Game Master's Journey

Lex Starwalker

Game Master’s Journey is a discussion podcast for GMs and players of Daggerheart and other tabletop RPGs hosted by Lex Starwalker. This season Lex is exploring the new hit RPG, Daggerheart. The show explores strategies players and GMs can use to enhance the gaming experience for everyone at the table. Lex also discusses the creation of his custom Daggerheart setting, Primordia, providing a valuable worldbuilding resource for DMs creating their own setting.

  1. FEB 10

    Daggerheart: The Fear Full GM | GMJ 335

    Today I talk about Fear in Daggerheart, a metacurrency used by the GM. Some GMs consider metacurrency to be a bad word. So how do the metacurrencies of Hope and Fear work in DH? Are they boons or flaws? Pros or cons? Buffs or debuffs? I’ll unpack it in this episode. I show how in my experience Fear hasn’t limited my creativity or prevented me from doing things I want to do. I discuss how fear is an excellent pacing tool, especially in combat, and how it really helps the GM dial in the difficulty of combat to exactly where they want it to be. Though at first blush Fear may appear to limit your options as GM, I haven’t felt like it does in practice. But it does make me feel like I can be more strategic and tactical, all while experiencing significantly less cognitive load than I’d experience running a similar combat in D&D. Fear also helps the players see that what you’re doing is totally fair and earned by their choices and actions. I also don’t have to feel bad when those consequences are unpleasant to the PCs. Play Daggerheart with Me on Start Playing Games. Sign up for my newsletter. Subscribe via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Check out my sci-fi novel, Critical Balance. Have you read Critical Balance? Please leave a review on Amazon. Follow me on Bluesky. Join my Discord server. Email me. Check out my YouTube channel. Join my Book Club, now on Discord. Check Out my OTHER PODCAST - Lex Out Loud Call the Game Master's Journey voice mail: 951-GMJ-LEX1 (951-465-5391).

    1h 20m
  2. 09/15/2025

    Evil Characters in a Good Aligned Group | GMJ 331

    This week I have a roundtable discussion with players from my D&D campaign, Blood of the Avatars, that recently ended. Brett, Craig, and Sam join me to discuss our experiences with the end of the campaign, both as players and GM. We talk about our experience with having a character who goes evil within a good aligned party. There’s a lot that can go wrong there, but Manny played Lerissa’s descent very well, and all the players handled the situation perfectly. This is as much on the players as the GM, but if you want to know how it can work and come out awesome, our campaign is a great example of it done well. Finally, we talk about the end of the campaign and the final battle. The players give their perceptions on how it all turned out. We talk about what is needed to make the ending of such a long campaign truly satisfying. There are definitely things I could’ve done better, and we discuss that, so as I always say at the top of the show, you can learn from my mistakes, or at least things I could’ve done differently and/or better. Check out my sci-fi novel, Critical Balance. Have you read Critical Balance? Please leave a review on Amazon. Check Out my NEW PODCAST - Lex Out Loud Call the Game Master's Journey voice mail: 951-GMJ-LEX1 (951-465-5391). If you’re a new listener, and you’d like to go back to the beginning, here’s a link to Episode 1. If you’re interested in worldbuilding and/or my D&D campaign setting of Primordia, check out the first worldbuilding episode. You can go to this page to see all the episodes that discuss worldbuilding. Check out my latest D&D supplement, Adventurers of Primordia.

    1h 13m
4.5
out of 5
77 Ratings

About

Game Master’s Journey is a discussion podcast for GMs and players of Daggerheart and other tabletop RPGs hosted by Lex Starwalker. This season Lex is exploring the new hit RPG, Daggerheart. The show explores strategies players and GMs can use to enhance the gaming experience for everyone at the table. Lex also discusses the creation of his custom Daggerheart setting, Primordia, providing a valuable worldbuilding resource for DMs creating their own setting.