RPG Review: Hickman's XDM: Extreme Dungeon Mastery (Ep. 194)

Get XDM here:

"Fury of the Dragon's Breath" by Peter Crowley

[TracyHickmancd]

Tracy Hickman here ... coauthor of XDM: Xtreme Dungeon Mastery. Do to this fabulous podcast and overwhelming demand, we have decided to create a new, 2nd Edition version of XDM. We'll be announcing it formally next month.

[flexorlamonticus]

This just changed my life!!! I skimmed through the Kindle version rules, busted out a 20 sided die, and had a successful dungeon session with my 7 year old boy. We've tried to get into d&d together multiple times, but with all the rules, and him being 7, it never clicked. Tonight, everything went really well for the first time!!! He was excited, and talked to the zombie and goblin I threw in his path, and wound up making friends with them and getting a few cool magic items in the bargain! This is a giant life changer for both of us! He is already excited about exploring the dungeon more, and running his own game soon, too!!! You should have seen the excitement in his eyes!!

I am making up a few rules on the spot to add tension, like upping the difficulty for simple divination spells each time he tries it on the same object (I felt this was a fair combination of giving the freedom to try as many times as he wants, but also giving him the thrill of a rising challenge).

I made everything in this session up on the spot, but now that I am confident that I can run a session with basically only one die and some paper and pencil, I'm re-motivated to go draw up some dungeon maps and stock them with monsters .... and stories!!

This is also ironically motivating me to read more rule books, but just for fun ideas (spell ideas, monster ideas, etc.) Now that I know I can mine rule books for ideas instead of "laws", rule books have become fun for me again, too! (A perhaps ironic but awesome side effect of throwing away the obligation to follow each and every rule)

And my son is already talking nonstop about his plans for his map and story. And I do mean nonstop!! He is excited and full of fun ideas for "missions". I'm going to be his first player, some time soon!!

Thank you very much for changing both of our

[lindybeige]

No way to get a print edition? Are there no print-on-demand versions available? I don't like using electric gadgets.

[BRadl]

I watch a ton of D&D channels lately. Yours always gets my hackles up, and makes me want to argue. You remind me of one of my GMs from over 15 years ago.

He was the best GM I ever had, and a really good friend.

I don't always agree with what you say on this channel, but your channel always seems to remind me of root beer, mountain dew, cheap pizza, a tiny dorm room, close friends, and some of the best nights of my life.

Oh and I've had the book for years. It's absolutely brilliant. One of my all time favorites.

[BobWorldBuilder]

Breaking down the game ("the game" because I also believe that every d20 system is basically D&D) into its most simple form is a necessary exercise! Must be nice to have a codified version of those ideas on your shelf, but as others have pointed out, it seems to be out of print. Amazon Hardcover said ~$900. You're holding a valuable relic, Professor!!

[matthewmcguigan]

This video needs more views. XDM is a great resource. Thank you professor for pointing me in this direction. My Rabble Rousing has greatly improved as a result.

[brynnp]

I have been following your tips for over a year. Thanks for the eye opening content, over and over again :)

[blg]

The reason I still play AD&D is because I started playing it with my older sister and her friends. We still have lots of fun with it. We have no reason to buy the same game with slightly altered rules over and over.

[ironconrad]

Empire of the Petal Throne had a mission generator in 1974. It was all there if your eyes could just see.

[EdensukoV]

The comic style of writing makes it a bit hard for me to give it a go, but the overall system seems to be great.

[z]

Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker is a great DMG. It is a system that does a lot of what XDM does. The DM (Master of Ceremonies or MC) rolls no dice and is just setting up scenes for player to work through. The two sections that helped me the most are how you see the player and how you move the world around them. You are told to "Make the world feel real, Make the PC lives not boring and Play to find out what happens." This is a given right...well it gives you some tips to help with that. The prep work in AW is about setting up threats and when players roll bad or are actively dealing with a threat you move them forward. It really brought in the idea of how the world is moving around the players. You do a side quest in town...the bandit leaders moves forward. Most games that try and do open world, it just feels like each new area is just waiting for the characters to start moving before it moves forward. This encourages you to move the world around them creating too much for them to deal with which feels more realistic and...Dramatic.

AW does get some "hate" for sex moves. They system has a relationship mechanic which is just how well do you know another PC and when you have a scene together there is a chance you could you know...it can be ran however you want but it is really just a mechanic to show you made a connection with that PC. That would only be something you deal with if you play the system.

The MC chapter is worth a read IMO.

Also it has spawned the system "powered by the apocalypse" which is all about hacking your favorite themes or stories into a playable RPG.

[fleetcenturion]

I acquired this book the first time I heard you mention it. Excellent read!

[atomickrispies]

I remember that you recommended this book like 2+ years ago, I bought it and my DM'ing has massively improved. I have you to thank for that, keep up the great content!

[josephskiles]

I always love to see the first products that old schoolers like myself started with! You can learn so much about how it shaped both their play styles and the way they approach telling stories.

[wolfetom]

Wow, thanks for this review! I've never heard of this rule set, but it sounds right up my alley. I cut my teeth on the original brown box 1st edition D&D in 1974. Groundbreaking, yes, but seriously lacking in many ways. Later supplements helped, AD&D and 2nd Edition didn't help at all, just made things over-complicated and swampy. I really miss the early days, when as a DM I had to improvise and expand upon the skeleton of rules. But for me improvising didn't mean overlaying ever more complex systems with more and more tables and die rolls. It pretty much came down to a player saying "I want to do X" -- and I would make up a D20 number, taking into consideration character level, class, and relevant stats, and I'd say "roll 14 or better." Much better than having to spend 10 minutes searching the books for the relevant rule and or table and then trying to cross-check it with a complex character sheet filled with innumerable stats and skills. My method allowed for fast resolution, where players might be able to begin and finish a complete story line in one session, about the time it might take a more rules-based group to finish a single encounter. I'm now inspired to look up this book and maybe dip my toe back into the icy black waters of Lake RPG.

[ronwisegamgee]

To me, this kind of gaming philosophy is what makes TTRPG sessions memorable.

My first AD&D session, back in 1996, was one of my most fun sessions, because neither the DM nor I really knew the AD&D rules. When our characters encountered six kobolds, we wanted to see if we can just decapitate them all simultaneously samurai-style. We didn't know about initiative, how to apply THAC0, or how to calculate damage, so the GM made a ruling and had me roll a d20 to see if I rolled under my Strength score. I did, and I killed all of those kobolds instantly, and it was thrilling and evocative!

I suppose that's why games like HeroQuest exist, because that's basically the premise of that game.

[patkelley]

I have the XDM and I believe it was your channel that introduced it to me.

[kevdog]

Very informative review. I do appreciate the fact that this channel approaches the game from a kind of minimalist point of view. The ideas presented here help me to tone down some of the excess in 5E and other games to something more manageable but still satisfying. I like the look of that generator too. Chapter 8 looks like it has some good advice on adding some cinematic flash to your games.

[KenSexe]

I actually bought this book based on PDM's recommendations a while back and never regretted it. The main thing I liked about it (besides the recommendations) is how it amplified the simplicity of their recommendations in their game. It reminded me that games are best if it is simple and flexible, and when you allow the characters to work with you to create the story you are weaving. Could not recommend it enough (although if you are the kind of person who wants everything explicitly explained to you this book may be a little frustrating towards the end).

[kgoblin]

On the feeling like you swallowed the red-pill thing: I got the exact same feeling when I found ICRPG & Runehammer.... and pretty much for the same exact concepts.

On XDM's concentration of putting all the math on the GM: The computer scientist in me has to point out that it's a tradeoff... players doing math isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if your players are better at math than you :D. From a computational standpoint, it's creating a strongly centralized system, which is really efficient in terms of answers only coming from 1 node (in this case, a person), but inefficient in terms of that single node having to do ALL the work & thus subject to bottlenecks. In some groups, having the players do at least part of the math could speed up play.

Plus.... and this gets sort of sweeped under the rug all the time, but is no less true... SOME of us RPG players really like the crunch. We like doing the math, we like dealing with all the mechanical details. Systems & conventions like XDM assume everyone thinks the crunch is a chore, to be excised without mercy. This I might observe is really a pernicious form of gatekeeping by 1 segment of the RPG community to another, & the source of the vitriol for 'story games'. It's also regressing back to the Gygaxian wrong think of only the GM having any clue on how the game actually worked, an idea which fell out of favor for a very, very good reason.

Or, TL;DR: Know yourself & your players - and go for a balance of crunch/streamlining that is fun & fast for both sides of the table.