James has been watching movies. Specifically he's been thinking about what Kurosawa, Spielberg, Hitchcock, Sergio Leone, and Guy Ritchie figured out about storytelling — and whether any of it works at a TTRPG table. Spoiler: all of it does.

What We Get Into:

- Chekhov's Gun: put the rifle in act one, fire it by act three — and why not doing it is secretly training your players to stop paying attention to your world

- The Ticking Clock: Hitchcock's bomb under the table. Chuckie's live demo of running both sides of the clock simultaneously — the players prepping, the villain also prepping, tension building on both tracks

- The Delayed Reveal: the Jaws technique. The animatronic shark kept breaking so Spielberg shot a fin in the water. Your players' imaginations are scarier than your description.

- The Calm Before The Storm: James performs it live — dust settling on a battlefield, a beam of light through the clouds, one breath. Then hit them.

- The Rule Of Three: introduce, reinforce, pay off. Why the third beat is where the magic lives.

- False Victory: the Irish goodbye of horror — just when they think they've made it, one more hit. Use it once. Never twice.

- The Unreliable Narrator: one player is drinking sludge from a rusty can, completely convinced it's a glass of water. The other player just failed their sanity check.

FIND US!

Check out Chuckie’s Actual Plays at Savage Sessions on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5nTTZOPB6D7wskZxakPeCG] and Youtube [https://www.youtube.com/@RadioSaladStudios]

 * Support the Show: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
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20 - Once Upon A Game In Hollywood

What happens when a longtime player steps behind the GM screen for the first time? In Episode 19 of Good GMs, our producer Rainey Robertson sits down with James and Chuck to break down her first time ever GM'ing: a four-session Vampire: The Masquerade (5th Edition) murder mystery set in a blue-collar Michigan town that she wrote herself. Think "Roseanne" meets "What We Do In The Shadows". 

Rainey shares real-world GMing tips on organizing player skills, handling accidental plot twists, and avoiding classic first-timer mistakes (as a first-timer herself, she made a LOT of mistakes, and we think she recovered from them in some cool ways.)

✨ Pro-Tips 💫

 * Centralize Player Skills: Collect player skills in a single reference doc before starting to check stats silently.
 * Never Lock Essential Clues Behind Rolls: Deliver critical plot clues automatically; use skill checks for extra context or bonuses.
 * Write Immediate Post-Session Notes: Jot down major events, deceased NPCs, and current locations as soon as a session ends.
 * Roll With Mistakes & Pivot: If you mess up narrative continuity, lean into logical player theories to guide the resolution.
 * Leverage Session Transcripts: Use recording platforms with summary tools to streamline prep and editing.
 * Start With Friends & Passion: Run your debut for a supportive group in a system you love so prep feels rewarding.

FIND US! 

Check out the Savage Sessions team that played Rainey’s game (including Chuckie and Rainey!): Chuckie’s Actual Plays at Savage Sessions on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5nTTZOPB6D7wskZxakPeCG] and Youtube [https://www.youtube.com/@RadioSaladStudios].

 * Support the Show: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
 * YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodGMsPodcast
 * Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/goodgmspodcast
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19 - Interview With The GM

James and Chuckie are back with a theory episode on something every GM eventually has to deal with — problem players. The ones you can actually help. The ones who maybe don't even know they're doing it.

What We Get Into:

 * The Spotlight Hog: probably the most common, and as two enthusiastic GMs James and Chuckie admit they can both fall into this one. How to recognize it, how to redirect it off camera, and how to weaponize their enthusiasm to bring other players in instead
 * GMs as players: why it's important to sit on the other side of the table, what you learn from a good GM, and why a GM as a player can either be the best or worst person at the table — there's almost no middle ground
 * The Distracted Player: James tells the story of the player on her phone who needed the coloring game to pay attention. The fix isn't punishment — it's giving them a job. DJ, note-taker, sketch artist, in-game currency for recap contributions
 * The Reluctant Adventurer: the loner, the lone wolf, the guy who just wanted to be a farmer. Chuckie's rule: it's the player's job to figure out why their character keeps showing up. The Lone Wolf and Cub solution — give them an NPC to be responsible for
 * When to have the aside, how to frame it with empathy, and when to accept that the subplot is just going to stay lost
 * The nuclear option: be honest, be direct, think of it as a breakup

Every Friday we're streaming Monster Hunters Club on Twitch from 7-930 PM EST! Join us, won't you? 

 * Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
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18 - How To Train Your Players

James and Chuckie welcome Jon Hook [https://rpggeek.com/rpgdesigner/33034/jon-hook] - award-winning writer, legendary keeper of cosmic horror, co-host of Modern Mythos [https://modernmythos.libsyn.com/] with Seth Skorkowsky, and one of the original voices behind the Miskatonic University Podcast. He's written for Call of Cthulhu, Goodman Games, Golden Goblin Press, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and more. If anyone knows how to run horror, it's this guy.

What We Get Into:
- Good horror is a roller coaster! You need the highs so the lows hit harder. Jon explains exactly when to load your players up and when to bring the hammer down
- Terror vs. horror: fear of the unknown vs. the sickening realization of it. Jon tells the story of a squirrel in the Tennessee woods that explains both perfectly
- Tropes aren't a crutch if they're a tool. When players recognize a trope, even subtly, they respond the way you need them to. Jon's steam corridor scene works every single time.
- The player who just wanted to survive: Jon's convention story about the guy who avoided every plot hook — and how Jon handled it
- Scenarios are written for an audience of one...the GM. Feel free to reinterpret the telephone game before you pass it to your table
- James pitches his unpublished horror scenario Class of 86, Chuckie talks My Father's Work and the free RPG day at Voss Media Board Game Cafe in Galesburg, MI!
- Jon is running Spawn of Azathoth and playing Gunga, the wild boy raised by Amazon Sasquatches, in a MörK Borg pulp game. Yes, really.

Support the Show: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast [https://enterprise.zencastr.com/preview/episode/6a8787259c4cc05e0df7c3f9]
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodGMsPodcast [https://enterprise.zencastr.com/preview/episode/6a8787259c4cc05e0df7c3f9]
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#GoodGMs #TTRPG #TabletopRPG #GameMaster #CallOfCthulhu #GMTips #Horror #TTRPGCommunity #PodcastForGMs #CosmicHorror

17 - The Last GM On The Left

James and Chuckie go back to basics this week with one of the most useful and most underused tools in any GM's kit — Theater of the Mind. No maps. No minis. Just words, and the picture they paint.

James is prepping for his Monster Hunters Club livestream and wants to lean into Theatre of the Mind so audiences aren't watching him count squares. Chuckie points out he's probably already doing it without realizing it.

What We Get Into:
- Where Theatre of the Mind actually comes from — radio drama, Steve Allen, and the early days of D&D with no maps
- The Three Senses Rule: don't describe a bar, describe the smell of tobacco and stale beer and the sound of fists slamming tables
- The camera technique: wide shot, medium shot, close up — Chuckie uses it every game and Sounds Like Crowes [https://www.soundslikecrowes.com]built a whole methodology around it
- Three anchors: pick three things in the room and build the scene from there. Tables, crowd, the frustrated bartender. Done.
- Zones instead of inches for combat — melee, close, far, very far — and why "plot appropriate distance" sounds condescending until you think about it for two seconds
- Maps aren't cheating. But they're also not required.

Also: the Good GMs Discord book club is starting with Mothership, Cam Rogers [https://www.camrogers.net/] is joining the show soon, and Rainey's idea for a GM tip booklet might actually happen.

Support the Show: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodGMsPodcast
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/goodgmspodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodgmspod/
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#GoodGMs #TTRPG #TabletopRPG #GameMaster #GMTips #TheatreOfTheMind #TTRPGCommunity #TabletopGaming #PodcastForGMs #RoleplayingGames

 16 - Eternal Theatre of the Spotless Mind

James and Chuckie sit down with Mike Mason, Creative Director for Call of Cthulhu at Chaosium, co-author of the ENnie Award-winning 7th Edition Keeper Rulebook, Pulp Cthulhu, the Starter Set, Warhammer 40k: Dark Heresy, and over 40 other titles! If you've ever lost sanity at a table, this is the man who took it from you!

What We Get Into:

 * The biggest crime in every roleplaying game
 * What makes a good GM? What sets a Keeper apart from other kinds of GMs? Mike's answer will surprise you.
 * Sandbox vs. linear! Mike doesn't care, as long as nobody's talking to the librarian at five to midnight, when the cultists are already at the hill…
 * Pulling strings: how tension in a horror game works like a slow build, not a jump scare
 * Comedy and horror: why Evil Dead works and why your players' guard needs to come down before the scary thing hits
 * Genres! Sci-fi, Westerns, Deadlands, and a Savage Worlds crossover you might not know about...

Love the first half of our chat with Mike Mason? The descent into madness continues! Catch the full, uncut second half of this episode - including Mike’s secret GMing techniques ! Exclusively for all member tiers on Patreon: https://bit.ly/4xmp9YF

 * Patreon and Discord and Bonus Episodes: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
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#GoodGMs #TTRPG #TabletopRPG #GameMaster #CallOfCthulhu #Chaosium #GMTips #TTRPGCommunity #PodcastForGMs #Horror

15 - The Keeper Out Of Space

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  [https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast]
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14 - Session Zero Dark Thirty

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
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13 - Wake Up GM: A Knife Theory Mystery

The Fallout 2D20 actual play continues. James Gordon Ross is back as Overseer James, James is running Westmoreland the Mr. Handy, Chuckie Tee is Petey Redwing fresh out of Vault 101, and this time they've got backup — E.E. Morris of Radio Salad Studios joins as Shiloh, caravan guard, nine strength, spiked baseball bat, newly un-broken arm.

Last time: bombs through windows, a stolen canteen, a ghoul bartender who was not impressed. This time: the Moriarty gang shows up to collect, led by Bobby Scratches — a 1,200-pound talking #Deathclaw in a tailored silk jacket and fedora who used to work for the Enclave and now runs loans.

What Happens:

 * Initiative in 2D20 — why Overseers need to think carefully or players feel robbed before they act
 * Shiloh's Molotov catches a goon on fire, who shoots his own friend in the head while trying to stop drop and roll
 * Kitchen Kit fires an Iron Man hand laser powered by his own battery — loses three hit points, vaporizes a goon's arm into red dust
 * Westmoreland throws moonshine Molotovs with Demolition Expert and Pyromaniac perks, four successes, kills two goons and ruins Bobby Scratches' silk jacket
 * How physical weapon AP spending works — Shiloh unloads nine strength, Heavy Handed, and three AP of bonus vicious damage on Bobby's burnt arm
 * Bobby Scratches!

This show is also available in video form! See our Patreon or check YouTube or Spotify! 

 * Support the Show: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
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12 - Deathclaw Becomes Her

No more theory - this one is actual play so you can see exactly how 2D20 works at the table in real time. James Gordon Ross is back, this time as Overseer James, running James and Chuckie through a live Fallout 2D20 play. Tune in for the conclusion next week.

Chuckie's playing Petey Redwing, vault dweller, level two, first day above ground.

James is playing Westmoreland, his loyal Mr. Handy with a flamethrower and questionable medical skills.

Mission: negotiate a trade agreement with Megaton.

Problem: zero caps, zero water, and a GM who is not going easy on them.

What Happens:

 * First roll of the session is a difficulty zero Science check and Petey immediately...well, welcome to 2D20.
 * How action points, momentum, and assists actually work when you're figuring it out in real time
 * Gobtholomew the ghoul bartender, who has no interest in anyone who can't pay
 * Shiloh, a caravan guard with a badly set broken arm and a lead on abandoned chems in Deathclaw territory
 * Kit, a Schlocket Industries robot who steals Petey's canteen
 * A bottle cap mine through a bar window, then a second one, and Westmoreland pulling off a six-success defuse

Also: Weird Candy joins the Patreon at the Gooder tier. Welcome! The Discord [https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast/posts/how-to-join-our-162713732] is getting active this month. We're adding the GM Book Club in August, where we can read and work through sourcebooks and GM guides together - don't act like you don't have a stack of them too - and we have casual gaming tables where members can run games of their own or join pickup games for a session or two. And starting soon, Currie will be running Friday night games for members at the free level and above on our Twitch channel - starting with Monster Hunter's Club, set in his own hometown of Barrie, Ontario. So come on out [https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast/posts/how-to-join-our-162713732]!

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11 - Legends of the Fallout

Host (@redjuicestudio) · Zencastr

Host (@redjuicestudio)

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.

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Good GMs Podcast