Web DM

Live on YouTube Now!

Hello DMNs! We're live on youtube talking about FACTIONS! Join us if you can, or check out the VoD if you can't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lFTI2UwOXA 

Jim Davis' Sandbox Hexographer Templates

Hello all! Here are the templates that Jim's been using in our live streams for use in hexographer. Enjoy! 

Live Stream Tomorrow at 2pm Eastern - FACTIONS

Hey DMNs! Wanted to let you know that we're continuing our weekly live streams for the next little bit on Wednesdays at 2pm Eastern! So far, Jim has created a sandbox and filled it with some locations. Next, he's making factions, and he'll answer questions and walk everyone though how he does it. 

If you can't make it, it'll switch to VoD when it's over. Hope you can take a look!

Link to the watch page: https://youtu.be/3lFTI2UwOXA...

Web DM Podcast 230 - Concentration, Stonepunk and Sieges!

We must need to go to the dentist because it's EPISODE 230 of the patreon podcast!! (sorry/not sorry for those who get the joke) Today we did a good ol' fashioned q&a with lots of great questions! We hope we answered to your satisfaction. If anyone has a followup or a new question, as always, share in the comments! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend and see you next week!

Time Stamps:

7:57 - Merlynn: I'm contemplating a return to the old ways of spell concentration...as in homebrewing a mechanic to allow a cas...

Web DM Podcast 229 - Reimagining Dwarves

What ho, DMNs! We dug a hole two miles deep, meditated in the center of the earth, and reemerged with today's podcast for you! We're giving dwarves a similar treatment to the one we gave elves last week - this time delving into why Jim finds them uninspiring and discussing ways to turn them on their hairy lil heads. Plus, two great questions from you DMNs!

Time stamps: 

4:04 - ???: What would you say are some tips to make villains memorable or intimidating without invalidating player choice? Follow up, how often do you alt...

Live on YouTube Building Sandboxes!

Hey patrons! Jim is live now on youtube showing you all about how to build a sandbox. Best part: you don't have to bring any sand to participate! Join us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iACImF3SYE


We could provide show audio here on patreon, but without the visual context it may not work. If that is a thing you want and would get value from, let us know and we'll make it happen. 

Live Show Tomorrow on YouTube! 2pm Eastern Time

Hello all! For the next couple weeks, we've decided to do some live shows to streamline our process and free up time to finish off Weird Wastelands. Join us tomorrow at 2pm Eastern time for HOW TO BUILD A SANDBOX! Jim Davis is walking through the tools he uses to create an open world that's a powder keg of adventure waiting for the players to come along and light the spark that sets it off.

Web DM Podcast 228 - Make Elves Great Again

Hello DMNs! We've got a fun one for ya, complete with an imagination fuel patron question, a saucy patron question, and a topic we're excited to bring you: how to Make Elves Great Again (MEGA....lol)

We've spoken recently about Emma's (and Jim's too a bit) coolness on elves because they've lost so much of the weirdness of elf folklore, so we've decided to turn that around into how to play with the concept of elves in ways that makes them great. Also Emma says fuck a lot. So be warned.

2:37 - TaxiPhish: What advice do you have...

Jim's Campaign Tracker

Here's a tool to help you keep track of your campaign just the way Jim Davis does! This is what he uses for his own games, and it's a fantastic prep tool. We're offering it here in excel and pdf format, but if you need it another way, let us know and we'll make it happen.

Enjoy! 

Web DM Talks Session Prep Patron Version

Hey there DMNs! Here is your ad-free audio of our public podcast, Web DM Talks! This is our session prep show. The main topic begins at 30:10, but before that we have a fantastic question from Merlynn about how to avoid analysis paralysis, and another question from Geoff about how to approach disparate genres of fiction and nonfiction as campaign inspiration.

Hope you enjoy the show!

Show Audio Session Prep

Hey all! So, we have to release this video early next week, but it was intended for this week, so you've got a sneak peek! This show is about how jim preps for a session. it features some notes from his real session planners, and i am uploading the raw pics here for context. Tell us what you think! Enjoy! 

Web DM Podcast 227 - Immersion

Hello DMNs! A note - we're releasing our video and podcast today, and unfortunately the timing hasn't worked out to get you early access this week, but the audio will be coming along today, so you can look forward to a weekend of Web DM! Opening this one up to all tiers because we're sorry we're late!

This week, we're delving into another kinda nebulous term that gets bandied about a lot in the TTRPG space: IMMERSION. Specifically, wtf is it and why is it so important? Breaking immersion is often a thing groups and often GMs in parti...

The Big Mug

Hey DMNs! As referenced in last week's podcast, here is the big f*cking mug. As you can see, it is quite a large bucket of hydration. Wanted to give it its own time to shine so you can appreciate it.

Web DM Podcast 226 - Feudalism and the Knightly Life

Hello Web DMNs! We're back with a podcast for you and also a MYSTERY! We say somewhere in this podcast that we'll be including a picture of something, but we did not take a note of what it was, we of course can't remember, and in trying to listen through we can't find it. What is the picture we were gonna put on this? Help us and we will add the pic!

This week's podcast is sort of a sister show to the Chivalry podcast from a few weeks back, where we delve more into what the daily life of knights and nobles were really like. We think ...

Web DM Podcast 225 - Alignment Salt and other Qs

Hello DMNs! Hope you're all doing well. We are hanging in there. We are sorry to report that Pruitt has covid, but is recovering safely at home. Jim, Emma, and Trogdor have managed to pass their CON saves following multiple exposures, but school is shut down until at least next week, so we are continuing to juggle parenting and business-ing.

We recorded a lovely podcast for you, but be warned - we recorded at night, and we are always a little more unhinged after a long day of pretending to be whatever it is Trogdor is into that day. ...

Web DM Live on YouTube!

Hey y'all, due to our production having to halt due to Covid-19-related upheaval, but we didn't want to be off air on YouTube so long, so we're answering some questions from fans on the channel right now! Come join us! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igqEx94Yfw8

Web DM Podcast 224 - Food Focused Campaigns with Rudy Basso!

Hello there DMNs!

We know you're probably hungry for a fresh episode of the podcast, so we're here for a late lunch and a special episode featuring RUDY BASSO, our intrepid boon companion and editor of this very podcast, who is also an accomplished game designer who has been featured in this month's Arcadia, MCDM's magazine, with a great piece all about food-focused campaigns. We love the piece and the concept, so Jim and Emma sat down with Rudy to explore the ideas of making food a more central focus of your game. Can you see yourse...

Wednesday Audio Getting Rid of Alignment

Heyo DMNs! Here's the audio from this week's show, which is a more focused look at when to and how to ditch alignment, why people are thinking about it these days, and what parts might be worth keeping.  What do y'all think?


Description from YouTube:

As WotC makes small changes and errata to alignment in 5th edition, it's back in the limelight. So So you wanna move away from alignment. How do you do it?  Jim tells you how he uses it, what parts he ditched years ago, and updates us on what he thinks since our last ...

Web DM Talks: What's the Deal with Alignment

Hey ho DMNs! We're back from the holiday break and coming at you with a fresh new early edition ep of Web DM Talks. This'll be coming out to the public tomorrow,  but you get it now.  We're responding a bit to the errata outrage of December 2021 and exploring the concept of alignment in general, and the whole thing flows from a great question from one of y'all, who wanted to know sources to find all kinds of weird Planescape situations to throw their players into! 

So nice to be back with y'all. Hope you had a...

Web DM Podcast 223 - Christmas Eve Q&A

Hello DMNs! It's Christmas Eve, and we've got a podcast for you to listen to while you wrap presents, drink yourself into a stupor, pretend to be listening to your family, or go about your regular routine. You do you! There's no wrong answer. Tell us what you're doing while you listen, we get immense pleasure out of hearing how the podcast fits into your life.

This is our final release of the year! We're taking next week off to spend time with our families and recharging our batteries. We hope y'all are able to get some R&R too. ...

Wednesday Audio - Strixhaven

Hey DMNs! It's Wednesday...right?? Sorry for the delay, but our video was finished late, but it's here, and that means your youtube show audio is too. Of course, you can't see the adorable kitty in the audio version, but know she is there and she is beautiful and zen af.  

Tell us what you think of the show and of this book!!

Web DM Talks Strixhaven

Hello DMNs! Our video is running late back from the editor, so we'll probably be releasing our public content tomorrow, but that means you get even more lead time on your ad-free version of the podcast. Here it is! We're going over Strixhaven. It's fair to say we've got mixed opinions about it. We suspect some of that is because the genre of fantasy college just doesn't quite vibe with us in general. If it vibes with you, we wanna hear about it because honestly the whole thing has made us feel a bit old and out of touch and we're interested ...

Web DM Podcast 222 - Chivalry

Hello DMNs! We're very happy to get past last week as it was very tough, and we're having a much better one. This week, we've got a ramble on chivalry and Jim's thesis that D&D would not exist without Arthurian legend and chivalric fantasy of the Middle Ages. What do you think, y'all? 

Some timestamps for you glorious folks:

5:20 - REANSWERING Alec: trying to run a Warhammer 40K: Wrath and Glory game - having trouble trying to create interesting social interactions because of the strict setting. Any tips?

Web DM Podcast 221 - The Solo One

Hey DMNs! We've got a unique one this week - Jim is speaking to you solo. I (Emma) was unavailable at the last minute, and Jim, valiant and committed soul, agreed to go it alone! On that end, there will be no public-facing content next week due to a medical emergency. Everything will be fine, but not quite soon enough to shoot and record. Planning on having a Patreon podcast for you next Friday, though.

Also, Jim mentions some links in this one that we have since been completely unable to find. We're genuinely sorry a...

Wednesday Audio - 7 Tips for Running High Level D&D

Hello DMNs! Here's the show audio from the youtube video we'll be releasing shortly this week - we've got a mindset-oriented show about how to pwn running high level d&d. We think it's some nice food for thought and a good afternoon listen.

Description from YouTube:


High level 5e D&D is not only super playable, it's also incredibly fun! So why do we keep hearing about how "the game breaks down in tier 4?" It requires a different approach to being a dungeon master than lower level Dungeons and Dragons, but we know y...

Web DM Talks High Level D&D Patron Version

Hey DMNs! Here is your ad-free audio for the Web DM Talks episode being released publicly in a few hours! Today we're discussing high level D&D and why we think it's fun actually, but it requires a different approach when running than lower tiers to make it work. How do you feel about high level d&d? Do you feel like the system breaks down? Let us know in the comments!

Web DM Podcast 220 Pop Culture Overload With Pruitt

Hey there DMNs! We've got a lovely episode for you today, featuring beloved brother Pruitt! We talk a LOT about Dune, but also about the other pop culture (mostly tv but not entirely) we've been consuming lately. If you are sensitive to spoilers about any of these shows, take heed of the time stamps! Don't wanna ruin anyone's ride.

Have a fantastic weekend, y'all! Keep the questions and feedback coming.

Time stamps:
2:41 - Bobby Swanson: how would you make a Dune-esque setting in a D&D campaign?

...

Wednesday Audio - Charisma Rolls DON'T Work Like That Patron Version

Hey there DMNs! Our video today is all about social interaction in D&D and about how, frankly, it seems like most people have fundamentally misinterpreted what social skill rolls are capable of doing. Jim provides a lot of food for thought about how to move away from the dreaded "I roll a persuasion check. Does it work?" way that so many social interactions go down in games because it doesn't make sense and lacks meaning. What are y'all's thoughts on this subject?

YouTube description:

"I roll persuasion. What happens?" Who ...

The Web DM NPC Playsheet

Hello all!

We posted this document a while back, but it's relevant to this week's video and honestly deserves a repost even if we didn't, so here it is! This is a free download to anyone on this page, and we think it makes keeping track of key NPCs so much easier. Thanks for being here!

Web DM Podcast 219- Black Friday Q&A

Hey there DMNs! Hope you had a good holiday - we sure did! Or, if it's not a holiday for you, hope you enjoyed the smug satisfaction of knowing you don't have to celebrate two complex and family-filled holidays in less than a month. Good for you.

This week, we got a Q&A for you that we recorded early in the week. Hoping to get Pru in on the next one for you too!

Time stamps:

5:28 - ??: how do you put yourself out there as a TTRPG writer for D&D content?

22:30 - Nick P.: any advice for running a West Marc...