October Patreon Q&A Thread for Upcoming Videos

Is this thread still active for the Talk Show is is there one for November?

Mike, The PHB, DMG and MM are the core books. We also have settings books, and adventure books. Then we have books like Tasha's, Xanathar's, Volo, Mordenkaunen, and now Fizban's. Question: Of these last group of five which do you see having the biggest impact on the game?

long time fan first time caller. Sunday is Halloween, in keeping with that theme I would like to ask a question about fear. Q: A risk can be a scary thing and running a Kickstart comes with a certain amount of risk. Has their been any moments, especially when you first started, that made you want to run for the hills? If so how were you able to overcome?

Hi again Mike, my question is: How great is it that with the new Ruby Weave Gem from Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, any spellcaster with access to a 6th level spell slot can cast Heroes’ Feast every day with no need for a gem-encrusted bowl? 😄🙃 (sorry, couldn’t resist) https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/ruby-weave-gem

Hi Mike, I’ve run a 5 year campaign but only a couple one-shot adventures. What do you recommend in terms of getting the party to show up as a team instead of a random bunch of individuals who happen to be in the same place? Does that even matter for a one-shot? I know for campaigns it’s pretty important and that’s what session zero is for; is there a condensed version for one-shots, or should I just not worry about it? I found this article but it was pretty 4e-focused. 😄 https://slyflourish.com/tips_for_running_oneshot_games.html

Hi Mike, I love your relics concept and generators, but I’ve found that my players tend to hoard one-use magic items like non-healing potions and relics “just in case”, or they acquire so many that they get tossed in the bag of holding never to be thought of again. Do you have any advice for incentivizing the party to actually use them? It seems like you give out at least one per week; do you find your players usually use most of them?

Q for your talkshow or short video: What motivational advice would you give a DM five minutes before their game starts? What's your pep talk?

Hey Mike! It’s been a while since you’ve done one of your Kickstarter spotlights. There’s the big Level Up kickstarter, as well as the pretty maps from Atlas one. That’s in addition to the big WotC drop this month. Are you going to invest in any of those?

Hi Mike, me and my friends planned a RPG-weekend. Rented a house in the woods, fireplace, whiskey and probably a lot of bad humor :). Also: many hours of d&d. We’re in a long running campaign where we started with Dragon Heist and are now in a story that links Waterdeep with mind flayers in lower levels of DOTMM. So my question is: do you have any tips to prepare for this ‘marathon’? Should I prepare more or maybe less than for a regular evening session? Thanks!

What books would you recommend on the subject of dungeon mastering. You mention "Your Best Game Ever" a lot, but I'm wondering what else I could read up on.

Hey Mike, how would you deal with a TPK in the final battle / boss fight of a campaign?

I've found using your Secrets & Clues with Notion very helpful in organising my thoughts for a session. But what do you use to keep track of longer term developments like Fronts?

Hi Mike, I don't have an issue running scenarios vs antagonists with motivations and intelligence, but do you have any tips for designing and running ones that feature natural hazards or disasters, like earthquakes, storms, floods or fires? Any system.

Hi Mike. Thanks for answering my last question on NPCs! Not sure exactly how to phrase this as a question so maybe I have kind of a philosophical/ overall approach question. We all want to improve, but is there a point where watching, reading and online chatting just becomes counterproductive? Is there just too much advice — even good advice — to keep track of? I think one of the Lazy DM’s strengths is it’s relative simplicity. Can you offer any advice on how to sift through all the good stuff out there and identify a few good things to actually do? I fear there’s a risk becoming the DM equivalent of those people who obsess about fine tuning their elaborate todo lists instead of, you know, doing stuff. Your recent “pick three things” video kind brought this into focus for me. It was simple, actionable and clear. I’d love to be able to have a list of 10 or so tips like this I could keep coming back to.

Hey my pal, Mike! I heard the last talkshow about "you cant trust in a company" and i think you are right. The WoTC hold the release of the fully transalated/edited hungarian language PHB since a year, bc they business issues with the Gale Force 9...it's very disappointing to our DnD fan base. They didnt answer the hungarian publisher's calls or emails, so when the official Dungeons & Dragons Facebook page show the release of the German, French, Italian, and Spanish verson we got feel ourself awefull (thats are major markets ofc than our little country) and we comment a lot of #releasetheHungarianPHB stuff to that post. I know, brake down the language barrier could make our hungarian DnD community better, the last (and the first) released edition was the 3nd loooong years before...I dont know honestly why i wrote this, perhaps bc i think you have the same passion for the D&D like many of us in our country. Thanks for you time and keep fight the good fight - like us; your pal, Gabe PS: #releasetheHungarianPHB

Does underwater combat (or any alternate environment) affect the deadly encounter calculation? Most of the characters in my current campaign do not have swim speeds, therefore they will be at disadvantage in combat. Wouldn't that make the threat more deadly?

I love adapting published adventures from other game systems and genres to D&D (meaning an adventure written for Sci-Fi that I translate into D&D's High Fantasy and play in 5E). I have run a Star Wars campaign this way, a Cyberpunk game in Sharn, etc. Do you have any thoughts or best practices in running different genres/themes in D&D to make them capture the gritty noir of Eberron, or the epic science fantasy of Star Wars to make each campaign feel different?

Roleplay pillar! I believe the lazy DM way covers well the other pillars, the tips helped me already with these. Roleplay pillar is hard, for example I am focusing on the negotiation side of it: any tips for keep the action and tension high even during a negotiation, please? How to avoid going into circles and spend too long for this pillar, while giving the chance to the players who want to play into it to have fun?

Mike, I'm getting ready to run Dragon of Icespire Peak as a one-on-one game with my 10 year old son. I have run plenty of campaigns but this is my first solo adventure so I am grateful for all of the one-on-one and Dragon of Icespire Peak content you have created. I was particularly interested in the articles you wrote on balancing combat in a one-on-one campaign. My son really wants to play a bard. Since this is his first game I want to encourage him to build the character he wants. But I am nervous that his character will have a tough time in combat. I was wondering if you have any additional advice for running combat for character(s) that are not combat focused.

Hello, Mike! When coming up with a campaign's Six Truths, what sort of facts should I look for? Judging by the examples in Return of the Lazy DM, it looks like "Facts about Locations" should be high on that list. But I'd love to hear more about what methods or advice you have for deciding which traits make for the best Campaign Truths.

Greetings Mike! Thanks for answering one of my questions about lore continuity in the realms in a previous show. Here is a new question: In your opinion, if running milestone leveling, is there a right number of sessions after which the characters should increase in level? My sessions are usually shorter, with one game having 2 to 2.5 hour sessions and the other usually 3 hours. Both groups are fairly RP heavy, so it sometimes takes them longer to get through content.

Hey Mike! The chase rules in 5E aren't the best, and they tend to lead to clunky and boring scenes rather than, you know, the fun action of a chase scene. Have you changed how you run chases, and if so, what is your method to keep the action quick, fun, and player-focused? Thank you!

You mentioned independent creators having other avenues outside of DMsGuild in a previous show. Could you elaborate more on what those are or how you might suggest someone start publishing their own stuff?

I'm running Blades in the Dark for the first time (and might have the chance to run Numenera soon) and I've been tweaking the eight steps from Return of the Lazy DM to work with the new system(s). I'm curious how you change your approach to game prep when working with non-D&D systems.

Question: With many products I have a tendency only trust the products the main company makes. But obviously WotC’s adventures haven’t been great. Without knowing all the different authors on DMguild or other locations, how does one learn which 3rd party products are worth looking at?

(No question, but it relates it to the Lazy D&D Talk Show.) When I was a little kid in the early 80s, I was lucky to have an Atari 2600, and even luckier to have a subscription to Atari Age, the magazine. The magazine came out either once every two months or quarterly, I can’t remember. But I do recall that, even though I didn’t pay attention to calendars, I could always tell when it was about time for the next issue to show up. So every day, I would dutifully the check the mailbox to see if it arrived. I would sometimes even go outside and walk down my street to see if the mail truck was on the neighborhood. It wouldn’t come that day, so I would check the next day. Each day was a bust, but the anticipation would grow each time, because I knew it was coming soon. And then, finally, it arrived and I was the happiest kid on my block. The point of this anecdote is that, at 50 years old, I don’t experience that kind of anticipation and rush of pleasure anymore, not for movies, not for music, not for anything, generally. Except the Lazy D&D Talk Show. When a new episode shows up on my YouTube subscription page on Monday, I feel like that kid again. Not just because of the anticipation and pleasure, but also because the Talk Show, for me, feels less like a talk show, and less like a podcast, than a magazine, with 7-8 articles a week, that just happen to be read aloud by the author. And even better, I’ve one-upped my old self because I know exactly when the show is going to appear! So, Mike, thank you again for making the Lazy D&D Talk Show each week. It’s a fantastic resource and just an absolute delight to listen to.

What types of encounters work best for a session 1?

I find the idea of secrets so powerful because it got me away from trying to railroad lore into the game. Can you maybe give some examples of how and when you

Hi Mike, could you talk a bit about what your in-person-games setup at the table looks like? Do you use a DM screen? A physical notebook? Electronic devices? A dry-erase mat? Do you use miniatures? If so - do you move them around or your players? Are you rolling dice openly?

Hi Mike, do you have any advice on running downtime in a long running adventure? I find it hard to decide when downtime starts and when to end. It feels very "gamey" in a normally pretty narrative game.

Do you have any advice on lazy character creation for players?

What do you think of changing up the Copper>Silver>Gold>Platinum for coins in the game? I did it with my players by discussing it in the session zero rules changes by making it silver>platinum at 100 instead of the 10 base. I did that and haven't looked back since.

Hello! Do you have any advice on running/preparing published adventure dungeons? How do you manage to keep all the information in your head as you run while also paying attention to players? Are there any Lazy Steps of Dungeon prep?

Hello, Mike! Recently you've talked about wanting to run a more lighthearted campaign for a change. Do you have any tips for making a D&D adventure feel more lighthearted? How does one run a campaign without the fate of the world on the line? Thank you!

What is your ratio of prepare time vs. play time for your games personally? For every hour of play do you think we spend 3 hours of prepare? etc... What do you think is a normal ratio.

Hi, Michael. I'm directing some newbie groups and I'm having trouble finding situations for them to shine with their tool proficiencies. Also, themselves, as players, tend to strictly focus in their spells or abilities to try solving stuff, paying too little attention to their bags and tools.

I really like puzzle fights, but I'm lazy.... Any resources where I can steal almost everything I need or a big list of different ones?

How would you use the 8 steps for a megadungeon? For example, while running Dungeon of the Mad Mage, there was no way for me to remember what happens in each room. But since such dungeons allow PCs to explore down any ol' passage, I felt I needed to know everything, at least on that level. What might be the lazy way to prep for these kinds of dungeons?

I've been using the Lazy DM method for several years now in several groups and all the players and I never had more fun in RPGs before. The stories are always epic and engaging -- so thank you :). The only note I get from players (more than once) is that they sometimes feel like there is no tension, since they figured out already that no matter what they choose to do, I roll with it and apply Lazy DM techniques to make the story works. They've figured out my technique, so like deep-down they know that they can't actually make a 'wrong' decision. Of course I can amp up the combat and other encounters difficulty to challenge them more, so they won't be sure they make it out alive or in one piece -- but story-wise, how can I make sure they retain the feeling they might be wrong? I hope I'm making myself clear. Sorry for the long question ;)

The steps of the Lazy DM are great for planning what MIGHT happen in a campaign. What does your process look like for tracking what DID happen? Ex: what is canon vs what exists only in prep?

I can´t remember all spells details. I usually stop to read their descriptions during gameplay. Do you study your player' spells at some point before running a game?

What would have to be true (or, what would have to change) about 5th Edition D&D to make higher levels of play (11-20) viable, manageable, and just as fun as the lower levels of play?

Since most 5e adventures go from levels 1-8 or 1-10, it seems that most DMs and players have little to no experience with games in the higher tiers. How does DM prep change when you get to Tier 3 (11-16) or Their 4 (17-20) levels of play?

I'm having thoughts of using the lazy encounter creation tables and creating some subtables to flesh them out a little more. I'm thinking the subtables should be campaign or location specific. What do you think about this? too much work, perhaps, even if some entries/subtables can be re used in other locations?

Question: What can I do at level 20 to keep the party going? My party recently finished BG:DiA and they're level 13 with no inclination to slow down. Most of us also play MMOs so I think the expectation is to hit cap and keep on going. I'm sure we're going to restart someday, but I expect they're going to want at least one major story arc at lvl 20.

Skip navigation Sly Flourish YESTERDAY Gábor Hegedűs 8:50 AM Hail to my pal, Mike! :) Question: how are you like to mix the CR's of the monsters in some encounters? Like if i have 5 player and i want to throw a few 1/4 CR Ratfolk from the Tome of Beasts by Kobold Press (btw i love that book) and a CR 1 leader Ratfolk Rogue how many mobs is your suggestion? I know, it's depends on the situation (meaningful or not encounter etc) and easily to modify "on the fly" but i like to know your opinion, what is the most likely medium/hard/deadly "starting scene". Best regards & roll the dice; Gabe from Hungary Gábor Hegedűs PS; I forgot to mention: the party is on lvl2 atm.

2 parter. 1) is there an IP that you enjoy that doesn't have a ttrpg equivalent that you think should? 2)is there a genre or niche in the industry that you are surprised hasnt been filled?