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[Patreon Exclusive] Good Morning, Game Masters! Episode 3 (Patreon)

Published:
2026-10-06 11:00:00
Edited:
2026-10-06 17:24:20
Imported:
2026-10

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Content

Today on Good Morning, Game Masters, we have a frankly irresponsible concentration of GM power: Brennan, Lou, and Aabria talking about the mastery behind mastering. Enjoy!

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Comments

Hadar

The perfect timing and length for my morning commute. GM, indeed!

Ashe

So so good to hear Aabria again, missed her so much on here and at CR

Jenn with two Ns

Great timing. I GMed my first episode of my first campaign yesterday. I used tons of tips and tricks from all three of these incredible storytellers

Alyssa

“However crazy you think you are, I’m 100 times crazier” really nails working with kids/being a parent in a really succinct way

Sven the Scribe

The sports analogy escaped her! She's rusty! She's shown weakness! Get her (love and affection)!

Alyssa

And I do feel like listening to GM GM should count as some sort of teacher Professional Development hours…🧑‍🏫

Cameron Barrett

Oh man, as a former shithead 15 year old, I REALLY want to hear from the fridge kid now as an adult

L J

GM tips plus also parent/counselor/nanny tips!

L J

I had an especially bad commute this morning but it was absolutely no big deal because I had downloaded this right before heading out the door. What a lovely conversation between friends. I liked Lou bringing the somewhat-newbie side of things to the conversation too. And welcome back Aabria!

Lexy Lou Who

AABRIA! We’ve missed you💕💕

Ana Mavredakis

This episode is such a master class of having an epiphany with your friends and just leaning into it. I loved it so much.

sleepysappie

Lou Wilson on GM GM... HUUUGE!!!! Crazy to think how to love in the stew really brings out the player agency over time... :') Also Aabria Aabria I've missed herrr!!!!! I desperately wanna know if Aabria was in World Turner what her PC would have been... ;-;

Cameron Barrett

Thank you, now I have to blast Radioactive at max volume until I get the image of teddybear cockfights out of my head. Thanks Brennan

Kroowik

Grateful for these talks as a newer GM! 🙏🏻 great stuff guys

brokenallbroken

Welcome back, Aabria! My GMing dread is named Bob.

M.B.R

What an amazing discussion. Describing the rush role playing games is so difficult because it’s so ethereal. They managed to articulate so clearly what makes “vibes” turn into magic. I wanted to share a quote from the book the artist way that I was reminded of for most of the episode Art is born in attention. Its midwife is detail.

mumbo

I love Brennan’s camp councillor stories. It’s always a gut buster, full of earnest wisdom, or both.

Audge

As a teacher, I have never so heartedly approved of putting a child in timeout. To be fair the favorite thing that my grandmother ever did was walk up to a disrespectful boy and say “you are not too big for me to fold you like a long chair and put you in the trashcan.”

Ewizabeth Herd

The concept of the invisible marker where the level of detail in your imagined world tips it into the richness needed to give players true agency (now known as “the acanthus line”) is so perfect. And it really is the difference in why some games really feel exciting and full of real stakes and emotional payoffs while others are just sort of jokes and beats.

Carrie Mook Bridgman

I'm glad Brennan answered the question from the player's chair, mentioning Evan Kelmp's visit to the nurse's office.

Cole Sarar

Oh my goodness, this is so interesting- I was part of a party who was having avoidance issues. One of the players (not their character) was in an emotional state that made him want to hunker down and be safe, and was *so vocal*. He moved us all out of the city in which things were being planned, and kept railroading the other players into building a bunker when we were supposed to be thwarting the baddies. Our GM had things Just Keep Happening, and eventually we had to shit or get off the pot. I was ostensibly playing a very quiet not leader type, and had to make him stop listening to our party's "leader". I have a lot of compassion for the other player- his real life was falling apart, but whooof.

Jacki G

Not the Crit Role mention

Brandon Carbaugh

One time I had a player at my table literally get in a car and drive out of the main town, exactly as Brennan describes, and completely resist repeated attempts to spark any internal or external conflict every time the spotlight came around to them, as an escalating bit. They were just like "Yeah I just get in the car and drive west. I go the speed limit. I don't talk to anybody at the gas station. I just drive. Nothing happens, I just keep driving as far as I can go." At a certain point I had to be like, "Hey you know the matrix runs out eventually, right? There's no easter eggs out here."

Jadeous

I love the longer conversation! Very in depth and some great perspectives :)

Alyssa

Brennan and Lou introducing the term “butt rock” to Aabria feels like a great parallel to Aabria and Erika introducing all the horrors of the internet to Brennan and Lou 🎶🎶🎶🎤

Ryan Higgins

I wonder if one of our GMs would put killing a god in front of their players?

Obsequious Diphthong

Seriously. I was listening to this on my way to an interview for a teaching position and was trying to figure out how much was applicable in a classroom.

solidork

Great conversation. I think one area where its more common to have that 'minimum context' to let your choices feel grounded is in interactions within the party; you've got whatever sessions you've already played, out of character conversations and you often know the other player to some degree and can draw on that. I think getting that level of context can feel daunting, but doing it on a smaller scale can be pretty effective.

The Wizard Subjudice

I want to be able to claim this and other MANY dnd related expenses on the fact I provide some (minimal, but hopefully changing that!) DM services at several public libraries within my council area 😂

Jill K.

Baby side plot? Umm excuse me, Lou Wilson?! Was Abigail supposed to be pregnant?!

fearne

so incredibly nice to hear aabria's voice again 💚

Jordan

No one is mentioning “baby side plot.” BABY SIDE PLOT?!! I PRAY we get to hear about that at some point

The Wizard Subjudice

Also me af, still in the role of library DM 😂 "Oh, we playin' games? THIS IS MY LAIR, WHICH MEANS I GET LAIR ACTIONS" (my lair actions are my colleagues 'yes and...'ing my Gentle Mockery/ ribbing cantrip 😂, giving me +5 that stacks with proficiency and expertise 😉) This got me a tiny dragon prop as a gift, and I do in fact, have a trinket hoard.

The Wizard Subjudice

I'd love to hear more on the "false adversarial DM" point at 31:00. I downright HATE true adversarial DMs and when I DM for my adult friends, I always open a new campaign with "yo, we don't do true adversarial bullshit here. I'm on your team, I just have all the bad guys in my haversack and I gotta throw them at you b/c that's a 3rd of why we're here," but I really struggle with that line between false and true adversarial DMing. Maybe this is better for a Reddit thread, iunno, but I'd love any insight that anyone has into how they manage it, bc I'm not interested in a "me, DM vs Everyone at this table"

Justin M

So glad to have Aabria back and come out swinging with such an engaging talk! Everyone’s thoughts on agency across the table really resonated especially and I can’t wait to get back in the GM seat. Also a fully belly laugh for my hometown of Rancho Cucamonga mentioned. Great stuff, gang!

Tania Jacquier

Could not stop smiling listening to this You guys are amazing

Fxd Gear Queer

Now I want so see Aabria and Murph at each other's table so bad. Actually crazy it hasn't happened yet! (Hoping someone will correct me)

Kara

This episode is one of the most phenomenal seminars of complex thought I’ve ever listened to!!

Alyssa

I think just on NADDPOD D&D court, but not like playing

Mike Hamrick

I need to know if the plot rejection Brennan is talking about is Wic's sermon and the subsequent... Drama... At the hallowed round...

Muadwho

"Agency, Investment and Imagination Dragons."

Jonathan Larson

"You don't spend enough time with Murph" was perfect, because I only recognized the phrase because of NADDPOD 😄

Spazzy McGee

INJECT THIS DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS

frigginhugeair

Their later discussion about player agency resonates with what I love about WBN, which also intersects with my own line of work as a qualitative researcher. They play their characters like grounded theory researchers do research: I know my positionality to the best of my ability at the start of a project, which impacts how I recursively and iteratively collect and interpret data about this slice of the world. And, through that process, I build a substantive understanding of it to the best of my capabilities and opportunities. These grounded truths carry the potential to challenge and change me as much as change the grounded truths within which I now am more deeply intertwined. Straight up delicious play within the intersection of the structure-agency experience and our human capacity and will to make meaning within that experience.

Leo Burn'd

I'm not NOT saying it's the world building. But with WWW I think another thing ended up being more (at least as) important, which is The Children's Adventure. A deep lore can be really alienating I find, because it makes learning to read and interact with the world work. Some people might enjoy that work, but it tends to take some time and effort to pay off. In the Children's Adventure, you had the luxury of seeing the world through a lense of wonder. There was little expectation of expertise in interacting with it. We could get a taste of the rules of this place the same way a child would. Then we had a breaking point, and an implied, somewhat linear path for each of the PCs into early adulthood, which gave them a very clear sense of character by the time the actual campaign started. You didn't write a backstory, you experienced it. As a listener at least, that's what made the magic work especially well for me. The world building made the campaign keep delivering for sure, but without the Children's Adventure, I don't think it would have hit the same.

thedisinfectant

Listening to GMs talk about railroading while on an actual train is…. quite fun 😆

Austin Tanner

Its nice to have a GM/play theory show thats not just basic 101 or even 301 stuff, hearing people share and talk and evaluate thoughts ive batted at and missed on my own is really rewarding to hear, thanks for really digging in at the point you are at. I want inside baseball about inside a baseball.

Lojaan

Fkn brilliant chat. Awesome.

CT

My kingdom for an animatic of the Tale of Fridge King from DeepBlueInk

Brianne Hughes

When you imagine too many dragons and the I-5 goes radioactive...

Jodin

"What's the dude from College Humor doing here?" Kid, do you have any idea how lucky you are that he IS? Kids these days--well those past--I swear. 😅

The King of House Cabraescuro

On player agency, we had a goblin npc that kept giving us hints through the area. Found out she betrayed us and I decided to take her out. My chars backstory SURROUNDED betrayal. So I took the shot, rolled through the obstacles and killed her. My gm and her gf got SO MAD (both metagamed like crazy) the game functionally ended.

M.B.R

I was so curious which game he was referring to if it was CR or D20

Matthew

Ok. That character goes off and has a life. Now go make a character that wants to be in this campaign.

Matthew

Hot take: Too much back story is bad. If you handcuff your character to too many past events you're making fewer decisions at the table and instead you're inputting data into the backstory algorithm to see what reaction it produces. You're front-loading your creativity and giving up some flexibility and ability to surprise yourself in the moment.

Carrie Mook Bridgman

Was that the "non-WBN game" where the players refused the plot? What happened?

Carrie Mook Bridgman

I can see that if you'd killed another PC, but this sounds ridiculous.

Carrie Mook Bridgman

I have actually played D&D only once and had this exact problem.

David Morales Boroff

This slapped. Concerning Brennan’s revelation about world-building being the pre-requisite for player agency, I had the thought that, as usual, the answer lies in Sondheim. “More life.”

The King of House Cabraescuro

Turned into a total meltdown. Half the party ended up bailing because of it and then they broke up.

Jill K.

Right?! Is Abigail acting so weird because she’s trying to tell Cullen she’s pregnant?!

Jacki G

I am sure there are numerous instances, but that was what it sounded like to me! He is DMing for Critical Role's fourth campaign (and doing a fantastic job of it, IMO- that was actually how I found WBN) and in a recent episode a player was meant to do one thing in order to stay under cover as part of the plot, and they did something which made the faction angry and basically made it impossible for them to continue that plot line with pretty serious repercussions.

Jacki G

Totally thought it was Wic!

Elizabeth Horn

In a moment that probably went too far but was nonetheless one of my favourites of high school, my dear 65-year-old English teacher hoisted an 18-year-old bully by the collar with one hand, and his desk and workbook with the other hand, and gracefully bowled them one after another out of the classroom.

Melina

Love how many people are resonating with these takes outside of dming but for teaching, nannying, parenting etc, completely agree, such an insightful discussion 🥰 At an internship as a student teacher I made a stupid choice that led the class into chaos and I had to take it back and basically be the authoritative teacher I don't want to be to get some form of control back and the other teacher intern said to me: "well if you don't want to be authoritative you really picked the wrong job" when I said that. Pissed me off so much and found it very validating to have Brennan articulate my thoughts on what 'authority' mostly comes down to vs being the arbiter of rules and knowing the larger picture that I have to / want to be as a teacher.

Cristina

The imagine dragons edited sign off made me CACKLE

Jordan Tompkins

As josh Johnson says, adults are just children who survived!

hellmonk114

I thought they were really gonna play a couple of chords from Radioactive by Imagine dragons at the end there.

Josh O'Hare (edited)

Comment edits

2026-10-14 06:00 I am a GM who plays the faux-adversary. I think a big part of it is that it's kind of a knob that you turn up and down to build tension. I am at my most "adversarial" leading up to a boss battle, or when introducing a villain. There's a lot of "Hey, I'm not here to fuck around. He's not either.", and "What did you think I was hear to do? Give you an easy time?" in the lead up to a fight. But during the fight, I'm on their side: encouraging them, being upfront if they're about make a mistake based on a misunderstanding or misinterpretation, cheering alongside them when they crit or win, and then calling out specific highlight moments for them. TL;DR: Crank it up before the fight, turn it down during, turn it off after.
2026-10-13 10:44 I am a GM who plays the faux-adversary. I think a big part of it is that it's kind of a knob that you turn up and down to build tension. I am at my most "adversarial" leading up to a boss battle, or when introducing a villain. There's a lot of "Hey, I'm not here to fuck around. He's not either.", and "What did you think I was here to do? Give you an easy time?" in the lead up to a fight. But during the fight, I'm on their side: encouraging them, being upfront if they're about make a mistake based on a misunderstanding or misinterpretation, cheering alongside them when they crit or win, and then calling out specific highlight moments for them. TL;DR: Crank it up before the fight, turn it down during, turn it off after.

I am a GM who plays the faux-adversary. I think a big part of it is that it's kind of a knob that you turn up and down to build tension. I am at my most "adversarial" leading up to a boss battle, or when introducing a villain. There's a lot of "Hey, I'm not here to fuck around. He's not either.", and "What did you think I was here to do? Give you an easy time?" in the lead up to a fight. But during the fight, I'm on their side: encouraging them, being upfront if they're about make a mistake based on a misunderstanding or misinterpretation, cheering alongside them when they crit or win, and then calling out specific highlight moments for them. TL;DR: Crank it up before the fight, turn it down during, turn it off after.

The Wizard Subjudice

This is really helpful insight, thank you for sharing 🙏🏻

Alexander L Dye

This is actually so good to listen to, I actively feel I have things to add to my own campaign and understand my players better by just listening.

Liv C

Im a newer GM and this AAAAAAAAA was so good. My homebrew really is a labor of love and it was so validating to hear that being such an important part of the campaign and player experience. BRB gonna go do more worldbuilding so my players can do more cool shit

Alex Jenkins

diabolical. simply diabolical sound design in the pre-outro