038: Next-Level Worldbuilding for Every TTRPG – With David Northeast
Claim to GameApril 24, 2025x
38
00:53:5699.44 MB

038: Next-Level Worldbuilding for Every TTRPG – With David Northeast

🌎 World- Building Guide

 

https://bonus.claimtogamepodcast.com/worldbuilding 

 

🎙️ Be a Podcast Guest

 

https://calendly.com/clint-scheirer-claimtogamepodcast/book-interview 

 

#38 - We live in the world our questions create. What essential questions should every GM and player ask when crafting immersive TTRPG worlds? In this episode, professional GM David Northeast reveals the proven S.P.E.R.M. framework—a powerful system of targeted questions that transforms ordinary settings into unforgettable, living worlds. Whether you're a new or experienced game master, this conversation delivers the exact tools you need to refine your world-building immediately.

 

Connect with David Northeast:

Episodes Mentioned:

Games Mentioned During the Episode:

Resources mentioned:

*As an amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Some of these links are affiliate links for other programs but once again, if you choose to purchase through these links, it's no extra cost to you. I only promote products or services that I have investigated and feel can deliver value to you.

Please Connect with us!


00:00:00
>> Clint Scheirer: So I dont normally make an announcement prior to the start of the episode, but

00:00:02
I felt like this was really important. If you want to build

00:00:05
amazing worlds for your games, make sure that you click on the link in the show

00:00:08
notes to grab your free 12 page ultimate world

00:00:11
building Guide. Inside is a comprehensive roadmap with

00:00:14
practical questions and checklists helping you build

00:00:17
vibrant, captivating worlds for you and your players. It

00:00:19
brings together many of the insights that youre going to gain by

00:00:22
listening to my guest and professional GM

00:00:25
David North, East. I I know you'll enjoy it. All right,

00:00:28
thanks.

00:00:28
>> Clint Scheirer: And now ono the episode We Live.

00:00:31
>> Clint Scheirer: In the World Our questions create.

00:00:34
What essential question should every GM and player

00:00:37
ask when crafting immersive tabletop role playing

00:00:39
worlds?

00:00:40
>> Clint Scheirer: In this episode, I get to speak.

00:00:42
>> Clint Scheirer: With professional game master David North, East and he

00:00:45
reveals the proven sperm framework.

00:00:48
That's right. You heard me right. S P E R M M.

00:00:51
It's a powerful system of targeted questions that

00:00:54
transforms ordinary settings into unforgettable

00:00:56
living worlds. And whether youre a new or

00:00:59
experienced game master, this conversation

00:01:02
delivers the exact tools youll need to refine

00:01:05
your world building immediately.

00:01:07
Welcome to Claim to Game. We help tabletop gamers have

00:01:10
a great time with friends to experience amazing stories.

00:01:14
It can be overwhelming to start and run great games.

00:01:17
Lets make it easier for you to play any game you want

00:01:20
to have fun with your friends. Im'm Clint Scheirer. Ive helped

00:01:23
thousands of students in my career find their way to

00:01:26
better themselves and better their game. With more than 10

00:01:29
years experience in leadership, coaching, live performance and

00:01:31
public speaking, I know I can help you create

00:01:34
immersive, low stress games youll never

00:01:37
forget. Its time for you to make your claim

00:01:40
to game.

00:02:09
>> Clint Scheirer: So David, here's something that I have to ask right

00:02:12
you have a background in storytelling,

00:02:15
you have a background in performing arts

00:02:17
literature, and it clearly informs

00:02:20
your world building. When anybody goes on and looks at your bio,

00:02:23
looks at what you do when you run games,

00:02:27
it's clear that you have this in your your

00:02:29
repertoire. So what I want to know is how

00:02:32
do these experiences, the storytelling, the performing

00:02:35
arts, the literature that you've consumed, how does

00:02:38
it influence the way that you create immersive

00:02:41
settings when you're trying to whu for your

00:02:44
gamers, not just making great NPCs but

00:02:46
also the world that they live and breathe in?

00:02:49
>> Speaker C: When you watch a lot of stuff online about

00:02:52
how to world build and how to, you know, create

00:02:55
your own campaigns, quite often the

00:02:58
advice start small, start with a single town and build

00:03:01
out My brain is very weird.

00:03:03
It likes to work it out in reverse

00:03:06
order. So I like to,

00:03:10
I like to see the lay of the land. I like to see where the

00:03:12
mountains naturally form. I like to see where the

00:03:15
deserts occur. And I try to create

00:03:18
this almost

00:03:21
geologically and

00:03:23
geographically

00:03:26
accurate world that makes sense. So when

00:03:29
you initially stare at it, it's, oh, there's nothing wrong

00:03:32
here. But then I start adding things

00:03:35
in. So for example, in my world of Eusia,

00:03:38
which I've got a 2000 year history for,

00:03:41
the desert is called the green desert because there's an

00:03:44
oasis every mile or so,

00:03:47
which is a really, really sort of

00:03:50
unheard of thing in the real world. but

00:03:53
when it comes to using my background in performing

00:03:55
arts and English literature

00:03:58
more. So when I'm world building, I sort

00:04:01
of lean on the literary side. It

00:04:04
comes down to things like, when it's writing

00:04:07
the story is things like symbolism. I

00:04:09
love symbolism in the world.

00:04:12
And everything is there for a

00:04:15
purpose. There is very, very little I put in my world that

00:04:17
is just random. Now occasionally

00:04:20
I will put random things in the world to

00:04:23
make the world feel organic and natural. So

00:04:26
you might sort of see just a passerby wearing a

00:04:29
green coat, for example. And I'll describe that to the

00:04:32
players and they're like, oh, okay, well, we'll

00:04:35
take a note of that. Okay. And, you never know, they might go and

00:04:38
talk to that NPC. And now I need to fill out that NPCs,

00:04:41
family, their history, their backstory.

00:04:44
I mean, you know how that goes. But

00:04:47
sometimes the random things are

00:04:50
just as important as the very, very

00:04:53
specific and story specific things. When it comes

00:04:56
to the performing arts aspect of things,

00:05:00
that is where my role play comes in.

00:05:03
I tend to always have my camera

00:05:06
on when I'm GMing a game because

00:05:09
I've obviously predominantly an online GM

00:05:12
and I'm very.

00:05:15
What's the word? Very performative with

00:05:18
it. And I try to make each

00:05:21
character have intrinsic and

00:05:24
unique characteristics that, ah, are both

00:05:27
visual and audible.

00:05:30
you know, whether it's the speed, the

00:05:33
pitch, perhaps there's

00:05:36
a, specific way

00:05:39
they pause in the middle of each sentence.

00:05:43
I mean, for example, one of my favorite

00:05:45
NPCs that I've ever made, and I won't go into too

00:05:48
many details just in case my players are listening.

00:05:52
is, is Hodo the Goblin. Now, Hodo the

00:05:54
Goblin has some very, very unique characteristics

00:05:57
rather than your sort of

00:06:00
impolit, politically correct, bulbous

00:06:02
noses and, you know, the, oh, he

00:06:05
Went my, go. That kind of. No. He is a pig

00:06:08
snouted, pig eared, greens skinned goblin

00:06:11
who wears a potato sack and has an oversized

00:06:14
bag that drags along the back of the floor the entire

00:06:17
time. He is a vendor for my

00:06:19
players. But he's always the

00:06:22
same similar character. He's always this

00:06:25
chaotic little. Oh, hi guys. How

00:06:28
you doing today? What can I offer you? Perhaps one

00:06:31
of my special Hoto potions. You know,

00:06:33
and he always has this really upbeat,

00:06:36
high pitched, irritating

00:06:39
voice. And I make sure it's as irritating as

00:06:41
possible for my players because I don't want

00:06:44
them to know how good he really

00:06:47
is until the very, very last reveal of

00:06:50
him.

00:06:51
>> Clint Scheirer: You brought up a good point. Right. So when people think of

00:06:53
world building u, you started out saying that you kind

00:06:56
of backwards engineer what a real

00:06:59
world would look like. You were talking about

00:07:02
mountains, you were talking about. I thought of cartography

00:07:05
is what I was thinking of maps. And you know, there's

00:07:08
some really wonderful map making tools out there. I've used dungeon

00:07:11
draft for individual maps that I want to make

00:07:14
or world draft if I wanted to make something bigger,

00:07:17
more on a larger scale. but then

00:07:20
you shifted your response

00:07:23
to characters. Characters

00:07:26
are what make the world m. That is

00:07:29
fascinating. And when it comes to characters, I

00:07:32
think there were two things that I heard you say.

00:07:35
Consistency with the

00:07:37
character.

00:07:38
>> Clint Scheirer: Right.

00:07:38
>> Clint Scheirer: Hado always talks with the same pitch. He always has the

00:07:41
same Persona. He always shows up in a

00:07:44
very similar way. So he starts to become real

00:07:47
because he's familiar. They're not goingna come back later. And Hoto

00:07:50
has a really deep voice and you're like, what happened to you,

00:07:52
Hado? Did you have a rough

00:07:55
night, Auto?

00:07:57
>> Speaker C: Well, I mean, occasionally, occasionally his voice

00:07:59
does change, but that's normally because he's

00:08:02
taken something that he shouldn't have taken that is

00:08:05
one of his own potions.

00:08:08
>> Clint Scheirer: How do you do that? Like how do you make a

00:08:11
character consistent? Because

00:08:13
it's crazy how fast things can move.

00:08:16
You mentioned how your characters are brought

00:08:18
to life when your players

00:08:21
bring them to life. The person in the green coat wasn't

00:08:24
anybody until your player said that they were.

00:08:27
Somebody started talking to them. Can you tell me a little

00:08:30
bit about your process of one coming up on the

00:08:33
fly, if it is on the fly with how

00:08:35
you're giving that your breathing life into that

00:08:38
character. And then how do you remember

00:08:41
to keep consistent with them the next time they want to go to that

00:08:44
green coat person who didn't exist less than.

00:08:46
>> Speaker C: 10 seconds before so,

00:08:50
I have a few. I have a

00:08:53
few, like, almost like stock Personas.

00:08:56
So obviously, if you want to

00:08:58
use free artwork, for example, you normally go buy

00:09:01
some stock art from somewhere. I have

00:09:04
something similar. I have stock Personas that I don't

00:09:07
really use. I will thrust

00:09:10
them onto these characters until they

00:09:12
become intrinsically woven

00:09:15
into the. Whether it's the character

00:09:18
backstories, whether it's,

00:09:21
they, you know, on the fly, I say something stupid

00:09:24
like, oh, yes, I'm a really important member of

00:09:27
this town because of this, this, this, and this. And then I'm like,

00:09:30
oh, now I really have to give this person a

00:09:32
personiza. And very, very quickly,

00:09:35
the performer in me

00:09:38
builds this character up. And you know,

00:09:41
who's in his background, who's, you know, who's

00:09:43
talking and whispering in his ears. If he's a government

00:09:47
official, who's paying him off? You know, when it

00:09:49
comes to maintaining

00:09:52
a character's Persona, it's

00:09:55
easier. The longer you've known a character as a gm, the

00:09:58
longer you've known this character, the more that you've

00:10:01
used this character, the easier it becomes to

00:10:04
maintain them. So, for example,

00:10:07
in my Age of Dragons campaign, there are four

00:10:10
tyrannical dragons within the universe, and

00:10:13
I know each one of them very, very intimately. So

00:10:16
I know how I want them to come across.

00:10:19
However, little old lady number

00:10:22
one from down the street in the hallway,

00:10:25
I don't necessarily have that same level of

00:10:28
intimacy with her, so there will be small variations

00:10:31
between their meeting. But again, it is

00:10:34
trying to keep them to that

00:10:37
consistent level as much.

00:10:38
>> Clint Scheirer: As possible when you take

00:10:41
notes. So, like, I'm a note

00:10:43
taker, I should say. If you take notes, I shouldn't

00:10:46
just assume that you're a note taker. I feel

00:10:49
like I run away from a session when I'm game

00:10:51
mastering. And whether I'm using, you know,

00:10:54
Scrivener, doing something digital, some people use,

00:10:57
like, Microsoft tools, or maybe they're using an

00:11:00
actual legal pad. You

00:11:03
know, when you're trying to capture quickly before they move

00:11:06
on something that you can come back to later.

00:11:09
What are your tools like? How do you,

00:11:12
capture what you created in the moment

00:11:14
so that you can bring that back later when it may not be one

00:11:17
of those stock Personas that you know so

00:11:20
well?

00:11:21
>> Speaker C: I mean, I always get the players to do their recap anyway, ah,

00:11:24
at the start of the session, because then you know what

00:11:27
the players know. And if they've forgotten

00:11:30
little details, it's sometimes more fun to leave them

00:11:33
forgotten. And Bring them back later and have that. Oh,

00:11:36
crap, I forgot about that moment.

00:11:39
but ultimately,

00:11:41
I've come across a tool

00:11:44
that I was part of the closed alpha

00:11:47
for. And I can't say much more

00:11:49
because it's still enc closesed beta. But

00:11:52
essentially it is a.

00:11:55
An AI derivativeative tool. It's not

00:11:58
like fully AI. It doesn't like

00:12:01
steal information from the Internet or anything like that.

00:12:04
It literally just note takes

00:12:06
for you and it can

00:12:09
derive like different characters, different factions,

00:12:12
different locations and things and it writes out

00:12:15
the descriptions and gives you a session summary. I've been

00:12:18
using it religiously. Yes. Obviously

00:12:21
there's a few bugs in the background like you would expect with

00:12:24
beta stuff, but it's saved

00:12:27
me hours of work.

00:12:29
>> Clint Scheirer: Yeah.

00:12:30
So technology such as AI

00:12:33
and before we started y you had a very

00:12:35
important question and I'm just gonna dive right into it because

00:12:38
it's on people's minds. Right. Like chatpt,

00:12:41
Claude, there's all perplexity.

00:12:44
AI tools are bumping up everywhere. And

00:12:47
one of the game types that I really

00:12:50
love and know, people can go back and

00:12:53
listen why I love it. If they listen back to episode

00:12:56
nine, should you play GM list or go with

00:12:59
a gm? they can go back and listen to some of the recent

00:13:02
episodes that I've done related to GM less

00:13:05
gaming. But I like GMless gaming.

00:13:07
Not because I don't feel like roles like your

00:13:10
own. A professional GM that

00:13:13
really adds such a colorful flavor that I don't believe

00:13:15
any sort of AI or simulation

00:13:18
can provide the soul of. But I like

00:13:21
it because it allows everybody at the table

00:13:24
when you play a GM less game to

00:13:27
evenly distribute the responsibilities of the

00:13:30
storytelling. And there isn't one

00:13:33
person who has to step up

00:13:36
and be that facilitator. So what you

00:13:39
brought up was when you say GM list gaming,

00:13:42
Clint.Scheirer@claimtogamepodcast.com, are you

00:13:43
talking about somebody speaking to an AI?

00:13:46
And the AI is really taking on,

00:13:49
the role of the game master. And I'm like, I don't know if I really want

00:13:52
that. I'm not sure if I like that. And you're like, well,

00:13:55
some people do play that way. Can you

00:13:58
elaborate on how that works if you were using

00:14:01
AI for a game master role when you're playing a role

00:14:04
playing game.

00:14:05
>> Speaker C: So I will preface this

00:14:08
by saying AI is a tool

00:14:11
and not a replacement for anything

00:14:13
anywhere at any point.

00:14:15
>> Clint Scheirer: Amen, brother.

00:14:16
>> Speaker C: I am definitely of the mind that AI is

00:14:19
a very useful tool. Say, for example,

00:14:22
you know, I'm in the middle of

00:14:24
writing a Session or in the middle of

00:14:27
writing a campaign and

00:14:30
I just get writer's block. I can talk

00:14:33
to Chat GPT about something completely separate

00:14:36
away from my campaign and my D20 & D stuff

00:14:39
and you know, just, just mess around with it

00:14:42
and it can break that block. That's one way I use that as

00:14:45
a tool. Another way is a name

00:14:47
generator. Give me 15

00:14:50
generic names that I can put then

00:14:53
on a table. And if I need a name for

00:14:56
one of these NPCs walking down the street. So I'm not

00:14:59
stressing about, you know, oh my God, I't got

00:15:02
list of names, you know, and little things

00:15:05
that. But in terms of replacing

00:15:08
a gm, absolutely not.

00:15:11
Now I know there are some individuals than

00:15:14
some people who have things

00:15:17
like severe social anxiety.

00:15:20
And these people are using,

00:15:23
or I have seen them using

00:15:26
things like Chat GBT to be their game

00:15:29
master because their social anxiety is too

00:15:32
crippling for them to enjoy the game. And in that

00:15:34
instance it's actually in my

00:15:37
opinion a disability aid

00:15:40
rather than a replacement for an actual

00:15:42
gm. Some may argue that it could

00:15:45
make the social anxiety worse. I would argue

00:15:48
it gets them comfortable enough with the game, the rule sets

00:15:51
and everything else to then potentially extend

00:15:54
that and reach out to other groups

00:15:56
and other people around them to then

00:16:00
bring them into the game.

00:16:01
>> Clint Scheirer: That's fascinating.

00:16:04
it's like allowing them to practice the social

00:16:07
construct of playing a game with other people

00:16:10
to then step into that when they feel ready.

00:16:13
>> Speaker C: Yes.

00:16:14
>> Clint Scheirer: That's awesome. I would say that maybe a

00:16:17
GM less game in my mind would be a step in

00:16:20
the direction of not necessarily playing

00:16:23
alone.

00:16:24
>> Speaker C: Yeah.

00:16:25
>> Clint Scheirer: Although there are solo gmless

00:16:28
games where you could play by yourself and in that

00:16:31
case. Oh yeah, when I say gmless game I

00:16:34
mean using oracles or

00:16:36
tables like you mentioned at gm. name

00:16:39
generator, a city name generator,

00:16:42
MPC ideas, things like that.

00:16:46
so I'm going to, I'm gonna spin it

00:16:48
right.

00:16:49
>> Clint Scheirer: You run many GM LED games because.

00:16:51
>> Clint Scheirer: You are a professional gm, which is so darn

00:16:54
cool that I'm talking to a professional gm.

00:16:57
And I have run games on my own, but they're always

00:17:00
social, they're always just with friends or people that I

00:17:02
enjoy, the company of. And gmless games

00:17:05
I've run in addition to that.

00:17:08
David, when I was thinking about

00:17:11
GM LED games versus GM less games,

00:17:14
one of the cool things about a GM LED

00:17:17
game for the GM is the GM has

00:17:19
full control over those worlds details.

00:17:22
At least before the players of Chaos come in and

00:17:26
wreck it to pieces. in a GM less

00:17:28
game, you're relying on mechanics, you're

00:17:32
relying on the oracle tables, you're relying on the

00:17:34
oracle tables, for making decisions, which

00:17:37
is also known as role tables. For those are like, who the heck is, you know,

00:17:40
what the heck is an oracle? What

00:17:43
techniques do you use to

00:17:46
ensure that your world

00:17:48
still remains authentic in

00:17:51
your GM led games? how do you

00:17:54
continue to make it feel,

00:17:57
like you, what you envisioned is still

00:18:00
happening regardless of your agents of chaos, your

00:18:03
players?

00:18:03
>> Speaker C: My campaigns are, open sandbox.

00:18:06
Every campaign I write is a complete open world.

00:18:09
So I will give the players three or four plot hooks.

00:18:12
They can follow one to their heart's content. And then, you

00:18:15
know, perhaps they get distracted and go off that way.

00:18:18
So I start thinking, okay, well, what the consequences of this not being

00:18:21
done up here whilst they're intervening with something

00:18:24
over here. and

00:18:27
open world games are very, very interesting

00:18:31
because the,

00:18:34
your standard module assumes you go from

00:18:37
point A to point B to point C

00:18:40
doing these things. And obviously it's not

00:18:42
quite as near as that. But ultimately all roads

00:18:45
will lead to roam.

00:18:48
With the way I run games, if

00:18:51
you say, for example,

00:18:54
you fend off a dragon attack,

00:18:57
you managed to turn the dragon around and

00:19:00
send them away. Cool. And

00:19:03
the players then leave that town

00:19:05
and come back maybe a week

00:19:08
later for something. Well, what's

00:19:11
happened in that week in that town? Has the dragon

00:19:14
summoned an army to come along

00:19:17
and literally steamroll over it? Very

00:19:20
light, very possibly, you know, the dragon's been

00:19:23
fought off, the dragon's been deterred,

00:19:26
the players have left. Where if the dragon has

00:19:29
agents or spies in that city,

00:19:32
he's gonna come right back in and he knows

00:19:35
that the manpower level is

00:19:38
down. you know, or

00:19:40
perhaps the dragon doesn't have those spies and

00:19:43
that information network there, in which case the

00:19:46
dragon's not likely to come back for a little

00:19:49
while until he is better prepared or she is better

00:19:52
prepared to take on, this town or city.

00:19:55
And so when the players return, the players

00:19:58
would be recognized, Certainly recognized.

00:20:01
Vendors will change, shops will have

00:20:04
new stocks, markets will change.

00:20:07
you know, they might come back, they might think, oh,

00:20:10
actually, that person from the marketplace

00:20:13
had some really, really cool items. We've got enough gold

00:20:16
now, let's go back and buy it. So they go back looking

00:20:19
for that vendor, only to find out that that vendor has moved

00:20:22
on. So they start asking around. They say,

00:20:25
oh, yeah, he's, he's on his way to that city up there

00:20:27
now. Oh, great. So now the Players

00:20:30
have to traverse without those goods, without those items, in

00:20:33
the hopes that they run into him again. Perhaps they try and

00:20:36
catch up to him on the road. Perhaps, you know,

00:20:39
they can't quite make pace. It's

00:20:42
all very. It's all very

00:20:45
fluid. And the more

00:20:47
flexibility and fluidity you allow yourself as a

00:20:50
gm, the better, you can make your worlds

00:20:53
and the more dynamic you can make them as well.

00:20:56
>> Clint Scheirer: So your strategy to build the world that

00:20:59
you envision is to keep it as open and sandboxy

00:21:02
as possible so that you don't get

00:21:04
trapped into thinking it has to be a certain way.

00:21:07
>> Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. If you, if you get to this

00:21:10
mindset. So quite often, there,

00:21:13
I mean, there's a meme going around, it was saying, oh,

00:21:16
the players don't want to go to the town that

00:21:19
they were meant to go to for this plot hook.

00:21:22
Well, this plot hook now appears in this town. And to me,

00:21:25
that's less interesting

00:21:28
then. Then going to the new town, finding

00:21:31
something interesting, interacting with something interesting there, coming

00:21:34
back a week later and hearing stories

00:21:37
of maybe another adventuring party

00:21:40
or perhaps nobody managed to find

00:21:43
the mayor's daughter that was missing. And now the mayor's gone

00:21:46
mad. And, you know, had somebody been here a week ago,

00:21:49
perhaps she could have been saved. And really

00:21:51
driving that point home to the players

00:21:54
that, you know, you not being there has

00:21:57
caused this to happen.

00:21:59
>> Clint Scheirer: You know, their choices have consequences.

00:22:02
>> Speaker C: Yes, yes. Every choice has a consequence.

00:22:05
Not just the big ones, but the little ones too.

00:22:08
>> Clint Scheirer: And that's what makes it realuse. That's how life

00:22:10
is like real life.

00:22:13
All of our choices have consequences.

00:22:15
>> Speaker C: And this actually brings me to another interesting

00:22:18
point. Sorry. Ahead. I don't mean to hijack.

00:22:20
>> Clint Scheirer: No, hijack. Hijack away.

00:22:22
>> Speaker C: One of my biggest pet peeves.

00:22:25
A gm. Now, as a professional gm, I let my players

00:22:28
play how they want to play the game, for the most part,

00:22:31
with, boundaryes set based in the world that they

00:22:34
choose to play in. But, party

00:22:36
composition, it is not the

00:22:39
player's job to ensure a balanced

00:22:41
party composition. Because

00:22:45
as a prime example, in real life, you didn't

00:22:47
know you and I would be having this conversation five years

00:22:50
ago. However,

00:22:53
when it comes to the game, if you want that

00:22:56
realistic feel, feel free to

00:22:58
have five bards that

00:23:01
run into each other. They have this rivalry

00:23:04
between them to the point that they cannot leave each other

00:23:07
sideize because they have to prove that they're the best

00:23:09
bard. You as the gm, then

00:23:12
take that energy, you take that party composition

00:23:15
and you build Balanced encounters around it.

00:23:18
Now that doesn't mean to say that you can't be

00:23:21
a bit of a bullyer with it either. You

00:23:24
know, if they've chosen as a

00:23:27
party to play five bards, whether

00:23:29
preemptively or whatever, or this bard has checked these

00:23:32
bars have chosen to go on an adventure together without

00:23:35
hiring any kind of muscle. Because don't forget, you

00:23:38
can put hirelings in the game, you can put

00:23:41
DPC's in the game. It

00:23:44
doesn't take anything away from the players. But this band of

00:23:47
traveling bards, if they're gonna fight a dragon, well, you

00:23:50
better hope that one of them is College of Swords

00:23:53
and one of them is College of Eloquence and you

00:23:55
know, whatever else in the context of D20 & D at the

00:23:58
very least. And you know, they have to

00:24:01
then manage with the tools that they have.

00:24:05
Again, make it a balanced but

00:24:07
challengingounter. Doesn't have to be

00:24:09
that the dragon must be defeated by a noble

00:24:12
knight, you know, or we must

00:24:15
have an archer in case he takes flight. No,

00:24:18
have, have the bards like running after a dragon

00:24:21
who's flying through the sky. The

00:24:24
entertainment value is endless.

00:24:25
>> Clint Scheirer: You know, you're, I love

00:24:28
this, I love that you're saying this too

00:24:31
because I would love to play like

00:24:34
blades in the dark, right? So that's a game

00:24:37
that you are basically all

00:24:39
rogues and your job

00:24:42
is to be like thieves.

00:24:45
U, you have different abilities, different whatever, but you're all rogues and

00:24:48
I believe you could do that in D20 & D. I believe

00:24:51
that you can have all bards, I believe that you can have all one

00:24:54
class play to what you want to be, not to what

00:24:56
you think you should be in order to

00:24:59
successfully win at the

00:25:02
adventure. It's like a

00:25:04
Chinese finger trap. At that point you're not really winning, you're really

00:25:07
just sticking yourself with one. One story.

00:25:10
This leads me to another question

00:25:13
and what I'm thinking is, right, so you

00:25:16
have the player class or the

00:25:19
type of character they want to be, but you also have

00:25:21
the individual player themselves.

00:25:24
Like the individual is a human who has come to this

00:25:27
gaming table that brings their own unique

00:25:30
storytelling abilities.

00:25:32
>> Speaker C: Right?

00:25:32
>> Clint Scheirer: When you're running a game with multiple personalities,

00:25:35
multiple diverse people that are all coming together,

00:25:38
U how do you keep

00:25:41
that moving as a gm?

00:25:44
How do you, how do you manage somebody who may

00:25:47
be ready to impulsively

00:25:50
jump into a situation where another person maybe wants

00:25:53
to pause and think about it and talk about it? How do

00:25:56
you keep the adventure from becoming disjointed

00:25:59
while still honoring how that person wants to play and who they

00:26:02
are.

00:26:03
>> Speaker C: So I think it comes down to,

00:26:06
to an extent, the rule of yes.

00:26:09
so anyone who's had any kind of

00:26:12
experience in performing arts knows what the rule of yes

00:26:15
is. And the rule of yes is based in

00:26:18
improvisation. If you are

00:26:20
improvising a scene, the rule of yes

00:26:23
is yes. And

00:26:25
so I take what you're doing, what you've just

00:26:28
said to me, I will agree with it and not outright

00:26:31
shout no down to it. We're not doing that.

00:26:34
I will go yes and this

00:26:37
and then offer something to

00:26:40
give that more flesh, more meat.

00:26:43
when you've got diverse

00:26:46
personalities at a table, so you've got

00:26:48
the, you've got the dungeon

00:26:51
delvers, you know, the people who like to go on

00:26:54
the long, extended dungeons and

00:26:57
fight encounter after encounter after

00:26:59
encounter.

00:27:00
>> Clint Scheirer: Kids that never got to completely beat

00:27:02
Zelda growing up.

00:27:05
>> Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. they like to min max

00:27:07
their characters as much as humanly possible.

00:27:10
They're looking for all the loot and the gold and at

00:27:13
the same table, you can have

00:27:16
players like me. When I'm a player, I hold

00:27:19
my hands up. I'm a Chaos Goblin. I am

00:27:22
a literal Chaos Goblin. I won't tell you the things that

00:27:25
I did in 40k raath and glory a couple of

00:27:28
weeks ago. But my characters are always

00:27:31
suboptimal characters. They

00:27:34
tend to be not necessarily joke characters, but

00:27:37
definitely meme characters. you know,

00:27:40
the high intelligence barbarian. Excuse me, sir.

00:27:43
You seem to be pissing me off.

00:27:45
And, you know, going down that line of, And I think

00:27:48
of how I can mash different

00:27:51
personalities and characters and classes together

00:27:54
and have a bit of fun with it that way.

00:27:57
But when you've got those two separate

00:27:59
personalities at the table, sometimes it will

00:28:02
boil down to, you're really not right for

00:28:05
this group. So if, if the whole

00:28:08
group more les towards the sort of

00:28:11
mem characters, the silly characters and the, you

00:28:14
know, the chaos Goblins, and you've got the one

00:28:17
guy at the table who's basically trying to be dad to

00:28:20
the group, do serious role play, and

00:28:23
wants to go dungeon delving every other session,

00:28:26
they're probably not the right group. And

00:28:28
this is what I would say to any other professional

00:28:31
GM out there. And this is why I advocate so

00:28:34
hard for professional GMs

00:28:37
to stop the copy and paste,

00:28:40
stop copy and pasting your ads everywhere and

00:28:43
talk to people. Because you may not

00:28:46
be the right GM for that person, but that person

00:28:49
might see your advert for the Game, see, think, oh

00:28:51
that looks amazing and sign up to your game.

00:28:55
Well, you know, at that point, if that player

00:28:58
doesn't have a good time, they're gonna

00:29:01
think negatively about the profession.

00:29:04
you know, it could cause your reputation to come

00:29:07
down if people see you advertising again and

00:29:10
they leave a comment or they leave reviews and things like

00:29:12
that. It's very, very important that

00:29:15
we as professional GMs get the balance right.

00:29:18
I myself in the last three months have turned away

00:29:21
30 players because I know

00:29:24
I'm not the right GM for them.

00:29:27
Not because I couldn't accommodate them, because

00:29:30
I very, very easily could accommodate them at my

00:29:33
tables. But it's the tables. I currently have

00:29:36
players four and I know those players fairly

00:29:39
well and I know that they would

00:29:41
not mesh with the group. Yeah, if that makes

00:29:44
sense.

00:29:44
>> Clint Scheirer: in my mind because we said this at the very

00:29:47
beginning. Part of world building.

00:29:50
Part of world building. I don't know if you heard that

00:29:53
there's thunder maybe.

00:29:55
>> Speaker C: Id.

00:29:56
>> Clint Scheirer: Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's

00:29:59
the impressiveness about what I'm about to say.

00:30:03
>> Speaker C: Either that or'it's an ominous

00:30:05
warning.

00:30:06
>> Clint Scheirer: Yes. Don't say it Clint.Scheirer@claimtogamepodcast.com. I

00:30:09
think we said it at the beginning that

00:30:12
NPCs and characters and

00:30:15
individuals in the world are a big

00:30:17
part of what makes the world believable

00:30:20
and real. That also

00:30:23
is appropriate to say for the players characters

00:30:26
as well. And if they are getting

00:30:29
caught in a out of game, friction

00:30:32
as you're describing, like this person wants to dungeon del,

00:30:35
this person wants to be silly and role

00:30:38
play and

00:30:41
have their hit. Well that's not

00:30:44
going to help create that believability

00:30:47
because now people are being drawn out of the story

00:30:50
to maybe the conflict that's happening at the

00:30:52
tableah.

00:30:53
>> Clint Scheirer: Hey, quick pause in the episode everyone had to chat about tabletop

00:30:56
RPGs or share your unique insights or

00:30:59
just geek out about tabletop RPGs with someone who gets it.

00:31:02
Now's your chance. I'm opening up guest spots on the Claim to Game

00:31:05
Podcast and I'd love to feature you.

00:31:07
Are you working on an exciting project? Do you have a fresh

00:31:10
take on running or playing games or do you just want to

00:31:13
help others have an amazing time at the table. Lets make

00:31:16
it happen. If you got a mic, stable, Internet and

00:31:19
a passion for great games, claim your spot on

00:31:22
a future interview by clicking on the link in the show notes to

00:31:25
book your interview. Now lets talk about tabletop

00:31:28
RPGs and make something awesome together. Cant wait

00:31:31
to hear from you now.

00:31:32
>> Clint Scheirer: Back to the episode. My question with you, you said something

00:31:35
interesting. They may not be the right fit for the table.

00:31:38
Has there ever been a time where you

00:31:40
had to have a hard conversation with a

00:31:43
player and said hey, I think you need to drop out of

00:31:46
the group? Or is that something that you try to vet

00:31:49
before it gets to that point?

00:31:52
>> Speaker C: So primarily I vet players

00:31:54
anyway like as say I'm a direct sales

00:31:57
professional. I was in business to business

00:32:00
sales for years. I was in customer, business to customer

00:32:03
sales for years. I

00:32:06
will vet players through the skills that I've

00:32:08
learned in down that road,

00:32:11
which is very, very helpful. I can find out who the player

00:32:14
is, what their background is, what sort of

00:32:17
adventures they've played or what they're looking for,

00:32:20
what their expectations of a gmr.

00:32:24
you know, even as far as are they part of any sort

00:32:27
of diverse groups? You know, are they

00:32:30
a minority group? That kind of,

00:32:32
you know. Because first impressions really, really

00:32:35
matter. And for a lot of people in the current

00:32:38
climate, if you can't present yourself

00:32:41
as a safe space for certain

00:32:43
demographics, then you

00:32:46
may as well write yourself out of this game already.

00:32:49
you know, don't get me wrong, there are those of

00:32:52
the other side of the argument without

00:32:55
going too political, but for the most

00:32:58
part I think people see D20 & D as a

00:33:01
haven of escapism. And

00:33:04
you know, though certain groups need that

00:33:07
escapism more than others. I

00:33:09
have had to remove players from campaigns before now.

00:33:12
I've had to have hard conversations with people before

00:33:15
now. I have had.

00:33:19
So I have a two strike

00:33:22
rule within my games. You upset me

00:33:25
once, you get a strike, you upset me a second time, you are

00:33:27
gone. Obviously depends on the

00:33:30
extremity of what you've

00:33:33
done. but generally speaking, I'll have a

00:33:36
conversation with someone, ask them to curb their behavior

00:33:38
and if I see improvement, fantastic. If not,

00:33:41
then I will hit it like harder than a ton

00:33:44
of bricks. The two times I've only had in

00:33:47
since 2023,

00:33:49
2022, late 2022 when I started

00:33:52
this. Since then to

00:33:55
now, I've only had to have a

00:33:57
conversation with two individuals at the

00:34:00
table about their in game etiquette and

00:34:03
how it was not appropriate for the group or the

00:34:06
table.

00:34:08
and both times came the same result. And

00:34:11
I don't know if this is just a general thing

00:34:14
or these two people just happen to have the same

00:34:17
reaction. They

00:34:19
immediately upon me having that conversation

00:34:22
with them a couple of days later

00:34:25
messaged me and all of a sudden they've got A problem with my GM

00:34:28
style, they've got a problem with how I handle encounters,

00:34:31
they've got a problem with how I handle the roleay aspect.

00:34:34
They got a problem with this, they got a problem with that.

00:34:36
And having that conversation after, like

00:34:39
them sending those messages

00:34:42
after like, 15 to 20

00:34:45
sessions of gameplay because I

00:34:48
had to have a conversation with them about

00:34:51
one or one incident or an incident that

00:34:54
hasn't improved after a conversation before.

00:34:58
It just strikes me as convenience that that

00:35:01
is the moment they choose to unload.

00:35:04
>> Clint Scheirer: Several words came to mind as you were speaking.

00:35:07
And one word is boundaries. Right?

00:35:10
Boundaries help people

00:35:13
feel safe. sometimes people

00:35:16
think boundaries are a restrictive thing, but

00:35:19
really it gives freedom. And

00:35:21
when boundaries are crossed, people don't

00:35:24
feel safe at the table. The story is going to be

00:35:27
affected. The world that you've created is going to be

00:35:30
affected. Fun is going to be

00:35:32
affected. People aren't going to be having as

00:35:35
much fun when they don't feel safe.

00:35:38
So everything that you're saying makes sense to me.

00:35:41
kudos to you for leaning into hard conversations

00:35:44
and having boundaries. Like, that's, that's a healthy thing,

00:35:47
dude.

00:35:49
>> Speaker C: This is one of the biggest thing you'll find is

00:35:51
that people that don't like boundaries will call it

00:35:54
controlling. The difference

00:35:56
between a boundary and

00:35:59
controlling is a boundary is for

00:36:02
me, a boundary is me

00:36:04
saying, you do not cross this line.

00:36:08
Controlling is saying, this is

00:36:11
for you. You don't behave like

00:36:14
this. And a boundary is saying, you know,

00:36:17
you don't behave like this at my table.

00:36:20
You can behave like that, or you want elsewhere. You don't do it at

00:36:23
my table. My table is a no go zone. And if

00:36:26
you behave like this, there will be a consequence to

00:36:28
that behavior.

00:36:31
you know, and I'm very, very,

00:36:34
I'm quite lenient with people because I know

00:36:37
sometimes people can say things, you

00:36:40
know, the wrong way at the wrong time to the wrong

00:36:42
person. And I try to handle those

00:36:45
conversations with a level of maturity that isn't just, no,

00:36:48
you're gone, that's it, no, you said the wrong thing. I

00:36:52
tried to get a better understanding of what was

00:36:54
going through their mind when they said that thing, what

00:36:57
they said actually what they meant.

00:37:01
you know, there are some things that are like,

00:37:05
goodbye, but for the most time,

00:37:08
most times it's things like friendly banter

00:37:11
that has just landed the wrong way.

00:37:14
That kind of thing is this kind of stuff. You need to have a

00:37:17
conversation with and sit down with both players as

00:37:20
well. The player that was offended and the player that

00:37:22
has done the offending and you know, just

00:37:25
say to look, guys, it was a misunderstanding. Can we

00:37:28
move past this? You know, just make sure

00:37:31
that we're more cautious in future about how

00:37:34
we say certain things or how we approach this

00:37:37
subject.

00:37:38
>> Clint Scheirer: I love this conversation. This is,

00:37:41
I told you before, I think what's going to happen is we're going to

00:37:44
be breaking this into two episodes. I

00:37:47
want to talk about the world building, which you've done a great job. Which

00:37:50
then leans into why

00:37:53
professional GMs can really create a safe space,

00:37:57
and make it easier. Cause you have a set of skills, a

00:37:59
set of strategies that you're facilitating, a

00:38:02
group that are really marvelous.

00:38:04
So before we move on more into professional gg.

00:38:07
Cause that's where I do want to lean the rest of our

00:38:09
conversation. Something that I like to do.

00:38:12
And it's okay if you need to take a pause for thisuse. I gave it to you like

00:38:15
last minute, but something that I like to do. And Eric

00:38:18
Newsom, who was formerly of NPR News and

00:38:21
did many shows for them before moving on to other things. He's a

00:38:24
pop culture freelance writer. He has a

00:38:27
strategy where for any business he starts, he

00:38:30
asks his people to create a 10 word

00:38:33
phrase that helps them remind

00:38:35
themselves of who they are and what they do.

00:38:38
And I'd like to take that strategy and instead of, you

00:38:41
know, what do I do? Who am I? If there was something that

00:38:44
you needed somebody to remember, specifically

00:38:47
our listener who's like, I want to create worlds

00:38:50
that are real, that feel real, and

00:38:53
that my players love or that I love. What

00:38:56
is a ten word phrase that you could give them to help remember

00:38:59
the core message of how worlds can be

00:39:02
built like that.

00:39:04
>> Speaker C: Right, Got it. Sperm,

00:39:07
will get you a world.

00:39:09
>> Clint Scheirer: Sperm will get you

00:39:13
a world. Tell me

00:39:16
more about that.

00:39:18
Hold on. Sperm will get you

00:39:21
a world. Oh, you're using,

00:39:24
you're using your acronym. Okay, tell me the

00:39:27
acronym of sperm.

00:39:28
>> Clint Scheirer: And tell me how it's going to.

00:39:30
>> Clint Scheirer: Get us a world. This is so exciting.

00:39:32
>> Speaker C: Social, political,

00:39:35
economical, religious,

00:39:37
military. The five

00:39:40
basics of every

00:39:43
society ever to exist.

00:39:45
>> Clint Scheirer: Did you come up with that or did you get that from somewh somewhere.

00:39:48
>> Speaker C: A very long time ago and I cannot remember

00:39:51
where? I would love to credit them.

00:39:53
>> Clint Scheirer: That's okay.

00:39:54
>> Clint Scheirer: From now on. David North, East is

00:39:57
the one who coined the word sperm.

00:40:01
>> Speaker C: O. I do not want to be known for that. Thanks.

00:40:07
>> Clint Scheirer: Never mind.

00:40:08
>> Clint Scheirer: Awesome.

00:40:09
So tell me more about all of those things. All those

00:40:12
things. I mean, obviously people may know those words individually, but what are

00:40:15
you considering when you're considering each one of those

00:40:18
acronym letters.

00:40:19
>> Speaker C: So each one of those words,

00:40:22
social, political, economical, religious and

00:40:24
military, represents a

00:40:27
portion of a society. Now some

00:40:30
societies will have more of one and less of

00:40:32
others, but ultimately they are the five

00:40:35
key influences in, in

00:40:38
any society ever.

00:40:41
the social aspect, you think of things

00:40:44
like

00:40:48
local meeting places, for example, so

00:40:51
like your taverns, your inns, local events,

00:40:54
parties, these kinds of things. How, how

00:40:57
do they work within the society

00:41:00
that they live in? and also

00:41:03
you know, they bleed across sometimes.

00:41:06
But most, for the most part the social aspect

00:41:09
is the people. Who are the people here? Where do

00:41:12
they fit in society themselves?

00:41:15
Political is obviously, you know,

00:41:18
who's ruling. What kind

00:41:21
of

00:41:24
system of rule have you got in place? Is it a

00:41:27
tyranny? Is it a,

00:41:30
democracy? Is it

00:41:32
a autocracy?

00:41:35
Is it a technocracy? You know that

00:41:38
there are lot of

00:41:41
different forms of

00:41:46
leadership that have been around

00:41:49
throughout the years.

00:41:51
Economical. There are two types of economies. There is

00:41:54
the external economy and the internal economy.

00:41:57
The easiest way to explain this

00:42:00
is your internal economy. If

00:42:03
we speak in terms of America, is all the trade

00:42:05
that America does inside America

00:42:08
or the USA does inside the usa?

00:42:14
external economy is all the trade that

00:42:16
USA does with the rest of the

00:42:19
world. Like what do they bring in, what do they

00:42:22
export, and what's the balance of that look

00:42:25
like? Now this can be scaled

00:42:27
down massively to the

00:42:30
level of a village even. You

00:42:33
know, what kind of small shops exist in a

00:42:36
village? Well you know you have to have something at least

00:42:39
like a farm, you know, you perhaps

00:42:41
have something along the lines of a

00:42:44
grocers. You know, you'd have

00:42:47
someone that brings in the local news

00:42:50
to the village and that kind of thing, like a town crier

00:42:53
or that sort of thing. And these

00:42:56
economies, these two different economies, you've

00:42:59
got to work out how they link together as well. I

00:43:01
feel that's quite important because if

00:43:05
the, say for example, the local

00:43:07
farmer didn't get his feed for his animals

00:43:10
last week, you know, that's then going to

00:43:13
impact the quality of his livestock.

00:43:17
And you know, if the quality of his

00:43:19
livestock is affected, how's that going to affect

00:43:22
the rest of the village, you know, and

00:43:25
then what kind of knock on effect is that gonna have?

00:43:28
And you know you can really snowball with

00:43:31
that kind of line of thought.

00:43:33
next was the religious aspect. Now obviously D20 &

00:43:36
D has its own fantasy

00:43:39
pantheons in the, in

00:43:41
our world we have a number of main

00:43:44
Religions, Christianity,

00:43:47
Islam, Sikhism,

00:43:50
Buddhism. These are just a few that have come to the top of

00:43:53
my mind. And each one works very, very

00:43:55
differently. They each have their own set of beliefs,

00:43:58
they have their own set of rituals. you

00:44:01
know, for example, for Christians, their ritual is to go to a church on

00:44:04
a Sunday to pray and have

00:44:06
sermons and readings and that kind of

00:44:09
thing. Whereas in Islam, they

00:44:12
pray five times a day facing

00:44:14
eastward towards Mecca. you've

00:44:17
got the

00:44:20
Buddhists, fasting,

00:44:23
where they will only eat for a

00:44:26
certain period of time during the day or not

00:44:29
eat at all for a period of days. Or they fast

00:44:32
and you know, they restrict something in

00:44:35
their lives. All these different

00:44:38
rituals impact the lives of these people

00:44:41
differently means that these people all

00:44:44
have different lived experiences of their religions.

00:44:47
How does that apply in your world? Especially

00:44:50
when we start talking about fantasy pantheons.

00:44:53
If you go back to the ancient pagan

00:44:55
pantheons like the Norse, the Greeks,

00:44:58
the Romans, look at how their

00:45:01
pantheons influenced their

00:45:04
societies. You know, there

00:45:07
are stories and stories and stories and

00:45:09
I, I love Greek mythology. It

00:45:12
is so beautifully dark.

00:45:15
You know, when people think of Greek mythology, nine times out

00:45:18
of ten they will mention Disney's Hercules.

00:45:21
I promise you. Disney's Hercules,

00:45:25
romanticized is an

00:45:27
underestimate. What they did to the.

00:45:30
>> Clint Scheirer: Well, maybe like most things

00:45:32
Disney with fairy tals.

00:45:34
>> Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, but I mean this was like

00:45:37
next level romanticizing.

00:45:41
>> Clint Scheirer: Yes.

00:45:42
>> Speaker C: and lastly, military. And you

00:45:45
know, what does their military look like? Do they even have a

00:45:48
military? If they don't have a military, are they

00:45:50
hiring mercenaries to protect

00:45:53
them? Yeah, you know, and again, you can

00:45:56
scale it up and down. You can have a

00:45:58
countrywide military or you can have a very, very

00:46:01
small focused military.

00:46:05
you know, if you think of the different,

00:46:08
never divisions of the British military,

00:46:12
you know, you've got the sas, you've got the marines, the

00:46:15
army, the Navy. Each of these are specialized

00:46:17
in different things. They are

00:46:20
also of the varying sizes.

00:46:23
You know, we are a maritime warfare country.

00:46:26
Our navy is huge,

00:46:29
for the size of our country per capita.

00:46:33
And again, you know, how does

00:46:36
military impact your country? How does it

00:46:39
impact your town? Perhaps your town is in

00:46:41
a war torn country, but they haven't been affected

00:46:44
for some reason. Why have they not been

00:46:47
affected? What's lying around the town

00:46:49
that'stops the armies,

00:46:52
you know, had

00:46:55
I run a one shot not too long ago

00:46:59
and essentially the players. O no, it wasn't a one shot.

00:47:02
It was an actual part of my campaign. the

00:47:05
players had visited a town that had

00:47:08
recently been destroyed by

00:47:11
an ever increasing

00:47:13
curse. Basically these creatures

00:47:16
were being cursed by the land.

00:47:19
There was something inside the land itself.

00:47:23
And the people inside this town were

00:47:26
safe from this curse. The creatures could not get

00:47:29
in, but neither could anything else.

00:47:32
And they could not leave. If they left,

00:47:36
they would die because the creatures that had been turned

00:47:38
and cursed would attack them.

00:47:41
and then the players sort of went on

00:47:44
a huge like arc of digging down into the tunnel

00:47:47
and finding actually there were giant crystal formations

00:47:50
that were interacting with the ley lines,

00:47:53
creating this protective field where these cursed creatures

00:47:56
could not enter into the town. But it created

00:47:59
a problem for the town because the town couldn't self sustain.

00:48:02
They didn't have enough space to expand farm

00:48:05
or anything like that. And when the player, by the time the

00:48:08
players got there, there was only three people left in the entire

00:48:10
town. And so you know,

00:48:13
it's thinking about the wider and

00:48:16
the. You'got to think of the wide picture, but you've

00:48:19
also got to think of the small picture at the same time and you've got

00:48:22
to balance it out and really, really

00:48:25
think about how these five

00:48:28
sections of society interact with your

00:48:30
world.

00:48:31
>> Clint Scheirer: Yeah, Sperm

00:48:34
man.

00:48:35
It's fantastic because as you were talking several

00:48:38
things came to mind. The questions that you're asking

00:48:41
are fantastic. The how and

00:48:44
the why. Why is this happening?

00:48:47
And then that leads to another why. there's

00:48:50
a strategy that was not, I don't think created by

00:48:53
this guy, but the founder of Toyota. They

00:48:55
had a process called the five whys. And they would

00:48:58
go and ask why is this problem happening?

00:49:01
And usually the surface level problem was not the

00:49:04
actual problem that needed to be

00:49:07
solved. And what you're, what you're doing here is

00:49:10
basically like the 18 y's

00:49:13
that then are all interconnected. You know, when you

00:49:16
were talking about the military I was like, yeah. And

00:49:19
every branch of that military in some way, shape or form has

00:49:22
a ideology that they live by that

00:49:25
might be different than that other military

00:49:28
which then has very interesting role playing and game

00:49:31
facets. If maybe some of the characters are a part of that

00:49:34
military or maybe they have

00:49:37
interacted and had a run in with them and they don't wanna have anything to

00:49:40
do with that faction or that military

00:49:42
body. So this is cool. I'm go goingna be using this

00:49:45
in my games. I'm gonna have

00:49:48
sperm on the brain.

00:49:52
>> Speaker C: Feel free. Well,

00:49:55
as long as you don't tell people that I forcefully put it

00:49:57
there, we'll be okay.

00:49:59
>> Clint Scheirer: Yepah. So I'm just going to

00:50:02
repeat it again for everybody. Gonna repeat it again.

00:50:05
Sperm will get you a world.

00:50:08
Marvelous.

00:50:10
Here's my u, final question. It's the

00:50:12
quintessential podcast question. Whenever you

00:50:15
finish. Where can people find you,

00:50:17
David? Where can they get connected? Where do you want them

00:50:20
to connect with you?

00:50:22
>> Speaker C: So there are loads, so get

00:50:25
pens and papers ready. If you want to find me on

00:50:28
TikTok, it is at the Captain 91.

00:50:31
If you want to find me on Twitch,

00:50:34
it is SS Adventurer, Twitch

00:50:37
TV SSAD

00:50:39
Adventurer. If you want to find me

00:50:42
on YouTube, it's

00:50:43
YouTube.comsadvventureprod

00:50:47
productions.

00:50:50
they are my three Wayne ones, Blue Sky Socials.

00:50:53
I am the Captain 91 and

00:50:56
I think on X I am SS

00:50:59
Adventurer. But don't worry, I'm not on X all that

00:51:01
much.

00:51:02
>> Clint Scheirer: Very good. And we'll have to connect on Blue Sky. I recently

00:51:05
was encouraged by Craig Shipman to get on

00:51:08
Blue Sky. It's a very, very cool way

00:51:11
to interact with the Tabletop community, in a

00:51:14
way that I haven't on any other platform yet.

00:51:16
>> Speaker C: I have heard good things about Blue Sky. I do like the look of

00:51:19
Blue sky and the feel of it.

00:51:20
>> Clint Scheirer: Well, dude, I will make sure that

00:51:23
you are available. cause I'm sure some people are

00:51:26
gonna love what you have, love what you're doing.

00:51:29
Thank you for connecting to me, connecting with me.

00:51:32
Thanks again.

00:51:33
>> Speaker C: Thank you very, very much for having me on board. And

00:51:36
also if you are looking for any professional games

00:51:40
you can find me on Start Playing

00:51:42
games

00:51:43
forward/gm/ss

00:51:46
adventurer. However, you don't just have to come

00:51:49
and find me. There are many, many, many other

00:51:52
great professional GMs on start playing

00:51:55
servers. Feel free to

00:51:57
browse and I hope to see at least

00:52:00
someone come and join us.

00:52:02
>> Clint Scheirer: Thanks again David and be sure to join us next time as

00:52:05
we find the best ways to have great times with friends and

00:52:07
experience amazing stories through Tabletop role playing. My

00:52:10
conversation with David was so good I had to break it into two

00:52:13
episodes. Be on the lookout for David'next episode

00:52:16
which revolves around the question, should you pay for

00:52:19
a professional gm? And dont forget if you want

00:52:22
to design immersive dynamic worlds for your gaming group,

00:52:25
download the ultimate guide for Tabletop Role Playing

00:52:27
World Building Experiences using the

00:52:30
Sperm Framework P Rm M.

00:52:33
Just click on the link in the show notes and youll be bringing your games

00:52:36
to.

00:52:36
>> Clint Scheirer: Life in no time.

00:52:38
>> Clint Scheirer: And may you keep having fun as you continue to make

00:52:40
your claim to game.