Episode notes
One of the easiest ways to make your campaign and your setting feel real, immersive, and unique is by taking away the certitude that magic is always going to act the same way. This mysterious, world-altering energy should not ever be completely understood by your characters, as the discovery of it is a big part of the fun. In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to respond to a listener question about their homebrewed idea of making magic work differently in different areas of their world. They ask how we might approach it in our ever-growing, crowdsourced Boomtown campaign setting.…
Podcast
3 Wise DMs
The 3 Wise DMs · Leisure & Travel · English
3 Wise DMs is a podcast for dungeon masters (for Dungeons & Dragons) and game masters (any other RPG) with problems. And when we say problems, we don’t mean the kind of things you find answers for in the gamebooks. Think of it as a gaming philosophy show with a strong emphasis on applied knowledge.
More from 3 Wise DMs All episodes →
-
E188 · 24 May 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
Two DMs Share Best Tips To Combine Call of Cthulhu and D&D into One Adventure!
Birthday games are 3WDs specialty… and it has now begun to grow. New DMs are joining in on the fun and running new, unique, and exciting games in all types of systems and taking on the challenge of one-upping the Wise DMs. In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down with returning guests, Bonnie and Elizabeth, to review, unpack, and discuss the steps they took to take a one-off Call of Cthulhu investigation from last year and transform it into a massive 9-player adventure that spanned both Call of Cthulhu and D&D! For anyone that has ever thought of mashing systems and players together……
-
E187 · 3 May 2026 · 49 min
3 Wise DMs Reveal the 7 DM Styles To Make You Run The Best D&D Game Ever
Recently, Matt Colville of the Running the Game YouTube series and author of the new Draw Steel TTRPG, discussed the concept of “DM Style.” With someone who has been involved in all things tabletop for over 40 years, you would think that he would believe in developing a DM Style. However, his hot take was that he wasn’t sure there even was such a thing. In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to discuss DM Style: Is it a thing and, if so, what are the things that make it up. Along the way, we discuss how to take all these lists and types of DM Styles and make them work for you in…
-
E186 · 19 Apr 2026 · 56 min
First D&D Campaign Tonight? The 6 Must-Have Tips To Making It Memorable and Stress-Free
Maybe you’ve run some one-shots or even multi-night campaigns. But now you’ve made the decision to run a long-term campaign for many levels – maybe all the way to 20th. How do you make the jump? What do you need to know that will make the transition seamless? What are the differences between running a single session and many sessions that tell an epic, massive story? In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down with our recurring special guest and player – the Monster Wrangler himself, Matt! Along the way, we discuss the tips, tricks, and pitfalls to making the jump to running a whole…
-
E185 · 5 Apr 2026 · 52 min
Join the Quest: Unearthing the Mysteries of Boomtown’s 5e Western Wonderland!
Over the course of twelve episodes, we have enlisted the help of all our listeners to create the first-ever crowdsourced and collaborative campaign setting – what we call Boomtown! In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to reveal the end of this very successful experiment… well, maybe not the end, but a very solid foundation from which to launch Boomtown. For anyone who is new to the podcast, as well as for all the listeners that have helped us craft it, this episode puts it all into perspective and wraps it with a nice bow. Stay tuned for next steps! 1:50 Boomtown is here! 3:25…
-
E184 · 22 Mar 2026 · 52 min
Super Heroes: When DMs Go to Marvel’s Secret Wars
You’ve seen the trailer. You saw the #MinisMonday post… Tony’s birthday game where Chris and Dave teamed up to run our group through a tabletop wargame in our own custom Marvel Universe of 6-1-SHIT, where the heroes were brought to Battleplanet to fight the SECRET WARS! In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of our custom, simplified, Heroclix system that allowed for a game that reflected the scope of the Secret Wars: The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Heroes of Hells Kitchen, and our homebrewed heroes as they fought the…
-
E182 · 15 Feb 2026 · 59 min
The Magic Man – Building a D&D 5e Wizard in Boomtown
We continue to build upon Boomtown - our real-time worldbuilding experiment - armed with the comments of our listeners. Having been playing through the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, we’ve experienced firsthand how alterations to the classes available for players really helps to lend a unique and immersive quality to the campaign setting – setting it apart from all others. In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to discuss the class that is most effected by the inciting incident of Boomtown – namely, that arcane magic is derived from ancient technology being recovered in the…
-
E181 · 1 Feb 2026 · 58 min
Prophets of Doom – Reworking the D&D Cleric for Boomtown
We continue to build upon Boomtown - our real-time worldbuilding experiment - armed with the comments of our listeners. Having been playing through the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game , we’ve experienced firsthand how alterations to the classes available for players really helps to lend a unique and immersive quality to the campaign setting – setting it apart from all others. In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to discuss Clerics in a world where all the magic that is known seems to be technologically-based. We take them from 1st to 3rd level and, along the way, discuss the…
-
E180 · 18 Jan 2026 · 58 min
A Thief in the Night: Building a D&D 5e Rogue in Boomtown
We continue to drive down deeper into our real-time worldbuilding experiment armed with the comments of our listeners. Having been playing through the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game , we’ve experienced firsthand how alterations to the classes available for players really helps to lend a unique and immersive quality to the campaign setting – setting it apart from all others. In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to discuss what a Rogue would look like in our Boomtown campaign setting. We take him from 1st to 3rd level and, along the way, discuss the changes that reflect our…
-
E179 · 21 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
The Gunslinger: Building a D&D Fighter in Boomtown
We continue to drive down deeper into our real-time worldbuilding experiment armed with the comments of our listeners. Having been playing through the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game , we’ve experienced firsthand how alterations to the classes available for players really helps to lend a unique and immersive quality to the campaign setting – setting it apart from all others. In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down to build the most classic D&D class, the Fighter, in our Boomtown campaign setting. We take him from 1st to 3rd level and, along the way, discuss the changes that…
-
E178 · 7 Dec 2025 · 49 min
Crafting Your Unique Realm: Build the Best Factions in D&D
We continue to drive down deeper into our real-time worldbuilding experiment armed with the comments of our listeners. One of the best things you can build for your campaign to feel real and immersive is by creating factions. Groups and organizations that have their own motives and goals that are distinct from the players. This creates inciting incidents, backstory fodder, and moving parts that conflict with the characters and create impetus for adventure. In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave finally begin discussing the biggest faction, and the inciting incident for the Boomtown setting,…
Take it with you
The Melo app keeps playing with the screen off, works in the car and on your watch, wakes you to your station, and browses the whole catalogue offline. Free, no ads, no account.
