March 2024 Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A
Welcome to the Sly Flourish Patreon Questions and Answers thread for March 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.
Thank you so much for helping me do what I do.
Now bring on the questions!!
Comments (114)
Hey, Mike. I am wondering how you organize your on-going plot threads in your campaigns. I have 3-4 plot threads that the party are slowly learning about, but I haven't figured out the best way to organize these in a way that is easy to reference and build from during each session prep
Hey Mike, Would you make a word document of your 8 Steps of Lazy Dungeon Mastering available to patrons to download? It would make my life as a DM much easier!
Hey, Mike. Quick question on initiative. I find there is this sweet spot before my players encounter other creatures (i.e. NPCs or monsters) where I could roll for initiative, but I think that puts my players in the mindset or otherwise implies combat even though that does not have to be the case. However, I need a fair way to manage the advancement of time and a potential adversaries towards my players and also give each of my players an opportunity to make decisions without just steam rolling over them. Do you just use initiative or is there a better way that is less biased to combat? Thank you.
Hey Mike, What advice would you give someone around learning the tax & legal aspects of publishing their own content? "Lawyer up" is a common suggestion here and always applicable, but curious if anyone major helped you when you first started publishing in this space. Thank you!
Hey Mike, I was in the situation where I had been running games for a long while, but for the last few years, a couple of friends decided to take over running games because DMing seemed interesting to them. The campaign is coming to a close and it's going to be my turn to run again. I'm getting hot feet and want to start doing prep ahead of time, there is the obvious challenge of not knowing my characters yet, however I was planning on running the campaign in the Southlands of Midgard while utilizing the worldbook. Do you have any suggestions for how to best spend the next few months on the DM side? This probably goes against some lazy DM principles, but I was wondering if you had any advice for how you would prep for a campaign if you had several months to prepare instead. What would you be looking to comb from a sourcebook, and how much (or what) would you actually prepare?
I think reading deeply about the Southlands both from the Midgard World Book and the Southlands campaign book is a great way to spend that time. Keep a notebook or notepad or whatever and jot down any of the ideas you think could be cool. Start to think about which factions sound fun. Think about one or more main villains and what they might be trying to accomplish. Think about what locations might be fun to explore. You can do a lot of prep work without letting yourself get carried away into a *story*. You want to avoid building a *story* and instead taking this campaign material, finding the stuff you think is cool, and building it out into a larger situation that your own adventures can take place in. Think about taking this material and building your *own* custom campaign journal out of it. Just avoid supposing what the characters might do in the campaign. Build the situation.
Hi, I’ve been running a 13th age game for sometime, but I am struggling to figure out how to implement icon relationship points in a meaningful way that doesn’t overwhelm me. I like the idea, but my attempts to implement it to this point, have failed to catch either mine, or my players imaginations resulting in the mechanic being forgotten. As you’ve played 13th age I was hoping you could share how you interpret and implement the 13th age icon, relationship points mechanic.
Icon rolls were one of those things I had a hard time with in 13th Age. I have an article here that can help: https://slyflourish.com/limiting_icons.html I found that limiting icons to six helped – two good, two neutral, two evil (or so – not a hard rule). I had some icons the characters could only have good or neutral relationships with and some icons the characters could only have neutral or bad relationships with to avoid character in-fighting over icons. That helped a lot. Even if you're deep into a campaign, it's likely the characters have spent more time focusing on a subset of icons. You might have a mid-campaign session zero where you focus down those icons. I also have the players roll icon relationships at the end of a session so I can do some prep based on their results. Hope that helps!
After the completion of my second prewritten module I'm looking to start my own homebrew campaign. Something I'm not completely clued up on is pacing level increases. Do you have a general rule of thumb for how often PCs should level? For reference I'm planning on running weekly sessions of 3 hours with 4-5 players. I wasn't sure if there was a general rule that someone had written out such as level 2 after 1 session, level 3 after another 2 etc. Thanks!
I'm not Mike, but you could use XP?
Hi Mike! Due to a scheduling snafu, half my group thought we were playing on the 4th Saturday of the month, while the other group thought we were playing on the last Saturday of the month! I realized this after the fact and want to make it up to the half who missed our combat-heavy session by running a session in which, right before combat started, they were lured into a calm campfire scene by a mysterious npc during an otherwise routine foraging excursion. So here’s my question: since I’m trying to avoid heavy narrative beats that can affect the players who had the combat session, how can I run a 2-3 hour session that takes place during a campfire but focuses more on characterization and less on combat? If you have any resources or books to recommend, that’d be great too!! I do have Cubicle 7’s A Life Well Lived but haven’t explored it much yet. Thank you!
I think you can probably build a small single-session side story and probably carefully craft it so it doesn't overstep the bigger event of the other session. You could, for example, build a single encounter that has its own small RPG story and let the characters follow that. Try rolling on some random encounter tables during prep and see if they help you piece together a small situation you can run in three to four scenes. I just read this article today which had a cool idea for a mix of three potential encounters run in any order you see fit: https://cohost.org/chrisb/post/5319118-i-recently-had-a-con 1d6 Encounter 1-3. 2d6 goblins hunting bears. 4-5. An injured bear. 6. Roland, King of the Bears, with 1d6 armoured bear retainers, hunting goblins.
Hi Mike! Keeping it short: Im running icewind Dale and I really LOVE the exploration potential in this module. I've listened/read everything I could find about running exploration in 5e and I have to say I still feel like I want something more? I know it isn't exactly the lazy DM way but I was hoping to potentially borrow a system from a different RPG to use for a portion of my game. I've read some forbidden lands and liked what I saw but still want more. Do you have any suggestions of systems I can look into or of how to make exploration crunchier? Thank you! Love your work
If you haven't, I'd take a good look at the travel systems in Level Up Advanced 5e and Uncharted Journeys. I just did a video on both of these books and talked about them in my travel adventure model article: https://slyflourish.com/running_travel.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPcb85eqc3w That's the best I've got but there are may other ways to handle travel if you dig around.
I really like the idea of having 2 on-call players. And I understand your advice on being willing to sacrifice a little narrative and story for having players come in and out of the game. Also, it makes sense to sort of "ignore" the missing PCs for a session. However, how do you practically bring in on-calls so it doesn't _completely_ up-end the continuity of the story? Do you have players come in as different PCs each time they come if they're infrequent guests? Or do you have them pop in as a recurring character from the woods one week and then 4 weeks later, they appear in a haunted house, "Hi! I'm back!"? Or do you ignore continuity completely with PCs Bob, Sue, and Kari at the start of the combat, Bob, Sue, and Joe at the end, and then back to Bob, Sue, and Kari resupplying arrows the next session? Thanks, Mike, for all you do!
Now with your database, I think I found a bit of an answer
Hi Mike, Getting ready to run a Numenera campign after finishing my last one about 6 months ago. One trouble I had was defaulting to basic humanoids (Cultists of an evil moon) rather than using some of the more distincty and outlandish monster of the ninth world. What are some good tips for getting your head around some stranger monster for an RPG?
Keep the various Numenera creature books in hand. Use the random encounter tables they have. I think the later Numenera bestiaries have random encounter tables that cover all previous bestiaries. Those are really useful. Roll on those during prep and during play and bring some of those creatures into your world. Much of the fun of Numenera is just witnessing the weird world out there as the characters travel around. The characters might not even fight such creatures but they get to see them and that's pretty cool.
Hi Mike, I feel in most games I run I get a super stealthy character with an heafty stealth bonus. I know the RAW but I often struggle to justify targeting hidden characters with attacks vs visible ones. Is there a top or trick you have that might square that circle?
I don't think I have a fancy trick but if a rogue is constantly going in and out of stealth and hammering out damage, you can have creatures ready an action to wait until they can see them and then attack them. That makes sense for most creatures with even a little bit of intelligence. Also, the minute a stealthed character steps out of cover, they're likely seen. It isn't really possible to stealth, then break stealth and run over to stab someone. A stealth ranged attack is possible but only if the target is distracted. And, of course, area attacks still hit them. In larger battles you might have some creatures who hunt the stealthed character, chasing them around. And, of course, you can just let them enjoy being able to stealth around. That's the path they chose for their character.
Hi Mike My question is this...are there any Lazy DM tricks or tips for delivering improvised soundbites? I struggle to offer descriptions to my players without needlessly punctuating my words with "umm and Err" (if that makes sense!)
Hi Clym! I have a couple of tips. The first is, don't worry about it too much. Your friends don't need you to be perfect. Dropping umms and errs into your dialog isn't the end of the world. We're not putting on a Broadway performance – we're just playing a game. Some other tricks are listening to audiobooks. You can hear the cadence and effort narrators go through to read books. You can also read books aloud yourself to get used to it. But probably number one is being kind to yourself. Don't sweat it. The less pressure you put on yourself, the better it'll likely be.
It's your pal Chris from Patreon! You recently mentioned what magic items you give your players at certain level milestones. Something like uncommon at Level 4, rare at Level 11, etc. Do you have a quick rule for magic items by level for both creation and campaigns? I have a player whose PC is forging a magic weapon. We're following rules that we agreed to earlier about his ability to enhance the weapon to +1, +2, and +3 (based on Heliana's Guide to the Hunt). Now that the campaign is nearing its final chapter, we want to make sure he gets to finish his +3 weapon at the right time to enjoy it. Thanks!
generally I think each character should have a powerful permanent magic item at each tier of play (at a minimum) with an uncommon at tier 1, rare at tier 2, very rare at tier 3, and legendary at tier 4. This is a loose guideline, not a hard rule. If you look at random treasure tables, lower level characters have a chance of picking up powerful higher-tier gear and that's fine. You don't want magic item progression to be too symmetric. I don't think there's a problem working with a character to get them a +3 weapon. Give it to them with enough time for them to enjoy it.
Hi Mike, I run my weekly game on Tuesdays, so last night I ran a game. This was one of those rare sessions where my players all had a good time, but I did not. I rolled poorly the whole night so none of my monsters cool abilities went off at all. I was using incorporeal undead from Flee Mortals, the players acted scared but honestly there was nothing mechanically that should have elicited that fear. The players did not get to see any of their scary abilities. So I walked away feeling like my session was a failure. I was thinking about my encounter balance did I not use enough monsters and the like, wondering what I did that resulted in me feeling like it was a failure of a session. My players seem to feel the opposite. It has been a long time since I have had a session like this, and generally when these kind of sessions happen it is a sign that maybe the campaign is not working anymore. What do you do when you have a session that you feel went awful and you didn't have much fun vs the players having lots of fun? Do you think this means that the campaign needs to end to start a new one?
I've had nights like that. I didn't feel *terrible* about them but I felt off when my monsters really didn't do anything effective. I did ask my players who said they felt threatened but they *loved* destroying everything around them. I don't think that means its time for a campaign. You might want to rethink your strategies for challenging battles later on based on what you learned while also letting characters showcase their new power and special abilities. The higher level the characters get, the more they specialize in particular powerful advantages like blasting with sunlight, areas of effect, powerful turn undeads, tremendous amounts of spiked damage and the like. You want to both showcase these abilities and account for them with challenging foes. It's a tricky balance but your own experiences with your own group can help.
Hi Mike, I've been struggling with making engaging and dynamic environments for combat recently, especially with one flying PC and another who just picked up a flying broomstick. How do you make interesting and dynamic combat environments (that don't always involve adding a roof) when half the party can fly? Thanks!
First, give monsters ranged attacks even if they don't have them. Let them throw things or blast with spells or something. Second, flying creatures are great. Perhaps the characters trigger a nasty swarm of stirges while flying around trying to harass people on the ground. Bows, ballista, porcupine arrow throwers, spells of course. One thing to keep in mind is that in a world with flying monsters and flying spellcasters, intelligent creatures have learned how to defend against them. They won't be caught by surprise. And, of course, give them some fights where being able to fly is a huge benefit. They got it – let them use it!
I have a question for the collective. My colleague and I have been discussing running a campaign (we both play separately already). Initially we had a total of 5 people including me as DM, but we're now up to eight with random invites. So this Saturday, I will host six doctors of psychology, a Phd student also studying psychology, and of course me, their lab technician as DM. I know, I know, this is way too many people. And, frankly I'm pretty intimidated. I have a kind of a plan, which is to split the group, and get my friend to run one of them, while I run the other. And I was thinking that both DMs could collaborate on the world. The parties could be based in distant parts of the campaign world, and the action in each group would be largely separate. But, the over arching narrative of the campaign could effect both parties, and perhaps allow some interaction. One idea is to base one group in the prime material while another is in the Fey. Is this madness? Should I just tell half of my colleagues to jog on? Or do you think we could create something interesting here?
Hi Richard! Definitely consider splitting the group up. That's a great idea. As far as sharing the story between groups, that can be trickier. I answered a similar question on patreon here: https://slyflourish.com/sf_patreon_files_898123050001223/qa/?id=1001 and talked about it on the talk show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfkGJIZfP64&t=1885s I think you can run multiple groups in a single shared world without too much overlap and it'll run fine. Give it a try!
What is the secret sauce you use for creating generators for your worldbuilding or adventure building needs? I'm hoping you might have some tips or observations you've found while creating so many for publication or personal use.
I think its a mental exercise that gets better and easier over time. I spent a *lot* of time coming up with random lists for the Lazy DM's Companion and had some freelance assignments for Kobold Press (one of the Warlock books if I recall) where I had to come up with hundreds of random items. The more I did it, the easier it got. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough. Just get some stuff down and let your mind wander. Get away from the internet to do it too. Don't let yourself escape when it gets hard. Just keep hammering out ideas.
Hi Mike! I just listened to critical role’s one-shot for the daggerheart beta and the thing that stood out for me was the ‘team up’ mechanic. If you haven’t seen it, it appears that the mechanics are that the declaring player spends three of a ‘hope’ resource, both characters then attack and the best result is used. If that hits, their damage is added together. Their mechanic seems to work fine for the system, which doesn’t have static initiative and has damage thresholds. I know you have a DM focus, but do you have any ideas for how to create something similar in 5e? I’ve always thought 5e lacks a mechanical way of implementing combo moves with other characters, outside of holding your attack action or the occasional niche example. But it’s cinematic and cool. I also think it should allow multi-caster spell rituals as well!
Thought I’d follow up to my own comment as I realised I could just ask the community in discord. Most people recommend cinematic advantage, which is a pretty elegant solution and probably the easiest to implement. As I mentioned on discord, I was craving something more mechanical as it’s just how my mind works. Still would love to hear if you have any other thoughts on how we could encourage our players to think about things like how their characters might team up and combine abilities, even if it’s just for narrative flair as much as mechanical benefits.
Hello Mike. My players are in the middle of their final exploration of Castle Ravenloft. I just finished reading through the castle. My players were able to find Strahd's treasure and the magical items there (including the Helm of Brilliance). Now I have six 9th-level characters (including a Light Domain cleric who loves Spirit Guardians) equipped with powerful magic items (such as the helm, Sun Sword, Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, Markovia's Tight Bone...), and every challenge so far has been easy for them, even the anticlimactic fight against Rahadin. I'm following the book closely, but I plan to adjust it slightly for this last session to increase the difficulty. Do you have any advice on how to make challenges (both monsters and traps) in the castle harder without simply increasing the numbers?
You're going to have to beef up a lot of the encounters in Ravenloft for a group so high level and well-equipped. In particular, anything with sunlight destroys vampires. This article might help: https://slyflourish.com/running_strahd.html More hit points, more damage, more monsters, more attacks – of course. You can also add powerful environmental effects to give monsters advantage on attacks but I wouldn't use it too often or that will get stale too. Good luck!
Hi Mike, Where do you find your NPC images? I have an Informationhub Website for my campaign. I'd like to add some images of NPCs put I don't want to get in trouble with any copyright issues. I don't sell them or anything.
For home use, I use Chat GPT's generator for specific monsters or I just do a duckduckgo search for what I'm looking for and snapshot what I use. I wouldn't post it to the web, though – I just use it for my home games. If you want licensed art, check out the stock art on DriveThruRPG. There's a lot of it and it's all pretty good. It runs about $2 to $4 a shot but is licensed for commercial use.
I’m very taken with the thought experiment of “are secrets and clues not being attached to locations / people = quantum ogre”. I’ll just lead with my agreeing with you that it isn’t. My mind is drawn to the example of Lord of the Rings, and Saruman the White being a traitor at the start of the story. The party only finds out when Gandalf explains he escaped imprisonment, but the treachery was a fact regardless. So my thinking is if you were to run LotR as a campaign, the party could find out from Gandalf. But they could also find out on their own if the party decided to head south to Isengard (because that’s where Gandalf was last headed) instead of continuing to Rivendell. So all that to say, I find the idea of secrets being just “out there to find” based on anything the party does that makes sense to find that secret to be the opposite of railroading. It’s a much better simulation of good fiction.
I agree! I think sometimes people hang on too tight to what a secret and clue is without realizing it can change depending on the context of how it's found. It's really not quantum ogring any more than any improvisational aspect of running an RPG.
Hi Mike, I'm planning to start a new campaign with my family and I would really like to run a pirate campaign but I struggle with campaign outline and creating a path or end goal. How do you prepare campaign arc vs adventure arcs?
Hi Nathan! Check out Building a Lazy Campaign on page 47 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master: What's the campaign's elevator pitch? What are the truths of the campaign? Who are the main villains? What do they want? Then build out from your first adventure. Feel free to steal ideas from published campaigns and adventures, TV shows, movies, or whatever. Hope that helps!
Hi Mike, what is the carrot cake story? Shawn Merwin suggested asking you.
Oh boy. I'll save this one for the talk show =)
Mike, I have a question. I am a new DM but a big fan of your method, I am trying to use your style to run a new campaign at my local game store for beginners. As a new GM I am running a published module and everyone seems to be enjoying the game, my question is when running a module where do I end the session? There is a natural pause at the conclusion of some event like combat, which is where we have stopped in the past, but I find myself having to invent some out of module strong start for the next session. I could let them explore further and end just before combat but this seems awkward as the modules generaly follow an explore, puzzle/trap/discovery, combat order and calling it at step two seems anti-climactic. How would you propose ending a session when running a module, allowing for a strong start in the following session?
Welcome to the hobby! If you're running a continuous campaign from a module, don't worry about hanging onto the pacing of the module too closely. It's ok to add in your own strong starts or other ideas as you run it. Finding the right way to end a session at a good dramatic point within the time you have is a tricky thing to do and really requires practice and a feeling for pacing. My best advice is make sure to be watching the time or setting a series of timers so you're aware of the passage of real-world time. It's very easy for time to slip by and you not notice it. I often like ending before a battle because I know there's a solid strong start at the beginning of the next session but it isn't for everyone. I wouldn't look too strongly at the idea that there's a repetitive pacing to published adventures like explore, puzzle, combat. Too much of that can be predictive and boring. Let the story flow as it flows and try to find the best break point you can with the time you have. Hope that helps!
After you video referencing taking notes in sessions, it reminded me of when I played in a long campaign and played a very low intelligent Orc Druid. I found it hard to role play (Without being ridiculous) a very low intelligent player, so I deliberately took notes incorrectly, miss spelling names, mixing up locations etc, so as a player by the middle of the session I had little to no clue what was actually going on. How would you recommend going about playing a low intelligent / Wisdom PC, without role playing an amateur dramatics fool and annoying the GM and other players?
I don't think I'd dive in so strongly that it affected the game or annoyed the other players. It can be fun to roleplay the idiot but sometimes the idiots are right and have some inspiration that leads things in the right direction. Not hamming it up too much, I think it could be fun as long as you, the GM, and the other players are having a great time. Not fantastic advice, I know.
Hail to my pal, Mike! Forewarners, this is not a question 😉 Please let me show you the first LazyDM guide video in hungarian language 😊 We hope that with these tutorials we can help DMs who only speak hungarian and spread the word of the LazyDM in our country 🙂 I hope, U will like it, despite the language barrier 😎 Best regards from Hungary; Your pal, Rex/HeGe https://youtu.be/83_KkFDAENU?si=mlx_24x2rZDavquU
Very cool! Thank you for sharing!
Typically, in a high fantasy story the heroes will be successful in the end. The victory may not be complete. Sacrifices will have been made. But ultimately Sauron or the like will be vanquished. But in a game, the possibility of failure is always there. How do you satisfyingly end a campaign where the PCs failed, without having the players feel like failures?
Only a few times have I had a campaign look like it might end unsuccessfully and I usually had a back-pocket idea for how things might turn around and still be interesting. In my 4e campaign, I thought Orcus might win and become the god of death. What would that look like? In my Rise of Tiamat adventure, I wondered what would happen if she won. What sort of new campaign might that lead into? But in both cases, and pretty much all others, the characters succeeded and the story resolved well. I don't think there's any shame in that.
My players and I meet to play once a month (kids, work, etc.). Having only clocked 11 sessions in one year, I feel that I have to optimize our time and fun together. As we are playing a published campaign (Rime of the Frostmaiden), I've keep my hand on the rudder a bit more to ensure we steer things forward, instead of letting the story wholly develop through player choice. Normally, I dangle a couple quest hooks and let them choose and resolve them after quickly learning that they'll chase any shiny side quest I present. How do you think you'd manage a campaign with long breaks?
I think its totally acceptable and a find way to play to break things down into more discreet episodes like a TV serial instead of a flowing movie. You have limited time to game – focus that time on the most fun aspects and handle anything else off-line. It might help to talk to your players to get their feeling on it – do they feel railroaded? Are they enjoying how it plays out? I think finding the right model of giving them agency over their actions but then focusing each session down into its own discreet story can work well when you have long breaks between sessions.
If you were creating a new '2024, Vtt-only edition' for return of the lazy DM, focusing on virtual games and updated for 2024, what sections of the 8 steps (and the rest of the book) would you add, change, cut or emphasise?
I think the 8 steps work well regardless of the platform, which is one reason I think they resonate well with so many people. Having jumped in and out of VTTs during the pandemic and now using VTTs when I run games online, I don't think there are clear extra steps other than something like getting a map and tokens ready which I don't really consider a step because we can, if we set things up right, improvise much of it. Page 12 of the Lazy DM's Companion includes some thoughts on running games online that might offer more. In general, I think it's useful to keep the bulk of our prep system independent so we can focus on the important stuff which is sharing stories with our friends.
Aloha Mike! My players and I have our 100th session coming up. Our campaign takes place in the world of Exandria, specifically on the continent of Wildemount. Currently my players are on a mission to help impound a ship that is illegally docked outside of the city's port. If they help deal with the ship they get to "borrow" the impounded ship so they can travel to an island that has a legendary item important to one of the characters. For session 100 I would love to have something momentous such as an appearance of the big bad or a major lieutenant. However, I'm worried that I'll just derail the game by just placing the a major villain for the sake of the 100th session. Any advice on how to do this without it feeling that way?
Congratulations on 100 sessions! That's a huge achievement! I think I'd play it loosely. Maybe, when you're prepping for that 100th session you can think of something cool or momentous but I don't think I'd stress about it too much. There might be out-of-game ways to celebrate such an awesome event without having to shoehorn in a plot that doesn't fit the situation.
Hi Mike. I'm a little confused when it comes to the deadly encounter benchmarks. Say my players' benchmark is 6, and there are three encounters upcoming in a session/dungeon, do I throw 3x2 at my players or 3x6?
The lazy encounter benchmark doesn't span across encounters from one to the next. I'm not a firm believer in being able to figure out how many encounters of what difficulties one can have in a day. Let the story dictate that sort of thing. The lazy encounter benchmark is a loose gauge for just one encounter – not a series of encounters. You can use that to gauge roughly what the encounters your planning are going to look like. If you have five 4th level characters (LEB of 5), an encounter with only two total challenge ratings will be pretty easy. One of 5 or higher might be hard to deadly (but 4th level characters are right on that edge of being pretty powerful). Hope that helps! Jump into the Sly Flourish discord server if that's not clear.
Of the 8 lazy steps, ‘Focus on the Character’ has been the most useful for me. What are some ways (besides campfire stories) that we can facilitate our players focusing on the other characters?
Check a couple of the questions and answers above. There are some good ones up there! I think the more we ask questions that bring the players into the fiction, the more we get players into their characters. Ask them to describe their attacks and killing blows. Ask them to identify interesting physical characteristics of the enemies they face. That's not exactly character-focused but it breaks past the mechanics.
Hey Mike! I was wondering what your tables do to get into character for your sessions. At mine, we start with a roleplaying question for the players to answer about their characters - Like "What is your character's favorite meal?" or "What does your character think about [recent campaign event]?" . Additionally, we also do playlists of music for the characters, with contributions from all the players. What have been your experiences with similar methods for getting into the minds of the characters? Thanks!
For me it's "who wants to describe what happened in last session's game?". That gets us on track and we all start remembering where we left off. I like your roleplaying question idea. A quick campfire tale sort of thing could work. What does your character think of the current situation?
Non DND question, whats a good new dish you have made recently? In a bit of a food rut.
Sorry. I've got nothing.
I have been DMing both a heavily bastardized version of BECMI and a game of 5e for the past year or so. I note both games because they have different economies (mainly due to gold equaling XP in BECMI), yet neither one feels intuitive. Fantasy economy has always seemed arbitrary at the best, badly broken at the worst. I have yet to find a system with an economy that makes any sense. Do you know of one? How do you figure out what things should cost and how much money to reward your players with? Am I wrong, and does the 5e economy work as written? Until I find a better system, I have toyed around with the idea of treating silver pieces as if they were $1 bills (American), making gold pieces $10, and platinum pieces as $100 bills. At any rate, when setting prices, I ask myself "what would this perhaps cost in dollars in 2024?" Doesn't seem like the best system, but it's all I've got - and I'm open to suggestions.
Level Up Advanced 5e's Trials and Treasure book has a better economy for 5e. That's the one I like the best I think. One way to think about the economy in a 5e game is to think that 2 gold pieces is the equivalant of a day's wages for a skilled individual. If we build that around the US, you could assume a skilled individual is about $60,000 or so (this is highly variable, of course). Assuming they work 250 days, the daily wage is $240 so a gold piece is roughly $120. That's pretty gross math but it can work overall. If you want to round it, assume a gold piece is worth about $100 and you're probably close enough. As far as a richer economy, check out A5e's Trials and Treasure. I find more and more in that book I love.
I tend more towards “rules light/OSE” RPGs but love the rich detail of 5e and Pathfinder. One of my favorite books of yours is Forge of Foes. Do you have any ideas or caveats to think about when bringing monsters into games like Shadowdark?
The folks on the Shadowdark Discord server came up with a sort of universal template for building Shadowdark monsters on the fly. Check out their discord server and ask for it and you'll get it. It's a pretty cool chart.
Hello Mike, I hope you're feeling better! Quick question regarding helping your players get into their characters' mindset. During my sessions I'll find a moment to allow them to share (if they want to) what their characters might be feeling or thinking. As an example, if they're on the road and one is on guard duty while the others sleep I'll ask, "what is your character thinking about as they sit in the quietude of night?" Often it stirs things about their childhood, maybe the battle they had earlier that day, etc. It is a softer way, without putting them on the spot, to immerse them into their characters. It has even created future character driven hooks. I'm curious what are some techniques you use in session to have your players consider their characters psyche or thoughts? Many thanks for the work you do!
I think that's fantastic and fits my whole concept of campfire tales: https://slyflourish.com/campfire_talk.html It's a great way to capture more info on the character and what the player thinks is important.
I like the *idea* of long epic campaigns with a wide scope, and stories that evolve and change together with the characters. But when the capaign reaches Lv 10 I begin thinking about the next one. I don't think it's about the complexity of high tier games, it's that I get bored of the story I am playing. Do you have any recommendations on how to keep the (DM) interest high during long term campaigns (more than 30 sessions)?
I think letting the campaign evolve in new and interesting ways keeps me interested. My Empire of the Ghouls campaign has been going on for almost two years now and what made it exciting is how the game shifts into new plots and new areas all along. We've done so much in the campaign that it feels like a bunch of smaller campaigns packed together. What are some of the elements you're excited about for other campaigns and how do you bring those elements into your current game?
Hi Mike, if you have extra creative energy when your game prep is done, as I often do, what do you think is the most high-value "library" of things to build on the off-chance? Is it dungeons? encounters? NPCs? Thanks!
Handouts would be a big one: https://slyflourish.com/lazy_prep_through_handouts.html Here's a similar topic on the talk show: https://youtu.be/ZdxE4CUc-Sw?t=2735s Spend time on things that don't presume particular actions or directions of the characters. Reading source material would be great. Dive into that huge library we've built up =D
I'm not a huge fan of PHB2024 or L5E counterspell. PHB24 misses the problem, and L5E works but is such a bodge. What do you think of counterspell as a bonus action? You cast it and can 'counter' as a reaction for 1 round. Casting a bonus action spell means no fireball this turn, which is a bigger opportunity cost than just your reaction. You also take a risk because maybe no one casts anything and you've wasted a spell slot. You've mentioned that most tables naturally say their spells out loud as they cast them. Its the fastest, easiest, simplest way to play, but favours counterspell. But if you have to cast counterspell FIRST, then open knowledge works against it (for tables who play that way).
I hate counterspell. I like the A5e one best because it doesn't take the action away from the actor – it just disrupts them a little bit. The problem with using counter as a bonus is that now you know they have it up – do you cast the big bad's big spell? How can you *not* know. I prefer the counterspell armistice. You don't use it and I won't use it.
Hey Mike, I just killed my first PC in 5e and they are in the process of creating their new character. With this being my first experience with pc death do you have any advice on introducing the new character and how to best connect them to the existing party? Thanks as always!
I'm a big fan of the "heroic spark". When the existing characters meet the new character, they see in them the same heroism they know in themselves. Just state it and that way you bypass the whole "I don't trust them" phase which I find tiresome. You can tie the new character to a faction the existing characters which gives them a common goal and direction. My biggest advice is "as quickly and easily as possible". This question on the talk show might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlMnk_F6bJM&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=17&t=3037s
Hi Mike what is your take in running isekai like adventure. a story that involves characters being put into an unfamiliar world and having to learn how to survive. Like Digimon or the new Mario movie. Normal people being put into a DND world then gaining powers in the world. Multiple live play podcasts I listen to do this for there game ( dungeons and daddies is one) and I think it's a fun way for them to learn about the world and have a straight forward goal of getting back home. Have you ever ran a game like this and what are your thoughts thank you
It sounds cool but I've never run a game like that. I don't really have any advice to offer but it sounds cool and it's definitely a growing genre! Look at the Barbie movie!
Hey Mike! I'm running a Dark Sun campaign and it's my first campaign using your lazy prep process. I'm really liking it, but a problem I've had specific to Dark Sun is coming up with enough ways to drop secrets and clues in a world where most people can't read or write. Half the characters in the group can't read, writing is illegal, and most people in the world can't write anyway. I can only use pictures, psionic visions, and overhearing people talking so many times. What are some other non-written ways you use to share a secret?
I'll fall back to giving you the quest to come up with twenty ways the characters might discover secrets in Dark Sun that don't involve reading or writing. I think there are lots of ways. Here's an article to get you started: https://slyflourish.com/revealing_secrets.html One big trick is revealing secrets by what the characters already know but didn't draw the connections to until the context arose. Characters know more about their world than the players know.
Hi Mike! I never laughed as much in a session as my last session of Curse of Strahd. What are your thoughts about joking around at the table? We all know players like to make fun of names carefully crafted by the DM. DM’s also sometimes have a silly shopkeeper or ludicrous villain. However, I have had times where my own DM asked us to joke around less at the table, as he didn’t enjoy us not taking it seriously. Should a DM be the “straight man” to the PC’s whacky hijinks? Do you break the fourth wall as a DM or player? What are your expectations at the table when it comes to jokes and comedy?
I love to laugh with my players and I go where the humor of the table goes. Movies like Thor Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy gave me a good feeling for what a great fantasy / SF story can be like when humor is dropped in. But yeah, everyone should respect everyone else's level of desired humor at the table. Maybe it's worth an out-of-game conversation if it becomes a bigger problem. But I love a good laugh.
Hi Mike! If you were going to tie bonuses or other mechanics to the 6 ability scores, what would you do? Like, for example 5 Torches Deep does charisma with ability to get henchmen, strength to carry capacity and constitution to travel time in hours without rest etc
I really don't know. This is why I let other people write game systems =) I think its a shame that we jumped right to a detailed skill system in 5e instead of a more flexible ability-based system that includes your proficiency bonus if your background gives you an edge in the thing you're trying to do. I think instead of having a fixed list, you can look at the actions the characters are taking and give them a bonus if it's something they'd be good at but that probably stacks with skill proficiency anyway. Take a look at what the PHB and DMG have to say about what you can do with skills. Maybe the A5e Adventurer's Guide has some good advice too.
Hi Mike, I've recently moved to a new city and have been dipping my toe into offering one shots via online platforms as well as at local stores and conventions, as a way of forging links with the TTRPG community in the area. I've found that running one-shots seems to require a subtly different skillset to campaign play (which is my comfort zone). Specifically I find that I have issues around pacing things towards a satisfying narrative conclusion in a single session. Any tips for pacing in one shots in particular?
Yep! That's probably the biggest issue I've seen running one-shot games particularly at conventions or with players I don't know. Here's an article that offers some advice: https://slyflourish.com/running_games_for_the_adventurers_league.html And from the talk show: https://youtu.be/JM1MdKNm2eA?t=2858s
One are of my game that players love is: puzzles and riddles. Unfortunately this is an area that is very much NOT fast and easy to prep. Can we ask the community for their best puzzles? Would love ideas on how to delight my players without having to work onerously on these. Side note: AI stinks at puzzles today. They never fit well in-game
Matthew - One thing I have done is buy small puzzles (metal, wooden, whatever) that can stand in as items in your game world. In my current campaign, the characters are collecting small jewelled triangles of gold. In real life these are small wooden parts of a wooden puzzle that they will solve later on. There are a lot of these out there, and if the players are struggling, I allow intelligence checks to get hints from me as DM.
In Shadowdark, how are you managing the timing and mechanics of Treasure -> XP -> Level Advancement? The community seems split on whether treasure has to be brought "back to town" to realize XP. To me the EXPERIENCE was in the discovery, so that's when XP should be awarded, but I'm ambivalent on when to level up.
I give the XP right away when they make the discovery and characters level the second they get enough xp to do so. I also tend to give more treasure and xp away in later levels to keep characters leveling. I didn't know how long my shadowdark game would go so I wanted to see what higher levels look like.
Hey Mike! What are your thoughts on helping a player who speaks English as their second language? Especially helping them better understand the game mechanics and not letting them get too confused by the jargon.
I'm afraid I really have no experience with this but I bet people on the Discord server can help you!
My players are exploring the UnderDark. It’s their first meeting / encounter with Dark Elves. In game they’ve never been seen, just stories and rumors. They’ll be in a market area in disguise. Any recommendations on how I should price slaves or where I could find a chart that I could use?
Oof. Honestly, I avoid slavery in my games if I can. I don't like it and I don't like to have to deal with it even when its clearly villains. I'll offer a thought about dark elves though – change their appearance so they look just like elves and elves have as much diversity in skin color and appearance as humans do in our world. I've lately changed drow so that they're elves who have a particular belief instead of being their own subspecies. I've even questioned whether Lolth herself is just pure evil or more of a cast-aside deity who's very angry. But yeah, slavery is a hard line for me so I have no advice to offer.
Hey Mike, I was wondering if there is a way to nail down pacing as a GM. I struggle as a player in sessions with a slow pace and think I overcompensate by having a really quick pace when I GM and am needing to find the balance. Is there a good way to balance pacing while maintaining engagement? Thank you!
You have to see what works for you and your group. Pacing, as Monte Cook says, is one of the most important skills a GM can pick up. Part of that skill is reading the players. Three articles that might help: https://slyflourish.com/pacing.html https://slyflourish.com/timing_and_pacing_adventures.html https://slyflourish.com/upward_and_downward_beats.html and from: https://slyflourish.com/top_advice.html Pay Attention to Pacing Proper pacing is a huge challenge and potentially the most important factor in keeping your game fun. Start strong. Jump right into the story Track your time. Move things forward. Lower monster hit points if battles get stale. End on a cliffhanger. Use a mixture of upward beats (good things happening to the characters) and downward beats (heavy challenges to the characters) to keep the pacing fresh. Run easy battles. Run exciting boss fights. Give the characters someone to talk to even in the deepest dungeon.
How can I get my players to speak up more in game to make more proactive choices rather than reactive? I would say most often they are almost too polite when I (The DM) am describing scenes and situations, this often leads to them sitting idley by waiting for me to finish. For example, recently in a game, a social interaction that was clearly going wrong where a beholder was telling the characters he is going to have them killed, after he finishes his monologue. This didn't spark any reaction for them to maybe subtly heal themselves or try to get prepared in any way for the fight. Another situation was where I'm describing guards running in their direction, they full well knew they were coming for the party but didn't choose to duck into an alley to hide or even run. They just stood there listening until I finished describing the situation ending with the guards at there feet. I'm fully aware this could be a problem with myself and the players not feeling like they can jump in over me or I'm not laying it out in a way that gives them the opportunities. Sorry for the lengthy one, it was hard to describe. Thanks in advance.
There are a couple of questions I have. Is this game in-person or online? Online, we've all become accustomed to not speaking when others are talking because the lag and overtalk online is much worse than when multiple people are talking in person. So that can be a factor. Another thing you can do is call on specific people. I wrote about that here: https://slyflourish.com/calling_on_players.html That puts individuals on the spot instead of them waiting for someone else to jump in. Shadowdark offers a good idea of keeping the players in initiative either around the table or in alphabetical order. Go down the list and ask them what they each do. Give them clues if there are parts of things they don't understand: https://slyflourish.com/tell_dont_show.html
Question from a DM newbie: We're running our games in person without only digital support. When my group explores a dungeon, city, room or another well defined area I always struggle. I do not find the balance between what to show them and what to tell them. Should I share the map of the city upfront? Should I already draw the dungeon to a certain degree, maybe until the next corner? Should I share a mini map of the whole dungeon, so they can plan their way? Should we run theater of the mind until it is important for an encounter to been drawn on a flip map? How much detail should they discover own their own (search in the room) and what to just tell them. And how to tell them without taking away the joy of exploring. I am aware that this is a very broad question and the answers is often "it depends". But I also hope you can share your experiences on that and maybe you have some kind of rule of thumb. Thanks in advance!
When I returned to in-person games, this was hot on my mind and I wrote about it here: https://slyflourish.com/drawing_maps.html Lately I've found it useful to have a Pathfinder dry-erase poster map in front of me (one of my favorite GM tools) and draw out the rooms with maybe a mini-map as we go. It can also help to have one of the players accept responsibility as the cartographer who keeps track of the larger map. If the characters would have a relatively easy way of seeing the location, give them a copy of the map. Like Zelda - what if they pick up a map from an NPC or pick it up from previous adventurers? Then you can give it to them and they can figure it out. That happened in my Empire of the Ghouls game for example.
Hi Mike, I‘m thinking a lot about the DM vs. player asymmetry/hierarchy and how it affects the social structure of our groups. We’re modern, cooperative, session zero-endorsing, player-fan DMs, but remain rules referees, know more than our players, award them, and should (I think) have the final say about what we allow at our table etc: we wield power. That’s straight forward at the table. But I noticed some gray areas in discussions outside of the game, where I felt forced to wield that power „against“ my players: One player wanted to co-design a magic item for another player (you gave me advice on this last month, I said no), another player is leaving town and was asking for a democratic vote from the group (as opposed to my yes/no as the DM) on whether she can keep participating via hybrid sessions (hybrid is a trap, I said no to her and regarding the democratic vote). Also I find it hard to completely suspend the DM/player asymmetry and fully be eye-to-eye with players who I don’t spend much time with outside of the DnD context. Often this is subtle and I only become aware of it after the fact, but it creates that invisible barrier between us. My question is: Personal preference and session zero aside, are there general principles how steep social asymmetries should be and how they should change as we move on a scale from, let’s say straight forward in-game DM stuff like rulings at one extreme of the dimension, to whatever off-table social interactions among the group may occur at the other extreme? Or put another way: How much asymmetry is just right for a healthy social gaming environment, and under what circumstances—can the slope of the asymmetry ever be zero, are we ever truly equal? Sorry for the somewhat academic/philosophical question, but it’s highly practical to me. As always, thanks for your help and your outstanding support to the community
Good question and I don't have a fantastic answer but it's going to come down to you and your group moreso than any sort of general rules. I think that DM's acting as "servant leaders" works well. We serve the fun of the group and the game (including ourselves). We facilitate the game. We're often in the position of doing a lot of the work to make sure the game runs and runs smoothly. This gives us a majority stake in the vote but we should listen to our players and, as a group, try to make decisions as we all can. If those decisions go *against* the GM and the GM quits, there is no game, so that needs to be considered. It can be worth a conversation with the group to explain what your own boundaries are in these situations to ensure you are comfortable running the game itself (you mention hybrid gaming as an example of something you don't want to do). I think its ok for the players to ask such things but they should be ok with you saying no. So I don't know if there's a good measure of where the power should lie in any given game – I think that's up to each group and the specifics of the requests.
I have a location that directly ties to the deity of a cleric in the party. How can I give the player this information without giving them 'homework' before the session or saying "you, [cleric], would know this" before giving some lore about the location? Love the channel! Thanks for everything!
Break down the lore of the deity into a series of secrets and clues and reveal them over time. The cleric probably doesn't have to know everything but I generally find players to be amenable to you saying what their character knows because of their background. Just don't go too long with it. How would you summarize the most important aspects of the god in one sentence? Then take other info about the god and spread it around the rest of the location so they can discover it over time.
I have a friend who loves watching actual play, but hasn't played themself yet. They FINALLY have expressed interest in playing, and I am so excited to "introduce" them to the game. I'm thinking of running in Shadowdark, with premade characters, in person. Any tips for bringing an actual play fan into the fold? Little things to avoid?
Keep things simple. Use first level pregen characters in a good starter set adventure. I really think you can't go wrong with Dragons of Stormwreck Isle which is a great adventure. Don't try to make it too grand – focus on the simple fun of the game itself. Explain that a starting game isn't quite as in-depth as a big liveplay game where they spend months ahead of time preparing characters and story arcs – but those arcs can come over a longer campaign. So yeah, keep things simple.
Thank you so much for the help with the 3 fronts in January! I took your advice and have set up mission briefings to only be 2 fronts, while the other is chilling AND the 1 other front just does the thing. We haven’t got to the point where it is relevant yet, BUT choosing between the 2 was pretty quick as opposed to past decisions, so yay! Okay March Question, I’m using 3 of 6 keys for one of the fronts and currently the party and the baddies are at a 2-1 ratio in favor of the party. Say the party gets the next two, summoning the big thing is going to get harder, but the baddies are still gonna do it. How do you usually show the incurred cost on the villains? In my game they are summoning a blood avatar, so I was thinking people sacrifices, but they kinda have endless people, so I’m trying to think of a different cost. Maybe BBEG dies for the summon? Thanks!
There are a couple of ways to handle this. First, what do the villains have to sacrifice to attempt their goal? What *else* do they have to do? What if the main villain has to sacrifice themselves to accomplish it? What if, instead, they pivot to a different plan, one built on more destruction even to their own cult. You don't want the accomplishments of the characters to be washed away – what they did should matter even if there's another danger to come. You could also just have that front attempt one big assault on the characters to try to recover the keys and if they fail, the villain fails. That's why we have multiple fronts – some of them aren't going to succeed. One thing on the 3 of 6 keys, it's usually an odd number of keys and needing one more than half like 2 of 3 or 3 of 5 or 4 of 7 or 5 of 9. That way one side needs the *majority* of keys to succeed and the struggle can come to that one last key.
I am excited to say that I may be running in person games at the local library. I am thinking about suggesting city of arches. It might be open table. I was wondering if you had advice about open tables and how best to use city of arches for them?
I'm so glad you want to use the City of Arches! Sharon in our Discord server has lots of practical experience with this that can probably help you better than I. Obviously use the player's handout to get people acclimated with the city and its factions. Choose simple adventures to begin with. You may find your open table turns into a pretty regular table at which point they can go on longer multi-adventure threads. Hopefully that helps! We can chat more in Discord about specifics.