My 2 cents on campaign specific talk (Jade Masks, Oracle of Order, etc), it should be in service to a more general GM-advice topic than a subject to itself. Examples you've used so far are great to show practical applications or effects. But if you were to give a full or partial campaign synopsis, I hope that discussion includes lessons learned or applied, like good/poor implementations of planning or improvising or character spotlighting or etc.

A notetaking setup I found useful recently was taking a small journaling notebook and partitioning into sections: party composition, NPCs met, and session happenings toward the front, with spellbook, gear, and backup char sheets toward the very back. Left a few blank pages for most sections, with largest blank page cluster set aside for the session notes section.

I don't remember doing that! 😂😂😂

Dwarves ARE the worst!

This might come up later in the series, but in addition to sharing what each PC's preferred party role is in chargen, it's also nice to share character goals like taming & training a critter or building a stronghold or the like. That way the GM can try to weave that potential in the campaign, or steer the player to an alternative if it doesn't fit the campaign premise (for ex, it's difficult for a PC who wants to run a bed and breakfast when the campaign premise is about globetrotting relic hunters).

On the question of a key character dying mid-campaign, what's the harm in functional immortality? Suppose Fate applies a resurrection spell on the Chosen after some time has passed each time they perish (an hour, a day, ...). Sure, the Chosen may start off brash realizing this power is in play, but perhaps there's a cost: for every resurrection, a person who remembers the Chosen must perish. Or if there's no cost to the magic besides time, try to add other stakes to a failed combat by placing in harm's way the people, places, and treasures the characters hold dear.

Dust of Dryness for the win!

42:44. Very sad indeed! 😢

PC deaths are very stressful as a player. R.I.P. Kormak

One idea to get downtime for party members on the go is to work while dreaming. While asleep, they could astral project into a dream nexus to catch up with their friends' dreamselves, gather intel, train a skill, or use arcane reagents to craft items which appear in reality upon waking. Maybe throw in some risk that the more consecutive days visited, the more chance there is of becoming lost in Dream and never waking (or some other being hijacks their body).

Great advice, thanks Adam!

Another way to sprinkle lore is through describing art - important people and events are bound to crop up in statues, murals, and trinkets. Initially, you could describe what's literally shown ("A hilltop, where knights on horse clash against goblins on warg"), then add context if any PCs have or gain relevant knowledge ("...which you recognize is the Battle of Bugbear Hill, a turning point for the forces of light against the goblin invasion a century ago").

Adam here...I obviously can't spell but we hope you had a very merry Christmas and have a happy New Year!!

Speaking of were-creatures, it took me WAY longer than I want to admit to realize it's Men's Wearhouse, NOT Men's Warehouse 😅😅😂

Attacking the children of prominent families will toughen her son up “As a man?” Who the hell wrote that nonsense?

*promosm*

Speaking of Eric and dice rolls, way back when in that first WOV game Matthew ran, Eric and I were being hunted by a Minotaur band. Matthew gave us a 4% chance to avoid capture. Eric was going to roll and I stepped in and said why you don't you let me take this one...rolled 0 and 4 on the percentile dice!

The aforementioned "Barry Hudek" here, purveyor of pagan role playing:) 1) you could play up the lawfulness of the mercenary's ascendancy. That could be a legit ascendancy, or legal-ish all to complicate paladin/cleric types.. 2) Piers Anthony wrote the first series I read...the Xanth series though. 3) A dragoon is a cavalry unit / mounted infantry *whispers into mic* they didn't throw things.

Shout out to Sam R for the awesome intro graphic!

Ah, 2004!

Future character idea: Wocephus Jhiteleaf

Maybe eventually you guys can have some guests on like the great DM Samuel grant