This time John and Jack take a deep dive into Monarchies of Mau, a d20 system that strongly resembles 5e mechanics with anthropomorphic dogs and cats (and others). Fans of Redwall and similar series will find some interest and familiarity here. It’s also got some great lore, and is easily accessible for groups familiar with 5e, Pathfinder, or other d20 systems, while putting a new layer of possibility for your adventures. It’s also great for kids! DON’T FORGET! (Last plug for a little while)Check out The Painter And The Pirate available NOW! Written by our own Jack Skoda, and playtested by our Wednesday night group, this stunning 7th Sea module is an amazing adventure to start your journey upon the seabound and cinematic system of 7th Sea. Find it now at DriveThruRPG:https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/344244/The-Painter-and-The-Pirate?term=the+painter If you’d like to comment feel free to do so here, or if you want to ask a question to be asked on the show, follow me (John) on Twitter: @jmskoda5, and/or @redhoodiegamesCheck out redhoodiegames5.wordpress.com for character concept ideas and other free content you can use in your home TTRPGs. If you’d like to support what we’re doing then please visit Patreon.com/skoda. Even at the $1 level you’ll get access to our Patron Discord where you can chat with us and ask questions, suggest show topics, and get a higher dose of Set The Table! Intro & Outro Music Attribution:Music: Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Set The Table: Episode 28 – Feedback

This week we talk about Feedback: receiving and processing as a DM, providing thoughtful feedback for players, and what to do with it once it’s all out in the open. Lots of good discussion in this show with major takeaways being: be open to feedback as a DM and as a player, take a moment before providing or reacting to feedback, take your time processing it once you receive or give it, and close the loop (whether you take action on the feedback or not). DON’T FORGET!Check out The Painter And The Pirate available NOW! Written by our own Jack Skoda, and playtested by our Wednesday night group, this stunning 7th Sea module is an amazing adventure to start your journey upon the seabound and cinematic system of 7th Sea. Find it now at DriveThruRPG:https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/344244/The-Painter-and-The-Pirate?term=the+painter If you’d like to comment feel free to do so here, or if you want to ask a question to be asked on the show, follow me (John) on Twitter: @jmskoda5, and/or @redhoodiegamesCheck out redhoodiegames5.wordpress.com for character concept ideas and other free content you can use in your home TTRPGs. If you’d like to support what we’re doing then please visit Patreon.com/skoda. Even at the $1 level you’ll get access to our Patron Discord where you can chat with us and ask questions, suggest show topics, and get a higher dose of Set The Table! Intro & Outro Music Attribution:Music: Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

John & Jack discuss changing? swapping? substituting? characters and players at your table. How do you handle it when a player wants to leave? What about if a player doesn’t like their character and wants to start a new one? Well you can find out a whole bunch of ways how that stuff happens, and how to handle it as the DM/GM right here on Set The Table! DON’T FORGET!Check out The Painter And The Pirate available NOW! Written by our own Jack Skoda, and playtested by our Wednesday night group, this stunning 7th Sea module is an amazing adventure to start your journey upon the seabound and cinematic system of 7th Sea. Find it now at DriveThruRPG:https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/344244/The-Painter-and-The-Pirate?term=the+painter If you’d like to comment feel free to do so here, or if you want to ask a question to be asked on the show, follow me (John) on Twitter: @jmskoda5, and/or @redhoodiegamesCheck out redhoodiegames5.wordpress.com for character concept ideas and other free content you can use in your home TTRPGs. If you’d like to support what we’re doing then please visit Patreon.com/skoda. Even at the $1 level you’ll get access to our Patron Discord where you can chat with us and ask questions, suggest show topics, and get a higher dose of Set The Table! Intro & Outro Music Attribution:Music: Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Welcome to the first episode of Set The Table for 2021! This week John and Jack talk all about Narrating Action, from combat to dramatic scenes, how and when do you narrate? How much detail do you really need? How can your players help you as a DM? All this and more! Mini-Disclaimer: We do get caught up in our recaps and some personal things so if you want to skip all that and get to the Narrating Action section, you’ll want to skip ahead about 16 minutes. If you’d like to comment feel free to do so here, or if you want to ask a question to be asked on the show, follow me (John) on Twitter: @jmskoda5, and/or @redhoodiegamesCheck out redhoodiegames5.wordpress.com for character concept ideas and other free content you can use in your home TTRPGs. If you’d like to support what we’re doing then please visit Patreon.com/skoda. Even at the $1 level you’ll get access to our Patron Discord where you can chat with us and ask questions, suggest show topics, and get a higher dose of Set The Table! Intro & Outro Music Attribution:Music: Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

John and Jack reflect on our first year of Set The Table. Many of our topics are worth mentioning in Session Zero, so we recap about all the important things new DM/GMs need to know about. It’s a pretty sweet summary of all of our first year of content so please please PLEASE! Check it out. If you’d like to comment feel free to do so here, or if you want to ask a question to be asked on the show, follow me (John) on Twitter: @jmskoda5, and/or @redhoodiegamesCheck out redhoodiegames5.wordpress.com for character concept ideas and other free content you can use in your home TTRPGs. If you’d like to support what we’re doing then please visit Patreon.com/skoda. Even at the $1 level you’ll get access to our Patron Discord where you can chat with us and ask questions, suggest show topics, and get a higher dose of Set The Table! Intro & Outro Music Attribution:Music: Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This week John and Jack talk about getting the Gods involved. What can be a session zero topic doesn’t always have to be. Will your player characters spend time praying or engaging in religious rituals? How central is religion and the gods to your story? Find out this much and more as we delve into the realms of the divine! If you’d like to comment feel free to do so here, or if you want to ask a question to be asked on the show, follow me (John) on Twitter: @jmskoda5, and/or @redhoodiegamesCheck out redhoodiegames5.wordpress.com for character concept ideas and other free content you can use in your home TTRPGs.If you’d like to support what we’re doing then please visit Patreon.com/skoda. Even at the $1 level you’ll get access to our Patron Discord where you can chat with us and ask questions, suggest show topics, and get a higher dose of Set The Table! Intro & Outro Music Attribution:Music: Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This time we talk about evil characters; why and how to build them as player, and how to deal with some of their trickery as the GM/DM. Big takeaways include really consider why your character is evil, and make that a central part of your role-play. Remember you’re Chaotic Evil, not Chaotic Stupid/Impatient/Vengeful. As a DM try to encourage this RP, and don’t let other players vilify an evil player character too quickly, alignment can change, and behavior and personality are fluid. Change, grow, adapt, and may you crush your enemies beneath your boots! Stay tuned for our next episode when we’ll announce something special for our 1-year anniversary episode! If you’d like to comment feel free to do so here, or if you want to ask a question to be asked on the show, follow me (John) on Twitter, or become a Patron: @jmskoda5, and/or @redhoodiegames Check out redhoodiegames5.wordpress.com for character concept ideas and other free content you can use in your home TTRPGs. If you’d like to support what we’re doing then please visit Patreon.com/skoda. Even at the $1 level you’ll get access to our Patron Discord where you can chat with us and ask questions, suggest show topics, and get a higher dose of Set The Table! Intro & Outro Music Attribution:Music: Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

John and Jack invite one of John’s oldest friends and player of Connie the Bard, James Kiernan onto the show to talk all about bards! We discuss why John doesn’t love bards, what there is to love about them, a little bit of the intricacies of College of Whispers and Lore, some tips for dealing with bards as a GM, and a whole bunch of awesome conversation! If you’d like to comment feel free to do so here, or if you want to ask a question to be asked on the show, follow me (John) on Twitter, or become a Patron: @jmskoda5, and/or @redhoodiegames Check out redhoodiegames5.wordpress.com for character concept ideas and other free content you can use in your home TTRPGs. If you’d like to support what we’re doing then please visit Patreon.com/skoda. Even at the $1 level you’ll get access to our Patron Discord where you can chat with us and ask questions, suggest show topics, and get a higher dose of Set The Table! Intro & Outro Music Attribution:Music: Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

John and Jack have our second casual conversation episode and talk about a fun variety of things: Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, scheduling challenges, 7th Sea, Baldur’s Gate 3, a tool called DungeonScrawl, and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting, it’s a good one! There is a little audio hiccup that I mention where my mic had cut out for several minutes near the end and it’s just Jack, but it’s still good stuff! If you’d like to comment feel free to do so here, or if you want to ask a question to be asked on the show, follow me (John) on Twitter: @jmskoda5, and/or @redhoodiegames Check out redhoodiegames5.wordpress.com for character concept ideas and other free content you can use in your home TTRPGs. If you’d like to support what we’re doing then please visit Patreon.com/skoda. Intro & Outro Music Attribution:Music: Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

John and Jack elaborate on a notable reference we’ve talked about before called Appendix N, a page at the end of the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide. We go on to discuss inspiration, where to find it, how to use it, and what makes good inspiration. Included are a few ways to help boost your own creativity and find inspiration for your own games.Links mentioned in the show:From the 1979 book by Gary Gygax: http://digital-eel.com/blog/ADnD_reading_list.htmThe Goodreads List: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/21558.Appendix_NAppendix N Book Club Podcast: https://appendixnbookclub.com/If you’d like to comment feel free to do so here, or if you want to ask a question to be asked on the show, follow me (John) on Twitter: @jmskoda5, and/or @redhoodiegames Check out redhoodiegames5.wordpress.com for character concept ideas and other free content you can use in your home TTRPGs. If you’d like to support what we’re doing then please visit Patreon.com/skoda. Intro & Outro Music Attribution:Music: Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/