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Interview with Duncan Rhodes
18 Plays15 days ago
This week Mark and Ben interview Duncan Rhodes, author of the newly released Creative Gamemaster's Guide to Extraordinary Locations. In this episode, we talk about what makes a great map, the ways that maps can enhance story, and set the stage for great encounters of all kinds. Join us to hear Duncan's take on all this and more, and maybe check out his Dragonbowl adventure on the DM's Guild.
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Transcript
Choosing the Path: Hiking or Waterfall?
00:00:00
Speaker
Hike, hike, baby! Ooh, it's a fork. a na na a who is a fork Well, the map says to go left, but that little musket trail seems plumb adorable. And it has a waterfall, so I say, ah waterfall. i mean Let's just do it. Let's go nuts. This is why we're so great together. We agree on everything. I agree. Hey, Robert Frost, looks like going to take the road just traveled.
00:00:26
Speaker
Tune up. Level up your fun. Tune up. Your quest has now begun. Tune up, tune up, tune up, tune up.
00:00:50
Speaker
Well, welcome back to the Tabletop Tune-Up.
Introduction with Ben Dyer and Mark Lehman
00:00:54
Speaker
My name is Ben Dyer. I'm here with my co-host Mark Lehman, who has delivered for us an intro that I feel like is, is this New Girl plus Dropkick Murphys is the kind of the vibe we're going for now?
00:01:05
Speaker
Something like that, but we're talking about maps today, so you know, it felt appropriate, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, sure. ah You guys, we're not just talking about maps. We're going to talk about maps with an expert today. Today we have on Duncan Rhodes. He is the author of the Creative Game Master's Guide to Extraordinary Locations and How to Design Them. He is a blogger. He is a travel writer. He has some great stuff on the DMs Guild, some adventures and things like that, and we want to talk about all of it. But Duncan, welcome to Tabletop TuneUp.
00:01:38
Speaker
Hey guys, thanks for having me on today. a Great honor to be
Who is Duncan Rhodes?
00:01:43
Speaker
behind some of the best jingles in the in the podcast game. but it was a bit disappointed not to get any Austin Powers today. Oh, no. We did some a few weeks ago. So let me go back and check those out. Those are always fun.
00:01:59
Speaker
um So let's let's get into it because you've got a lot of expertise mapping and you just put out a book on it. And we'll get into all that. But I want to talk real quick about your blog.
00:02:11
Speaker
um Your blog covers like a wider range of topics. like There's all sorts of stuff you discuss in there. But what made you want to do and focus in with your book on maps?
00:02:23
Speaker
What was it about maps?
Maps in Dungeons & Dragons: Inspiration and Guidance
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah, well, ah i wanted I was approached by a publisher. Actually, they came to me. I think they found me through my blog. So wasn't totally wasting my time these last 10 years. Sometimes it feels like that when you're just creating content, right? and I hear you.
00:02:44
Speaker
But yeah, so they they found me and they were like, hey, we want to do D&D book. We want to do something for players. And I was like, do you realize players don't really buy books? ah You need to make it for DMs or GMs. And so we got into a whole conversation.
00:03:02
Speaker
And yeah, I saw that. I should really take the lead. um they They obviously identified like a growing ah market, but they hadn't really identified what what a good topic could be, what might sell well, what might be attractive. And i i went through a few different ideas in my mind.
00:03:24
Speaker
um But ultimately, i think I settled on what I think is the most, a theme that is perhaps the most useful tools you can give a games master.
00:03:37
Speaker
Yeah, i I would agree with you on a big part of that. i Ben, i was thinking about like, I think a map is like the most core basic intro to D&D that I think I might have had. I think I looked at a map and I was inspired by it.
00:03:53
Speaker
There's something about a map that's kind of like, it gets the brain. There's a reason why Tolkien had a great map at the front of his book. Yeah. Yeah. they're very They draw you in. yeah i think they're very attractive. there's ah There's a beauty to a good map.
00:04:08
Speaker
um But ultimately, Dungeons & Dragons is typically is typically its a location-based game, isn't it? i mean you You go somewhere, you explore that location, you interact with that location, and and the adventure is is held within that location. So it is... yeah um yeah and maps Maps have this quality to them where the like this is this is kind of like a high point in the action of your game or in the the events of your game usually. right like you know if If in a normal game session, you you know you're talking about how we're going to go from here to there and we explore this and we cross that river and we climb that cliff or whatever, right but like the point where the GM brings out a map. you know something's about to happen, right? The suspense comes up. And I love that maps give us this really great kind of imaginative hold on that moment, on that scene. And so think that's really, ah I think it's really well chosen as a topic. um So tell us about how, tell us a little bit more about this book, about how you kind of brought it
Creating a Book of Maps: Process and Challenges
00:05:15
Speaker
together. What what kind of, when you're thinking about the scope of the book and you're talking to the publisher, what did you, What did you tell them in terms of like your wishlist here? How did you kind of pitch this idea?
00:05:26
Speaker
um i think i want to I wanted it to be something that I was going to enjoy writing. and And actually going back to that kind of decision process, what what would be the topic of the book? I did ah originally think adventures because I love writing adventures. And adventures typically contain a map anyway.
00:05:45
Speaker
But I think when you... yeah When you present an adventure to a GM, you being you're already restricting them. you know how they're You're already like setting up kind of a linear storyline.
00:05:59
Speaker
um You are making it level dependent because there's a threat. that There's an expectation that whatever's in that adventure is something the party can handle in combat.
00:06:11
Speaker
So yeah ultimately, you're locking people out of the resource that you've created for them. And so I think with these locations, I think one of the joy of them is they they are adventures, but they're kind of like, choose your own adventure, you know? Yeah. Here's a casino. Are you going there to heist it, you know? Are you going there to kill the the pirate that runs it, you know? Are you going there just to...
00:06:38
Speaker
Gamble. to To have the social encounter where you meet the villain. yeah Yeah. I'm sorry. If there's a casino, I definitely want a heist. Exactly. That's great. Right. And so in your in your book, you have I'm just looking at the table of contents here. You've got city locations, you've got rural locations, island and coast locations. forests, wetlands, jungles, mountains, arctic desert. You've got so much stuff here for people to draw on. So listeners out there, ah check this out. And there's a lot of really great stuff that you can then take and start spinning into your own stuff. um
00:07:13
Speaker
Let's talk about maps in general for a moment. um And this probably has to do a little bit with how you probably wanted to put the maps together in this book. But also, um I think probably like a lot of us, I know I'm certainly this way. When I'm getting set up with an adventure, I'll probably start checking out the internet. I'll be looking at Patreons, I'll be looking for maps, right? So um there's a lot of people out there who are gonna go looking for maps. And I feel like I've seen a real evolution in the quality of maps over time. ah But even today, right?
00:07:41
Speaker
Some maps I think are probably not good or as useful. Some maps are probably really good. ah Help me be a discerning shopper here, right? Like if I'm gonna go look for a map for my games, what kinds of things make a really great map to you?
Visual Engagement in Maps: Aesthetic vs Functionality
00:07:55
Speaker
Well, the the first thing is ah yeah attractiveness. I mean, it has to look cool because you're the GM, you need to be inspired to like run this location.
00:08:06
Speaker
um So yeah, I think one mistake a lot of ah amateur GMs make, or maybe amateur is the wrong word, but just maybe non-visual non-visually creative GMs make is It's very easy to design just blockish locations in squares because we play the game on a grid um and it's just easy to fit things together. It's easier to place doors.
00:08:35
Speaker
But if you want to... design a great map, or if you're looking out for like a cool map, you're probably more likely to be pulled in by something that's, you know, not just a rectangle or a square.
00:08:49
Speaker
It's got cool towers or maybe it's built into a hillside so that changes the way and the building shape or it has half layers, you know, like mezzanine layers or little bridges or crossings. i What I love personally about maps is if there's like some places you can fall down you know into a potential hazard or where you can get a higher ground advantage um if if a fight breaks out.
00:09:19
Speaker
and I think as well, if you're talking from a practical point of view, you you don't want it to be too dark sometimes. We made a conscious effort to go with pastel floors. I designed the layout of all the maps, but a superb cartographer.
00:09:37
Speaker
called Arturo, his handle is Nerdy Maps. He he actually rendered the maps and and we decided we're going for pastel floors mostly. So that you can if you put a counter on them in a VTT, you can actually see where your counter is. you know It's not too busy
Designing Practical Maps for Gameplay
00:09:53
Speaker
with like high contrast details.
00:09:56
Speaker
That's a really interesting note just to park on just for a second as is... i've I've seen maps that can be so busy that, yeah, you you you don't notice the monsters that are there until the GM brings them out and you're like wait, what? And it's not like they were supposed to be hidden. It was just like, you just didn't see them.
00:10:13
Speaker
Yeah, I thought that was like a candelebra. Right, right. ah Yeah, they you can go over the top, i especially with a battle map, I think. um and And talking about battle maps, if if you're a GM and you're looking for a map for your session,
00:10:31
Speaker
I check the scale because i see so many like forest path maps where the forest path is about 50 feet long. And I'm like, yeah yeah what happens if any of the characters want to move or use a longbow? yeah, there's- If I had a complaint about the current state of online map making, I think you just touched on it. They they tend to be too small.
00:10:57
Speaker
And I'm always looking for map makers who make a big space so the players can like explore that space and be creative within it. And yeah, you're right, a 50-foot long trail. Just the player's nothing to work with.
00:11:10
Speaker
I think a lot of cartographers are not necessarily DMs. And so they make these beautiful beautiful works of art. But yeah, they' they're not making them big enough for practical use in many cases. um I did say to the publisher that um in our book, I want every map to be a full-page map.
00:11:32
Speaker
Mm-hmm. and almost create not just a location, but like an adventure zone. So yeah, there's a maybe there's a path leading up to the to the church, but that path goes over a cliff and there's a beacon tower that you could maybe climb up and get advantage point, or maybe there's some treasure there. Maybe there's another threat. um So yeah, you maps as well.
00:12:01
Speaker
should reward exploration and make it easy for the DM to run exploration. Because if we're creating location in our heads, it's hard to create all those details. But a good map can give you those.
00:12:17
Speaker
um yeah You might know that the crux of the adventure is in this tower, but the fact that you've got a crumbling tower somewhere else or a little statue, it's just something that players can go and press a button there, you know, like fiddle around, try and interact with it. That's one of the things I really noticed in the book you've got coming out here, Duncan, is that you've got this really yeah kind of an interactive nature with the map that you don't see from a lot of people when they discuss the maps.
00:12:49
Speaker
When you're looking at these maps, I can tell that you've thought about, like, this is these are places GMs can use for their games. Like, they could put a DC check here. They could put a you know ah ah history over here.
00:13:04
Speaker
They could have, a you know like you say, a falling damage area over here. There's a lot of, um you've put a lot of thought into that. And that doesn't seem like that's intentional. I can tell this from talking to you.
00:13:15
Speaker
Absolutely. i don't think a statue should ever just be decorative in Dungeons & Dragons. And and that that doesn't mean that it should come alive because that's a that's a cliche that's very fun, but it can be overdone. But if it's a statue of a god,
00:13:32
Speaker
Gods exist in D&D. i mean Whether they exist in the real world or not is up to your personal point of view. But gods exist in the world of Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy realms and they ah grant powers that people can see and experience. So if you see a statue of a god, you can pray to that statue maybe. You know you can ask for a blessing. You have to pass your – I normally throw in – I like my crossover checks. I normally go for a charisma a charisma-based religion. Oh, nice. and i Also, like and on that point too, is like even on the most basic level, you could give like a statue a little bit of lore, which you could – and now you could – that's feeding into the story of your game.
00:14:19
Speaker
Yes. but How cool is that? Yes. I'm not sure I've done that enough now that you mention it, but that is a great tip. Yeah, because you you roll religion. Okay, that the charisma based religion check is to get a boon directly from the God, but the intelligence based religion check is to know something that might help you somewhere else in that location.
00:14:40
Speaker
That's great. This is the picture of the emperor before his fall. Oh, look, he's got that characteristic on his you know lapel or whatever, right? like I didn't know he was associated with that that cult of the Lotus or something like that. you know Who knows? really and And now we're really bringing the exploration pillar to life. is Yeah. yeah not just you're bringing it And you're bringing the game to life, too. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:03
Speaker
um Any shout outs to any particular map makers real quick ah you that you really enjoy, like that you just like this map makers got it down? Uh, well, i mean, the, the Kings, uh, Che and Peku, I think for, uh, uh, was tempted to approach them about the book. I was like, aren't they making about $60,000? They don't need your money. anything Um, but yeah, they're, they're a good point for reference, especially in terms of the beauty of their maps. You know, they are, they are beautiful and they do get you kind of inspired when you're looking at them. The animated ones, have you ever seen those are just, I mean,
00:15:41
Speaker
They're just amazing. m Yeah, i' would i I've got a dream of getting one of those flat screen. i need a room big enough. I need a games room. and I don't have a delegated games room. And then then that flat screen TV is the map where you can check the map and you can have the animated effects. That's that's a life goal. Life goal. now Love it. i think I think there are some cheap flat screen TVs. I don't think it has to be super big because, of course, if you're on a VTT, you can move the...
00:16:08
Speaker
you can move the screen around. So i I think I picked up one for less than $100 that was like a 32-inch, and it had a nice flat back to it. So, you know, ah the bar for that might not be as high as you think, you know? Ben's living my he's living my dreams already, said this guy. yeah I think what's stopping me is the space to put the table more than the TV. Fair enough.
00:16:33
Speaker
We've got these big American homes over here. so yeah Yeah. You guys all have like a basement, right? pretty right I do have a basement. yeah yeah There's been a lot of really great maps over the history of the game. You know, and you think about places like Undermountain. I remember the first time I ever saw the maps for that.
00:16:51
Speaker
I was just like, man, this is like, don't know, like 20 different levels of maps and there's all this stuff going on. um I think one of the first products I ever bought that blew me away, and we're going to set the Wayback Machine just for a moment, you guys, to the 1990s. There was a thing called the Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas, and this was a...
00:17:10
Speaker
ah This is amazing. If you think the maps of the Sword Coast are kind of amazing now, this is a product that basically was a map company. um This is the campaign cartographer guys at Pro Fantasy. They created this thing where they mapped the entire world of Toril through all of the different... you know, ah supplements and things that were out at the time, which in the second edition of the game, they had more stuff than they've had in any edition sense. And so what was cool was it was a hyperlink. So you could like start clicking around and essentially zoom in. It was like having Google maps in the nineties, but for a fantasy world. and And it was on a DVD or a CD, excuse me. Yeah.
00:17:49
Speaker
yeah I've still got it. Uh, it's, it's, it's really cool. Um, I mean, the, the, the images look a little dated now, but, uh, It feels like something should be doable today, right? more than Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, well, you can put in – haven't done this, but you can put in like custom – think they're called KMZ files into Google Earth. Like could you imagine using Google Earth and kind of like zooming in on your fantasy world?
00:18:11
Speaker
That would be mind-blowing. There's a lot of maps you'd have to build for that though. That sounds like a full-time job. Yeah. But on that note, like – so we all got like maps in our brain that are like those definitive – This is the stuff that
Favorite Maps and Their Role in D&D Adventures
00:18:26
Speaker
blew my mind. Do you have any, like, maybe it's a dungeon map, maybe it's just a map in general that for you, Duncan, was the one that, like, sparked the beginning? Yes, yeah I've got a map that I'm absolutely in love with. um it's it's not and It's not like the origin of my passion for D&D. It's a later influence, but I don't know if you've seen Mike Schley's Candlekeep map that came with the tree. Mike Schley, that guy's a legend. Yeah.
00:18:54
Speaker
He's another guy that uses pastel colors as well. And I really think it just makes the map easier to read. um Yeah, I got it out actually in in preparation for this podcast and it it's just stunning. I mean, and it's this, you just wanna dive in and explore everything. um It actually inspired me to write an adventure. because what one Did you get the Candlekeep Mysteries anthology?
00:19:18
Speaker
I've got it, yeah. it's It's a beautiful book and it's a beautiful ah space, yeah. But not enough of the adventures take place in Candlekeep. And in fact, like the law kind of locks you out of in a the inner library. Only the avowed are allowed in there.
00:19:39
Speaker
So they kind of and they kind of present you this massive box of candy, but they don't give you a key almost to unlock it. so That's got the same thing as the casino, though. You're like, oh, so this is a heist book, really. That's what we're going to do.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yes, there is there is that temptation, at least. i Well, I just got to say, you can't can't name your your book Dragon Heist not have a heist in it. I'm sorry. i just That is so criminal. I cannot believe it got rid of that. but Nobody calls him out on it.
00:20:11
Speaker
i People did call them out on that, I think. ah there was a few the comments about that. ah i was so like one of that thing to be a heist. Dragon goose it was would more More appropriate.
00:20:23
Speaker
Well, Mike Slahey is a good call out because he is certainly a legend. Yeah. I was going to say that i did I did write a book. I did write an a adventure that does take you into that inner library called The New Glurders. So I'll send you guys a copy in case you like it. Oh, I love that. that. So we got we have a lot of first-time that send us questions here and there.
00:20:50
Speaker
um What would be some of your advice you would give to, like, you know, somebody who's just ready to take the helm as a first time GM, if you had any like advice you could to them, what what do you think that would be?
00:21:04
Speaker
Yeah, well that's a good question. Well, um I think you're always, you're never going to feel ready, are you? You're never going to have mastered all the rules or have an answer for everything.
00:21:17
Speaker
You've just got to, you've just got to try it. You've got to go for it and kind of expect it to go a bit badly. I'm afraid. Because it probably will. um You have to be a bit resilient, I think, to start off as a dungeon master. And then you have to learn quickly.
00:21:37
Speaker
Because you you probably will try and push the narrative in some directions. You'll probably have an idea. I want to be a dungeon master because I want to present this story. I want people to live this fantasy that I've got in my head.
00:21:49
Speaker
And that's pretty much how all dungeon masters start. And then you try and enforce this fantasy on people and this storyline. And of course, the players exercise their agency and and derail your preconceived ideas of of what's going to happen in the session. So yes, it's you'll have to learn those lessons It goes off the tracks so fast and you've got to be doing some off-roading. I've always said that they're like, when when somebody asks us, it's always every, even for myself, first sessions of a new game, they're always like awkward first dates.
00:22:30
Speaker
We're all just trying to suss each other out. yeah how How is this going? It's never a pleasant experience. um Oh, seldomly, I should say. i wonder I wonder if a better tactic is, because one of the problems of being a new DM is you're often playing with experienced DMs on the table.
00:22:47
Speaker
And that can be a good thing if they help you out with the rules a bit, But it can it can feel like you're, I don't know, if in a a football analogy would be like you're you're managing the team, but the legendary ex-manager is like on your shoulder judging everything you're doing. yeah um So maybe run a different system.
00:23:10
Speaker
You know, run a system that none of your friends know, run a one-shot and just, hey, you guys can't overrule me because you don't know the rules. There you go. i'm the Also a situation where those ex-GMs really need to be aware of that. yeah i mean, anytime I'm sitting down as a player, i am usually hyper-aware that, like, I was the person in that seat just a moment ago.
00:23:37
Speaker
I don't want to, like, undermine their... their story or anything. So I'm usually fairly supportive. Yeah. We're old enough to kind of know better and and to to be the ally on the table. But often when you were younger, I'm not sure. That probably wasn't my place. I was not that ally when I was younger. We had a GM. we We would rotate a GM at a group I had. we This was our kind of like a Friday night beer drinking kind of group. we would just maybe once a month we'd play, just kind of unwind. The first hour was just talking stuff about work.
00:24:16
Speaker
And um man, we would try to get each other like get into each other's heads and just try to mess up each other's games all the time. There was like a competition who could mess the game up the most for that poor GM team.
00:24:28
Speaker
But it was kind of fun in its own way because it was it was a bit of a competition of like how badly can we screw up this game? Exactly. A different sport really. yeah but It really was. So to each their own folks. There's no wrong way to play D&D they say, but there can be. Yeah.
00:24:47
Speaker
there are There are ways that are likely to last less long and ways that might actually lead to a kind of campaign that makes everyone feel good for months or years. Yeah.
00:25:01
Speaker
I mean, certainly one of the things that's true about that though, right, is that like as GMs, we've got to like, as you say, kind of turn that switch off. And I think... You know, what's interesting is that, you know, a lot of people complain about being forever DMs and like, if you're critical of everybody else's game, that's how you become a forever DM, right?
00:25:22
Speaker
that's a good That's a good point. Like, yeah when people complain about being a forever GM, I'm like, yeah that's usually my first thought is like, I wonder what they're like as a player. In my experience, ah the people i enjoy DMing for the most are the DMs. yeah That's good. You've got generous people around you. That's great. yeah Well, so Duncan, I want to kind of, as we're getting kind of close wrapping up here, I wanted to give you a chance to talk a little bit about some of the other things that you've done that we haven't talked as much about. um You've got a great blog. You've got a few adventures. Can you give us a quick ah once over about maybe kind of what the pitch is for some of the adventures you've published? And then maybe tell us ah a couple of your blog entries that people could find that were um maybe especially popular or that you're especially proud of.
00:26:16
Speaker
Okay. Oh, thanks for the opportunity. Yeah.
Blogging D&D: Hipsters and Dragons
00:26:18
Speaker
Well, my blog is Hipsters and Dragons and I started it, i think around 2016 or something, just when I was getting back into D&D.
00:26:27
Speaker
And it was just, ah it was ah in a way as a place to like vent some of my frustrations with little things in the rules. um
Dragon Brawl: A Unique Adventure Module
00:26:35
Speaker
And yeah then eventually when I got more experience to share insights,
00:26:41
Speaker
and And I saw that the DMs Guild was a fun fun place where you could publish your own adventures. so So yeah, I jumped on that opportunity. And ah I think I won't talk about everything I've published there.
00:26:57
Speaker
But during the pandemic, being a travel writer, I didn't have much to do. No one was um traveling. I was earning nothing. I'd just moved into an expensive flat, and i was paying huge rent every month. um So i was but i basically i was...
00:27:19
Speaker
borderline depressed but what got me through the pandemic was having a huge project which was called Dragon Ball it's actually a sequel to Dragon Heist or well it doesn't have be it could play as a sequel to Dragon Heist because it it starts 6th level which I think is a good level for characters where they're quite resilient and they're quite interesting in combat because obviously that's kind of where they leave off too don't they kind of leave off dragon eyes yeah they leave off around fifth um so you can go into the arena and i created 16 different fighting teams um
00:27:58
Speaker
You can fight, you can gradually go through them to... That's great. The idea isn't that you fight all 16. The idea is that you you have about four. and And like Dragon Heist, I created different entanglements, different side missions, so that as a DM, you could run adventure multiple times and it'd be different every time.
00:28:23
Speaker
That's great. You could fight... um because there's 16 different teams, each has its own like and entanglements where you might get drawn into their world a bit, or they might try and assassinate you, or you have to, they've got like a- This is implicitly a kind of tournament situation going on. It's a tournament situation, but there's a lot going on around the tournament. yeah So my goal was to really,
00:28:50
Speaker
have a gladiator gladiator gladiatorial tournament where combat wasn't the biggest thing happening. It's a venture about intrigue and socializing and partying. And and as as a registered gladiator, you're kind of one of the stars of the show.
00:29:09
Speaker
on the assumption that you're going to die quite soon. but Fantastic. yeah yeah Your lamp burns brightly, if briefly. Exactly. it was a really fun one to run because i created a lot of kind of can I say, a-hole NPCs that really right wind up the wind up your players. and i love I love running antagonistic NPCs.
00:29:37
Speaker
and That's fantastic. Making things personal. Now I'm not sure I want Mark to read your stuff anymore. I'm going to have to deal with that later. i don't...
00:29:49
Speaker
I'm more of an antagonistic GM than I am a... i See, the the thing is, is you're going to have to start learning to kind of filter that through these NPCs and then be like, look, it's not me. This NPC is just a jerk, you know? Tucker, we have an episode. You should go back and listen at some point. We have an episode on trash talk.
00:30:08
Speaker
Like it's just... Oh, yeah. It's all about um trash talking your players. Love it. So you might you might enjoy that one. agree I wrote a table of insults, I think. There you go. du I was going to say, one of things that drives me crazy is when people do – what's that bard ability?
00:30:28
Speaker
Vicious mockery. Vicious mockery. But they don't even have any – they just say, I cast vicious mockery. I'm like, say I shouldn't even allow that. That shouldn't even be allowed. That's it. Or they get advantage on the save or something. Yeah, I'm going to start giving like – when they just say I cast Vizzerish Mockery, I'm going to give them disadvantage if they don't actually insult me in some way.
00:30:48
Speaker
So um you got to get this book. let me let me Let's talk real quick. this is This is out in bookstores. Where are people going to be able to get this? Tell us a little bit about – like first of all, before you you go in, folks, there's some stuff in here that you could absolutely use in your games.
00:31:05
Speaker
I'm not even kidding. I'm going to steal a few things. um I'm taking the yeah the bone the Bone Dragon Pyramid and the Serpentine Bath. I'm dropping those in my game. They're two of my favorites. I actually ran the Bone Dragon Pyramid for a group of newbies over Christmas at home, including some kids. It's so fun. you know But these are so easy to drop in. He's got this beautiful map.
00:31:32
Speaker
um And lots of little descriptions about things you could do within the map. um Yeah, tell us what's coming out. It's out. Yes, it came out the 13th of January. So, yeah. And i think it should be in bookstores. It's not in bookstores in Europe, but it should be in Barnes & Noble and hobby stores.
00:31:54
Speaker
I think you can buy it on the Barnes & Noble's website if you if you can't see it on Amazon. It should be on Amazon. It is on Amazon. I just i saw that their stocks are running a bit low um if you're buying from the UK.
00:32:06
Speaker
And it's going to be stocked in Target, I believe, from May. wish Excellent. I think if you're in Canada, you should be able to pick it up at Indigo. Yeah.
00:32:17
Speaker
But yeah, I definitely tried to make it as user friendly as possible so that you could really cut and paste things and just drop them in like without having the baggage of a whole huge adventure structure around it.
00:32:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I really am excited about this book. I'm going to actually pick up my copy today. going to hit in Barnes and Noble because I've been looking at the PDF and I've been really like, okay, these these places are going to be in my game. So, so glad to hear that.
00:32:48
Speaker
Wonderful. Well, so Duncan, I think we're ah coming down the home stretch
Where to Find Duncan Rhodes' Works
00:32:54
Speaker
here. We're almost done, but um I wanted to ask um if people are, are want to catch up with you and keep track of your blog and so on. ah We'll definitely link that, but ah can you go ahead and just tell us what that yeah URL is again?
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah, if you guys want to keep up with me, it's hipstersanddragons.com. I named the blog after the the guys that got me back into Dungeons & Dragons. They were quite these quite bohemian characters, you know, like not not the typical. That's great.
00:33:26
Speaker
Not the typical nerds, let's say, that we expect. So i was like, oh, Dungeons & Dragons is cool now. Who knew? yeah It was always cool, Duncan. It was always cool.
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah, so I was trying to lean into that. i was trying to lean into that. I feel like I put people off. No, I'm just joking. it's great Well, it's a great blog. It's a great book. Duncan, we're so happy to have you on the podcast today. It's a lot of fun. We're looking forward to reading more from you soon.
00:33:55
Speaker
Excellent. I'm going to be definitely subscribing to your podcast. In fact, i think I have already. And yeah, let's, well, anytime you want to chat, ah look me up. Appreciate that. Will do.
00:34:07
Speaker
All right, guys, that's it for us. We're going to sign off here. So what do we say here, Ben? Well, you know, until next time, keep those dice rolling.
00:34:23
Speaker
Level up your fun! Tune up! Your quest has now begun! Tune up! We'll show you how to song! Tune up, tune up, tune up, tune up, tune up!
00:34:37
Speaker
Tune up! Tune up! Tune up! Tune up! Tune up!
00:34:53
Speaker
Tune up, tune
00:35:24
Speaker
Tune up, tune up!
00:36:19
Speaker
Tuna, tuna, tuna, tuna, tuna.
00:36:54
Speaker
Bye.