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Q & A from Patrons of Sly Flourish on Upcoming Videos (Patreon)

Published:
2021-08-26 22:33:00
Edited:
2022-02-04 16:35:54
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
Q&A

Content

Hello patrons of Sly Flourish!

I want to try an experiment.

Every week I shoot and post the "Lazy D&D Talk Show" and I'm considering shooting more D&D Tip videos from the point of view of questions from you fine patrons!

What D&D or Lazy DM question do you have or what D&D-related topic would you like to see me cover on a future Lazy D&D Talk Show or covered in a short YouTube video?

Post them in the comments to this post!

I certainly won't be able to answer them all but I'd love to hear what questions and topics you'd like to see me cover!

Thank you again for your support!

Comments

Jonathan Charlton

How do you help players decide on a course of action? Ie. you’re infiltrating a castle and some want to sneak in and some want to talk their way in and everyone is being polite and doesn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. Do just say “the outer walls are well defended and it’s going to be exceedingly hard to sneak past?” I don’t mind out of character strategizing and I don’t want to just punish them by saying “as you were taking too long making up your mind a guard comes up and arrests you.”

Teddy's Epic Quests

What are your top three recommendations of books/ systems to read outside of 5e, simply to improve my 5e games, even if I have no intention of running those systems on their own?

Derek Graeff

How does a DM handle instances where NPCs are talking to one another without boring the players?

MagicGamerDad

1. How to encourage more RP when your group has been playing for a year and mostly love the combat (mechanics) part of the adventure. 2. Tips on Using Inspiration to improve Role Play?

J. Collin

I try to avoid those situations, but I'll go ahead and share what I do when it's unavoidable. If I need two NPCs to talk I'll send the players away so they can "chat privately". When the players return, one of the NPCs will summarize the conversation.

Kevin Brown

A few things I’d like to hear about: record keeping and organizing (what did the NPC tell them eight sessions back?); how to keep players focused on stuff that matters without railroading them; more pep talks/tips for overcoming anxiety and burnout; stuff that isn’t

Kevin Brown

Whoops. Maybe a little less 5e focus. Really liked the collab with Johnn Four. More of that would be fun. Would love to see you and Justin Alexander do something together.

Sean P Havern

You have stated before that we should not balance encounters and instead make encounters that make sense in the setting and situation. I completely agree. However, in my experience, a vast majority of the 5e player base expects balanced/scaling encounters. They expect every encounter to be winnable. How do you break this expectation and encourage players to gather information about the potential dangers of an encounter so they can make informed decisions and risk assessments?

Mark Eades

What are ways to do "quick" capture of what is happening at certain moments in your game. I so often try to write a quick note about what was happening at the moment but I feel I lose a lot when I'm writing down a quick note.

WhiteRice

What are your thoughts on running an evil (or morally ambiguous) campaign in terms of content planning? There is already some videos out there about how to set up the player (like make sure they have a reason to be together and not kill each other) but more like how you would change adventures and plot hooks and Maguffins?

Perry Caldwell

How do you help a player remember cool abilities without managing their character for them? One of my players is a Gloom Stalker and never remembers that he is invisible to creatures that rely on darkvision.

Daniel Anand

I play PF2e, but I love your material and style, so anything that is not 5e specific is extra valuable to me.

Raymond Chan

How do you deal with greater and greater deviation from plotted content when running long prewritten campaigns. I want to stay as lazy as possible without railroading the players.

Victor Navone

I love this idea! Here's a question: do you ever experience a sense of regret or disappointment after DMing a session? I often feel this because I forgot an important detail or fun game mechanic, or I had to improvise something important and it ended up not working well for the story. Maybe my players don't know what they missed, but I find it frustrating. Do you have any tips for dealing with this?

Drogo Danderfluff

If you wrote The Lazy Player Guide, what would you include?

Meek Barbarian

I know improv is a super valuable skill, but what do you do when the players do something *totally* unexpected and you have nothing prepped? For example, in Eberron, supposed I'm running a Sharn-centric campaign. I've prepped some NPCs, secrets and clues, and locations, but they're all within Sharn. How do I handle it if the players decide to take the Lightning Rail and go to the wilderness for whatever reason?

Eloy Cintron

Do you still roll in the open? Do you reveal the monster stats to your players, as I seem to recall you saying in a podcast? How has that changed the experience for you and your players?

Eric Lyons

I'm going to echo and restate some previous comments: How do you keep track of all the improvised lore that comes from pivoting the story? I struggle with "DM perspective" note taking that can slow down the game. I think my players care...

Anthony Bella

What are some of your favorite third party publications that came out this year?

Brenton Kirschner

What is the best way to introduce friends/family who aren't big into gaming to D&D? A quick one-shot with pre-gens? A different game such as Fiasco?

Rodrigo Deodoro

One thing I struggle with and that could fit your style of "short and sweet" videos is: what are ways to flesh out NPCs more, in a way that they feel more like a person and less like me doing a funny voice?

Richard Carey-Knight

I noticed in a recent tips video that you don't use a DM screen, and I assume therefore that you roll in open. If so, how does this affect drama, opposition stealth rolls etc, and do you miss fudging?

Andreas Zwettler

Connected to Raymond Chans question - How do you fit in or balance the concept of writing a clear outline with the lazy DMing method, focusing on improvisation & "the next session"?. This is probably not such a big problem for published adventures (since the outline should be the book) but in a homebrew setting it can become an issue. Put another way, the question is: "How do you keep the story on track while still allowing for maximum improvisation and also "staying lazy?" ;-)

StLion

I love your prep videos Sly! As someone who frequently gives feedback on other DMs campaigns, that I am not a part of and as someone who gets feedback from other DMs, I can say I love Co-DMing. Have you ever Co-DMed with anyone else? What are your stories about collaborative story and content development, like in the Fantastic Lairs? (Bonus question: What is the coolest thing from any other campaign that you have ever "borrowed")

Peter S.

Is the "three bullet points" per location the tool you use to deliver concise and yet effective descriptions of locations? Any other tips? I always struggle in keep the "DM talk" short to let the party talk more.

Mike Gray

Been participating in weekly one-shots lately and am curious about your thoughts on designing for them. Short (~1 hour), Medium (~2-1/2 hours) and long (4+ hours).

Jason Sunday

Cover why you love the Cypher System!

Cleric Ken

Do you have lore continuity in your version of the Forgotten Realms? For example, if a player character becomes a hero, are they mentioned in a future campaign in the region? Or if a player character is granted a title, could future PCs have them as a patron?

Chromie

I'm curious how you handled travel for a campaign like Storm Kind's Thunder. I know there are some point crawl articles on your site. When is one style of travel better suited than another?

Robert Scumaci

What to do when the storyline stalls, or goes stale? The same secrets and clues have been thrown out several times and for whatever reason the PCs don't take the bait - but they are kinda necessary or at least important storylines. Would you ever talk away from or across the table as "Mike" to get the game back on track? Is that appropriate in this circumstance?

J. Collin

I'm running my campaign in my homebrewed world that is still a work in progress. What kind of notes and details would you make to keep locations feeling unique, fleshed out, and easy to reference?

Dustin Bodin

The best advice I was given for those situations is to just blow something up in game that pulls them back in. You're God in your world and if you need to rattle stuff around to get their attention then do it.

Dustin Bodin

I'm curious as to what your take is on some of the other 5e zines are that are going around. The specific 2 I have noticed more than any other is the Lair magazine by the DM lair and Broadsword magazine by Dave Hamrick and group at DM Dave.

Tim Smyth

I'd love to have you make a video detailing how to combine Stat blocks, as briefly discussed in Ruins of the Grendleroot. Thanks!

Nick Drochak

The thing I always struggle with is when there's a skill checks in a group. Since characters can attempt things even if they are not proficient (picking locks). Do you just allow everyone to roll and try? Say the thief tries to pick the lock and fails. Can the other 4 members of the party each get in line and take a turn? How do you handle the case where conceivably everyone could give it a shot? And doesn't that apply to most situations anyway? How do we make characters with "special skills" more special? If any character cant give a shot and get a lucky 20, it seems to minimize the character specializations.

Mark (zellspell)

Fate and Dungeon World are two books Sly mentions…and for me those two games have improved my 5e DMing

Mark (zellspell)

IMHE (e=experience) if the party is over confident because they assume balance, and I think I have warned them of the danger, I make sure every hit stings and then suggest alternatives (casually) with the players. I usually try to provide a narrative out, or I give an NPC a death to show just how dangerous things are.

Mark (zellspell)

You’re not alone. Sometimes I send a follow up summary from the session, regurgitating my recall of events, adding flavor or changes that I think are enhancing. When/if questioned about details that might differ, I come right out and state my reason for the update/change, pointing to a miss or something I should have said or done differently during the session.

Jayme Antrim

How do you create NPC factions and organizations? What are three things every organization needs to feel real for your players?

Matt Roy

Please keep doing your 3rd party reviews. I love those and have picked up several great resources from those recommendations. I’d also love to hear you talk about your own older works as well. Even though you’ve probably already done this, for newer listeners it’s great and those who don’t want that audio content can always skip via time stamps.

DELPIERRE Thierry

How do you manage Player knowledge (is not a newbie in D&D, as already played a lots of session) vs is Character young Lv1, knowing nothing outside, other than is small village ? The question rise when in an encounter the player tell everybody to through a flask of oil because fire is the good solution, to not use slashing weapon against this one, use silver weapon, burn the corpse, etc... That doesn't fit to his young lv1 Character knowledge, but how to handle that ? I feel more confortable if he's playing a Lv3 Character, and that sounds more acceptable when is shooting advice to other Lv1 Character. Let's think also about player googleing in between session, and come back with this kind of unexplicable knowledge .

Michael Shea

I actually don't think I do this particularly well. I really just wing it. I wish I took better notes. I will update NPC records in Notion though as new things come up.

Michael Shea

I review one or two new third party products each week so check out the Lazy D&D Talk Show! Here are my favorites so far this year: Southlands (Kobold Press) Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands (Raging Swan) Scarlet Citadel (Kobold Press) Where the Machines Wait (Monte Cook Games) Ptolus (Monte Cook Games) Adventures from the Potbellied Kobold (Jeff Stevens) Worlds Without Number (Kevin Crawford) Mork Borg (Free League Publishing) Arcadia (all of them) (MCDM) Total Party Kill Bestiary Volume 2 (2C Gaming)

Michael Shea

I think the first chapter of Lost Mine of Phandelver is probably pretty good. Great situational-based D&D that captures what we expect it to have. Good pregens too. Be nice at 1st level though!

Michael Shea

Good question! I don't know that I have more to say about it than I do in Return though. I'm really not great with NPCs.

Michael Shea

I have not! Sorry! Nothing leaps out at me as something I borrowed. Karshak the sentient god train in my Eberron game was lifted right out of Stephen King's Wastelands but thats not really what you're asking.

Michael Shea

Pretty much! Try to aim for three sentences that focus on what is most important.

Michael Shea

The Uncovered Secrets PDF will have a one-shot guide in it very shortly!

Michael Shea

Good topic. Maybe good for a review of Numenera.

Michael Shea

I didn't know what I was doing with SKT. Now I drop in an interesting encounter along the way. The Uncovered Secrets and Adventure Generators have examples.

Michael Shea

Someone walks in the door with a gun! I think it might be time for a Stephen King "lets blow up half of the main characters" sort of moment. Talk to your players, see what they dig, omit the rest, and start a new fork or new path.

Michael Shea

I think the "fantastic locations" chapter of Return covers this as well as I can. An evocative name, three interesting features, some art, and maybe a map if its big. Change up the resolution up or down depending on what you need.

Michael Shea

I have't really checked them out. Just Arcadia.

Michael Shea

Good question. I don't really do anything special I don't think.

Michael Shea

Good thought! I have no problem going back and looking at old 3pp stuff.

Michael Shea

Good question. My players are well-behaved when it comes to player vs character knowledge.

Cleric Ken

Glad you think so! I enjoy keeping my games in the same world. I asked a player of a retired character how they would react to the new players I had who were working for them. The giant attacks of SKT are brought up in my Waterdeep game.

Michael Shea

I'll pick some new ones: Numenera, Ironsworn, and Blades in the Dark.

Michael Shea

I have a little section of my adventure prep notes for in-game notes that I never fill out =\

Michael Shea

I really try to avoid evil campaigns so I'm probably not the right one to ask.

Michael Shea

I just try to remind them and help them out.

Michael Shea

Talked about this today on the Talk Show! Video comes out tomorrow at 1pm EST on YouTube!

Michael Shea

Oh sure but we have to just move on and try to bring the cool in next game!

Michael Shea

Good question and one I should cover on the Talk Show. Spoilers: It's less about being a lazy player and a few behaviors that can really help: - Build a character that supports the theme and story of the campaign. Get behind the DM's story. - Build a character that supports other characters. Wire your story to theirs if you can. Be a sidekick. - Take notes during the game. It keeps you engaged and provides a good service for the other players.

Michael Shea

yeah, I call it a night! I did this in my last Wednesday game when they went somewhere I totally wasn't ready for.

Michael Shea

Yep! Talked about this on the Talk Show today! Coming out on YouTube tomorrow at 1pm

Drogo Danderfluff

Yes. I always say if you don’t know what to do think about how to help another character/player.

James Whatson

What is your advice for writing up a Campaign Pitches document? Reference: Pitching your Campaign Matt Colville video. I’d love to hear your thoughts 🥰

Giantstomp

What is the social contract when it comes to a D&D group? What are tips for players to make their D&D experience a better thing instead of just relying on the DM to do everything?

swingsetpark

What are good campaign wrap-ups? I just finished watching you Dragon of Icespire Peak game with Enrique Bertram and you did a “six months later…” falling action scene. Do you always do this? Could this be an adventure generator on how to end a campaign well?

heptres

Could yoe make a video showing how you edit your PDFs, i.e. one page of the undiscovered secrets? More specifically, I would like to see the template you use. Fonts, background image, etc I like your document layout very much :-)

Eric Desaulniers

I personally use the skill Arcana if players want some clues on monsters (trained only). Bard can throw dices here and there to see if they heard stories too. And background ... scholar or if theylink their background with some monsters lores or monsters hunting

Eric Desaulniers

I would also love to hear about Numenera, I really love the system and did a campaing that took the player all the way to the last tier. And toward the middle we felt a balance issue between the class. One thing I took from the system to encourage my players to describe what they are doing, the more they tell, better the bonus I give them +1, +2 or advantage ... I try to be on the cinematic side of d&d :)

saphssquatch

Hi Sly, I love the videos and podcast content that you are putting out there! They're great for my drive to and from work! One thing that isn't a question, but more of a, "I'd like to see" are videos/podcasts about running the WotC adventures. I'm thinking of a video along the lines of the articles like this: https://slyflourish.com/running_curse_of_strahd.html I think that these are great resources and might be a good way to pull people into the Sly Flourish fanbase!

Ryan Royce

I am currently running an open table/west marches hexcrawl at a mead hall every Sunday. As a consequence of that, I rarely know who my players will be in advance nor do I necessarily know what they will want to do once the session starts. I've got a kludge developing where I have Secrets and Clues broken out by region (i.e., these secrets can be found in a dwarf ruin, these clues can be found in the Marrowood, etc.) in addition to the standard character-focused S&Cs, but would welcome more ideas for applying the tools of lazy dungeonmastering to an open table environment.

Z

Have you considered doing a video on how the Lazy DM's checklist can easily be "scaled up" for the purposes of campaign planning? It seems to me that your method can provide a great framework for brainstorming an entire campaign or campaign arc if you just "think bigger" when you're going through the steps. Once you've got the strong campaign start, primary fantastic locations, campaign-spanning secrets, and so on established, your list can inform the checklists you create for individual adventures as the campaign progresses. Maybe not a new idea--and perhaps you've done a video on this topic already that I'm not aware of--but if you haven't done this yet, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

abazaba23 _

I would love tips on actually _doing_ the improvization in game after preparing with the lazy DM tools for new lazy DMs. I had a bit of struggle when I first started using them, but they did make my games 100x more fun once I made them work for me!

Michael Shea

Great question and a hard one! Let me think about it.

Michael Shea

Good question and one that gets answered a lot. I typically mention chapter 16 from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master but I think people want more. I'll mark this one for a video.

Michael Shea

My understanding is that West Marches DMs should still know where the characters will be exploring and secrets can be generated for that location. If you have an idea from the group where they plan to explore before they come to the game, that helps a lot regardless if its West Marches or not. Good topic for a video!

Michael Shea

I have nearly 200 videos on this! Here's the full playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puaqbHmqvQufhsCVyFpZj3Ugn and for each campaign setting: Waterdeep: Dragon Heist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puaoUYef2OhdAVEOIyXMLLAFx Lost Mine of Phandelver: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puap4Bdz3vC5ci39V0E8O7n4S Ghosts of Saltmarsh: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puaoBf4_1vUdXf4RMP7_SAzOW Descent into Avernus: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puarDID4UACeSsLjXf9ogvvCo Eberron: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puaoWY0uisHTbMsM6MSo4mvEt Rime of the Frostmaiden: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puapm7MfiUn74l4RbR3jeXyLu and a bunch of articles for each campaign on https:/slyflourish.com. Scroll to the bottom.

Michael Shea

I just shot a video on this topic based on the question "what would be in a Lazy Player's Guide"! It will be up soon.

Michael Shea

Great topic and one on which I'll do a video.

Z

Cool, and that's a good point. There are defenitely things in Chapter 16 that you'd miss out on if you just used the list. I'm planning the next Tier of my Saltmarsh game this month, and plan to use both to jump start my brain; I expect they'll be pretty easy to integrate.

Ryan Royce

My game is most aptly described as an Open Table that borrows a lot of west marches elements, but not all of them. Since anyone who shows up at the mead hall gets to play (provided there are available seats remaining), I don't get the advance notice of player intent that is core to a traditional WM game since even the player roster isn't set until folks finish arriving, much less their agenda. I've got stuff for the as-yet-unexplored hexes of the setting somewhat built out in anticipation of whatever the players decide and flexible encounter algorithms to accommodate wildly varying party compositions (i.e., if X class present, then add Y monster/treasure to encounter Z), but I wonder if there's a better (coughlaziercough) way to do it.

Michael Shea

Ah, gotcha. Yeah. I think having a set of secrets for each of the locations you prep could work. The nice thing is that each location you prep you can use later or with another group independently. Very cool. You might even do one set of eight steps for each location and then whip it out if that's the one they pick.

heptres

Oh sweet I love it 😍

songbird24601

You've spent a lot of time talking about the laments of published WOTC adventures. Though I doubt this would be a full video, I'm curious how you would rank the published adventures. I'd also be curious if you had third party material that you felt fit really well with specific published campaigns (i.e. nautical supplements for GoS, etc)

songbird24601

I love the concept of strong starts. I know that combat is a common and easy strong start situation, but my players don't always want to start with combat all the time. Most of the strong start suggestions in Return of the Lazy DM our strong starts for campaigns. I'd love ideas for how to very strong starts in a way that kept things meaningful and moving forward.

DELPIERRE Thierry

@Eric Desaulniers : Thanks for your tips. Your answer and Mike's seem logical and obvious.

Drift Sain (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-18 15:00 Have you ever run a sort of wilderness survival adventure? I know they're not for everyone but I'd be interested to hear how you would use the checklist for wilderness exploration/survival
2021-09-01 14:55

DELPIERRE Thierry

Simple, this has to be adressed at session zero as all the things you want them to be aware. I'm allways telling them that every combat will be deadly if they rush into, and retreat is sometimes the best option. "It's very dangerous outside". I'm from Old school, so don't expect soft monster combat. Monsters have a brain too. Even a simple Goblin knows what to do. On the other hand, it helps them a lot to start thinking about other options like negotiating.

saphssquatch

Thank you so much for these! Would you be interested in making/combining some of the deep dives into the modules into videos? Thinking of the articles like these: https://slyflourish.com/running_death_house.html https://slyflourish.com/running_curse_of_strahd.html For me the campaign prep videos are helpful, but since it is unique to how you are running the campaign, they'll be a little intimidating/less relevant later on. Curse of Strahd is going to be my first module that I've run, so I've not followed along with a prep series, but maybe I'll try with Lost Mine of Phandelver first!

saphssquatch

Ooh this is a great topic! I'd love to see a campaign level "checklist". Excited to see this!

Matt Anderson

Hey! I'd love to hear your advice about moving beyond DMing for your group of close friends, and taking the plunge to DMing for strangers (online or whatever.) What do you have to do differently? How might your prep change? etc...

Step Back

I love the talk about fronts and portents and the like and I wanna use them more. A couple questions about how to implement them: 1. I have two long running campaigns right now, would you recommend adding them mid-stream and if so, how would you do it? 2. How do you decide when a front moves forward with its next step to trigger the portent?

Phillip Jones

1. How does a lazy DM deal with a full party wipe in a long campaign

Raymond Chan

Thanks for answering my question! Point taken about setting player expectations at the session zero. Alas, that ship has sailed several months ago. The problem now is that my main villain(front) has evolve so drastically over the campaign that its difficult to reconcile its current position (motivation, relationships) with the dramatic finale per-written in the published campaign. I see only 2 choices, railroad the PCs and the villain back to the script or do the unlazy thing and rewrite the final act. Is there a 3rd way? Any advice on squeezing more from the pre-written material?

Jason Sunday

I would love to see a Numenera review. That would be great! I think Cypher works really well for Numenera. I am not sure how well it would hold up for some like a Cypher version of Forgotten Realms but it would be interesting to see how it would play.

Michael Shea

Good question! Ill try to cover this in Talk Show in the future.

Tim Smyth

Do you create and track Fronts when you are running a published adventure? I'd really like a video tutorial on how to run a pre-written adventure from start to finish!

Jason Sunday

I am interested in process you use to go from idea to finished published product. What advice would you tell yourself when you first started creating products? How do you find artist, mappers, layout artists and editors? How the sausage is made.. ect...

Scipio202

A lot of both improving a scene and thinking about campaign development is about understanding the motivations of your NPCs to decide what they would do or say in a situation. What do you find to be the most useful types of motivations for NPCs? Does it vary by what role you have in mind for them (major antagonist, mentor, rival, potential ally, just flavor, etc.)?

DM

Hi, Michael. New DM here. Q1) I feel 5E like a medieval-superhero story from the start. How could I nerf a group for a few newbie adventures until they get some quests done and, only then, win the Goku status that level 1 players have? I know DCC and Warhammer Fantasy have this kind of approach, but my players are intrested in 5E adventures potentially. Q2) Are there any intentions in translating some of your books to, say, Spanish? Offtopic: I'm a lifetime nerd that's been hiding from TTRPG due to the time I thought it consumed. Your book taught me it could also be not like that. Now, with 31 y/o, I started directing 2 groups of adult newbies as an experiment to use TTRPG in teaching Language and Literature. Thanks for your inspiration.

Michael Shea

Hello! Congratulations on starting up with RPGs and that's awesome that you're able to use it to teach language and literature! I wish I could do more multi-lingual versions of my books but the cost and logistics are really hard to manage and I'm only one guy. Sorry! As far as making 5e a little more gritty and down to earth I have a few suggestions: 1. Keep them below 7th level. 2. Remove the optional Feat feature. 3. Limit subclasses to the ones available in the D&D Basic rules (https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/DnD_BasicRules_2018.pdf). 4. Remove the optional multiclassing feature. 5. Use the standard array for attributes or, if you're really hard core, go to 3d6. Honestly, I don't think players enjoy playing with these limitations but if they're into it, go with it!

The Anti-Tourist Trap

I’ve been getting into sourcebooks and adventures from older editions, and I appreciated your ranking of the 5e campaigns. Are there any books etc. from prior editions that you would recommend using as inspiration for a 5e campaign?

Richard Kairon

Do you have any advice for a fairly new DM about going through a published adventure and making alterations to make it work for the group. I sometimes hear about things needing a fix but have no idea how to do that.

Michael Shea

Good question! Sometimes I think we take it for granted that people know how to modify adventures. I just wrote a draft article on the topic and will probably do a video as well.

Andrew Houghton

Hi Mike, a recent player debrief on high/low points in a completed campaign revealed the high points to be moments of (unsurprisingly) laughter. Low points tended towards 'serious' roleplay moments - from either myself or the player. Emotional reunion, serious reveals etc. I think this stems from a limited understanding of the different ways in which a player can interact with the game. First person RP vs describing what your PC says/does etc. I'd like to hear you discuss the different ways in which all players (DM included) can 'play' the game. My belief is there are probably lots of different ways we just don't get exposure to.

Giantstomp

Hi Mike, not sure if you've covered this already, but what is the Lazy DM's approach to world building? Not just altering or changing existing material but starting from scratch. I guess and ways to know if you'd be happier with a Homebrewed world or just an existing one that you alter to your liking.

Michael Shea

You're going to dig one of the videos I just shot today! Check it out in a week or two.

The Anti-Tourist Trap

How would you prep for a megadungeon, such as Dungeon of the Mad Mage?

Jayme Antrim

Hi Mike! I love all the adventure generators, especially The Heist. Do you have any tips on how to prepare and run a heist adventure?

Kevin Brown

Hi Mike. Can you offer some tips on running NPCs so they actually convey the information you need them to? It seems really unnatural for them to start blurting out important details. It’s especially hard with bad guys when it’s not really in their best interest to share. Is there a good way make sure my NPCs act more like characters and less like random normal people?

Oscar Merida

How do you get players to flesh out their characters beyond stats / skills / and class features. I'm starting a new campaign and while we established the characters come from a particular region, we didn't figure out any bonds between them during our session zero.

Michael Shea

Good topic for a short video! Adding it to the list.

Tim Smyth

How would you do Spiral Campaign Building differently in an Urban Setting? I'd love to hear more about your experience in this with the Sharn half of your Eberron game. Thanks!

Pierce Suchoski

Do you ever try using what I would call "meta systems", such as a counter for number of noisy things the players have done, or a list of consequences for bandits escaping the players in a combat scenario? If so, what do you think does and does not work (generally)?

Step Back

Coming back to this with a question about encounter design. You've mentioned that big predictable encounters like boss fights should be well-thought-out beyond the hibachi style. I'd love to hear what your process for doing that might be, and what inspiration you might use.