DMs After Dark

Modified Rolls - How to Prep & Run Published Adventures (Modules, APs, Campaigns, etc.)

We're back with another episode of Modified Rolls, continuing our little run of "How to Prep & Run [Blank]."  Last episode talked about the wonderful world of one-shots, the stress-free experimentation station of RPGs.  This time, we're going bigger - the published stuff.  That's right, you bought a big written adventure and you're going to run your friends through an epic tale and all the good stuff is right there in that book, right?
 
... Hopefully! But we're here to help make sure you'll take the extra steps, ignore the unnecessary ones, and be skipping in tandem with your players along a beautiful road to glory. 
 
Take-Home Points: The book is just a series of prompts with some of the prep done for you, but don't be afraid to change as much as you want to tailor it to your players' PCs to make the story even better (after all, it's their story, not the book's).  Even if you'll never run the whole thing, steal the cool stuff for other games you run!. And, lastly, find the one YOU want to tell, not just the one that looks cool.  It'll feel a lot less like prep and stress if you're into the story and you let that come first.
 
Please rate us on your podcast app of choice and catch our live streams alternating Friday nights over on Twitch or catch up on our games over on our YouTube.
Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Feel free to email us with questions, comments, or just to tell us how awful our ideas are at DMsAfterDark@gmail.com
 
Music in the episode:
Sneaky Adventure by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4383-sneaky-adventure License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
 
Song: DigEx - Fall In Love [NCS Release]Music provided by NoCopyrightSoundsFree Download/Stream: http://NCS.io/FallInLove

(Bonus!) Meet the DMs - Sara

Good morning, afternoon, and/or evening, and welcome back to another deep dive into the DMs as we continue our Meet the DMs series with an interview of Sara by Christian.
Sara regales her journey in RPGs starting from the amazing 1st Edition D&D game with her grandfather and family, her long and storied history with Pathfinder's Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, one-shots and her work with the library, and how she fell into and found her GM style through the years.
If you want to see Sara's skills behind the screen, check out our amazing Good Society series, available on this feed as a podcast or up on our YouTube!
 
If you like these interviews, reach out to us on our social medias or emailing us directly at DMsAfterDark@gmail.com to suggest questions for future interviews!
 
Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.
 
Music in this Episode:
Current Affairs from www.Zapsplat.com 
SirensCeol - Nostalgia [NCS Release]Music provided by NoCopyrightSoundsFree Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/nostalgia Watch: http://youtu.be/geW8xN7grpg 

Good Society Episode 3 (Finale) - Letters, Ledgers, and Forbidden Pleasures

Thank you for joining us for the final installment of Good Society, the Jane Austen RPG from Storybrewers Roleplaying.  In this dramatic finale, horses will race, hearts will break, and fortunes will be on the line. 
 
If you enjoy our streams, podcasts, or just our general nerdiness, please consider giving us a rating on your podcast app of choice! Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.  
And, as always, come hang out and catch our live streams on our Twitch or catch up on our YouTube.
 
Music in the Episode:
Music: Regency Baroque by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com
There is Romance by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4520-there-is-romance License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license 

(Bonus!) Meet the DMs - Christian

Welcome back to Meet the DMs, our interview style series where we sit down with one another and ask the hard-hitting questions, get real deep and introspective and... or just talk about what we love about RPGs and what led us to this wild endeavor we call DMs After Dark!
 
In this episode, Jess interviews Christian, the elder among the DMs, and he regales us with tales from the beforetimes of RPGs.  Joking aside, he shares his humble origins (RIP the 1e Thief), love of comics (leading to Mutants & Masterminds), and his experiences running, playing, and writing for Call of Cthulhu.  We learn more about his RPG collection and even his favorite curse word!
 
Christian is also running our next series, which will be Monte Cook's Invisible Sun.  Stay tuned for more of the bizarre psychedelic reality-shaping setting!
 
If you like these interviews, reach out to us on our social medias or emailing us directly at DMsAfterDark@gmail.com to suggest questions for future interviews!
 
Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.
 
Music in this Episode:
Current Affairs from www.Zapsplat.com 
SirensCeol - Nostalgia [NCS Release]Music provided by NoCopyrightSoundsFree Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/nostalgia Watch: http://youtu.be/geW8xN7grpg 

State of the DMs 2022

Hello all you listeners of what we've been referring to as the After Dark Army (let us know if you like the term or not), join us for a little look behind the screen of our first 9 months of streaming and podcasting.  Christian, Jess, and Rene briefly discuss what we've learned so far, how we're doing our best to improve quality of our episodes both from a roleplaying game experience for you to watch and listen, but also all the technical stuff that goes into livestreaming, audio and video editing, and creating fun, engaging, interactive posts on our social media apps.
We have been loving every bit of playing games and hope that you are enjoying our efforts to put them out there on the interwebs, we would love for you to reach out to us, comment, like, subscribe, donate Jeff Bezos' money to our Twitch streams, tell your friends if you think they might enjoy us, honestly anything you do means the world to us.  We're not looking to make money off of this, but we do discuss the potential of a Patreon or monetization of our gaming, which would only go toward improving the quality of our streams, podcast episodes, and equipment.  If you think we should consider this, we need to reach more people and get the support to move on those ideas.
 
Anyway, enjoy the little glimpse into our daydreaming about bigger things, but otherwise just stay tuned for more great games and our silly shenanigans.
 

(Bonus!) Meet the DMs - Rene

Hello everyone, a quick little bonus episode for you to kick off this week, something we've been wanting to do since much, much earlier in our existence - an interview-style little blurb where we discuss our journeys as DMs/GMs and all things gaming.
 
In this first episode Troy sits down with Rene and asks him about what got him into the hobby (and who, because that just happened to be Troy) and what's taken him to where he is, why does he hate 5e so much, and a few little personal details sprinkled in there.
 
If you like, please consider reaching out to us on our social medias or emailing us directly at DMsAfterDark@gmail.com to suggest questions for future interviews!
 
Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.
 
Music in this Episode:
Current Affairs from www.Zapsplat.com 
SirensCeol - Nostalgia [NCS Release]Music provided by NoCopyrightSoundsFree Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/nostalgiaWatch: http://youtu.be/geW8xN7grpg

Our God Is Dead One-Shot

Come, all ye faithful, to the annual festival of the turning, a time of goodbyes and new beginnings, when our goddess The Hourglass is sure to renew all in our lives and nothing at all is wrong or anything... Seriously, we've been talking, she's good... She, uh, told me to enjoy the pope corn and pay the tithes and ... bless ... uh oh.
 
Welcome to another one-shot, this time playing Jordan Palmer & Murder Publishing's Our God Is Dead, a hilarious rules-light game with a built-in 3 act structure sure to go horribly, horribly wrong.  We play clerics, priests, otherwise faithfuls of a god who has suddenly gone unresponsive, but we've got to keep the people fooled by putting on the annual ritual like nothing's wrong.
Enjoy, please consider picking up the game, which is also available in the TTRPGs For Trans Rights in Texas Bundle over on itch.io, which is so incredibly worth the $5.  Great games, great cause, no reason not to pick it up.  There's only a few days left as of this episode going live, so get on it!
 
The DMs After Dark will actually, seriously, we promise, return to wholesomeness with the finale of Good Society Friday April 8th on our Twitch or catch up over on our YouTube channel.
Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.
 
Music in this Episode:
Ghost Dance by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3802-ghost-danceLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
 
Song: Dirty Palm - Freakshow (feat. LexBlaze) [NCS Release]Music provided by NoCopyrightSoundsFree Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/Freakshow Watch: http://youtu.be/2jwj9wVx3mg 

Modified Rolls - How To Prep & Run One-Shots

On this week's Modified Rolls, the DMs After Dark go over one of their favorite things to do: run one-shots.  The less-stressful one-night-stands of RPGs are a great way to dip your toes into the DM's seat, offer up an alternative style game amidst a long-term campaign, or just goof on being ridiculous characters in a no-consequences zone.  From running published one-shots from the indie RPG community, writing your own one-shots based on your own ideas, or winging it with one-page or rules-light RPGs you get from bundles that you're buying every other week or so at this point (not pointing any fingers but it's Rene and Christian, they need an intervention), one-shots are a great way to have a laugh, explore new systems or settings within your favorite systems, you name it.
 
Take a break, give your GM a break, experiment, run a one-shot (but be safe, wrap it up... the story, you know what we mean).
 
Please rate us on your podcast app of choice and catch our live streams alternating Friday nights over on Twitch or catch up on our games over on our YouTube.
Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Feel free to email us with questions, comments, or just to tell us how awful our ideas are at DMsAfterDark@gmail.com
 
Music in the episode:
Neon Laser Horizon by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7015-neon-laser-horizonLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
 
The Grid by Over Efficient
Link: https://pixabay.com/music/synthwave-the-grid-8245/ 

One-Page One-Shot - Grandma Club

Welcome to Pineapple Falls  - a nice, relaxing retirement community in sunny Florida, where absolutely nothing ever gets weird or flipped upside down (if you know what we mean).  At least, not under the reign of Homeowner's Association President Carol, who's turned this place from its rowdy past to a respectable retreat for senior citizens.  However, Carol's recent decisions are rubbing some of the grandmas the wrong way, and you know how those Floridians get when they're worked up - they make some wild headlines.
 
In this little one-shot we play Third Country Press' one-page RPG Grandma Club, which is supposed to be a relatively innocent game of grandmother's doing what they must to make sure their village wins the best little village award.  Unfortunately, the DMs put the After Dark into this one-shot and it go full on "Florida Man."  Enjoy our messed up minds as we take on Grandma Club.
 
Content Warning:  Marv's many nieces & nephews, drugging old folks with sexytime medication (again), and I'm sure much, much more.
 
The DMs After Dark will return to wholesomeness with the finale of Good Society Friday March 25th on our Twitch or catch up over on our YouTube channel.
Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can comment & chat with us about all things RPGs.
 
Music in this Episode:
Song: Dirty Palm - Freakshow (feat. LexBlaze) [NCS Release]Music provided by NoCopyrightSoundsFree Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/FreakshowWatch: http://youtu.be/2jwj9wVx3mg

Modified Rolls - Play. More. Games. (Please)

On this week's Modified Rolls, the DMs After Dark finally talk about what is, essentially, our mission statement as a gaming group putting things on the interwebz - Why you should PLAY. MORE. GAMES.  And by that we mean play different RPG systems.  Every new game you play offers an opportunity to experience a new kind of story, to learn other methods of storytelling, understand different resolution mechanics, play characters you can't normally play because of genre-defined roles, you name it!  We firmly believe that roleplaying games are way more than just games, they are places to experiment with your worldview, attempt to understand other points of views, experiment with morality and do mental gymnastics to more thoroughly explore ideas and ideals.
 
So go play some damn games.  What games made you realize there's more to games than power fantasy?
 
Games Mentioned in this Episode: D&D; Pathfinder; Call of Cthulhu, Mutants & Masterminds, Dungeon World, Titansgrave: Ashes of Valkana, Fantasy AGE, Modern AGE, The Expanse RPG, Paranoia, Fiasco, Mistborn Adventure Game, Masks: A New Generation, Good Society: A Jane Austen RPG, Three Raccoons in a Trench Coat, probably a lot more.  
 
Please rate us on your podcast app of choice and catch our live streams alternating Friday nights over on Twitch or catch up on our games over on our YouTube.
Like, follow, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Feel free to email us with questions, comments, or just to tell us how awful our ideas are at DMsAfterDark@gmail.com
 
Music in the episode:
Call to Adventure by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://filmmusic.io/song/3470-call-to-adventureLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license