Mystery Train – Making Magic Into Technology in D&D 5e

We continue to drive down deeper into our real-time worldbuilding experiment armed with the comments of our listeners. Science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke formulated three adages known as Clarke’s Laws that he expounded on in his writings. The third of these is the most famous, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave begin to unpack this idea of ancient technology being what makes magic in the ever-evolving, crowdsourced Boomtown Campaign Setting.  Make sure to Join the Conversation!0:24 DM Dave’s audio homage to the famous “slapback” effect of Sam Philips’ Sun Studios.4:33 The current state of technological advancement in Boomtown.6:40 How much magic is discovered at 1st level? Where is the floor for magic in the campaign setting?10:15 Magic is being used to build and power the world.11:25 We love the idea of Masterwork and Weapons of Quality handling anything that is +1.15:30 What can you find in a general Boomtown? How damaging are run-of-the-mill firearms?16:30 Leaning into the idea of Misfires and Wild Magic. We also discuss adjusting Attunement.33:00 Building and creating magic – giving agency to the players in rediscovering magic.40:50 Flaws ands vulnerabilities in the characters and the world are what make the greatest stories.41:45 Final Thoughts.

We continue to drive down deeper into our real-time worldbuilding experiment armed with the comments of our listeners. In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave return to the conversation started in Episode 174 and begin to build out the town that will be the start of most adventures in our Boomtown Campaign Setting.  Make sure to Join the Conversation!1:55 Where are we now? We asked, you answered! Boomtown #1 is known as Gallow Springs!3:40 What’s in our border town?6:05 What’s NOT in the town? Religion and Churches, per our last episode.9:35 Our archetype for Boomtown was Wyatt Earp’s Tombstone. So, what was actually there at the time? 12:15 Name the 110 saloons!12:35 How small is a small town? Between Hommlet and Waterdeep.16:10 The split between Uptown and Downtown and the Law.19:55 The point of the Boomtowns: Recovering Tech – our “Gold Rush.”22:06 Dueling and Gunfights: How Lawless is Gallow Springs?29:30 The Haves and the Have Nots: The rich get richer!31:00 Buying Magic in Gallow Springs?38:50 Final Thoughts.

We continue to drive down deeper into our real-time worldbuilding experiment armed with the comments of our listeners.In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave finish out the discussion of how magic will work in our crowdsourced “Boomtown” campaign setting by asking “Where does divine magic come from?” Make sure to Join the Conversation!1:40 “Where Are We Now”: the Boomtown campaign setting, as it currently stands.5:20 Discovering the Lost Gods?6:00 Will this be monotheistic or polytheistic? What about the Cleric Domains?10:00 Could Divine Magic be just advanced forms of technology or Artificial Intelligence?13:45 #FightForTheColonyShip 14:45 One God: Many Names.16:50 What does this tech-based magic look like compared to the ordinary folk?20:30 How does religion fit into this world? 29:45 The struggle between the Corporations, the Prophets, and the Boomtowns.40:45 Final Thoughts.

We continue to drive down deeper into our real-time worldbuilding experiment armed with the comments of our listeners.In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave begin to ask the most basic question when building a town: why is the town there? In our D&D Tombstone idea, we realize the short answer is money. And what drives that money? Magic. Make sure to join the conversation as we build a Wonderful World with our 3WD community!2:25 The “Elevator Pitch” for our new campaign setting.4:05 Review our discussion of magic.9:06 Our Sci-Fi, D&D Tombstone.10:50 Why do towns exist? The short answer: money.14:55 Economy, commerce, and the Gold Piece Problem.17:40 Power, Influence, Money, and your Standard of Living23:50 Magic is a memory. The adventure is in rediscovering it.29:35 Leveling magic differently to play to the setting?40:15 Final Thoughts.

Following on the heels of our last episode, we drive down deeper into our continued exploration of real-time worldbuilding armed with the comments of our listeners.In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave discuss how magic might work in this new world, how the environment helps to create the setting, and stumble into an idea for a setting that has us really excited. Make sure to join the conversation as we build a Wonderful World with our 3WD community!2:20 We asked and you answered: A Brand New World!6:40 A little context for this experiment: we really just want to see how we all might come together to build a new world and setting. 7:55: Magic: How it works and how we might make it special.15:00 DM Dave really loves the idea of a colony ship…17:55 Our first big change in this setting: we remove the Wizard class entirely.19:55 What is the environment that we find in this new world and setting?21:55 We drive down more to the area that the adventurer’s will encounter first.26:15 The idea for our overall setting starts to take shape: D&D and Sci-Fi meet Tombstone!34:20 Final Thoughts.

Worldbuilding. It’s one of the most talked about aspects of running TTRPGs, as it is the sandbox into which you will throw your party to adventure in. We’ve talked about tips and tricks in past episodes and articles, and have come down on both sides of the debate surrounding how much to do with a focus totally on your specific table and party.However, in this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave have decided to become a bit more involved with a new experiment that we cooked up.Something that has never been done on 3WD before – we’re going to start building a new world live! In real time, we begin asking the questions that will shape our new creation. As this is a show by DMs for DMs, we’re adding another aspect. YOU! We’re asking you to share in the brainstorm and offer ideas. So, tune in now as 3WD starts building a whole new world!1:40 Introduction of our new experiment. Reach out to [email protected] with your ideas and votes!3:40 Low Fantasy? High Fantasy? Low Magic? High Magic? What do we mean by this.7:40 Is our world completely new or a version of Earth (i.e. Middle Earth, The Dying Earth, Shannara)?9:50 DM Tony’s idea of “High Magic” – a return to Greyhawk.11:50 The concept of “starting small.”13:35 What type of story does this world support? And can a world support ANY story?16:35 Building a world that was our Earth (at some point) lends a sense of familiarity when you’re building your new world.18:40 Towns? Cities? States? Kingdoms? 22:53 The archetypes and Tropes of stories. We ALL steal.28:30 People will eventually congregate. The history of the world can’t always be “Mad Max”.31:35 Looking to history.36:00 Final Thoughts.

Movies. TV series. Books. Other DMs running games. There are a multitude of sources that provide fodder for our imagination in developing cool ideas that we want to play with in our own games. But how many ideas are TOO MANY ideas? Can you have too many ideas?In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to answer a listener question from our “Co-DM” Dr. DM (Jason) where he asks the question “If faced with an abundance of ideas, how would each of you decide which things to insert and which to hold onto for later?”4:05 What is your table like and what is your frequency of play?5:15 Bring the ideas that have been really fleshed out that fit the campaign.6:24 Bring the ideas that you would want to have at the table when YOU’RE playing.8:20 Use the ideas that are player-centric first.10:30 Write your ideas down and sit with them. If they still look good with time, use it.12:45 Use ideas that fit your campaign setting and world.13:50 The collaborative story you’re building will tell you what ideas will work best: The Sword of Power.19:20 Just like Lore Tolerance, there is Idea Tolerance. Feed it through your players.26:40 Our tangent into how 5e strength with lifting things can get unwieldy.35:23 Final Thoughts.

Our last episode was the preamble. Last week’s article discussed some of what we learned from playing with new people. But, in this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down with the newest addition to our gaming group, Elizabeth, to delve deep into what went into running the Call of Cthulhu one-shot, playing with brand new people, and how to build a serious level of immersion into any game you’re running… especially horror!0:25 Eben Brooks’ “Hey There, Cthulhu.” 2:33 The Keeper of Arcane Lore Herself, Elizabeth!3:40 Hot take: This was the first time Elizabeth ran a game!4:15 The “Seven Knives” Theory to gaming.6:35 Making the players feel like their characters are a real part of the world.10:55 “System, system, system!” 12:30 Running the game that you want to play in.16:25 Spend prep time with what you think is important and what you like to do.22:20 Having the players be both characters AND audience.27:05 The challenges of playing normal people in modern times. 30:40 Placing a “plant” character in your game: pros and cons.35:15 Giving secrets and clues (or Cthulhu Mythos) to your players before the game.38:30 DM Tony had solved the mystery right at the top of the game… but we didn’t go with it.41:40 Play to the source material: there can’t be a “good” ending in Call of Cthulhu.42:20 Final Thoughts.

Backstory. Character development. It’s one of the most discussed topics in the TTRPG space. And the 3 Wise DMs were faced with the question when a friend offered to run a Call of Cthulhu one-shot for our group. This was followed by a Google Doc with twenty in-depth questions as to the character’s background, motivations, loves, and fears. For a one-shot.If you’ve ever asked yourself the question, “is there such a thing as too much character backstory?”, then this is the episode for you!3:25 DM-Player communication: how much is the DM looking for and how much can you use in-game?4:40 The context of this question really depends on this game being a one-shot, as opposed to a continuing campaign.7:00 Will this level of prep increase the level of investment in the character?9:00 No matter how much you develop the idea of the character… you have no idea how they will play until the game starts.12:50 This question depends very much on the system that you’re playing (including DM Chris’ very old-school D&D way of creating his author, Thomas Albright.)19:45 Will this level of character backstory and development allow a more immersive one-shot?22:50 We might not do twenty questions… but maybe we could?26:00 The level of immersion with teasers that the Keeper of Arcane Lore is creating for this one-shot.30:05 Meeting your players where they are.34:05 Final Thoughts.

You’ve been the DM for a long time (maybe even Forever!) and one of your players has finally said those magic words: “I think I wanna run a game.”So, with all your wisdom, all your experience, all your skills – how do you help the new DM along in the game so that they have a goodtime and the table has a good time? So that they want to get back into the DM chair?For all you Forever DMs, and all you Prospective DMs, this is the episode for you!2:05 3WD drops their Birthday Game Challenge!2:45 The Wizard Washburn gets run through his 70th Birthday Adventure by our own Chaos Engine, Little One, Hawk Morgan’s BFF, Bonnie!5:50 The easiest way to help… be a resource (and DM Chris’ first question on the die roll for a Potion of Healing.)7:55 The trepidation that a new DM has when running a game for experienced DMs.10:00 Always allow the new DM the room to breathe and create their own game.12:00 Let the new DM decide how much they do or don’t need your help – and how the way you play your character can be the biggest help.13:45 “Take small bites.” And how running a game makes you a better player: DM Empathy.15:40 “Investing in Loss.” Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.17:20 Two Forever Tips for a New DM: Use pre-gens and run a concise game.19:00 Don’t make your DM dance when they’re new.24:00 DM Dave sees DM Chris’ Death Sword and raises him the Dragon Slaying Longsword of +50 and our tangent into the Design Teams at WotC not talking to each other in Dragonlance and Curse of Strahd.25:50 DM Dave relates a story that illustrates what we’re talking about.29:15 DM Tony shares how he didn’t mentor DM Thorin well in one of his first games he ran for them.32:50 Final Thoughts.