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May 2022 Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A Thread (Patreon)

Published:
2022-05-04 16:00:08
Edited:
2022-05-06 17:41:38
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
Q&A

Content

Behold the Sly Flourish Patreon Questions and Answers thread for May 2022!

As you ponder your question for the month, I have the following requests:

Search the Patreon Questions in the Lazy D&D Talk Show Topic Database using some keywords from your question to see if I've answered a question like yours previously.

Focus your question on DMing Dungeons & Dragons or other tabletop RPGs.

Please limit yourself to one question.

Please try to keep your question brief. I love your stories but I get overwhelmed.

I'll definitely answer your question here on Patreon. I often answer questions on the Lazy D&D Talk Show. Sometimes I turn the question into a D&D Tip video or Sly Flourish article. Know that if I only answer you here in the thread, I still love you.

I'll be answering Patreon questions every Friday morning.

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

Now bring on the questions!!

Comments

Matt Roy

Ok Mike, I’ve gotta ask. Why do you like names with ‘Willow’ in them so much🤣 lol!

Alex Gombach

Hi Mike, I feel like I don’t utilize damage types well in the game. Beyond the expected impact of damage type on immunity and resistance, do you use damage types for any other fun in game effects?

Tim Junge

How do you go about giving warning shots to your players if they are about to do something not so clever? This week my party tried to make a stand against an obviously out of their league foe while beeing unprepared and almost died. Luckily one of my more experienced players read the signs and gave tail and ran. But I am pretty sure that some of my other groups whould have straight up tpked.

Noah Kelly

Hello, My players almost never loot fallen adversaries, even after overtly mentioning interesting things they may have equipped. I cannot tell if this is due to absentmindedness, or a distaste for looting dead bodies. I feel like asking directly seems to video gamey. Any tips for 'giving' loot to players who may, or may not end up looting enemies?

Gustavo Campanelli

@Tim Junge, you may simple say it so if it's obviously out of their league. Otherwise you can also tell it by showing him from afar dominating a creature they can't still face without great danger.

David Prothero

You talk about having 3 villains in a campaign. Do you tend to introduce them linearly (e.g. they defeat villain 1, villain 2 steps into the picture), or do you like to weave them in, overlapping them?

Kevin Brown

I'm a big fan of the classic, old school random rumors table. Are secrets and clues a tweaking of this concept, or do you see them as something altogether different? Is there a role for both?

Thiago L.

Hi Mike, I know you’re not a puzzle fan (and btw neither am I). However, I do believe they can be of value in particular for exploration. Part of the challenge for me, however, is to make sure the characters, not the players, are the ones working out the solution. For example, another DM in my group who does like puzzles had to contend with an Int 8 Barbarian solving mysterious arcane riddles while the Int 14 Warlock looked stumped. How do you avoid this type of situation? Bonus question: since Numenera is so exploration–centric, have you developed new ideas or techniques for implementing puzzles compared to the last time you were asked about them?

Rich ‘Sandwich Mimic’ Stabile

Hi Mike. I'm struggling with a problem in my remote game and I'm not sure how to resolve it. I have two players who will not stop bickering. They will argue or take offense over the smallest things. Last game they kept sniping at each other because one asked the other to repeat themselves. Unfortunately, I can't ask either to leave because it will cause my group to fall apart. One of the players is the cousin of a third player, and the other player is constantly being defended by a fourth. I inherited this group and I want to keep playing, but no matter how much I talk to both parties they cannot seem to be civil with each other. Please help!

Eric Lyons

Hello! I haven't been satisfied with the tone while running Primeval Thule using 5E (a Robert Howard, Conan-like setting) a couple times. Didn't feel like "the days of high adventure!" Do you have a quiver full of Lazy DM tips for this?

The Meowster

Hey Mike, A reoccurring problem for my sessions is pacing. Some reasons are internal (ADHD) and some external (party splitting to 3 areas). I noticed this particularly when my CoS party split to meet with key NPCs in Vallaki. I wanted to know if you thought more about pacing, particularly regarding party splitting/multiple scenes, or what others have had success with?

Ryan McIntyre

Any tips on encouraging players to use all those potions and spell scrolls we give them? My first campaign ended at level 14 with the party having a dozen or more potions and a half dozen scrolls. Nothing short of me saying “this is the last boss / session” could get them to use them anywhere near as fast as they accumulated them.

Stephen Gingell

Traditionally gold and other valuable treasure is meant to motivate PCs to go do stuff, but there isn't much by default to spend it on in 5th edition. How do you handle gold? Do PCs want it, what do they spend it on to motivate them to go get more?

The Anti-Tourist Trap

Have you ever felt unsure where to take a homebrew campaign next? How did you figure out what to do? I’m currently running a homebrew adventure set in Strixhaven, and we’ve had a good time, but I’m feeling at a loss for what to do next.

PhD20

How would you encourage more player ingenuity at the table? For example, encouraging players to come up with and try their own clever ideas, strategies, or methods instead of relying solely on their character sheet and die rolls.

Jonathan Charlton

One thing you could try is just not allowing the party to split? Might be a bit railroady, but on the other hand, it's not really fair for the players to put you in that position. "Not-railroading" doesn't mean "the players can do whatever they want."

Mertok.

Do you use the concept of "the Dungeon Turn" in your games? How would you implement this in 5e?

Ryan McIntyre

Not sure if this is a reference from something, but I like the idea. I play a lot of the Boardgame Sentinels of the Multiverse, which is played with the Villain takes a turn, then each player, then the Environment goes. The environment is a mix of effects that can hurt or help the players or villain, in a way that makes sense to the environment theme. I could see in 5e adding environmental effects in initiative.

Mertok.

I think that's an interesting concept to play around with. The dungeon turn I'm referring to is the passage of time in the exploration pillar while in dungeons. Tracking chunks of time in dungeon until torches are extinguished, enemies begin patrols, rooms are searched etc...

Mat Gojcevic

Given the new Dragonlance Revisited UA came out recently, what do you think of giving all Feats level prerequisites? They give a few examples in the UA, but what if all Feats had level prerequisites? Such as Skilled being for level 1 characters, Magic Initiate being only available for Level 4 characters, and Spell Sniper for level 8 characters? Just as some examples.

Jaakko Sippola

How would you manage time during a dungeon crawl? I think there is rules that tell how long it takes to move a square in a dungeon, but that is so tedious to do. How would you manage when spells end or torches go out?

JasminE

Dear Mike I will start Wild beyond the Witchlight next week with a group of three players. Do you see any specific challenges or opportunities for a smaller group in this adventure? First-month on Patreon but long time fan, thank you for all the insightful reviews, especially your WbtW prep!

morkaphene

Hi Mike. Do you have any Lazy DM tips for running chases? Do you like the rules in the DMG or do you have other tricks up your sleeve?

Anthony Murphy

Hi Mike, how do you describe size and direction to players when running a cave system as a dungeon? Artificial structures are easier due to the angles and clearly defined rooms. But very irregular caves where one cave bleeds into another seem to be much harder. For example look at level two of the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief.

J. Collin

Hey Mike, my apologize. This question has a lot of setup. I'm DMing at my LGS again running a Coliseum Style Campaign. Players fight in Challenges and gain rewards from factions. The goal of the campaign is to always have an epic combat and some light RP either just before or just after the combat. I was very up front about the amount of Combat and RP that could be expected and the majority of the group has been on board. But I've got that one player, despite multiple conversations reminding him that this would not be a campaign to "explore his backstory" has made efforts to shoehorn his amnesiac background into the main story. How would you recommend handling a player that says he understands the campaign expectations but his actions clearly don't reflect it?

Cloaker

Hi Sly. Looking for Lazy DM ways to apply tension in 5e games more effectively through resource management/procurement. and to illustrate the increased threat of distant and lengthy travel not just to '"The Dungeon"" but back home as well. The world is a hostile place---basically I wanna Oregon Trail it while keeping it short and sweet, but with treacherous agency. How can you raise the stakes to reinforce that adventuring is really dangerous on its own merits apart from combat? And how would you go about representing a 5e world where resource management matters?

Joe G

If your players don't seem inclined to seek out loot at all, it sounds like you effectively have to hand it to them on a silver platter. Here's some ideas off the top of my head, but the TL/DR is basically hang a big sign saying "You might want this stuff": 1) Make it really obvious that monsters/enemies are using magic items against them. Describe the enemy warrior's sword as it glows or burns with its own fire, or how the oni's wand radiates blue before a lightning bolt shoots out of it, or the enemy shaman's staff briefly blossoms with flowers as she heals one of her comrades. 2) Have a big obvious chest, armoury, shelves, etc. with loot in it in or just next to the room where the PCs have their boss fight or other significant encounters. 3) A friendly NPC (sidekick, person they rescued, etc.) suggests looting or just starts looting themselves, saying "hey, do you guys see this good stuff?" 4) The questgiver asks the PCs to recover a specific item, "but anything interesting you find with it is yours to keep". 5) The questgiver rewards the PCs with loot directly upon completion of the adventure. This can be payment stated up front, a bonus for a job well-done afterwards, or both.

Robin Goodfellow

New fan, started enjoying your work, and 5e along with it, over the last couple months. Before this I run a lot of retro/classic D&D, as I have been kicking around doing this for about 33 years. I am now running some one-on-one games with my 19 yo step son, who wants to graduate from playing with Wizard Dad (which has to be the coolest nick name any middle aged man has ever had) to playing with the local gaming scene. So I am going to stop running hodge-podge franken-D&D and do a bit more 5e. The actual question is: What published adventures have the best "home base" locations, so that I can use them as a "lazy" starting and returning point for a sandbox game? Wizard products or 3rd party are good for me.

Kevin Davis

My game of 8 to 10 players are having fun 17 sessions and 9 months in but I find myself constantly trying to improve each session sometimes to a fault. Is this something you go through? I’m trying to figure out if this is normal or if I am just trying to fix something that isn’t necessarily broken therefore creating issues.

Michael Shea

That's just how the random generator throws its dice!

Michael Shea

HI Alex! I'll use it to help flavor my narration but no, I don't really have anything special I do with damage types. You might consider how big types like poison, acid, lighting, fire, or thunder affects the environment – setting things on fire or alerting a whole castle or something like that.

Michael Shea

I'm never opposed to having a conversation about it but Joe also has good suggestions. Consider giving them loot another way through quest rewards or heirlooms or NPCs who just hand it over to them. There are other ways to get good loot than finding it in a hoard.

Michael Shea

I like to have them weave and overlap. I usually like to have three I know about with a couple actually visible to players but villains can come and go too so don't be opposed to having them die off and new ones coming in. It's a flexible tool so use it however it fits the game you're running.

Michael Shea

I think you can certainly use secrets and clues as a random rumor table. Sure. That's not where I got them from but it can certainly work that way. I haven't really tried it and I'm not a fan of false rumors most of the time because players have enough trouble hanging on to the true ones.

Michael Shea

Hi Vincent! You're right! I don't like puzzles =D And for a lot of the reasons you mentioned. They tend to break out of what a *character* would do and challenge the *players*. I know that's a particular style some like to play but it isn't really for me. Thus, I don't really have a great solution for challenging the characters when you've already put something in place that feels like a challenge to the players. I haven't really come up with any new ways to handle puzzles from running Numenera. I haven't run into any within the books themselves. I like to let the situations drive what sorts of things land in front of the characters and puzzles just feel...gamey.

Michael Shea

Hi Stache! I'm so sorry you're having to deal with that. Dealing with the people issues of a group can be really hard to do. Not being in you're shoes, please take my advice with a grain of salt. You know the situation far better than I do so anything I offer is limited. That said, I'd probably start by talking to each of the players and letting them each know that what they're doing is not ok. It's not good for you. It's not good for the group. It's not what you want to be doing when you're running your game. Focus on the *situation* and not the people. Don't judge them, judge what's happening and ask for their help to fix it. Try to dig into *why* this is happening. If you go to any Reddit forum, these questions come up all the time and almost always the answer is "walk away. It sucks but you'll be happier". That may not be the best situation but I'll tell you this. There are thousands of excellent players looking for a good caring DM who can't find one. In many cases, breaking up a group and starting a new one ends up with a stronger group. It's hard and it can hurt but the end results may be better. It's just a hard situation and I'm sorry for it.

Michael Shea

Hi Eric! I actually wrote little bits of Primeval Thule back when it was a 13th Age book! If you're looking for that dark age sword and sorcery Conan style stuff, I think focusing on the theme of the campaign, the villains, the snake cults, the ancient tombs, the vast history; just the overall narration you give it; that's what's going to make it come alive. After running some grim-dark campaigns and now a high-fantasy fairy tale campaign, I've become aware of how important the words and atmosphere we build is when we're running the game. It's not mechanical. It's not the game part. It's how we describe the world through every aspect we reveal: every NPC, every item, every monument. My quiver of lazy dm tips is probably all packed into the Companion. Find a scenario you like, roll on the tables, grab what excites you, and share a tale of high adventure!

Michael Shea

Jonathan offers good advice. As a DM, I like to just tell the players when they have a good time to split the party or when it will be better to stay together. You can also do this for pacing and just explain it to the players. "This will work better if you're all together. Is that cool?" If you *do* run a split party, you can have people roll for initiative just so you have a list and go through it character by character to make sure everyone has the screen time. Or break them up into groups but keep in mind to switch to the other group every five minutes or so. It can be tedious. Best way is not to break them up and just tell them why. Good luck!

Michael Shea

I don't think I handle gold particularly well but giving the characters things to spend it on can work. Check out Xanathar's downtime guides for hunting down magic items. Let them spend it on upgrades to their base. Maybe they need it to buy something important for the story. Don't forget those expensive spell components!

Michael Shea

Good question! You can often think of such times as a good time to reboot the campaign. Find three villains with big goals and quests they're trying to accomplish. Rewrite your campaign seed and refuel what's going on. Have a big event that restarts the adventure. Does a comet smash down causing all sorts of ancient evils to awaken? Check out World Shaking Events in the Dungeon Masters Guide in chapter 1. Roll some random dice and see what comes out!

Michael Shea

I try to offer suggestions to their characters. You can ask them to roll insight or perception checks or things like that to learn of the options in front of them. Give them some choices. Let the players see how they can do things outside of their sheet and after seeding a few ideas, they may come up with some of their own.

Michael Shea

Hi Mertok! I don't really use it. I know some people really want a system for dungeon crawling but I just don't think its particularly interesting so I let things move at the speed of the story and pacing we're all enjoying at the table. I should probably research it more before I hand-wave it away but that's how I'm feeling right now.

Michael Shea

This is one of those areas where I don't think how I feel about it is particularly important. WOTC's going to do what they're going to do and I'll either like it or I won't. I'm not making my own game up so I don't really have to dive into the design. Generally I like simplicity so I'm not crazy about feats with level restrictions. It doesn't seem like a rule that brings a lot of fun with it. So meh.

Mad Marty

G'day Mike, I've started running Ghosts of Saltmarsh recently and one of the player characters is a Wild Magic Sorcerer. Tides of Chaos leaves it up to the DM to ask the player to roll on the Wild Magic Surge table. This feels like I'm playing Russian roulette with our campaign, so my instinct is to avoid asking for the player to make the roll. In what way have you approached the Wild Magic Surge table that has allowed you to feel comfortable with its use in your game? Cheers, Martin

Mertok.

Fair enough. I appreciate the reply.

Steven Whitton

Hi Mike! Do you have any tips for a DM to step out of the DM-seat and enjoy the game again as a player? I keep finding myself analysing the game through a DM perspective. Moreover, is there a good and respectful way to give feedback to your DM? If a game I'm playing in is showing signs of trouble, like because of inexperienced or adversarial DMing, is it okay for show how to solve it? I'm afraid it sounds either condescending or like I'm imposing my way how I'd run the game, but I just want to enjoy the game they are creating.

Laura

When my group splits up, I use a timer behind my DM screen to help me move the spotlight back and forth somewhat evenly. I don’t strictly follow the timer, but it helps me keep track of when it’s time to shift the focus if I haven’t already.

Michael Shea

Hi Jaakko! This is a good question, and similar to the one Mertok posted above. I'm going to do some research and I'll come back to it. I've been spending a good deal of time thinking about how to run a Dungeon Crawl but don't think I have my hands around the whole question yet. Stay tuned!

Michael Shea

Hi Jasmine! This adventure is probably better suited for smaller groups than most but any of them can work. One trick is to give the group a companion character so they have a fourth character but you can also scale down the number of monsters and get a good effect. The game will certainly go quicker when you have fewer than four as well. Most of it is about scaling monsters and the best way to do that is to remove one or two monsters from any given group and turn the other dials to suit the fun of the game.

Michael Shea

This is really hard to do without giving the players something to look at. A quick sketch on a piece of paper can do the trick if you don't have anything else. Drawing it out ahead of time on a big sheet of gridded paper can work. You can show a digital version of the map on a tablet or even a phone. If you can use a screen in your room, that works too. I put an old computer monitor up on a book case in our gaming room so everyone can see what I'm talking about. Of course, for digital play, I highly recommend Owlbear Rodeo; my favorite virtual tabletop. This is a great question and one I plan to dive into more. I talked more about this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOvTsXzl8M0&index=2&t=3782s

Michael Shea

Hi J! It sounds like you're already doing what I would do which is sit down and explain that, for this type of game, they're just not going to be able to dive into their characters' backstory and they'll have to agree to be ok with that. Do you run other more story-focused games where you think they'd have more fun? How disruptive is their shoehorning for you and the other players? You'll have to find these answers for yourself to know exactly how to approach it. Hopefully it's not so bad you have to ask them to find another game. Stuff like this is always hard.

Michael Shea

Hi Cloaker! From my reading, the core rules really don't have much to help with this which means you'd have to find or make your own system. I'd always make sure your players are into this style of play as well. D&D 5e, at its core, is a heroic fantasy system. 1st level characters have unlimited light sources and 5th level characters can basically make food forever. I'd argue its fundamentally not built to be a resource-focused game and not all players will be interested in one that is. I haven't researched other systems to see if they have better handling of this. Five Torches Deep is one such system. It has a bigger focus on things like supply and encumbrance. You could probably shoehorn these ideas into a 5e game but it'll take some houseruling and you'll want to clarify those house rules with your players as well before the game begins.

Michael Shea

Hi Robin! Welcome back to the hobby! It's so great to see the game bring family together. I always recommend both Dragon of Icespire Peak and Lost Mine of Phandelver from the D&D Essentials Kit and the D&D Starter Set. Wizards has a new starter set coming out in a month or two as well for which I have high hopes. Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't offer up Ruins of the Grendleroot, my own book of subterranean adventures (https://shop.slyflourish.com/products/fantastic-adventures-ruins-of-the-grendleroot-pdf-map-pack). You can also try out the City of Arches! It's built to be a home-base and adventure location all in one! This is a Patreon only product at the moment which you can get here: https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/city_of_arches.pdf Good luck!

Michael Shea

Hi Kevin! Eight or nine players!! Oof! I'm usually happy when everyone else is happy. I always try to gauge how people feel about the game and let that drive how I feel about it. I think its useful to find ways to improve the game but certainly we need not go overboard. Make small changes when you want to try things out. Save the big stuff for special occasions after you've given it some time to think it through. I do find it really useful to list seven things I learned in my last game. This is actually how I come up with my #dnd tips on Twitter. They're all little observations I made about my own game. Try this, choose a small one to work on, and keep your game going in a fine direction.

Michael Shea

Hi Martin! I've never had a good handle on it. I'm too busy. Instead, I just have them roll on every non-cantrip spell. It only triggers once in twenty times already so it won't happen all the time.

Michael Shea

Hi Steven! I love being a player! Here are some things that help me be a good player: 1. Focus on my character and the story and the background. This helps prevent me from analyzing the game as a DM. 2. Support other players' characters. I love being a side-kick or support character. Build relationships that elevate the other characters. 3. Take notes! I love taking notes and it helps me stay engaged with the group. I'm a pretty terrible player otherwise. 4. Don't offer unsolicited feedback. If they're not asking, I'm not telling. If they /do/ ask, offer constructive positive feedback that helps steer them in the right direction. 5. Tell them how much you love Sly Flourish and Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master! =D

Rich Gubitosi

Hi Mike! I facilitate a three-hour monthly game at my local game store, and since our sessions can be far apart, I try to keep each session self-contained. Do you have any advice on running an episodic campaign in which each session concludes a story?

Karl Arrenon

Hello! I'm on my third Grendleroot campaign, and the party is looking to continue after level 5. Which WotC published adventures do you think could be connected and how would you do it? (ex: replace Acererack with Yolon the Void in Tomb of Annihilation)

Mad Marty

Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I was coming to a similar conclusion myself. I hope you have a great weekend, mate. Martin

Iain Russell

Hi Mike, I’m struggling with creating a new campaign for my players as we get near to the finale of RotFM. The problem relates to a topic you have discussed before, the reliance of using D&D Beyond. I’d love to play using one of several 3rd party offerings but it seems such a huge effort to manage this online easily for myself and my players. Do you have any suggestions how to simplify playing 3rd party campaigns and still benefiting from DDB?

Rolen Le

Hi Mike! I am looking into DMing more via a Virtual TableTop (VTT). However, I am having decision paralysis in deciding on a specific platform i.e. Foundry, Roll20, Fantasy Grounds because I am unsure how WOTC will move forward after their acquisition of D&DBeyond. Currently, all of my content is in D&DBeyond, I am nervous to invest heavily into Foundry if WOTC stops allowing data to be imported from DDB. For Roll20/FG, I would have to rebuy all the content, but then still be at risk of having WOTC pull their license. Any advice on choosing a VTT given the current and future landscape of D&D?

morkaphene

Thank you! Good way of looking at it.

Sam M

Hi Mike, I'm feeling overwhelmed in my first homebrew campaign. I wanted it to run to about level 10 or 11 and the party just hit 6, so we're halfway through - but I feel like there's so many open threads and subplots still. There's certain beats I want to hit and major villains/plots I want to defeat/resolve but I still want to keep it sandbox-y and leave it to the players as to what they want to do and where they want to go. How do I actually go about “narrowing down my yam”?

Victor Navone

Hi Mike, how do you track hidden or invisible monsters when playing in person on a gridded map? For example, if the party is up against a bunch of goblins who hide at the end of their turns, or creatures that can turn invisible. I wouldn't want to leave those creatures' tokens on the map where the players can see them, but as the DM I need to track those creatures' positions. Do you have suggestions for how to handle this? This is definitely and area where VTTs have the advantage!

Andy Roark

Hi Mike, I am getting ready to run the final battle in Curse of Strahd. I love the way you think about monsters and was thrilled to read your article on Running Strahd Von Zarovich from 2016. It's excellent and I plan to take a lot of your suggestions. Do you have any final words of advice or any updates to your 2016 article to share? Thanks for the insight!

MtbDM

Hi Mike. I'm all for diversity and inclusion in gaming including sensitivity reads, safety tools, the whole nine yards. But sometimes I feel folks lose sight of the fact that its ok for groups of other consenting adults to play how they want at their own table. That brings me to my question: What are the best practices to make everyone in your group aware of sensitive topics, of any variety, that you might wish to include in the game (given everyone's consent)?

LazyLich

Hiya, I've been in a struggle to get more information out to my players so they understand the situation and what the villains are up to. I've improved but looking for more. :) I like the secrets and clues model but find I struggle to get them out in a session. You've got an answer about NPCs/villains revealing their plans in the archive, but I'm wondering what other ways you have to make sure PCs are discovering what's going on every session.

Michael Shea

Hi Karl! You might take a look at material from Out of the Abyss. It's a little dated and not the strongest hardcover adventure but it all takes place in the underdark which works nicely. The dungeons from Princes of the Apocalypse also can work well. As you mention, reskinning the Tomb of the Nine Gods from Tomb of Annihilation can work too. I think any of the hardcovers can probably work if you dig their plots and can tailor them to fit the output from Grendleroot. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Hi Iain! Yes, indeed. This is a problem. On the DM side, things aren't so bad. It's easy to run adventures or campaigns from other third party publishers. Monsters are a little harder but we can always default to rolling real dice and reading a stat block from the book again. Too much integration can lock us up more than it helps sometimes. Character options are harder to manage. I tend to let that fall back to the players to decide. Worst case, they can use a normal character sheet instead of using D&D Beyond but that's not ideal. Hammering in the material into Beyond as a custom feature ends up taking a lot of work. D&D Beyond is a powerful and useful tool but it definitely makes it harder to use third party content, particularly on the players' side. There's no great answer. I wish there were.

Michael Shea

Hi Rolen! None of us truly know what direction WOTC takes. Since you already have material in D&D Beyond, I don't think I'd re-buy it in another platform like Fantasy Grounds or Roll 20. The good news is that, if you *do* decide to use Roll 20 or Foundry and use their D&D Beyond integration middleware (Beyond 20 for Roll 20 and FoundryVTT for Foundry) you're not out any serious money if things change. Not to muddy the waters but you can check out Above VTT, a Chrome extension which sits right on top of D&D Beyond, or Owlbear Rodeo which is completely system agnostic as well. Both of them are free. I think considering how damaging it would be should WOTC walk back on access to D&D Beyond content or licensing to third party VTTs is a good thing to consider before dropping a lot of money. Otherwise, I wouldn't get too happy with any one tool that you aren't willing to switch.

Michael Shea

Hi Sam! Stephen King had the same problem when he wrote "The Stand". Too many characters, too many plot threads, the book was already like 400 pages, and he didn't have any idea where to go. He ended up blowing up about half of the main characters and sending four others on a single prophetic quest. He focused it back down again. You may have to consider murdering your darlings. Which threads are important? Which ones grabbed the players the most? Which one can you focus in on for the remainder of your campaign? Which threads can you safely lose? Which villains get destroyed by their own plans? Which villains eat the others? Which threads simply fade away? Maybe talk to your players about it too. What story threads do *they* like? Which ones do they want to see resolved? Which ones never seem to come up when they talk about this? I wouldn't ask them about *every* thread. I'd see which ones they remember and focus on those. Hope that helps!

Michael Shea

I don't have a brilliant solution for this. I just take the tokens off the map and remember roughly where they are. Then they pop in where it makes sense that they would. We're not playing a board game here so its ok if we cheat a little bit if it makes sense for the story and the fun of the game.

Michael Shea

Hi Andy! Back in 2016 I think I was more apprehensive at bending the rules of a monster. I think what I have there can work but its probably a little complicated. I think I'd go with a Matt Coleville style action-oriented approach (more on that here: https://slyflourish.com/action_oriented_monsters.html ). Each round I'd give Strahd one action outside of his others that he can take. Positioning, escape, and explosion. I think he already has a lot of these built into his legendary actions. Move without provoking (adding a to of flavor as he bursts into a swarm of bats, moves to a new spot, and returns to his humanoid form) and sometimes exploding into a fireball of bat-bites or something like spirit guardians but with bats. You can also certainly run Strahd as a multi-phase fight, letting the characters hunt him down three times before they can really pin him down and defeat him. Good luck!

Michael Shea

I don't think people lose track of recognizing that consenting adults can play how they want - that's the whole purpose of safety tools, getting that consent. We just didn't seem to consider formalizing that consent before we jumped into the deep end, to our peril and the peril of the fun of our players. The best tools I've found for this are "lines and veils" and "pause for a minute". Both tools can be described during a session zero. They're not weird to bring up. They're very useful. You can learn more about them here: https://slyflourish.com/safety_tools.html When I'm about to run a campaign, I let players know what they might expect for potentially sensitive topics. I did this for my Frostmaiden game for example: https://slyflourish_content.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/frostmaiden_one_page_campaign_guide.pdf

Michael Shea

Hi Craig! I always try to remember to lean in on exposing secrets and clues as much as I can. Players are only going to grab about half of what you're throwing their way so it really helps to "tell, don't show" as much as you can. Don't worry about sounding cliche or like a bad James Bond villain. It's perfectly ok and we can laugh at ourselves along with our players even when they point out how ham fisted some of these approaches can be. Here are some old standby tricks I keep in mind to expose important secrets: - A character has a prophetic waking dream. - An enemy minion has a note that explains *everything*. - You call for a group insight check and the highest one has a Sherlock-Holmes-like observation (that you narrate) describing the plot and situation. - A friendly NPC or quest giver spells things out for the characters. - One of the villain's henchmen turns sides and tells the characters what's going on. - The characters find the conspiracy map board of an assassinated NPC that spells everything out. - The local magistrate writes out clear quests and rewards on notices on the community bulletin board that spell things out. - A character has a visit from their diety or patron with descriptions of the situation. - The wildest rumors at the local pub turn out to be true. - The characters are invited to a council of elders where clues are pieced together into a clear understanding of the situation. I hope these help!

MtbDM

I have definitely met folks that are against other consenting adults playing the way they want at their table, so they exist. I do not believe them to be the norm. As for safety tools I have used both of those tools and think they are good ones, though no one has ever used the verbal x card on me. But I had forgotten about that. Given my personal disabilities, I find a verbal X card of far more use than an actual physical one unless someone picks it up and waves it. I'm not always reading the table and it's a thing I have to consciously do.

Mike Cullen

Hey Mike, with all the kickstarts you have backed, do you allow your players to choose character options from them, if so what do you allow any classes, outside of the official ones, to be picked?

Justin Colussy-Estes

Hey Mike - Thank you so much for the continued advice! This summer I'll be running a d&d camp with 20 kids and 3 DMs. The plan is to split them up into 3 parties, but they'll be starting as one big group and coming together at the end for a big, epic battle against the big bad and a bunch of minions. Any suggestions for avoiding total chaos and keeping the action moving?

Bram Bakker

Hi Mike, after reaching the fabled 20th level, my players have chosen our next campaign to be set in Theros. I am trying to find what makes them feel like mythical heroes, and I thought about spending gold. Not on big things, but spending gold on buying arrows, a meal, a throwing axe. Do you make your players "count coppers"? Could it work if we handwaved the little things and told them the gold they have found is the gold they have extra? How do you do paying for tavern visits and lesser gear upgrades?

Thiago L.

Hi Mike, thanks once again for the answer regarding puzzles. I have another question regarding the use of NPCs as temporary party members. How do you run them in a way they don't steal the thunder off the PCs, besides not intervening in decision-making processes? And what about when the PCs ask the temp member specifically for their opinion on the matter?

Doug Palmer

You answered a question about what PCs should use Gold on. I generally run published campaigns. I'm thinking about downgrading all coin rewards. If a chest has 500 gp, it actually has 500 sp. If it has 1000 sp, it has 1000 cp. If a gemstone is worth 25 gp, it's worth 25 sp. But all equipment prices in the PHB are the same. My intent is to make those coinage rewards more meaningful. I might relax this as they hit 2nd tier and stop it for 3rd tier. What unintended consequences would you be concerned about?

Jamey Graham

Hey Mike! I struggle with finding good moments to level my players when using milestones, and keeping a satisfying tempo of levels flowing. Do you have any tips for how to feel out handing out levels?

Miles Grubbs

Hi Mike. In the latest Numenera Prep that one of the characters didn’t have a big backstory and that you needed to tug on it. Could you elaborate on your methods for drawing out backstory/development for characters like this? Thanks!

redmonk

Hey Mike! I saw that for Witchlight you specified the sourcebooks for character builds and spells, as well as blocking some subclasses from those books. How do you go about deciding what to allow or disallow in your players' character builds?

Michael Shea

Hi Mike! This is one where I'm a bit of a hypocrite. Most of the time I only allow WOTC classes and subclasses and what-not because I'm playing WOTC adventures in WOTC campaign settings. When I run worlds like Midgard by Kobold Press, I allow those player sources. I've done that with Tales of the Old Margreve and I'd do that again if and when I run Empire of the Ghouls and Scarlet Citadel. The hard part is, of course, D&D Beyond not including those sources and my players love D&D Beyond.

Michael Shea

Hi Justin! I'd suggest running something like the D&D Adventurer's League Epics – big multi-table events where each group is part of a larger whole working on some part of a big plot. DM David wrote about these here: https://dmdavid.com/tag/how-to-forge-the-most-epic-multi-table-role-playing-event-ever/ but you can find other info, including Adventurer's League adventures built for multi-table events. A common approach for this is to break down a larger adventure into smaller group-sized timed adventures whose success leads to a bigger goal. There can also be a villain or event that sweeps from table to table engaging in a round of combat or some other sort of challenge. That's how I'd try to run things for a multi-table event like that. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Hi Bram! I don't think counting gold, arrows, food, and other resources fits the theme of the super-heroic mythical fantasy of Theros. We never cared where Perseus got his arrows or carried his rations. In my games, I don't worry about the characters counting resources unless that part of the them (like when running Out of the Abyss). The big question, for me, is "is this an important part of the theme of this campaign?" If it's not, I hand-wave it. If I was running a Lawrence of Arabia adventure, I'd probably worry about water. Otherwise, nah.

Michael Shea

Hi D.Vincent! This is a good question and a hard thing to do once the NPCs get in there. A big tip I have is to make them non-combatants. Don't give them a turn or, if they *are* a combatant, add an extra enemy or two and have them do their attacks against one another in the narrative rather than rolling dice and making attacks. Hand-wave the descriptions of it so you can focus on the characters and their actions instead of NPC to NPC stuff. Here's an article that can help! https://slyflourish.com/tag-along_npcs.html

Michael Shea

Hi Doug! I don't think this is a bad way to go. If there's an unintended consequence, you can cure it by just giving out more gold.

Michael Shea

Hi Jamey! Good question! This is one I'm not great at. I think a bit of pre-planning can help. Choose the big milestones ahead of time and tell them to your players. "When you discover the land of Yon, you'll reach 6th level!" or "You reach 5th level once you defeat the pirate queen". Define an event and the reward. Matt Coleville had a good video about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwpQwCWdhL8

Michael Shea

Hi Miles! Obviously I'm not great at it! I think some thing we can do are to bring it up during campfire conversations (https://slyflourish.com/campfire_talk.html) or other moments where we can ask the players to describe what their characters think of a situation or how it affects their background.

Michael Shea

Hi Redmonk! I try to choose races and themes that fit the theme of the campaign as much as I can. My players are pretty experienced so giving them a lot of access to subclasses helps keep them interested. We also use D&D Beyond so offering subclasses available in Beyond is important. I eliminated Peace and Twilgiht clerics because general experiences seem to be that they break the game a lot. I had personal experience with that with Twilight clerics and heard Peace is pretty overpowered. I'm not a huge fan of a lot of subclasses in Tasha's Cauldron but those two really force the DM to change the game.

Justin Colussy-Estes

Thanks! I thought for sure you were just going to tell me to avoid the big group thing. The article was really helpful! Anybody here have any experience with any of the AL Epics? Have any advice on choosing one or if there's ones to look at/avoid?

Chad Mitchell

Hi Mike, I enjoy following your Numenera prep videos. Overall, how have you felt the awarding XP process has gone? Do the players use them mainly for advancement, or have they used them in the other creative ways described in the books - for player intrusions, re-rolls, short or long term benefits?

Andy

Hi Mike. I have a player who loves to play a chaotic character. Their favourite thing is to run off, open chests and doors before everyone else, be rude to NPCs and generally get up to mishchief. I'm not totally sure how to handle this as I feel there should be consequences for such recklessness, but it is then punishing that player for acting in a way they find fun. It is also potenitally punishing the rest of the party, who would prefer a more cautious approach to scenes, for that players chooices. I know the others get irritated by the this one player's recklessness sometimes. Do you have any advice?

Jason Kemp

How do you recognize GM burnout, and how do you suggest people recover from it? Have you ever suffered GM burnout?

Bo Thomsen

Hi Mike, thank you for yet another month with great content. Since you are a guy who buys a lot of books I was wondering if you could recommend some good third party resources along the lines of Aboleths and Illithids? I have been thinking about running a campaign based around maybe the Underdark but maybe also something similar in the far future and would just want to read some interesting and well written material.

Michael Shea

Hi Chad! I've done a house-rule where we separate "temporary XP" from "permanent XP" and its worked very well. It's sort of like milestones. We essentially have character advancement XP which they gain by completing major milestones in the game and then temporary XP which they get through GM intrusions which they can spend on re-rolls and short-term benefits. That's worked well but I think it probably breaks away from some of the ideas of the game. I worried that players would hoard XP and never spend it on re-rolls because permanent character advancement is so much better.

Michael Shea

Hi Andy! This is a tough one. If the player's being generally disruptive to the game, it's worth having a conversation with them out of the game to see if it can be addressed. One of the things I hammer pretty hard on is that all characters are working together in cooperation to serve the theme of the campaign. I put this into my one-page campaign summary and reinforce it during group character creation during our session zero. It doesn't /always/ help but a good strong session zero can often solve a lot of these problems. If it's after the fact, an out-of-game conversation can help. Talk to the player about how their character might grow into greater responsibility and support for the rest of the characters. Sometimes, that sort of recklessness can help propel the story forward when everyone else is being too cautious. That's something to consider as well. Good question!

Michael Shea

Good and important question! I hadn't covered the topic of GM Burnout very much so I reached out to Twitter to see what people had to say. Here's the thread! https://twitter.com/SlyFlourish/status/1525218888316755968 For myself, I can feel overwhelmed and having two games a week can stack onto that feeling of being overwhelmed. Sometimes I just want a night off. Often that's because I'm too busy in other aspects of my life too. D&D being a creative enterprise, takes energy to run. Like all creative activities, I think we have what Steven Pressfield called "The Resistance", a voice in the back of our head saying anything it can to get us to avoid engaging in our creative activity. It's worth thinking about why it's saying that and what we can do about it. I wrote more about that here: https://slyflourish.com/not_prepared.html Many people recommend taking a break for a few weeks to reset and recalibrate. Find and focus on the parts of running a game you love and see what you can do to remove the parts that make it hard. For me, even if I don't feel like running a game, I try to remember where that's coming from and remember that, when I'm in the game, I'm just hanging out with my friends and enjoying a story. I focus on my prep, focus on the fun parts, and enjoy the rest. I don't think I've every been in the middle of a game and wishing it was over. I still love hanging out with my friends and watching the story evolve. Hope this helps!

Eric L

Hey Mike! Any tips for tier 4 play?

Dan K

Hi Mike, I finally have a question! I've been toying with the idea of opening a fantasy gaming tavern in my city. There is a huge nerd culture here, and I think it could work. I hope this isn't too off topic, but as a DM who has played in public games at a game store and perhaps elsewhere at cons: Q: What requirements or thoughts would you have on a real-life fantasy tavern tailored towards TTRPG players? What would need to be true for you to want to DM or play in such a place?

Michael Shea

Hi Dan! First, best of luck! I love to see places like this come up. As far as requirements go, here are a few things I'd really hope to have: - A good comfortable space with a table big enough for the people sitting at it. - A safe inclusive place with clear posted harassment policies and trained staff prepared to deal with it. And the nice-to-haves: - Fun decorations would be great. - Some way to post and sign up for games. - A library of books and tools. - Big acrilic sheets on the tables under which DMs can put maps. Those are the things that jump right out at me. Good luck!

Ryan Royce

It is a bit late in the month to be posting a question, but oh well... What do you think about the idea of allowing monsters to use the -5/+10 Great Weapon Master/Sharpshooter mechanic as a means to artificially pump up their damage output? Specifically as a go-to solution for published monsters whose damage output a lazy DM would consider a bit anemic, but don't have the time or care to invest in putting more work into fixing them.

Michael Shea

Hi Ryan! Why limit yourself to -5 / +10? You should feel free to modify monsters however you see fit to match their story in the game and the fun at the table. I often add 7 (2d6) or 10 (3d6) damage of an elemental type to monsters to get their damage up. Most monsters don't have great attack scores to begin with. They're often much lower than characters. Thus, I don't think a -5 penalty works for them. Feel free to boost your damage and tell them Sly Flourish said it was ok!

Terje With Lunndal

Hi Mike! Your output is super useful. Your stuff might be the single most important source I use besides the source books and published adventures. Q: Can you recommend any 5e adventure where there is a significant plot twist that will boggle the minds of players? Think Cristopher Nolan, "The Others (2001)", "The Sixth Sense (1999)" or the players realizing they're the antagonists?

Michael Shea

Thanks so much Terje! Important is a powerful word! I certainly wouldn't call my show important (maybe to me). This is just all of us getting together to talk about D&D! One of the problems with adventures with big twists is that players either figure them out or they don't really have a shift based on the actions of the characters. Such twists work well in movies because we're passive participants but in D&D players are active. They're doing things. If the game shifts like that, they don't usually have any agency. Sometimes surprising things happen all on their own to all of them. See the 14 month jump in my Numenera campaign. That was a big Christopher Nolan shift and it happened all on its own. Seek out those sorts of shifts. Thanks!

Felix Morscheck

I really like the numenera setting, but I don't think my players would like change to the cypher system, they want to stick to 5e. Do you think that the experience with "Arcana of the Ancients" will be as good as playing the "real" Numenera? I am playing the Lost Mines of Phandelver with my group. What do you think of my idea of changing Wave Echo Cave to a Numenera like experience changing monsters and room descriptions but leaving the boss and overall story arch. Continuing through a portal could be a transition from the Forgotten Realms to the ninth world. Thanks so much for your books, your website and your videos. I love reading and listening/watching your content.

Phillip Jones

Looking back, what items have the most positive impact / ROI to your games for in person play?

Chris W

I have a question about transitioning from one campaign to another. When my group were 2 or 3 sessions from finishing Wild Beyond the Witchlight, our first "proper" campaign, I asked about what they wanted to play next and we settled on a new campaign (Call of the Netherdeep). After a couple of weeks off we will probably finish Witchlight this week, but I feel like after the break and the decision on the new campaign I have had a lot of questions about character creation etc. for the new campaign and we have lost the focus on Witchlight. I would not do it this way again and I will probably properly finish up a campaign before I even mention a new one but I wondered how you handled it and if you had any tips.

Brooke

Hi Sly! What are the best ways to hook players into adventures without making it feel forced or repetitive? I find myself defaulting to having them be attacked, and I want to change it up. I'd also like to avoid overusing the "random NPC asks for aid" trope. Thank you!

Cleric Ken

Hey Mike! Did you notice the variants for orcs and goblins from volos were completely missing from Monsters of the Multiverse? I notice they did still include gnolls and kobolds. I know they can't include everything, but it seems like having different types of these iconic monsters would be helpful.

Scott Miller

Hi Mike! I've been contemplating trying to put together a grimdark D&D game to run for friends. Problem is, grimdark can really upset my players when I have to emphasize to them before we play that essentially, "no good deed goes unpunished." Similar to your last D&D talk show regarding gaslighting, even mentioning the theme to them in a session 0 is a spoiler since they're going to expect the worst at all times. I imagine I'm either going to upset my players on a personal level or they're going to play their characters reluctantly, always expecting the worst to happen to them or those around them. My question is, do you believe grim dark is feasible (or even fun) in D&D, or is it not worth the potential consequences of having my players feel everything is hopeless?

Chad Mitchell

Great idea - I'll come up with something similar. Getting closer to organizing our first Numenera cypher system game. Tend to run homebrew but for this I've patched together core chunks of the Violet Vale with the cypher module Infinity Shift.

Oliver Winegar

Hey! Have you ever played or dmed the adventure Hunt for The Thessalhydra? If so how would you rate it? Thanks!

Adam G

(I thought I posted this last night, but it appears to have vanished. Apologies if it's somehow a double post!) Hey Mike, Thanks for the consistently fantastic content - I just finished my first scan through the Lazy DM’s Companion, and I’m excited to bring some of the tips from it into my weekly game. My question is about making exploration fun. I (usually) have no trouble running fun combat and social interaction. However, I struggle to make the exploration side of things interesting, especially when it comes to a classic dungeon crawl type scenario. If there aren’t NPCs to interact with, I tend to get kind of bored (both as a player and a DM), and I inevitably present my players with a series of fairly bland rooms without many interesting choices to make. I can describe a room with some funky features, but I struggle to lay out interesting choices in said rooms if there aren’t NPCs or other social aspects going on at the same time. My actual question: do you have any tips for creating interesting exploration choices for the players when there aren’t social elements in the environment?

Michael Shea

Hi Felix! Sure! I think Arcana of the Ancients and Beasts of Flesh and Steel and even Where the Machines Wait are great ways to dive into Numenra style worlds but stick to 5e. Having played both systems, I like them both in different ways. Good luck!

Michael Shea

The Paizo Flip Mat is amazing. A big acrylic sheet for our table so I can slide maps under it is also a wonderful investment. My own DM cheat sheet is great. I like it better than a DM screen. Index cards, of course. Those are probably my top ones. https://slyflourish.com/revised_5e_cheat_sheet.html

Michael Shea

Yeah, this is a good reason to put off character creation until you run a session zero. It's really hard to stop players from thinking a lot about their characters for a new campaign. Best is to get consensus about the campaign as close as you can to the session zero so the players can build their characters together. Hope that helps!

Michael Shea

Good question! Here's an article I wrote a while back about hooks: https://slyflourish.com/adventure_hooks.html This gives some motivation but ways to learn about it can be tricky too. Starting with a group patron who already has jobs lined up is a good way. Ye olde job board isn't so terrible. Getting thrown into the situation as a strong start. Jumping ahead to the moment the characters are already going *in* to the dungeon and putting the hook as backstory works. Try to write down ten ways the character can learn about a job and see what comes out!

Michael Shea

I'll be honest – character-focused stuff really isn't where I put my attention so I tend to miss stuff like that. I didn't notice.

Michael Shea

I think you have to focus on your friends first and the story second. I think its important to make sure the boundaries are set and the players know they are both comfortable with the theme (or at least expecting to be uncomfortable) and have safety tools in place. I wouldn't spring a grim dark campaign on them without their buy-in.

Michael Shea

I push heavily for the discovery of secrets and clues in chambers like this. What can they learn with history or investigation checks? What can they learn about the location's history, the movement of inhabitants, any plots going on, potential secret passages or doors; anything like that. Secrets and clues are the rewards for exploration. Bathe your dungeon in them and keep them abstract so you can put them anywhere.

Cleric Ken

Hey thanks for the reply! I actually meant the orc and goblin monsters, like the orc claw of luthic, etc.

Michael Shea

Ah! I didn't notice that either. That's a shame. Its probably because they wanted monsters that fit better into alternate worlds and those were very specifically built for Forgotten Realms? That's a guess.