Episode 2 - Dungeon Masters' Dilemna

The transcription is about a podcast called Dungeons and Dark Roasts Season 2, Episode 2, where the hosts interview a guest named Dustin about his experiences as a Dungeon Master in Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Dustin explains how he got into D&D and why he chose to be a Dungeon Master. He talks about his preparation process, including finding campaign setting ideas, using pay-what-you-want resources, and organizing his notes using Excel, Obsidian, and Word. Dustin also discusses the challenges he faces as a new DM, such as playing with mostly new players and getting them to take ownership of their characters. The hosts also ask about the challenges of creating his own world for the campaign. Overall, the transcription provides insights into Dustin's journey as a DM and his passion for creating an immersive D&D experience. Welcome back to Dungeons and Dark Roasts Season 2, Episode 2, Dungeon Master's Dilemmas with Dustin. Stay tuned. Be sure to like and follow us on X, Insta, and Facebook for updates, recipes, and all things D&D. Listen every Wednesday at 5 p.m. Central to our latest episodes available on Spotify and Amazon Music. Hello, and welcome to Dungeons and Dark Roasts. I'm Alex. And I'm Axis. We're two Dungeon Masters for D&D 5e here to talk about the chaos of our adventures and the coffee that gets us through it. Hey, Alex. Ooh, and Dustin. Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. Of course. Thanks for joining us. We wanted to talk this week with you about Dungeon Master's Dilemmas. We know, and we've actually talked about you a little bit in your game that you are starting. And we wanted to ask you some questions about being a new DM. And I would love to start that ball off with what got you into D&D? I got into Dungeons and Dragons recently, I would say in the last couple of years. It's one of those things I was always surprised that I had never played growing up. I'm in my late 30s now. And with the sort of culture that I was into, the sort of friend groups that I've had, I was always surprised that it never came up. And it turns out that some people I knew were playing and just never thought that I would be into it. But more recently, that's probably the same way a lot of people came to it, really through Critical Role. Stranger Things, kind of putting it in my subconscious that it was something I was always interested in. And like I said, going back to Critical Role, I was able to watch them and really feel like I learned the rules a lot through them. But then I didn't have a group to play with. So I did know someone who played, and I asked him repeatedly if he would be willing to DM a one-shot for us. And finally, we were able to make that happen. And I realized I think I would be much better suited to DM, actually, and so pretty quickly made the transition. Oh, so you're a DM by choice. You're not one of those DMs that got thrown into the, no one else wants to do it, and we need somebody. Kind of. Kind of. I would say DM by choice just because I feel like the sort of game that I want to be a part of would be asking a lot of someone else to do, and I don't think there's many people who would do it. And so I said, all right, I think I might do this once. I mean, that's what I say now. Who knows down the road? But I want to do one really, really good, really, really deep, really, really complex campaign over the course of several years and make it the game that I really would want to be a part of. That's really wonderful. I love the insight there. Like, you're very cognizant of yourself and what game you're wanting to play. And so that's really cool. I like that a lot. Yeah, it's definitely something that has evolved over time where, you know, first I really wanted to join a game, but, you know, I think, and I keep mentioning Critical Role, they definitely spoil you, right, of what the game looks like. And I realize quickly, you know, that's not what a real game is going to look like. But nonetheless, I still aspire to have at least, you know, I'm not going to have the voice talent, the acting talent and stuff, but I do feel like that I can deliver a similar sort of character depth and just, you know, general level enjoyment to my group. And that's what I shoot for. So if you were inspired by Critical Role, how are you keeping track of all of this information? Because they've got some really deep, expansive stories. I mean, Darrington Press has released several campaign modules at this point. Oh, it's a lot. It's a whole lot. So for starters, what I did is I started looking for campaign setting ideas. You know, I looked kind of at the major releases that are official and realized that, you know, it seemed like a hefty responsibility to kind of go into those worlds. Even though my players necessarily wouldn't be familiar with them, I would feel like that I would want to be kind of an expert on those worlds in order to use them. And so I set off and kind of went through actually some websites that sell RPG material. I found a bunch that were pay-what-you-want for campaign settings. And I said that what I was going to do is read a bunch of them. And if I found some that I actually used some stuff, I would go back in and pay at that point. And so first off, I found a campaign setting that had – I was looking for a map of a world that I really liked. And I found one of those. And then I found a different campaign setting that had a pantheon of gods that I really, really liked. And so I kind of brought those gods into my world. And then from there, I started to make it on my own. And then from that point, what's cool is to keep it all organized. I have a master Excel sheet with 12 tabs in it that goes over PCs, NPCs, factions, locations, all of that stuff. I have an Obsidian account, which is kind of like an Evernote or something where I can share things across devices, where I have different ideas for campaign side quests or kind of like random role tables, details on some really important NPCs. And then I also will use just Word to do my session prep where I make a session outline before I start each session that kind of has just the important stuff that I know I'm going to need. Start with a recap of the last session, important NPCs that I expect to come up, that sort of thing. So I have it all right there in front of me. Sounds like you've got a plan. Yeah, I like how you have kind of a mix of different... Well, one, I love that you're using ideas that are coming from either DMs Guild or probably DriveThruRPG. I've used all of them myself personally. And you're right. And going back and the pay as you want is really nice because people are making content that they love and they're putting it out there just because they love it. And then to get a little bonus on the back end when you do love it is great. And I love that you're getting your ideas from that and then growing. You know, you're not overly stressing yourself, it sounds like. But you're so much more prepared than I am, Dustin. I will say that for you. I am a fly by the seat of my pants kind of DM. So I love all of the Excel spreadsheets and sounds like my actual day-to-day life rather than my DM life. I was going to say, he's more prepared than I am. And I will spend days prepping one session. I know, and you run eight games. Yeah, it's insane. If I had to do this for eight games, I can't even imagine. It's not too bad. The players over at Axis Gaming, they're good people. It's like having eight children. Eventually they just take care of each other. Right, right. I go in, try to kill them all. We leave, we go home happy. Yeah, it's all good. Yeah, so speaking of players, what kind of challenges have you had so far with players? Because I know that most of your players, probably not all of them, but are brand new to Dungeons & Dragons. So I'm running for a table of six, actually. And so it's a big table to begin with. Only one of the people has played before. He has played a decent amount. But I get the impression never a campaign that has the lofty sort of goals that this campaign has already started to promise them. Just to give you an idea of the table dynamic here, I'm in my late 30s. I play it with my wife and some of our friends who are also, I would say, late 30s, maybe up to mid-40s at most. And then my sister, who is, I think, in her mid-20s, just to give you an idea. One player has actually played. And in addition to that, most of them haven't even played much video games. Definitely no role-playing games, no Witcher, nothing like that. And so I definitely babied them at the beginning. We started with some one-shots where I basically generated their characters. Then we went into the campaign. We did the session zero. I generated binders for everyone with dividers for notes for them to keep track of. Their NPCs, their fellow PCs, factions, their inventory, everything, right? The front page of it is their character sheet stuck in a sleeve that's clear. They have dry erase markers so they can track everything. And so I really, really, really babied them to get going. And now I'm to a point now where I'm trying to get them to take more ownership of their characters. I'm trying to get them to really invest themselves into it because they're very appreciative of my time. They're great players. But, you know, you baby someone a while and it's hard for them to realize, hey, I need to go into this and really own this, make sure I know all my spells, make sure I know how all my actions work, all of that stuff. Right. Read your spells, kids. I'll tell you, I did that with my swayers group. And I dropped a black dragon on them, melted half of the town to get their attention. And it'll get their attention real fast. I have a grave cleric at the party who, you know, I got gentle repose and spare the dying and all of this. And so I decided that I think that cleric may have to may have to go down at some point. So the party can see just how much he's keeping them up. Yeah, I usually play grave cleric, which is funny because it sounds like that grave cleric is like saving everyone. And I usually play my grave cleric as in a oh, I'm here to help you to the grave. That would be an awakening for sure. So with all of that, what challenges have you had in creating this world that you've put together? Like because it sounds like you've done a lot of research and all of that to get your world to where it is. So there's got to be somewhere where you've either hit a wall or you've gone, wait, that mechanic's not going to work for me. So what what does that look like? Since I am a first time DM, whenever I read different people posted on Reddit or forums or what have you, they have tons and tons of advice of, you know, don't don't plan too much, you know, be less rigid. And so that's the stage that I'm in now is really understanding that. Yeah, sure. I can have all these plans. One thing I fear is that I start to railroad too much, that I try to get them to live my story as more of a novel. Go write a novel. Don't play D&D if you want to write a story. And so I'm really trying to be adaptable. And I feel like so far we've had some success there. For the first session, you know, I was expecting that there's a murder mystery going on. And I was expecting the murderer to be one type of character that was killing random people. And, well, I won't I won't give any spoilers in case any of my group listens. But things changed very quickly. I think they'll at least understand the beginning where it turned out that it's actually the daughter of basically the big mobster in town who was the first victim. And we'll have to see where things go from there. But it's caused me to completely just rewrite the idea of what was happening. And it's based on what they did. And so it's starting to feel more like I imagine it whenever musicians get together and they jam. Right. And you have a guitar player, a bass player, and they all start just doing their thing. And then suddenly they get all kinds of interesting new music coming out of it. And I'm trying to take more of that mentality towards it. I love it. So you kind of went into detail about the homebrew and how your creative process is. But what really made you want to homebrew instead of using pre-made official modules? So I initially looked at a bunch of different of the pre-made modules and they were super interesting. But to me, what makes a really good D&D game, at least from my limited experience, is the character backgrounds, their histories. I don't want them to tell a story that any group of heroes could potentially be a part of. I wanted their backgrounds to be woven so tightly into the fabric of the overall narrative that they feel a connection to each other, to the story. I want every session to feel inevitable as well as surprising. That's a very lofty goal. I applaud you for that. But what do you want to get out of something so expansive and time-consuming? What is it that you're hoping to get out of it for yourself and for your players? And what are you hoping that your players get out of it? So far, it's been so cool. Just in our handful of sessions that we've had so far, the group comes in and they're excited to get going, for sure. But halfway through, I just see them just dig into their seats so much and they are so into it. And by the end of the session, everyone, the appreciation, the thank yous that I get from them is overwhelming to where I know that they are so into this story. And that's really all I'm wanting for both of us. I want my players and myself to be part of a story that just feels epic, as cliche of a word as that may be. I want them to feel, you know, have this escape that they could go to that they couldn't get anywhere else. And that's the enjoyment that I get from it. I get that. Epic is kind of an apt word for anything Dungeons & Dragons, but it's also an apt word for our homebrew of the week. Alex? It is. I actually designed one specifically for you, Dustin. I know that you're not as much of a coffee drinker, even though we sit and talk about coffee all the time. But this one is exceptionally sweet with lots of milk in it, which I know is right up your alley. And so I did design one for you. This one is going to be a white chocolate mocha with a salted caramel cold foam. We're going to call it the Dungeon Master's Desire. Oh, that does sound so good. I always joke with people that I don't actually like coffee. I like milkshakes. So put as much different types of sugar into it as you can. And I will certainly adore it. This sounds fantastic. Perfect. And this can be served hot or cold. So you're going to start with your espresso. But for this, I want whoever, you know, when you're making this, you're going to use a light roast coffee. So it's not as heavy in that coffee flavor. And you're going to brew your espresso, or if you have just a regular coffee brewer, just brew some hot, you know, some hot coffee. And you're going to add your white chocolate syrup that we used earlier in season one and mix that with your espresso. Once it's brewed, get it good and mixed together, especially if you're going to pour it over ice. Make sure it's all dissolved. You're going to stir it together. If you're not using ice, just put it in your coffee mug. If you are, go ahead and pour it over ice at this point. You're going to add the milk of your choice, which I know for you is just regular milk. And you're going to then add another drizzle of white chocolate sauce onto that. And then in a separate container, I recommend unless you have one of those cute little cold foam whisks, just put this in like a mason jar or a closed lid jar. And you're going to add heavy cream and a salted caramel syrup with a lid. And you're going to shake it for about 30 to 45 seconds until it starts becoming more of a whipped cream. But you still want it to be a little bit liquidy. Definitely don't turn this into butter because that's really easy to do. I've done that with my youngest child when she was annoying me. I gave her whipped cream and said, turn this into butter. And she was busy for 20 minutes. I mean, that's totally something I would do, but that's brutal. That's amazing. It's like your babysitter. It is. And you get butter. But anyway, so you add your heavy cream, your salted caramel to a lidded container, or you use your mixer, 30 to 45 seconds, get it good and frothy but still liquidy. And you're going to pour it over the top. Once you have your cold foam right there on the top, you're going to drizzle with a little bit of salted caramel sauce and then sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon into this. Now, of course, if you want to make this a real adult beverage, it would be with that cinnamon on top, it would be really good with a good spiced rum, or you can never go wrong with something like a Baileys. Vodka. Just put vodka, V-O-K-K-A in, vodka. I don't know. You know I'm a vodka lover, and I don't put it in a whole lot of our coffee drinks. But if you do drink, drink responsibly, of course. I know you and your players are actually at a live table, so that would be fun. I always say a tipsy DM is a lot more fun than, you know. But maybe you guys can try and share this around the table one day at your next session or whatever. So I hope you enjoy it. We designed that specifically for you. And we really want to say thank you for being on the show with us today, Dustin, and it was a pleasure. Thank you so much. Call me whenever you've killed somebody, one way or another. I don't care if there's not any death involved. All right. Well, thank you guys for listening. Don't forget to listen and subscribe and follow, both on Spotify and Amazon Music, whatever you listen to. Of course, you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and X as well. And if you want to come out and see us, we're going to be at the Anime Game Fest 2024, July 25th through the 28th in Arlington, Texas, and Fan Festival October 19th through the 20th in Irving. We'll see you guys there.