Explore every episode of the podcast Dungeon Master of None
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 376 - The Auteurs | 13 Nov 2025 | 01:07:46 | |
Rob and Matt advance an exciting new theory about who amongst the current crop of TTRPG creators could be considered "auteurs". It's not as pretentious as it sounds, we promise. Chris McDowall Episode 35: Numenera Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice Follow Dungeon Master of None on Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/dmofnone.bsky.social Join our Patreon for bonus episodes: | |||
| 375 - Night's Black Agents | 06 Nov 2025 | 01:09:22 | |
Here is a final "spooky" episode for everyone! DMs Rob and Matt review Kenneth Hite's Night's Black Agents. It's "Spies vs. Vampires" in a "mystery inside a thriller." While it may not be the perfect system, (or the perfect system for Matt and Rob), it is an endlessly fascinating bit of TTRPG design. It may have some of the most interesting and useful campaign building tools of any rule book. While it's maybe not for slacker DMs, if you like to prep your campaign using flow charts and story maps or if the phrase "dramatic villain response algorithm" fills you with glee, then NBA (Night's Black Agents) is for you! Plus, Rob and Matt finally get to chat about GUMSHOE. Night's Black Agents GUMSHOE System Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice Follow Dungeon Master of None on Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/dmofnone.bsky.social Join our Patreon for bonus episodes: | |||
| 368 - Draw Steel: Heroes! | 15 Sep 2025 | 01:29:40 | |
Matt and Rob review the new MCDM RPG Draw Steel, now fully finished and released into the wild! Learn more about heroic, tactical, cinematic, fantasy combat and you! Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice Follow Dungeon Master of None on Blue Sky: | |||
| 300 - Rascal Dot News | 29 Feb 2024 | 01:01:28 | |
Matt and Rob sit down with Lin Codega and Rowan Zeoli of rascal.news, the new independent TTRPG news site that is rising, phoenix-like, from the ashes of, well, several other sites. We talk plans, the state of TTRPGs, the death of journalism, and more! | |||
| 299 - D&D on Death Row with Keri Blakinger | 16 Feb 2024 | 00:42:47 | |
DMs Rob and Matt are joined by Keri Blakinger, investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times, to talk about her piece for New York Times Magazine, "The Dungeons & Dragons Players of Death Row," which can be read for free at the Marshall Project, "When Wizards and Orcs Came to Death Row." Links: Keri Blakinger - The Marshall Project Keri Blakinger - Corrections in Ink: A Memoir Smriti Mundhra - I Am Ready, Warden at Big Sky Film Festival Books to Prisoners Programs Inside Books Project (Texas) Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice; Lead Belly - The Gallis Pole. | |||
| 298 - The Open Table | 09 Feb 2024 | 01:07:24 | |
Special West Marches Correspondent Andy joins Matt and Rob to explain a wonderous campaign where all are welcome: The Open Table! Learn what an open table-style game is, why you might want to ditch your old dedicated story-driven campaigns, and how to prepare and GM an open table game. Plus, learn the Five "S"s of Open Tables: Setting, System, Scheduling, Starting, Stopping! Links: Andy - Tales of the Iron league Tales of the Iron League Discord Ben Robbins - West Marches Kelsey Dionne - Shadowdark: The Cursed Scroll Trial of the Slime Lord Inkwell Ideas - Hexographer OwlCon in Houston, Texas Check out the DMofNone Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/DungeonMasterOfNone Join DMofNone on Discord!
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| TEASER: InDesigning RPGs | 03 Feb 2024 | 00:07:01 | |
Matt and Rob talk about how to make role-playing adventures, player guides, and games look nice. Join us for a journey through design and layout tools from simple to complex. Listen to the full episode on the DMofNone Patreon! Links: | |||
| 297 - How to Run a One Shot | 02 Feb 2024 | 00:55:35 | |
Matt and Rob talk about how to run a one shot! As it turns out, finishing a whole adventure in one sitting is a lot more complicated than it sounds. Rat Queens Check out the DMofNone Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/DungeonMasterOfNone Join us on Discord! Music: | |||
| BONUS - Actual Prep: Thunder on the Steppe | 25 Jan 2024 | 00:31:44 | |
Rob abuses his power to force the podcast audience to listen to him ramble about his unfinished campaign setting, Thunder on the Steppe! We talk through the idea behind the campaign, issues with getting it presentable, next steps and takeaways. Check out the DMofNone Patreon! Link to the Thunder on the Steppe Preview doc. Join us on Discord! Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice | |||
| 296 - So You Want to be a Game Master? | 19 Jan 2024 | 01:10:14 | |
Matt and Rob review So You Want to be a Game Master? by Justin Alexander (of thealexandrian.net), which is exactly what it says on the tin. We talk about Alexander's approach, what you'll find in the book, and what you can use in your games! Check out the DMofNone Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/DungeonMasterOfNone Join us on Discord! Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice | |||
| TEASER - Farewell to 2023 | 17 Jan 2024 | 00:07:43 | |
Matt and Rob reflect on the events of the year, go over the many (12!) systems they've reviewed, and talk about what they're looking forward to in 2024. Listen to the rest of the episode (and an entire day's worth of premium episodes) on the DMofNone Patreon! Join us on Discord! Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice; Lorne Balfe - Juice of the Vine. | |||
| 295 - Frequently Asked Questions about Dungeons | 11 Jan 2024 | 00:54:54 | |
DMs Rob and Matt are back to answer your questions about Game Mastering! Plus, the triumphant return of Unwanted Advice! Check out the DMofNone Patreon! Join us on Discord! Music: | |||
| 294 - Pathfinder #31 - 48 | 04 Jan 2024 | 01:17:54 | |
Matt and Rob review some more Pathfinder adventure paths, focusing on Serpent's Skull and Carrion Crown! One of these is good! One of them is not! Listen to find out which. | |||
| 367 - Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City | 04 Sep 2025 | 01:01:58 | |
DMs Rob and Matt review what might be the best pointcrawl ever designed, Luka Rejec's Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City 2e. Forests of meat, underwater VOMEs, psychic cats, and not-quite-liches await your caravan as you transverse the prismatic heavy metal wastes on a definitely Dying Earth. It rules. It rocks. Check it out. Ultraviolet Grasslands 2e: https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/collections/wizard-thief-fighter Just the PDF: https://wizardthieffighter.itch.io/uvg-2e The sequel, Our Golden Age: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/exalted-funeral/our-golden-age-an-ultra-violet-grasslands-rpg-sequel "Plagiarism in Unconquered (2022)," Traverse Fantasy, Marcia B. https://traversefantasy.blogspot.com/2023/12/plagiarism-in-unconquered-2022.html Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice Follow Dungeon Master of None on Blue Sky: | |||
| 293 - Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game | 28 Dec 2023 | 01:14:53 | |
"Temba, his arms wide!" DMs Rob and Matt give the gift of a Trekkie TTRPG to you this holiday season. Learn about why playing a Starfleet crew is so much fun and how to use Mophidius's 2d20 system with its momentum and threat pools to create rewarding play at the table. Don your redshirt and get ready for a simulation that you can't win...no, not the Kobayashi Maru...but Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game! Links:
Check out the DMofNone Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/DungeonMasterOfNone Join us on Discord! Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice; Faith of the Heart - Russell Watson. | |||
| 292 - Game Master Like a Teacher | 21 Dec 2023 | 01:21:15 | |
DM Matt shares with DM Rob advice from his many years in the classroom that you can bring to your RPG table. Learn to game master like a teacher with these pedagogy tips! Session Plan Template on Patreon Check out the DMofNone Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/DungeonMasterOfNone Join us on Discord! Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice; The Who - Substitute; Win Ben Stein's Money Intro (Beethoven - Ode to Joy). | |||
| 291 - Candela Obscura | 14 Dec 2023 | 01:17:44 | |
Matt and Rob discuss the brand new mystery horror TTRPG from Darrington Press, Candela Obscura! This highly-anticipated freshman offering from Critical Role's in-house press has, to say the least, a lot going on! Delve into a world of spooky mystery, vaguely fin-de-siècle aesthetics, and questionable architectural choices. Check out the DMofNone Patreon! Join us on Discord! | |||
| BONUS - Tome of Battle (TEASER) | 08 Dec 2023 | 00:00:50 | |
On the Patreon, Matt and Rob revisit a controversial book from the late-stage D&D 3.5e era -- The Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords! This is a messy, bloated, confusing book, but there are a few gems buried there, and moments of real potential, especially if you like cool martial abilities, fantastic combat, and tactical gameplay. | |||
| 290 - Tabletop Game Designers Association with Elizabeth Hargrave and Sen-Foong Lim | 07 Dec 2023 | 00:53:19 | |
Matt and Rob are joined by veteran board game and RPG designers, Elizabeth Hargrave and Sen-Foong Lim, to discuss the Tabletop Game Designers Association, a new trade organization for tabletop creatives of all types. The TTGDA will advocate, educate, and fight for living wages in our community and will need your solidarity! Learn more and sign-up for updates on the TTGDA here at ttgda.org Guests: Elizabeth Hargrave is the Kennerspiel des Jahres award-winning designer of numerous games including Wingspan, The Fox Experiment, and Mariposas. Her kickstarter for Undergrove, a game about how mushrooms and trees are friends, is live right now! Sen-Foong Lim is Gold ENnie award-winning designer whose credits include Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall, the Revenant Society, Avatar: Legends, Mind MGMT, Dungeons & Dragons: Rock Paper Wizard, and Junk Art. Fundraisers: Meguey Baker Jennell Jayquays Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice; Check out the DMofNone Patreon! Join us on Discord! | |||
| 289 - Tarot of Many Things | 30 Nov 2023 | 01:22:08 | |
Matt and Rob are joined by Special Tarot Correspondent Nat, to celebrate the death of Henry Kissinger, discuss the basics of tarot, the history of tarot and tarot-like decks in D&D, how to use tarot with your players, and ways to prep adventures using cartomancy! You can follow Nat on Twitter @ashesforfoxes Links: The Deck of Many Things (5e SRD) The Tarokka Deck from Curse of Strahd The Official Dungeons & Dragons Licensed Tarot Deck by Fred Gissubel Check out our Patreon! Join us on Discord! | |||
| 288 - Vaesen | 23 Nov 2023 | 01:01:47 | |
Matt and Rob strap on their goggles and top hats, ingest a few milliliters of laudanum, and review Vaesen, Free League Publishing's Nordic horror fantasy monster hunting RPG! No myrling or brook horse is safe! Check out our Patreon! Join us on Discord! Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice
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| 287 - Types of Players | 17 Nov 2023 | 01:17:35 | |
What's your players' signs? DMs Rob and Matt take a look at the many different typologies, stereotypes, and taxonomies of players at your table and how you can best observe, identify, and harness these different motivations and goals to improve your game. Some of the many lists of types of role-players. Check out our Patreon! Join us on Discord! | |||
| TEASER - The Talent | 16 Nov 2023 | 00:08:42 | |
DMs Rob and Matt review MCDM's psionic system and psion class, The Talent. Long splat book short: it's pretty good. And it bodes well for the RPG system MCDM will be kickstarting in a couple months. While certain aspects of the class certainly stressed (strained?) us out, MCDM may have designed a better magic system for 5e than D&D's traditional Vancian casting. Listen to the full episode on our Patreon! | |||
| 286 - Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse | 09 Nov 2023 | 01:07:52 | |
Matt and Rob return to Sigil to talk about the other two books in the Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse box set! This includes Sigil and the Outlands, which is exactly what it sounds like, and Morte's Planar Parade, a planar-focused monster manual. I hope you like opinions, berks, because we've got em! Check out our Patreon! Join us on Discord! | |||
| TEASER - Planecrash: Mad Investor Chaos and the Woman of Asmodeus | 03 Sep 2025 | 00:06:05 | |
What if Pathfinder was...rational? What if the ruling House Thrune of Cheliax embraced effective altruism as an economic and social policy? What if you taught the god Nethys game theory? What if hot women wanted to listen to lectures about intelligence-promoting alleles and arbitrage? Tune in for the answers to all these questions and more (and by more we mean this game's harems, torture, rape, and eugenics...so CW!) as DMs Rob and Matt discuss the worst and most influential Pathfinder game/fanfic you will probably never read. | |||
| 285 - A Turn of Fortune's Wheel | 02 Nov 2023 | 01:17:12 | |
Listen up you berks, Matt and Rob are here to talk about Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse -- well, one part of it anyway, the Turn of Fortune's Wheel campaign. We hate to say it cagers, but these leatherheads really piked it. Check out our Patreon! Join us on Discord! Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice | |||
| 284 - Coriolis | 26 Oct 2023 | 01:03:31 | |
| 283 - Rob Talks Baldur's Gate 3 | 19 Oct 2023 | 00:40:50 | |
Matt is down with COVID (don't worry, he's fine), so Rob is stealing the mic to talk about Baldur's Gate 3, the unexpected gaming phenomenon of the season. Turns out there's a lot of cool stuff you can do if you're willing to bend the rules of 5e (and have six years to polish a game). Check out our Patreon! Join us on Discord! | |||
| 282 - Monster Mashup Redux | 12 Oct 2023 | 00:57:21 | |
Happy spooky season, y'all! To celebrate, it's the Monster Mash...up...again! Listen to DMs Rob and Matt mix up on the fly the bugbear with the ankheg, a swarm of rats with a trademarked giant brain-eating worm, and a lion with a gladiator. Stick with it on that last one. Sounds boring, but it's worth it! Check out our Patreon for the full stats of each monster! Join us on Discord! | |||
| 281 - October Mailbag | 05 Oct 2023 | 00:59:25 | |
| 280 - Invisible Sun | 28 Sep 2023 | 01:11:56 | |
DMs Rob and Matt discuss one of the most challenging, most interesting, and weirdest RPGs to come out in the last decade: Monte Cook Games' Invisible Sun. Pour yourself some tea made of thoughts and shuffle your soothe deck because we are heading into the black cube. | |||
| 279 - So You Want to Be a Game Master w/ Justin Alexander | 22 Sep 2023 | 01:17:46 | |
Justin Alexander of the Alexandrian joins Matt and Rob to talk about his upcoming book and about what he's learned in his many years of GMing! Get a sneak peek of So You Want to be a Game Master and hear some PRO TIPS for your games!
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| TEASER - The Ultimate Grift: Jamison Stone and Satine Phoenix | 16 Sep 2023 | 00:05:51 | |
Listen to the full episode on our Patreon! The "ult" episode to our earlier combo on RPG Kickstarter grifts, detailing just a few of the many exploits of Jamison Stone and Satine Phoenix. StudlyStone: A collection of stories involving Satine Phoenix, Jamison Stone, Apotheosis Studios "Accusations Of Bullying And Blacklisting Surround Dungeons & Dragons Creator Couple" by Dan Arndt Kickstarter Links: | |||
| 278 - Monstrous, Monsters, and Mapping with Kyle Latino | 14 Sep 2023 | 01:04:18 | |
Special guest Kyle Latino, aka the MapCrow, joins DM Matt to talk about Cloud Curio's new Kickstarter, Monstrous, how tapping into the fantastic creates better monsters, and how to map more engaging worlds for your players. Check out Monstrous, on Kickstarter now! Building Better Monsters on YouTube
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| 277 - Your (TTRPG) Kickstarter Sucks | 08 Sep 2023 | 01:05:35 | |
Matt and Rob talk about some of our favorite Kickstarter grifts and teach you, valued consumer, how to identify and steer clear of obvious crowdfunding scams. Far West Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice | |||
| 366 - Ivory Tower with Mason Allen | 27 Aug 2025 | 01:01:02 | |
We talked to Mason Allen about his new game, Ivory Tower! Be a terrible immortal archmage in a fallen world and resolve your disagreements with committee meetings! https://riftkidgames.itch.io/ivory-tower Follow Dungeon Master of None on Blue Sky: | |||
| 276 - Flee, Mortals! | 31 Aug 2023 | 01:05:02 | |
DMs Rob and Matt review Flee, Mortals! The MCDM Monster Book. Spoilers: it's good. | |||
| 275 - Power Gaming | 26 Aug 2023 | 01:03:53 | |
Matt and Rob discuss a contentious topic -- power gaming! Come listen to find out why it's cool and good, actually. Hey D&D Powergamers... Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice | |||
| 274 - Tabletop News | 19 Aug 2023 | 01:03:38 | |
Tabletop News is your weekly rundown of the tabletop gaming industry's latest news created for gamers by gamers. Links: The Worst Heist of All Time at GenCon Paizo Announces New Starfinder Edition at Gen Con Largest Third-Party D&D Marketplace Restricts AI-Generated Products Hasbro May Be Eyeing AI for Dungeons & Dragons Dungeons & Dragons tells illustrators to stop using AI to generate artwork for fantasy franchise Goonhammer Roundtable: The Roadmap for Magic from GenCon Baldur's Gate 3 enters Steam charts' all-time top 10 in first weekend - Polygon Baldur's Gate 3 - Character Creation Stats Dungeons & Dragons' Designer Explains How Playtests Have Moved From Experimental to Focused Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn - Sourcebooks - Marketplace - D&D Beyond Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club | EN World Tabletop RPG News & Reviews | |||
| 273 - Vampire: the Masquerade | 12 Aug 2023 | 01:15:46 | |
Matt and Rob sink their teeth into the biggest, bloodiest, sexiest dracula-having RPG around: Vampire: the Masquerade! We only scratch (bite?) the surface of what's possible, but it should give you a taste of what's to store in this world of darkness... patreon.com/dungeonmasterofnone | |||
| TEASER - Castles and Cauldrons | 03 Aug 2023 | 00:03:08 | |
Has an older sibling, friend, or classmate introduced you to "role playing fantasy games?" Make sure your parents are in the room for this one, as Matt and Rob take a trip through the tail end of the Satanic Panic in the Imagination Station to Odyssey, U.S.A. and the Focus on the Family's 1990 radio play, "Castles and Cauldrons." | |||
| BONUS - Dark Souls TTRPG (no, the other one) | 24 Jul 2023 | 00:37:27 | |
Rob reviews a fan translation of the Japanese Dark Souls TTRPG by Kadokawa. Is it better than the 5e version? Can he git gud or will he go hollow reading it? | |||
| 272 - Dungeons and Data 2e | 19 Jul 2023 | 01:08:00 | |
Every couple years, DMs Rob and Matt get curious about which TTRPGs everyone is playing. Which system (that isn't D&D) is the most popular? Which adventure has been played the most? Unfortunately, there isn't a giant database of what everyone is playing, at least, not since the Orr Report ceased its quarterly publication back in 2021. So, we have done our best to compare the popularity of various systems, settings, adventures, and communities using social media subscriptions from Reddit.com. It's hard to draw too many specific conclusions from this dataset, so take any analysis with a grain of salt. Listen in for a comparison of D&D adventure popularity, a ranking of non-D&D systems, and an analysis of the gap between the number of Kickstarter backers and subscribers to a system. | |||
| 271 - Underused Monsters | 12 Jul 2023 | 01:11:37 | |
Matt and Rob dig into the depths of the monster manual to find some underused and underappreciated monsters to use in your games. Music Pac Div - Roll the Dice | |||
| 270 - OneDnD: Don't Call It a New Edition | 01 Jul 2023 | 01:25:16 | |
With the help of Special Playtest Correspondent Alex Clippinger, DM Matt dives into 127 pages of playtest material for OneDnD. OneDnD Playtest 5 and Playtest 6 | |||
| 269 - Metagaming | 21 Jun 2023 | 01:04:19 | |
Hate the metaplayer, not the metagame. DMs Matt and Rob break down the common definitions and misconceptions around metagaming in TTRPGs as well as how Game Masters can leverage metagaming to improve play. LegalKimchi - Metagaming in Roleplaying Games | |||
| 365 - We Went to GenCon! | 20 Aug 2025 | 01:06:25 | |
Matt and Rob report back to you, dear listeners, on what we learned from GenCon, the biggest collection of TTRPG enthusiasts/sweaty nerds in the world! https://playstorypress.org/books/gathering-of-gamers/ Follow Dungeon Master of None on Blue Sky: | |||
| BONUS: Kingmaker 2.0 (TEASER) | 16 Jun 2023 | 00:05:15 | |
Time to return to the Stolen Lands and review the updated and revised Kingmaker adventure for Pathfinder Second Edition. Is this our favorite published adventure? Maybe. Probably. Do we like it even more since the last time we reviewed it? Also, probably yes. | |||
| 268 - The Vicarious Participator | 14 Jun 2023 | 01:02:00 | |
Matt and Rob give some game updates, discuss The News, and then delve into some ancient wisdom from Dragon Magazine #74.
Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice | |||
| 267 - Pathfinder Adventure Paths (#19 - #30) | 09 Jun 2023 | 00:54:54 | |
Take a tour of the gnoll-infested island of Katapesh and the gloomy streets of Westcrown as we review Legacy of Fire and Council of Thieves in our second entry on the Pathfinder Adventure series. | |||