Our Favorite DMing Inspirations and Influences

3 Wise DMs

What drew you into role-playing games? Was it the movies, TV, myths and legends you experienced as a kid? Was it video games? Was it the first time you picked up a gaming book and fell into the world?

Once you got into the games, what shaped the stories you tell and worlds you build? Where do your characters come from? Where do your mechanical parts come from?

We all stand on the shoulders of giants in games, whether those are metaphorical giants, literary giants or literal giants. In this episode, the 3 Wise DMs talk about the things that shape their games and how they directly impact what they do. Whether you’re looking for inspiration of ways to make the inspirations you already have a bigger part of your game, this episode will give you the big picture of how all these crazy parts come together to make our DMing whole.

2:00 Movies, myths, the ancient Celts … Things that laid the foundations of our DM styles

6:00 Magenta-colored glasses: The first TTRPG products we were exposed to

10:00 What drives people’s interest in D&D

13:00 Excitement and mystery: That feeling of getting sucked into an RPG book before the Internet ... even before computer games

18:00 Art and awesomeness

20:00 Crunchy influences: The things that influenced us mechanically and thematically, good and bad

27:00 D&D 2E Memories: Why did DRUIDs have to kill each other to level up? Why could a Celtic warrior throw a spear with its FOOT for evisceration-level damage?

32:00 The problem with very simulationist games: Are they fun?

33:00 Adventuring in the “real” history: Reactions to our first 3WD Call of Cthulhu campaign

39:00 When D&D got Medieval: The 2E Arms & Equipment Guide

43:00 Stream of influence: The impact of online campaigns like Critical Role on us and TTRPGs as a whole

46:00 Music in our games: Influences and game soundtracks (DM Dave, say it ain’t so!)

51:00 Video games that influenced our DMing

57:00 How 5E D&D is still influencing us

60:00 The D&D 2E Monstrous Compendium and Expanding Universe: A Creatively Encouraging Vision for TTRPGs

69:00 Making D&D combat look and sound more like real or theatrical combat

72:00 Can you do it simpler? How can we fit interesting details into our games without spiraling complexity?

80:00 Aur’k Ka’ang, the Fire Giants’ Iron Golem (SKT) and making solo NPCs the party-crushing bastards they were born to be

86:00 Unearthed Arcana: The excitement of spells that used to do really weird stuff

93:00 Final thoughts: “Feed your creative soul”