback is welcome and thanks for listening!!   Michael - AKA Mumbles

Hello all, Here is Episode 14 of Dugeon Talk.  Evan and I are still experimenting with the format and in this Episode we tried out a more formalized format with specialized segments. We liked it a lot. Hope you do too. Segments: 1. Tabletopics – Setting tone in your RPG game.  We had a session where it just didn’t work. 2. Message for you Sir – we answer an E-mail question sent in on our podcast(at)dndacademy.com e-mail. Our question this time was about any food rituals our group has. 3.Tabletopics – Ret Con and it’s place in our game and yours 4. Next news – we discus the current version of the DnDNext Fighter class.   As always, thanks for listening. Comments and feedback are always welcome.     Thanks!!   Michael – AKA Mumbles.

Hello all, Here is Episode 11 of our DnDNext actual play podcast. I recorded a live intro for this one so no text one here. (I would love some feedback if you prefer live one or text one . . .)   Not much technical or spoiler-y things in this episode.   As always, feedback and comments are welcome and thanks for listening!   Michael - AKA Mumbles.

Hello all, Here is Episode 13 of Dungeon Talk. In this Episode Evan and I touch on or discuss the following topics.  This is the general order that we go in, but we do jump back and forth a bit as well. 1.  Wanting to change up and play a non-fantasy RPG 2.   Game rotation. Losing a player for a while we swtiched to having Evan run a game again 3.   Evan discusses his comfort level running this game vs. his 1st one. 4.   Character Backgrounds: Keep them in their place 5.   Rewarding effort. 6.   Humor in the game 7.   Giving a player their moment in a game.  Building trust between player/DM 8.   Evan is not defining our PC's by their classes.  He's not really even sure what classes we are. 9.   Not all backgrounds are created equal.  Strong silent type is hard to play. 10.  Team work takes work   As always, thanks for listening. Comments and feedback are always welcome.   Thanks!! Michael - AKA Mumbles.  

Hello all, Here is Episode 10 of our Made Men Actual Play Podcast.  One more time: sorry about Episode 9. In this Episode we pick up right after Grexil has returned to the group after his secret meeting with The Silent Sisters.  The majority of the episode is spent in a role play heavy scene. The PC's are at a turning point and they spend a lot of time trying to get everyone on board for what happens next. The Wang situation is resolved in this episode and it ends on a cliffhanger of sorts.  I hope you guys enjoy.   Thanks!! Michael – AKA Mumbles.

Hello all, Well here isn't Episode 9. This is just me explaining what you would be hearing in Episode 9 if I hadn't somehow lost it. After the session that we lost, we recorded a long Dungeon Talk which was posted as episode 9.0 and 9.1. If you go back and listen to those podcasts you might get a bit more out of what I posted here.   Very sorry!  Episode 10 should be up soon.   Thanks!! Michael - AKA Mumbles.       **************************SPOILERS********************************* The reason I've been posting these spoiler sections are just to give some insight as to how I run my games and do the things I do.  My original idea for doing the Actual Play Podcasts was to start each episode with me and maybe Evan doing an intro about the game you would hear and then at the end, do a recap where I would explain the same things i've been tying here.  Despite my good intentions, it was readily apparent that wouldn't happen.  So, my compromise is to post a few DM trade secrets in this section.   The Shit Demon encounter was designed to separate one PC and add some tension (it worked). I'm still not sure who the GHOST is. I have a couple prime suspects but it could go either way. The PC's don't know that and that's okay. The whole point of the GHOST in this session was so the PC's would find the bodies of the woman and hopefully piece together that whomever killed the princess has been practicing. The runes on the bodies are for a magical spell (remember that in this world Magic doesn't really exist so no one can ready magical writing). The spell is designed to open a gateway allowing demon's into this world.  This aspect of the game will come out dramatically in the next few sessions (the ones we haven't played yet, not the ones I've yet to post).     if you have any questions about any of the things happening in the game or the spoiler section, let me know.     Michael  

Hello all, Here is our newest Dungeon Talk Episode. In this one we have a special guest. Rob, one of my very good friends from my old gaming group in Cleveland joins us. We had set up a SKYPE session but it didn't work out well so we ended up just putting him on speaker phone (thus the title).  The quality of this is not great, you can definately tell that he's on a phone, but the volume and quality of his voice is good enough for you to hear and understand what he says (when Evan isn't talking over him! :) ****If anyone out there knows a better a way to do internet or phone interviews for podcasts, please let us know ***   On this Episode we discuss conflicts in game and out of game.  What causes them, and what you can/should do about them. We also cover some events that happened recently in the new Game that Evan is running and discuss ways to improve.   As always, we hope you enjoy and look forward to hearing from you.     Thanks!! Michael - AKA Mumbles.

Hello all, Here is Episode 8 of our Made Men DnDNext Play test game. In the last episode most of the time was spent bringing the party together. Eventually everyone met up at Yomi's apartment.  The fact that Yomi had a Rex addiction was already b...