November Patreon Q&A!

Hi Mike Love your work. I wondered if you could help with the vast knowledge of books/pdfs you have gathered over the years. I am about to start a new campaign that is werewolf focused. I'm basically after a Fizban's Treasury of Werewolves. Something with werewolf variations, stat blocks and will inspire me. Do you know if such a thing exists? Or have any other suggestions? Thanks for your help

Hey Mike! I've been looking at 13th Age and I'm interested in running a campaign in the future, but I have a question I haven't found an answer to and, since I know you're pretty knowledgable about both 4E and 13th Age, here's my question: Can you use 4E powers for 13th Age player characters? I'm thinking about giving them as the equivalent of boons in 5E. Is that possible or there's conversion necessary? And, if a conversion is needed, how would that look like? Thanks a lot in advance! 😊🖤

Ok - maybe this is just a problem for my group but, it's a two-parter: 1. how do we get players to use the great magic items we give them?! My players forget and hardly ever use the cool stuff I give them! 2. maybe this is related to No.1 above, but my players are hoarders, and they never use their cooler and higher level spells - it's constantly - leveled up cantrips. I'm sick of firebolt and eldritch blast! Even if I give them obvious situations to use other spells and abilities they seem to default to the same old stuff. I think part of the problem is a lack of experience at higher level play - we always start at 1 and usually end at 8-9th before restarting a new campaign, and we don't play enough (don't even average once a month now that it's back in person.) Any thoughts and getting my players to use their cool stuff without the obvious direct prompting from the DM?

Hey, Mike. Any advice on helping our players to value their tool proficiencies? How can we use these ingame for our groups to be more inventive? Thanks in advance.

How did you find and commission artists for your Kickstarter projects?

Would you consider a GM Screen for your next Kickstarter? Maybe with highlights and random charts from Return, the workbook and the upcoming Companion? I would love some Jack Kaiser art on the front!

I have a character whose theme for the backstory is to unleash or access power which they don't know they posess yet (she's a sorcerer). An NPC close to her (family) has told her to hold back because the powers are dangerous multiple times). In my head, I would love to have an epic fight where things go dire, where she gets to "explode" in an epic fashion. Would you even recommend such a thing?And if yes, how should I go about it? Nerf her powers beforehand, or give her a bonus afterwards, or just go by flavor? (I'm also aware that I need to talk to the player, but I would prefer to have some options to offer).

If I were to combine LMoP, DoIP, The Sanguine Tide (with Vampires) and Neverwinter setting with Acquisitions Incorporated as a full campaign together, where should I start? Phandalin, Neverwinter or somewhere else?

I finished Lost Mine of Phandelver with a crew and we're now off adventuring on our own. I'm using milestone advancement. I set up a "chapter" and at the end, the players level up. I know that the fights and other challenges (investigations, explorations, etc.) need to become tougher, but how do I translate that into a "chapter" that feels right to the players, i.e., like they earned that level up? What things should I keep in mind to make it a fun, challenging, entertaining session or series of sessions? Is it simply a matter of bigger bosses?

Have you ever tried doing a fully improvised session? How would you do it?

Mike, a bit off topic. Hope that's okay. Your consistent creative output is amazing and the way you run your small business is aspirational. I feel like you have a very structured and focused day. How do you do it? Love to hear more about the business / creative entrepreneur side of things.

You mentioned in Discord setting up all of Castle Ravenloft in 8 min in Owlbear Rodeo and I would be VERY interested in an 8 min video of you doing that!! Thanks!

I've been running Ghosts of Saltmarsh and wanted to understand how you might use your encounter builder with homebrewed monsters? I've built some Lizard folk variants that tie into teh Black Dragon and are a bit stronger, but am strugging to balance the encounters that involve them for my players.

I know you played hexcrawl in your Tomb o Anihilation campaign. You have some videos about pointcrawl and your recommendations about it. Have you ever used pathcrawl in your games? I'm just starting a campaign focused on wilderness exploration. I think that pathcrawl aproach is more suitable to this kind of game. What do you think about it?

While watching the start of your Rime campaign, you discussed dropping quests in for your players to complete. What are some strategies you use or recommend for presenting these to your players?

Any fun stories you have heard from people of how they have used the open-ended mysteries you have put in some of your adventures - like the six-fingered hand in Whitesparrow?

Repost from October thread, where it was called a “Great question!” 😉 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?

Hi Mike, Do you have an opinion on what I perceive to be a relative lack of interesting things for martial characters to do on their turn. It seems like once you get to higher levels the options kind of fall short for fighters. I love a fighter, but just increasing the number of attacks in a round seems like it kind of devolves into just attacking, moving, and maybe some type of bonus action. Are there any 3rd party resources that you know of that open up the fighter to be able to use some 3.5-ish combat maneuvers and vary up their turn (without going battle master every time)?

Hi Mike! I have been running a game for over a year and a half, 72 sessions. Over the course of it, the hexcrawl that I started with faded away and turned into something different, building a keep in a world that has collided with the other planes. They just reached 16th level, and things are going slow. I feel like my players are getting bored with their characters, and the challenges they are facing feel too great for them. How do I keep them going? This would be the first campaign that I could reach lvl20 with. How do I make the final levels more exciting?

How to you calculate how powerful your group is when trying to create encounters? Do you find their most powerful attacks and do calculations? Or is it just guessing based on past encounters? I am not much of a tactical DM and I would love to get better at evaluating my players' threat. Thanks!

Hello Mike, I'm trying to incorparate more game design principles from computer games. Inspired by GMTK from YouTube. What I think can be really epic, if I get it right, is **Locks and Keys**. Basically within a dungeon the players need key-items to specific doors to progress. I would allow them to bypass a door by unconventional means, but I would like to get the concept across to my players. My first idea was to give my players the first key before they enter the dungeon and let them find the second key before the open the first door. So that they have an easy time learning this concept. My question is, do you have any interesting ideas for these locks and keys? And do you have more tipps to teach this concept through gameplay rather than telling my players what to do? Edit: spelling and grammar

Hi, Michael. I started with the hobby thanks to your books and ICRPG. You taught me there was a low-math, anti-time-vampire way to prepare. Awesome for DMing. When introducing new players to TTRPGs, is there any kind of Lazy Player's Guide? I've seen a video where you give advice for DMs in this regard: · simplify mechanics, · avoid unnecessary rules and any meaningless d20 roll, · teach how to describe, · use Merric pregens. Your one page 5e acts in the same direction. But I'm curious about your suggestions for players (specially new ones) to create their own characters and enjoy playing them the Lazy Way. Thanks in advance.

Hi, I have two related questions: I am a big fan of the Eberron campaign setting and have been running a few grand adventure style campaigns there. However, I also really like the film Noir genre and would like to explore the Noir aspect of Eberron. The whole 'private eye gets tied up in a huge conspiracy in Sharn' kind of game. My problem with this is that I feel the DnD 5e rules are not really suitable for that. As soon as characters hit Tier II, they essentially become superhero equivalents in the context of a typical Noir plot. Do you have any experience with running low powered DnD campaigns without just halting level progression alltogether? I was thinking about using the Genesys RPG system developed by Fantasy Flight Games (now restructured into EDGE, I believe) for a game like that. I had the feeling that this might work really well with your Secrets and Clues process. Because every dice roll can have unforeseen consequences, coming up on the spot with fitting interpretation of the results can be challenging. But if 'results' can be pulled from a list of Secrets and Clues, things would be much easier. Do you have experience with the Genesys system, and do you have thoughts on how this would work with Lazy DM Prep?

Hi Mike, using your system since a year now and it does wonders for me in terms of prepping time. Thanks for that! The only issue I am struggling with is the preparation of a "one pager" summary of my in-person sessions. Do you just print your 8 steps on a page and have it sitting next to your during your games? Do have any thoughts on the one-pager concept? Thanks a lot for your work!

Someone commented that they love "the lore changes to the world of D&D" that Fizban's brings in. The current DMG however starts with creating "a world of your own". Is the increasing number of interlocking options with each new publication turning the setting assumptions of the mechanics into a single implied setting, with the only freedom being to relabel your FR, 'Exandria', or whatever? Tl;dr: is D&D becoming less flexible? I ask as a traumatised survivor of the 90s metaplot fad.

G'day Mike, I hope you're doing and congratulations on a successful Kickstarter campaign. I'm currently running three inter-connected Eberron campaigns in 5E at my FLGS which has so far been a blast for the last two years (characters are between levels 3 and 7). I'm considering running an Old School Essentials campaign to introduce new green players to D&D as it is seems to be a much simpler introduction to the game than 5E which I have seen overwhelm new players. I'm wondering if you've looked into the Old School Essentials ruleset by Necrotic Gnome and what your thoughts would be?

Hey Mike! I’m running a campaign soon and for the first time it won’t be a module. I don’t plan on running this past level 9-10. Is it okay to start figuring out a potential array who who the “big bad” might be? Or should I leave some bread crumbs out and see where the party’s interests take them? Thanks!

Hello. Long Time Stalker. First Time Caller. (I haven't made it through all 195 hours of DM tips but I'm working on it.) How would you incorporate theatre of the mind into online games? I love online maps and tokens and some automation, but I want my games to be a bit less railroady. Any suggestions? And, besides your one on one with Enrique, do you have any games recorded that you have prep recorded as well? I would like to see how the Lazy DM steps play out at your table.

Hey there! I'm looking at stepping out of my comfort zone and offering a game at a FLGS for those that sign up. If you had to boil down the most important and crucial things for a DM to know ahead of time - what would your list be?

How do you manage the character creation process especially for new players? I believe in the past you have mentioned that you keep the whole process to around 2 hours. What do you tell your players ahead of time to bring to the table? How do you keep the whole process moving efficiently in order to get to play a little during the first session?

Do you manage "player bases" in any way . If so do you use a supplement along with it?. Do you have a lazy way of managing it ?

I've recently received some feedback from one of my players asking for more challenging encounters. He has optimized his character to put out serious damage, to the point where could tear through encounters on his own. The other players are less optimized, and I've noticed them "joking" about just needing to survive until the Optimized Character's turn in the initiative order so he can lay waste to whatever is in front of them. I've found that if the Encounter Difficulty challenges the other PCs, the Optimized Character gets bored. My concern is that if I turn the dial up to challenge one character, it could prove deadly to the others. What would be a good way to address this fluctuation in power levels within a party?

In your Rime game you've given several PCs evolving situations (like the illithid symbiote) - which is a nice source of PC-based secrets and clues that doesn't depend on tapping or retconning the backstory. Any suggestions for do's and don'ts?

Do you have any tips for having a satisfying conclusion to a story arc when the main antagonist is something where a direct boss fight may not make sense - either because they are more of a schemer (like a hag or a rakshasa) or where the threat is more about mundane power and influence (like a noble or rich merchant)?

Hey Mike, it's you pal, Gabor H! ;) (You can call me Gabe if you like, or on my lifelong nick: Rex) What is your advice for an "almost everytime DMing when i play" DM who is getting an opportunity to play, when someone else will be the DM? (holy cow, finally can do that) Besides the "try to relax and enjoy someone else's show", how NOT to be a pressure or a burden for a newbie DM who have to perform in front of a DM who was "in charge" since he/she is played D&D? And vice versa: what is your advice for a player who want to be the DM in first time with her/his DM on the table's other end? Beside the "just ignore, try to relax and enjoy your story" :)

Can you show an example of using the Lazy DM prep for systems other than 5e, such as Cypher, Savage Worlds, 13th Age, Powered by the Apocalypse, Dungeon World, etc.?

I am curious as to how you use fronts in a bit more depth. I’m a big fan and am hungry for more perspectives. Specifically, 1. Could you go into a bit more depth about any simplifications you make to them compared to the PbtA/DungeonWorld model? 2. I find it useful to go through each front at prep time and spend a few minutes thinking about them… Do you see front-building as a step in the lazy process? 3. What kinds of things do you typically cover when you think of fronts? I’m using them for villains, allies, natural or unnatural processes, and organizations.

How do you apply the Lazy DM prep for published campaigns? I find it hard to condense the large book of information I am presented with into manageable chunks. I also have trouble integrating my characters into already existing narratives so I feel I fail at the "Focus on the characters step"

As an author, how do you find out if a piece of lore is covered by the SRD/OGL or if it is WoTC product identity? For example, is the "Blood War" between demons and devils fair game, or PI? I've been working on an adventure of my own that involves several fiends and I don't want to get in trouble :)

Has character death become taboo and if so what is lost or gained because of it?

How "actively" do you plan up beats and down beats? Do you alternate them regularly i.e., an upbeat always follows a downbeat? I've realized I've been primarily using downbeats as part of my "grittier" campaign style but I see the value of upbeats and am wondering how frequently to work them in...

How/Do grim portent tie into the three act story structure?

How do you set the mood? How do you get players to feel exactly what you want? How do you get them really invested into the story? Or on the flip side, how do you as a player get yourself really invested? I just had a DM who gave me goosebumps from how excited I was and I could feel my character's fear and pride. I want to do that for my players

When fleshing out some fantastic locations I love to get into details. I find the more detail the more believable it becomes. I find this goes against the philosophy of 'less is more'. Filling out the detail is not the lazy way. This is always my last step. Do you always use the Fantastic locations table or do you go with the theme of the adventure and just plan accordingly?

Question: How do you manage roleplaying multiple NPCs and their dialogue to each other? I feel silly doing voices to myself between two NPCs. I try to narrate their conversation without actually roleplaying the voices, but it still feels awkward at times.

Do you have any advice for prepping for shorter, unscheduled sessions? Playing one-on-one with my son, we can play whenever he is in the mood, but that might mean we are playing for an hour while eating out or a couple hours in an evening or most of a weekend day. Finding a strong start is often hard, both because time feels too short for a diversionary scene and because we seem to often end at a decision point as the characters pause for a long rest (or just to catch their breath).

Also, you seem to be giving out a lot of magic items. How do you keep the players both happy and not so overpowered that you struggle balancing encounters?

This is a question about pacing and secrets in longer campaigns (my perspective is SKT). How do you keep track of what the players/pcs know? Or do you keep track of that at all? What happens if multiple clues have been delivered and they are supposed to understand the final piece of information but they dont?

Another one from me When the characters and their history and ties are in the thick of the plot, how do you avoid giving them plot armor? My players are adverse to resurrection magic, but the current adventures are all driven by their desires. When a character is so closely tied to a plot, how do I best handle this without giving them 'Plot armor' or just hoping that the party will continue on the adventure for the story

Hey Mike, I've recently discovered and am learning Numenera. Having only DM'd D&D (past two years, sill a nube) what's the biggest difference I'll notice (besides not rolling dice) that I should know or be mindful of with Numenera?

What are your preferred ways of handling character death? Do you always provide a way for them to be resurrected? If not, how do you go about helping the player to create a new character to join the party? Do you allow the new character to be on par with the surviving party members, or are they lower in level, have fewer or no magic items, etc?

How do you deal with delivering on existing (and/or subverting) expectations? Sometimes I worry that I'm playing too much into the existing tropes, and sometimes I worry that I'm subverting expectations in a way that won't land. Will my players expect the dragon to be sitting on a hoard of treasure and be disappointed when it's something else, or will they be disappointed that its all there is and there isn't a twist. I find myself doing an inordinate amount of worrying about what my players expect, and trying to deliver that while also having a satisfying game and story for all

Maybe a non-relevant question but, how do you make money off RPGs? Would love to hear your approach to this as I'm a starting out content creator in the field ;)

How do you string together different modules for your party to allow them to spiral outward? Example - I am running Sunless Citadel for 4 folks. I have introduced breadcrumbs for other modules in hopes they take the bait and let that provide a path. If they decide to go to some other fantastic location after this one, how do you make them end up where they need to be without railroading it? Would a 'montage' work or would you recommend a hex crawl?

Any tips on secrets and clues delivery? I find myself using dreams and NPCs just telling the characters too much