No more theory — this one is actual play so you can see exactly how 2D20 works at the table in real time. James Gordon Ross is back, this time as Overseer James, running James and Chuckie through a live Fallout 2D20 demo. Tune in for the conclusion next week, and check out the video version on our Patreon for free.

Chuckie's playing Petey Redwing, vault dweller, level two, first day above ground.

James is playing Westmoreland, his loyal Mr. Handy with a flamethrower and questionable medical skills.

Mission: negotiate a trade agreement with Megaton.

Problem: zero caps, zero water, and a GM who is not going easy on them.

What Happens:

• First roll of the session is a difficulty zero Science check and Petey immediately fails it. Welcome to 2D20.
• How action points, momentum, and assists actually work when you're figuring it out in real time
• Gobtholomew the ghoul bartender, who has no interest in anyone who can't pay
• Shiloh, a caravan guard with a badly set broken arm and a lead on abandoned chems in Deathclaw territory
• Kit, a Schlocket Industries robot who steals Petey's canteen and introduces himself as "Hello, I'm Kit and you are poor"
• A bottle cap mine through a bar window, then a second one, and Westmoreland pulling off a six-success defuse

Also: Weird Candy joins the Patreon at the Gooder tier. Welcome.

Good GMs is a weekly podcast for the people who run the game. New episodes every week on YouTube and all major audio platforms. Bonus content and exclusive Actual Plays on our Patreon.

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James Gordon Ross returns to teach James and Chuckie the 2D20 system (Modiphius), using his 120-session Fallout campaign as the working example. A real toolbox episode for anyone curious about momentum-based dice systems.

✨Pro-Tips✨

• How momentum works: extra successes roll into a shared pool the whole party can spend from, so one hot roller can carry the table
• Threat: the GM's mirror currency, and why players almost never spend it to buy extra dice, even after 120 sessions of chances
• Why even a "boring" roll, like diagnosing an injury, can generate momentum and matters more than it looks on paper
• How contested rolls work versus a flat difficulty, using an arm-wrestling example to break it down
• Chuckie's go-to litmus test for sizing up any new system: how do you do a headshot?
• A quick aside on what different systems call their GM (Keeper, Overseer, Dean, Marshall) and why that title hints at the kind of game you are playing

Also in this one: a Savage Worlds East Texas University one-shot recap, a peek at Daggerheart character creation, and the usual chaos of recording live.

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James and Chuckie talk about one of the most underrated GM skills out there — making NPCs that your players actually give a damn about. Chuckie's got a gift for this stuff. The voices, the dialogue, running full conversations between characters — James has been wanting to pick his brain about it for a while, and this episode is the result.

✨Pro-Tips✨

1. Props, even imaginary ones, are Chuckie's go-to trick for snapping into a character fast. Give your NPC a tie, a pair of glasses, a way they fidget — and suddenly you've got someone to play. He tells the story of Cockroach, from his Vampire: The Masquerade campaign. Sophisticated guy. Always adjusting the tie.
2. You don't have to do the voices! Seriously. If you can't do accents, don't. Tell the table someone has a deep southern drawl and their brain fills it in for free. That's the Welcome to Night Vale trick — the audience's mind canon does the heavy lifting. The catchphrase is a prop too
3. Trust yourself. Start with motivation and let the character build in real time. If you commit to it and you're having fun with it, your players are going to want to come back.

Happy Canada Day buds, get out there and give'er!

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Chuckie is off causing rambunction in Ann Arbor, so host James Austin Currie is joined by returning favourite and expert GM, James Gordon Ross, neither of whom, despite having three names, are serial killers.

In this episode, the bois dive deep into the machinations of the Big Bad. Whether you're running a globe-spanning cosmic horror campaign or a politically charged city-wide game, handling your main villain effectively is what separates a good game from an unforgettable one.

✨Pro-Tips✨

1. Pacing and "Setting the Clock" Balancing urgency without driving your players into paralyzing paranoia is incredibly tough. Ross compares pacing to canoeing: it requires constant, subtle course corrections. If the players are dragging their feet, remind them of the time limit ; if they're rushing past great roleplaying opportunities, ease off the gas.
2. Building a Skin-Crawling Villain The best villains are a dark mirror of your player characters. By letting a campaign "cook" for the first 15 to 20 sessions with low-level monster hunts , a GM can observe what the players truly care about and tailor the ultimate villain to target those specific moral values and vulnerabilities.
3. The "Barely Succeeded" Illusion: Always make your players feel like they just scraped by. Spin the narrative so it feels like their clever tactics completely caught the villain off guard, even if you planned it that way.
4. Poking the Party: Use dream sequences, bizarre realizations of cosmic horror, or eerie, untraceable telegrams to subtly pull your players back onto the main plot without heavy-handed railroading.

One of Us...One of Us....

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Don’t take a quiet player personally. If they're showing up to your table, they want to be there. As a GM, your job isn't to force them into the spotlight, but to figure out why they’re quiet and give them the space to step up when they’re ready. James and Chuckie break down the different flavors of silent players you'll meet at the table:

• The Unsure Player: Common in convention one-shots. They love the idea of the game but are hit with immediate "deer in the headlights" syndrome when looking at a complex character sheet.
• The Tired Player: They might just be exhausted after a brutal work week. Give them some grace.
• The Overshadowed Player: The shy player who tries to speak, but gets drowned out by the louder, more dominant personalities at the table.

1. Instead of asking a quiet player what they want to do, ask them to help build the world. Next time they walk into a shop, ask the quiet player to give you one physical or social description of the NPC behind the counter. It builds instant ownership.
2. Give Them a Purpose: In a campaign setting, weave the player's backstory directly into the main plot. James recalls an ETU campaign where a quiet player completely transformed into a party leader after discovering his character’s family lineage of vampire hunters.
3. Roll First, Describe Second: When a quiet player hits a successful roll, step back and ask them, "In your head, tell us what just happened." It hands them the narrative reins and builds massive confidence.
4. Be the Table Moderator: If you see a player physically shrinking because a louder player cut them off, hold up a hand and say, "Hold on a second, let’s hear what Joe was going to say."
5. And way more yapping on this topic

Support the Show: Check out the Good GMs Patreon to help the guys buy a coffee (and maybe a new, less squeaky chair for Chuckie).

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Did you miss out on the cosmic horror and community vibes at Chaosium Con in Ann Arbor, Michigan? This week on Good GMs, James and Chuckie sit down to recap Chuckie’s weekend at this uniquely intimate tabletop gaming convention. Boasting a comfortable crowd of around 450 attendees, Chaosium Con is the ultimate space to skip the massive stadium crowds of Gen Con and actually rub shoulders with industry legends, swap horror stories with fellow Keepers, and level up your skills as a Game Master.

• Convention Etiquette & Bad GMs: The critical importance of showing up early and knowing your rules. When a neighboring GM flaked out on their players, our friend "Big Stompy Robot" from the Savage Sessions RPG Podcast stepped up to absorb the players and save their hard-earned vacation time.
• Propping Up Your Con Game: Why presentation is everything. Chuckie talks about laminating massive custom maps, while James details packing an entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles session inside pizza boxes (complete with colored eye masks and custom dice trays) to turn a regular game into an unforgettable show.
• The Campfire Tales Leak: A look at Chaosium's upcoming Call of Cthulhu book Campfire Tales (focusing on scouting themes) and how modern safety mechanics stop horror GMs from becoming actual "monsters" when running high-terror games involving younger characters.
• A Brush with Chaosium Royalty: Chuckie shares a hilarious story about running The Haunting, navigating a wagon full of oversized props, and unknowingly talking shop with Chaosium's Vice President and Creative Director, Jeff Richard, and his multi-table-running wife!

✨Pro-Tips✨

• Pick up community-made sourcebooks or publish your own gaming content over on DriveThruRPG.
• Listen to Bridgett Jeffries over at the Miskatonic University Podcast.
• Watch incredible, system-agnostic GM advice from Seth Skorkowsky on YouTube.
• Check out Chuckie's Live Play show, featuring E.E. Morris, our producer, Rainey, and our buddy Big Stompy Robot at the Savage Sessions RPG Podcast
• Organize your TTRPG worlds, NPCs, and hyperlinked lore sheets with Kanka Campaign Manager.
• Download the free Call of Cthulhu starter scenarios mentioned in the show: The Haunting Quickstart and What's in the Cellar?

Join us!

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Welcome back to the Good GMs Podcast! Today, James Currie and Chuckie Tee are talking about the art of "Frankenstein-ing" your tabletop games. We’re looking at those specific rules or mechanics from one system that are just too good not to steal and port over to another. After all, it's your homebrew—might as well make it the game you actually want to play.

✨Pro-Tips✨

Chuckie highlights a recent Vampire session run by our mysterious and crime-positive producer, Rainey Robertson, who handled her first time in the Storyteller's seat with a story she wrote herself.

Discworld (Modiphius): James shares his experience with this wacky, pun-filled system where stats are descriptions and character traits like "always knows where 'lost' is" lead to some very creative loophole-finding.

Honey Heist: A look at Grant Howitt’s notorious one-sheet RPG where you play bears in hats trying to pull off a heist while balancing "Bear" and "Criminal" stats.

Vegas and Vampires: Chuckie catches us up on his modern-day Call of Cthulhu run in Lost in the Lights.

The Art of the Steal: We dive into the specific mechanics we love to "cannibalize":

Luck as a Benny: How to adapt the Call of Cthulhu Luck mechanic into other systems to decide things outside of character skills—like whether a cab will actually show up at 3:00 AM in a bad part of town.

The Pushed Roll: Borrowing from Cthulhu to give players a second chance after a failure—with the caveat that the GM tells you exactly how bad things will get if you fail the second time.

Failing Forward: Using "adversity tokens" from Kids on Bikes or experience systems from Powered by the Apocalypse to ensure that failing a roll still drives the story forward.

Support Mechanics: Making sure every player has a way to "shine" even if they aren't the primary character in a scene—whether it's holding a candle for the lockpicker or providing a social distraction.

Clocks and Progress Bars: Taking a cue from Blades in the Dark and The Quiet Year to give players a visual countdown for everything from reading a massive tome to the growing power of a Big Bad in the East.

Gritty Horror Tweaks: James shares a survival horror hack for Savage Worlds where the entire table shares one finite bowl of "Bennies," creating desperate tension as the resources disappear.

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Welcome to a very special episode of the Good GMs Podcast! Today, we PIVOT TO VIDEO~ And are joined by the legendary founders of 12 to Midnight, Ed Wetterman and Preston DuBose, to talk all things Savage Worlds: East Texas University (ETU).

*Youtube listeners have heard this episode, and can skip ahead to the eleven minute mark to hear an EXCITING ANNOUCEMENT! Good GM's will be hosting our first ever actual play on Patreon, FOR FREE, of Fresh Blood - join now and get notified when it drops! The show is available to all member tiers of the Patreon, but you must join as a member to see it! It's live as of 5/24/2026, go check it out!

Whether you’re a long-time fan of the Pinebox, Texas setting or a new GM looking for the perfect "gateway drug" into modern horror, this episode is packed with insights. We dive deep into the upcoming ETU: Fresh Blood Kickstarter, exploring how this new edition for Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) revamps the college horror experience with graduate school options, refined ritual magic, and brand-new plot point campaigns.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Origins of 12 to Midnight: Revisit the 2003 release of Last Rites of the Black Guard and how it all began.
• Fresh Blood Details: Why this is a "new game" with all-new plot points, Savage Tales, and monsters.
• Rituals & High Strangeness: How the magic system has been refined and why technology and magic definitely don't mix.
• GM Wisdom: Ed and Preston share their top tips for building a shared, communal storytelling world and keeping the "hook" alive between adventures.
• Chickens in the Mist: The notorious TPK adventure returns as a graphic novel.

Support the Show & Our Guests!

🎓 Back the Kickstarter! Don't miss out on East Texas University: Fresh Blood! Enroll at your own risk and grab those early bird rewards. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/545820095/east-texas-university-fresh-blood-savage-worlds

🌐 Visit 12 to Midnight: Explore the cosmology of Pinebox, check out the latest blog posts, and find classic adventures like The Beast Within and the Last Rites of the Black Guard. https://12toMidnight.com

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