January 2024 Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A
Welcome to the Sly Flourish Patreon Questions and Answers thread for January 2024!
Ask your monthly RPG-related question in the comments below!
Every Friday morning I answer every question on this post. Some questions make it to the Lazy RPG Talk Show, an RPG Tip video, or Sly Flourish article. Don't be upset if your question doesn't make it to the show – only a handful do.
As you consider your question for the month, please
search the Lazy RPG 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.
ask only one question each month.
keep your question brief. I love your stories but I get overwhelmed.
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Comments (132)
My group has reached the end of Undermountain, 75 sessions in, and we’ve made it to 20th player level. Last session ended amidst the final boss battle with Halaster and so the end is in sight. I’m pretty happy with how the final encounter is coming along and it should be a sufficiently dramatic ending. So now I’m looking to the denouement and I’m worried about wrapping up in a way that feels final and satisfying. By the book, Halaster comes back to life in 1d10 days so the endings suggested in the popular companion often revolve around some kind of twist all of which feel like a rug pull that will leave it feeling open ended. I do plan to ask the players for an “x time later” kind of story but I want to deliver something before that that feels satisfying. Can you give any advice on wrapping up a situation in a way that leaves open some doors narratively but feels really final for the players?
You can ignore anything the book says. Maybe part of it is figuring out how the characters trap Halaster or force him into a future of good instead of evil somehow so even if he does come back, it's not the same way. They still win. WOTC puts in shit like that because they don't want to cut off their own future storylines but that doesn't mean you can't. You can do whatever you want. Absolutely give the players a strong meaningful conclusion after all that time. Don't pull a switcharoo.
Hi Mike! Loved your BG3 video. My Question is: what do you think about rolling checks for players? Like if they come upon a hidden cache and you want to know if they’ve found it or not without them revealing the number on the die. BG3 does it all the time, as does one of my favorite APs, Blood of the Wild.
Normally one would use passive Perception for something like this, which I still recommend. But I think rolling on behalf of a player is a fine way to go for things like searching for a trap and you don't want them to know if they failed the check or if there's really not a trap. More here: https://slyflourish.com/ability_check_toolbox.html
Do you have any insight or opinion into this Alexandrian/So You Want to Be a Gamemaster "Xandering the Dungeon" kerfuffle? I read Alexander's book and I was VERY surprised to see "Jaquaysing the Dungeon" referred to as "Xandering the Dungeon". I know this is a technique near and dear to your heart, so what are your thoughts?
We've talked about it on the Sly Flourish Discord server. I think it was a mistake to come up with a new name named after him instead of something more open-ended like "engaging dungeon design" or "non-linear dungeons" or something less jargony. It looks really bad to name it after himself and I think that's what a lot of people had issue with. I can totally see big publishers saying it's dangerous to have such a core concept named after an individual from a legal standpoint, which also sucks. I don't think Justin intended to try to erase Jennell Jaquays's work and given we've seen things like a big obituary in the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/arts/jennell-jaquays-dead.html), I think it's clear her legacy will live on regardless. But yeah, it's a big mess.
How do you handle continuity issues regarding plot hooks in your Shadowdark adventure when several characters die off? Last session, everyone except for the fighter died in a very lethal encounter. Now the fighter is the only character that has a solid reason to even be in the dungeon. I had to come up with random logic on the fly for their next characters to show up in the dungeon within a turn or two. Now I have to determine whether or not I should try to incorporate dead plot hooks or just ignore them and make new hooks, potentially leading to an aimless game of Shadowdark with no clear direction or end.
Yes! This is a common problem in my game too and one I've talked about in my Shadowdark prep videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puaprZnCvX-twHdHHoiTebSD5 I've come up with a couple of tricks of this. One way is to tie the characters to a central faction – even new ones that come on board – and the faction is the entity tied to the quests. This way, if a character dies off, the new one comes in already tied into the same quest. Second, you can do the same thing but with several factions so a new character might be tied to one of a handful of factions and the overall quests and arcs are based on *those* factions. Here are my examples: - Akalaklik – Goblin Village – save the goblin village from the destruction of Almazzats and Mugdulblub. - Village of Wardenwood – Save the people from Mugdulblub’s Curse and from the destruction of of Almazzat and Mugdulblub. - Titania – the Fey Queen – Recover the artifacts of the Gloaming before its destroyed. - The Green Knights – Fallen Knights of St. Ydrith – Save the world and stop the corruption of the Knights of St. Ydrith. This way they have several potential ties to sets of quests that carry on even if a character dies and a new one comes on board.
As I watch you "D&D is not 5e" videos, I'm generally on board but have noticed a snarl: if my friends (who don't know rpgs) ask me to introduce them to D&D, I feel compelled to reach for proper, actual D&D. I'm totally happy using monsters and magic items from non-dnd 5e, but I'd feel weird handing these new players any book that isn't officially dnd. So, when I'm acting as a hobby ambassador to folks that want to "play dnd" for the first time, how should I think about the topic that "5e isn't (just) D&D"?
It is totally fine to run D&D! D&D not being 5e doesn't mean D&D is bad and we should fly away from it. It's all about us not depending on the whims of corporate executives for the joy of our game – and we don't have to, even with D&D. I think it's totally fine to teach new players using the excellent D&D starter sets. And we can probably play for months and years with them continuing to play D&D on their side while you expand out into other 5e products as you see fit. D&D Beyond is the only real hard part and, frankly, it's a losing battle. So if you're friends want to use D&D Beyond, that's probably fine, but I think its risky to become dependent on any one single digital tool and it cuts them off from using character options from other systems. I'd recommend they get used to using paper character sheets but I'm really yelling at the clouds with this one.
In the recent interview by Barron DeRopp with Kelsey Dionne, they briefly talked about allowing characters to create cannon at the table. Backstory can definitely do that, but how would you make that happen at the table without giving players carte blanche and making tough problems easy to solve by inventing things on the spot?
I think you can direct their questions and the areas they build. You might ask them to build a home town they came from that you didn't consider, recognizing that this home town is mostly off-screen – or maybe you *do* visit it. You can apply some boundaries based on the overall world but let them fill in the rest. Directing the questions is the best way. You might want a criminal organization and can ask the rogue player to fill in some of the details, playing some "yes, and" with them to steer it toward something useful in the game world.
Hey Mike a less serious question but I have current campaign in homebrew world that will eventually end at Level 11. However I keep finding cool high level monsters that would fit my world but would beyond the capabilities of level 11 characters. How could I use them in a game?
Not everything needs to be fought. Level 11 characters can probably handle monsters up to CR 16 or 17 – so if your monsters are in that CR range, they may still work as a big boss type monster. If they're bigger than that, you can reduce their stats using the table from Forge of Foes but I don't usually recommend it because it removes the true fun of a monster being that powerful. But the characters could *see* monsters that big. And really, level 11 is pretty powerful so they might be able to take on big CR monsters if they have some advantages. But you can always use them as scenery. That's a lot of fun.
Hi Mike, one of my players is struggling with the planning and will take a break from the game. We will run a one-on-one game to develop her bard but she was enormously involved in the story so she asked me if there is a way for her character to "be in touch" with the party while they are separated in the storyline. Note that we run in quite a low-magic setting, and the other PCs are going to embark on a long trip. Do you have any suggestions to let a split party still interact in some way? Or is this a bad idea?
I think it can work and is probably best handled between sessions with notes. Good old letters brought by carrier pigeons is a fine way to go. Setting up a sort of off-line between-the-sessions game could work for those players willing to invest the extra time.
Hey, Mike I loved your advice on “Awarding Treasure in 5e” last November (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD-YUVlCcJY&t=3528s), and had a follow-up question. Once you’ve awarded the treasure to your players, do you have any tips on letting your players spend that treasure (and especially, tips for giving them something to do with the non-gold treasure like art or jewelry, so they don't end up feeling like “equivalent to gold, except that it took the DM twice as long to narrate when we found it”)? Obviously, there’s roleplaying value in the players just being fantastically wealthy after discovering a major treasure horde, but that seems kind of thin and short-lived, and I’d like to do a better job at making the treasure my players receive feel more meaningful.
Honestly, not really. In my games right now they're not in any area where they can spend it really. I will tie some single-use spell effects to items so an item that would be valuable in currency is also something they can directly use. That's not exactly the same thing. This is something I'm not particularly good at. Where to spend money is a big hot topic for 5e overall.
I’ve been having fun with FoF, comparing monsters (from modules or monster books I’m going to run) to the CR baseline stats table to see where I can make adjustments so the CR is a bit more accurate. Less of a question and more of a podcast/youtube segment request: Could you go through a few of the 2014 MM monsters that you think are the most poorly calibrated and walk through how you would tweak their stat block to make them more in line with their stated CR? Would also love to see suggestions for replacing powers with ones from FoF. For example I’m about to run a mummy and I dropped the ongoing curse element of their melee attack (because a search for a curse remover would not be fun for my particular table)and tacked on some of the FoF Necrotic themed powers instead.
Good thought, i'll definitely keep that in mind! I actually rarely change the stats of a monster and instead just go with pure FOF stats and then add on some monster powers from monsters in a book. I'm running some higher CR monsters in my Wednesday game so I'll keep an eye out on that.
Hey Mike - I'm loving Forge of Foes, but lately I've been wondering if the inverse is possible: a "Forge of Heroes" book to offer tips for the creation of fully customizable classes and subclasses. I know that the balancing of that sort of thing could prove to be really tricky, but the payoff of being able to tinker with player options on a fundamental level holds a lot of appeal to me - what do you think?
I think it's a fantastic idea and I'd love to see folks work on it. It's going to be hard to get right but a more modular character building system along the lines of Core 20 by Scott Gray, Shadow of the Demon Lord by Rob Schwalb, and Cypher by Monte Cook Games are good leads. For example, what if character options were all feats but you got to select more of them? Or what if you separated out subclasses from classes so people could pick whatever they wanted? Balance is always hard but I think the idea is sound. What if a character was built from three big crunchy parts and they were completely interchangable? If you had twenty such options for each you'd have 8,000 possible characters in a pretty slim volume. I love the idea. I'm probably not the guy to write it.
What is the best and quickest way to address the dreaded "Main Character Syndrome" in a co-player?
Honestly, the best way is to talk to them. Address the problem. Make it clear what the circumstances are for both good and bad behavior. Make sure to stop them and focus on other players. Keep a list of the players and characters in front of you. Engage with the quiet ones. I'm not particularly fantastic about this myself but that's what I'm trying to work on and how I'm doing it.
Hi Mike. You have previously discussed that you prefer situational d&d and the theory that the world should not change based on character levels etc. I agree, but what do you do when your players come up with an idea/remember something that trivialises the situation for the entire subsequent session (or longer!)? If it was for a single encounter, rewarding them for ingenuity is great, but in the circumstances where their idea or actions will remove the drama for an entire session, I am concerned the session will fall flat (in my situation my characters went and got an entire NPC adventuring group to help with a small dungeon and story-wise there was no reason I could come up with on the spot to have the NPCs refuse) In this circumstance where players’ ideas risk draining the tension and/or fun for a prolonged period of game-time, would you then think about revisiting the situation to up the challenge or to add back in some element of drama (in which case, do you have a go-to such as surprise captured NPC or unexpected monument)? Thanks!
The shitty answer is "it depends on the situation" but that's not particularly helpful. Instead, try to develop situations where there *isn't* a single way to circumvent it or think about *how* it might be circumvented and work on that. For example, if hobgoblins have a big fort and the characters are trying to do some spy stuff, if they can fly or go invisible, that's a problem. But hobgoblins aren't complete idiots. They know magic exists. So they have people watching the skies and worgs trained to sniff out invisible folks. You can also move your keys around to shake things up if it's going to be too easy. This is about improvising beats more than removing their agency – so be careful. Here's more on moving keys: https://slyflourish.com/adventure_keys.html A key doesn't always have to be a physical object. It could be a person or an event or something else.
I have a new player to me, who only has some experience with TTRPGs. They're fascinated by the elegance of the system we're using, Shadowdark, and I'm genuinely excited they're excited. We're all new to it. They're confidently going down the path of optimizer. Which I have no problem with, but I'm trying to get them to understand and respect that's not the only style of play. I worry that with a system like Shadowdark, I can only prove their disposition correct. Other than luck tokens, is there a way to reward fun rp or story moments? Maybe a solution lies in opportunities for some wiggle room in the ruleset I'm not seeing after years of 5e. Where I can easily bend a rule a little to apply a rule of cool. I may be too new of a Shadowdark GM to see those opportunities, and I figure you've ran quite a few Shadowdark games at this point.
Often the best reward is the result that happens in game. If they do something cool, that's cool for its own sake. It doesn't always need a mechanical benefit. Luck tokens and offering advantage are the big mechanical boosts in Shadowdark. I don't know that I'd add more. I bet the luck system from Tales of the Valiant would work well, though. I'd love to try that. I think you have the same tools in Shadowdark that you have in 5e. It's 5e under the hood!
Lost motivation I am running 5 campaigns (thanks to the lazy steps) and everyday I was excited for session prep, but for a couple of months a player in some of those constantly challenged me on rulings and was telling me things they didn’t like about the session each time, so I was getting frustrated each time I prep a session because I felt it was going to be met with resistance by that player. I talked to them and they agreed to tone it down, but I feel like I lost my motivation to prep, which before it was my favorite things to do during the week. Any tips on regaining the motivation to prep?
Have you lost the motivation to prep *any* game or just the ones this person is in? If the situation comes back up it might be best to let them know your game isn't the right one for them and move on. It's hard but it might help. If it's drained your confidence for any of your games, you can build that back up by talking to your players about what they love and want to see more of in future games. Feed off of their energy and excitement. Maybe shake things up with a new campaign setting or even a system. Get back to the basics – the stuff you most love prepping and running. I hope that helps. It's a real hard situation to be in.
In March 2022, you first covered "The Intractable Problem of D&D Maps", and talked about how there isn't a great solution when it comes to time and cost efficiency for in-person map drawing. Since then, do you think you've identified other intractable problems in running RPGs?
I think published adventure style is an intractable problem. There's no one style that clearly works above all others. The same could be said for GM prep and running games – there's no perfect way, just lots of different ideas that work for lots of different GMs. In fact, TTRPGs are probably *full* of intractable problems. It's one of the reasons we have so many different RPGs. Listening to Kelsey talk about why she built Shadowdark and then listening to people who love 5e talking about how grimmer OSR games remove character agency – clearly different degrees of desire instead of one clear solution. Maps, miniatures, tokens, the tools we use for the game – all sorts of things are intractable problems. It also gives me a lot to write about =D
Bernie here. A while ago, one of my players told me she started writing a book based on her PC. Suffice to say I was delighted with the idea. I sometimes wonder how would a publisher like you feel if books or novels are created based on the adventures you design. Allow me to give a fictional example: imagine that a table of players uses your City of Arches setting, and then they decide to write a book about their PCs with the obvious changes in order to be respectful regarding copyright. Or, an author that uses some of your random tables for inspiration. Is this derivative work? How may a publisher like you feel if other works pop out from a table In which one of your settings was used? I suppose this is a question about what's your philosophy regarding copyright, inspiration, references and derivative works. Would love to hear more about it!
Hi Bernie! Players who want to write novels about their characters is totally fine. It's risky, and I probably wouldn't be too happy about it, if the book contains a lot of information about the setting of the campaign. I'd recommend the writer build their own world and background, shaving off the details from the main campaign world, and focus the story around the characters and what happened with them. That's totally fine.
Hi Mike, Some creatures (e.g. catoblepas) outright kill the PCs when they reduce them to 0 HP . This adds a different tactical challenge than spamming healing word. But how do you suggest telegraphing that 0 HP means "real dead" with this creature? Thanks!
I would definitely project this to the players so they know how deadly things can be. Have the catoblepas (one of my favorite words to say) kill something else nearby so the characters know how deadly it is. Instant death effects aren't great, frankly. I might transform them into effects that suck away a death save even if the character isn't dying. Teos came up with this for Forge of Foes and I think it's a great way to attack a resource often not attacked. If they fail their save, they take damage and also lose one death saving throw until a greater restoration or long rest.
I use a notion database for my campaign, taking inspiration from your notion template. I also use the 8 steps alongside it. I'm really happy with it, however, the one issue I'm finding is remembering what secrets and Clues I have dished out without the need to keep going back to session logs. This is also an issue with my session notes. Do you think there's a good way I could track these things or have any ideas around it. I know you have previously said campaign and session tracking isn't your strong point, but any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance ☺️
The question I'd ask is why you need to go back to old secrets and clues? If they're important, they'll come back up again. It can't hurt to review the secrets from a previous game but I wouldn't go back too far. It might seem like you're getting your hands around things but mostly it leads to overprep. The information gathered from revealed secrets and clues manifests into locations, characters, and NPCs. So I wouldn't worry about going back to previous secrets and clues. Focus on the next game.
Hello, late to this month’s Q&A, but I’d love some help with an adventure structure. My wife is running a game for a set of brand new players and will be running EZD6 one shot. She wants to build an adventure where the PC are unwittingly brought into a Multi-Level-Marketing scheme and after a reveal, they have to take down the hippy cult leader running the thing. Where I’m stuck is how to ‘trick’ the players into joining without it being too obvious and how to ‘reveal’ that they’ve been working for a baddie all in a ~3 one shot… is this too ambitious? Any conceits we should consider for player who have never role played before?
This is the hard part. You can’t assume the characters are going to do anything outside of the bounds of what the RPG is meant to do — like going on adventures for a D&D game. If the players are sharp, they’re going to figure it out. So how do you have the theme of the adventure still work even if the players and characters are in on it? This is like any mystery in an RPG — what happens when your smart players figure out in the first scene? What’s your plan then?
Hi Mike What type of media best describes the games you run if produced as a show/book/movie etc?
I always point at Deadwood as an example of the type of game I like to run — have a clear location with interesting NPCs smashing into one another like balls on a pool table. You don’t really know where they’re going to go. I also use Stephen King books as inspiration and recommend “On Writing”. Start with a clear situation and let the characters run wild.
Hi Mike, you mentioned that you are using Black Flag Roleplaying's Luck mechanic instead of Inspiration in your 5E games. You've also mentioned that you will soon switch your 5E game(s) to Level-Up Advanced 5E rules (or have you already?). In A5E, each PC has an "Inspiration Feature" (it's part of their Destiny). How will you reconcile Luck with the Inspiration Features? Will you run with both Inspiration AND Luck? Will you allow PCs to trigger their Inspiration Feature by spending a certain number of Luck points? Really, I'd rather ask this question after you've switched to A5E, and ask what you did and how it worked; but I know I'll forget. Anyway, something for you to think about. Thanks for everything you're doing for the hobby, Mike! I've been GMing a LOOONG time, but every week you say/write something that makes me go "hmmmm" ((thinking emoji)).
This is definitely something I need to look into. I’m not familiar enough with A5e to know. I know over on the SF discord server we discussed using three luck points to activate inspiration features. Basically, three luck points counts as inspiration. That feels nice and simple.
In a former life I was in cinema exhibition, and I still keep close tabs on box office analytics, release dates, movie-going trends, and the like. However, I haven't played Baldur's Gate 3 and have been too occupied the last three years playing D&D to be anything more than a very casual gamer! I can't seem to come to an answer to this question for myself... If the release dates for Honor Among Thieves and Baldur's Gate 3 were flip-flopped, do you think the film would have seen significantly higher grosses than we got? PS. I don't think it was as bad a flop as some analysts, especially those in the TTRPG industry, think it was.
I really don’t know. I can’t say why the movie didn’t do better than it did. Anyone who knew such things could make billions of dollars. I heard an interview with a movie producer who had been in the business a long time. At his retirement he said “I could have been replaced by flipping a quarter”. He said movies he passed on were hits as often as the movies he selected and those he selected flopped as many times as those he passed on.
Hey Mike, It seems like you’ve played/run a fair amount of convention games. What are your top tips for DMing a successful con game for folks? Thanks 😃
Good question! Here’s a relevant article: https://slyflourish.com/timing_and_pacing_adventures.html Biggest tips: - Pay attention to the time! Know how much time you need for the big final conclusion. Don’t take away from it. - Introduce characters — but do so quickly. - Cut the boring middle. Know what scenes you can skip so you don’t kill the conclusion. - Reduce monsters to 1 hit point if you need to speed things up – don’t “call it right here”.
I've read the Fishel brothers' book, "The Game Master's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying" and love the ideas for my campaign, breaking the standard bad-guys-act, good-guys-react model. Do you have thoughts about how your prep changes if your players are more proactive in the campaign with their goals, driving the story? I'm struggling a little starting out with this approach sort of waiting for the players to make a move to go after their goals. If I bring the objects of their goals to their doorstep to get the story moving, it feels like I'm pushing them to react and then I'm back in the standard reactive RP. Thanks for any thoughts you might have.
That's a tough one and one area where I don't think the 8 steps serve particularly well. It didn't work out that well for my Blades in the Dark game for example. I think I'd stick to what the game system prefers and then see which steps can help you out. My expectation is that the players and you build out much of the world and story early on and then it becomes more solidified at which point the eight steps can help you session to session.
I am currently running Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk for my group. In the later parts of the adventure, there are a lot of psionic monsters that can stun characters on a failed Intelligence Saving Throw (like Mind Flayers with their Mind Blast ability). I worry that it will be frustrating for my players to get stunned regularly and miss out on their turns in combat entirely. What do you think about enemy and encounter design like this? Would you change the monsters' abilities to something else?
I hate taking character agency away and so do players. In the Lazy DM's Companion in the Stress Effects section I have an alternative rule that works well: On a failed save, the character becomes stunned for 1 minute. The character can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of their turns and whenever they take damage, ending the effect on themself on a success. If the character's saving throw is successful or if the effect ends for it, the character is immune to this effect for the next 24 hours. A character can also choose to break this effect at the start of their turn by taking 4 (1d8) psychic damage per two character levels. A lesser restoration or equivalent effect likewise negates a stress effect. (You can also apply this mechanism for breaking an effect by taking psychic damage to characters who are frightened, stunned, or incapacitated.)
After hearing about City of Arches on the most recent show, I’ve been seriously intrigued to start looking into setting sourcebooks, especially City of Arches. My group and I play Pathfinder, what would I expect to convert in a setting book meant for 5e to PF2e? It seems like a setting book would contain mostly lore, and maybe the monsters would be game specific but I’m curious about your thoughts!
Hi there! City of Arches is very system agnostic so you shouldn't have trouble converting it over to Pathfinder2e. The monsters described in the book are recommendations and easily replaced with similar monsters from PF. I think it should be 95% fine. There are some 5e stat blocks but only a handful.
I'm running a series of one-shots for a few friends and want to encourage them to NOT use DNDBeyond to create their characters by rewarding them with an in-game bonus for doing so. I was thinking along the lines of rolling initiative with advantage or something along those lines. Any advice on what I can reward them with for not using DNDBeyond while not making the characters overpowered?
I would limit source material and add source material that isn't in D&D Beyond. I'd also have an adult conversation with them and ask them to do it the old way, without D&D Beyond, and see how they feel about it. Explain what the disadvantages are. My players have managed to avoid using D&D Beyond for most of my Empire of the Ghouls campaign and it's worked out well.
I'm considering a scenario where a city gets destroyed because the party did not think to warn anyone about a city-destroying weapon they discovered hidden in a dungeon underneath (they fled and left it intact). The party is traveling elsewhere so they're not in danger, is there anything I should consider before enacting some really dramatic cataclysm like this?
It's tough but really try to think how your actual players are going to react to this. Are they going to be be really disappointed? Will they be out-of-game really sad about it? Or do you think they'll like these sort of huge changes? That sort of thing can definitely happen in big game with big scopes but you don't want to ruin the game because players are going to hate that it happened. This isn't Fallout where you can load up a save game and try it again. Unless, of course, there's a way to get the city back. You could do the whole Descent into Avernus thing and have the city in another realm where it must be rescued. Or ... gods help me... time travel!
Hi Mike! I've recently started creating homebrew races for 5e and am interested in making some subclasses. Are there any guiding principles that you follow or resources that you really like that help to create interesting subclasses that are also well balanced? Thanks so much! I appreciate your time.
Hi there! I actually have never designed a subclass. I tend to stay away from player-focused material and focus on stuff GMs can use. So I really don't have any useful advice. Sorry!
Hey Mike! I love the undead section in "Flee Mortals," including the vampires (exsanguinating mist is great!). But I miss the "Shapechanger" trait. What was the design decision behind omitting "Shapechanger" and changing "Misty Escape" to a teleport? I'm probably going to add those back in, but I'm really curious to know what the reasoning was behind the change. P.S. Love von Glauer. Thinking of using his stat block for Strand in a CoS campaign I'm hoping to run this summer.
Simplicity was the reason. Vampire stat blocks can get so big and wordy when you put in *all* the things that make vampires vampires, like all of their disadvantage traits and whatnot. For Flee Mortals, I tried to focus on the stuff that would matter the most in an actual battle. There is, of course, no reason you can't add shapeshifting into your vampire – even if you don't change the mechanics. Just describe it as something else. Flavor is free and flavor is powerful!
Hi Mike, I just started learning about your 8 steps for the Lazy Dungeon master and I'm wondering how outlining scenes fit in with a standard dungeon crawl. Is each room of the chamber meant to be a separate scene bullet point or is one bullet point for the session just "do the dungeon" and then you refer to a dungeon map with additional notes and prep?
Scenes serve you. Often I have a scene called "explore the dungeon". Scenes isn't intended to describe every room in a dungeon – that's too much. Instead, what I often do is write out the locations on a dungeon map and just have a scene called "explore the dungeon" or whatever. So yeah, the latter. Welcome to the ways of the lazy DM!
Hi Mike I often have the problem that the Strong Start can feel forced. My natural answer to "Where does the adventure start"? is where the last session ended, and that end is always at a clear point, but sometimes in the middle of an adventure or dungeon. How do I get a strong start into such a situation without it feeling like something is coming out of left field? Love the work, about halfway though my first read of Return of the Lazy DM.
Don't think too hard about it. Ask yourself "what is happening?" Does an NPC wander into the room? Does an intelligent magic item speak up? It doesn't always have to be combat. If you're in the middle of a big dungeon or something like that, the strong start doesn't have to be some perpendicular angle. It can drive them further *into* the dungeon. It shouldn't take them away from the drive of the adventure, it should pull them in. As an exercise, think up ten possible strong starts in the middle of an adventure or dungeon.
Hey Mike! Our groups 5e campaign is ending soon. Group wants to try shadowdark! Super excited! Been thinking of how to deal with character death. I know my feelings are against shadowdark ethos but I want to keep the group together level wise but have consequence of death at the same time. My current path would be if someone dies the whole party would reset xp to 0 at the current level they are at. The goal is to make it so people don’t just Leroy Jenkins to get a reroll character and promote teamwork more. Is this a bad idea? I.E. someone dies at level 4 everyone starts back at lvl 4 with 0 xp and the new character joins.
Hi! For my Shadowdark game we came up with the following way to do it that's worked well so far. When a character dies, their next character drops in at the same level as their previous character but with zero xp. This way they don't *want* to die but it's not devastating if they do. We did have a player lose a character that was one point away from 4th level which was pretty brutal. Another died after having just leveled and lost only one xp. So weird stuff happens but that's what Shadowdark is all about!
Hi Mike - I was listening to your Readings and Reflections podcast episode centred on your "Bathe Your World in Lore" article. I really enjoyed it, and found your words quite encouraging as a relatively new DM who was drawn to TTRPGs by the prospect of building wonderous worlds. I've been working on my own campaign setting for a while now, mostly as a passion project but someday as something I will share with my players and other DMs. As I was listening to your podcast, I found myself wondering what you think about Wolfgang Baur's essay in the Kobold Guide to World Building Volume 1, titled, "What Is Setting Design?". While I think you believe a World Builder should freely build the lore of their world, my takeaway from Wolfgang's essay was that he believes World Builders should keep the lore to a minimum to maintain DM agency in using the setting for their campaign. I can see the issues in over/under baking the lore of the worlds we create, but I am interested in: 1. your view on Wolfgang's essay, and 2. how you have struck the balance when writing the City of Arches sourcebook. Thanks so much for all that you do for this community - wishing you the best of everything in 2024.
It's been a while since I read it but I do have it sitting right here next to me so I gave it a quick skim and I think it's right on. Understanding how the characters might get involved in anything you design is important. I think about this all the time while writing the City of Arches. How does this help GMs? How does this hook the characters? What does it offer to the group who's playing in here? I didn't spend a lot of time on the gods, but when I did, I made sure they had alignments and domains so they could be used either by the characters or enemies in the game. How will this stuff get used at the table is a very useful question to ask while you're building out your world. Lore is important, but how will that lore be exposed? What good is it? How does it drive stories the characters and GMs bring to the table?
Hi Mike, I have run an Old School Essentials campaign on Zoom for 2 1/2 years. So, you would expect the players to be pretty comfortable with each other. However, I have noticed that they don't speak to each other nearly as much as they speak to me. First of all, I think this is because of the online format. Second, I think it inhibits the improvisational aspect of the game (even more important when playing a B/X clone like OSE). My question: are there any tricks to encourage inter-player conversation while playing online? Thanks. I feel like you are the mayor of dungeon mastering and that is an important role.
That's a really good question! Online play makes cross-talk really hard to do. You can encourage it by acting as a moderator. "Bill, how does Throval feel about what Severok just said?" That sort of thing. Ginny Di's video about running online chat, I thought, was really helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-5M6JXzKzE
Mike, do you have any experience running either a West Marches campaign or solo RPGing using Mythic GM Emulator? Our group has been struggling the last 3 months to get games in consistently and I have been looking towards a West Marches campaign with multiple GMs for our next campaign.
Sorry, I have experience with neither. Sorry! A search for west marches games in the database pulls up these episode: https://youtu.be/1-zltP88JVY?t=3124s https://youtu.be/wTnybKce_5Y?t=2821s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0hiVQz96g0&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=1&t=2761s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyxLbjLu8No&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=26&t=2500s
Not a question really, just appreciation. I had a question about playing with short session times, and used the database and found a few useful answers! Seriously appreciate the work you've put into helping folks out. Cheers Mike!
awesome! Thank you!
Hi Mike! Recently I got into several situations where I'm in the position to GM a one-shot, either because the group is not playing a full campaign, they're system hopping or some people want to get to know a certain system (not only 5e but other systems as well). I've noticed that I'm having a hard time choosing the actual one-shot adventure (I rarely run pure homebrew adventures), either because I'm afraid it is too short, too long, not interesting enough, too "exotic", too high-level, too low-level (you get the point). I know a "perfect" (one-shot) adventure doesn't exist, but do you think there are certain criteria one can look out for to be able to make a quicker and fitting decision? Thank you and take care!
Adventures that have been specifically written and tested as one-shot adventures can work well. At least /someone/ was able to run it in a session. For me, I look for an adventure with a relatively simple plot. Usually it's low level or intro-level. And I look for an adventure I can clearly see I can tune to the length of the session by cutting out the boring middle if need be. This can help: https://slyflourish.com/tips_for_running_oneshot_games.html
Hey! So I'm finishing COS and want to do a homebrew for my next campaign. My initial thought was to homebrew a world. But after listening to you I'm thinking of using an existing campaign setting. Would you recommend just one campaign setting or mixing it with a few? And what published campaign settings are your favorite and would you recommend? Thanks for the help!
Either can work depending on what you want to do. You might pick a "base" campaign setting and then modify it with other settings. You can also talk to your players and get a feeling for what they're interested in. There are a lot of really great campaign settings right now: - Midgard - Ptolus - Southlands - Forgotten Realms - Eberron and others.
How do you talk with an inexperienced DM about ways to improve as a DM. A member of my D&D group is running a one shot adventure and the biggest challenges are that he's occasionally taking away player agency and frequently feeding us the plot. Examples include "You're standing outside a building. Now you're in the building," or "You see a box on the table. Do you open it?" What are your thoughts on being tactful with this inexperienced DM?
Hi there! I talked a bit about this in this previous Patreon Question: https://youtu.be/X82OyqvRJA0https://youtu.be/X82OyqvRJA0?t=2869s Stick to the "sometimes I feel like I don't have agency" sort of discussion. Do it one-on-one, not in front of a group. Do it in person or in direct video or audio chat, not in email or text.
Hey Mike! Have you ever shared info on your procedures or strategies about running a business? I've always been impressed with how efficient you are at delivering videos, articles, and podcasts like clockwork, and with how smoothly your bigger projects run. For example, the Forge of Foes kickstarter was a big success and was also fulfilled quickly and effectively. I know your usual schtick is making DM's lives easier (which is appreciated!), but I bet some folks would be interested in your thoughts on project management, task prioritization, and even financial planning when it comes to being a D&D content creator or when managing a big project like Forge of Foes. Just curious, and thanks!
HI Steven! I wrote all of my experiences here: https://slyflourish.notion.site/How-to-Make-It-in-the-RPG-Industry-3b2b2fd121204578b57bf1dd3deafeb5?pvs=4 I've also talked about the business in a few podcasts and youtube shows which you can find here: https://slyflourish.notion.site/Mike-s-Guest-Podcast-and-Video-Appearances-and-Interviews-9855624a6a504a02ae10353d192accf6?pvs=4
I've noticed that, toward the end of your campaigns, your Scenes section begins to include goals to be accomplished to bring the campaign to a close. I'm assuming that's a part of bringing the campaign yam back down to a single point, so to speak. Do you have any guidelines on when and how to start focusing on the end goals during campaign prep, and how you approach it so that the campaign still feels organic as the options narrow? I haven't seen this mentioned in your books, etc., but I've observed it for many of your most recent campaigns. (Oh, and Hi, Mike's Mom!)
I don't have any clear set time when I start to narrow things back down again. It's probably a copout to say "whenever it feels right", but that's really about it. Often the story starts to focus down on that big main elevator pitch. The characters are closer and closer to Strahd or Orcus or whoever the villain is. At that point I like to know what the big scenes are that are going to take me over that finish line. Again, like scenes in general, things can change, and that's fine.
Hi Mike! I was asked to run Strahd as a one shot (or to games in total), since you do that often I have a question: I own the adventure but I haven't read it carefully, nor run it or played in it, do you think it is worth to run it as a one shot for me, or should I try to find a vampire themed adventure, rather? There are lots of advice including yours, but I'm worried it would be too much work for a single game.
Sure! It is worth reading through it, though. Figure out what you plan to run in the session and focus your attention on that – typically the dungeon itself. Give yourself an hour to look at the map and read the room descriptions so you know how the map connects. Figure out how the floors connect. It took me *many* runnings to really get a feel for the whole castle. It's rare for any group to explore more than a quarter or an eighth of the map but you don't know *which* eighth!
Hey Mike, I have recently started a new campaign with my group, using the Tal'Dorei Reborn book as my setting guide. The sessions I have run have mostly been modules altered to fit the lore of Tal'Dorei. I am using Fantastic Adventures and other anthology books like Yawing Portal and Where Evil Lives. Me and my players have been enjoying this a lot. One thing I want to try is running self-made adventures in this setting, inspired by your advice to run homebrew adventures in published settings. Now, I have lots of DM resources in random tables, monster books, etc. but I find it very hard to confidently put together an adventure for a session that seems as good as published material. Published material has got a lot of hours put into it (art, maps, complex stories, etc.) and I'm left wondering how I could make anything close to that good while prepping my game in a reasonable time frame. Do you have any advice for designing and preparing specifically homebrew adventures?
I would grab an element from the Tal'Dorei Reborn sourcebook that you really like and build an adventure around it. I've built the Lazy DM's Companion to make it easy to build rich adventures by rolling or selecting options from a few different tables. Your homebrew adventures don't need to be as clean and polished as a published adventure but they'll still be a lot of fun for your group. Don't sweat it too much. Build interesting situations and let the characters navigate them. Follow the eight steps and see where they lead!
Do you think Wizards/Hasbro would be better off creating new settings with each edition rather than altering or moving settings forward? E.g. I would've much preferred Wizards use Tal'dorei (or an entirely new setting) rather than the Forgotten Realms for most of their new adventures. Quite often, as a big Realms player, it feels like I should report Wizards for breaking and entering with the amount of crowbaring used to introduce every single subrace into the Realms. It would also allow D&D designers a tabula rasa to work with, avoiding potentially dated or problematic tropes.
First, I don't think the core books themselves have a default setting – this is a common argument I've had with people. I do think it'd be in WOTCs best interests to republish and clean up settings instead of moving them forward. I don't think they moved a lot forward in the 5e era, for example. 4e with it's 100 year jump was ugly and full of hubris. I think a lot of them think it was a mistake. But I don't see that in Eberron or their other world books. But I don't know. I don't think we should worry about what WOTC does with a game world. I have a physical and PDF version of the 3e Forgotten Realms book and can focus on that. We have a lot of setting books from the days of old we can use.
Hi Mike, some of my table members will have to take off a few weeks to months and this might be an opportunity to play Shadowdark with the rest! I'm wondering how I could still make use of some of the 5E modules populating my shelf and got stuck pondering if there is any chance to make Out of the Abyss work for Shadowdark (it doesn't get shadowdarker in the Realms than down there...). I'm positive I can get my players to give the system a try, I'll run some one-shots with them first, of course. Given you've played the adventure and are now gaining experience GMing Shadowdark, I turn to you for advice: Would you recommend trying to pull some of it off, like the first part, escaping to the surface? Any advice is appreciated, even though I expect you'll recommend not to given your past advice on Scarlet Citadel for Shadowdark. Thanks for all the work you do for the community and hobby! Your GoS articles were hugely inspirational for my current GoS campaign, and I forge-of-foed my BBEG fairly early on when my players took the story to necessitate a first encounter with her.
I think it could work! Out of the Abyss is built in the beginning as a resource-intensive game where items, light, and food are scarce. You'll have to reskin a lot of stuff but I think it could work. Thanks for the complements!
Another one would be: how do you go about designing really good trials for campaigns focused on epic world shaping events. I want to build some sort of trial dungeon for my players where they have to prove themselves worthy heroes (not just combat + traps). Building memorable, heroic encounters, indiana jones-like temple exploration etc.
That's two questions! Penalty flag!! Also, I don't really know what you mean by a trial. I don't think I'd build encounters designed for them to prove themselves. I never liked that as a story arc. Let their own actions and accomplishments prove them heroes. Let their reputation precede them.
Hi Mike, Been first-time DM-ing for 4 sessions now and really like most of your advice. I might have bitten off a bit much with my first homebrew nautical campaign.. my group just aquired a ship and I made 12+ NPCs for them to bring along as crew and fill out proficiencies that the group lacked - each with different personalities, backgrounds, motivations etc.. My idea where that they could be sort of a sidequest hub for my group when traveling around my achaepelago and what not. My issue now is - how do I make my job easier/lazier running a large ensemble cast of recurring npcs that feel alive and my players can engage with? Sidenote: all but 1 of my players are first-timers, so part of my motivation for giving them a crew was also to build non-combat roleplay-opportunities for my players. Best, Rasmus
I think I'd focus on the NPCs the players seem the most interested in and let the others fade into the background. It's unlikely they're going to remember them all which means you don't need to remember them all. Maybe, occasionally, you bring one up who you haven't seen in a while. Keep a single page reference sheet with the NPC name and a one-sentence description so you have it handy. But I'd focus down on the NPCs that are most important to the characters.
Thank you again for months of great content for my ears Mike! I have a more technical question not so much related to the art of DMing itself, so please feel free to say that this is not really a good question and leave me to google better solutions myself. The thing is that we have a lot of tables and content that requires rolls, sometimes on several tables at once. I can see on the discord and in some of your articles that perchance is one option for automating this process. But I am wondering since a lot of the content we are also using are bound under strict licences, which options are safe for us to deploy for personal use (100% local storage no going to the cloud etc) to have nice simple random generators to quickly roll and provide the data from the tables. I have myself messed around with making excel databases of the Oracle (Character and Story Generator) cards, while that works it still feels a little clunky, so I was wondering if you had some advice in this direction you could share?
If you're using it locally for personal use, I don't see how you're really hurting anyone or anything by building your own tools. Sharing those tools online requires some careful thought about what material you can include and what you can't. The big question for me is: - Are you taking money out of anyone else's pocket? - Are you mischaracterizing your work as theirs? - Did you directly copy material out of their source? Hope that helps!
Good Mr. Flourish, I'm a semi-permanent DM who has surreptitiously (and successfully) replaced all of my 5e DM resources with Level Up 5e equivalents. It's made my life much easier and DMing more fun. Have you DMed for any Level Up 5e PCs? They look a bit more complicated and I'm wondering about whether some of the character options are going to bite me in the ass.
Im also looking to transition. Im new at DMing, but a long-time 3.5 player, so I don't mind the "advanced" elements requiring a bit more investment. What has been your experience with the change? What's the key selling points for you?
Hi again Mike! One of my players is about to take over DMing which im very excited for, but one thing has me a little nervous. hes adding 2 new players to a total of 6. I'm sure I will like these new people as the person taking over DMing has good taste, but our sessions are limited to 2 hours and I worry that is not enough time for a 6 player group session. How should I approach this?
I think you're going to have to see how it goes and maybe offer some suggestions if you think things are getting too bogged down. If they're taking the GM seat, it's their game and their choice. Six players is hard but doable if things move forward ok.
Hey there Mike! I have a reoccurring problem. I enjoy running one shots. Sometimes to introduce new players, try new systems, test out new books, or just because I find an interesting scenario. Almost always however these "one shots" end up being more like two or three shots at minimum. I recently ran "Lightless Beacon" to introduce my players to Call of Cthulhu. It was advertised as a one hour scenario. We managed to finish it in one sitting, although it took about five hours, not including character creation. We only used about half of the written scenario, although we reached a proper conclusion. Any tips for running shorter one shots, especially for new players or new systems?
One option is to always make them a small mini-series instead of a one-shot. I ran Blades in the Dark this way – planning to run it for just four to six sessions. This gives you a better taste of the system and still gives you the opportunity to try a few different systems without burning all your time on just one.
Q: What are your thoughts on old school fantasy monster book The Monster Overhaul by Skerples, My thoughts: It's my new go-to monster book...even though it's not designed for 5E. It's wonderfully organized and each page - I'm not kidding! - has incredibly useful (rollable!) tables and tools to support on-the-fly usage and pre-game prep. I've been playing a lot of solo 5E D&D lately, and I find that choosing a monster and using its related tables has taken my gameplay into creative and unique places, places I would never have ventured if I was using the 2014 MM, for example. Also helping me play solo is the Mythic Game Master Emulator, 2nd Edition...but that's a question for another month. Cheers, Lawrence
Looked at the preview document. Sounds interesting with loads of input for potential hooks and interesting story moments. Could you elaborate on the 'not desingned for 5e' aspect? how does it / does not translate? :) I use the AE5 and Flee Mortals MM and love the combo, but would like more fun tables to be inspired from :D
White room Reddit theorists will tell you there is a massive caster and martial divide in 5e - Being that casters have many options and can shape worlds, and martial hit things. Do you believe this is the case? If so, do you do anything to lessen the gap?
Ugh. The Martial / Caster divide. Everyone wants to pick a side. I don't really think much of it and in all the games I've played, I've never had players totally avoid martial classes. They're still heavily played and they're some of my favorite classes to play myself. If one wants more crunchy bits for martial casters, check out the Level Up Advanced 5e Adventurer's Guide which has a huge pile of martial powers that rival the list of spells. It also looks like D&D 2024 is going to have a lot more martial options in just a few months. We'll see!
Hi Mike! A question regarding puzzles. I'm not necessarily a big puzzle guy, but I see the value and fun they can pose for players. How do you balance player vs. character knowledge when as a group they try to solve the puzzle? For instance, a character might be a barbarian with negative modifiers in INT and WIS, but the player playing the barbarian might solve it at the table. For the story, does it make sense that the dim-witted tank solved an intricate puzzle, or do you measure their attempts with DC-based skill checks for hints and/or success?
I think using both options is a good way to make sure a puzzle doesn't become a complete wall they can't get past. If they can both use their *own* knowledge and roll a check if they get lost, that gives them a couple of different ways to get past something. I think it's totally cool to have a dim-witted barbarian solve a complex puzzle. That's a really fun story element to throw in. I'm also not much of a puzzle guy. I think they're overrated.
Happy New Year Mike! Have you played Baldur's Gate 3? If so, which specific design elements regarding its unique 5e interpretation (and implementation) approach should GMs consider or eschew when running their own 5e in-person game? Anything in BG3 that you think is overly cumbersome or sets an unrealistic standard for GMs to be mindful of at the actual game table, or with its player base that dares to migrate to in-person play? cheers!
I love Baldur's Gate 3! I'm about 30 hours into my second play-through with a monk, paladin, wizard, and bard to get away from the other default classes. Great times. BG3 definitely focuses on movement and mobility more than I like in my tabletop RPGs. I'm using Longstrider all the time on all characters in BG3 (Gale can cast it as a ritual so he doesn't burn the spell slot). Everyone has some item that casts Misty Step so they can get to pain-in-the-ass-to-reach places. One thing BG3 helped confirm for me is that having all the characters roll checks is fine and guidance cheese is also just fine. I also like how it customizes pretty much every magic item and has little kicker effects like "burning" and stuff. I bet there's more room for that in 5e if we can find a way to easily do it. I don't know about unrealistic expectations. I do enjoy setting up fun Dwarven Forge builds that have some of the verticality that BG3 settings have.
Hi Mike! I'm a forever DM who has only ever experienced the blessing/curse of running games with groups who have never played TTRPGs before. I want to be as welcoming as possible, but I can't ever get anyone to take the time to read the rulebook and I feel like it's really holding us back, especially with complex things like traveling and leveling up and spellcasting. Do you require your players to read the handbook? Should I? Or is it worth just pushing forward and keeping it rules lite? At what point is it their responsibility to spend their own time on reading the rules? (I know that's technically a bunch of questions, but I'm sure there's a way to have phrased this as one question! 😅)
or what to do if ½ your players are deep diving into rules and min-max builds, while others still don't know how their spellslots work? :D
Hi Mike, do you have any experience running classic adventures like The Temple of Elemental Evil, Against the Giants, Tomb of Horrors, and many others? These often appear on "Best Adventures of All Time" lists, along with Ravenloft, which I know is one of your favorites. I often feel that such adventures may have been innovative at the time, but don't quite measure up to today's standards. I have a few of them, and I don't know if I'll ever run them. Maybe I should give it a try. If not, I'm wondering what might be my takeaway from reading "classics" that may not run that well today. I'm just interested in your thoughts on it, and anyone else should feel free to join in this conversation.
Some are really good and some are more nostalgic than actually good. I think White Plume Mountain is pretty great. Same with Desert of Desolation. I've run a few classics and I think they can be a lot of fun, with more of a focus on the characters exploring things than big overarching plots.
Hey Mike! I got a new player coming into our western marches campaign that's been going on for a year. The current players have characters that are level 5, but for verisimilitude I'm starting the new guy at level 1. Also I love to see the high level players muster around the level 1s. Do you have any experience running sessions with wildly varying player levels?
I have not and if you're using any sort of normal experience point system, they won't be level 1 for very long. Sorry I don't have anything really valuable to add!
Question: Have you ever used a "Dungeon Turn" mechanic combined with inspiring random encounter tables to reduce your dungeons and adventure sites prep time? If so, what was your experience like? Background: I'm preparing to use a Dungeon Turn mechanic that many older dungeon crawling games used to relinquish control over when an encounter occurs and combine this with simple but flexible encounter tables (like Dungeon Masterpiece's "Devil Table" here https://youtu.be/ckhhodyCSMU?t=442) to quickly generate encounters I would have never considered before. My goal this year is to build my improvisational skills/courage and run more "play to find out" sessions where even I'm not sure what will happen next as a GM, so this feels like a great way to force my hand in those areas.
I haven't looked into the idea of a Dungeon Turn but I think it's similar to how Shadowdark runs dungeons – with characters exploring, random encounters triggering, behaviors being rolled on, etc. I think it can be a lot of fun. I still like to have an overall theme for the area they're in with some fixed encounters. I'll have to look into Dungeon Turns.
Hey Mike, I am currently rethinking my dungeon/location design philosophy. I have always focused heavily on combat, placing a combat encounter in about 70% of the rooms. Recently I have began designing them inversely by filling only 30% of the location with combat and the rest with interactive elements. I know that each group is different and that you can't make everyone happy; but, do you have any broad rule of thumb regarding the amount of combat focus in a location?
Good question and thought! I try to think about the overall situation going on at the dungeon instead of building it as a series of scenes or encounters. I also use the dials so I can add or remove monsters from encounters if I think the whole thing is going to be too combat heavy. For dungeons, make sure to include upward beats! Here are some articles: https://slyflourish.com/dials_of_monster_difficulty.html https://slyflourish.com/anatomy_of_a_situation_castle_orzelbirg.html https://slyflourish.com/prepping_a_dungeon.html https://slyflourish.com/beats_of_a_dungeon_crawl.html
Hey Sly, I'm starting a new DnD group next week. I'm old school, we play ADnD, 2nd edition and a bit of homebrew. My new players, 3 of them are former dm's and play current editions. I'm a bit worried they are going to want to do all kinds of crazy game mechanics that I'm just not interested in. I am open to pick up a few new things, but want to keep it simple, boiled down and focus on roleplaying. :) Any advice? Thank you:)
I think its important to talk to your players and make sure that not only are *their* expectations set, but yours are as well. What sort of game do *they* want to play? I'd have this conversation before you actually sit down to play. When I was running Shadowdark, I made sure my players understood how it was different from 5e and the sorts of focus the game would have. Overall they love it but some still prefer the character-focused high-power gains of 5e. They're not incorrect for liking that. I'd have an adult conversation about it before you start rolling things up so they know what they're getting into. Also THAC0.
Hey Mike, I recently started a city of arches campaign locally. We are about to have the first adventure, and I was considering 2 different ways to give them hooks for adventures after this one. The first way is to leave seeds in the dungeon they are currently questing in i.e. they find a dead adventurer with a map to some treasure but I wanted 3 hooks so that might feel a bit too crowded in one dungeon. The other option is after the adventure to say during their downtime they were approached by npcs with or found things related to the 3 hooks in the city. I was wondering if you had a preference between the two techniques (or a 3rd technique I missed) and any advice regarding either of them? Thanks! Love the city book so far!
I'm so glad you like the City of Arches! I'm hard at work on the latest big revisions! I think any or all of those are fine and I don't have a preference. You can have something as simple as a job board. You can have NPCs approach the characters. You can have them stumble into new quests as part of a strong start. Or they can find maps or clues in their current mission. I like to have two or three such quests in front of the characters at any given time and think that would work well for the City. I should make sure I have a section written on this question!
You recently had a video on lazy magic items, but how do you price items for players that want to spend their gold at magic item shops? My first thought was to base off the "potion of healing" standard with consumable common items at 50gp. But how much more should permanent or rarer items cost?
Level Up Advanced 5e's Trials and Treasure book has prices for magic items, including all the standard ones, along with rules for crafting them or selling them. It's an excellent book I highly recommend. You can see some of their work at their online tool: https://a5e.tools/magic-items or in their CC-released system reference document: https://a5esrd.com/a5esrd As far as ones you create yourself, you can assign them a gold value based on the prices you see in those resources above.
I’ve reached the like apex of where I’ve introduced the three main villainous entities, the players know the three fronts and are actively choosing between them when undertaking missions. How do you set up quests such that none feel like the “correct choice” when navigating fronts towards the end of a game? Long time fan, love the work you do!
I guess specifically trying to avoid a feeling of like, “gotcha” or “you picked wrong” when the other fronts progress.