What The Future Holds for How to Be a Better DM

Justin: Welcome back to How to be a Better DM. I am Justin Lewis here with Tanner Wayland. Go ahead and say hello, Tanner.

Tanner Weyland:

Hey Justin, hey everybody.

Justin:

And today we are celebrating our 100th episode. It is mind-boggling to think that we’ve been doing this for 100 episodes and thinking you know one episode a week that’s almost that’s a little over no that’s just under two years of doing this show and the amount of growth we’ve seen has been just phenomenal. First thing before we do anything else on today’s show, we just wanted to give a big thank you to all of you listeners out there, you in particular, and

Tanner Weyland:

Hahaha

Justin:

make you aware of our deep gratitude for allowing us to do this. And when I say allow, I mean podcasting is somewhat lonely, right? But we’ve had certain experiences of… listeners reaching out and helping us remember that we’re not alone and we’re not just speaking into a you know a windstorm but What we’re putting out is actually being received and you know you guys like it which is which is even more gratifying So a big thank you to you guys

Tanner Weyland:

Absolutely. It’s been, you know, kind of shocking how much you guys care about what we have to say. And you know, we put work into this, but a lot of people put a lot of work into things, and it doesn’t get reciprocated at all. And we just, we really appreciate, you know, knowing that you guys are listening, and that there’s a big community out there who’s trying to improve, you know, they’re DMing right alongside us, you know?

Justin:

Absolutely, absolutely. So today’s show, it’s not going to be like normal shows to be honest. We’re going to be a little bit more loose, a little bit more just random, I guess. But we wanted to talk about some of our thoughts for what we see moving forward and our goals and desires and wishes for how to be a better DM and betterdungeonmaster.com and kind of what we want to build moving forward. You know, as we get started, just wanted to ask Tanner, is there anything specific that you personally would just think would be the coolest thing to do or anything like that?

Tanner Weyland:

Um, something that I’ve really liked the idea of because, you know, in one of our recent podcasts, we were talking about peer reviewing and, and I think it’s such a powerful tool for improving, uh, is just having that kind of critical look at specific moment to moments of DMing. Uh, something we really want to do is, uh, you know, provide some content where we’re actually reviewing, uh, you know, some of our one shots and some that maybe other people send us. Uh, we, uh, I really like that idea. Cause I think seeing someone DM in action, it’s a very different experience from talking about it in the theoretical, you know? Uh, so that’s something that I’m really excited about. We’ve, uh, we’ve discussed, you know, uh, we’re, you know, this is a little bit of a, Jump ahead, but we’re doing a membership on our site and you know, we’re gonna be posting some of the Recordings of our one shots, but we also thought it would be great to alongside that maybe at the same tier or a different tier of membership, do commentary on that, where we’re like, hey, let’s take this moment by moment, pause during the one shot and just talk about like, hey, here’s what I loved about what they’re doing or what we’re doing if we’re the ones podcasting or hey, here’s maybe, they did okay here, here’s how it could have been improved. And that kind of idea excites me a lot.

Justin:

I really like that too. Just the fact of, and I think we did this once before and we put it out as an episode,

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah.

Justin:

but looking at your dungeon mastering skills, not in a you’re a terrible person kind of way, but in a man this would be so cool if you just did it this way, right? And thinking back to the episode that we did, I was the one being critiqued. and it was my Trouble in Autumn’s Grace one-shot. And going through that critique, we only went through like the first 20 minutes, but even that really helped me improve the intro of that one-shot, specifically with regards to an NPC, the mayor of the town, and where he comes in and where you find him and meet him. Going through that critique really helped me kind of- streamline that and improve that a lot. So that is definitely something I’m looking forward to. As far as the membership goes, that’s something that’s kind of been a long time coming. We just released it. It’s pretty new. It’s in its infant state. The way I see it right now, right now, we… It’s $1.33 a month. The 33 cents covers the cost for our payment gateway. So it’s really just And the way I see that is our basic membership will always be $1.33. As we grow and we provide more content, we’ll probably create higher levels. And at the time when we create any higher level, I think we will upgrade everyone in the previous levels, kind of one up, right? And grandfather them into that. So anyone who has signed up for the basic subscription now. When we create future levels, they’ll just get moved up, pay the same price as they were always paying, but have access to the new stuff. That’s the way I see it.

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah.

Justin:

And as far as that membership, right now we are creating VTT maps, so virtual tabletop maps on Dungeon Alchemist, putting those up, you can download those and use those in your campaigns online. Any of our one-shot videos we’re going to put up there as well, we’re going to stop Streaming those, I think, is what we said, Tanner.

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah.

Justin:

Yeah, so we’re going to stop streaming the one shots, but we’re going to put those up on the membership so anyone can see those on the membership. And then we’re also creating a course. Right now we’re in the midst of creating a beginner Dungeon Master course and putting that up on the membership so anyone who has a membership can access that course. And obviously we’re going to do more courses like that in the future. Is there anything else that I’m forgetting that we were going to add to the membership? Oh, the Discord, so anyone who signs

Tanner Weyland:

Yes.

Justin:

up for the membership can join our Discord and, you know, come party with me and Tanner.

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah, yeah, we had a member join just the other day. And we were talking all about maps. I was amazed at how many maps he just had just sketched out in his notebook. I was

Justin:

Right?

Tanner Weyland:

like, gosh, I love this.

Justin:

So cool,

Tanner Weyland:

And

Justin:

so cool.

Tanner Weyland:

we were just talking about like, he had this idea of doing a campaign in like essentially a Costco, a fantasy Costco or, or a real one. I, you know, and I was like, I love this. What could you do with the samples? Could the samples be buffs? Could some of them

Justin:

Ha ha

Tanner Weyland:

be

Justin:

ha

Tanner Weyland:

a

Justin:

ha.

Tanner Weyland:

trap? Um, and anyway, loved it. Uh, sorry, sorry to distract.

Justin:

No, no, no, I think that’s so great. And that’s just one of the benefits of coming in the Discord and just being able to shoot the breeze with anyone who really likes being a Dungeon Master. I think those are our plans for the membership right now. The next thing we’re going to really focus on is one-shots. We’re going to make a big push to have our one-shot scheduled up on our website so… You know, like, it’s just easier to plan, easier to kind of work through that

Tanner Weyland:

Mm-hmm.

Justin:

and stuff like that.

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah, it’s great. And honestly, probably one of the big things that I’m excited for is Justin’s having a baby.

Justin:

Yeah, that’s for sure. Yeah, my wife is pregnant and she is due… Hold on. Sorry, I just got a text. Yeah, just give me one second.

Tanner Weyland:

You’re fine.

Justin:

Sorry, someone just needed something and they’re about to go somewhere, so I needed to tell them. Anyways,

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah, you’re fine.

Justin:

yeah, so our baby is due in August and they will be the newest member of the Better Dungeon Master team. And just super excited to be a dad, interested to see how it’s gonna change my life and change this. Hopefully it shouldn’t change the podcast too much, but time will tell. And then,

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah,

Justin:

go ahead.

Tanner Weyland:

oh go ahead. Anyway, I was just gonna say that we will definitely give Justin a break there, probably

Justin:

Yeah

Tanner Weyland:

record a lot beforehand so that he has that time to spend with the baby.

Justin:

One other thing as far as the one shots go is I do want to make a bigger push to get some of our podcast guests to play in the one shot. So, you know, if you sign up for a one shot, there’s a possibility you could be playing with, you know, our last podcast interviewee or, you know, someone who we’ve had on the show before. Just to make it a little bit more interesting and a little bit more sizzle for you. Anything else as far as one shots go?

Tanner Weyland:

No, I’m just excited for you know laying it out and hopefully you guys are able to join one

Justin:

Exactly. Next up, we are going to be, we’re gonna be working on more merch. Right now we just have hoodies, and the hoodies were designed, or at least the design on the hoodies were designed by one of our listeners. And we wanna give you this. offer as well. Anyone who designs a logo for us, we put it up on our website and it gets purchases, we will share the profit with you 50-50. So that includes t-shirts, stickers, whatever, right? But that means we will also be working on our own designs and we keep the profits. So if you want to steal from us, just go ahead and submit some of your designs to us and we’ll get that up on our site. And you know, hoodies, t-shirts, t-shirts, sorry, stickers, you know, the whole stuff, right?

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah, yeah, I’m excited for those, especially, we’re gonna have some nice stickers, I feel like. And I’m a sucker for stickers.

Justin:

I am a sucker for stickers too, except I don’t put them on anything, I just collect them. You know?

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah, same. There’s part of me that’s like, oh, I love people use water bottles

Justin:

I’m going to go ahead and close the video.

Tanner Weyland:

I have a bunch of stickers or their laptops, but I’m always such a pansy. I’m like, yeah, but what if I don’t like it later?

Justin:

Mm-hmm.

Tanner Weyland:

But I really like Collecting stickers and who knows maybe after we get some awesome Designs created then you know that may change. I might start might start putting stickers You know on the things I care about who

Justin:

Agreed.

Tanner Weyland:

knows

Justin:

And then one day when we have our own location, our brick and mortar studio, we can have a sticker wall where that’s the designated place for all the stickers we ever find. And that’ll be it.

Tanner Weyland:

It’ll be perfect. It’ll be perfect. And we’ll have a sticker car where we just, no, I’m just kidding. Yeah.

Justin:

Actually, having a sticker wall sounds like something like those SaaS companies out of like Silicon Valley or

Tanner Weyland:

Yes.

Justin:

Utah, Silicon Slopes. It sounds like something they would do. So I definitely

Tanner Weyland:

It

Justin:

want

Tanner Weyland:

absolutely

Justin:

to do that actually.

Tanner Weyland:

does.

Justin:

Next, we’ve toyed around with the idea of making like a custom DM screen. The ideas for that are pretty long out. So that’s something we’ll definitely have to think about. just kind of what we want it to look like, what it would be made out of, how we would create it, and what would be most useful. So stay tuned on that.

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah, that one’s gonna be great, because you guys know how a lot of DM screens will have the numbers, like the stat blocks, the different rolling charts, right? This one though, we would try and make it about how you can be a better DM, kind of those softer skills, those reminders. So we’re very excited about that one.

Justin:

Next, we’re also slowly working on the ultimate dungeon master’s guide. So essentially, like the go-to book for everything on being a better dungeon master. It’ll essentially be a distillation of all the good juices that come from this podcast and everything about it. It might take some time, but… slowly we’re gonna get there very slowly and we’ll publish that and then get that created

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah, that one, we just, you know, we realized that a weekly podcast is great. Certainly is, but you know, some of the ideas that we have and some of the recommendations get lost in the shuffle. What’s a better way to do that? You put it in a book

Justin:

Ha ha.

Tanner Weyland:

or a course or whatever, you know,

Justin:

Sure.

Tanner Weyland:

so that it’s cataloged. So yeah, very excited about that.

Justin:

Exactly. One other thing that I’ve been thinking about is maybe some meetups or something like that. Some live events that people, if they’re in the area, can come join and, you know, I don’t know, maybe we just go see a movie or something. I’m really bad at playing events, but, you know, maybe we do like a D&D tournament versus, you know, one table versus another. Who knows, right?

Tanner Weyland:

Yeah, and honestly, Justin and I, we’re going to most likely be at FanX,

Justin:

Yeah,

Tanner Weyland:

I believe. I think, yeah.

Justin:

I definitely think we can make it happen. So yeah, we’ll definitely be there. The reason why we’d be there is because of our other business, Monsters.Rent, which is the sister business to How to Be a Better DM. Monsters.Rent is your go-to place for renting Dungeons and Dragons minis on a subscription basis. Pretty novel idea. But we’re gonna be at FanX, so come look for our booth. FanX is the Comic-Con of Salt Lake City. And come look for our booth, and if you see us and you listen to the show, we’d be happy to get your information and maybe get an autograph from you or something, because seeing fans is novel to us.

Tanner Weyland:

I know it’s always great when that happens. But yeah, we look forward to seeing you if you come. So you have to come if you want to be cool. I mean

Justin:

Yep.

Tanner Weyland:

you want to be cool right? Right? I’m just kidding. Hopefully

Justin:

100%,

Tanner Weyland:

we see ya.

Justin:

100%. I think those are all of our kind of long-term, you know, pie in the sky dream type things. Is there anything else that we’re missing?

Tanner Weyland:

Um, honestly, we’re just hoping to really provide some excellent content as well. You know, we, we talk a lot about different topics, but As you know, we’ve covered a lot of topics and in the future, you know, we have some fun ideas about new, new series of topics and, you know, we’re going to have new guests as always returning guests, which is going to be fun. And, uh, yeah, we’re just very excited for, uh, what the future holds.

Justin:

100%. So I think that’s everything. Thank you guys again for joining us on this 100 episode journey. And here’s to 10,000 more episodes. And thank you Tanner for joining me as a co-host. Since you’ve joined, I’ve really seen a big uptick in quality. And I appreciate you joining me on this journey as well.

Tanner Weyland:

Honestly, I’m just grateful that you invited me to join you. Uh, I, I sometimes feel like the, uh, very junior member of the podcast, but that’s just cause you’re such a great DM. And, but honestly, I really enjoy, uh, just talking with you and, you know, talking with people and discussing something that we both care about. It’s meant a lot to me.

Justin:

Well I’m glad. And here’s to 10,000 more episodes with you Tanner. But listener, we’ll be back next week for another episode. Until then let’s go ahead and roll initiative.