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

Published:
2022-09-06 13:07:33
Edited:
2022-09-11 22:04:10
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
Q&A

Content

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

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

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

Focus your question on running D&D 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 answer every question in this thread Friday mornings throughout the month. Some questions I answer on the Lazy D&D Talk Show or turn the question into a D&D Tip video or Sly Flourish article.

If you posted already in last month's Q&A, I'll be sure to answer it there. You don't have to repeat it here.

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

Now bring on the questions!!

Comments

Chad Mitchell

Hi Mike, I've turned more towards Cypher Sys / Numenera lately. Your Numenera campaign review was excellent. You mentioned it was hard to know exactly how to balance an encounter but I am curious about how the party did? As in, did any of them take enough hits to start going down the damage tracks? They start less crunchy than 1st DnD characters. Just curious.

Tim Smyth

Hi! How would you run a lazy West Marches campaign? Specifically, I am going to run Phandalin (using Lost Mine and Icespire Peak, with Rats in the Cellar thrown in), so can you offer any advice on how to get started? Thanks!

Micheal Rackintyre

Any Tips for doing a hard tone/setting shift mid campaign? I shared with my players my frustration with Rime of the Frostmaiden and asked if rather than abandon the campaign and party at level 3, would they “yes and” me dropping the party into something new. I have moved them to Barovia on the tenuous hook that Auril’s endless winter was actually a Domain of Dread, and if they can save one domain they have a chance to learn how to go back and face Auril and save Icewind Dale.

Tim Junge

How do you go about your players getting into towns? I see a tendency for players to get lost in town exploration sessions quite often. To be fair, partly that's my fault since I tend to build my towns as sandboxes, even in more linear campaigns. Sometimes I don't want to send guards or trigger fancy town events to lure my players from A to B, but I don't want to make up the entire town (prewritten or on the fly) every time either.

Matt Roy

Any tips for organizing secrets and clues in DM notes so that they don’t get missed? I find myself paying a lot of attention to the notes particular to the location that my characters are in (ex. A particular encounter or room in a dungeon) and the secrets and clues being separated from specific locations mean that I neglect them. Do you have suggestions for a setup that keeps secrets and clues at front-of-mind?

coots

Sly! Have you been following all the AI art generation lately? I've been using Midjourney and it's been a great lazy dungeon master tool for me — generating npc portraits, magic items and flavor images for locations is easy and the quality is super high; plus you own what you create and could even use it for commercial production. Is this a tool you'll be adding to your toolkit, any tips on how to use it for session or campaign prep? Thanks! 🙌

Victor Navone

Hi Mike, I've got two new campaigns with two different groups of players starting soon, and I'm considering running the same adventure for both groups. Is this a good or bad idea? If you've done something similar, did you ever confuse the events of one game with the other? Thanks!

Peter S.

Hi! As a player I experienced building a player in a spiral campaign development game. Having very little background and ideas of how the world is made difficult to build a PC backstory that was still interesting further down the campaign. As DM, running a homebrew spiral development world, how can we provide enough information to the players at the beginning, to help them build backstories that matters until the end of the campaign?

Tim Smyth

I know you have touched on West Marches stuff briefly, but really I guess I'm asking for a dedicated West Marches advice video, similar to your article about running Ruins of the Grendleroot as a WM game. Thanks again!

Brian Thompson

Hi Mike, Players are orienting campaign towards classic cowboy western. Which Western Tropes translate well to D&D universe in your mind and how would you execute?

Roger Farley

Hey Mike! We play a system we are designing and make use of Backgrounds. We are discussing minimizing the benefits as too often characters with a Blacksmithing background wants to open a weapons shop. What is your take on BGs being too intrusive vs players straying too far from the game vs the DM not keeping it exciting enough! (ouch lol)

PhD20

👋 Since secrets & clues are abstracted from the source and often tossed when unused, I'm curious: have you ever written down conflicting secrets & clues?

Fengh

How do you/i describe my style of play to players that i dont realy know? Explanation: I want to open up a new group with some local guys that i dont know (found via player search site) and i have rarely ever played with others then my old friends, but nowadays we play online because some moved away and i want some personel gametime offline (playing since 3.0 came out)

Matt Oliver (Grimm)

Hi Mike! I have just transitions my homebrew game into Wild Beyond the Witchlight, using a couple of hooks from my campaign to lead into the Hourglass Coven's involvement. My players are a party of 6 level 6 characters, and I intend to run the whole thing at 6th to 7th level. Any tips on scaling the adventure, having run it recently?

Dean LaBarca

Hey Mike, I was curious about when you think it is appropriate for monsters to attack downed players. I always used to say that it depends on the monster's intelligence as to whether or not they would do so. But thinking about it recently, I don't know if more or less intelligent creatures would be more or less prone to attacking unconscious PCs. I feel like I could justify both a wolf and lich taking either action. How do you usually determine if it's time to hit an unconscious PCs. I usually avoid doing so unless the monster has no other obvious actions

Jayme Antrim

Hello, Mike! What advice do you have for running mysteries? I'm starting an investigation mini-campaign and would appreciate some advice on how to craft a mystery scenario. (I searched the Topics Database for "mystery" and "mysteries" and couldn't find anything. How mysterious!)

Sheldon Smith

I was running two groups for two years and only once did I use the same material for both groups. It was a nightmare keeping track of where the separate groups were. That will be your greatest challenge.

Steven Coffman

As you've evolved and gotten more experienced, what advice from the Lazy DM Returns have you most regretted giving (or has at least changed the most substantially)?

Sheldon Smith

Downtime activities are a great way to spend an evening game time. Remember the characters that want to build a weapons shop either have to purchace, find, barter for or create the weapons. That takes GOLD to do. If they are into creating weapons and armor they will need to get a suplier of raw materials. This is where you as the DM can guide their activities. A weapons shop can be an excellent way to spend downtime...

Alexander Richardson

Hi Mike, how do you deal with players that like to optimize away the fun? My players like to come up with creative ideas that are within the rules of the game that break the encounters. It feels unfair to just tell them no that doesn't work. But when they come up with a RAW way to end encounters before they start by immobilizing creatures before combat starts or sneaking up on monsters taking a major player off the field immediately every encounter, it just turns into a slog. I want to reward their ingenuity, but it often results in very one sided fights, with little stakes for the players as one or two dangerous monsters are out of commission right away.

Moonbird

Hi Mike ! Why NPCs don’t use full character classes in published adventures ? Is it the result of design guidelines from WotC ? I often have the feeling that NPC statblocks (like the Mage, the Druid, the Archmage, the Knight, the Spy, the Veteran...) are oversimplified and underpowered versions of character classes of equivalent level (if PC level = number of NPC HD). I have the feeling they have less abilities as their PC version, not to mention no magic items for higher level tiers. Keep it up, I love your podcasts and keep learning new ideas all the time ! Moonbird

Joshua Shaw

Good morning Mike, I'm planning to run Strahd/Ravenloft for a Halloween one-shot. Any updates to your existing videos/blog on the topic?

Ernesto

Hello, I have been GMing for ~2 years and have a hot take: 5e is too complex for new players, and for casual players that only interact with the hobby during the ~3 hours at the table. I started with 5e and ran Lost Mine of Phandelver with 2 players that were new, but they rapidly learned the rules and everything was pretty smooth. Now I'm playing with people that are also new to the hobby, and we only play once a month. I started with 5e, but to simplify the mechanics, I switched to a homebrew version of ICRPG, and now I'm thinking of switching to EZD6. The reason is that I can't stand someone asking me for the 5th time which dice is the d20 or the d12, or which is the d10 or the d8? What do they have to roll to hit and what do they have to roll for damage? in 5e there are abilities and spells that are a couple of paragraphs in length and they can't bother to read and understand all the caveats and edge cases, etc. I already ran a version of 5e with group initiative, no feats, combat zones instead of distance in feet, and new players cant play full spellcasters; but to no avail, I feel that the flow of the game halts to a crawl when in combat. Now with dnd ONE, they want to put "mandatory" feats at level 1, and I'm feeling that they are adding more complexity to a game that already doesn't have a low bar of entry for someone not involved in the hobby. Any thoughts on this?

saphssquatch

Hi Sly, Love your weekly show and all of your efforts into building a community here :) I've got a couple of questions: 1. You said you don't like spending time on book reviews for books you didn't like. Was Path of the Planebreaker one of these? I remember you were really jazzed for this one when it came out, but the book is out and no review? Wondering what you thought of this one, the leatherback book is beautiful. 2. Have you checked out Dark Matter 5e? Dark Matter is a sci-fi setting and I think that the ship rules work well for folks that want Spell jammer ship combat rules. 3. I'm running a multiversal magic college campaign, so the PCs are from 4 different planes all with their own backstory. The way that I've been tying the character's to the story is via field trips to other planes AND more importantly, the main villainous group has been to other planes, so while I'm not answering the PC's backstory questions, we get to go there and come into contact with certain aspects. One example is a PC from Faerun and their backstory mentions a conflict between an allied faction and an enemy faction. I'm tying them to the school story by having enemy faction members have historical relevance at the school and be memebers of the main villainous group. My players understand that this is a school campaign and not a plane trotting campaign, should I extend the campaign to try and wrap up everyone's backstory, OR have the campaign end when the school story ends and have them explore an ending for their character's backstory in the "One Year Later" after the last session? I'm leaning towards the latter, but want to know your thoughts.

Richard Maddalon

3.5 granted feats at certain levels. Hearing you call them mandatory struck me as funny because most of the players I have love character building and would jump at a free feat at 1st level. If they are giving more feats in 1D&D they'll probably be toned down and less complicated like they were in 4e. If you're upset about mandatory feats (lol) I'd definitely think about playing an osr clone like old school essentials I'm pretty sure rules as written you can play with mostly d20s and d6s. D6s for initiative, weapon damage, skills, reaction rolls etc. I bought EZD6 and its a solid game, looks like alot of fun. Spell casting seems a little wonky but it might be better in play. Heres a few more game ideas, Fate Accelerated (Fate Dice), cypher system (primarily D20), Tiny Dungeon (D6). You can make your D&D game as simple or as complicated as you and your players like it. Homebrew the crap out of it bud.

Ernesto

I agree, most players will love a free feat at level 1, the issue is that, in my experience, is my job to every session explain what that feats does exactly. I have no issues using 5e with experienced players but with new ones or the ones that won't "study" their character, Im refusing to play 5e.

StellarX

Hi Mike, I know you love Monsters and their stat blocks and have solid notions on appropriate CR ratings. I've 'thunk up' a variant on the standard 'Wraith' which I think is cool but am unsure at what point in the party's progression I should expose them to the beast. What are your thoughts on an appropriate CR for: 'Bladewraith' (a Wraith with metal blades for hands). Stats the same as a standard Wraith but each time it hits a character that character suffers 1 level of exhaustion (and associated effects), which cumulatively stack with successive hits. Cheers!

Nicholas Phariss

Hello Mike! I would like to run games that feature rules such as variant encumbrance and Slow Natural Healing. What would be your advice to ease tracking gear in order to facilitate these changes? Thank you!

Michael Shea

Hi Tim! I've never run a West Marches campaign so I'm not the guy to ask. I think Matt Coleville ran a video on it and I know it's a popular topic so I'm sure there's other material to find on it. I just never really run them so I don't have any advice to really offer. Sorry!

Michael Shea

Hi Ryan! That idea sounds great and I don't think the tone shift between Rime of the FrostMaiden and the Domains of Dread shifts that far. Both have that dark undertone going on. I think leaning in on the differences between the two domains is great. You can show the fun differences and have the two domains merging together. Old caves in Barovia might lead back to the frozen lands of Icewind Dale and the like. Sounds like fun!

Michael Shea

Hi Matt! It's important to remember that secrets serve you: https://slyflourish.com/secrets_serve_you.html It's perfectly fine if secrets don't come about. If they're really important, you'll remember to drop them in. I do like to keep my secrets in front of me and check them off as I run the game. This helps me review what's there and see if anything else might get dropped in. In person, I print them out. Online I keep Notion in front of me.

Michael Shea

Hi Jesse! I've poked around at Midjourney and thought it was really cool. Often a google search gives me images I can use in my games so I don't often need them generated – they already exist. I think AI-generated art can be a really great lazy DM tool as long as it doesn't take too long to monkey around with it.

Michael Shea

Hi Victor! I think I talked about this a little bit in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5jcy8HoqF4&t=2351s I think running the same campaign for multiple groups can work really well. I've done it both ways for multiple groups and enjoyed it both times. Most of the time the campaigns are still different enough that you're not going to accidentally drop in the wrong thing for the wrong group. I don't recommend trying to keep both groups in a single shared world where the impact of one group affects the others. I've heard DMs run very rewarding campaigns this way but I think it can be much harder to manage. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Hi Peter! Chapter 16 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master talks about building a "lazy" campaign which is essentially a spiral campaign. It notes the importance of having a clear goal for the campaign that the characters know and truths of the world that the players can use to both understand and build characters around. I also like to offer a one-page campaign sheet that gives the players enough information to build a character. Most of the time this works well. Here are some examples: https://slyflourish_content.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/frostmaiden_one_page_campaign_guide.pdf https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/empire_of_the_ghouls_campaign_sheet.pdf https://slyflourish_content.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/avernus_campaign_one_page.pdf https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/witchlight_one_page_campaign_guide.pdf https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/eberron_campaign_one-sheet.pdf https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/ghosts_of_saltmarsh_players_guide.pdf

Michael Shea

Oh so many! I think westerns are great seeds for campaign plots because they often don't have pre-determined outcomes. You're there watching the characters navigate the situation. Some great westerns include: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Fistful of Dollars A Few Dollars More My favorite is the TV Show Deadwood. I steal from that show all the time. So Trope-wise, I'd say: - The characters defend a village from brigands. - The characters are one of three groups trying to recover a big treasure. - The characters navigate two rival gangs who have taken over a town or region with opportunities to work one against the other. - The characters hunt down an escaped bad guy. Those are some really good ones.

Michael Shea

I actually find that backgrounds tend to fall off ... into the background ... once the characters actually begin their adventures. Often backgrounds come into play as a way for the characters to recognize something going on in the world. I rarely see them overtake the characters drive to go on adventures but you can reinforce their primary motivation in a session zero and one-page campaign handout: https://slyflourish.com/one_page_campaign_guide.html

Michael Shea

I don't. I sort of think of conflicting secrets the same way I think about false leads. The world is already complicated enough without making it more complicated. I tend not to put false leads in front of the characters because I don't want them to waste their time chasing something down that turns out to be a dead end. Following the true story is hard enough.

Travis Reed

Hi Mike, I would love to know what motivated you to put out your own DnD content for money. What thought process transpires that makes a person decide "My stuff is good enough that I can make a buck."

Tiny Gork

enjoyed your how to "make it" video and had a question pop into my mind. Patreon, im assuming here you didnt start with that (otherwise my question is prolly moot). When and why did you consider Patreon ? And what thoughts/plans did you have for "what do patreons get for their bucks"? Did you already have a workflow for material that pateron just sideloaded or did you begin creating entirely new material as a consequence of having the patreon and needed something to deliver as rewards?

Peter S.

Thanks! It all makes a lot of sense. My question originated by the idea that building a full one-pager with the 6 truths is easier with published adventures, or an home-brewed setting that is more developed than "Start from a village" :) Probably we can avoid spending time in the details, but as DMs we need to look a bit further than the village, if we want to give more hooks for PC backstories.

Michael Shea

This is an outstanding question! Just as we should try to define the characteristics we're looking for in our ideal players (recognizing that OUR ideal players aren't necessarily EVERYONE's ideal players), I think it makes sense that we, as DM, describe our style in a way that clarifies how we're different from other DMs. I wrote a little about this idea here: https://slyflourish.com/interviewing_new_players.html I know when I describe my own DM style to potential new players, I clarify the following: - I'm a DM who focuses mostly on the evolving story of the game itself. - I play either online or in-person. - I run a mix of abstract and "theater of the mind" combat styles. I'm not a tactical DM who focuses on the 5 foot grid. Half or more of battles are in theater of the mind (this immediately filters out a lot of players which is fine). - I use Discord, D&D Beyond, and Owlbear Rodeo. I don't use Roll 20 (this also filters out a lot of players). - I'm a loosy-goosy DM. I don't hang on too tight to the story, the characters' story, the rules, or just about anything else. - I make mistakes but we keep rolling on. If a player is looking for a tight cohesive narrative arc, I might not be able to provide that. In many ways I try to think about my style of DMing and how it would turn players off. Instead of selling myself as a DM, I'm happy for them to recognize that I might not be their ideal DM and move on before we start. If I'm looking for a DM, I'd probably look at the following criteria: - Are they a tactical or story-focused DM? - Do they consider themselves a "killer" DM? - Are they opponents of or fans of the characters? - What parts of the game do *they* enjoy most? - Where do they spend most of their prep time? Of course, nothing works better than running a one-shot or a short number of games to see if things gel. Hope that helps!

Michael Shea

Because Witchlight doesn't focus on combat, you can probably run it as written without too much. Thither and Yon fit better for level 6 characters than Hither or the carnival so thats something to consider. You might have them jump right into Thither. There are lots of other fey-ish stuff you could add in. You could drop in some Shadowfey elves from Kobold Press. You could add in agents of the Winter Court who might be trying to take over. This gives opportunities for higher-CR opponents. Imagine what major tier-2ish faction might invade Prismeer while their guards are down so you have a whole other angle of threats the characters might face.

Michael Shea

Great question. This is where we have to balance "Realism" with "fun". I always start by asking "what makes sense given the situation in the world" first. If it makes sense that a creature would hit a downed character, that's something to consider. If it makes sense that the creature would just knock them out and then worry about another threat, that's something to consider too. But the next question is "what is most fun for the situation right now?" If, given the current situation, it makes sense that a creature would attack a downed character, we can ask ourselves "is that fun?" Will it bring up the tension in a way that's exciting? Or will it be a total downer? Killing a character can be rough. It can be sad. It can be exciting. I think its worth getting a feel for the situation. One thing I often do is telegraph that a monster might hit a downed character early so the players can react to it. If a gnoll knocks out a character, at the end of their turn I will say that the gnoll draws up its spear for a killing strike and they better deal with that gnoll or the character's a goner. This way there's the suspense of deadliness without the actual death part. So three things: 1. Ask yourself what makes sense given the sitation. 2. Ask if that would result in some fun in the game or would it really suck. 3. Choose whether to go with what makes sense if it would generally result in an exciting game. 3. Telegraph that you're going to hit a downed character early so it adds tension and pushes the characters to act.

Michael Shea

Thanks Steven! Jayme, I was going to link the articles Steven's linked above.

Michael Shea

Hi Steven! Good question! This might be confirmation bias but I don't think there's anything in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master I regret having in there. In the chapter on Fantastic Locations I recommend having three aspects for each location. That's not really necessary for most places, I think. Just an evocative name is enough for most locations. When I wrote it, my idea of locations had fewer numbers of big evocative chambers while now I think of larger numbers of locations with many smaller rooms and a few big rooms. Still, I don't regret it. I think I picked up jargon from Dungeon World that might have been more easily simplified. "Fronts" for example, I largely just refer to as "villains". And sometimes a "villain" might be bad weather or an asteroid or some other non-sentient malevolent force. There's lots of stuff I've learned *since* then that I'd have probably added to the book. You can find just about all of that in the Lazy DM's Companion. I think those two books work really well together.

Michael Shea

This is an age-old problem. The roughest answer is, I don't play with players like that. I try to filter them out before we ever come to the table. Other ways are to play in the theater of the mind to break them out of a tactical mind-set. Another way is to sit down and have an adult conversation about it. Let them know you're not really enjoying the game when it's played like that. This sort of conversation gets out of the arms-race between players and DMs. Another way is to keep the game below 5th level or 7th level; the two levels where most of these sorts of effects begin. It gets worse as the characters increase. One thing to consider with the description you provide is that they can't adversely effect a creature *before* initiative is rolled. Regardless of the circumstances, if they're going to attack someone, initiative is rolled. You can't ready an action before initiative. The arms-race is another way to do it. They may have lots of optimal character options but you have an infinite number of monsters with infinite amounts of hit points, attacks, and damage they can do. Add more monsters, give them stronger attacks, and increase their hit points. Give bosses legendary resistances. Have multiple bosses in one battle. Run waves of combatants without rests in between. There are lots of ways to challenge characters. Often these will take a lot of time at the table though so be ready. Hope that helps!

Michael Shea

Hi Moonbird! The short answer is that NPC stat blocks are simplified because DMs have too much on their plate to manage a number of full characters. NPC stat blocks abstract the complexity of full characters. Regarding their power, you can't compare an NPC stat block to the hit dice of a character. Instead, you have to consider challenge rating to level. At 1st to 4th level, a monster is roughly the equivalent of a character if its CR is 1/4th of the characters level. At 5th to 10th level, a monster is roughly the equivalent of a character if its CR is 1/2th of the characters level. At 11th to 16th level, a monster is roughly the equivalent of a character if its CR is 3/4th of the characters level. At 17th to 20th level, a monster is roughly the equivalent of a character if its CR is equal to the characters level. Some DMs want crunchier NPCs than those found in the Monster Manual. Some third party books like those from 2C Gaming and others include richer NPCs with more options. For me, I'm happy with the existing NPC stat blocks and I can just give them other abilities if I want them to be more complex.

Michael Shea

Hi Ernesto. There are definitely areas where I think 5e could be simplified. Given how many people have been added to the hobby over the past eight years (like 5x more than ever before) I think people are picking it up and doing ok with it. I think the system mastery of 5e makes it sticky for a lot of folks. The complexity draws some people in. Having worked with new players, there are areas like ability score selection that are just needlessly complex. Same with skills which could be easily abstracted (and some rules in the DMG offer this up). Adding a feat to backgrounds and packing so much stuff into backgrounds in One D&D might be a problem. Yes. I have a feeling that idea is here to stay since they're doing it in existing published products like Strixhaven, Spelljammer, and the upcoming Dragonlance book. I think finding more streamlined systems like Old School Essentials, ICRPG, or others might be a fine way to go. We don't have to stick to D&D or we can simplify it ourselves. One thing I'll offer are the pregenerated characters I put out for Fantastic Adventures. They include everything a player needs to run a full 5e character up to 5th level. https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/fantastic_adventures_pregen_characters.pdf

Michael Shea

Ha! You're violating the one-question rule but I forgive you. 1. One shouldn't assume I don't like a book I've not talked about on the show. There are just too many to review, frankly. I AM going to talk about Planebreaker this Sunday and I DO love it! 2. I haven't checked out Dark Matter. Sorry! I do love Esper Genesis – another 5e SF game. 3. I don't know that I can provide a great answer. I'd have to see how it plays out and I'd make the decision the closer you get to the end of the campaign. Are your players begging for more or are they ready to move on? You can break out of character and just ask them. Hope that helps!

Michael Shea

I generally don't worry about CR once I've started customizing monsters for my game because your knowledge of the players and what they bring to the table outstrips any mathematical calculation you do with CR. You really have to try it out and see. That said, exhaustion can be nasty. If they're only fighting one of the creatures, thats probably not so bad. But if you throw a bunch of exhausting bladewrathes at them, that could be trouble. Really, the only answer is "try it and see!"

Michael Shea

Thanks for bringing this over from Discord! I think my first content-for-money was the original Sly Flourish's Dungeon Master Tips (now available for free at https://slyflourish.com/dm_tips_ebook.html ). I don't think I ever worried about charging for it. The main problem was how and where. DriveThruRPG wasn't really a thing I understood so I sold it directly through Paypal and then Lulu for print on demand. I think I charged $5 which seemed reasonable. Running Epic Tier Games (also free at https://slyflourish.com/sly_flourishs_running_epic_tier_dd_games.html ) was next. It never sold well but that was fine. It paid for its own costs. So I guess I never worried about the idea that my own stuff wasn't worth money. I certainly aimed (and aim) to ensure people get their money's worth from my stuff. I do that by constantly asking "what's in it for them? Why should they give a shit? What am I giving them that's making their lives better?" It's not a matter of being worthy or not. It's just a matter of helping people out. I wrote TONS of stuff, probably a million words published on various websites, before I started selling books so I was comfortable exposing my words to people. Mostly its about trying to help people. If they give me $10 for the Companion, how do I make sure they're getting more than $10 of value from it? I'm pretty happy with what I provide these days.

Michael Shea

Thanks for passing the question along from Discord! I started off making a Patreon because they were about to raise their rates and I could get in and get grandfathered into the cheaper rate. I started it off as just a monthly tip jar. You like what I provide? This is a way to give back. I did intend to do a monthly newsletter thorugh it with links to articles and videos that patrons helped produce. Those didn't really get a lot of traction so I've generally stopped doing them. Instead, I started offering things to Patreons beginning with Rats in the Cellar and now everything else you can find on the rewards page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-for-34953933 The number of Patreons has gone way up because of two things: 1. YouTube now brings in a lot of Patrons. Youtube growth has brought a lot of new people to the work I do in general but certainly with Patreon. 2. People are much more likely to drop a couple bucks a month if they're getting something for it. The exclusive adventures, previews, city guidebooks, and all of the rest certainly attract people to the Patreon. I think there's such a thing as overdoing it though. I beloong to a lot of Patreons and mostly I just do it to support the creator. They often put out TONS of stuff but I really don't have the time to look at all of it and I imagine this istrue for Sly Flourish patrons as well. So I always assume no one has looked at any of the rewards and try to keep the rewards page easy to follow with clear tangible products. I'll update existing products more than putting out new ones. I'll add a couple of pages to the City of Arches for example instead of coming up with a whole new thing. I have found it TREMENDOUSLY valuable to preview material to patrons and to the Patreon discord server for things that may end up as a Kickstarter project later. That worked really well for the Lazy DM's Companion. Because this material often becomes another pay product, I don't mind having a lower price for the Patreon for the amount of stuff I'm putting out. Hope that answers your question!

Michael Shea

That is probably true. If you have ideas for the larger world that you think can relate to character creation, you can do that. Or you can go with the PHB defaults for things like gods and backgrounds and spiral out from there. You can look at something like how WOTC talked about Greyhawk in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. They manage to pack a lot into very few words for a setting large enough. I think players are mostly likely going to understand things even if you just have them follow what's in the player's handbook. Does that make sense?

Ryan J.

Hi Mike, what supplements or other readings would you recommend for thieves’ guilds? I’m working on a homebrew and want to learn more about how these guilds can operate, why they exist, what quests they might offer PCs, etc. Thanks!

PhD20

Follow-up (feel free to ignore since I'm breaking the 1 question rule). I think a better way to phrase what I was getting at is this: Is there any value in writing down conflicting secrets with the intent of only giving one or the other to the party? (Deciding which to give as the session plays out)

saphssquatch

Whoops! Didn’t see the one question rule! 😇Thanks for the answers and I look forward to hearing your plane breaker thoughts! I love how they even give DCs and encounter ideas for the arrival of the planebreaker. It looks easy to run! 😁

Bálint Gábor

Hi Mike! Have you ever had a party that took a long rest in a Tiny Hut, but some monsters found their hut? How did you (or would you) describe the monsters' reaction? Did they call for backup, etc.?

Michael Shea

Hi there! I think if it works for you it works. I can't think of a time I either purposefully created conflicting secrets or purposefully avoided it. Normally I'd know which secret is headed towards truth even if its not true yet. Usually its the game that contradicts a secret during play.

Andy

What can experienced players do to support a new inexperienced DM?

Andy

If you had to choose only three 3rd party products (not including your own) to help you as a DM, what would they be?

Gustavo Campanelli

I found the new backgrounds for the new d&d quite good as inspiration for a campaign in a different game system. I've seen the backgrounds played out in the Black dice society, and I liked what I saw, though I noticed a little bit of repetition, so I'm guessing these new backgrounds come to round those others out. As we know how gamers are, Which is the craziest combination of background and class you've seen so far?

Dwreck Studios

Hey Mike, I'm about to run Waterdeep Dragon Heist in a couple of weeks and am getting my session 0 ready, how "on the nose" should the six truths be? Should I tell them that the villains aren't out to kill the characters or the city guard isn't out to screw them over?

Marius Hofbauer

I am going to run a Grendleroot campaign in my local library here in Germany. I plan on running all of the adventures in the book, one per week. However, the players that show up to play might change from week to week, with new ones coming in, and other players dropping out. How would you handle levelling in that case? If I have a new player join mid-campaign (as in new to D&D or even new to RPGs), I don't want to start them at a higher level because I don't want to overwhelm them. But playing a first-level character in a party going on a 5th-level adventure might not be fun for the newbie, and their PC might die easily. How would you handle running Grendleroot for an open table game?

Alex Gray

How can we best pair the 5 Room Dungeon model pair with Lazy DM prep?

Moonbird

Thanks for your answer :-) What I usually do when I feel an NPC boss is underpowered, I recreate him as a PC using some semi-automatic tool like Hero Lab or Roll20's Charactermancer but it's still a lot of work. I can understand the need to have simple statblocks, but I feel it leaves out lots of crunch from the party's opponents. And I didn't find many sources of ready to play NPC with character classes: even third party NPC compendiums on dmsguild use simplified statblocks.

Jill Weber

What are your favorite resources on how to create campaigns? I love all of the resources you recommend for building adventures, but I really struggle with coming up with something for a 12+ month campaign and would love some recommendations for books, articles, etc.

Bastien Leblanc

What's your take on Solo RPG? do you play, do you have any advices on how to integrate existing campaign with solo stories? Having a bit of experience in this space, but I'm curious to see how it fits in your creation work.

Dragoras

You mentioned broken spells like Banishment or Silvery Barbs in some of your shows. In your games do you ban this spells, or modify? List of most broken spells? Thanks

Gustavo Campanelli

they can handle mapping, turn order, search in manuals, everything that takes a load of the GM so that the new GM can center on less things.

Spencer Maughan

You've mentioned your "DM's Toolkit" before, what I'm curious about is what exactly is in front of you when you run your in person games (ie: laptop, books, PDF's, etc.) and more specifically, if you use a laptop, what pages/tabs do you keep open? (one short question, haha). Oh, and I think it would be way cool for a video walkthrough of all this stuff.

Schizogen

I am relistening to your podcast playlist and just finished DM Deep Dive #18 with Jeremy Crawford. At the end of the episode, he mentions scheduling another interview with him to talk about Theater of the Mind. Did you ever reach out to him? I do not recall listening to that episode (though I guess I will find out for sure as I continue my re-playlist!)

Cassie Thompson

How to you stop yourself running all the games and all the campaigns? I want to rush my friends through Waterdeep so that we can run CurseOfStrahd and then WildBeyondTheWitchlight, and now you have made EmpireofGhouls sound so exciting, not to mention wanting to try some non-5e systems, or just a fully homebrew campaign.... I am currently running 2 proper campaigns, but both are going to take at least 1-2 years to finish. Do you intentionally keep campaigns short in order to experience more?

Michael Shea

Hi Ryan! I'm afraid I really don't have anything. I'd suggest checking out the links Steven linked above. Sorry!

Michael Shea

Yes! While running Tomb of Annihilation the characters used tiny hut a lot. I had the caretaker of the dungeon surround the hut with hundreds of crawling claws so when it burst everyone was covered in crawling claws. They used it in the swamp too and people from outside kept a vigil, aiming arrows until it broke and everyone got peppered with arrows. Not the most ingenious solutions. The big thing to remember with Tiny Hut is that the world moves on outside of it. Having the characters imprisoned in a little hut for eight hours gives the bad guys lots of time to move their own plans forward. It doesn't work in all circumstances but its one way to deal with tiny hut.

Michael Shea

It depends on the situation but here are some things that come to mind: 1. Be a good player. Take notes. Support their story. Support the other characters. Don't be *that guy* and help the other players to not become *that guy* (however you define that guy). 2. Only offer help and suggestions when asked. Don't push your own ideas unsolicited. DMing is already a stressful art and no one wants their art criticized without prompting. 3. Let the DM be their own DM. Don't assume they have to do it the way you do it. If they're struggling with things and you have ideas, go with those ideas but let them blossom on their own.

Michael Shea

Great question!! I'd want books I can use over and over - ones that give me tons of material. Looking at my shelves I'd probably say: - The new Dread Thingonomicon by Raging Swan because its huge and has a million random tables focused on different settings. - The Midgard Worldbook by Kobold Press because its packed with world-building ideas for our own campaigns or to use directly. - The Level Up 5e Monstrous Menagerie because its packed with well-balanced and well-tested monsters and has lots of good advice for building encounters, including treasure, and building your own monsters.

Michael Shea

That's hard to say but my wife's bearfolk barbarian occultist is a fun mix. I think having backgrounds that *don't* fit one's typical archetype are great fun. Shadow of the Demon Lord seemed to handle the mix of backgrounds and classes the best, I think because your whole first session you are *only* your background before you pick a class.

Michael Shea

I don't think the six truths should spell out the villains at all. Here were the three truths I used in my own Dragon Heist game: It's been five years since the end of the War of the Dragon Queen. Numerous villages, towns, and cities lost tremendous amounts of coin when raided by the Cult of the Dragon. Much of it was never recovered. Due to his negligence and preferential treatment for Neverwinter, Lord Degault Neverember lost his seat as the Open Lord of Waterdeep to Lariel Silverhand, the current open lord of Waterdeep. Crime is on the rise. Numerous criminal factions in Waterdeep appear more active, going so far as to fight one another in the streets. In response, the High Wizard of Waterdeep, Vajra "Blackstaff" Safahr, has activated her independent enforcers, Force Gray and the Gray Hands. You can see more about how I set up the campaign here: https://slyflourish.com/dragon_heist_session_zero.html

Michael Shea

That's so awesome to hear!! Yay for Grendleroot! You could make some 3rd level pregens that are pretty easy to play and offer those up. 3rd level characters are pretty strong. Consider using my Fantastic Adventures pregens here: https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/fantastic_adventures_pregen_characters.pdf I also would consider picking higher level adventures when you know you're only going to have higher level characters from players who have already been there. Consider having a handful of 1st to 3rd level scenarios ready when you have new players and use the 4th and 5th level scenarios when you have groups already fully prepared. Many times when I've seen pickup groups like this, the same people end up coming up week to week so it ends up being a normal group. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Hi Alex! Johnn Four and I answered this question in one of a series of videos we shot to promote our own patreons. The first of the video series covered this very topic here: https://youtu.be/L0xYZZoxVY0

Michael Shea

Hi Jill! I subscribe to a concept I call "spiral campaign development" in which you focus first on what is directly around the characters and build outward. I'm not a big fan of spending a lot of time building a rich world of which the characters only see like 5%. You can find more on this idea in chapter 16 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master and in the following links: https://youtu.be/y2H9VZhxeWk https://slyflourish.com/thinking_two_horizons_out.html I'm also a huge fan of using published campaign worlds instead of writing my own: https://slyflourish.com/case_for_published_adventures.html Some published campaign worlds I'd recommend include: - Midgard by Kobold Press - Eberron by Keith Baker, particularly Eberron Rising from the Last War. - Tal'dorei Reborn by Darrington Press - Ptolus by Monte Cook Games - Planegea by Atlas Games - Ravnica by WOTC - Theros by WOTC - Dungeons of Drakkenheim by Ghostfire Gaming and the Dungeon Dudes. See my other product spotlights for more details: https://slyflourish.com/talk_show_database_897a3ca6dac5f425b98d1ac85cd6962d/ Type "Product Spotlight" into the search bar.

Michael Shea

I think they're great fun and a fantastic way for a GM to stretch their brain muscles. I loved playing some solo Ironsworn and look forward to Ironsworn Starforged when the physical book comes out. I've also played more solo journaling games like Thousand Year Vampire which I enjoyed a lot.

Michael Shea

Hi Spencer! I don't think what I have in front of me is any more interesting than what anyone else has in front of them. I asked the question to Twitter and here's the thread: https://twitter.com/SlyFlourish/status/1570759726916599808 For me personally, in person I have much of what I describe in this article: https://slyflourish.com/lazy_dm_tools.html For in-person games I have: - The Lazy D&D cheat sheet - A printout of character info converted from Notion into Excel with names, class, race, backgrounds, passive scores, trained skills, and languages. - The books I need to run the game, often the monster book and adventure book. - A bunch of pencils - A bunch of 3x5 cards - A couple of dry-erase markers - My fancy Wyrmwood dice tray with my fancy metal dice For online games I have Discord, Notion, PDFs if I'm using PDFs or D&D Beyond if I'm using WOTC published material, often Owlbear Rodeo if I'm showing a map. That's about it!

Michael Shea

We never did schedule a second one and I started doing my own Talk Show instead of doing the deep dives because scheduling is just a headache as is recording and mastering for two people instead of one. Not a great reason but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Michael Shea

Hi Cassie! (I've really enjoyed your conversations on Discord, BTW! Thank you!) I think scoping a campaign down to about a year - maybe 40 to 50 sessions, lets us complete more campaigns and still have big meaningful stories to share. This means I can run, effectively, one campaign per group per year. I have two regular groups and one irregular group so that's two to three campaigns a year. Ever since running Rime of the Frostmaiden I've made a pact with myself not to run any campaign that I don't dig when reading it. I wasn't happy with Frostmaiden from the minute I picked it up and I should have listened to myself. My drive used to be to run popular campaigns so I could use what I learned to do YouTube videos and articles that would draw in more people. I'm not going to do that anymore so thats why you're seeing a lengthy Numenera campaign and some third party campaigns like Empire of the Ghouls and Scarlet Citadel. I want to run what I dig. As far as having too much, I know I won't get to run nearly as many campaigns as I buy, so I just triage them until I know which ones have everything I want to run them. They're solid fun campaigns with lots of good material I can use and maybe other books I can slide in. For my Empire of the Ghouls campaign, I'm using it as my opportunity to use LOTS of Kobold Press books so that way I can squeeze in some Ebon Tides, Demon Cults and Secret Societies, Southlands, and more all into one campaign. I think thats one way to get a lot of value out of a single campaign – find ways to mash in other campaign ideas. Good luck!

Dragoras

I don't know how I missed it, thanks!

Matt M.

You gotta do what you love, I respect that! And I thoroughly enjoy the Lazy DM podcast, so I'm thrilled you do that weekly. But the DM Deep Dives were my favorite and also the thing that led me to discover Sly Flourish in the first place. I wish you would do more of those :)

Chris W

I enjoyed the Empire of Ghouls prep show, looking forward to you finishing your Numenera game so we get D&D prep every week! I noticed you mentioned running the Den of the Rotten kings. How was it running an adventure you wrote 6 or 7 years ago? Do you have any thoughts on how D&D has changed since then?

Baptiste Blanchet - Alakokain

Hi Mike, I am currently playing with dresden fils fate accelerated it is an Urban fantasy settings and would like advice on doing better GM intrusions to reward the players with fate points. Is there a good way to improve on that without slowing down the sessions too much with them ?

Matt Brooks

Hi Mike! tl;dr: How do you balance guard rails in the game for new players while still enforcing consequences for rash actions, especially at low levels. I'm running Cellar of Death as the beginning of a Tomb of Annihilation campaign. In the first session a new D&D player (<5 sessions under their belt) chose to have their first level sorcerer (AC 11, HP 7) leave the rest of the party and spend several rounds getting to an unexplored area of the map by themselves. When they got there they were ambushed by the monster that was laying in wait there. which dropped them to 0 with its first attack. They were so far away from the rest of the part that not even the tabaxi could get there before the monster's next turn, where it effectively ate the character's head (1 failed death save + auto critical on dying character). I feel bad about killing the character, especially of a new player, but the player ignored repeated warnings from everyone else at the table that what they were doing was dangerous. Do you have any advice?

Enoch

hi Mike. I have a player who is excellent at roleplaying. He talks alot. I have no issues giving the spotlight to other players, so it's not an issue. However, what if he wants to play a non-charisma character? How can he ever play a fighter when he is so good and leading these social roleplay moments?

Monsaemon

I feel like a South Park underpants gnome when it comes to D&D books. Step 1: buy book step 2: ??? Step 3: profit. I have all these books and I’m 100% under utilizing them. Got any tips for more pro actively using books instead of becoming just a collector? Is it just the obvious and just pick a book and read them?

Knights of Roleplay Podcast

I've been looking at Building a Lazy Campaign in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. Some of the example campaign hooks could be interpreted as telling the players what to do rather than giving them agency to do things on their own. A lot of the example campaign truths seem like things the players wouldn't know, things they could have fun discovering during the campaign. Do you think players might be losing out on player agency and/or the thrill of discovery by giving them so much information before the campaign starts?

Andy Roark

Hi Mike, I'm running a Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign and am loving leaning into the politics of Saltmarsh and what's going on in the town. Do you have any tips for helping me keep all the players engaged during these role-play-heavy sessions? The party's "face" character is taking a lot of spotlight and I realized at the end of the last game that one of the other players didn't engage much during the session. Any tips for drawing characters out "around the face?" (PS The face player built her character to thrive in these situations, and I want to honor her character vision)

Fengh

big help, thnx

DAVID JAMES FARNHAM

My group had to take a break after interacting with a cultist who grew up in the cult and is brainwashed into it. How do you run cults where the players don't feel bad about the people they will have to deal with to overturn the cult itself. This is a horror game in the Tepest domain of ravenloft, so some moral issues is fine, but I don't want it to break my group.

c0wfunk

Hey Mike - I went back and looked at your advice for tagalong NPCs (in a nutshell, it was "don't") but I'd like your take on a different angle. In Dungeon of the Mad Mage, there are a number of situations where the PCs are encouraged to make alliances with one group or another that is fighting another group or another. My PCs are always wanting to use these negotiations to add more firepower/allies / some competitive advantage when taking on the next big challenge. So in various situations, we've ended up with entire parties of allies coming along for some big situation. Then of course the big fight is too big and out of control and long and there's always the chance of the allies stealing the spotlight. My players seem happy with this situation so far and enjoy the big long tactical battles. But for me, it ends up being a lot to manage and think about. So at long last, my question is: How do I allow the PCs to make these kinds of arrangements in role-play situations, and make them feel like they haven't been cheated out of something when I send off the allies to do something off-camera or find some excuse why they can't help at that moment? My specific example -> right now the PCs have made allies with some Githyanki and as we storm the mind flayer stronghold, there are a few bands of Githyanki around. The PCs want to stick with them and fight alongside them, but I'm looking for ways or excuses to break up the big group.

Russell Tassicker

Hi Mike, I have an idea gestating and I'd like to ask your advice. When preparing, and at the table, we keep in the forefront of our mind our player characters and weave their histories, interests and relationships into the game and give them opportunities to use their abilities. There are also lots of little things that come up in a session, usually improvised, that the players fixate on. Maybe they suddenly develop an interest in horses, or arm wrestling, or they pick up a lucky charm they are convinced is significant. I've found that players find it really rewarding when these minor things are paid-off down the line - maybe they are challenged by a local arm wrestling champion in the next town who has heard of their success, or their lucky charm saves their bacon unexpectedly. The problem I'm faced with is keeping track of these minor things alongside everything else the DM has going on. Do you have any thoughts on this? Do you find it worthwhile paying off these minor things, and how do you remember to bring them back later on?

Jesse Stanley

Have you looked at the new OZ book by Andrew Kolb? Lots of really interesting ideas and mechanics in the book. More difficult enemies have phases that become active after a chunk of hitpoints are taken away.

Jesse Stanley

Another publisher (Privateer Press) has been converting their table top war-game into 5e. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas on what they have done so far.

Michael Shea

Hi Chris! It was fun to run Den of the Rotten Kings. I don't think much changed over the six or seven years in how I run a little dungeon crawl like that. I reskinned a lot of it to fit the themes I was using in my Empire of the Ghouls game. I did print it out room by room on paper to use as a map. That worked pretty well. I still think mapping at home isn't a solved problem.

Michael Shea

Hi Baptiste! When I've run Fate, I've used the fate pool as my way to boost monsters and challenges. Basically monsters could throw fate points in so that characters could pull them back out. I might throw a fate point in so that a monster gets multiple attacks or splits attacks among different characters (I'm a little rusty on Fate rules at the moment but I think thats how it works). Dungeons of Fate had the following rule which I liked: "In a combat scene, GMs gain one Fate point for each character in the scene. When a character takes an action, GMs can invoke monster aspects by spending these Fate points and applying a +2 bonus to the challenge level. A character gains a Fate point when the GM invokes a monster’s aspect against a character’s action." http://s3.amazonaws.com/slyflourish_content/dungeons_of_fate.pdf

Michael Shea

Hi Matt! I think, for new players, its really important to have that out-of-game conversation about how D&D really plays out. If the players are making choices that actively move the game in a fun direction, I say go with it. If they're making choices that reduce the fun of the game, its worth "pausing for a minute" and explaining why that course of action isn't just dumb in the world but how it make the game harder to run. Splitting the party is a good example. One character splitting off and going into dangerous territory is an example where a DM really should stop the situation and explain not only why they're likely going to get killed but "you probably won't have much to do as a player while I focus the game around the other four people". Understanding the structure of the *game* is as important as understanding the in-game consequences of such actions.

Michael Shea

Hi Enoch! This is a good question and one we often deal with. I like to think that however good the *player* is in a roleplaying scene may give their *character* advantage on a check when warranted. If they're particularly good in a conversation, that might surpass doing a roll completely. If they're just convincing, that goes beyond being charismatic and turns it into an auto success. Otherwise, I'd probably have them make the checks and offer advantage if the player is better at talking than the character is.

Michael Shea

Hi Stephen! Here are a few things I'd recommend to get more out of your D&D books: 1. Skim them. Spend thirty minutes flipping through them to get an idea what you have and what grabs you. Let the art inspire you. 2. Read them. Dive deep into those parts that really grab you. 3. Take pieces of them and jam them into your own game. Maybe it's just a monster. Maybe its a location. Maybe it's a scene inspired by the art. 4. Use them more fully. Use bigger pieces. Run adventures as a side-quest to your current campaign. Drop in some third party character options like spells, magic items, or even subclasses as loot or rewards the characters earn as they go. 5. Fully use them. Run a big campaign adventure. Use other books as supplementary material to support that game. I'm having a lot of luck with this in both Numenera and Kobold Press books. I've had books on my self for years I haven't used until now. Hope that offers some useful suggestions!

Michael Shea

Hi there! In my games, it's helped the players understand what's going on in the game when the central seed is laid out because it gives them a shining north star to follow when they're choosing what to do. My campaigns are more linear on-the-rails campaigns moreso than full worlds where the characters go off and do what they want. Of course, like all things, if it doesn't work for you, you can try something else. Even in a West Marches style game, though, I think it could help to know that the agents of Sauron are just over those nasty looking mountains preparing for war. I like to give *some* structure to a game but to each their own!

Michael Shea

Hi Andy! It's important to try to give each of the players a roughly equal amount of the spotlight and also important read the body language of the players to see how bored they are during these roleplay-heavy scenes. If you play online and can't really gauge body-language, you can just ask if its ok to focus on more roleplaying or ask how they felt about the game after running such a scene. One trick is to go around the table or even roll initiative so you don't forget that the other characters are doing things too. Find ways for them to get involved. Look at the skills they have trained and pull on those during the scene. Maybe the investigative character noticies something while the face continues to chat. Maybe the intimidating barbarian has a chance to knock an instigator down a peg or two on the side. If you know a roleplay scene is coming up, its worth thinking about what sort of activities the *other* characters might engaged with. In the same way we try to drop NPCs into a dungeon so the characters have someone to roleplay within even in a thousand-year-old tomb, we can likewise bring up scenes and situations where the pure combat characters have something to do even in a conversation.

Andy Roark

Great advice! Thanks!!

Michael Shea

The whole concept of morality, behavior, and choice is really complicated in our real lives. Very smart scientists question whether there even is such a thing as free will. https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/01/15/261716096/the-choice-is-yours-the-fate-of-free-will https://www.thisamericanlife.org/662/where-there-is-a-will/act-two-8 This is where the fantasy of our game can break out of the reality of the complexity of the situation. Do we really want to question the lives and decisions that led each of those hit-men who attack John Wick in his home? They each had mothers, fathers, siblings, spouses, and children! But we are running an action game here and I think we can largely go with the moral decisions that "you are what you do". Cultists do terrible things so its ok to cut them down. I've spoken against the bio-essentialism taking place with orcs and goblins. Some DMs might be happy to have all orcs be bad orcs but not me. First, I think it does parallel real-world racial stereotypes but second, it's just plain boring. Eberron shows us what it can look like without bio-essentialism and I think it can actually make for a better game. But cultists? They're doing things. They're making choices. At the least, they're standing around while their leader is about to plunge a dagger into a helpless commoner in order to summon the Black Goat. It's hard to sympathize with them at that moment and I don't think we need to. In our fantasy world, they made those choices. I think it can be fun and interesting for some of the cultists to realize they got over their heads. We can clarify that some cultists don't immediately draw daggers and immolate themselves in black fire before screaming and attacking. Some might back off, cower away, and realize their mistakes. That's true for just about any sentient villain. As far as projecting to the players that some cultists are bad. I think clarifying the terrible acts they've done and their plans to do them again help push things in the right direction. A supernatural force can also pave the way. They're so far physically converted to vile monsters that whoever they were is essentially dead long before the characters got there.

Michael Shea

Hi Cowfunk! My big recommendation is to run such things in the background instead of in the spotlight. Think of the activities of the allies as part of the backdrop of a scene instead of the scene itself. In my Numenera game the characters have an army of 6,000 powerful soldiers able to effectively teleport anywhere on the planet. They don't bring them into a battle – they're in the backdrop of the battle. For those scenes, we shift the focus and describe things in a montage instead of a direct combat scene. I think this works well for any sort of war or large conflict. Run the war as the backdrop and keep the scene focused on the characters and what /they/ are doing in the scene. Usually players get the idea when you say something like "the githyanki head into the side passages to take care of the cells of mind flayers, leaving you to take care of the elder brain and its thralls". You can also "pause for a minute" and explain how you plan to run the scene so the players understand that you're focusing the spotlight on their characters and what they do instead of forty or fifty combatants.

Michael Shea

Hi Russell! For me, I keep track of all of this sort of thing on a player page in my Notion campaign notebook. I think you can do the same with paper notes too. Keeping 3x5 cards tied to your notes with character tidbits and reviewing them during step 1 I think can really help. In short, keep track of those little tidbits in a way that you can easily review during step 1. As far as tugging on those little tidbits, maybe there's a way to plan for it during prep, maybe you remember to do something with it as you improvise during the game, or maybe it doesn't come up at all.

Michael Shea

Hi Jesse! I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to look at Oz. I'll keep it on my list. Do you have a link for the Privateer Press campaign? I'm not familiar.

Mad Marty

G'day Mike, I've been playing and running D&D and other TTRPGs since 2004, but I still struggle to come up with exploration and social encounters. When I'm left to my own devices and not running a module, I tend to only prepare combat encounters for my games. What methods do you use to come up with different kinds of encounters?

Nathan Yaworski

Patreon Question: I love looking for new monsters in 3rd-party bestiaries to throw at my players, but as a newer DM I have a hard time parsing whether the monster stats are appropriately deadly or well-balanced for my group’s level. If it’s a source like Kobold Press, I know that the monsters are likely well-balanced, but I have a bunch of bestiaries from Humble Bundles over the years and I don’t have a great idea of how well they were playtested (if at all). Can you share your thought process or mental math for glancing at a monster and quickly determining whether their AC, HP and Damage Output are suitable for my players’ level?

Constantine

Heya: new patron here. Thanks for having this space for us. My question is when is there TOO much complexity in campaign design and how do you handle it if you go off the deep end in planning an upcoming campaign. Specifically, I am planning a new campaign and have world encompassing ideas and multiverse defining concepts that the PCs have to deal with and haven't considered how other groups will assist without taking the spotlight away from PCs. How would you deal with a situation like this?

John Olsen

Patreon Question: You have patreon, you do a kickstarter once in a while, you have books selling. Are you able to quit your day job yet? Or is that even a goal?

Chris Blanchard

So, I've been using your one page campaign guide for the last three campaigns I've run/am running, and I just want to start by saying I love it, it really aids my characters in character creation and making characters that fit into my setting. But, here's my question. Let's say your playing in a homebrew setting that has some homebrew things in it like backgrounds or subclasses... do you mention them in the one page? Provide a second page? How do you deal with providing that information to your players in session zero?

Sam M

Do you run crafting in your games? Is it something your players ask about/for? I've recently become aware of some 3rd party crafting supplements (HeavyArms) that apparently do the work for the DM - do you think your answer would change if you as DM didn't have to do the work?

Chad Mitchell

Thank you for posting your behind the scenes Numenera work and the great review of the system. You had some excellent thoughts about the gae from the GM perspective but mentioned you hadn't played in a longer campaign. What did you players think of the game? Did they have any positive or negative feedback?

Jason Kemp

If you were to design a vault crafted by a master rogue to protect their treasure long after they had passed, what ten different creature sets (main defender and its minions) would you use to protect the main treasure in your own game? (I ask for ten because you've mentioned that coming up with ten items for a list is a good exercise, and I like to watch it in action. How many you wish to share is entirely up to you, of course.)

Bernie the Wordsmith

Bernie here! I would like to know if you ever had to do a retcon during one of your campaigns and what advice can you provide should a retcon be necessary

John Olsen

Small point of history: The very first Privateer Press product was actually the Witchfire Trilogy, a series of D20 modules. They then switched to miniatures rules and minis. Now, they are returning to RPG with 5e.

Bram Bakker

Have you ever tried intentionally giving the campaign a "low point" where the heroes lose some big fight or fail a quest and have to deal with the fall out? I tried this once, but it felt railroaded. But say it happens naturally, have you ever had to deal the players a huge setback? It feels like such a great story beat, but maybe not for a game. I am thinking the loss of Gandalf in Moria, or the ending of Empire Strikes Back.What do you think?

morkaphene

Hi Mike! All your talk of 3rd-party content has inspired me to look into using some non-WOTC classes. Are there any 3rd-party classes (not subclasses) that you think are especially well done? The Pugilist by Benjamin Huffman seems pretty good. Can you think of any others?

Joshua Shaw

Good morning Mike, It's easy to get swept up into this wonderful hobby of ours, especially as DMs. There is an abundance of reading material, podcats, youtube videos. Any tips on finding the right balance of D&D and real life? Acknowledging of course that the Lazy Dungeon Master books seek to help with this. Thanks! Josh

Eric L

Hi Mike! You've recently been speaking about villains. Your suggestion is to have 3 villains right? Can these 3 villains be within the same organization? I'm running a Lancer campaign and I dont think the bbeg will live much longer lol.

Michael Shea

Hi Marty! For me, I try to ask "who can the NPCs talk to in this location I'm running?" It can seem tricky to put conversational NPCs into deep ancient dungeons that haven't been touched for a thousand years but it can be done. For exploration, the ten secrets I prep help me fill in exploration events as they occur. I also try to fill locations with interesting monuments. The following articles can help: https://slyflourish.com/including_pillars_anywhere.html https://slyflourish.com/thoughts_on_exploration.html https://slyflourish.com/building_for_the_three_pillars.html https://slyflourish.com/revealing_secrets.html https://slyflourish.com/ancient_monuments.html

Michael Shea

Hi Nathan! My simple rule of thumb is to look at a monster's hit points and damage output first. This, almost always, is how a monster brings a challenge to a table. You can gauge hit points by multiplying the monster's challenge rating by 15 (this is a rough measure). If a monster has signficantly more or less hit points than 15 x CR, it may be weaker or stronger than its CR indicates. For damage, I do the same thing but its 7 x CR. If a monster is doing significantly more than 7 x CR, it may be particularly dangerous. This number can go up if the CR is above 10 to about 10 x CR. Then you have to look at any other effects it has and ask if those have a significant change in the threat of the monster, one way or another. Can it stay invisible the whole time like an invisible stalker? Can it stun an entire party? Can it somehow remove a character from play? You also want to be on the lookout for abilities that are either just too complicated to run at the table or just not fun to run. A dracolich breathing a blast that stuns an entire party is really lame in play (thank you 4e Monster Manual). You may find it's more useful to have your own back-pocket ways to modify a monster when you're running it. If a monster turns out to be more or less effective than you hoped, turn those "dials of monster difficulty"! https://slyflourish.com/dials_of_monster_difficulty.html

Michael Shea

Hi John! I'm down to half-time at my day job because good health care in the US is really hard to self-fianance and maintain. Doing this full-time would be great but as I get older, good health care is something to hang onto. I'm probably going to be doing this full time in about five years one way or another.

Michael Shea

I think having a page about the world and what it means for the characters and then having a separate page with details of subclasses and other mechanics is probably fine. Try keeping it to two pages though. It's asking a lot for players to digest more than that.

Michael Shea

I really don't but if I did, I'd just use what the books have or wing it using ability checks and tool proficiencies.

Michael Shea

Hi Chad! If you don't hear an answer to this soon, post the question again in October. I'm meeting up with my players to talk about exactly this this weekend!

Michael Shea

Ten! I have my own list of ten thingses I have to do today =) But I'll give it a quick start: - Iron golems - Clay golems - Helmed horrors - Animated armors - A construct dragon of appropriate size - A demon-summoning trap he got as a gift from a wizard he helped out - A pool that's actually a black pudding - Elemental-summoning gemstones - A false keyhole that expands into a portal to the far realm where greedy horrors reach through. - Trapped sarcophagi that release wights There! Ten!

Michael Shea

None that I recall. I'm sure it happened but nothing big enough to remember.Sorry!

Michael Shea

I have not. I think that such low points best happen during the situation of the game. I don't try too hard to build the feeling and pacing of the game ahead of time. I try to set up the situation as it makes sense for the world and then let the highs and lows come from how the characters deal with it. I think its a lot more fun if Gandalf falls in Moria and no one knew it was going to happen.

Michael Shea

I really haven't looked at third-party classes. Sorry!

Michael Shea

I'm not an expert on this but I'd say the following might be potential indicators: - Does your focus on D&D get in the way of other important parts of your life that you prioritize such as your own health, your job, and being with and supporting your family and friends? - Do you find a lot of anxiety in your association with D&D instead of relaxation and fun? I think those are big indicators. I think these days, given the internet, its really easy for us to spend all our time on whatever we happen to be interested in. There's basically limitless sources to read, watch, and listen to. If it's getting in the way of the rest of one's life; thats a problem. As far as tips go, scheduling can help. Give yourself a time limit, set a stopwatch, and go with that. Of course you're talking to someone who spends just about every waking moment pondering D&D stuff but I do leave time every day for spending time with my wife (so we can talk about D&D) and taking walks (so I can think about D&D).

Michael Shea

Hi Eric! Like all steps and ideas like this in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master and my other material – these tools serve you. You don't owe them anything. You can use them however they best work for you to serve your game. So sure, the three villains can be whoever you want to be and in any organizational structure that suits you. If the characters start knocking off villains quickly, you can always think up more of them. To me, the value of a villain is having an entity out there who is acting and reacting to the actions of the characters. They are entities with a goal and with plans to get those goals that are going to cross over the goals and desires of the characters in some way. The rest of how these villains work, how close they are to the characters, or how far away they are in the overall theme of your campaign is up to you and best used to serve how your game goes.

DrFugue

Hi Mike, you have been writing quite a few adventures recently! I have never written a full adventure for others to consume, so was wondering if there is anything you have learned writing these adventures, which you feel has enhanced your ability to do the weekly prep for sessions with your players?

Thiago L.

Hi Mike, I have read your tip on how to schedule weekly games by having 6 players + 2 "on call", but I don't think I quite grasp how it plays out on the table. What happens to the characters that miss the section? Do those players on call roleplay them? Are the regular players (including the absent ones) cool with that? Or do they have their own characters, in which case how do you drop them in the middle of an ongoing adventure and how do you justify the absent ones sudden vanishing? What happens then to character-specific plot points? Sorry, those are a lot of questions, but I hope you see how they are connected and can provide some clarity. Keep up the lazy work!

Chad Mitchell

That is great! One thing I like in the cypher system is the ability to use effort to push oneself. There is a fun cypher spell PDF on drivethrurpg and it gives somewhat of a Raistlin-eque feel - you burn Intellect with spells giving you a built in barrier to casting too many, too often, etc. I'm curious if your players every pushed effort in might or intellect when they battled foes?

Michael Shea

Hi Dr. Fugue! Awesome name! For me adventure writing and DM prep for a game are really best kept separate and sometimes I think we conflate them in our minds. They serve two very different purposes. When we're prepping our games, we're focusing on the stuff we need to run an entertaining game. It can be rough and incomplete and messy because its just for us. When we're writing an adventure, we're trying to build something to help other DMs. I don't know that adventure writing taught me more about prep but prepping more certainly taught me more about adventure writing. It's so easy to get caught in your own writing and your own head and forget that you're serving the DM. Your job as an adventure writer is to do the heavy lifting for the DM. Get over yourself and your fancy fantasy bullshit and help them. I can tell when I read certain material when someone's in their own head without much thought about who's reading it and where people are able to help. I won't call out bad examples but a *good* example is Dungeons of Drakkenheim which is clearly written to help DMs run a campaign. Hope that answers a little bit of your question!

Michael Shea

Hi Thiago! In this model, the +2 players have their own characters who typically fade in and out of the adventure. Overall, when I run and a player is missing, we just don't talk about them in the game. We all know as actual people why they're not there and that's fine. It breaks a little bit of continuity but thats fine. If there is a good way to bring a character back into the game, we do that but if not, we just let them come back in. It's fine. Here's more on this topic: https://slyflourish.com/handling_missing_players.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-uk2LB5zCo&t=3549s

Louis

What are your thoughts on sites like 5e.tools? My group loves it. Thoughts?