What does it take to be interesting enough for people to brave the New York City subway to come and join you on a cold, wet, Tuesday night? Every Tuesday night? For two years?

In this episode, Adam Morgan is joined by Jeffrey Robb, professional Dungeon Master, actor, and educator, who runs paid games of Dungeons and Dragons up to eleven times a week across the five boroughs of New York. And what starts as a masterclass in epic, layered storytelling turns into something rather different. Because as Jeffrey explains, a great dungeon master isn't in fact there to tell an epic story; they're there to make it possible for a disparate group of people –– with different motivations, different expectations, different levels of commitment –– to create an epic story for themselves.

There's a lot here for anyone trying to hold a room. Jeffrey and Adam explore:

The importance of choices in storytelling experiences: why giving people agency over the narrative creates ownership (- and why the best choices always leave room for a secret third option)
Why it’s key to see the experience as ‘carefully managed chaos’: how the most inventive moments come from building a system flexible enough to be surprised by its own players
Where you do and don’t want surprise , and why it has to work in two very different ways here
The lessons Jeffrey learned from superhero comics and Shakespearean drama that he brings to the experiences he curates
The primacy of trust, and what a "Session Zero" can teach anyone who needs to unlock a group's imagination fast
What it means for good drama asks a question of its audience

Along the way, there's a squeaky goblin, why it’s unexpectedly dull to play a villain, and what increasing consumer expectations mean in D&D: why so many people now seem to want a burned village to avenge…

–

Let's Make This More Interesting is a podcast from eatbigfish: the strategic consultancy that helps ambitious Challengers to grow.

Follow Adam on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-morgan-3a473a/

Thanks to our editor Ruth and our producer Rachael.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.