April 2023 Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A
Welcome to the Sly Flourish Patreon Questions and Answers thread for April 2023!
Have an RPG related question you wanted to ask? Ask it in a comment below!
Every Friday morning I'll answer every question here on this post. Some questions I'll answer on the Lazy RPG Talk Show or turn the question into a RPG Tip video or Sly Flourish article. If you don't see your question on the show, please know I still love you.
As you consider your question for the month, please consider the following:
Search the Lazy D&D Talk Show Topic Database using keywords from your question to see if I've answered your question previously. You can also search Sly Flourish and the Sly Flourish YouTube Channel to see if I've done an article or video on the topic.
Focus your question on tabletop RPGs.
Please ask only one question.
Please try to keep your question brief. I love your stories but I get overwhelmed.
Thank you so much for helping me do what I do.
Now bring on the questions!!
Comments (105)
I started a campaign a year ago, next week I hope we will finish a major story arc with the party. Two of my friends wants to join the party - one of them is a fellow player from another party, one of them is totally new to the TTRPGs. Which level characters should them bring? The other party members are around 6-7 levels. I don't like DM-ing 1st level characters in 5e, and I think 1st levels are not really a good match to the veteran charaters. I'm thinking arount lvl3-5 for the new characters.
Hey friends! That's it for the April Q&A! The May Q&A will start up next Thursday (it's a little late). Talk to you then!
Howdy Mike! You've sounded pretty high on Shadowdark RPG, which I am as well. From the talk show released today, it sounds like your Scarlet Citadel campaign is about to wrap. Have or would you consider playing your next campaign with Shadowdark? I'd love to hear you work through your prep with another system and see how it impacts your processes and decisions.
Scarlet Citadel still has a couple of months to go so we're not at the end yet. We may run some other systems before we start into something new and I think Shadowdark RPG is on the list! So we'll see!
Hi Mike, Because we play online on a work night, and the group is in different time zones, sessions tend not to go for longer than 2 hours. Do you have any advice for running short sessions? In particular as episodes in a longer campaign, rather than one-shots.
Hi Rangdo! Here are a couple of youtube links where I talked about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW4py7k_ex4&t=2258s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB7-TEEFMCA&t=2883s Hope that helps!
Hi Mike, just joined and I'm really enjoying digging through all the older content and finding it very helpful! My question is about longer-term "conspiracy" style games. I want to run something like this for my players nad for it to feel satisfying, but I'm worried if I don't have at least and idea of what is going on the eventual reveal won't live up to the build up (JJ Abramstyle). Any tips for reconciling a lazy approach and not over prepping with making sure reveals of the big campaign size secrets still hit effectively.
Hi Grant! I tend not to try to stick an adventure into any one genre like mystery or conspiracy or anything like that. Instead, I try to focus on the next session, what the characters learn, where the game starts, where they might go, who they might talk to, what monsters they might face, and what treasure they might acquire. A conspiracy style game might have more intricate secrets and clues and more detailed NPCs with their own quests and goals than a standard dungeon crawler style adventure but it's mostly about filling out those details than trying to plan the conspiracy. So I'd say start with your villains. What are their goals? What quests are they trying to accomplish? What minions and heralds do they have the characters might meet? Then focus on the steps for the next session. Here are a couple of links that might help: https://slyflourish.com/thinking_through_the_eyes_of_our_villains.html https://slyflourish.com/resilient_villainous_plots.html
Hey Mike, first time poster. I am running two games currently and they are pretty good. However I keep getting ideas for new campaigns. The novelty of these games distract me from me from thinking about my current campaigns. I don't have time to start new campaign. Any advice?
Yeah, I definitely see that and feel it myself sometimes. I think its important to remember that the grass isn't greener. If you have a campaign you're into now, enjoy that one. Find the parts of it you like the best. Take ideas from other campaigns if you dig them and find a way to bring them into your current campaign. Modify your current campaign to include your own cool stuff. We can steal ideas from everywhere and often bring them into our own campaign. You can also keep your campaigns shorter so you can get to the next one. Focus them down. Get things moving. Hit the big beats and move on to the next one. That's an option.
Hello Mike, everyone seems to be releasing their own rule system at the moment, but can you recommend any non Wizards adventures. I don't know how good the Pathfinder, Kobold press adventures are and how easy they would be to run using 5E rules.
Try the adventures from the Arcane Library. https://www.thearcanelibrary.com You can see my spotlight of them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1033s If you want something bigger, check out Dungeons of Drakkenheim. It's really written around how DMs need material to run: https://ghostfiregaming.com/dungeons-of-drakkenheim/
Hey Mike, I have been GMing for 2 years now and have learned a lot. I was wondering what are your top 3 tips to give new and seasoned GM's?
It's more than three but they're right here! https://slyflourish.com/top_advice.html - Let the story unfold at the table. - Set up situations and let the characters navigate them. - Be on the characters' side. - Use tools and techniques that help you prepare to improvise. - Focus on your next game. - Build your world, campaign, and adventures from the characters outwards. - Pay attention to pacing. - Focus on the fiction first and the mechanics second. Those are in order. If you wanted just three, pick the top three. Thanks!
Hi Mike, do you have any advice for knowing when you need to take a break in sessions to catch up on prep or mental steam versus just stopping a campaign entirely? Mostly this happens to me in home brew situations when even *I* lose interest in the story I was telling. But I am always curious if I just pushed a little farther if I would find it again. Love your stuff, your take on Blades in the Dark gave words to a lot of the feelings I had GMing it
Hi Grant! For me, the act of sitting down with friends to play beats just about any other activity I think I'll need to do. That's the real game – not the prep. So no, I don't ever call off a game to get my hands around the story. Instead, I try hard to focus on the next session and making that a good one. We can break away from the main story to run a fun one-shot story that happens in the middle of the campaign or I work right away to change things so they're fun again. I also try to find the fun part of the next session. The thing that will really excite me, like giving the characters a portable hole connected to a moon filled with Tarrasques as a sort of doomsday weapon. But the main thing is getting together with friends to enjoy a game. I try not to lose sight of that based on whatever story is going on. It's not always easy but it's often rewarding. Ginny Di had a good video about burnout that's worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJcAKJbFTPA
We all have moments of brain fade while DM'ing, especially when the players throw several curve balls in a row. What methods do you use to manage them? e.g. I call a bio-break to give myself a few minutes.
Taking a break to reset yourself is fine. It's also ok to say "give me a minute, let me think about this" or even to gently steer them towards the fun if you had a fun plan. This past Wednesday I broke the cardinal rule by saying "if you head back out the tunnel you're not likely to find a better spot to face these creatures. Besides, I set up this beautiful Dwarven Forge setup and we're damn-well going to use it!"
Ive always wanted to run a supers campaign, but have trouble wrapping my head around the campaign content, from plots to individual scenes. Something about the genre creates GMs block for me. What tips would you give to someone new to the superhero genre?
I don't have great advice because I tend not to run superhero games myself except for very high level D&D games. Taking some thoughts from that, it's all about keeping the stakes high, threatening what the characters love, and keeping the focus on world and universe-level threats. Here are some links that may help: https://youtu.be/KlVeR6nmbt0?t=1999s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDMiwd7IOPM&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=6&t=2127s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egmrwp2dNhU&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=14&t=1440s https://slyflourish.com/sly_flourishs_running_epic_tier_dd_games.html Good luck!
Hi Mike, I know Curse of Strahd is near your top (if not #1) of the WotC campaigns. I know it has a great villain that is a lot of fun. However, it has some very deadly encounters, especially at lower level. Your comments on Rime and Avernus is that they take a lot of work. In your opinion, why does Strahd not fall into this category? It seems encounter balancing would take a bit of prep.
The deadliness of Curse of Strahd is almost all in the Death House and easily solved by leveling the characters one level higher than the recommended level. It's a very easy fix – far easier than the fixes I needed to put in place for Descent into Avernus and Rime of the Frost Maiden. Give the characters an encounter with some wolves on their way into Barovia, let them see Strahd as a direwolf, level them to 2, and the rest of it runs pretty smoothly.
Mike, thank you very much for your previous answer on running the final session for Storm King's Thunder. IT led me to a whole bunch of other articles of yours that were extremely enlightening. My question is: Have you ever considered publishing a complete game master's guide? I do have all of the Lazy DM books, and refer to them often. I now use the Lazy DM steps for every session I run, and it helps me a lot. (I have adapted it all into Google Docs, and Google Drive, but that is just personal preference.) Reading through a bunch of your other articles, it seems to me that if you consolidated your previous works, and a lot of information from these articles, you would have a very comprehensive, and very helpful, game master's guide. Something we've all been missing. I will let you know in advance, that if you made this, I would back it! 😄 Cheers, Graham
Hi Graham! My 2025 project is likely along these lines. When I put together the Lazy GM's Reference Document, it felt a lot like its own sort of DMG. I definitely want to refresh all of the Lazy DM material and likely put it into one comprehensive volume. I want to see what all of these new 5e variants do first and I already have my 2024 project lined up so that gives me time to keep my eyes open and see how things shift and change. I don't think mine will be the "all things to all people" sort of DMG but an *opinionated* GM's Guide focused on the style of play I tend to prefer and promote. So yeah, its definitely a future project. It's a ways off though and anything can happen between now and then.
Had already purchased the flip mat based upon your suggestion! Thanks so much!
Hi Mike! I'm returning to DM'ing a live game after a 30 year(!) hiatus. What surprises might I expect? Played lots of TTRPGs in my teens and early twenties; didn't play much at all for the next 30 years. In the age of COVID I returned to playing with some of the same people I played with in my youth, now via VTT. We've had a weekly game going for about two years now. We're now planning to gather from across the country and play in person for the first time. This will be my first time DM'ing 5e live and in person. Any thoughts about suprising differences between playing via VTT and live? Thanks so much!
Yes! After not having played in person in three years during Covid, I was caught completely flat footed for an in-person game! It was really shocking. There are a few things to keep in mind. First, make sure you have a good toolkit of the things you need to play at the table. Here's an article with some suggestions: https://slyflourish.com/lazy_dm_tools.html https://youtu.be/7dZrA2JKuYE A few days before the game, sit down at the table and think about what it will be like to run the game there. What do you need? Pencils? Cheat sheets? A DM screen? Maps? Miniatures? Initiative tents? I ended up filling a fishing tackle box with all the stuff I need to run a game and now I use that when running in person. A big question is maps. What maps do you need? How will you represent locations either overland or in an dungeon? A dry-erase flip mat can do you wonders: https://slyflourish.com/favored_accessory_the_flip_mat.html Hope this helps! Mike
Hi Mike, how do you prepare for the finale of a campaign? I have been running the Storm King's Thunder campaign for our group, and I think we are about two sessions away from the final encounter. The structure of the final chapter looks great mechanically, I just think this session should be especially memorable, not just one of many battles in the campaign. What do you do for these sessions? Cheers, Graham
Hi Graham! I have some links for you! https://slyflourish.com/ending_campaigns.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egmrwp2dNhU&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=15&t=4133s https://youtube.com/shorts/rI85hsuRx1g https://youtube.com/shorts/hsK1EmvIyzg
Hi Mike! As a backer of both "Forge of Foes" and MCDM's "Flee, Mortals!" I wonder if you're planning on adding any "Villain Actions" to your upcoming book, especially since you've worked with Matt Colville on his kick starter to create Count Rhodar von Glauer. Each project's early content releases have already added so much depth to my encounters, it would be cool to see some additional "action oriented monsters" bonus/villain action ideas.
Yes! A little. We have a section on building legendary monsters that includes a subsection on building action-oriented monsters in the MCDM style. Teos, Scott, and I were all commissioned by MCDM to write some monsters in Flee Mortals so we certainly had that in mind while writing the book. It's not a huge section but it offers some good actionable advice for building your own action oriented monsters.
Hi Mike! Hey, how do you feel about crafting in D&D? I see this come by quite a few times in homebrew rules and requested for the new edition online. People want to make their own magic items, for instance. There are some usable rules in Xanathar’s, that I must admit I have hardly used. Complete crafting rules that are similar to those in RPG Videogames would probably take a whole chapter. It would also make the game more about gathering resources, which doesn’t interest me personally as much. Should crafting rules be expanded? How have you used crafting rules in the past?
Crafting is one of those systems I hardly use. I'll put in quests and use ability checks and things like that, but I'm too busy to really keep up with it. I think, with the right players and right GM, there's a lot that can be done there; but it's not something I've really dived into. I know it's something a lot of players and GMs want. I think Teos and Shawn talked about the issues with crafting – that it can't be that much better or worse than finding a magic item in the wilds – which makes it hard to be good and useful. I think there are probably ways to fake crafting so it feels like crafting but ends up offering up items about as good as what you'd find. If you have one or more players interested, you might explore some of the systems offered by various 5e publishers and see which ones you dig.
Looking across games and settings, I see an interesting conflict. On the one-hand we don't want to pidgeon hole a specific heritage (e.g. dwarves are gruff, stubborn, and hard working). This can be important when thinking about diversity, equity, and inclusion - as a diverse group of players will have a complex relationship with stereotype. On the other-hand, from a story telling perspective, some settings want to emphasize the alien nature of these different heritages (e.g., mushroomfolk). When thinking about your players, how do you communicate that some character heritages come with role playing obligations in the same way that some classes do (e.g., Cleric's faith, Paladin's oath, and Warlock's pact).
I don't think I'd push too hard on roleplaying obligations. The players can choose how to roleplay their characters regardless of the species or background they choose. I always try to reinforce particular behaviors by a region or a particular sect, like a religious group, instead of by a species. Dwarves may not all be gruff and stubborn and hard working but those Dwarves of Moradin hanging out in Mithral Hall sure are. It's their *culture*, not their racial bioessentialism. Other dwarves may love the outsdoors and building boats.
Hey Mike, I have been running Curse of Strahd for 2 years with three different groups. Over that time I've built up a huge database of stuff from my prep. Character profiles, quest outlines, guild and cult breakdowns, suggestions, and a bunch of tips and tricks I've discovered on my journey. I've taken elements from Mandy's Mod and Reloaded as well as my own ideas and writing. Basically, I'd like to release it as some kind of DM toolkit for anyone looking to run CoS themselves. The problem is that I don't know where I stand legally if I want to release it for free/to patreons/for donations. How do I traverse these murky copyright waters? Help!
I'm not a lawyer so take this with a grain of salt. The more material you directly copied from Curse of Strahd, particularly images or big blocks of text, the more in danger you are. The more it's your own work and your own notes, the less danger you are. I haven't looked at it but WOTC does have a fan site policy if you want to see. That doesn't cover everything but it can give you an idea. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
Hi Mike! I've been working more on my setting for an urban sandbox game, and have a clearer idea of the city. I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from Gideon the Ninth, Blades in the Dark and the Malazan Book of the Fallen book series I'm currently reading. I really like the dark fantasy vibes, but I wondered if you had any advice for keeping things from getting too dark and heavy? I still want my players to look forward to the game as an escape, and worry that if I lean too much on the dark fantasy themes the game may start feeling more like emotional labour.
Keep a handle on those upward beats! Introduce fun and funny NPCs. Give the characters shining points of light to witness. Here are some articles with some ideas: https://slyflourish.com/beats_of_a_dungeon_crawl.html https://slyflourish.com/upward_and_downward_beats.html The atmosphere is really what you and your players bring to the table. Sometimes a game you expect to focus on horror ends up being slapstick. You have a lot of control over this as you run the game. Good luck!
Oh...I guess I was wondering if you knew of any other conventions or game days in the DC/Mid-Atlantic area? Thanks.
None that jump out to me. Sorry!
Hey Mike. I recently noticed that that you and your wife are signed up to play in one of the games that I'm running at an upcoming convention. I've been a fan of your work for several years now and I look forward to GMing a game for you all. That being said, I suppose that I don't really have a question. 😀. Just wanted to say that I'm looking forward to the opportunity and to the return to convention gaming.
Yay! We're looking forward to it! It's our first in-person convention since 2020.
Given the controversy over half-elves and half-orcs; is there any reason you couldn't just have an elf with a shield dwarf subrace (for example)?
Nope! All of the current 5e designs seem to be heading in this direction – a direction I first saw in the supplement Ancestries and Culture on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/314622/Ancestry--Culture-An-Alternative-to-Race-in-5e
Hi Mike, i dont know if you have ever used mythic monsters but do you have any advice on building your own mytic monsters ? Ive tried to do it with reskinning but need a lower challenge than what i can reskin. I feel like the CR math for ballancing mythic monsters might not be the best, (2xCR) how would you look at balancing a mythic monster? Thanks
Ah yeah! I don't think it's actually too hard. First, you basically refresh its hit points. So when it would normally die, it instead transforms into something else. Second, you decide what new abilities it has after it transforms. CR-wise, it counts as two monsters of the same CR but they're fought first and second so it's not doubling the total CR for encounter building math. It's more like a double-length encounter. We have some mythic monsters in our Fantastic Lairs bestiary you can check out: https://slyflourish_content.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fantastic_lairs_monster_appendix.pdf You can also look at elite monsters in Level Up 5e. They're basically mythic monsters: https://a5e.tools/monster-tags/elite
Hi Mike, I was one of the recipients of the last “After School RPG” grant and we would like to yank you once again for giving those grants back to the community! Our club has gone from strength to strength with a lot of kids being super excited to play. My question is, do you have any advice on how to provide, not for one constant group, but for a growing community at large? We are expanding in ways I never expected and we have plenty of time and hands for the additional work!
Hi Christopher! I'm so glad it's been working out! Thank you for getting back in touch! Train the trainers is my advice. Build DMs. Fuel them to put together groups. Get them talking to others to fuel even more DMs. The DM is the focus of every D&D game so the more of them are well-trained to find players and put together games, the better. Think of it like a 3d printer built to print more 3d printers. Build DMs who, in turn, build more DMs. That's actually something I need to think more about.
Hi Mike! Halfway through 2022 I started a new campaign and I made a goal for myself: Make better and more interesting combat encounters. With the way of the Lazy GM and some of your other advice, as well as a bunch of other reading I accomplished my goal! Combat encounters were interesting and folks loved them. Now my campaign is about to do a restart after a small break, time for a new goal. I've noticed that I really struggle with NPCs. I can't find ways of making them interesting/unique, giving them a personality/voice, keeping their reason for the conversation in mind, keeping their secrets/clues straight and having a conversation all at the same time. There is just too much. As such, a lot of my NPCs have fallen flat recently as I lose one of the above. The Lazy GM's guide says all you need a connection to a story and an archetype, but that hasn't been enough for me and I can't figure out a different outline that helps. So how do you keep it all straight? Thanks.
Being a lazy dm, I really do just half-ass NPCs. I think some of them will be more interesting to the players than others. I think there are a bunch of things you can do to try to enrich NPCs. Here are a few suggestions beyond the basics: - Pick a cool name. Spend some time and make sure its memorable and interesting. - Give them a picture. Go find some art and show it to the players. - Choose an archetype from fiction. Get the voice and mannerisms from that character. This adds a lot of detail for not a lot of work. - Choose a goal and motivation. What do they want? - Choose how they react to typical interaction styles. Are they easily intimidated? Flattered? Better to speak to frankly and matter-of-fact? There are a bunch of NPC personality type generators you can play with to see which attributes help you build a fun NPC. The big thing, for me, is that I don't know which NPCs are going to resonate with the players so I just put out a lot of them and see who works. The ones with the above help a lot and pictures help a ton.
Hi Mike! I’ve been thinking about the WOTC announcement that they plan to drop half-elf as a race/species option. As a mixed biracial East Asian and white person, I attached very strongly to Tanis Half-Elven growing up. I can see the problems with “half”-races and with Tanis’s backstory more generally (I don’t call myself half-Asian anymore), but I think it’s a mistake to just drop half-elf without offering another option that helps mixed race folks feel seen and included, with a clear “home” in D&D’s race/species system. I don’t want the rules to effectively erase mixed ancestries because half-races is problematic. Do you have any ideas for alternative approaches, possibly explicit additional rules or characteristics under each race/species for if one is mixed and partly of that race/species?
Hi Will. I don't think there's any risk of mixed-race mixed-species characters going away. Every new variant of 5e I've seen, including the One D&D Playtest and Tashas and Level Up Advanced 5e and Tales of the Valiant include options for mixed-race species or heritages. They're just getting rid of term "half-x" and the specific species or race instances of things like half-elf or half-orc. I think the new systems are far more flexible to let players build the types of characters they want. I think Tanis Half-elven can still have a place in the D&D in the future. A mixed-species human and elf is certainly possible with the new D&D update and any of the other 5e systems I've seen.
Hi Mike! I am having issues with my group running after the shiny new toy of each session, instead of following up on threads from sessions before. For example, I am running Rime of the Frostmaiden and my characters are level 3. I had Dzaan’s journal mention Revel’s End and Vaelish just to lay more foreshadowing, and the characters immediately want to go there. Meanwhile there are plenty of other quests I have mentioned that they have seemingly no interest in within Ten-Towns. How do you tell your players that going to Revel’s End at level 3 is not a good idea without feeling like your railroading them?
Hi Blake! One way to help with this is to not put out anything they can't yet go to. You can foreshadow it but make it clear they don't have enough information to go forward. You can also "just tell them". "You're confident that Revel's End is beyond you at this point in your journey". The other thing you can do is just let them go there. Keep the game more sandboxy and let them go wherever they want. If they get there and it's too hard, if you foreshadowed it right, that should be ok.
Hi Mike! This is more of a broad question but how do you get get your self situated to write and prep for your sessions? I find myself thinking about ideas and the skeleton of the session but don’t actually sit down and write until the last second. Is a consistent way you “get ready” to get ready for your session?
Finding the right time, I think. Sunday is easy, I do it during my talk show at 9am before the game at noon. For my Wednesday game I do it some on Tuesday and some on Wednesday usually. For my Saturday game I do it during the day. I don't really have a ritual other than "ok, time to prep the game". I think, for me, knowing what the outline is that I need to fill out helps a lot. Don't overthink it.
Hello, I have recently moved into playing other systems like Cyberpunk and I wondered: How can we apply spiral campaign/world building to other games?
I think the concepts of spiral campaign development can work for most RPGs that don't have their own rigid structure for campaign building. A lot of the concepts for spiral campaign development came from Powered-by-the-Apocalypse games like Apocalypse World and Dungeon World. Games like Blades in the Dark have their own campaign / adventure building system but even those are still pretty spiral. I don't think there's anything special you have to do whatever genre of RPG you happen to be running.
Any tips on running smaller party games at higher tiers? My two player plus DM campaign is about to move up to level 5, and I’m concerned about the complexity bump of the types of challenges typical beyond first tier. My players, with just two PCs, are able to intuit their way through the more mundane challenges at Tier 1, but will 5e break down when they have so little depth of abilities and are facing more serious threats?
You can give them companions if that helps. I think as long as you keep your eye on the number of combatants, things should be ok. This article probably still works well above 5th level: https://slyflourish.com/balancing_combat_for_one_on_one.html
I was looking through your stuff / writings awhile back and I stumbled across an article in which you suggested creative ways to use terrain as a challenge for players. I believe one of the examples was a necromantic totem that cause an effect until the players destroyed it. I cant find it now. Any chance you can point me in the right direction. Thanks
Maybe this one? https://slyflourish.com/ancient_monuments.html https://slyflourish.com/character-focused_ancient_monuments.html https://slyflourish.com/zone_effects.html
I know you are running Light of Xarysis. How are you handling combat between spelljamming ships? With RAW, I find it clunky and untenable. In my first combat, I figured out that the opponent ship could just slowly widdle down the PC's ship's hit points by going in and out of range. If I had played it that way, the combat would have been slow and inevitable. Help! I need advice for spelljamming combat.
I'm handwaving space combat almost completely, describing things in the narrative and letting the players approach it however they want. I improvise attacks and skill checks and describe what happens in the story. I don't worry about distances. I don't worry about ship hit points. It's all improvised descriptions and ability checks for me and I find that works well enough. I imagine my players might like something a little more solid but such is life. As you say, the rules aren't great.
Hello mike, I am pleased that the Kickstarter is going so well, very pleased for you. What is your thoughts in relation to AI in the TTRPG world, not just D and D but right across. As an experiment I asked Chat GDP to give me a level 1 D and D one shot using 5e rules and it was solid. It had stats for the enemies (Goblins obviously) Minions and Boss, a motivation for going, everything that a GM might need, It was 2 min game prep. Have you tried it? What do you feel the impact will be in the very near future?
Predictions are hard – especially about the future. I don't know what it means yet. I don't know anyone really knows yet. Some people will be right with their predictions by sheer luck. I've been playing a lot with Chat GPT and I like it a lot. I know it's definitely controversial. Good friends of mine don't like it at all. Good or bad, I think its inevitable, so why not get ahead of it instead of trying to resist the tide? I think its a great way to get ideas. It seems to do a pretty good job at parsing text and making nicely formatted stat blocks. It's pretty terrible with facts. Someone posted that it tries to make an answer that looks right more than trying to get the right answer. Sometimes we marvel at how well it speaks instead of realizing it didn't say anything. Often fantasy prompts are pretty generic and unimaginative. I've run through GPT-hosted D&D games that weren't much more than spiders and goblins in a cave even though I was a 20th level barbarian on the tarrasque-planet of Falx. So I don't know. I'm trying it out every day and still trying to figure out what it's great at and where it's going. It did introduce me to the prog / space rock bands Hawkwind and King Crimson though so that was a good thing.
Hi Mike. You've spoken before how good the future could be with different 5e versions (WOTCs whatever-it-will-be-called, Black Flag, A5e, c7d20), all building upon and being compatible with the core 5e SRD/CC version. I don't think that if each is truly compatible with the core version it would mean they would necessarily be compatible with each other. What's your thoughts on this? I'm somehow shifting regularly between 'that's what you want different version for' and 'this would be a missed opportunity to really get the perfect RPG system that everyone can use to their liking'...
A great topic and one I plan to cover on the show this very week! I think there are ranges of compatibility. Monsters are pretty easy. Magic items too. Subclasses are a little harder. Some independent rule variants can work as independent house rules (WOTC's new exhaustion, Tales of the Valiant's luck system). I think we'll likely choose a core to build off of – almost certainly WOTC's D&D (either 2014 or 2024) and then we can bolt on other parts from other systems like A5e's exploration system, C7D20's exploration system, monsters from wherever, etc. I think if they're compatible with 5e, they're probably compatible with eachother. Not always but often.
Hi Mike. I’m reading the GM’s Miscellany: Dungeon Dressing by Raging Swan Press. Right from the get-go they advise the DM to be prepared to answer the important questions about the dungeon, but then they go on to advise you to be prepared for sources for the players to find that information. I wanted to make a dungeon for my party that’s a completely unknown accident that they happen upon. How can my players find the lore of the dungeon without having NPCs to spill the beans?
Here are ten ways the characters might learn about your mystery dungeon! (I know this sounds like Chat GPT but really, I did come up with these): - Mosaics on the wall share the history of the place. - Old books found in the crumbling hands of skeletons tell of the place. - One or more characters notices symbols that tie back to a history they know about. - Armor and weapons found within the dungeon speak to a particular ancient history. - Ghosts whisper of the old days. - Old statues reveal history. - An intelligent magic item speaks of times past. - The architecture and decayed bodies of the location tie back to a history of one of the characters. - Magical illusions show scenes from a history past. - The characters find maps showing the empires that reigned before. Hopefully that helps fire off some ideas! This article can help too I think: https://slyflourish.com/revealing_secrets.html
Hi Mike. Have you ever run a very episodical published adventure, where each adventure is an individual mission in a different place. Do you have recommendations on how to add PC backstory arcs to such a campaign, without spacing the missions too much between each others? Thanks!
Ghosts of Saltmarsh is a little like this. I found ways to keep things hooked together with a large overlap of subtext going on (the Scarlet Brotherhood). I did try to run Tales of the Old Margreve this way but the geographic shifts in locations made that too hard and the campaign petered out after a few sessions. When you have a series of episodic adventures you're tying together, you'll have to wrap your own larger plot on top of it. Some other villain, some other conspiracy, stuff like that. The three-villain method of having three villains doing things while the characters are doing their adventures can help. But yeah, overall, you're going to have to wrap your own campaign blanket over the top of the individual adventures. As far as integrating character backstories, it helps if the backstories are tied at least loosely to the missions in the published book. If they aren't and you're already partway in, you might ask the players to come up with some motivations that hook into the missions themselves. Maybe drop in NPCs or items tied to the characters in the adventures themselves. Good luck!
Hi Mike, I hope your day is going well. I've been dming for about a year and a half. But my girlfriend has never played an rpg and I want to share the experience with her. What TTRPGs are good for a dm plus a player or for two players? What should I keep in mind when running for 1?
I really like Dragon of Icespire Peak and love one-on-one play. My wife and I ran a fun Eberron campaign. I think, if you want to get her into D&D, stick to D&D and use Dragon of Icespire Peak as your intro. Here are some articles on it: https://slyflourish.com/running_icespire_peak.html https://slyflourish.com/running_one-on-one_dnd_games.html https://slyflourish.com/framework_for_one_on_one_dnd.html https://slyflourish.com/balancing_combat_for_one_on_one.html Good luck!
Hey Mike! I have a group that I started for about a year now during Covid. They are all more or less new players and are having a good time. After a first adventure and now a bit of truly Lazy GMing, I am reaching a point where I find I need to "guide" my players better on how to play the game. A good example is treasure looting. I haven't had much, but when there was, I tried to always lay in at least one magic weapon/ammunition. The Potions and Scrolls were easily seen as magic items but the weapons were just thrown away (either traded or hidden in a backpack) without even the simplest request for an Arcana check (if not Detect Magic). How do I teach my players that they should at least be ready for magic being in these hordes, without telling them outright that this is a magical +x weapon of whatever? Especially now that they are looking to buy weapons since they have "nothing" useful against the newer challenges. Regards, Trick
Hi Trick! First, there's how you select magic items. If it's all random, they may not be that interested in the results. If, however, you tailor some of the items for the characters, they may be more interested. If your hammer-wielding barbarian sees a new cool hammer, they're going to want to check it out. To save time in this sort of thing, I almost always make it clear that some items are magical. Because magical items can't be damaged or destroyed like non-magical items, you can make them stand clearly out among a hoard. They're the *clean* ones. The ones that seem to shine regardless of the decay all around them. Even if it's a Conan-style scene where it's covered in decay but a few bangs against the stone and it's shining perfectly, it's still clearly magical. So that's how I do it. Show them its magical and then let them discover *how* through checks, spellcasting, and investigation during a rest. And make the loot relevant to them.
Hi Mike, I have a group of friends that have been playing DND for about 4 years now and we are mostly a skip the roleplaying and go straight into the battles kinda group and as a DM I'm thinking to introduce a more tactical oriented game. Do you have any recommendations of other systems out there that would fit this kind of gameplay better than 5e? Thanks for all the great content Mark
MCDM's new RPG sounds like it may be up your alley. If you're into theater of the mind or abstract combat, 13th Age is great for high power D&D. This isn't really my style of play so I don't know what other games cover this. Maybe Warhammer or Zweihander?
Hi Mike! How do you feel about Experience points for Gold (loot), in the OSR style?
I don't really have an opinion about it. I think if it's clear that is the drive of the game, it can be fun. I've never used it myself. My own games are far more story driven.
Hi Mike! I'm a new GM who is having a blast introducing new friends to TTRPGS. Have you published a guide on how to balance distribution of resources such as healing and rest opportunities? I bought Scarlet Citadel to follow along with your game, and that seems to value very scarce resources and forcing players to think about conservation. I tend to want to prioritize letting my new players see their characters do awesome things, so I reward them with lots of chances to heal and rest. Do you have a guideline for how to distribute these resources with the goal of maximum enjoyment for new players?
Hi Lance! It may not be the answer you're looking for but my answer is almost always "as many as make sense given the situation in the world and the ideal pacing for the game". Here are some videos and articles on the topic: https://youtu.be/WL3bmJi6res https://youtu.be/iCr1rxfYD6U https://youtu.be/CtxqFcjf9xk https://slyflourish.com/beats_of_a_dungeon_crawl.html https://slyflourish.com/realism_vs_fun.html https://slyflourish.com/handling_rests.html Hope that helps!
Are you interested in TTRPGs produced in non-English speaking countries? Are you interested in having your books translated into non-English speaking countries?
Hi Pipe! I don't actually speak or read any other language than English so I can't really connect to non-English RPG products. Translating a product is a big endeavor, even with excellent partners, and I just don't have the bandwidth to dig into it right now. Sorry!
I’m having trouble encouraging players to do much more than “I hit it with my sword”. One at a time. What tricks do you use to get your players to be more inventive and collaborative in their play and combat.
Good question and one I try to address in *Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master*. Two tricks I use all the time are: - Describe your killing blow. - Describe an interesting physical characteristic of this foe you're fighting? but you can also ask them other questions. Offer opportunities for "cinematic advantage" where they can make an ability check to get advantage on their first attack by using a feature of the environment. Some players use this all the time, others skip it. Always returning to "what does this look like in the world" can get players more into the fiction instead of just looking at their character sheet and rolling dice. Be aware, however, that some players just prefer to play that way.
Hi Mike! I'm lucky enough to have one player who really engages with their character and thinks about cool things for them to do, and especially to have (e.g. wants a mount, but can it be a deer? Was thinking about taking find familiar, but can i cast it on my sword so it talks? Thinks a lycanthropy arc for their character would be cool and fitting. Can we reflavour a cantrip to fit my theme better?). This is great in my opinion, and they aren't asking for busted stuff, being demanding, pushy or badgering. Problem is, none of my other players are as direct about their interests, or, when asked, are very vague about what their characters want (even when I've asked for SMART goals). I don't want to discourage my enthusiastic player, but I'm also hesitant to centre the story around them as much as their story-related (finding a mount, curing lycanthropy) might demand. How do I balance the interest and enthusiasm of one player, when my other players are less invested and more casual about their characters?
If what they're asking for isn't taking up too much table time, I think you can lean into it. Maybe it shows the other players what *they* can do and what *they* can ask for. You can also prompt them to try to draw them into the story of the game. Ask them to describe their weapons, armor, and spells. Use campfire tales to get into more of their histories, their thoughts, and their drives for the future. It's possible they're just enjoying the game the way they want to enjoy it and there's no problem. The only risk is the more invested player taking up too much time in the spotlight. That's always something to be mindful of.
What is the purpose of the Dungeon Master's Guide and what should be in the next iteration of it? Should it be a book that the DM brings to the table? Should it teach DMs (particularly new ones) how to build effective encounters, adventures, and campaigns? Should it contain a starter adventure built from the steps and tips in the book?
I tend not to think too much about what I want the DMG to be because then i'm almost certainly disappointed. WOTC's going to do with it what they want to do with it. Me worrying about what it *should* be is just going to disappoint me. That said, once it's out, I'll look for gaps or areas that aren't filled out enough – options they didn't include or variants of options they *did* include – and consider that for a publication of my own. There are a lot of ways to focus on this game and a lot of takes we can have. That's one of the things that makes this game so great. I'll answer your questions anyway, though: I think the DMG should help new DMs understand the tricks of running this game. I think it should offer options and tested approaches for building adventures and campaigns. I think it should include a lot of inspirational tools. A *lot* of random tables (which it includes now). I think it should be organized based on what DMs need. How do I get started? How do I build and run my first adventure? What sort of prep do I need to do? What tools will help me out? I think the DMG should be something used at the table, yeah, but probably not as much as other books. Right now people only use it for magic items and that's a shame. We'll see what they have for the 2024 refresh!
From a Lazy DM perspective, I understand you have a preference for published modules over home built adventures. For published modules that are written with the DM in mind - the Arcane Library stuff, for instance - it's easy to see why you would hold that opinion. What about published modules like Rime of the Frostmaiden or Scarlet Citadel that may be somewhat more cumbersome for the DM? Does that preference still hold?
Hi Pooka! I talked about this in a previous question here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB7-TEEFMCA&t=2305s Published adventures aren't easier to run or lazier to run but they're often better filled out than what we'd put together ourselves. Even though I struggle running Scarlet Citadel, I still get a lot of assets from it including: - A well filled-out general storyline and location details. - NPCs with art and info. - Excellent maps I can drop right into a VTT. - The structure of the overall campaign. - Art I can share for the things we're talking about. But it isn't necessarily easier to run than a homebrew adventure. I just would have to go hunt for that stuff myself otherwise.
As a GM and homebrew creator how fine a line do you cut between table latency and player option when creating a mechanic or subsystems that isn't currently available or isn't available in an appreciable way?
Wow. That's a hard question. I tend to avoid building subsystems whenever I can just because I feel like the game already has an interface we all know and enjoy (ability checks, combat, spells, etc). I don't really make character options so I don't have any great advice to offer there too except, yeah, you definitely want to think about whether you're adding more steps to the process. Examples are Twilight Sanctuary adding a whole other phase to every turn or summon woodland beings creating eight new turns for a single character.
Hey Mike! My players just hit level 16 and are strapping in for the final grind to 20. I know you've talked before about the pretty minimal tier 4 support that WotC provides, and I pledged Forge of Foes hoping to create some credible threats of my own, but I'm wondering if you could offer any advice on running high level monsters/encounters, managing challenges in characters that are basically super heroes, and any independent resources that might be worth my time. Thanks so much!
We definitely have advice in Forge of Foes coming soon for running high level games. First, remember that you don't have to have defeating the monsters as the primary goal of an encounter. Encounters and scenes can threaten other things the characters love, forcing them to act sub-optimally to save what they love. James Introcaso's Invasion of the Planet of Tarrasques, for example, required the characters to go save children from collapsing buildings while tarrasques were rampaging. You couldn't just ignore the cries of the needy! You'll likely want to jack those dials. More monsters, more hit points, more attacks, more damage. High CR monsters just don't keep up. Damage auras are a really powerful tool for keeping up the threat even when monsters are pinned down. Use lighting rods in big battles when the characters have tactics they love to use. Know what the characters fall back on and give up sacrificial monsters to those powers. Good luck!
Question about cults and secret societies, and I figure if anyone has the answer, you do. Party wants to join a cult/society, or the cult wants the party to do a job for them. How do they trust each other? A real cult would be pretty careful about spilling its secrets. Do you have any ideas for tests the cult would perform to vet the party? I just kind of did a "fast forward" -- party asked to join, group said come back in a few days after we run a background check. But I feel like I missed an opportunity. Wondering if you have any ideas that have been fun. (PS: thanks for all your great work!)
That seems like the kind of thing a Geas spell would work great. Does the cult have access to that kind of spell or are they too small for it? Another fun alternative, they are on a mission for a cult, the god might be spying on them.
Hey Mike! So some members of my dnd group that has been playing for about 2.5 years are moving this summer. I'm trying to get them to go online. But the DM thinks it will be too much work. What is your experience with this? Is it an easy transition and is there a vtt that would be the most user friendly?
It may not really be a matter of going online or not and more that the DM just wants a break. One thing you might do is run a one-shot or a short run campaign yourself online to show them all how it's done and maybe get your DM interested in picking up the tools. I know some DMs who just really don't want to run games online. For me it wasn't a choice. I wasn't going to stop playing D&D and saw it as an opportunity to learn a whole new and different way to play the game. I'm really glad I did and now about two thirds of my games are online. It's a different style, to be sure, but it certainly isn't harder unless we *make* it harder. Big heavy VTTs with dynamic lighting and all of that can take a lot of time. Quick maps thrown up in Discord is very fast. I actually now find it easier to play games online than I do in person but I still prefer in-person play. The most user-friendly VTT I've seen is Owlbear Rodeo (https://www.owlbear.app). I love it to death. Here are some articles you might read or share: https://slyflourish.com/awesome_tools_for_online_play.html https://slyflourish.com/playing_dnd_over_discord.html https://slyflourish.com/running_dnd_online.html https://slyflourish.com/owlbear_rodeo.html
What are your thoughts on running or changing the big reveal at the end of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight? The ending of the adventure just seems a bit confused to me. Why would players who know/discover Iggwilv’s identity free her given that she is an evil wizard; they may decide it is better to leave her frozen. Also, did you do anything with the League of Malevolence or just cut them? By my read, they don’t show up more than once prior to the Palace of Heart’s Desire. I’m actually interested in keeping them because WoTC has said they plan to do more with the League in future adventures.
Is she evil? I certainly never took it that way. I definitely changed the end of Witchlight when I ran it and I think all DMs should be open to changing it to suit what's going on in the group. Maybe the characters find an alternative to releasing Iggwilv that can still stabilize Prismeer. I hinted at the League of Malevolence early on, but yeah, they just sort of show up. I made sure the characters had heard of the league well before their confrontation in the palace. I also had my dreadful incursions so Kelek ended up being murdered by the true villain of my campaign, Vladeska Drakov. But yeah, feel free to change endings until you like them.
Long time listener, first time question asker; I’m a DM running a “villains” game, and we’re having a blast. Players have reached level 11, and will be level 12 soon. Any good tips for running this tier in particular? Game is fairly heavily homebrewed, and we have a good thing going with safety tools and know one another’s boundaries.
Hi Chris! It sounds like things are going well and I applaud you for having good safety tools for a villains game. At tier 3, it's time for world-level threats. Is there an even *greater* villain out there? Maybe one who the characters ran into earlier in their adventures or one the might have inadvertently released? An otherworldly threat coming and wrecking their favorite sandbox can be a good drive. At this point they may have made a lot of enemies. Maybe a celestial army has set their sites on the villains and begun to send their own mercenaries, assassins, and assailants? One fun thing about a villain campaign is that even the good guys going after them might be going too far. Lawful good is shocking close to chaotic evil if you take it just one step too far.