Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

December 2024 Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A (Patreon)

Published:
2024-12-05 17:00:08
Edited:
2025-01-10 13:33:14
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
Q&A

Content

Welcome to the Sly Flourish Patreon Questions and Answers thread for December 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 or fuel 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 SF Patreon Q&A database, the Lazy RPG Talk Show Topic Database, the Sly Flourish website, and the Sly Flourish YouTube Channel to see if I've done an article or video on your topic previously.

focus your question on tabletop RPGs.

stick to one question each month.

keep your question brief. I love your stories but I get overwhelmed.

Changes in 2025

Starting in January 2025, I'm going to switch the Q&A threads from monthly to quarterly. This won't change who can ask questions or my process for answering questions. You can also continue to ask one question per month. Instead, I'll only be announcing the Q&A threads at the beginning of each quarter.

As new Patrons have come on, it's gotten harder and harder for me to keep up on the first week of the month because many patrons ask their questions as soon as I announce the new month's thread. By moving the announcement to quarterly, I'll limit those painful first week posts to four times a year instead of twelve times a year.

There won't be any other changes for now. You can still ask a question each month, I'll still answer them on Fridays, and I'll take questions we want to dive deeper into on the Talk Show. This change just helps me manage things a little bit better.

Thank you so much for helping me do what I do!

Now bring on the questions!!

Comments

Luke Baumstark

Hello, sir! I recently got a honey of a deal on the Cypher System's Core Rulebook, and am excited to give the ruleset a whirl. It may not surprise you to hear that I have a few questions about it. First, it looks like you could run adventures right out of this book, without needing to get Numenera, Path of the Planebreaker, or another sourcebook first. Is this consistent with your experience? Second, what tips would you offer to a DM with mostly D&D experience (plus a smattering of 13th Age and Dungeon Crawl Classics) in running games using the Cypher System? Many thanks, and congrats on the big win for the podcast!

Jason N.

Is there a unified repository similar to GitHub for "open source" or creative commons RPG products and projects? Should there be? Would you support such a concept?

Andrew Duncan

Happy holidays! I have been running a resilient weekly game by following your advice and having a large roster of players and playing every week as long as there are at least two players. However I am worried that we will run into issues when players enter the action in the middle of something like a dungeon crawl with full health and spell slots due to not being present for the encounters along the way. What do you think the solution is?

Luka Pejovic

Hi Mike TTRPGs are often described as collaborative storytelling. Some of them are rule light and emphasize narrative approach over simulation. Even D&D has narrative approach in some aspects. Where do you draw the line between narrative TTRPG and straight improvisation class.

tim wills

Hey Mike. What do you find as a great tool/tools to fall back on if the campaign has had issues with finding opportunity for narrative exposition. Cheers!

Griffin

Hi, Mike! I have been playing 5e with a group for many years now, and we have always taken long rests purely for their mechanical benefits. I feel like we rarely explore the role-playing aspect a long rest can provide. As a DM and player, how could you encourage role-playing during a long rest from time to time?

Aru van der knaap

Hey Mike, I recently ran the first half of the Shadow dark lvl 0 gauntlet Hoard of the Sea Wolf King. People had an amazing time, but I was wondering how you handled the always on initiative during the exploration. I mostly tried to follow the initiative order, as this was my first time running it. However, I had the feeling it would have been better for me to be more loose at times. How strict were you with initiative?

LUZ-TAK

Hello Mike. Here Is a question I posted on Discord, and got some amazing answers, but would like your take on it. Sorry for the wall of text. I have a question about open or sandbox-esque campaigns. When and how do they end? Not talking about TPKs or them just fizziling out. I mean giving them a satisfactory conclusion. Some context: I'm preparing my next campaign, Star Wars Edge of Empire, for my regular group. The idea is for it to be very "open" and player driven. The setting and system really helps in this: Star Wars is well known, PCs will have a starship letting them go almost anywhere in the galaxy and the Obligation mechanics are awesome to have PCs backstories come to haunt them. I have a very good group of players, most of them are GMs as well and some are hardcore SW fans. Personally, I have a fair amount of GM experience, but I never ran a sandbox style campaign before. I have no doubts the campaign will lift off right away for some awesome games. And I'm really excited on the idea of running a more "emergent" game and flex my improvisation muscles. But my question is: how will, or should, this end? I know. Posing this question is the antithesis of the open gaming we are looking for. But then again, one of the recurrent advice you get all the time is "keep an eye on the ending". Also, the overall experience of a campaign tends to lean in heavily on it having a satisfactory conclusion. Finally, I have the feeling that without an end "in sight", it will probably just fizzle out and lose interest. And that feels... bad. I am tempted to ask my players about it. Like, in very general terms, what sort of ending would they want? Join the Rebellion? Pull an amazing heist and retire to a life of riches? Find a place they call home? But again, this feels contrary to the spirit of an open game. So, how do I tackle this? How did you manage this in your experience? Help me Obi Wan.

Ben Hodges

Hey Mike, my local game shop has a tv with a structure around it that allows it to be used as a digital map screen for in person play. I think online play has an advantage on the map side and this bridges the gap somewhat. Have you had any experiences with a digital map in person and if so have any tips?

Chris Housenick

Do you have any advice for "bridge" sessions? My group and I are on our fifth campaign together, and I noticed that we often have chapters or arcs in our campaigns that take place in one location (call it Location A), and then the plot moves to a completely different location (Location B). Once my players are in and settled at a location, things run well. However, it's those "bridge" transitions from Location A to Location B where our campaign drifts a bit as they travel to and start adventuring to understand a new locale and its inhabitants. Thank you!

Nathan Schmaltz

Hello sir and good day to you. My qquestion is about creating interesting npc's that could turn into villain’s. I've taken your advice to heart about using pop culture characters for reference on personality, but my question is how to "stat" them. I'm running pirate campaign with lots of factions and my party will soon meet one of the leaders. He's a real piece of work and really out of their league...for now. For npc's that could turn into villain’s, what do you do for stats to make them interesting and powerful.

Sam P.

Hi Mike! I have a somewhat silly DMing question, but I’m not sure where else to ask it. How do you prepare your brain for the physical strain of DMing? My brain always feels like it’s been smashed and put through a blender at the end of a session, and I find that I need to spend the rest of the day silently sitting in a dark room to recharge (okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea). It sucks! Is this DM hangover just an inevitable side effect from 5 hours of improv? Even for more casual sessions, I feel exhausted afterwards.

Ltbadger

Hi Mike, what is your biggest non D&D / RPG inspiration that feeds into your hobby and GM'ing

Jerle Welberg

Happy Sinterklaas! I have a short question, I do my best to prep my campaigns as you do with return of the lazy dungeon master making secrets, I am wondering is there a balance to be found in types of secrets? World, NPC, Plot, PC-Specific, Environmental, and Historical Secrets. Is there a change to make the world to heavy? Should I foreshadow a bit or a lot?

The Anti-Tourist Trap

I recently watched your 2024 toolkit video and gained many ideas from it. When it comes to games with several core books (like D&D or Tales of the Valiant), do you bring all the core books if you are traveling? If you are using an adventure book such as Curse of Strahd, do you bring that book as well? Setting books? To narrow all this down to one question: How do you decide which books to bring if you are traveling by car to someone else’s house?

Andrew McBriarty

Hey Mike, long time listener, first time patreon Q&A so sorry if this has already been asked and that it's not succinct What are your thoughts on changing a d20 TTRPG to use mulitple dice for better odds on each roll? How much do you think luck or fate should be managed in a game? I have seen too often players rolling "randomly" unsuccessfully even over multiple sessions. I do think of the math and probabilities a little too much and I know that on average, over time it is supposed to even out but sometimes it's frustrating to deal with in the moment when it happens over and over again. Or Do others agree or have experience with alternative dice options in an existing d20 TTRPGs e. g. 5e? Would it be better to have more of a chance for a "middle of the road" roll at each rolling instance over the standard odds of 1 dice?

TJ Becki

Hey Mike, I am in the beginning stages of preparing to host a dnd group in our local area. My goal is to have it be open to whoever wants to come, and I have enough GM's willing to be involved so that we can run multiple games if need be. I'm just not sure how we are supposed to prepare for our adventures in a format like this, assuming different people will be popping in and out of each session. I'm concerned that disconnected one-shots with no story arc will bore repeat players, but I'm not sure a continuous story is the best way to engage new players. How would you prepare to run a group with this format, or do I need to go back to the drawing board entirely? I'd greatly appreciate any advice that you have, and direction towards resources concerning this topic that you know of. Thanks!

Kiril Vuchkov

Hi Mike, What is the best way to "restart" a campaign with the same characters? I wonder if I should treat it as a new campaign starting with high level characters, i.e. do session zero and everything, but this is the first time I am in this situation and want to do justice to the long campaign we have had. My group has been running Curse of Strahd for over a year, but last few months it was difficult to find time for a session and the players lost context. We are now getting back to schedule and everyone wants to finish the campaign. I love this campaign and I would really want to avoid just "getting done with it". For context, the group of 4x 9th level characters are about to go to Castle Ravenloft in an attempt to rescue Ireena from her wedding with Strahd. I imagine a 3 sessions where they must find a way to enter the castle, then interrupt the wedding and finally confront Strahd in his secret treasure vault (as foretold by the Cards).

Michael Shea

Hi there! I haven't actually run a Cypher game outside of Numenera but I don't think there's any reason you can't run a game right out of the book. I think it's intended for that. Off the top of my head: - Be ready to understand the scaling of threats in Cypher. It's not clear and there's no encounter building guidelines so you have to wing it. - Some risk-adverse players aren't going to like having to spend resources to lower rolls. - Personally I love how the GM doesn't roll dice but some GMs really don't dig it. - You'll get through scenes faster so you may want to prep more scenes -- like one every 30 minutes of gameplay. I think these links might have some good tips for you. They're largely based on Numenera but I think it applies to Cypher as well: https://youtu.be/TUCxPJhlVAU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2kVG2w73Z8&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=7&t=3571s You can search the Talk Show database for "Numenera" and "Cypher" and find some stuff: https://slyflourish.com/talk_show_database_897a3ca6dac5f425b98d1ac85cd6962d/ https://slyflourish.com/sf_patreon_files_898123050001223/qa/?id=846 https://slyflourish.com/sf_patreon_files_898123050001223/qa/?id=5 https://slyflourish.com/sf_patreon_files_898123050001223/qa/?query=numenera

Michael Shea

I don't know of one and I would love it. I think ensuring there's no central repository might be a benefit since there's no single place where things can go down. I find a lot of SRD material on Github, for example, but there are lots of other places. If you find one, let me know!

Michael Shea

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. If the characters have a bit of a benefit from not having been ground down during the crawl, that's probably fine. You can always account for it by stepping things up a bit on the monster side when needed.

Michael Shea

I've never been in a straight improvisation class so I can't really say, but I think a big difference are the dice and mechanics even in more narrative games. Dice rolls and randomness add a whole new level. I like to think that the dice are another chaotic player at the table shifting things in directions no one at the table could predict. And the d20 is even more chaotic than a lot of dice. I think, even in the most rules-lite game, the mechanics and the dice are what separate it from pure improv.

Michael Shea

I'm a huge fan of campfire tales. When the characters are taking a rest, you can ask some questions to learn more about their characters, their goals, their inter-relationships, and other things. I stole it from Darkest Dungeon and I think it works really well: https://slyflourish.com/campfire_talk.html If you want even more, check out A Life Well Lived by Cubicle 7. They have a whole section in there about Campcraft, Downtime, and home bases that can get you and your players more into the narrative. Hope that helps!

Michael Shea

I hung on with a loose grip. You don't need to use always-on initiative when it's not useful to you. It's a tool to help you manage the game and ensure everyone's getting their time in the spotlight. One trick with Shadowdark, though, is that durations happen in rounds and turns are tracked all the time so you can keep track of those rounds which means tracking initiative all the time is important. They're all interconnected. That said, I'd often just move the round dial forward when it felt like a round had taken place. We still had a fine time.

Michael Shea

I have a confession! I don't run sandbox games so I really can't offer the best advice. My thought would be that as the characters explore the world and get involved in their own plots, one of these might end up looking like the "big" plot and they focus on that. I don't think I'd worry about it while you run your games though. Worry about it when it actually becomes a problem instead of worrying about it as a potential problem over the horizon. It may turn out never to be an issue anyway. In the meantime, I'd just focus on your sandbox game and see where it leads.

Michael Shea

I think its a cool idea but the tech can get fiddly. I have a big monitor in our gaming area but I hardly ever use it because I don't want another digital device at the table. Instead I just sketch it out with a nice wet-erase marker on my Pathfinder flip mat. I'm not against it, certainly. I know a lot of GMs who love the idea. It's just not for me.

Michael Shea

This was a common problem in my Empire of the Ghouls campaign. Usually there was something that drew them to the new location and the question was what to fill the travel sessions with. You can do a more complicated pointcrawl if you want, treating it like a dungeon with locations and paths instead of rooms and passages, or you can just run a montage of their travel. I like to have one interesting scene and location along their journey (or maybe up to three for long journeys). You can also run a small adventure along the way. The lair of a beast or a ruined citadel full of nasty bandits. That can make a nice sidequest players might enjoy. You can also make it optional so they can choose to go there or not. Just make sure to offer the option at the end of a session so you don't prep something you won't use.

Michael Shea

With Forge of Foes you can create a stat for any difficulty of NPC. All you have to do is ask yourself what challenge rating they feel like between 0 and 30. How tough are they? Another way is to pick the most applicable NPC stat block in your favorite monster book, or reskin a monster stat block for the NPC. Giants work well for this, or even dragons if you want something scarier. Reflavor the attacks and you're all set. Another approach is not to make the villain's stats high but they're just not approachable from the point of view of the story. A noble with their low CR stat block can still be a villain if they're untouchable. That can be fun and then, when they *do* have the opportunity to off them, it's fun to do it with a big one shot.

Michael Shea

Different GMs have different feelings going in, running, and after a session. For some, they feel invigorated at the end of a session while others feel burnt out. Some are super-excited to go into a session while others dread it. Most GMs I've talked to are in "flow" when they're actually running a game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology) I think its reasonable to feel how you feel and to need that time to rest and recharge, hopefully with another less taxing activity. Going for a walk or playing a relatively mindless video game or something like that. You can also core dump the results of your game into some notes to help you prep next time if that's what's draining you. I know when I have a lot of stuff in my head spinning around it helps me to get it *out* of my head and onto paper. I'm not a psychologist so this is just a layman's opinion but maybe that helps.

Michael Shea

TV shows Deadwood Rome The Wire Mr Robot The Expanse Those help me a lot with characters. For plots, situation-based movies are great: Seven Samurai Jaws John Wick Alien and Aliens Apocalypse Now The Keep Raiders of the Lost Ark Inception

Michael Shea

You really have to find out what works well for you. I don't think there's a right answer as to the balance of secrets but I'd probably focus more on practical secrets the characters can learn and use in the next game. Don't get too abstract or far-off with the secrets. If you can, try to tie secrets to the characters themselves. But there's no perfect formula. My only real guidance is: Write down ten secrets the characters can discover in the next game.

Michael Shea

I try to bring as few books as possible but sometimes that bites me in the ass. I just got the pocket editions of Tales of the Valiant for my TOV game I'm running at my friend's house and they're great. But I sure wish I had brought my Midgard, Southlands, and Demon Cults books with me because I ended up dropping in material from them. I honestly wish they all were in EPUB format so I could keep them on my phone in a readable and searchable format but ah well. I seem to be the only one who loves epub.

Michael Shea

I think I'd be more likely to use an entirely different game system that uses other types of dice than I would to replace the dice in an existing system. It could work, using like 3d6 or 4d6 to replace a D20 but I don't know that you gain a whole lot. I think it could make the game feel a little stale because that's really not the design. A game like Dungeon World or Fantasy AGE use other types of dice and that works well for them because the whole game is built around that dice style. You're always free to experiment and see what happens but my feeling is that I'd rather switch systems than switch dice in an existing system.

Michael Shea

I would start your sessions with one-shot or short-run adventure scenarios to begin with and then let them expand out into longer campaigns. I expect you'll find some people show up for many of them and tend to play at the same table with the same group and then it becomes more like a normal campaign. You can also try to ensure the sessions you run are more episodic, with major arcs taking place within a single session and then stringing them together on a single overarching plot. You can see this at work in various Adventurer's League adventures like the Ravenloft series or the Moonshae adventures which have three-arc structures to them. But, to begin with, I'd stick to some initial scenarios where the story can work even for those who are just dropping in for a game or two.

Gustavo Campanelli

No having guaranteed good lights at the destination, since each house is different I have issues with paper manuals. And for me that makes the difference between being able to read or not. So I switched to digital, since I can always read those.

Gustavo Campanelli

I tried laughing with the players and joining their victories. Being less adversarial and more the fan who wants to put them in great troubles to see how they fare has changed a lot of the anguish into a collaboration with the players, and that made me leave with more than I entered.

August

Do you have any advice on developing the skill of being more cutthroat in combat? My players just reached level 6, and we had a conversation last session about how I tend to pull my punches in combat. I'm aware that they're high enough level that even if I kill one of them, they have many options to bring a PC back to life. But I still struggle with not balancing combat difficulty down on the fly--largely by making non-optimal tactical choices, but sometimes also by adjusting damage downwards. My players want the higher risk of deadly combat from a DM who isn't holding anything back. I'd really appreciate any advice on getting there.

Gustavo Campanelli

You could try sending waves, specially if you have some means of letting them know there are more enemies coming. Now the combat is not about defeating the guys, it's about defeating them fast enough so that they don't combine with the next wave, while also saving specials because they don't know how many waves there are. This trick can work wonders, as you can check how they are faring between waves so you can also know if they can handle the next one. This is a trick to use only a few times, as not every combat can be justified this way, specially if there is no place for so many creatures in the place.

John York

Hey Mike, I’ve heard you mention a few times that you have games with a mix of members being in person and online in the same game. I run three-four different games every other week and one of my in person games had a member move to the other side of the state. It’s not been a huge change since I have an all online game that was restarting so I asked him if he’d want to join that. However, the campaign that he was in is nearing the end of the campaign and that player has been at every session from Start to them now being level 18. He seemed fine with it and said that if his schedule allowed he’d try to make it back for a session or two before the finale. I have experience with roll20 and I’m fine with in person games. My question is this: How do you do both simultaneously? Do you use a digital map and make the in person people use their digital tokens? Is it more theater of the mind? I’d really like to try this with my wayward member since he’s been such an integral part of the story. Thanks!

Chris Housenick

@Sly Flourish, thanks for the advice. In my game session last night, I found another solution and worthwhile piece of advice from your other advice posts - get a herald of the BBEG into the location and scene as quickly as is practical. My PCs were milling about (somewhat aimlessly) in a district in a new city, and I had the BBEG herald (the city's lycanthrope commander) make a public appearance. They decided to attack them in public and broad daylight, but now that location rapidly developed focus and clarity.

PhD20

How do you balance the "in-world" passage of time and character advancement thru gaining levels? I recently found myself looking at a level 5 party (started at 1) and noticed that only 2-3 weeks had passed in the game world. That feels incredibly off. (I'm sure you've talked about this but I couldn't find it.)

Jacques of Hearts

Hi Mike, Regarding homebrew rules for player facing mechanics: if you wanted to buff an option that a player chose for their character, would you do it as a table rule or would you prefer to grant it to them as a magic item / boon? Sometimes a poorly build character for flavour reasons can underperform mechanically but I don't want to discourage this.

Nate Gerlach

Hey Mike, Your Lazy DM books are responsible for me remaining in the hobby and continue to DM after a long period of frustration and burnout. So thank you for your contributions to the hobby. All due praise aside, I am going to begin my first “homebrew” campaign. It’s in a published setting, Eberron, but the party is in the Blademarks Guild. Any advice in developing this campaign? I’m really trying to use the spiral campaign method as well as the “yam shaped” adventure that you speak of often. I’m quite nervous but very excited for this campaign.

JAMES HERRMANN

Hi Mike. I have a (very cool) player whose character is a battlefield control wizard. What recommendations do you have for a character who spams spells like Slow, Blindness, Web, etc.? He will frequently combine this with portent dice to ensure that the most difficult enemy fails the saves. I don't mind the strategy but also want the battles to remain a challenge. Thx!

Kaique de Oliveira

As someone who has attended some improv classes, I think that the rules/dice elements are the main difference. Also the DM job to explain what characters are perceiving (instead of players creating it themselves). Improv does have rules, but they are usually more focused on how the creative input will be done in that particular improv activity

Barry

Mike, any good list or recommendations for a TTRPG gaming convention to attend? Our party spans the US so not sure if we can pick one based on location. I am thinking of something big enough for a long weekend and worth the travel to get there. I am hoping we can get an Airbnb and spend the days at the convention.

Bill R

Hi Mike, I have read several books and watched dozens of videos about adventure design and have learned a lot. My adventures are pretty good. You couldn't say I get it all prepped in an hour, but that's ok, and I am getting faster. My problem is that I have become too cautious about improvisation, and it seems to be getting worse. Got any advice? Thanks

Brandon Sampson

Hi Mike - ran my first one-shot this past weekend. Went pretty well, I think and used the Lazy DM to help me prep. I’m very grateful for the two sessions I get to play each week, but as they are longer D&D published adventures won’t have an opportunity to run my own campaign probably for a year or so. Any recommendations on how I can continue to develop skills for DMing and explore all the wonderful books, systems, and materials that make up this hobby?

Sam M

What are your thoughts on changing up the system momentarily as part of a larger campaign? I've toyed with the idea of running a quick shadowdark one shot when the players for example go into the feywild or some shadow plane. The player characters are the same people, but temporarily have different abilities (explained in the fiction by the different plane).

Don

Hey Mike! I know you are a big fan of Rising From the Last War. Aside from the 3.5 setting guide, what are your favorite Eberron sources from older editions? I feel like you had some stand out adventures I can't find in the archive.

Chris Wilson

Hi Mike, I was wondering if you have any advice on running 5e for kids? My 8 year old has got into creating characters in BG3 which we then screenshot and archive. He loves flipping through the PHB and doing drawings. I’m thinking of running a simplified version of Dragon of Icespire Peak with lots of fudging to give him a taste of the game. Any thoughts?

Peter Hohenstein

Hi Mike. In the past you've shown examples of the 8 steps prep for non-5e systems, like Shadowdark (still 5e-adjecent) and Numenera/Cypher. What do you expect of the applicability of the monster encounter dials for non 5e RPGs? My gut feeling is it should work just the same, but since you've played other systems I'm curious about your thoughts... As an example, would changing the number of monsters be as effective as dial in a system where the action economy is less important than in 5e, but maybe something else has a much stronger effect..?

Pim van der Honing

Hello Mike, What is in your opinion the best way to introduce a new partner to roleplaying games? Would you recommend a 1 on 1 session over a group session? Would you approach things differently if the partner is less interested in the fantasy genre?

Rob C

Hey Mike. Waaaaaaay back in an early prep video, (maybe during Tomb of Annihilation) you mentioned you ran a Friday the 13th inspired adventure, and that you might post it one day. As we hit another Friday the 13th on the calendar, I was just wondering if that adventure is available anywhere. Thanks for all you do!

Sam Erickson

Hey Mike, I have ran several long 5e campaigns in various systems over the past 10 years. I have experimented with both traditional (XP per challenge defeated) and milestone XP. I see pros and cons to both. I’m wondering if you know of any other systems for advancing character levels in RPGs?

Destino ROL

Hi, Mike! First of all, thanks for all the things you give to the community. My question is: if you would start your Sly Flourish business today, what would be the things you would do again, avoid, and do differently? For example, creating a podcast or not, what social media to go for, etc... Thanks again for your insights!

Michael Shea

There are a few things you can do. First, remember that a character being at zero isn't the same as being dead. They can come back and, in 5e, there are lots of ways to come back. Second, have a plan should the characters TPK. If you know an interesting way to take the story should they fall in combat, you're less likely to worry about them dying. Third, damage. Damage is the number one way to increase threat in combat. If you find typical monsters aren't hitting hard enough, increase the damage. You can even tell the players what they can do so you can't go back on it. If you're transparent about the capabilities of the monsters, you aren't going to cheat in their favor. Those are three ways off the top of my head!

Michael Shea

For our game with one remote player, we set up a camera so he can see the map in front of us. Our host hangs the phone from a chandelier in the ceiling but there are various tripods or mounts one can buy. An alternative is having one of the players take pictures and send the pictures of the real-world map in Discord or something like that. That's how we do it. I know other groups use a big monitor for the players in person and one player remote logged into the VTT. That can work fine too.

Michael Shea

Honestly, I don't worry about it. Sometimes we get into time and sometimes not. I hear a lot of people quote Gygax's quote about needing an in-world calendar or you're not really playing D&D but he also had like 40 players in one campaign so it was a different age. For me, time, like everything else, only matters when it matters and then I largely make it up. So, if you're asking me, my answer is that I don't really track time. Others, of course, are much more careful about tracking in-world time.

Michael Shea

I like the idea of doing it as some sort of in-world boon – like a special tome they can learn from or a secret spell. A5e has unique spells as rewards that beef up typical spells. I think that's a cool way to go.

Michael Shea

That is so heartwarming to here. I'm so glad my books helped you out! It's totally normal to be nervous about starting a new homebrew campaign. I get it. I'm doing the same thing for my Midgard Dragon Empire campaign. My best advice is still in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. Start small – focusing on what is right around the characters. What are the initial adventures they can get into? Having a general theme is good but you don't need a huge campaign outline. You don't need to know where it's going to go. Instead, think of it like prepping a shorter campaign and let it glide further from there. Your instinct will be to build out the whole campaign. I suggest resisting that urge and instead thinking about where the characters are and what adventures they can get into right now – pick three. Write up a short one or two sentence description of the adventure: Who gives it to them? What is the goal? Where is it located? Put the three options in front of the players and see what they choose. Good luck and thank you again for the kind words!

Michael Shea

I would build battles that let him showcase these abilities but make it clear that it works on some groups and not others. For bosses alone, you might consider something like Dreadful Blessings that let bosses break out of things like that – just make sure it's clear to him which monsters his stuff will work on and which won't. If he's used to pinning down bosses with crowd control, have a talk with him out of game and talk about how that sort of thing ends up sucking the air out of a boss encounter. See how he and the other players feel about it. Here's more: https://slyflourish.com/dreaded_blessings.html https://slyflourish.com/improving_boss_fights.html https://slyflourish.com/spread_boss_damage_to_minions.html https://slyflourish.com/monster_group_bosses.html Mike Mearls had an interesting idea that bosses automatically succeeded on saving throws until they were bloodied. This meant you had to go a round or two before you could drop save or suck spells on them. I don't think I'd do that all the time but you could probably come up with a story reason why that worked.

Michael Shea

I really loved Gamehole Con in Madison Wisconson. It was the best convention I've been to. Winter Fantasy is great for 5e games but it's in Indiana in the middle of winter which isn't ideal. Michelle and I went to a lot of the bigger conventions and they're very cool if you've never done them before but eventually the novelty of being around 60,000 RPG fans wears off and you just want to find a bathroom and a sandwich in peace. So I tend to like smaller conventions. Check to see if there are local conventions in your area. Those are great!

Michael Shea

One hard way is to really force yourself to prep less for one of your sessions. Break down the adventure into the components that help you improvise at the table instead of having everything pre-planned. Try to put in areas into your session where you *have* to improvise. Random dungeon encounters or random wilderness encounters, rolling for activities or hostility levels. That sort of thing. Building interesting scenes randomly is a good way to stretch into improv. If you have the time you can also play solo games like Ironsworn which help you stretch your GM improv muscles quite a bit. Even if you don't play it fully, you can roll on the tables as you build out scenarios just to see what it's like.

Michael Shea

If you're having fun running WOTC published adventures, you don't need to do anything more. Running fun games for your friends is what the whole hobby is about. You don't need to stretch beyond that if you don't want to and you'll always develop new DMing skills as you run your games – whatever games, adventures, or campaigns you run. That said, if you want to stretch further, here are some ideas: https://slyflourish.com/dms_reading_list.html https://slyflourish.com/path_for_dm_expertise.html

Michael Shea

It's certainly been tried and been done. It might be a hit or it might not. Personally, I just stick to the system I'm running. For a session, it might be fun, but I'd try to gauge it with your player to see if it's something they want. Otherwise, you can ask to run a one-shot in the system of your choice. You can also ask them. If you're going to run a sequence like this, ask them if they want to use their normal characters or do it in Shadowdark!

Michael Shea

Good question! I haven't dug too far back into 3rd edition Eberron books but I remember liking Secrets of Xen'drik and the Dragonmark book I think. Maybe Five Nations. They all look like fun. You don't need them but they can add some depth to your Eberron campaign if you have the time to dig in.

Michael Shea

It'll depend on the system and you'll want to have a good understanding of the system you're running but I feel like the monster dials are pretty universal. More monsters, higher or lower HP, higher or lower damage, and higher or lower numbers of attacks seem common, especially in fantasy D20 games.

Michael Shea

I'd probably ask them what they'd like to try. One on one games is a great way to do it since you can focus on the player and their character in all things. If, on the other hand, you have the opportunity for a group game with friendly players who will help out your partner, that can work too. You might offer a few options to them and see which ones resonate with them. I do love one-on-one games! http://slyflourish.com/running_one-on-one_dnd_games.html http://slyflourish.com/balancing_combat_for_one_on_one.html http://slyflourish.com/framework_for_one_on_one_dnd.html

Michael Shea

The 2014 DMG offers several: - Experience point based - Non-combat experience rewards - Milestone-based where they level up after accomplishing specific in-world things. - Session-based where they level up after so many sessions. - Story-based, which is sort of like milestones but usually focused on bigger ideals. Tales of the Valiant offers experience points and milestones as well. A5e also offers "time-based" where so much time happens in-game before the characters level. I use a mix of session-based and milestones.

Michael Shea

In some cases hindsight clues me in on things I never would have known back then so it's not really a fair question but I'll go ahead. The first is I wish I had started the blog and newsletter together from day one. Email, it turns out, is the best social media system, and it was available a long time ago. I wish I'd started it back then. Sure, videos, podcasts, and the like would have been good to start long ago but I don't really regret starting them when I did. I'm happy to have done them. Overall I have very few regrets or ways I would have done things differently except not starting a newsletter right away.

Destino ROL

Thanks for the insights, Mike. Have a great weekend.

Tony Camaj

Hey Mike. Just got my hardcover version of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. Love it!!! ❤️ I can't seem to find the "adventure generator with 5e micro rules" you mentioned on the video. I would love to take a look at this and see if I can use it with new players. Thanks. 👍

Tony Camaj

Awesome! I was already subscribed, but I don't remember seeing this resource. You're amazing!

Questor

Afternoon Mike .How many magic items is too little? I want to have magic items in my home brew campaign as a wonderous, and rare things, so they do not get reduced to just a something on a inventory list as they characters climb in power. To that end, I do not have magic item emporiums at all, although I have consumable items, like scrolls, and potions, are available from appropriate parties, like herbalists, churches, and wizards. I think that magic can already too prevalent in 5E with most of the PC having access to cantrips, and plan to have magic items will multi-staged in power , so their capabilities can grow as the player characters progress in levels. My players do not actively seek out magic items, despite me confirming they will need to quest for them. The only non-consumable magic item they have, was one that I placed in a vault they were recovering a maguffin from. Am I being too stingy? Thanks Q.

brofroamothamo

Hi Mike, Initiative DCs. I know you do static initiative. I was thinking about a way to shake up initiative when you have multiple kinds of monsters. Their initiative is their AC/DC stat(I run Forge of foes one stat lines) with characters winning ties. Thoughts?

Jonathan Gerolami

Hello Mike, I wonder if perhaps I maybe cross the line in the campaign that I did not want to cross, having seen in the past NPC mistrust in action, makes me concern. You have my total agreement about allies that turn out to be traitors but what if the villain is a wolf in sheep clothes ? My situation - They are in a Cityport , a spy/Smuggler Ring is active and a war is looming. (This is the old city of peril (Barnacus)- dragon magazine module greatly expanded). The leader if this ring is the Wizard Guild headmaster so a prominent citizen of the community. So far the PC have gone to him to use the Wizard Guild Labatories to create healing potions from rare Herbal ingredients from the feywild summer queen domain. PC haggle and got a reduce membership rate and having hear of the newcomers to the city, and the rare ingredient I deicide he would attempt to pump them for information , as he has already killed to parties of adventurers off the Duke had hire and this new group , though new are hit the city with fanfare by rescuing a girl from the feywild and take down two hags. So he aides them in the creation , for trade of the remaining ingredient and pleasant conversation of the feywild. He deems them a threat (other reasons due to the scope of other factions involvement and other PC characters background), so devise a attempt to slay them in a remote village they are to investigate for the Duke (Cult in village is tied to his organization and at the same level in the food chain as him, but if successful they will have a leg up with the bigger issues of the non- feywild - aquatic portion of the campaign). While Labatories he makes a mistake, (not yet realizing they ma be enemies) having them help create the billowing clouds his smugglers/pirate use to take out merchant ships... when they begin investigating, I hope they flash back when they hear the descriptions of the cloud with the giant potion the created to be one of the clues to this sub group. My question for you ...would this be too much of a "traitor NPC" ? He not a patron to them , it was mutual support so I saw it now as more as mutual aide with both sides not recognizing the other was or may be the enemy (ok he see them as a danger as they told them their plans). I'm just concern if I blur that line there and if it would come back to haunt me. They have had a number of NPC helpers both in adventures, patrons , merchant collaborations, and they went to the wizard guild on their own idea to craft some potions. I don't think I have cross that line but was wondering (yes , now is fine ... I am long winded as I am a devil for details..LOL)

Predrag Dimitrijević

Hi Mike, Recently my wife and I had a kid so I will be out of commision for a while when it comes to playing or running D&D or RPGs in general. Up until that moment I used to buy almost every D&D 5e book, even the adventures. However, now with the new semi-edition out, I can't escape the feeling like I've been a little screwed over. By the time I get to have the time to play again I feel like everyone would've moved on to the new 5e24. And, yeah, I can keep playing the old 2014 5e, but somehow I get the feeling that I would have a hard time finding players for it. I sort of wish they didn't even publish the new rules, or even secretly rooting for it to not be good (which I am not proud of). And by all the accounts it looks like everyone likes the new rules. With you being the veteran that you are, how do you handle that feeling of decade old buyers remorse when a new edition comes out making many of your books obsolete? P.S. Sorry for grammar mistakes, english is not my first language.

Ryan

Mike, I recently used the A5E Manticore from the Monstrous Menagerie a game after your recommendation and really enjoyed the changes they made (tail spikes moving from an attack to an AOE, reaction tail whip, etc). It's a pretty big book, so I thought it would be interesting to see if you had a few of your own favorite changes. Thanks for everything you do!

Lee in Perth

Hi Mike, I have one player who always asks for overpowered outcomes that would break encounters entirely, like his level 2 Paladin lopping off the arm of a CR6 Knight to prevent grappling. I never end up giving this player what they ask for, which feels crappy, so my question is: How might I best prep for this player? I have considered: a) preparing a list of lesser compromises b) rewiring brain to 'just say yes' c) negotiating 'reasonable asks' out of session d) preparing a list of banes to offer as risk/reward of attempting the manoeuvre e) preparing a list of 'devils bargains' to offer as trade for an attempt Ps. Thank you so much for Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. I'm a perfectionist by default, and don't think I'd be GMing without it, and your Youtube channel! Cheers, Lee.

JAMES HERRMANN

Thank you, Mike. I'll dig into this thoroughly. The timing could not be better. I have a boss battle coming up in 2 weeks. The player in question is holding back on character spellcasting in anticipation of neutering another opponent!

Michael Shea

I think you can, if you want, have a conversation with them explaining that magic items are their own reward for questing and that they're not likely to get them any other way. Alternatively, you can award magic items at whatever pace you want for the quests they *do* go on, paving the path the characters tread. I think the default for 5e was that magic items *were* rare and only found by adventuring but that has sort of changed in the later iterations of 5e where magic items have listed prices and ways to be crafted. Nothing says you have to do it that way, of course! But it's probably worth a conversation and clarification with your players.

Michael Shea

Another way to go is to have slow, medium, and fast monsters and have them at Init 5, 10, 15, or even 20. You don't have to tie initiative to anything mechanically related to the monsters, frankly.

Michael Shea

I don't think this is quite as bad. Most importantly, its not critical to your game that this traitor remains hidden. If there's a bad guy doing bad guy stuff and the characters haven't yet figured it out, that's mostly ok. The main thing is not having them be the *main* NPC the characters deal with betray them, not having that betrayal be an important part of the story, and not having any way for the characters to learn about it.

Michael Shea

Hi there! I try to remember that the game I have in hand or the one I run at my own table is the only one that matters. I also try to remember there are lots of RPGs outside of D&D and lots of people playing those as well. Not everyone will move to D&D 2024 and you will be able to find groups playing just about everything. D&D 2024 is still very new so we're all going to have to see how it shakes out but I wouldn't worry too much about the future – I'd worry about the present. Whether they should have or shouldn't have made new rules is sort of a pointless discussion because they *did* make new rules. Here we are! So now it's a question of what we do about it. I don't have any buyers remorse and none of our books are obsolete. That's the wonderful thing about these books. I have two different friends both running independent D&D 2nd edition games. You can even still buy books for it. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/16868/player-s-handbook-revised-2e I don't know if that helps at all, but I know when I hold my old books in my hand, I love them as dearly as I loved them when I first got them.

Michael Shea

Nothing leaps right out at me. I actually tend to use all the stuff outside of the stat block and then use Forge of Foes stats. Their veterans and mages are great, though!

Michael Shea

I don't think its out of hand to say no to things the game clearly doesn't allow, like hacking off arms. You could steer him towards characters that have some of those fun abilities in the mechanics like the 5e battlemaster. You might try a list of called shots if you want to homebrew some stuff with him but I'd base them off things like A5e combat masteries and the like so they have some balance to them. But yeah, this is a circumstance where it's ok to say "that's not really how this game works".

deadpan.tv

Adobe Acrobat’s AI Assistant seems like a useful feature in theory, but it also seems like an easy way for Adobe to ingest any PDF straight into their training datasets. Given the AI’s ability to keep the entirety of the source PDF in context as it answers questions or brainstorms with you, it seems like an interesting way to bounce ideas around, but I wanted to hear your take as a creator before diving in. How do you feel about the AI models being able to ingest your PDFs when they’re opened up in Adobe Acrobat?

Dane Thomsen

Hey Mike, I've been Dming for over 5 years now with the same group. We have had long nanda short campaigns. Just a few weeks ago we had to take a couple weeks off from our weekly game because my work took me out of town for a conference. When I came back to play I have had a hard time getting invested in the story and the campaign. Last week's session felt very flat and I think that is because I am not brining the same level of excitement and energy to the table. It is a very fresh campaign only 3 sessions in. I am not sure why I feel this way. I also don't know how to find the excitement again. Ussualy D&D is what I think about all the time. Have you ever felt this way, if so any tips on how to re-imerse myself?

Jason Kemp

Greetings, Mike. What campaign of yours is your pride and joy, and why does it hold such a place of honor among all of the campaigns you've run?

Michael Shea

I can't speak for everyone but for myself, I'm not worried about it. I'm mad that companies are making billions of dollars off of the work of all of us and then not paying us for the benefit of our work. I wouldn't mind it if the models themselves were released in the open (some of them are). I don't think the models are modified enough by my specific input to matter that much and I don't mind a customer like you putting them into a tool like Acrobat's AI assistant to answer questions about it. I have larger philosophical arguments against generative AI but I don't really mind it being used by customers to read or get more value from my books.

Michael Shea

I think we all have good games and bad games. Sometimes our bad games were actually fine games for our players or vice versa. Sometimes, when I feel like this, I try to narrow it down to just the material I plan to run for the next session and think about what parts of that I'm really excited about. I have a big Key of Worlds campaign going on in the City of Arches but what I'm really excited about is showing off this ancient elevator with all sorts of strange keys that can take the characters to different levels of the vast megadungeon beneath. My advice is to find the thing you're excited about in the next session, whatever it is, and focus on that. Hope that helps!

Michael Shea

Wow. I'm so happy with so many of them that I can't say absolutely this one was the best. But I'll go with my Eberron Second Mourning campaign. I ran it for two groups, we loved Eberron and I loved how the two campaigns diverged from one another. I love that setting. I loved the story we saw. It was all awesome. I don't know if its my pride and joy but I really dug it and I know my players did too. It's the campaign I ran that got me to really double down on the idea of running our own homebrew adventures in detailed published settings: https://slyflourish.com/homebrew_adventures_in_published_settings.html

Micheal Rackintyre

What 2014 DnD classes / builds/spells would not allow at your table, and why? (Just WotC stuff). You’ve mentioned a few times various things you don’t like, but I couldn’t find it all in one place. Myself, I just give a “no combatant allies” blanket rule, to cap combat tracking complexity, so rangers with pets are not allowed, and summoning spells are generally limited to non-combat uses for exploration etc.

john nelson

Hi Mike, I absolutely love your advice and had this trick I've been using for the 'Ruins of the Grendleroot' campaign. I bought game card stands from amazon (link below) and made Microsoft Word documents with appropriate-sized full-color, mirror-images of the monsters/bosses and sent them to a local print shop (i.e., FedEx Office) for full-color heavy paper prints. I don't have a color printer, and it is relatively inexpensive (appx $1.50 per page) for some really stand-out images for my players. I just cut them out, glue stick, fold in half and place in the color standees for multiple opponents of the same monster. What do you think? Happy new year https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YZD1GQH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Adam Rosalky

Hi Mike, long time player, new DM here (at the ripe age of 45), I love your books and Lazy GM tips. As a new GM, I sometimes find it hard to apply your Lazy GM philosophy. This is partly due to my own enjoyment and appreciation of detailed prep, but I have come to recognise a lot assumptions in the Lazy GM approach that you don't seem to speak about much because you have developed your approach from the perspective of an experienced GM. As an inexperienced GM, I have found that this style of prep relies very heavily on improvising succressfully at the table and I find myself struggling to have the confidence and knowledge to do this. For example, just listing out the type of monster for a session relies on you being able to create a balanced encounter on the fly. Additionally, you seem to have no need to prepare dialogue ahead of time, whereas I find myself struggling for words and contradicting myself when I have NPCs providing exposition. Can you discuss what the Lazy GM approach assumes about what a GM needs to do at the table? Thanks!

Adam Rosalky

Hi Mike, another question. I love watching your lazy prep videos but it would be great to see the play sessions too for comparison. Do you record these?

Kyle Castles

Not a question but a suggestion. Listening to the today's Lazy RPG Talkshow and it sounds like you might appreciate the "Quick Insert" module for Foundry. It's a context aware search tool with autocomplete. I use it constantly while running to pull up: rules, statblocks, treasure etc. By default its only a 'CTRL + Space' away.

Kyle Castles

And a quick aside, to my understanding The Forge does some odd things with data storage that can make it a little difficult to migrate away. It's one of the reasons I went with Molten instead, for $4 a month it does everything I need. Plus the data is stored in an identical structure to a local instance which I find very easy for keeping a local backup.

James

Happy New Year Mike! How do you view Tales of the Valiant monsters vs Level Up Advanced 5e monsters?

JohnGalt

Wondering if you have ever struggled with the loss of choice and fun caused by some status effects. I agree with your "what is realistic" AND "what is fun", but several RAW status effects like paralysis, unconsciousness, petrification, stunned, etc are perhaps realistic but: 1) totally kill the fun for players that are looking to see their character do something cool but at best lose the ability to make a choice on their next turn (roll a save, count down a timer) or at worst continually lose their turns. 2) On some level makes the group healer the gatekeeper of fun. I had a player that was down, and because of the scenario it wasn't "optimal" for the party healer to make it over to them for several rounds which ultimately lead to me whispering to the healer "hey would you mind picking up the thief this round?" Charmed and possessed are nearly the same but at least allow the player to play into temporarily being on the other side which can be fun in the right group. Wondering if you handle these RAW, have a subsystem for them, or avoid them altogether. Thanks Mike.

Thomas Connolly

Here's a question- In a recent episode, you suggested 2 resources for kids (or students) who want to play D&D. Those were: 2014 Basic (free) Rules and 5.1 SRD. You said we could give either to the students. But which would be better? How would you decide which version to give to which kids? And even more generally, what is the difference? (Sorry, that's 3 questions; please choose 1 to answer). Thanks, Thomas Connolly

Michael Shea

Like your rule, it's not so much what I allow or not but what we let in. I don't give blanket permission or denial for any given publisher. I don't think WOTC's published material is any better or worse than Kobold Press or EN World or other competent 5e publishers. Instead, we'll look at what sources we *allow* and, if needed, make any modifications to those sources. For my Midgard games, we allowed Midgard Heroes and Tome of Heroes but some of those subclasses were too weak so we beefed them up a touch in a talk between myself and the player. If I allow Tashas, which I probably wouldn't bother to do in the future now that D&D 2024 is here, I didn't allow twilight clerics or peace clerics because their abilities were too disruptive to the game. *Why* we ban something is also a big topic. I only do it if its disruptive to the whole experience of the game like the Twilight clerics ability was.

Michael Shea

I think that's fantastic! Printable Heroes is one of my go-tos for great printable character tokens. I'm using the lazy tokens myself, or full miniatures since I have so many, but I think it's a great option! https://printableheroes.com/

Michael Shea

I'll check it out! Thank you! And I'll look at Molten as well.

Michael Shea

I think I would go with the basic rules but then also offer the SRD because it has more material in it. I'm worried the basic rules PDF is going to go away so I'd make sure to download a copy and keep it handy. https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/DnD_BasicRules_2018.pdf If the kids all have phones and you want to play D&D 2024, you can also send them to the D&D free rules on D&D Beyond: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/free-rules They're more mobile friendly and cover a lot of the game but you can't download it. Still, they're usable without having to create an account. Just a reminder, we have a lot of free resources for after-school groups here: https://slyflourish.com/sponsorships/

Michael Shea

Hi Adam! I answered the question a couple of years ago on YouTube and my views haven't really changed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5jcy8HoqF4&t=2858s I get that some folks really want to see it but it really probably isn't as many as you might think. Here are my main reasons I don't do record sessions or do liveplay games: - I'm not really interested in doing it. My home games are for me and my friends. - Separating out my actual games from the rest of the work I do ensures that I still enjoy running games just for their own sake. It doesn't become something else and it doesn't become part of the rest of our business. - I don't think they'd be as popular as one might think. It's a *ton* of work to record and edit liveplay games and I just don't think people would be that interested. - It's not the unique benefit I hope to bring to the world. There are *lots* of incredible liveplay games to watch and learn from. I don't think I bring anything special to that space. - I just don't have the time. My schedule is full just doing what I'm doing. So those are my reasons right now. I'll never say never but I don't have any plans to record games or run liveplay games.

Michael Shea

Hi Adam! I've been saving up for this question! Being able to improvise is indeed one of the areas GMs can continually improve on and it's definitely challenging. One thing to know about the steps from Return is that they didn't just come from my own experiences but the experiences of thousands of surveyed GMs and hundreds of interviews with GMs. I studied tons of gamemaster books to come to those steps and the advice the book offers. One of the core principles many GMs come to – including many of the designers of the games we're playing – is that improvisation is a critical GM skill and we just can't know where our game is going to go. When I interviewed Matt Mercer many moons ago, he said that he was improvising about half the NPCs he ran in his game – and this was at the most viewed RPG games ever done. One of the things that Return tries to do is push you towards "preparing to improvise" by separating out components of prep rather than mashing them together into "encounters" or scenes – which is typically what GM books recommend. The problem is that scenes just don't play out like we think they will – and that's fine! It's good! It means we get to watch things evolve ourselves. The two examples you bring up are good points: NPC dialog and monsters for combat encounters. In my opinion, it's valuable to change how we prep these specific components to lead us towards improving our improvisational skills. It doesn't always work perfectly, of course, but that's ok. We're just running games for our friends. Not everything needs to be perfect. Tools like the Lazy Encounter Benchmark help us ensure we don't overheat a combat encounter with too many big monsters when that wasn't our intention even when putting together encounters we didn't count on. Another interesting thing is that a lot of popular old-school games like Shadowdark reinforce improvisation as well through random encounters, hostility, distance, and other criteria we won't know ahead of time. So this isn't just an idea for new games like 5e but also how things were done and are done with more old-school style games as well. Lastly, speaking about dialog for NPCs, I always reinforce that the steps from return are there to serve you. You can add as much material in them as you feel you need like conversation points or key things NPCs need to say. I'd argue that it's better to mix secrets and clues and NPCs together so you don't have to bury a piece of info in the head of one particular NPC. That's how secrets are intended to work. Above all, the steps serve you. Prep what you need to run your game. But take a look backwards at the games you've run and see what helped you and what did not. Refine your prep to the parts that best help you run your game and omit the parts that don't. We're all different and different games or sessions require different amounts of prep. The steps are guidelines, not hard rules. Use what makes sense.

Michael Shea

Hi James! I'm still spending time with the Monster Vault but I do really love it. I worry about the high damage output of CR 1s and 2s being out of line with the rest of the damage per CR. I'd like a smoother curve. But I can deal with that. I love the simplified stat block of the Monster Vault and think they did a good job keeping things easy to run and high power at the same time. I think A5e's Monstrous Menagerie has more specific things for each monster like treasure parcels, knowledge checks, and potential encounters. The Monster Vault does have a great section on terrain which includes example terrain and monster combinations I think are great inspiration. They have a great list of potential allies for types of beasts that I think is a cool way to look at it. The MV has a lot of great info I hope people don't skip. I can't make a decision on which book is clearly better. I love the MV monster design – maybe moreso than the monster design in the Meangerie – but I love the menagerie's other info. So I love them both.

Michael Shea

Yes! Conditions and abilities that remove significant agency from characters does bother me and I wish they were handled better. Stun, dominate, petrification, and the like doesn't feel like something dangerous and powerful – it just feels lame. Players are taken out of the fiction of the game when it happens – they're not really dramatically worried. In the Lazy DM's Companion I offer a way to replace those sorts of conditions with stress effects so there's some flavor to what happens and I include an option for players to take a big pile of damage to break out of a condition – 1d8 per every two levels is typically what I choose – about a quarter of their expected hit points. There are a bunch of ways you can determine this amount of damage but I think that at least gives characters a choice if they want to take the damage at the beginning of their turn or stay the way they are. I also like to drop on other effects that aren't quite so bad. Instead of fully charming a character, a vampire can beguile them into using the target's reaction to lay prone in front of them, accept their vampiric bite, or move to an ally and attacking them but it's all done out of the turn of the character so they only lose their reaction. Stuff like that works well. Changing stun into "you can take a move or action but not both and you cannot take bonus actions or reactions" still gives the player more to do. So those are some tips I'd offer.

Ivor MacKay

Hi Mike Happy New Year. I am very much enjoying the City of Arches. I have most of it in my VTT ( which is Fantasy Ground). I have heard you talk about Ptolus often. I backed the kickstarted and have it, but I have not used it yet. If you were to put it in Midgard, where would you put it? I mash many of my campaign settings and modules as I generally lack time to homebrew. Best Ivor

NiteHood

Hi Mike, happy new year! I've been interested in doing a Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign for a while now, but I want to change a few things about it before I do. The thing that drew me to Rime of the Frostmaiden in the first place is the idea of a brutal fight for survival in the bitter cold of the far north, where the weather is ultimately more dangerous than the monsters that lurk within it. However, 5e is not super well suited to this style of play, so I was thinking about using Shadowdark instead. I will likely end up homebrewing stuff either way, since I want more rigorous mechanics for both freezing and starving to death, but Shadowdark seems like it might make a better foundation for what I want than 5e would. Being someone that has run Rime of the Frostmaiden and Shadowdark in the past, do you think this would be a fitting pair, and if so, what advice might you give to make the experience go smoothly? For the record, I am already familiar with the advice you've given for RotF and Shadowdark separately, and I'm more interested to hear if there's anything you would recommend specifically for the intersection of the two.

Matt Roy

Hi Adam. I tend to write a fair bit of dialogue or just spend time imagining what certain characters might say but I enjoy that kind of prep a lot and don’t mind if some of it never gets used. How do you enjoy prepping dialogue? If you’re like me then maybe it’s no problem. I also find prepping dialogue (especially imagining it) just helps me be more ready to inhabit the character at game time and sometimes leads me to new and better ideas about where things might go. Personally, I find the ‘review the characters’ and ‘outline potential scenes’ steps are the most impactful for me so I focus more on those. Mike mentioned on the show that you might consider improving more NPCs but I find the quality of NPCs (for me) suffers a lot when I do that so I tend to also spend some prep there. I’m glad that Mike took your question on the show. It was a good one!

Adam Rosalky

Thanks Matt (and thanks Mike). When I said I prepare dialogue, that was not really true. I prepare complex backstories (i.e. secrets and clues, I guess) that require the NPCs to be very accurate to avoid contradicting the histories I have worked out. I do agree with Mike that improvisation is a key part of the DM's role. I also acknowledge that I'm currently running a campaign that is 100% driven by detailed PC backstories so I'm juggling lots of info. Maybe my next campaign should be a simple string of fetch quests to give myself a break! (Although I have this great time travel mechanic planned out to have the PCs face off against themselves...)

Kevin Donnelly

Hey, Mike. While catching up on the last few podcasts, I've been thinking a bit on magic items, and it's always bugged me how rarity and power are generally discussed as being interchangeable (or, looking at it a different way, words that indicate rarity are used to indicate power). An item being not terribly powerful shouldn't necessarily mean that it is more common, particularly if it has a particularly esoteric or specific use - I would imagine that in a typical setting there would be more suits of +1 Leather that exist than Tridents of Fish Command or Decks of Illusion. I'd also think that many of the "one use daily" type of one-off magic items you've talked about using would qualify as "common" or "uncommon" while in reality might be the only one that exists. I might be just being pedantic, and this is solved by substituting different words for common, rare, etc., and I know that all that is under our control and imagination as GMs; but I was wondering if there were other 5e-based magic item systems that split out power level and rarity, and took that into account in possible pricing / availability / crafting.

Michael Shea

Hi there! I'm not a great expert on all of Midgard but you might check out the Western Magocracy of Allain. I might only be picking that because I don't know anything about it. You could also throw it in the Dragon Empire but that would change it from a more cosmopolitan city into one ruled over by the scaled folk over the non-scaled folk.

Michael Shea

I think Shadowdark could work very well there. Shadowdark, being a grim and brutal RPG instead of a high heroic fantasy RPG better fits with the constant night of Icewind Dale in that time and the continual danger works well. Take a look at Cursed Scroll 1 as a model for thinking about how to work and run Rime of the Frostmaiden. I think it could work very well – probably better than D&D!

Michael Shea

All of the 5e systems I know of use rarity for magic items but you're right, you can just replace the rarity with a power curve instead. I do think it helps to generally think that higher power items are more rare than lower power items simply because they are (or were) harder to create. Rarity doesn't really matter when it comes to your game, though. If they have a legendary weapon, they're 100% likely to have a legendary weapon =) I wouldn't hang on too tight to the label. As always, you get to use it however you want.