Good GMs Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Good GMs Podcast

James Currie, Chuck Taylor

Arts

Education

Leisure

Frequency: 1 episode/7d. Total Eps: 14

We’re James and Chuck, lifelong Game Masters who can’t stop thinking about role-playing games. We’ve spent years running sessions, building worlds, and discovering stories we never planned. Sometimes things work perfectly, and sometimes we screw up spectacularly, but we always learn, laugh, and lean on each other’s experience to make the next game even better. We don’t always agree, and that’s part of the fun. There's no right or wrong way to GM, just choices, surprises, and the joy of collaborative storytelling.

Support Good GMs on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodGMsPodcast
Anywhere You Stream: https://linktr.ee/GoodGMs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584454320344
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodgmspod/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@good.gms.podcast

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
05/08/2026
#73
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
04/08/2026
#42
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
26/06/2026
#81
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
21/06/2026
#91
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
20/06/2026
#67
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
19/06/2026
#45
🇬🇧 Great Britain - performingArts
17/06/2026
#98
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
16/06/2026
#76
🇬🇧 Great Britain - performingArts
16/06/2026
#86
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
15/06/2026
#47

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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https://www.youtube.com/@GoodGMsPodcast
28 shares
https://www.youtube.com/@SSkorkowsky
3 shares
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl1MgCwKyKXuHD7lHwJFtyZF0BG4IAQah
2 shares

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

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RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 69%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

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1 - The GMs Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain

Episode 1

Thursday, April 30, 2026 • Duration 22:31

Get Good! Welcome to the first episode of Good GMs, a podcast for game masters and tabletop gaming storylikers. We’re James and Chuck, lifelong Game Masters who can’t stop thinking about role-playing games. We’ve spent years running sessions, building worlds, and discovering stories we never planned. Sometimes things work perfectly, and sometimes we screw up spectacularly, but we always learn, laugh, and lean on each other’s experience to make the next game even better.

✨Pro-Tips✨

Support Good GMs on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodGMsPodcast
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3XSYh258bxrIjYuZpmdw2R
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-gms-podcast/id1851312721
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodgmspod/

Read moreCollapse

6 - Chaosium Con Air

Episode 6

Friday, June 5, 2026 • Duration 39:54

Did you miss out on the cosmic horror and community vibes at Chaosium Con in Ann Arbor, Michigan? This week on Good GMs, James and Chuckie sit down to recap Chuckie’s weekend at this uniquely intimate tabletop gaming convention. Boasting a comfortable crowd of around 450 attendees, Chaosium Con is the ultimate space to skip the massive stadium crowds of Gen Con and actually rub shoulders with industry legends, swap horror stories with fellow Keepers, and level up your skills as a Game Master.

Convention Etiquette & Bad GMs: The critical importance of showing up early and knowing your rules. When a neighboring GM flaked out on their players, our friend "Big Stompy Robot" from the Savage Sessions RPG Podcast stepped up to absorb the players and save their hard-earned vacation time.
Propping Up Your Con Game: Why presentation is everything. Chuckie talks about laminating massive custom maps, while James details packing an entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles session inside pizza boxes (complete with colored eye masks and custom dice trays) to turn a regular game into an unforgettable show.
The Campfire Tales Leak: A look at Chaosium's upcoming Call of Cthulhu book Campfire Tales (focusing on scouting themes) and how modern safety mechanics stop horror GMs from becoming actual "monsters" when running high-terror games involving younger characters.
A Brush with Chaosium Royalty: Chuckie shares a hilarious story about running The Haunting, navigating a wagon full of oversized props, and unknowingly talking shop with Chaosium's Vice President and Creative Director, Jeff Richard, and his multi-table-running wife!

✨Pro-Tips✨

Pick up community-made sourcebooks or publish your own gaming content over on DriveThruRPG.
Listen to Bridgett Jeffries over at the Miskatonic University Podcast.
Watch incredible, system-agnostic GM advice from on YouTube.

5 - Raiders of the Best Parts

Episode 5

Friday, May 29, 2026 • Duration 29:23

Welcome back to the Good GMs Podcast! Today, James Currie and Chuckie Tee are talking about the art of "Frankenstein-ing" your tabletop games. We’re looking at those specific rules or mechanics from one system that are just too good not to steal and port over to another. After all, it's your homebrew—might as well make it the game you actually want to play.

✨Pro-Tips✨

Chuckie highlights a recent Vampire session run by our mysterious and crime-positive producer, Rainey Robertson, who handled her first time in the Storyteller's seat with a story she wrote herself.

Discworld (Modiphius): James shares his experience with this wacky, pun-filled system where stats are descriptions and character traits like "always knows where 'lost' is" lead to some very creative loophole-finding.

Honey Heist: A look at Grant Howitt’s notorious one-sheet RPG where you play bears in hats trying to pull off a heist while balancing "Bear" and "Criminal" stats.

Vegas and Vampires: Chuckie catches us up on his modern-day Call of Cthulhu run in Lost in the Lights.

The Art of the Steal: We dive into the specific mechanics we love to "cannibalize":

Luck as a Benny: How to adapt the Call of Cthulhu Luck mechanic into other systems to decide things outside of character skills—like whether a cab will actually show up at 3:00 AM in a bad part of town.

The Pushed Roll: Borrowing from Cthulhu to give players a second chance after a failure—with the caveat that the GM tells you exactly how bad things will get if you fail the second time.

Failing Forward: Using "adversity tokens" from Kids on Bikes or experience systems from Powered by the Apocalypse to ensure that failing a roll still drives the story forward.

4 - The Best Little University in East Texas

Episode 4

Friday, May 22, 2026 • Duration 43:57

Welcome to a very special episode of the Good GMs Podcast! Today, we PIVOT TO VIDEO~ And are joined by the legendary founders of 12 to Midnight, Ed Wetterman and Preston DuBose, to talk all things Savage Worlds: East Texas University (ETU).

*Youtube listeners have heard this episode, and can skip ahead to the eleven minute mark to hear an EXCITING ANNOUCEMENT! Good GM's will be hosting our first ever actual play on Patreon, FOR FREE, of Fresh Blood - join now and get notified when it drops! The show is available to all member tiers of the Patreon, but you must join as a member to see it! It's live as of 5/24/2026, go check it out!

Whether you’re a long-time fan of the Pinebox, Texas setting or a new GM looking for the perfect "gateway drug" into modern horror, this episode is packed with insights. We dive deep into the upcoming ETU: Fresh Blood Kickstarter, exploring how this new edition for Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) revamps the college horror experience with graduate school options, refined ritual magic, and brand-new plot point campaigns.

In this episode, we discuss:

The Origins of 12 to Midnight: Revisit the 2003 release of Last Rites of the Black Guard and how it all began.
Fresh Blood Details: Why this is a "new game" with all-new plot points, Savage Tales, and monsters.
Rituals & High Strangeness: How the magic system has been refined and why technology and magic definitely don't mix.
GM Wisdom: Ed and Preston share their top tips for building a shared, communal storytelling world and keeping the "hook" alive between adventures.
Chickens in the Mist: The notorious TPK adventure returns as a graphic novel.

Support the Show & Our Guests!

🎓 Back the Kickstarter! Don't miss out on East Texas University: Fresh Blood! Enroll at your own risk and grab those early bird rewards.

3 - I Have No Mouth and I Must GM

Episode 3

Friday, May 15, 2026 • Duration 30:41

Welcome to another episode of the Good GMs Podcast! Your hosts, James Currie and Chuckie Tee, are joined by a legendary figure from their gaming past: screenwriter and long-time DM, James Gordon Ross. We’re putting aside the usual notes to talk about the evolution of the hobby and a revolutionary new system currently in the works.

✨Pro-Tips✨

The $10 Dungeon Master: James Gordon Ross shares a formative memory from 1992 involving a university student who actually charged for sessions. It wasn't a con though! It was a masterclass in atmosphere, featuring four Discmans for theme music and a completely diceless session of Mage that melted his 14-year-old, combat-heavy brain.
The "Seven Session" Problem: We discuss the reality of modern gaming, where the average group only meets seven times. James Gordon Ross explains why he’s designing a system specifically to support those massive, 120-session campaigns where characters actually have time for arcs, growth, and redemption.
Bleed Through: A New System:
- The Locution Engine: Instead of standard stats, players form "sentences" to take actions, choosing from three adverbs (Physically, Mentally, Socially), three verbs (Overpower, Manipulate, Endure), and three nouns.
- Dice and Fracture: A roll-low system using a dice pool where ones are great, but rolling a four gives the GM "fracture" points to use against you later.
- Genre Mashups: The system is designed for "Bleed Through," where characters from different genres—like a cowboy whose gun doesn't kill people versus one whose gun does—can exist in the same party, each governed by the "media rules" of their own home world.
What do you think of a system where you build sentences instead of adding modifiers? Could your group survive 120 sessions?
James Gordon Ross: Check out his films Poor Agnes and .

2 - Dr. Jameschuck Or: How I Learned To Stop Prepping and Love the Bomb

Episode 2

Friday, May 8, 2026 • Duration 28:48

Welcome to the second episode of the Good GMs Podcast! Today, Chuck and James are diving into the messy, sometimes stressful, but always essential world of game prepping. Whether you’re a "read every page" kind of GM or more of a "wing it and hope for the best" type, we’re talking about what works, what doesn't, and how to survive when your players decide to set your notes on fire.

In This Episode:

Recent Games: James is running Masks of Nyarlathotep and Kids on Bikes in Pine Hollow, while Chuck plays modern Call of Cthulhu in Las Vegas.
Prepping vs. Playing: We compare campaign and one-shot prep, emphasizing the need to know your material.
The Railroading Trap: James shares how a Rippers session thrived after he ditched his notes for a player-led hook.
Improv Balance: Discussing when to provide structure and when to follow the players.

✨Pro-Tips✨

Index Cards: Use Rob’s method for quick NPC and location tracking.
Player Delegation: Let players help with minor world-building details.
Visuals: Comparing physical props to digital tools like Roll20 or Kanka.

Thanks for listening, and remember—you're all good GMs!

Support Good GMs on Patreon: Join our community to help us keep the signal strong and get access to exclusive nonsense and bonus content. https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodGMsPodcast
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3XSYh258bxrIjYuZpmdw2R

8 - The Devil Wears Plot Armour

Episode 8

Friday, June 19, 2026 • Duration 30:45

Chuckie is off causing rambunction in Ann Arbor, so host James Austin Currie is joined by returning favourite and expert GM, James Gordon Ross, neither of whom, despite having three names, are serial killers.

In this episode, the bois dive deep into the machinations of the Big Bad. Whether you're running a globe-spanning cosmic horror campaign or a politically charged city-wide game, handling your main villain effectively is what separates a good game from an unforgettable one.

✨Pro-Tips✨

Pacing and "Setting the Clock" Balancing urgency without driving your players into paralyzing paranoia is incredibly tough. Ross compares pacing to canoeing: it requires constant, subtle course corrections. If the players are dragging their feet, remind them of the time limit ; if they're rushing past great roleplaying opportunities, ease off the gas.
Building a Skin-Crawling Villain The best villains are a dark mirror of your player characters. By letting a campaign "cook" for the first 15 to 20 sessions with low-level monster hunts , a GM can observe what the players truly care about and tailor the ultimate villain to target those specific moral values and vulnerabilities.
The "Barely Succeeded" Illusion: Always make your players feel like they just scraped by. Spin the narrative so it feels like their clever tactics completely caught the villain off guard, even if you planned it that way.
Poking the Party: Use dream sequences, bizarre realizations of cosmic horror, or eerie, untraceable telegrams to subtly pull your players back onto the main plot without heavy-handed railroading.

One of Us...One of Us....

Slendermans? In MY walls? Our Discord can help 👉 www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast/membership
The true horror: Facebook www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584454320344

14 - Session Zero Dark Thirty

Episode 14

Friday, July 31, 2026 • Duration 30:32

Stop your next TTRPG campaign from dying on scheduling or mismatched expectations by mastering the ultimate Session Zero. Learn how to use safety tools like the X-Card and set a social contract that keeps your players coming back every week. Subscribe for more expert GM advice and let us know your must-have Session Zero rules in the comments!What We Get Into:

One simple rule for session cancellations will save your campaign.
Session negative one: the pitch that happens before session zero. The email, Discord message, phone call where you get initial buy-in before anyone shows up
The three pillars: combat! exploration! roleplay! Why asking your players to rank them tells you more about the game you need to run than any rulebook will
Tone and expectations: are you running The Boys or Mystery Men? Don't make them guess.
Lines and veils: the hard stops and the fade-to-black moments. Why they go on the table before character creation, not after
The X card, and why it isn't a question
Chuckie once ran The Haunting without asking about rats. Find out why he'll never do it again!
Accessibility at the table! Light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, mobility, etc. and why it's the same as moving a chair out of a doorway
Phones: fidget spinners and colouring apps are fine; mobile game sound effects are not; remember GMs, you are God at this table!

Next week: Mike Mason, creative director for Call of Cthulhu at Chaosium. We are so excited. We've also launched our Twitch channel for August's Monster Hunters Club Actual Play! Join us: https://www.twitch.tv/goodgmspodcast

Patreon (and DIscord access): https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodGMsPodcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584454320344

13 - Wake Up GM: A Knife Theory Mystery

Friday, July 24, 2026 • Duration 33:19

James and Chuckie are back to basics this week - no guests, just the two of them digging into one of the most useful GM tools you've probably never heard by name: Knife Theory. Originally posted to Reddit in 2017 by a guy named Jim Baby, Knife Theory is a way to get players to write backstories that you can actually use. The idea is simple: when players include certain elements in their character history, they're handing their GM a knife. A weapon you can pick up and use to pull that character deeper into the story.

What's in the knife block: named NPCs, phobias, traumas, mysteries, enemies, obligations, crimes, heirlooms, secrets - and what makes each one useful at the table
The difference between a sharp knife, a dull knife, and something that was never a knife to begin with
Why 12 knives is too many and what happens when a player's backstory starts stabbing the rest of the party
The double-bladed knife: what happens when you tie two backstory hooks together into one scene
Chuckie walks through his character Finn Mueller's knives live - ex-thief, ex-soldier, one abusive uncle, a phobia of angry dogs, and a pocket watch he won't put down
The debate: should you share your secrets with the whole party or keep them for the GM only? James and Chuckie don't agree.
Send the knife list out before Session Zero - and what that looks like in practice

Stay tuned to the end to hear about some upcoming guests...we're so proud of what we've got coming to close out August (it's not a knife!)

We've also launched our Twitch channel for August's Monster Hunters Club Actual Play and our member-only quarterly AP - this time featuring our friend James Gordon Ross to close out Petey & Westmoreland's first ever time out of Vault 104! https://www.twitch.tv/goodgmspodcast

Discord access & Actual Plays on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodGMsPodcast

Good GMs Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

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Apple Podcasts

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Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Good GMs Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Youtube5

Patreon5

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Youtube5

Patreon5

Instagram1