December 2021 Patreon Q&A

Hey Mike! I'm running two Eberron campaigns that are both climbing to high levels and it's my first time running Level 14+ encounters as a newer DM (Thanks for all the help btw!) Any high level tips to keep combat/social encounters fun and interesting so that not everything is auto-pass between flash of genius/Guidance/other character optimizations? I want to reinforce that these characters made good choices and are high level so they are better within the world, but don't want everything to become trivial because of it.

I am going to be running a cypher system game in the n at future. I was wondering if you were to incorporate GM intrusions in your 8 steps for prep were would you put them? I can see GM intrusions fitting in scenes and secrets. Would you put an asterisk by those scenes and secrets to identify them as such? What are your thoughts?

Do you have a go-to monster or monsters that you reskin the most? I was thinking about the shambling mound from your latest prep video, which I also like to reskin.

I'm about to take a few months off DMing to spend time with my new child. I'm wondering if you have an idea what I might do when returning to the game in a few months to get my skills sharp.

How will Kickstarter's announcement that they are moving their operations to a blockchain affect the TTRPG space (or your work in particular)? What the hell is a blockchain? If it turns out that Kickstarter is making a horrible mistake, what are good alternatives for creators and supporters?

With the approaching new year my question this month is about favorite construct, time. The importance of tracking time and beats has often been discussed in chat. My question is about calendar time, and the passage of time from the perspective of the PCs. I've been a DM since Luskan was ruled by wizards. I have always tried to track time in game. Tracking calendar time can add a layer of realism that helps immerse the Players into the world's we build. Example: Shops close early on Friday, Town is deserted during Church services(9am EST), a verity of festivals and observation ect. How does this fit into the lazy DM philosophy? Am I over thinking this? Can it just be Monday because I say it's Monday? Isn't a calendar just another random table?

In one of my game, the players have encountered and made a rival out of a Dimir agent (Guildmaster's guide to Ravnica), a type of secret agent/assassin that can manipulate minds, dreams and memory. I want my player to forget what they have seen without metagaming (like saying your character doesn't remember that), because I feel like the mystery and tension will be less interesting. Do you have any suggestion on running memory loss without metagaming?

I am running a Pathfinder adventure path. We play on a bi-weekly basis. There seems to be so much to do in the adventure that inserting individual character stories and arcs seem feels like we are wasting time. How do you fit the adventure you are trying to run and character side stories together in a way that doesn't feel like bloat?

When presenting players with a point crawl, do you give them the actual map to reference or how would you present it to them? If you give them a map, how could you go about showing them secret paths and areas that circle back that may not be evident on the map?

I’m experimenting with my games and I want to know what you think about making encounters, treasures, and traps similar to secrets and clues. I am defining my locations and not tying anything else to them, instead relying on pacing and improv to make the most of my prep.

Do you have any generalizable tips for personalizing the adventure hooks that typically come with published adventures? Especially for the very start of a campaign. Obviously, ‘use the character backstories’ is a great well to draw from but what are some other processes that might help make those first adventure hooks really sink in?

Hey Mike! How are ya doing? I have a squillion pdf books and magazines full of source material, bestiaries, adventures, etc from a wide variety of third party providers of 5e material. I’m starting to find it hard to keep tabs on what I have and what it contains. What recommendations for organising and managing this material would you have? I have read about such apps as Zotero and Mendeley and a ton of others. Do you have any experience with any of these? Or do you manage it some other way? By the way, I love your work and have become a Notion convert for my campaign and session notes management. Cheers, Andy.

Hi Mike, I'm wondering if you ever have players make secret dice rolls for things like Perception and Insight checks, to prevent meta-gaming. Are there any other homebrew rules you use?

Hi Mike! I am always very cautious in designing encounters with gaps between players abilities and monsters mechanics. For example petrifying monsters versus a party without access to greater restoration, or flying monsters. PCs will feel challenged, but at the same time we do not want them to feel hopeless, I think. And also I don't want a player to trash a character sheet for a failed saving throw when the party meet a basilisk at Lv10. What is your approach on this?

Hi Mike! I am having trouble with making death epic at higher level. Killing pc’s is not a problem, it’s sending them off in a dramatic way. At this level, dying to fighting, and dead to living is hardly ever a problem anymore. Only really nasty effects, such as abilities that turn pc’s instantly into zombies when killed (thanks Death Tyrant) make this impossible. The problem is that death hardly feels final, but when it suddenly DOES happen, their character is usually poisoned, unconscious, cursed and at the bottom of a well before they die, which makes the killing blow such an anti-climax. How would you give the player the final chance to shine when they die? Should you give them some last words if they die this way?

Wondering how the Lazy DM method can be applied to an old-fashioned dungeon crawl. I'm currently putting together a ruined castle with three levels and 40 or 50 keyed locations. In a scenario like that, the size and complexity is a feature, if not the whole point of the thing. Other than using Dyson maps, how would the Lazy DM approach this sort of thing?

Hi Sly! Could you comment upon OSE and how you feel it compares to 5e. Gavin Norman has been creating an excellent world in Dolmenwood which is strictly related to OSE playing techniques. I have put in some categories myself as follows: Pathfinder you become a SUPERHERO! 5e you become a HERO! OSE and DCC you are a genuine ADVENTURER who will risk life and limb to pursue your dreams! Just curious about how you feel because a LAZY DUNGEON MASTER can really have fun in all three categories?

In regards to a point crawl method. Is it my understanding that if you use this kind of technique there will be no random encounters to deal with from one point to another point? What would be fun if always the players go from one point to another without any side treks or encounters within the game itself? Doesn't this take away from the three pillars of D&D (primarily the exploration parts)?

Hi Sly! You were talking about pointcrawls and I am using a hex map from Swordcoast. Is it possible to change the Swordcoast map to look like a pointcrawl map on the map itself? What technique could be used on an already established map in any game world to transfer it into a point crawl instead without making an entirely new map?

Are the Lazy DM method and the 5 room dungeon by Johnn Four compatible for creating adventures?

I have a short campaign that I am running online for about 18 sessions now. One of the players will go into military service in Februari, and from then on she won’t be able to play with us. I would like to finish up the campaign before then, but I only have 5-6 sessions to do so. I do have a clear ending in mind. Should I try to rush through it? What would be the best way to do so?

When all of us are seated and about to begin the session, I ask some personal questions regarding the characters. My intent is to make them think as the characters and give life to them. Then, I do the strong start. Do you have any ritual for session beggining?

We have been discussing the one-pager handout for starting a new campaign, which is a really cool concept. My question is, in short style, how would you handle a handout for a campaign that have additional player options and additional background information for players to create a functioning character in a campaign with specific styles and themes? In long style, I am about to run a campaign inspired by Arabian themes that will have a couple of extra races for flavor, cultural assumptions that will be different from the default European ones in D&D, a list of approved races, a few extra skill, language, and tool options, a list of deities, religious orders and factions, and a page for good tips on how to create great characters that I compiled from various sources of the internet into a single page of tips and reflections. This ended up being 6 pages long. I really struggle to see how I could have made that fit into a one pager? Just as a side note, I know my players well enough to know that they love this stuff. They devour our campaign wikis and love reading about all this stuff, so we're all good here, just wondering how Sly would approach this, and get inspired :)

Hello! From one of your videos, I learned about Notion. It became my primary place for session prep and organization. I run a game in a homebrew setting. Because of that, I need to organize Nations, Pantheons and more. My impression is that Notion would be cumbersome to use in that context. Currently, I still use OneNote for that. So my question is, how do you keep track of all your world-building stuff? How do you organize it, and if so, which tool do you use? Thank you very much, and I wish you a pleasant holiday season.

Here's one: How do you navigate dungeon delving as a DM when the players struggle with the exploration pillar? My players were in an abandoned temple. I used a Dyson Logos map and plotted out a few general areas and had my clues and secrets all ready. I established that some ghouls were there "looking for something", so they knew there was a macguffin somewhere in the temple. The players were kind of dumbfounded and I felt like I had to hand hold them the whole way. Ultimately, they just tried something and I had to completely rearrange the dungeon on the fly to keep the session from dragging.

I’ve been reading through your books that came with my PDF collection pledge of the Lazy DM’s Companion, I was wondering if there’s any advice in your books you no longer quite stand by/follow?

No questions, but please highlight the Wanderer's Guide to Merchants and Magic now that it's released. More people need to know about this book and more people need to meet the Bone Merchant.

Do you have any advice on lazy prep for Adventurers League? I get asked to run games at my FLGS but find AL prep tedious and using the module to run the game cumbersome. But not being my game I’m afraid I’ll forget details if I don’t have it on me.

I'm looking to publish a free adventure for people who want to try D&D while remaining lawful good from a legal standpoint. The System Reference Document and Open Game License aren't the easiest to parse as a layperson and I couldn't find great explainers for first-time authors on the internet. Since you're a prolific third-party publisher for 5e, I was wondering if you have some guidelines or good resources that could aid newbie adventure writers like myself.

I’m a fan of Fate and especially Fate’s Aspects. I know you’ve previously experimented with the use of Aspects in some past works (Fantastic Locations). What are your thoughts (if any) on using Aspects with mechanical benefit in 5e? Thank you.

As a player I try to make sure to review my notes from last session, review character relationships within the party and review my character sheet before each session. Is there anything more you would add to a "Lazy Players Guide"?

I've been looking at Dungeon Crawl Classics recently for a one-shot. I like the way that monsters are listed--one line with a brief description. Do you think 5E monsters could be done in the same way?

I tend to not have that many encounters per day, and this seems to clash with the way long rests are designed. I could force more encounters, but I want to ise organic storytelling most of the time. I'm working on a homebrew rule where you can pick and choose some benefits during a long rest. You can normally pick two among these options: regaining 50% health, regaining half your hit dice or regaining all your spell slots (if you don't choose the last one you only regain half, using a sort of spell point system). The HP and Hit Dice option can be chosen twice. You can spend Hit Dice during a long rest (as well as short rests). If environmental or psychological conditions are harsh and you fail a con save, you can only choose one option. Thoughts?

You’ve mentioned that you don’t allow Peace and Twilight clerics in your game. What parts of those builds do you find are OP? Would you recommend that others who don’t know any better (like me!) consider the same in their games?

I ran The Dragon of Icespire Peak for my wife and one thing I struggled with was the dungeons that had a bunch of empty rooms. At first, she would try to search the rooms but often there wasn't anything to be found or to interact with. By the time she made it to a room with something hidden, she had stopped searching rooms, figuring it was pointless. In your 1:1 playthrough of The Dragon of Icespire Peak, you and Enrique didn't go into Axeholm or the Mountain’s Toe Gold Mine, so I am wondering how would you have handled them. Do you add/improvise things to empty rooms to make them interesting or do you leave them as is?

Breaking up is hard to do. What are the signs that your group is not a good fit for you, be it DM or player, and what are some tips for how to do it as painlessly as possible?

So, I recently started a new campaign using the ideas on how to set one up from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. One of he ways I drew my players into the campaign (and it worked in spades) was to have them add elements to the world. Well, one of the elements they added surprised me (in a good way, it's awesome), and ads some political intrigue to the setting. They decided that the council of nobles that rules the starting city are secretly consolidating power with neighboring towns and villages, sometimes forcibly, in order to form a new empire with them in charge. So, I figured, I should make a new Front for the council. Now, the thing is, this front is doing things completely unrelated to to the other Fronts in the campaign. I'm concerned that this could cause confusion as to the story of the campaign. Should I worry about this, or just embrace the path the PC's follow and see what interests them most?

Hey, I was wondering if you have any advice for switching settings between story arcs, I want my players to keep their characters from the previous campaign, PotA, but shift the setting to Eberron. How would you go about doing a “session 0” for a new story arc with established characters? Thanks!

Hello! I just got done running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and we are transitioning to Waterdeep: Mad Mage. I am actually stepping down as DM so that my close friend can try his hand at it and so I can have a break. Do you have any advice or recommendations on what I can do to help facilitate a smooth transfer and support him as best I can?

Firstly, love all your content! I’m very excited for the kickstarter books to ship. Your content has really helped take some of the nervousness out of DMing. So for my question, my friends had a campaign that we started several months ago, but had to stop due to personal reasons. We’re wanting to start it back up, but it’s kinda been awhile. I’m wondering if you had any fun ideas for re-engaging everyone in the world/stories other than like a short dialogue of “oh yeah, this is what happened last time.” Thanks!

Hello, Mike! My question is about high Charisma "party face" type characters. If a Bard with Expertise in Persuasion wants to take the lead on every important conversation, how can I make sure other players get a chance in the spotlight for social encounters?

How do you balance the idea of the campaign hook, the fronts, and the six truths against the spiral campaign method? I really like the idea of the characters forging their own path and discovering what's interesting, but does that run counterintuitive to the campaign hook. Or is the idea that I'm putting little bread crumbs in front of them to latch onto that all relate to the campaign hook and the villains?

Do you use a dungeon crawl procedure like the one outlined in the early editions/Old-School Essentials? I feel like my dungeon crawls are a little chaotic and I'd like to (someday) run a game where tracking torches, time, random encounters, etc. are part of the dungeon experience. Should I just run dungeons as pointcrawls instead?

Hi Mark, I loved Alair, the sentient zombie from you adventure and decided to incorporate him as a central npc in my game. In the session where I wanted to introduce him one of my players characters died, and as a spontaneous idea I took him aside and asked if he wanted to play a paladin like character for the rest of the session to have something to do. After introducing him to Alair my player fell in love with him and decided that it should be his new permanent character. Now I have to decide how alair should cure his curse. In my game Alair is a devout follower of Kelemvor and he is a hunter of undead, to make his curse more tragic. He thinks it is Kelemvor that has cursed him because his journey is not done, but I am unsure what it is exactly that Kelemvor wants - do you have any fun ideas or inputs? 😊

I miss the more detailed skill system of earlier editions especially 3rd edition. Are there ways to increase the strength of the current system either with new skills or something else?

I have purchased both the digital (PDF or DDB) and physical books for the TTRPG authors I support. I have run out of room and my wife is close to officially labeling me a "hoarder". I am still buying the physical books for "Core" books and favorite authors, but only the digital for adventures or new systems I want to check out. My question is, How do I convince my wife that we need to finish the basement so I can store more books?

How would you go about incorporating sidekicks, using the method outlined in DOIP and Tasha's, when determining an adventuring party's Deadly Encounter benchmark?

What with the "Strength of Thousands" adventure path for PF2e and the Strixhaven book coming out for D&D5e, there seems to be a certain amount of interest in campaigns set in wizard academies. What do you think are the essential ingredients for this sort of campaign?

I've been thinking lately about D&D evolution, and noticed that the skill system is now so generic that it takes special leveling up perks to differentiate classes. What I've been thinking is about making the perks being tied to skills instead of classes, thus making it a simpler classless system where the user has to really take some thoughts about how to progress, but has everything opened. I don't really have a question here, just wanted to share what has been going in my mind, thinking that perhaps you'll find this interesting.

Hi Mike! I am pretty sure that I prefer milestone leveling over XP leveling. The group I run for only plays about once every month. Putting these two things together often means that it takes quite a while in of real-world-time for the PCs to level up, because meaningful progress towards such a milestone is made very slowly. Do you have any tips regarding Milestone leveling? In particular for groups that don't play very often. I'm afraid that my players might feel leveling is too slow, but on the other hand I don't want to hand out levels just we because we don't play that often.

One of he games that I GM has a wide spread of experience level. On one hand, there is a super experienced player who has GM’d a great many campaigns. He loves digging into his player’s abilities, background, story telling and role playing. On the other hand, I have a player who barely grasps the abilities of his character, is nominally engaged, etc. For instance, the nominally engaged player is a Level 5 Barbarian - capable of dishing out some major hurt… though unfortunately, the way he plays, he isn’t fully utilizing his strengths. What are some ways to work sessions and balance encounters to take that disparity into account?

What is the ideal length for a D&D campaign?

If rumours are true that WotC is investing in its digital arm, how soon before DnDBeyond is defunct?