Jared: First off, tell us all a little about yourselves Tony, Chris, and Dave.
Tony: I have always been a gamer. Before I started with D&D there were arcades and the good old basic Nintendo. Some of which had such bad graphics they required as much, if not more, imagination than when you’re playing any given tabletop game.
Dave: I’ve lived a lot of lives before and during my time traveling with the Wise DMs. For a little over a decade, I was in the music business, touring around in a van as a drummer in a rock and roll band called The Cryptkeeper Five (check ‘em out!) I then returned to the physical therapy world where I’ve been treating patients for almost 15 years and, most recently, became a licensed Massage Therapist to strike out on my own as a Myofascial Release therapist. All the while, pursuing my love of tabletop gaming!
Chris: I’m a happily married father of two who spends his days as Director of Application Development for Foundation Risk Partners and his nights as one of the 3 Wise DMs and the lead guitarist in the band, Groovepocket. I’ve loved gaming since I was a kid, when I would spend countless hours with the DMG and some graph paper building castles and keeps. Now, I get to share my passion and experiences with others, both at the table and on the podcast.
Jared: Next, tell us about the beginning of 3 Wise DMs.
Tony: Thorin, our previous leader, wanted to start a podcast because he wanted to spend his time doing something he loved. I had known him for years at that point but working on 3WD gave me the opportunity to log a lot of hours within him before he unexpectedly passed away.
Dave: That’s exactly what happened. Thorin had an idea for a D&D advice podcast and asked if I’d like to be a part of it. We talked about D&D all the time already, so why not record it? We met for coffee, where I first met Tony and Thorin presented his idea. Coffee turned into dinner down the street at a little Italian place, which turned into a night of laughs and here we are. It’s not hyperbole to say that 3 Wise DMs is all because of Thor.
Jared: When and how did you get started in tabletop games?
Tony: Back in 1988 I ran my first adventure using the Red Box system. Which was also one of the shortest sessions in history because I killed my players off by accident in the second room. Since then I have both played and run games in nearly all editions of D&D, as well as Palladium, Rifts and Marvel’s FASERIP system. Despite all of this, I still keep my day job.
Dave: When I was growing up, Chris started playing Basic and AD&D with older friends down the street. I would see the books – the old PHB with Ringlerun on the cover, the early Monster Manual, Keep on the Borderlands, Against the Giants… I became entranced by the artwork first. So when I read Art and Arcana, it was a trip down Memory Lane. We played a little of Basic and Advanced, as well as old TSR games like Marvel Super Heroes, Top Secret, Star Frontiers, and Car Wars, but most of what it was as a young kid was “lonely fun”… making characters, reading the books, looking at the artwork.
Chris: I was first exposed to D&D back in the mid-80’s by my friend’s sister’s boyfriend. We spent a ton of time in their basement exploring dungeons and getting killed. I also dabbled in Star Frontiers and Top Secret during that time. I drifted away for a while into video games and life stuff, but then returned to TTRPGs years later with Pathfinder and D&D 5e.
Jared: What made you want to make content specifically for tabletop games?
Tony: When I was learning the ropes, I was on my own. So it’s nice to be able to help out new DMs or even seasoned ones. Not to mention isn’t it every GM or DMs dream to have to produce gaming content?
Dave: TTRPGs are what we play the most. Videogaming and the like never hooked me quite like tabletop. So we talk about what we know, or think we know! In all seriousness though, while there’s a ton of RPG content out there, there’s not a lot of advice shows that make it feel like you’re in a conversation with 3 other friends who are running into the same problems, so 3WD fills that gap between people like Matt Colville and Mike Shea.
Chris: TTRPGs, and D&D in particular, occupy a special place. There are few other games that elicit such powerful emotions and ideas or encourage experimentation with rules and mechanics. As a result, the TTRPG community is full of amazing user-generated content, and it’s an honor to be able to contribute to that.
Jared: Where did the name 3 Wise DMs come from?
Tony: Thorin picked it because he saw the three of us being somewhere between the 3 wise men of gaming and the 3 Stooges.
Jared: What can people expect coming into 3 Wise DMs website/social media, etc.
Tony: We are looking to expand into the realm of YouTube while hopefully not getting sued for any of the art or music we use.
Dave: A lot of great content, first and foremost, as well as a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor. We’ve got a nice little community starting in the 3WD-verse, and we’re open to everyone. We love our memes, but we also love providing real, actionable advice for DMs who run into problems. Our content comes from listener questions about things they’re dealing with right now at the table as well as things we run into in our rotating weekly gaming sessions. This is a far cry from a lot of the armchair pontification that is out there.
Chris: 3 regular guys who have probably had the same problems you’ve had running TTRPGs and love to sit around the table and discuss ways to make our games better. We strive to pick our podcast subjects based on our listener’s questions, because oftentimes the really important answers are to real-world problems.
Jared: What do you see as the future of 3 Wise DMs? Goals?
Tony: Gencon baby !
Dave: Gencon would be next level, for sure. As Tony said, we’re starting to scale up into YouTube. Right now, we just have the newer episodes up from our return onwards to start to bait the hook. We’re looking to get into video and multimedia stuff, but want to always keep it within the 3WD mission – real advice from real DMs who are dealing with the same stuff. They’re plenty of live-play and review channels for D&D, but we want to bring the feel of a couple friends talking it out to a larger audience.
Chris: I’d love to get to a point where 3 Wise DMs is the place where gamers from around the world who are looking for real, simple advice on how to run their TTRPGs better go. Organic brand recognition. That, and Gencon…
Jared: What do you have coming up in projects?
Tony: We have a project where we are putting together a campaign world we have collectively been homebrewing over the years called the Further. From where we would like to produce both a source book and modules so everyone can see what we have been cooking for over the years.
Dave: Yeah, like Tony said, we’re starting to get more material together to start publishing adventures, etc. We’re looking into starting a Patreon for exclusive material as well, things like our Journey System, which enhances hexcrawl adventures, and some other fun ideas that we’re cooking up.
Jared: Anything else you would like to add?
Dave: We have been really blown away by the support we’ve received in the TTRPG community. It was that support and encouragement that convinced Tony and I to continue on after Thorin passed in 2023. It’s been great fun being a part of the conversation and we look forward to more!
Find the 3 Wise DMS at the following:
Website and Podcast: https://3wisedms.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/3WiseDMs
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