Game Master's Journey

Lex begins a series of episodes discussing Xanathar's Guide to Everything, the new D&D rules supplement. Today he gives an overview of the book with a tour of its contents. Whether you're a player or a DM, Xanathar's Guide has something for everyone.

Behind the Screen is a series of GM commentary companion episodes to Lex's new D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria. This week Lex discusses running session 1, Into the Wilds.

Behind the Screen is a series of GM commentary companion episodes to Lex's new D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria. This week Lex discusses how he prepared for the first session, Into the Wilds.

Behind the Screen is a series of GM commentary companion episodes to Lex's new D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria. This week Lex discusses his preparation for the campaign.

Behind the Screen is a series of GM commentary companion episodes to Lex's new D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria. This week Lex gives an introduction to his homebrew D&D world, Primordia.

Lex returns to his discussion of the Dungeon Master’s Guide with an exploration of the astral plane. This is the first part of a two part discussion. We'll go over the basics of the astral plane. We’re not given a lot of details on this plane in the 5e DMG compared to previous editions, so in part two we’ll refer to the Manual of the Planes from 3rd edition to fill in the gaps. This week Lex also discuss some of the spells used to travel the planes--plane shift, gate and astral projection.

In October's livestream episode, Lex discusses his upcoming D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria, which he'll be livestreaming on YouTube. He also talks about the future of Game Master's Journey, adjusting encounters in a published adventure for PCs of a lower or higher level, Tomb of Annihilation and Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

Lex discusses why game balance is important. We often think of game balance when coming up with campaign-affecting house rules, but we should also keep it in mind when making rulings on-the-fly during play. These spontaneous house rules can have just as much impact on our games as the ones we spend time designing.

Lex covers a variety of RPG topics today including getting PCs back to town at the end of the session in West Marches campaigns, Limitless Adventures' Limitless NPCs, stepping on toes, Jeremy Crawford's DM hacks and handing out legendary and other powerful magic items. Finally Lex discusses the belief that worldbuilding is a waste of the GM's time because the players won't care about the setting anyway.

Lex shares what he learned from his latest D&D campaign. Then he begins a discussion of chapter 2 of the Dungeon Master's Guide: Creating a Multiverse. He covers the different types of planes and different ways you can fit them together into a cosmology. Finally he discusses some of the ways PCs can access and travel the planes.

Brett joins the show again for a GM to GM discussion of some general GM philosophy and tips, and Lex goes into some detail on his upcoming campaign and his homebrew world of Primordia.

Encounters seldom turn out in practice as they appear on paper. Today Lex discusses some ways to scale an encounter on the fly during play.

Today Lex discusses feedback from Listener-GMs on recent topics. He discusses his opinions on Professional Game Masters. He also talks about "random" encounters, player honesty, competition, theater of the mind and the impartialness of the GM in West Marches style campaigns.

Lex wraps up his exploration of chapter 1 of the Dungeon Master's Guide with a discussion of the flavors of fantasy.

Today Lex talks about what he's done to prepare for his next campaign, The Hinterlands of Elandria. 

Lex returns to the DMG to discuss play style and tiers of play. Not all D&D campaigns are the same, and this is the point in your campaign creation where you decide exactly what kind of an experience you’re going for.

Lex discusses preparation for his new campaign.

Today Lex moves to the other side of the GM screen to talk with his DM, Brett. Lex has been playing in Brett’s campaign quite a while now and having a lot of fun. Lex asks him about his GMing style and about his homebrew setting of Terindal. They also talk about how to avoid railroading the PCs, and Brett's experiences running D&D at the higher tiers of play.

Lex discusses some variations you can consider to tailor the West Marches formula to the needs of your own campaign. He describes the variations he's using for his own campaign, The Hinterlands of Elandria.

Lex discusses Wizards of the Coast's new product announcements: Xanathar's Guide to Everything and Tomb of Annihilation. He also discusses West Marches campaigns, Mearls' crazy initiative system, and more.