Lessons Learned

In this episode, Ben takes us into the megadungeon to interview Nick L.S. Whelan about two megadungeon campaigns, "Dungeon Moon" and "Five Years Left". They discuss why GMing is so hard and what lessons we can learn from our failures. They talk about why some kinds of prep only increases your anxiety at the table, how the GM's experience can be dissatisfying even when the players are having a good time, and how play is subtly shaped by what we take seriously at the table and what we're happy to let slide. You can find Nick's blog, Papers & Pencils ⁠here⁠. You can find more about Dungeon Moon ⁠here⁠, and play reports for Five Years Left ⁠here⁠. Read about "flux space" ⁠here⁠. Read Nick's fantastic posts about structuring encounter tables ⁠here⁠. You can follow Nick's next dungeon adventure project, Sanctimonious Slime vs. Expired Epicures ⁠here⁠. As always, you can find further reader's notes on my substack here. The music used in this episode is "Sticks and Stones" by Samuel Peter Davies.