Nice Job, DM! Feat. Adam DeWees of The Majestic Goose Network

Don’t let imposter syndrome stop you from jumping in. You don’t need a CS degree to get started, just curiosity, persistence, and Google. There are a ton of tutorials you can follow along with and actually build some very fun things along the way. Be okay with being bad at it for a while. That’s part of the process. I would maybe suggest starting out trying to follow along with a video game coding tutorial, because then you can visually see your progress as you improve which is always cool.

When and why did you start DMing, and for what systems?

 

My middle brother and I became obsessed with board games somewhere around 2015. I had heard about Dungeons & Dragons a few times prior to that, but never really knew enough to actually get started with playing it. For Christmas one year my brother received the D&D starter set for Lost Mines of Phandelver. We excitedly opened it up, ready to hop right into it thinking it would be similar to other board games. NOPE! How are we supposed to play this, there isn't even a board!? We ended up shelving it for a few more months because we still were not sure how to play or even what a "Dungeon Master" was. It wasn't until a few months later after watching Stranger Things that I started to get more invested in trying out D&D. I found out about D&D podcasts so I started to binge a ton of those. After listening to The Adventure Zone start Lost Mines of Phandelver, I decided to try my hand as the DM and I ran the starter set for my brother, our wives, and my cousin. From session 1 we were absolutely hooked and it began my obsession with TTRPGs.

Are there any other systems or adventures you’d recommend?

 

I feel like I could take up this entire interview just gassing up different amazing one shots I have played from DMsGuild but I'll try to keep it short so I can mention a few. As for systems, obviously I started with and still play a ton of D&D but I also love Monster of the Week and Shiver. I love the horror elements that these two systems can add to your sessions. For published adventures, Storm King's Thunder was the first full campaign I ran so it will always have a special place in my heart. As for one shots, the first show on the Majestic Goose Network was called One-shot Onslaught and it all started because I was finding so many fun one shots on DMsGuild and we were playing them every week and having a ton of fun so decided to just start recording one night and thus the Majestic Goose Network was born. Of the many, many I've ran and read a few that come to my mind as being super memorable and fun (in no particular order) would be:
- An Ogre and His Cake by Christopher Walz, Emmet Byrne
- Pudding Faire by Will Doyle, Shawn Merwin, Cindy Moore
- The Brewski Jubilee by Kari Jo "Kage" Freudigmann

- Tournament of Tokens by yours truly (sorry for the self plug but you can grab this for free if you want to play arc 1 of Halfway to Heroes)

What is your favorite part of DMing?

 

Honestly, the best part of DMing is when you’re in the middle of a great session and you can see it on your players’ faces. That moment where everyone is locked in, laughing, or sitting on the edge of their seat during a tense scene or a clutch roll that saves the party. It means a lot knowing that people chose to spend their limited free time playing a game you’re running, and that something you created is giving them a genuinely fun, memorable experience. That never stops feeling cool to me, and it’s a big part of why I keep coming back to the DM seat.

On a scale of The Witcher to Monty Python, how silly do your games tend to get?

 

Across all of our games and shows I think that sliding scale would have a pretty far range between both The Witcher and Monty Python but on average, I think we would definitely land closer on the Monty Python side of that scale. Especially when I'm running one shots for One-shot Onslaught, I've always described that show as the junk food of D&D podcasts. It's good for a quick fun treat but on most one shots we're not going to be getting epic and emotional scenes that you would expect from The Witcher but we've definitely had killer bunnies in at least one episode, so that tells you where we're at.

Can you tell us your best memory from the table?

 

One of my best memories goes all the way back to the first full campaign I ever ran: Storm King’s Thunder. We were completely obsessed with D&D at the time, playing 3 to 4 hour sessions, 2 to 4 times a week, and we flew through the entire campaign in just a few months.

 

For the finale, I added some custom scenes to help wrap up each character’s story. I won’t get into the specifics, but it was definitely the most thought and creativity I’d ever poured into a session at that point. By the end, it felt like we landed all the planes in a really satisfying way. Everyone at the table was into it, and I remember feeling incredibly proud. It was a great reminder of how powerful collaborative storytelling can be.

 

For favorite non-combat encounter, it actually happened during a recording of Halfway to Heroes. Without giving too much away, due to some player choices, the group had to split up. Two were trying to distract someone, while the other two broke into an office to find an item.

 

Since we record remotely, I sent the teams into separate breakout rooms and ran the scenes one at a time, since their characters couldn’t communicate. What made it amazing was that the distraction team realized their target was actually being honest and that the others had triggered a silent alarm. So they all started sprinting toward the office while I jumped back into the other room to run the break-in, knowing that chaos was about to collide. It was one of the most fun, cinematic moments I’ve ever had at the (virtual) table.

 

 

Absolutely! I started off as an IT consultant in my first job out of college which taught me a lot of communication skills that help facilitate clearly to my players. As a team leader currently a lot of those skills transfer over as well since a large part of that role is just herding cats and making sure everyone is staying engaged which I think is super useful as a DM.

Herding cats is a very kind way to put it. What advice or house rules can you share with new DMs?

 

The biggest thing I’d tell any new DM or anyone who’s nervous to try is this: you don’t have to be perfect. Your players aren’t there expecting a flawless performance. They’re just excited to spend time playing a TTRPG with their friends. If you forget a lore detail, miss a plot point, or feel like your combat wasn’t as exciting as you planned, I promise your players are still having a great time. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Just focus on having fun, because when you’re having fun, the table is having fun.

Well said! Ok, the people want to know: what’s your dice situation?

 

I’m definitely full-on dice goblin at this point. I’ve got a big craft organizer, probably meant for beads or some other kind of crafting, that’s now fully dedicated to dice. Each little section fits a full 7-piece set perfectly. I’ve got a wide range of colors, materials, and sizes, and I usually associate specific sets with certain characters or campaigns. If I’m playing my illithid twilight domain cleric in our space-themed game, I’m pulling out the dark, starry set. Running a wintery campaign like White as Snow? Then it’s light blue and white dice with little snowflakes. The vibe has to match the character or the mood of the campaign to get the best rolls out of your dice.

Thank you so much for joining us. Final question: tower, tray, or table?

 

I've got a really nice tray from Ironclaw Relics that I like to use. I've never actually used a dice tower before, and anytime I try to just go raw table my dice always end up under a bookshelf or into the abyss. Dice tray every time.