March 2022 Patreon Q&A Thread!
Hey friends! We've hit the end of March and all questions are in and answered! I'll post the April thread early next week. Thanks!
Happy March my friend!
Let this post serve as the official Sly Flourish Patreon Questions and Answers thread for March 2022!
To keep things a little more manageable, I have the following requests:
Please limit yourself to one question.
Please try to keep your question relatively brief. I love your stories but I get overwhelmed sometimes.
I'll definitely answer here on Patreon. I often answer questions on the Lazy D&D Talk Show. Sometimes I turn the question into a D&D Tip video or Sly Flourish article. Know that if I only answer you here in the thread, I still love you.
Check the Patreon Questions on the newly instantiated Lazy D&D Talk Show Topic Database to see if I've answered a question like yours previously. We have 205 questions in the database!
Thank you so much for helping me do what I do!
Now on to the questions!!
Comments (114)
Completely understand.. I feel the same, stick with what motivates you and you will be brilliant. However, if you would like some help in doing this I would love to toss my hat in if you think there is value in this. Thanks again for your invaluable contributions to my creativity.
Hi Sly Flourish! I love your work and your yearly membership is a steal! Would you consider taking contributor ideas for your City of Arches? I think it would give everyone a chance to see what everyone does with this great idea. Something like a "best of" collab maybe?
That's a cool idea but I don't know if its for me. I'm more interested in writing than I am in editing. Let me think about it though,.
How much does it change the game that all the players have proficiency in the same skills? I am new to running 5e and are going to run Descent into Avernus, with the potential that all players pick the Hellrider background (from the Fall of Elturel adventure) and will therefore alle be proficient in animal handling and persuasion, and I cannot wrap my mind around if that is a good or bad thing. I have been considering maybe giving proficiency in animal handling to all players and then give them a free choice for the second proficiency instead to make the party a little more well rounded, but does that even matter?
Hi Bo! I think it makes sense to let them take different skills based on what they did for the Hellriders. I think it's sort of a waste for everyone to have the same trained skills. Let them pick and explain it based on their actual work for the Hellriders. Good question!
How do you feel about "safe haven" mechanics? The idea that a party can only get the benefits of a long rest at a truly safe place. So the idea of an adventuring day can be stretched across multiple.
Hi Eric! It's a cool idea but I don't really think I need it in my games. I tend not to worry about rests too much and let the characters rest when it makes sense. I think for a more hard-core game, it can work if the players are into it. Here's more about rests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmRIvJSv8k&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=10&t=2765s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9TMDEUh0CU https://slyflourish.com/handling_rests.html Hope that helps!
Do you have any processes for converting older edition material to 5e? I’m working on converting Red Hand of Doom to 5e and have had to do a large amount of research on Reddit and other sources to cobble together something that I think works.
Hi Dustin! I've talked about this on the Talk Show before here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egmrwp2dNhU&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=15&t=4000s Hope that answers your question!
I'm DM'ing Rime of the Frostmaiden for a group of 5 now at level 7, and though I've give out a LOT of various uncommon to rare magic items in the last session, a couple who also DM complained I was 'stingy' with items because of Bounded Accuracy. Can you explain this and what a DM is 'supposed' to do in terms of amount and types of magic items as they continue level by level?
Hi Jamie! I just posted a preview video about awarding "relics" which is a great way to give more magic items without overpowering your group. Here's a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5lMiOWlwqw As for how often to give out permanent magic items I answered this on a recent Talk Show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKeKTeE8TIY&t=3407s Thanks!
First time question-asker! I'm currently running a group through the recommended Ruins of Grendleroot five-adventure sequence, and everyone (myself included) is really enjoying it. Looking past 5th level, I was considering modifying things so that Monte Cook Games "Where the Machines Wait" module is somehow related to the Grendleroot spires (perhaps it's the origin of it) and allowing the PCs to dig deeper in the mountain and discover the adventure location (thus beginning that module). I realize that you already provide some ideas for level 6+ adventures, but as a lazy DM it would be easier to run/modify an already-made adventure, especially one that you had positive thoughts on in a previous talkshow. Do you think that would work well?
Yeah! I think it would work great! A huge alien ship trapped down below is a great origin for the Grendleroot. Thanks for playing Ruins of the Grendleroot and I'm glad you're having a great time with it! It makes me so happy.
In your opinion, what makes a great cult and great cultist NPC?
Huh! I've never thought about it really! I'd say some fun weird mannerisms and appearances. Strange rituals. A cool evil thing to worship. Maybe a fun mechanical effect based on who they worship.
Finally I found my one question for this month! My players have defeated the penultimate villain reaching level 19 from 17 through xp, and are now taking on the final problem: The City of Brass. About half of this gargantuan efreeti city has been plonked down in the material plane, and my players want to put it back. They just don’t know how, and they have no real-life reference on how to deal with this. I am trying to give them more an more ways to deal with the problem: start a slave rebellion, break the anchor that keeps it in the material plane, turn the Grand Sultan's powerful allies against him, but they haven't gotten it yet. Of course, I didn't spell it out just yet. The problem is: all they think about is the thousands of soldiers this city has, and how their town has very little to fight with. They also know the Grand Sultan can cast wish 3x a day (I mean he should, right?) and feel discouraged. I want them to feel powerful against immense opposition! How would you inspire my players or give them the tools they need to succeed?
I think this falls into the idea that players only understand about half of what's going on and sometimes need some help. An ally NPC might help clarify things or you could just tell them what their characters would know and understand of the situation. Having to deal with a city with thousands of soldiers and a sultan with three wishes is a pretty cool problem to have to solve. What three options can *you* think of? Maybe the characters aren't the masterminds to put the pieces together but maybe they can do the jobs for the mastermind who can. Good luck!
Hi Mike, One of the most iconic scenes in fantasy cinema is the skeleton fight in Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts. But in 5e, skeletons are only CR1/4. How would you 'harryhausen' D&D skeletons to make them creepy and dangerous even to heroes?
Hi Rango! Of course, it depends on the level of your heroes. A group of 1st or 2nd level heroes will be challenged by a handful of skeletons. You have a few choices to challenge higher-level characters. More and bigger both work. Throw twenty or thirty skeletons at them. Maybe 50 or 100. Use the horde rules to speed up combat (pool damage done to the skeletons as a whole and assume one in four of them succeed on a hit). You can use *bigger* skeletons like ogre or giant skeletons, minotaur skeletons, and so on. You can actually turn *any* creature into a skeletal version by saying its a skeleton and giving it skeleton traits. It's pretty easy to do and makes for some very dangerous monsters. You might also give them a dark blessing that increases their attacks and damage as long as their dark priest is standing. It might give them advantage on attacks and increase their damage by some amount of necrotic damage (7 (2d6) to 14 (4d6) is probably good and scary).
My pacing sucks. I don't normally DM for my regular game but I will do one-shots once every month or two, some D&D but most of the time we try new systems. Regardless of system, I say fours hours for the session and five hours later we are just coming to the end. I would like to start DMing one-shots at my FLGS where sticking to a strict time is a must. Any advice and/or tricks in maintaining pacing during a one-shot, or even a regular campaign session?
Hi Troy! Here are a few articles and videos that may help! https://slyflourish.com/timing_and_pacing_adventures.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhW22jRMYVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-jZpx958HQ Good luck!
Hi Mike, can't think of a D&D question so how about: If you were to take your patron subscribers and have them join your cult, what would you call it?
The Sly Flourish Empire of course!
How would you run villains or NPCs lying without insight checks? My players expect insight checks to see if someone is lying, I've been wanting to remove them to force players to make their own judgement. Looking for a middle ground between nothing and pass/fail.
PH is silent.
Lately I have really been enjoying the Special Features section of Magic Items in the DMG book. Making stories for personalizing weapons with random generators I just love.I probably wouldn't have come up with such interesting twists. But I want more! Can you think of any generators like this, or generators that would be great though they were not designed for this purpose. Do you have a to go to generators of that would work for this?
Hi Chris! Yes! I love that section too and it was a big motivation for some of the tables in the Lazy DM's Companion (and Uncovered Secrets Volume 1). Check out the "Core Adventure Builder" pages and look at the "condition, description, and origin" tables. You can roll on those three tables to get unique features of any item be it a single-use magic item, a monument, or a powerful permanent suit of magical armor.
Mike, love your work. Last night I had my most “lazy” session yet. Used I map I found a few hours before and the treasure table from LDM Companion. Thanks! My question: How would you structure a weekly TTRPG with a strict time limit of 1 hour per session? I’m open to using a game other than D&D (considering FAE) to take emphasis away from crunch and combat. And I’m sure you have system-agnostic advice. Thanks for any ideas!
Hi Tim! I answered this question recently on the Talk Show! Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0hiVQz96g0&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=2&t=1829s
Question: How do you know when one of your TTRPG writing projects is ready/done/complete? Context: I have ADHD and it lends itself to fixating on small, inconsequential details. I often get stuck in a revision-ready loop where I keep tweaking and making changes to make it "better”. I felt a little bit of this energy with the City of Arches. I understand revisions are often a part of the creative process. Often an audience only sees the final product but here we get to experience iterations as they come. While City of Arches was likely never stuck in "revision hell", it did prompt me to reflect on the way I fuss over my own writing projects near the end. I’m curious if you have a system of some kind to help inform you when a project is done? Something relevant that always stuck with me was from a Canadian painter named Harley Brown. “A painting” he says “is always finished before the artist thinks it is.”
Hi DVS! Good question. I've never been a perfectionist so I tend not to mind releasing things when they still need work. That said, when it comes to sending digital books or printing books, they have to be in a really good state before you're willing to press the button. For me, done is when something has been written, edited, revised, play tested, laid out, and double-checked. It can take a *lot* of work. You're catching me at the tail-end of approving print proofs for the three Lazy books and trust me, these will be *done* even if they have tiny little errors. This is almost literally set in stone (or a big printing drum in this case). One thing I love about this Patreon is that I can release things like the City of Arches and continue to tinker in the open. I just updated CoA with a bunch of new locations and we're working on a new piece of art. I expect, some day, we'll turn it into a more fleshed out product but I love that you guys get to enjoy it right now while I'm still in there mucking around. I think it's a stronger product for it and it helps me not worry about whether something is *done.
Question: What are you favorite classic D&D encounters you think every player should experience? (examples: being engulfed by a gelatinous cube, slaying a dragon, finding an owlbear hibernating in a cave...) Context: I have been DMing for about 20 years (since D&D 3.0). My home group is three players who just started their second campaign ever with me after we ran Lost Mines + Storm King's Thunder. I have fond memories of classic D&D encounters with displacer beasts and gelatinous cubes and want to share and create those memories with my current players.
Great question! I have a new player who just got engulfed in a gelatinous cube and nearly died in there (G-cubes are NASTY!!). Here are a few I think: - Getting caught in an old-school trap. See White Plume Mountain. - Facing a beholder. - Facing a adult or ancient dragon. - Traveling to one of the lower planes. - Blowing up or getting blown up in a Staff of Power or Staff of the Magi retributive strike.
Hi Mike, do you think that perception and insight checks should be led by the players or DM? If I ask for an insight check, my players instantly know that there is something else going on. Thoughts on passive perception/insight and characters built to have very high score's (expertise, observant etc.) in either of these during gameplay and how it impacts checks?
Hi Kyle! Yes, this is something I've talked about before. You can see my thoughts on this in this article: https://slyflourish.com/ability_check_toolbox.html It's a great big article but gets into the idea that sometimes the DM can roll on the characters' behalf if the character wouldn't know if they succeeded or failed. I'd only use that when it's really important though. Otherwise it feels like the DM is working against the player.
Hi Hello G'day Mike! Wondering you would ever do a homebrew rules spotlight maybe even once every so often a subsystem or homebrew changes? Some examples are the awesome homebrew youtube creators like Bob World Builder's video 'UPGRADE your D&D weapons', TheDungeonCoach's 'New Long rest rules' or IndestructoBoy's 'Classes I allow at my table'. There's even stuff like Aabria Iyengar's rules for Hiest's with making up a proficiency or prepared item if you imagine a montage happening as a "memory scene" to roleplay why you have the exact tool that you didn't think as a Player to bring but your character would have.
Great idea to add to the list! I tried a bunch of homebrew ideas in recent games. I think I have some homebrew rules I use on the DM side of the screen that I don't really talk about and there are a few I tried and then later got rid of because they didn't add too much to the game and were hard to keep track of. I'll talk about these sometime.
Hey Mike! Could you signal boost some under the radar YouTube/D&D creators that you think deserve more attention? What about their work makes it valuable to you?
I can do that!
Hey Mike, I was just wondering if you have Notion pages (or one sheets) for any of the other published adventures. I’d love to take a group through Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, but there’s just so much there it’s hard to know where to start as a DM.
Unfortunately no. I've only started using Notion a couple of years ago.
Hey Mike, just wanted you to know I am totally running your idea for The Hunger, level 1-20 campaign idea. Its going swimmingly so far! If you have any questions I am happy to share answers with everyone :) I'm running two campaigns in the world, one is level 3 the other level 4! And it's XP based rather than milestone to be more sandbox-ey.
That's awesome! Enjoy!
Thank you. And, yes, there is always the possibility that the players could kill the BBEG in that first encounter.
What is the best way to "level up" a BBEG over the course of a campaign? Are the monster dials enough or is there some other method? I have a start to a campaign where the PCs encounter the BBEG in a weakened state. The BBEG is still powerful enough to defeat the PCs, but is not at his full strength. Assuming the PCs survive the encounter, they will encounter the BBEG later on. I want the BBEG to strengthen in stages. As the PCs reach certain points in the story, the BBEG will achieve his own benchmarks as well. It is possible that the BBEG and the PCs will encounter each other multiple times in the campaign and that the "power gap" between the two will narrow. I have considered using minions for this, but I'm not certain this is what I want to do as it could get messy (read large battle) later on.
Hi Bill! That's pretty specific and I'd worry a little bit that it's too pre-programmed. What if the characters kill the boss in that first encounter? Is that ok? If it's not even doable, that limits agency from the players which isn't often good. That's the first thing that comes to mind. Assuming you still go with this idea, you have a few options. First, you can beef it up by scaling up its hit points and damage using the monster stats table in the Dungeon Master's Guide on page 274. That lets you scale it up pretty easily but you'll have to do a little work to set its damage values to its attacks and so forth. Another way is to pick out a set of monsters and reskin their stat blocks for your boss. Say your monster starts off as an acolyte, then turns into a mage, then turns into an evoker, and then into an archmage; you can use all four of those stat blocks as the "level ups". If it's a big melee brute, you can use the giants going from an ogre to a hill giant to a frost giant to a fire giant to a storm giant. Same with dragons. It's largely dependent on the type of monster and whether there are stat blocks that fit the stages. Hope that helps!
Hi Mike! Thank you for continuing to provide this Q&A service. Your answers and suggestions are both valuable to me as a DM and entertaining as a podcast listener, and getting to ask a specific question is definitely a tangible benefit to being a Patron. I've heard many people talk about the value of giving movement options to boss monsters; Matt Colville as one of the villain actions, and you have mentioned it for legendary actions as well. I've never fully understood why; my players tend to just surround a boss to get flanking (I know you don't use that rule), and if my boss needs to be in melee, then even if the boss adjusts position to target a weak PC, the other PCs will be able to move and still attack. (Bosses that have a long range attack & room to use it are the exception here, obviously; I haven't run many of those). I'm thinking specifically of the Blade Queen marilith battle in Fantastic Lairs. I didn't end up using the teleport option even when it was free to her, because there didn't seem to be a point. What type of situations make a boss movement option so important to other DMs? Am I not thinking tactically enough? Are my combat environments not tactical enough? Do I just not have the right (or wrong?) players for this to come up?
Hi Joe! I'm so glad you find the Patreon Q&A useful! The movement options for bosses are to help with two specific circumstances which often come together hand-in-hand. The first is when an enemy gets pinned down and beaten on by melee attackers. If a monster has a fighter, a paladin, and a rogue all surrounding it, they're in a really bad spot, especially if you use the optional flanking rule. No monster wants to be in that spot, so they can use this to teleport to a more advantageous situation, perhaps forcing characters to take opportunity attacks from other monsters to re-establish their position. Second, it gives these monsters a way to attack or threaten back-row characters like archers or spellcasters. A wizard may be quite a bit more frightened with a marilith teleports away from the three melee characters to drop in right next to the wizard. So yes, the free movement features of a lot of boss monsters is there to give them greater tactical flexibility and offset their disadvantage of being the focus for aggression in combat. Hope that helps!
Hello Mike! I'm loving the random tables from the Lazy DM's Companion. I'm not currently running D&D, but rolling some random adventures made me want to run the game again. I have a meta-question: how do you build your random tables? Do you have any tips for making our own tables, fitting our own style and setting?
Hi Norton! I answered a similar question here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCpsFb6ZTL8&t=2892s Let me know if that helps!
Hey Mike! Long time listener, first time questioner! I’m running a homebrew campaign with a bunch of friends and the problem I keep running into is changing my mind about plot points as our sessions progress. Not only do my players do the unpredictable (like most players) but since it’s a pretty story focused game they spend a lot of time in character thinking about what they should do next. I love the in character planning but at the end of our last session I was paralyzed with how to prepare the next one since a consensus was not reached. Do you have any advice on being malleable in my narrative while also having ample time and material to plan?
Hi Vincent! First of all, changing up the *plot* of an adventure as things change during the game is absolutely fine, even preferred by some GMs (myself among them)! It is hard to prepare if the players haven't come to a conclusion about where they're going to go or what they're going to do at the end of the last session. It's really helpful to try to end things *after* they've come to an agreement about their next course. If you do find yourself in the situation you describe, you can force the issue. Double-down on your strong start. Having something big happen that will take up at least a good chunk of the next session or move things down one path. The other option is to let them decide on their course, have a handful of encounters or scenes or maybe some downtime activities to help you fill up the session. You can also call for a quick break once they've made their choice to help you fill in some details. The best answers is to try to have *some* idea about where they're going to go before they sit down at the table for the session. Good luck!
Hello greetings Mike, Im running the Tomb of the Nine Gods for my Homebrew campaign as the final dungeon, but Ive never run a classical dungeon before. All the looking I found online has been how to build a dungeon/populate it etc... Do you have any tips or recommendations to actually run a dungeon crawl? Do you ask them at every intersection where they go? do they give you a room number and youwalk them there? Thanks!
Hi Derek! How to run a dungeon crawl is a great question. It depends on a lot of factors but first is whether you're playing online or in person. Usually having some depiction of the location can help, with some way to reveal new portions. You can draw things out on a dry-erase battle map or show a pre-made map and cover up the parts they haven't seen yet with construction paper or an old black t-shirt (my favorite). If you're playing online, you can use a virtual tabletop like Owlbear Rodeo to display a map and use a single token to represent all of the characters or have each character represented by a token. Virtual tabletops that include some sort of Fog of War helps. A few things that can help: - Ask the players for a marching order so you know who's up front. - Skip the boring parts. Don't have them narrate every 5 foot square. - Use passive perception to give information as appropriate. - Avoid "gotchas" that the characters would have noticed even though the player didn't. This is a great topic for an article! Thank you!
Hey Mike! Easy question! How's your Witchlight campaign going? Still happy with the incursions? Thank you for all you do!
Hi Kevin! Yes! Witchlight is going great. I'll be doing videos about it but less frequently than the Numenera ones (just because of timing). The incursions are a great tool for me to have on hand to add interesting slices of alien danger into Prismeer. It's working out well! Sometimes an incursion is just a small thing. Other times its a whole dungeon. It's definitely been memorable!
Hello! I know you've written or talked about this before, but I can't find it: my group really enjoys cumulative group rolls, like having to get 5 successes out of 10 until something happens (even better if the rolls get harder/easier depending on player actions or time). Could you point me to where you talk about that, or comment on tips for this? Thanks!
Hi Zach! I have a couple of articles on this topic: https://slyflourish.com/ability_check_toolbox.html https://slyflourish.com/group_skill_checks.html Good luck!
How do you prep for and run a campaign with 1-2 hour sessions? I've been asked to run a campaign for some first-time players, and they only have a 2 hour window every week. How would you do it?
Hi Jason! Good question! I really try to think of campaigns like this as episodic campaigns. Think of them like a 30 minute episode of Walker Texas Ranger. You have to condense the whole hook down into likely no more than three scenes. What are those scenes going to do? If it's a continuing campaign, you'll be ending on cliff-hangers a lot which is fine. Generally speaking, breaking it down into three-scene chunks and trying to fit as much of the story into those three scenes each session is the approach I'd take. Good luck!
Hello Mike, I have just joined your Patreon, long over due as I have all of the books etc, such brilliant content thanks. A question that is challenging me is how to assign a Challenge rating to a monster design. Its fine in my own games, I run 2 games, one at level 2 and the other level 9. As I can just turn up or down the dials at the time of contact. However when designing monsters for others, what makes you say, this is CR 1 and this is CR 12?
Hi Mick! Thanks for all of your support! Different publishers have different approaches to this. Some publishers take a monster you've created and compare it to other monsters from the Monster Manual to see how it lines up. The other approach is to match it up against the table in the Dungeon Master's Guide. The approach I recommend is a mix of the two. Start by reading up and using the tools in Creating a Monster on page 273 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. The longer steps starting on page 275 fit how WOTC makes monsters (sort of). You then take the average of both offensive and defensive CRs based on the table on page 274. Finally, compare it to existing monsters of roughly that challenge rating to see if it fits. WOTC monsters put a heavy weight on things like special defenses or status effects. I think they're overweighted most of the time. Damage and hit points are the two big factors for determine CR if you ask me. Hope that helps!
I enjoyed your video on making a heist, but I'm not sure how to run one in a way that differs from a normal dungeon crawl. What do you do to reinforce the feeling of the heist in game?
When I did heists in my games I used additional ideas from blades in the Dark, Clocks and flashbacks, also adding in some skills challenges, locks that have additional elements, I work on 3, Str, Dex and Acana, that really catches the Heist feel when everyone has to contribute and it is not just a Rouge fest.
Hi Mike, what’s your go-to for artwork? My group mostly plays Theater of the Mind, but sometimes a player will need a picture to help visualize something, e.g. NPCs, locations, creatures, etc. Do you just search for artwork during preparation to save time during sessions?
Whenever I need an NPC pic, I go to Questing GM's boards separated by race, class, topic, etc. on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/questinggm/_saved/
I am creating a secret society / cult of spies, assassins and infiltrators that specialize in political infiltration and replacing high ranking npcs with their own agents. Do you have any resources or tips for integrating secretive cults and managing their web of deceit throughout a campaign's evolving storyline?
Cults! Yay! This is actually pretty hard to do because its easy for the players to be totally unaware of what's going on. Integrating the Scarlet Brotherhood into my Ghost of Saltmarsh game was the most similar circumstance. In that case, I had the SB making moves behind the scenes that drove some of the adventures and ensured the clues were there. The web of deceit need only be solid when the characters learn of it, of course, so while it may be fun to have a great big yarn and tack chart, you only really need to think about the moves they make in relation to the characters. I think the idea of tracking your villains, their goals, and the steps they're taking along with exposing the results of that in secrets and clues is a good way to go.
I’m running a Strixhaven campaign and I feel a little overwhelmed mainly by the number of places the PCs might visit, the number of NPCs, the activities they might do on campus, etc. I don’t know how familiar you are with Strixhaven, but do you have any general advice for how to simplify a campaign that feels like it’s gotten too complicated and hefty?
Hi Christopher! Likely your players may be as overwhelmed as you are. Focusing down on those locations they might visit or the activities they might pursue can help. I know that Strixhaven has a big adventure built into it. You can focus on the locations that come up in that adventure first and only worry about the pieces the characters are going to come into contact with.
In your shows, you frequently reference "make the encounters make sense first". A lot of people love to read the monster manual, or any number of monster books to peruse for monsters. Let's say you were really lazy, how might one quickly understand what monsters make sense together (or in a location) in an encounter design? The new monster book has one resource really valuable for this: creatures grouped by biome sorted by cr. Are there any other resources out there like this?
I think the suggestion you offer is a great one. Random tables can tell you a lot. Of course, one thing you can do is roll ahead of time and study *those* monsters. The monster manual really is worth reading, though. I got pushback on Twitter (big surprise) suggesting that people read the monster manual. It's some work up front but it can last the rest of your life. The MM also has outstanding text to help you understand what sorts of situations those monsters would be in.
I've had a request from one of my players to not roll their own investigation or persuasion checks. This is kind of like "passive checks", but I struggle with where this intersects contested rolls. The impetus was "skill check dog piles", where someone rolled low on a check to barter and then everyone else tried. Have you played in games where the DM rolls for players outside of combat? It seems weird.
Hi Eric! This article is a big one but it has both of the cases you're talking about: when the DM rolls and what happens with full-table checks. https://slyflourish.com/ability_check_toolbox.html I hope it helps!
Do you feel any allegiance to the cannon lore of a setting? I know you're a believer in not letting WOTC tell you what your game is but I was watching your Ghost of Saltmarsh prep (which I'm running) and as I watched you describe the changes you were making I thought, "is that Ghost of Saltmarsh anymore"?
Not really. I don't look back on how I ran Ghost of Saltmarsh with any regret. We DMs can stay as true to canon as we like or deviate how we wish. I don't think it's an injustice at all to change things to fit what you want them to be. These are all made-up worlds. If you have players who clearly know the setting, it's helpful for them to understand where those changes take place.
I’m setting up to run my first West Marches style game and was wondering how you would reward XP besides combat? I’d like to encourage my players to explore the great unknown by making it rewarding not just from loot but XP.
I know your asking Mike but I can't help but mention that I give my players XP for each secret or clue they "find". Perhaps you could give out XP for each "Fantastic Location" they visit. A few months ago, I watched Matt Collville discuss how the game is what we reward. In 1e we rewarded with loot so we had a lot of murder hobos. I want to more role playing so I reward for secrets and clues because, in many cases, they get that from NPCs in my game.
Do you have any tips for improvising banter and enemy dialog during combat? Thinking of what to have NPCs say gets even more difficult while trying to juggle the situation and manage the mechanics and tactics of a fight. Do you have a set of standard quips you rely on?
Great question! I don't have any quips but I have no problem hamming it up with James-Bond-Villain style monologues. You're right that we're juggling a lot during combat and its hard to keep track of it all. Spend a few seconds to remember *why* this combat is taking place. Put yourself behind the eyes of the villain. What do they see? What do they want? What would they say? That can be helpful to keep a battle from just being a bunch of dice rolling and be a real scene.
You often talk about creating homebrew monsters by reskinning existing monsters, and you’ve also cited 3rd party publications like Kobold Press’ “Tome of Beasts” as good sources of unique monsters. When would you be likely to use a 3rd party monster instead of a reskinned one? And how do you know what’s available - do you read the KP books cover-to-cover?
Sometimes I like to use a third party book for a whole section of my campaign. For example, I used the 5e monsters from Arcana of the Ancients and Beasts of Flesh and Steel by Monte Cook when running the ruined city of Eston in my Eberron game. I used Tome of Beasts 2 for monsters in a ruined tower of the Netherse because I wanted it to be full of monsters the *players* had never seen before to show the alien nature of the Netherese. I don't read monster books cover to cover (I rarely read any book cover to cover) but I like to give them a good skim to know what's in them. It's going to be hard with four different Kobold Press books! There are times where traditional D&D monsters work fine and times where you want to try something different. That's a good time to grab a third party monster book.
Hi Mike, what can I do when my players ignore NPCs that don't directly approach them? What is the TTRPG equivalent to the floating yellow exclamation point in video games?
Interesting question and an interesting problem! Hopefully players recognize the structure of the adventure or campaign you're running and know that when a quest-giver is in front of them, it's time for a quest. I think this is where setting up the structure of the campaign in a session zero can help and, again, leaning in to saying too much than too little. If your players are *ignoring* quest givers, that's a sign its time to talk about the kind of game they want. If they're just *missing* NPCs, that might mean you need to put them out in front of them more. The Coleville-style quest cards can also help or even something as obtuse as a job board.
Hi Mike. How did your Blades of the Dark experience affect your recent City of Arches heist adventure?
Being honest, not much. I already had a model for heists in D&D that's worked well for me and stuck to that. Breaking down a heist into the Mark, the Location, the Inhabitants, the Complications, and the other variables in the Companion has worked well. Note, I haven't finished it yet so I'll know more on Saturday!
What is the best adventure you have ever taken part in?
The most memorable was "Invasion of the Planet of Tarrasques" written by James Introcaso and run by him for a bunch of us at Winter Fantasy in 2019. It's the best 20th level adventure I've ever played. Huge in scale and scope and great fun. James is a master and I'll never forget some of the memories of what happened at that game.
What's your approach for handing out magic items? How often do you hand them out and do you mainly stick to the ones specified in the module or do you usually choose your own (from DMG, 3rd Party, Homebrew)?
I try to hand out one magic item per session or at least per adventure. This means just about everyone will get one new magic item every four or five levels of play. I use a mix of random and wishlisted items to keep things useful but also interesting. See page 33 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master.
I might change from online sessions to in person ones. As I have only ever run online DnD, what would be some tips to help with this transition?
Great question! I have a couple of articles that may help! https://slyflourish.com/lazy_dm_tools.html and one I'm just about to publish! https://slyflourish.com/tracking_combat.html Beyond tools I think it's going to be much easier to read the room and get players into the flow of the game. Watch them and see how they react to what's happening. There's no lag and tons of new data coming in at you in the form of body language. I miss in-person play!
What is the comprehensive Lazy DM process for taking PC backstory and weaving it into a published or home brew campaign to create a meaningful character arc for each PC alongside the main plot of the campaign itself?
Hello! I'm not great at it but my process is to write down the backstory info in short bullet points in the character's page in Notion and read over those notes before each game. Step 1 of the eight steps is to review the characters. This is the best time to see what hooks you can find in the characters' backstory that may tie into the adventure. It may be an NPC, it may be a secret or clue, it could be anything else. It's not perfect but it is lazy.
DM a party of six players. Once a party goes over 4 you have mentioned the power level of a party grows exponentially. Is there a way to assign some sort of value to each party member to help with encounter building & CR?
Also should mention the party is 2 Clerics, a Bard, a Druid, a Rogue and an Artficier with a flying Humunculus Servant.
If you were to host a 5-day (2-3 hours/day) d&d boot camp for kids ages 10 and up who are all new to the game, how would you structure it?
Hi Sherral! I have a friend who's done things like this so I'm asking her. I'd try to recruit some experienced DMs to run the tables as much as I can. Depending on how many kids, I might not run one myself and instead just help shepherd the experience. I might have everyone gather together at once to teach the fundamentals but I'd keep that fast and light and try to get everyone into the game. I'd run simple adventures at 1st level and do my best not to kill any of the characters.
Do you play solo RPGs, and if yes - what is your experience with it? Thank you for providing great value and perspectives to the hobby. Skål, KO
I do! I've played Dark Fort, the lightweight solo RPG that's part of Mork Borg, Thousand Year Old Vampire, and Ironsworn. I think they're great fun. A great way to get some D&D on without needing anyone else. I also think they're great DM training to get your mind to build stories while dice and stats are hitting the table. Skål!
Hi Mike! Quick question: you mentioned in a video that were thinking about adding a new "rule" to the Deadly Encounter Benchmark when it comes to PCs in Tier 3-4. Have you any updated on that idea? I remember that it went something like "if PCs are 11th-level or higher, the Deadly Encounter Benchmark is equal to the sum of their levels". Thanks a lot in advance!
Hi Helena! Yes, this made it into the Lazy DM's Companion as sort of an optional guideline if you needed it. Basically, at 11th to 16th level, its deadly if three quarters of the sum total of monster CRs is greater than the sum of character levels or, at 17th to 20th level, if the sum total of monster CRs is equal to the sum total of character levels. So its 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and 1 for each of the four tiers if that makes sense.
I've got a question about fronts! 1. When introducing Fronts in a campaign, do you show the players the different "fronts" and then once all are introduced they decide what to work towards? Or do you have a few quest givers introduce a few fronts, then after they deal with one, the other quests just get worse/harder?
What do you mean by fronts?
Have you or would you run an OSE adventure? What are the differences between the structure of OSE adventures and your adventures?
Hi Christopher! I've run old-school adventures in the past but not OSE so I really can't speak to it. Sorry!
What are your thoughts on milestone level pacing? My players have spent a ton of time in chapters 3 and 4 of Storm King's Thunder (I've pulled in a ton of extra adventures and random encounters). Everyone's having fun, but I can imagine that they may spend way more time at levels 6, 7 and 8 and then very quickly hit 9 and 10 because of how the story is structured (the rails kind of come back on later in the module). Is this a problem? Do I need to do anything or am I overthinking this?
Hi Spencer! Its only a problem if its a problem or you or them. If they feel like things are too slow or too fast, you can always change up the milestones. You don't need to follow the book. It's a nice guideline but you can change them up to fit the pacing you want. Maybe they gain a milestone for completing X number of side quests. Maybe they complete a milestone only after knocking out TWO of the giant lords.
Tips on creating an encounter with a vastly powerful creature like a Darklord? (homebrewed Domain, final chapter of very long campaign and feel like what I've planned is a letdown after the buildup)
Have you looked at making it with Action Oriented Monsters design? It’s a really powerful way to look at the monster combat. Plus it allows you to tell a story of sorts through the round actions. The other big thing is the lair. Does it change during the course of battle? What hazards are there?
How do I get my players (or my other DM!) to read the PHB and become better acquainted with the rules? Carrot or stick? I have asked kindly, slowed the game down to explain the attack modifier, sometimes painfully, I have been challenged on basic rules and appear as a Draconian DM for kicking two spell attacks as part of a fighter's Extra Attack. Most players seem to take an interest, read the relevant sections of the PHB, and never need this, but there are a few players that can never find the time or show the effort. I am growing tired of asking, pointing to sections, resolving basic character generation items, and having to stop the game to explain a longsword's damage. These players are 5+ months into this game and refuse to read the book.
Pat, I have players who have not read essentially a single line of any PHB since 1992 :) It's not worth expecting anything else from them, instead it's worth focusing on (and expecting from them in man, even tactical situations) those players who are willing or like to spend time preparing.
That database is pure epic, Mike! GJ, my pal! 🤜🤛
Thank you! I'm glad you dig it! I was really happy to make it.