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October 2022 Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A Thread! (Patreon)

Published:
2022-10-06 16:00:00
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
Q&A

Content

Let us begin the Sly Flourish Patreon Questions and Answers thread for October 2022! I answer every D&D- or RPG-related 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 don't see your question on the show, please know I still love you.

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. You can also search Sly Flourish and the Sly Flourish YouTube Channel to see if I've done an article or video on the topic.

Focus your question on running D&D or other tabletop RPGs.

Please stick to one question.

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

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

Now bring on the questions!!

Comments

Andy Roark

Hey Mike, I am watching the new play test materials bump player power up again and again. I think this is great as long as DMs have tools to challenge these beefier characters. I use your deadly encounter formula and am wondering, do you think it will be possible to just modify this formula to account for whatever changes WOTC makes to characters, or is it more complicated than that? (I’m mostly thinking about backward compatibility since we haven’t seen the updated monsters yet).

Ben Cook

Hi Mike! I recently started a new WBtW campaign with my group. We typically meet weekly, but only met for 3-4 sessions of this new campaign before I had to take an extended break for wedding+honeymoon. I'm worried that after 2 months away from a just-started campaign, no one will remember anything about their characters' backstories or the campaign hooks / clues without me just data dumping on them. How would you recommend going about a "Session 0 version 2" to help them rebuild (or just reinvent) connections and the story so far?

Jay Antle

This is a very specific question that can be made into a general one. My specific question is what would be an appropriate way to destroy the Dragon Masks in HotQ/RoT? The general question might be what would be some general principles to consider in how magic items might be destroyed? Obviously we have the One Ring model where you destroy it in the forge where it was created, but what else should we as DMs consider as models?

David Prothero

Mike, if you could clone yourself, what would you do that you don't have time to do today?

Chris Wilson

I'm running a massive elaborate sandbox based on Waterdeep: DragonHeist and want something 'lazy' for my next campaign that I can run out of the box. (E.g: simple choice of encounter flows, decent location descriptions, statblocks that aren't broken) Any recommendations? (Already done Lost Mine)

Kevin Davis

On your show you talked about the new D&D one feats as being half feats. I look at the current feats that give you some thing and an ability score bonus as more of a bonus than a negative. Normally you just get a new skill, power, or action of some type but with these feats you get that and an ability score increase. Sure its only a + 1 but it can help move an odd score to and even or be place for coordination with a later ability score boost. Is this just a cup half full perspective or am I missing something?

Max Mendelsohn

Hey Sly - my Waterdeep Dragon Heist players (against all NPCs best advice) dove into the Dungeon of the Mad Mage to get to Xanathar's Lair. My question is about actually navigating a dungeon. There are lots of awkward feelings when the party hits a four way intersection - the game kinda grinds to a halt... One thing I've done a little to mitigate was to give them an NPC who can help guide them a little, but I've felt that's really taken away from the player's choice. We have three hour bi-weekly sessions and I'm worried about them spending months of sessions slogging through and forget the rest of the plot of Dragon Heist. How do you handle large maze-like dungeons? Do you help the players find the 'right' way or do you let them debate where to go?

PhD20

What are some "lost treasures" from older editions of D&D that could help game masters run great games? Rules, styles of play, adventures, etc. Just curious if anything comes to mind.

JBCW

Hey Mike I am running a homebrew world and am using of the classic "Rod of 7 parts" as the backbone of my campaign. For this campaign, I tried something different and decided not to include alignments as part of characters/npcs/monsters and to focus more heavily on the Personality/Bonds/Flaws feature. Here's the thing - As a player attunes to two or more parts of the rod, they are meant to become "more lawful" to the point of absolutes once the rod is made whole. However, as I am not using alignments, this becomes a little difficult. The idea I have is to capitalise on the Bonds/Flaws system that is already built into the characters and to assign a new "flaw" each time they attune to another piece of the rod. EG: "Extreme emotions make me uncomfortable, and I strongly dislike becoming angry, envious, or fearful.” "Everything I say is the truth and I never deliberately lie, but I may evade the truth or use obscure statements.” Not wanting to take away player agency, I would discuss this with the player who is attuning to the rod parts before assigning the "flaws" and ensure they are on board with this before hand. However, I am wondering if this is something you have played around with and if you have any ideas/thoughts on this system or perhaps even an alternative I have not considered? Many thanks and love your work!!

Victor Navone

Hi Mike, my group is just starting up a Ruins of the Grendleroot campaign. We had our session zero and I was pleased to see that one of the players chose the Blackclaw Deepdelver background for her character. This got me wondering, though. Her character will naturally have a lot of knowlege about Deepdelver's Enclave, its NPCs, the Grendleroot, and Blackclaw mountain in general. I don't want to dump a bunch of reading material on this player, nor do I want to spend a lot of game time speaking as her character about what they know. How would you balance player knowledge vs. character knowledge in this situation?

Damian Sein

Hi Mike. Sorry if this had been touched on before but I've recently moved across the country, leaving my game group behind. And time zone stuff makes a virtual game hard. I'd like to try to run a game at my local shop to find a new group. Any tips on adventures to run for a group of strangers?

Karl Arrenon

Hello, I'm a primarily Roll20 DM and as such I love using detailed maps, dynamic lighting, etc. I run into problems when the adventures don't provide quality maps for use in VTTs. Which brings me to my question... Do you have any advice on using different maps than what comes with a published adventure... how do I make a map with a completely different layout still work? I often feel confined by the adventures' maps and will spend way too long trying to reproduce them if an image file is not available. I have tons of maps from Patreon and Kickstarter but I usually run published adventures, so those maps don't get used much. Thanks for your time!

The Anti-Tourist Trap

A recent article of yours focused on converting past D&D stuff, particularly 1e and 2e, to 5e. Since so much past edition material is available on DM’s Guild, any recommended products or adventures?

Shantha292

As it’s Halloween month. How do you inject horror into your game. Any strategies that have worked well. ?

Thiago L.

Hey Mike, you have talked several times in the show about the stickiness of DnD Beyond, or more recently about how Kobold Press or MCDM should get to creating their own character building tools for their content. However, we both see that there’s a bigger, general trend towards digitising our hobby and this can mean a lot of things. How do you feel about it? What are your thoughts on this? Ramble on, I got my bingo card ready.

Matt M.

I'm currently running Dragon of Icespire Peak and will be going into the DNDBeyond sequels when it's over. The story revolves around cultists who worship the chaotic evil deity, Talos. One of my players decided to multiclass into Warlock. I offered her a few patron choices during a dream sequence, all tied to various themes, one of which was "chaos," and that's the one she chose. So I now have a player whose Warlock patron is the same as the chaotic evil deity worshipped by the bad guy cultists! Do you have any thoughts on how to run with fantastic new development?

Gregory Bick

Hi Mike, long time listener yada yada, you mentioned using NPCs as cyphers in your wrap of the numenera campaign. Any advice for translating that idea to DnD? I would love to be able to add NPCs to big final combats in ways PCs can decide, and give them tactical abilities that don't involve me as a DM having to keep track of them in initiative, keep up with their actions, etc.

Axel Cholewa

Hey Mike, I loved your Numenera podcast! One of my Numenera players said Numenera doesn’t satisfy his dice rolling itch, and another was disappointed at the small selection of powers a nano has compared to a 5e spellcaster. That’s why I strongly consider converting our Numenera game to 5e using Arcana of the Ancients etc., i. e. playing in the ninth world with 5e. All players in that group have played at least one 5e campaign, so they know the rules. What do you think about that? What would be easy, what would be difficult?

Brad Thomson

I cannot imagine this is a unique post, but I'm just banging my head, getting the fundamentals correct for when to make the players roll for Perception or Investigation checks. I've read Players and DMG multiple times on Wisdom vs. Intelligence. I've checked out videos on this topic, but what I've seen pretty much regurgitate Players or DMG. It's just unclear what the trigger would be from a player's standpoint and which proper ability check to make. I've pretty much had DMs use them interchangeably. I'm just not consistent, and as the DM, I want to be consistent on what check I'm asking my players to do and not have them confused by asking, "But last time with situation X, you had us roll Perception, but in a similar Situation Y you want Investigation???" So I'm looking for some help with when to make Perception vs. Investigation checks.

Michael Shea

Hi Andy! Yes, probably. I think the newer encounter building rules in the Lazy DM's Companion probably hold up better for what we're seeing with the One D&D playtest since a lot of that power will be felt at 8th level and above. The encounter building benchmarks leaned towards hard already and I don't think what I'm seeing from One D&D makes encounter building any more accurate than it was before.

Michael Shea

Hi Ben! I've talked about this before at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuhPI62EzOw&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=10&t=2596s I think a mid-campaign session zero is a good way to go and I also recommend sort of restarting the story of the campaign, giving the players a fresh take and a fresh look at what happened before to help them remember where they are. Think of it like the two-year break between a movie series. You need time to readjust to what happened before. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Hi Jay! I like the idea that artifacts (like the masks) each have a different way they have to be destroyed. There may be only one way to do it. For the dragon masks, maybe they each need to be blasted with the equivalent of that dragon's ancient breath weapon. You can get a dragon to do it or find some other powerful source. A fire giant's forge for the red one, the freezing lands of Cania in the Nine Hells for the white, etc. It takes more work to think how an artifact can be destroyed but it can lead to a fun branch of the story.

Michael Shea

I'd make one clone of me handle the daily business stuff I tend to get caught up in while the other just thinks big creative thoughts and focuses on writing books. The business and administration side seems to be eating more into the creative side. It's all good though. I love what I'm doing!

Michael Shea

I really dig the new Dragons of Stormwreck Isle adventure in the D&D Starter Set. It's not really a big campaign but it can get you started. You can use my new Stars of Xaryxis to take characters over to the shore and then, at 5th level, jump into a number of potential adventures or your own campaign. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/412377/Stars-Over-Stormwreck

Michael Shea

I think the new half-feats just end up making ability score management even more needlessly complicated. The idea that you can use rolling or point buy or a standard array and THEN add +1 and +2 somewhere and THEN figure out which one you'll want to choose based on your feat and THEN limit your feats to just the ones that offer you a +1 bonus that fits your model.... UGH! I lean towards a standard array of 16 14 14 12 12 8 (all evens, no wasted points) and then if you want to bump them up, do so instead of taking a feat. It's easy to figure out and doesn't blow the power curve of 5e. If you really want to capitalize on feats, give them a free feat at 1st level as a house rule (not the standard rule. Those are my thoughts. We'll see!

Michael Shea

Hi Max! That's a good question. I think the answer is always to offer meaningful choices to the characters. A four-way intersection with no clear reason to go one direction or another grinds because its basically a random choice. There's no reason to choose one path over another. But if they have information such as feeling a breeze from one place "the air isn't so foul down this path" or feeling heat or hearing monsters or feeling the touch of death. What information can you give the characters that they either *already* know or can learn at the passages to give them a meaningful choice. I think that's the key. You can also just tell them or block off certain passages to make it clear which ones they should be traveling down to move the story forward. A collapsed passage takes away meaningless choices!

Michael Shea

I hear time and again how much people love the older 4th edition DMGs but I don't think they're *that* special. I think i6 Ravenloft is the most amazing adventure ever written. It takes some time to understand how it works but they've packed an amazing re-usable adventure into a really short product (32 pages). I think some of the charts and tables in the original 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide are really great. I think a DM could really get a lot out of it even if just to see where this game came from. It doesn't tell you how to play D&D at all but it offers a very interesting view of the game and how it plays out. The 3rd edition version of the Forgotten Realms campaign book is probably the best book on the realms ever written. I just dug up Dungeon issue 70 in which Wolfgang Baur writes about the Kingdom of the Ghouls which he re-built into the Empire of the Ghouls just a couple of years ago. It's fun to see how an idea like that builds over decades. Those are the ones that jump to mind!

Michael Shea

Hi JBCW! I think it's critical to get your players' buy-in into this sort of character effect before it starts happening. Even if you're already into the campaign, I'd talk with them about how these rod parts can affect their characters and ensure you don't just start taking away the agency of their characters. Instead, you can just hand the prompts over to the players and let *them* decide how it affects their characters. The hard part is ensuring the game doesn't break down as characters start acting against the others' general interests. That can turn into bad real-life feelings pretty fast if people aren't on board with it. I'd spend some time outside of the game to talk to them about this as a group and make sure they understand what's happening and get their suggestions about how to make it work. Then I'd put the work on *them* to decide how they react using those new hard-core prompts but also make high-use of "pause for a minute" to make sure the players are having fun even if the characters are not. Hope that helps!

Kevin Davis

True I can see your point. While I give my players the option to use any of the three methods for ability scores I still 4d6 all my characters and main NPC’s. I find the process of doing so helps me figure out who they are. Makes me think about all of their stats and why they are week in someways and strong in others. I take the base rolls as, who they were, look at the beginning bonuses as the work they put into their selves to become the class that are and then the possible ability score increase, be it with or without a feat, as the work they have done/are doing to improve themselves and become better at their class.

Michael Shea

Hi Vespora! Welcome and thank you for your support! I don't have any good data on this but I do feel like DMs and players like different parts of the game. I know, I much prefer DMing even though it takes a fair bit more time and energy than playing. That said, I just finished a two-year-long campaign as a player and loved it. It was my first real campaign in 5th edition that I played in. In polls I've run, most people got into DMing because no one else would do it but I think that shows that there are some people for whom the game really does become a bigger more important part of their lives than others. Some are just happy to play once a week or so. Some think about it every waking moment. So I don't think there's anything wrong with that. As far as being a good player as a DM, I have some advice here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ba5ZgCaYa3E&t=2300s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyeG9kR3dQs&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=45&t=265s https://slyflourish.com/building_great_dnd_characters.html

Michael Shea

Hi Victor! I would make sure when opportunities arise, to feed the group information through her character. I've had good positive reactions when I say something like "being a Blackclaw Deepdelver, you know that the city below was built by a powerful and evil magocracy" and that sort of thing. You can also give her advantage on history checks related to being a Deepdelver. I do that a lot. You don't have to dump a lot of info at once – just the relevant information at the moment. "Because you're a Blackclaw Deepdelver you know X" is a great way to pass along secrets and clues. Of course, don't leave the other characters out. What are *their* backgrounds and how can they give them similar info?

Michael Shea

Hi Damian! I think I've touched on it before a little bit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YqBec7GUt0&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=15&t=1664s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOvTsXzl8M0&list=PLb39x-29puaoZke5BVk7fjyyyjWXcxCu1&index=1&t=3324s https://youtu.be/wTnybKce_5Y?t=3154s I would go with the starter adventures. Lost Mine of Phandelver, Dragons of Stormwreck Isle (which is brand new), Dragon of Icespire Peak. They're great adventures. Low level adventures are generally better. You can, of course, run my own 1st level adventures: https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/ruins_of_the_grendleroot_preview.pdf https://slyflourish_content.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fantastic_lairs_preview.pdf http://s3.amazonaws.com/slyflourish_content/fantastic_adventures_sample.pdf

Michael Shea

Hi Karl! One way to do it is to think of the adventure as more inspiration instead of a rulebook to run by. Think about the overall story of the location and build your own specifics using the map you think works well. You can still use some of the ideas, locations, maybe even encounters, but move them about into the rooms you have on your own map. When you look at an adventure, what are the main important points that *have* to happen and how can you fit those into the new map you have? Now fill out the rest with your own ideas. I think you may end up liking what you do more than what's in the book itself. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Hi Christopher! I just answered a similar question above so I'll summarize here. I think i6 Ravenloft is my favorite adventure. Even if you have Curse of Strahd it's really cool to see how they managed to pack so much into a 32 page adventure. The Desert of Desolation adventures are likewise really interesting from a design perspective. Keep on the Borderlands, Descent into the Depths, Against the Giants, Village of Hommlet, Temple of Elemental Evil – all of these are really interesting to look at as the history of this game we love.

Michael Shea

Hi Shantha! I don't really consider myself an expert on the topic but I'll offer some thoughts. First, I think it's useful to know what kind of horror you want to project. Is it body horror? That's pretty easy. Is it suspense? Environmental? That might require other angles to the game. Music can do a lot. Environment too. The RPG 10 candles is all about the physical environment around the players. Dread is all about the suspense of coming disaster. Sometimes horror turns instead into comedy. You have to decide if thats ok or if you need to steer it back to horror. Of course, whatever you decide, have an adult conversation with your players about what they want and what they're comfortable with. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Hi Tee-aago! (working on my pronunciation!). I think its inevitable but I think the more we rely on any single tool, the more brittle our slice of the hobby becomes. This is what I've found with D&D Beyond. It became a critical piece of my software stack for playing D&D and then I found it really hard to break away when I decided to use more third party content. I asked a question about how to make sure our hobby stays resilient regardless of what any one company decides and got a lot of feedback, most of which said as long as we have the paper books and are comfortable using them, we're fine. I know it's been a struggle for my group to move from D&D Beyond to pencil and paper but we have done it and I think it does give us access to interesting new content. I'm not too worried about the digitization but I am worried about the homogenization around a single tool or suite.

Michael Shea

One of the fun bits about warlocks is that their relationship with their patron isn't worship like it is with a cleric. They can have a complicated relationship with their patron. Another thing is that just because the cult of Talos worships Talos doesn't mean Talos gives a fig about them. Talos, as a brutal god, might be more than happy to test his followers using a warlock to which he is bound. Maybe Talos actually doesn't /like/ the cult and is happy to have the warlock go kick their asses.

Michael Shea

Hi Gregory! I didn't really use them as cyphers but that's an interesting idea on its own. I was letting the players use NPCs as assets to lower the difficulty of a task. I think you could use this in a D&D game by having a bunch of NPCs in a battle and saying that, at any time, an NPC can be pulled in to give advantage on a roll but that NPC must make a saving throw or be killed in the act. It's brutal but it could be a lot of fun. You could also give each NPC a single-use ability or spell of some sort (spell effects need not be magic but you can just use the mechanics) that the characters can call upon. Maybe there are wizards fighting with dragons and a player can call on a wizard to blast a foe with a lighting bolt but doing so requires the mage makes a constitution saving throw or is killed in the act. That could be a fun way of throwing in a lot of NPCs into a battle and giving them something to do without taking the spotlight away from the characters. I like it!

Michael Shea

Arcana of the Ancients by Monte Cook Games gives you solid 5e rules for running Numenera games and if your players don't really dig using Cypher, I think that can work really well. I wanted to give Cypher a good shake-out and I think I'd still use it for shorter campaigns but I think using 5e with Numenera can work just fine and Arcana of the Ancients does a lot of that work. Give it a shot!

Brad Thomson

Thanks for the links, Mike. I'm new to all your work, so I'm still learning where everything is and where to search. Thanks again.

Michael Shea

It's no problem. I have a ton of stuff all over the place. I don't expect everyone to be able to find it. Sometimes it takes *me* a lot of work to find it =D

teubi

Sometimes, I (or my partner) like to go a little over-the-top and prepare some extra stuff for special sessions: fancy decorations, thematic snacks, appropriate lighting, and so on. You can actually do a lot with little effort (electrical candle-lights are my favourites). Do you have any cool ideas to enhance the game session (apart from the game itself)? PS.: Our next special session theme will be Halloween, of course, I guess there's a lot of potential there.

Sam Moore

I just finished running Frostmaiden after about 1.5 years. The final battle was suitably epic, taking over 4 hours but it was mostly one big bad enemy with multiple phases. Though it was fun, it kind of dragged out. What are your thoughts on running epic battles at key moments in the campaign without making them drag on or take forever?

Justin Colussy-Estes

First-- Thank you. I asked a question here several months ago about running a big final battle across multiple groups with a camp full of kids, and your suggestions for resources were great-- it felt cohesive and epic! I cannot thank you enough. Second-- I'm now running a new game with kids. They heard my co-worker describe an artificer he ran in a different game, and now half of them have built artificers. Unfortunately, they don't know what to do with them. I'm not super familiar with the class-- any suggestions for how to help them get their heads around what the class's role is and how they can imagine the artificer as distinct from wizard/sorcerer/druid (the other characters in the party). PS-- One of the "lines" (lines & veils) for the campaign is "no guns."

Brooke

Would you recommend any TTRPGs other than D&D 5e? Do you feel like running campaigns in different systems (Blades in the Dark, Numenera) adds any value to the 5e games you usually run, or do you mostly run them because your players are interested in those systems?

Rich Gubitosi

Hi Mike. How do you approach sensitivity and inclusivity in your products? Do you use a sensitivity reader? How do you design stories and NPCs in a thoughtful way so that players of different cultural, ethnic, gender, and disability identities feel welcome and represented?

DrFugue

Hey Mike! Started a new campaign, and I’m sticking to the Lazy GM prep, has been working great! and I spend a much more manageable time prepping. This does leave more gaps to be decided at the table, so was wondering do you have any good method or oracle that serves you well to come up with stuff on the fly at the table itself?

That Italian Guy

Hey Mike! I'm currently running Dungeons of Drakkenheim and I think the faction play would benefit from borrowing a few elements from Blades in the Dark. Which concepts would you bring over and how would you implement them for 5e?

Falcon_Neil

Do you agree that the developers have one DND goals they haven't clearly communicated? 1) They are trying to make the game more approachable to NEW & CASUAL players. Every background now grants identical # of skills/tools/money. Replacing Fifteen 2014 background features with 10 1st level feats (eliminate gotchas like you must be a charlatan to get this feature). Exposing only 10 feats to level one characters is simpler. They consolidated a bunch of things that granted powers ASIs, Background features, Epic Boons and Feats all become simply Feats. To those playing for the first time its easier and cleaner. 2) They are trying to make it so that hours advanced study isn't required to properly build a reasonable character: eliminate optimizer "trick build features" that would not be known to a casual player and move power sources upfront where they're more obvious. They are also trying to "tighten the spread" between good and bad choices, and stop locking players into being "stuck" with a suboptimal choice. 3) assist starting GMs by giving basic guidelines and not requiring a masters degree in D&D to figure out things like interactions, surprise and hiding.

Ambriox

How would you handle needing to change the day and time of a campaign? I started a Rime campaign in March. My company relocated me and my schedule is all together different. Do I just end the campaign and begin a new or try to change the day possibly losing players.

Jake

What do you think is the absolute worst-case scenario for how OneD&D turns out? Say WotC makes all the wrong decisions. How would you weather it? And how can we make sure our own D&D groups would survive and thrive in that scenario?

Peter S.

Hi Mike! About introducing new players to DND and TTRPG in general, teaching mechanics and giving an idea of the tropes of the game is important. But, what is the best way to introduce the new players to building their backstory? Do you have some good questions that you ask to new TTRPG players about their characters to make them think about that side of the game?

Ryan McIntyre

What are your thoughts on having the adventure rewards be obviously targeted to your party (eg: a wand for the wizard, but never a wand found if no one is a wizard)? On the one hand I like giving out cool stuff they can use, but I also like the idea of the world not being so obviously a playground for the party. In particular I’m running CoS and there’s no cleric or Paladin to use the Holy Symbol. Is it better to change that restriction or give them a puzzle to solve (eg: find a cleric ally or multiclass)

Rien Van Dingenen

How often do you take notes during a session? Is it a tool you use all the time or just sporadically? And if so, what are things you would take notes of? I always forget to do it. I'm so busy with running NPCs, combat, imrpovising, roleplaying, interacting with the PCs, describing environments,... that it doesn't spring to mind to write things down. I kinda feel like it would ruin momentum and break the suspension of disbelief. But on the other hand I do think my campaigns would benefit from me taking more notes.

PhD&D

I had a question about 5e, OneD&D, and magic items/feats. As we all know, 5e was designed to work without magic items, and also without feats. Those two things, moreover, seem to compete for the same "real estate" in 5e--the same features that make for good magic items also make for good feats and vice versa. Given this, AND given the fact that OneD&D is feat-heavy, does this mean that magic items will be *incompatible* (or at least broken) for OneD&D?

Max Mendelsohn

Thanks for answering my question here and “on air” on this week’s show. Great advice. Thanks. Looking forward hearing your prep for running a mega dungeon of your own in Radiant Citadel.

IlluminatedINC

With the advent of a new DnD on the horizon, I've been thinking a lot about Skills. I am a great proponent of using various Ability Scores with Skills. Need to find info on someone? Investigation with Charisma check please, a Druid finds a mysterious plant, uncertain if it is safe she and the Wizard both make Nature checks, but I allow the Druid to use Wisdom, and let her know what this plant "feels" like? Dangerous or safe, if it has special properties, etc... the Wizard gets a proper name and a read out more akin to what he would find in a book. All of this goes a long way to ask How would you like Skills to be done in future editions and what Skills would you add and/or replace?

Moozure (Ben Morrier)

QUESTION: Starting Curse of Strahd with a fellow DM. We've both been DMing since the 80s, and we'll co-DM the adventure (i.e. he'll run the beginning and the end, I'll run the middle). As an "old school" DM, he has fond memories of level-draining undead from earlier editions. Wants to make campaign frightening for both characters and players. I suggested using the suggested Exhaustion mechanics in the second D&D One playtest and add those mechanics to some of the monsters. Aside from the 4 dials, do you have other suggestions to make creatures in COS more challenging and scary for a bunch of veteran players or ways to make the "horror" theme more present at any rate? RELATED RAMBLING (BTW, the suggested Exhausted rules are nasty, as even Save DCs are reduced for each level of exhaustion. I wouldn't be surprised if the mechanic is used in a wider variety of ways in the next iteration: e.g. monsters, spells, abilities dealing exhaustion... That's one way to keep the power-level down.)

Jason Kemp

Do you have any suggestions for good books/supplements that capture a non-European culture well and create the flavor of a different culture (I.e. African. Asian, Sumerian/Babylonian, Egyptian, Incan, Mayan. Aztec, etc.)? i hope that made sense.

Joshua Shaw

Good afternoon Mike, Do you have any DM tips on weather and its effects in the game? Any experience in making weather fun and not just a hand wavy obstacle? Kind regards and great work as always, Josh

kathygkc

I'm interested in getting started with Numenera. Would you recommend I get the Starter Set, or jump in with both feet and get Discovery, Destiny, and the Player's Guide?

Borius

Hey Mike - I know you are a huge proponent of third party material for 5e, and that Kobold Press is one of your favorite publishers. You have recently begun the Empire of the Ghouls campaign (which I successfully ran a couple years ago AND LOVED), so I am wondering if you can give your thoughts on the vast and varied world of Midgard, and how it differs, for better or worse, from Faerun, which is the published setting most 5e players know and use. Thank you for your time and all you do for DMs.

Michael Shea

I'm a huge fan of handouts which I just recently talked about on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlIhwaW-itI Decorations can add a lot of atmosphere but I haven't really done it myself. Music, of course. Finding a good soundtrack on YouTube or Spotify can add some fun atmosphere and background. Kenku.FM is a fantastic app for streaming this Discord for those playing online. Maps, miniatures, and terrain are their own special decorations, of course. Of course, the holiday stores after a big holiday are a great way to pick up props and decorations on the cheap!

Michael Shea

Hi Sam! I'd recommend having a hand on the dials of monster difficulty: https://slyflourish.com/dials_of_monster_difficulty.html Lowering hit points and increasing damage can bring up the threat but reduce the slog. That's the laziest trick, I think. It's also worth noting to you and your players that such a battle may take a long time. Another trick is to reveal secrets and clues *during* a battle so they're learning stuff as the battle goes on. You can actually mash in all three pillars; NPC interaction, exploration, and combat; into a big boss battle. Hope that helps!

Michael Shea

Glad the previous answer helped! I'd suggest diving into the text of the artificer's description in either Tasha's Cauldron of Everything or Eberron Rising from the Last War. Artificers used to be tied directly to Eberron but not now with Tashas. The "no guns" line will be tricky so you'll want to be ready to reflavor any of the gun-focused themes in the artificers which, I think, might limit your subclasses a bit. Otherwise, recommending different subclasses for those who want to play artificers is a good way to make them all feel different. It's quite possible they'll get bored of playing artificers so be ready to let them switch to another class.

Michael Shea

Absolutely! Here are some systems I've played and recommend: - Fate (Condensed is the latest) - 13th Age - Cypher / Numenera - Dungeon World or Blades in the Dark - Shadow of the Demon Lord - Ironsworn If you want an old-school feel you can try out Old School Essentials or Mork Borg. You can learn a lot of valuable things for D&D by playing other roleplaying games. 13th Age showed me the value of static monster damage and abstract combat. Fate taught me about zones and aspects as mechanics and in-world descriptors. Dungeon World taught me to be a fan of the characters. There's tons you can learn by running other RPGs and even running games for different players.

Michael Shea

Hi Rich! Anytime I'm going to put out a product that touches on culture at all, I'd hire a cultural consultant. We did so for Fantastic Lairs for example. It's really easy to get caught in our own heads and think we know how to be careful but its a wide world with a lot of beliefs I know nothing about and usually worth the time to get someone to read behind you with a different eye on such things. I hadn't done so with Grendleroot and wish I had but it wasn't really something done back then and I seem to have been lucky not to misrepresent anything in it that I've heard about.

Michael Shea

Hi Jay! I wrote the Lazy DM's Workbook to lay out the tables I found I most used during the game itself. NPCs, monuments, items, monsters and the like. Random names, for example, are the biggest ones I use. Random treasure too. I use a lot of online generators too for names, monuments, and treasure. I love the treasure tables in the Dungeon Master's Guide and Kobold Press's Vault of Magic but both take a lot of rolls to fill out so an online generator is usually faster with the same results.

Michael Shea

I think there are quite a few that would work. You can bring over the whole faction and lair idea; letting the players build out their influence in the city and improve their lair and its turf. The idea of separating out your load (the gear you're bringing) from what's actually in it is sort of cool. You can let them spend money to lower the DC of their chance to have a specialized item if they need it for example. And, of course, clocks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVrGcXto5RM) There's a lot of good ideas in Blades we can port over to our D&D games.

Michael Shea

I try not to get into the heads of the developers because they're going to do what they're going to do and I don't have enough info to say what their ideas are beyond what they directly say either in the playtest or in their videos. I don't think it's any easier for new players and I think there are traps all over the place. Ability score selection isn't any easier now than it was - it's harder. Now you have to consider three whole separate things when considering your ability bonuses: your core ability scores, your background bonuses, and your feat bonuses you'll take a 4th level. Traps all over the place. Building a background with a feat is also min-maxy. Some of those 1st level feats are *way better* than others. Whether this is actually a problem, I don't know. It looks like it to me but I don't regularly survey or test such rules with new players. I do see what happens at my game and it was no easier than vanilla 5e. It's harder.

Michael Shea

I would try to talk to the players as a group and see if you can find a reasonable time. No time is going to be perfect but you can find the most optimal time and then just stick to that. Having the conversation as a group is probably better than just selecting a time and hoping they can all make it. Good luck!

Michael Shea

I've played lots of RPGs outside of D&D so I think my groups would still be strong. I don't think we'd get bored of it with so much great third-party material we could use. I think, worst case, is that they continue to silo D&D and try to bring everyone into a single monolithic version of the game with no room for customization or third party material. And maybe this ends up fracturing the hobby and making it harder for new people to play or groups to stay together. I don't think that's likely to happen but these days I really don't know what will happen. I think we can go far with what we have, though, so I'm not *too* worried. My group's drive to use D&D Beyond is probably my biggest worry and that's not too huge.

Michael Shea

I would probably use a firm hand to ensure they stick to the main goal of the campaign but then also ask them what characters from their favorite fiction they'd want to play. You might get some zany responses but the new players I've played with love to build a character around an existing character they know from movies, TV shows, manga, video games or the like. Then the trick is getting them to make those characters unique which often happens in play. Hope that helps!

Michael Shea

I'm a fan of using both a player wish list AND randomly dropped loot. I like to give each character one meaningful magic item they can clearly use every five or so levels of play but I also roll randomly for some interesting loot that might not be optimal. When asking for a wish list, I ask for the *kind* of magic item they might want instead of something specific. This way I can tailor a magic item in a unique way they might not have expected. Our barbarian wanted a big two-hander so she got a huge maul with the head of a roaring bear that, when it hits, can cause fear in those it hits once a day. Stuff like that.

Michael Shea

I suck at taking notes during a game but I have a section in my Notion template to do so. Otherwise I'd jot it down on an index card or on my notes and hopefully not lose them before I write them down in my Notion templates for the characters. Probably the most important things to note are NPC names once they've gotten out there, character information that seems relevant and useful for building out the story, stuff like that. Mostly its names I need to track.

Michael Shea

I'm not sure I agree with the premise that feats and magic items sit in the same design space. I think both are pretty unique and work well together. It's rare for me to find or reward a magic item that has the same power as a feat. I don't think there's anything broken with magic items and feats other than the power increasing yet again.

Michael Shea

Well, no one at WOTC is asking me how to do skills and at this point I'd prefer they just stick to what 5e already does just for compatibility's sake. One good way to do what you're doing is to offer them their proficiency bonus if it's something their character would be particularly good at. This can actually fully replace the skill system. You ask for an ability check and, if their race, class, or background means it's something they'd be good at, you can give them their proficiency bonus. It actually dramatically simplifies 5e if you do it this way. Getting closer to proficiency means the rest of the game makes more sense. Your swing with a sword is similar to your persuasion of a king's advisor. Roll an ability check and add your proficiency if you're good at it. You can even make proficiency a die-roll instead of a flat number. The Dungeon Master's Guide has this as an optional rule and Professor Dungeon Master talked all about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NUcX4UgXow

Michael Shea

Yeah, I love the new exhaustion rules and think they'd be perfect anytime a monster drains a character. I also think you can have some monster's drains only be curable with a lesser or greater restoration instead of getting it back on a long rest. This makes it much nastier but fit how dangerous they were back in older versions of D&D. Giving the vampire's life drain the new cumulative -1 to all rolls and DCs as well as the HP drain AND making it only curable with greater restoration is nasty and awesome.

Michael Shea

There's Radiant Citadel, for sure. It's packed with a lot of different cultures and many gazetteers you can use to fill out larger locations. Coyote and Crow looks awesome but I haven't dug into it: https://coyoteandcrow.net There are others but they don't leap to mind.

Michael Shea

I was actually pondering this for my Wednesday game in which they're doing a lot of travel but I ended up handwaving it. I'm looking around for a random tool that gives me a bunch of days of weather so I can look at it and recite it to the group and move on. I think weather can be a fun element of an encounter though. Donjon has one but it only does one day at a time: https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/weather/ You can also just come up with it on your own and fit the situation. Cold, windy, rainy, sunny, cloudy, etc. I haven't found an ideal way to handle weather though but I'm still digging into it!

Michael Shea

Ashes of the Sea is a way to get into Numenera for free to see if you dig it: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/247640/Ashes-of-the-Sea-FREE-Numenera-Quickstart-Rules-and-Adventure Otherwise I'd probably recommend getting Numenera Discovery which has a whole ton of stuff and isn't too expensive in PDF: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/240654/Numenera-Discovery You can also pick up the beautiful hardcover versions here: https://www.montecookgames.com/store/product/numenera-discovery-and-destiny/ I'd probably get one copy of the player's guide in PDF and then share it using Google Drive with the permissions to download and print turned off.

Michael Shea

Oh yeah, that long road chapter is a bear if things don't work out exactly as they do in the book. It's super-fragile. You could have them join another caravan headed north or you could have them trail the Zhentarim as they make their way north in a sort of investigation trail. You could hand-wave the whole thing too. In my game, I skipped the whole subterfuge and just had the characters join a caravan and move forward. Not great suggestions – I'm sorry. It's a tough situation.

Michael Shea

Fantastic question which I'll cover on the show! Here are the big things that leap to mind but I'm happy to hear what you think as well given you've run an whole campaign there: - The Midgard Worldbook is a huge wealth of information one could use for the rest of one's life running Midgard campaigns. - The pantheon is huge and varied including a bunch of norse gods (which is a little weird). - Ley-lines, magical conduits that transcend worlds, criss-cross across the world. The elves built these magical conduits long ago but others can tap into them either for power or travel. - It's a huge land filled with adventure as big and rich as the Forgotten Realms. - For good or bad, it has a mirror of our real world. Some of the cultures and locations of those cultures mirror our world. This was done for a bit of ease but I think it risks stereotyping those cultures. - There are some cringy bits worth taking out like the dwarves who enslave others to work in their mines. - It's a huge land filled with adventure as big and rich as the Forgotten Realms.

Borius

Great insights, sir, I appreciate the detailed response. Your number one thought is funny, because I am actually planning on using Midgard as my campaign world pretty much for the rest of my life. It is utterly amazing and ginormous, and so varied. My players all absolutely love the setting and, of course, all the Midgard specific character options and spells (many of which are broken, but I get to use them too haha!). - The EotG campaign ran about a year, and was the best I have ever run. The vast and varied locations, wonderful “set-piece” combats were so cinematic and felt EPIC. It really sends the characters on a vast journey to many of the Midgard lands and locations. Easy 10/10 recommendation for setting and adventure. - My second campaign in Midgard was a series of Dungeon crawls, in which I set The Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury in the Ironcrags, and then Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan down in the Southlands. We had an absolute blast. - My current campaign is a nautical themed Ghosts of Saltmarsh/Call from the Deep (by JVC Parry) mashup campaign set in and around the Middle Sea area and the Seven Cities. It’s been amazing so far, and the world really is, once again, a star in the campaign, with all the lore and politics in the area. This one will probably go well over a year. - I love the fact that Kobold Press keeps putting out new products for the setting. With The Southlands, The Book of Ebon Tides, and the upcoming Wastelands sourcebooks, as well as all the various zines, character options, and adventures they have published, it really saves me a ton of prep time (LAZY!). - Using the Lazy DM products and methods in conjunction with an already extremely fleshed out Midgard setting has saved me countless prep hours, and I am convinced that both have led to the great success of my campaigns.

Borius

Cool take. Very old school ideas, imo.

Mistborn

Hi, Mike! In your opinion, is there a place in the 5e market for adventures that revolve around or include "mature" themes, so to speak? Earlier this year I ran a homebrewed adventure that included themes of grief, committing crimes for a (perceived) greater good and the possibility of redemption, much like what you could find in an old Ad&d 2e Ravenloft module, and I had a blast. I understand that you need to know your fellow players to gauge whether they would enjoy such an adventure, as well as using concepts such as lines and veils. But, like in other media (books and movies), I think that these themes can provide for some very powerful storytelling possibilities. WotC doesn't seem to want to get anywhere near these themes, but do you think that third party publishers would? To use a movie analogy, will WotC keep on producing Marvel-style adventures, while maybe some brave 3PP will bring us "Joker"? Thank you for your answer. I've been listening to your Lazy DM Talk for a while and finally got into your Patreon to properly support your hard work.

Bernie the Wordsmith

Hi Mike, Bernie here. I am currently running two long campaigns for my groups and would like to set up a third one. I have been thinking in running a published one. Do you have recommendations for campaigns that are short and sweet? Can be official D&D content or third party ones. Also, do you have advice on simplifying long, beefy campaigns?

Andrew Avery

hey Mike, I'm running a 6-player 5e oneshot next month that's going to be in-person with a couple of players joining remotely and hanging out at the table on a Zoom call. Do you have any experience of running hybrid sessions like this and any thoughts on how to ensure the remote players still feel involved and enjoy themselves? Thanks!

ApeInACape

Hi there Mike, I have been running my game of RoTFM for a few sessions now and I have party of five. I’ve been able to touch on every PCs backstory/secret at least once so far, but now that we are getting further into the plot I am finding it more and more difficult to juggle every PCs story. I want to give every player the opportunity to shine and I try to include a few things for 1-2 PCs when I am working on my session prep. Sometimes I am able to get to these tailor made secrets/clues and sometimes I’m not. Do you have any tips on how to handle the backstories of a large party without having anyone left out and when party shenanigans move them in a direction where their stories might not come into play. Thanks in advance!

Miguel Sepulveda

Hi Mike! Miguel here. Love your show! I have been running tyranny of dragons campaign for quite some long and we are now at the well of dragons. I am trying to make the journey through the well of dragons interesting. A major villain npc fight/encounter should happen before the fight with Tiamat. I want this last chapter to be hard, but I want the party to showcase their 15th level status. How do I get the party fresh to the battle with Tiamat after the encounters in the well of dragons? A 8hr long rest when there is a battle outside, enemies know the party is there doesn’t make too much sense for me right now. Any alternatives? Thank you in advance!

ChappyThoughts

Hey Mike. Many of my players enjoy open world videogames because they can find side quests and little random things just by wandering about. DND doesn't seem to mimic the true sense of discovery that you get by just wandering an open world (ala Red Dead/Skyrim/etc.). How would you go about capturing that sense of discovery in a ttrpg?

James Whatson

CONTEXT: I'm working on a new campaign concept. The premise is that the party are sibling children of a noble family. Their father dies and in his will anoints one of his children as the heir. Naming them the Baron or Baroness. I thought it would be cool if one of the players gets to be a ruler from session 1. We're all adults and I feel like it shouldn't be too big an issue. I feel like as the DM I can act to prevent any abuse of power over the other players. Otherwise, I am considering having an NPC sibling be the heir and they share control over that NPC. QUESTION: In your experience as a DM and player, can you discuss any instances where one party member held a ruling title in-game that the other party members didn't? I'm trying not to implode my game!

Grey

Mike, I specialize in DMingTheater of the Mind dnd games and your content on TotM combat and Overland pointcrawling have been exponential to our games. QUESTION: In a 2017 episode the slyflourish podcast, a poll was mentioned where 18% of players play in Theater of the Mind. Do you feel that has increased or decreased in the past five years? Could WotCI benefit from releasing content specifically for TotM, even if on DMsGuild? Thank you for everything you do.

Chaz

Do you think tools like D&D Beyond is a case of smarter technology creating "dumber" players? I notice a difference between my players, one of which has a PhD and can't remember how to work out his attack bonus unless D&D Beyond tells him explicitly, while other players have no issue with the "complex" addition of proficiency bonus and ability bonus. This isn't a case of newbie players either - the players are at around 50 sessions each over two different campaigns. I've never, ever found D&D a difficult game to play (I started with AD&D as a 10 year old), rules-wise, and that you can fit the 5e core rules on a single page (combat, skills, spells, conditions etc.) supports the fact that the main rules aren't hard. That said, I've played wargames, RPGs, and board games since I was in primary school. I've honestly never seen a reason to use anything other than pen and paper for anything other than pre-session notes for in-person games, simply because there's zero updates that actually require anything other than primary school arithmetic at most. Basically, does "hiding" a rule under the hood of D&D Beyond mean players don't see how things work, leading to players unsure of how things work?

Schizogen

I want to introduce my younger children (7 & 11) to D&D. Which starter set do you think would be the best introduction and why?

Michael Shea

I can't say if there's a market or not for such a thing as this. Like every niche product, maybe there are people who really want it, maybe there aren't, and maybe it's hard to reach the ones who do in the first place. I think such a product might be better served as something that explains to DMs how to run such games, what to be careful of, where to focus, and how to set the stage with your players. I don't know that an adventure written around those themes can work on its own but a product focusing on those themes that included an adventure (or some adventure seeds the DM can use to write around it) might work. It's hard to say. I know Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft talks about this a little bit. It might be worth looking at. You might also look at Crown of the Oathbreaker which had themes like this as well, I think.

Michael Shea

You can check out my ranking of the WOTC published adventures for some guidance on running their adventures: https://slyflourish.com/guide_to_published_adventures.html For short and sweet ones, you might consider Lost Mine of Phandelver if you haven't run it. Scarlet Citadel has a bunch of one-shot adventures you might chain together. Waterdeep Dragon Heist is relatively short, as is Wild Beyond the WItchlight. For third-party adventures, Empire of the Ghouls so far looks like it's going to be pretty long. Scarlet Citadel maybe not as long but its hard to say and I haven't gotten through much of it. MT Black has tons of awesome adventures to check out of different sizes. Same with JVC Parry. I'd love to run a Ptolus adventure and may do so at some point. There are a bunch of adventures you can chain together in that setting. Hope that gives you some ideas!

Michael Shea

Hi Andrew! I talked a little about this in a previous Q&A video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC-Zw9D7PtU&t=2277s I find a hybrid setup really hard to do. If you have more players remote than local, that can work. Basically every player is "remote" even if some of them are in the same room. You can share a good omni-directional microphone and have everyone wear headphones that don't block external sound so you can hear both local players and remote players. If you focus more on the players there in person, your remote players are definitely going to feel like second-class citizens and it's just hard to do. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Great question. I think we need to give ourselves a break sometimes and worry less about tying together every character backstory into the game. I think, during our session zero, we can talk about character hooks but also make it clear to our players that we have a lot of characters and a lot going on in the campaign itself and not every aspect of their characters is going to come out. If you feel overwhelmed, you can take a step back during one of your sessions and talk to the /players/ to make sure they recognize that you're not always going to draw in every character hook they have. We DMs sometimes need to be forgiving of ourselves. We can't tell perfect stories with so much chaos going on and recognizing that this is just a hobby for us we engage with a little bit during the week. So, my recommendation is to give yourself a break and talk to your players so they're aware that you won't be able to draw every character hook every time. I bet they won't mind at all

Michael Shea

Hi Miguel! I'm a big fan of finding something like a healing font that gives the characters the equivalent of a long rest without having to take the 8 hours. It might be a mysterious fountain hidden somewhere in the area. It might be a dying celestial's last wish. It might be a spell they find on a scroll. Also, keep in mind that 15th level characters have a *lot* of resources so I wouldn't worry about burning them down too much before a big final battle. If you run them against Tiamat, I'd give some waves of combatants first. Good luck!

Michael Shea

I think a lot of people would disagree about the lack of open worlds in D&D. D&D is the ultimate open world. /Anything/ can happen. That said, I get what you mean. Sometimes, if our campaigns are clearly focused, there's less of a chance to go off the beaten path to find things that don't directly connect to the main story of the world. The ideas behind hex crawls and West Marches style games can give you this but you can use these ideas in just about any area. The big question is what motivation you put in front of the characters to explore locations off the main trail. Is there a rumored treasure? Does someone need help? Will someone offer valuable information if you complete a quest? You can look at some of the adventure generator pages in the Lazy DM's Companion or Uncovered Secrets Volume 1 to generate some of these quests and drop the seeds in front of the characters. Another important consideration is making sure that the main quest doesn't have such urgency that the players don't feel like they can waste their time on side quests. Make sure the main story isn't so urgent and make sure the players know it. That should help a lot.

Michael Shea

I've definitely had games where one character was the main focus of the campaign. As long as its all clarified during a session zero and maybe it's even randomly determined who that main character is, I think that can work. It is tricky, as you say. You might consider keeping the arc short to see if it works out and, if its not, end it quickly. You can also make sure the other characters have interesting arcs to fulfill. Just because one character is an heir doesn't mean the other characters aren't interesting. Good luck!

Michael Shea

The last poll I ran was in 2018 to this and the entire demographic has changed so its probably worth another poll. Back then it was like 20% of players preferred Theater of the Mind: https://slyflourish.com/facebook_surveys.html#combat Another 20% prefer an abstract map. I bet it's like 70% use the grid these days, maybe more. With the surge of online play I expect many DMs are using the grid. That doesn't really matter, though, because we can always use what tools serve us best even if they're not popular. I don't think WOTC is going to release any sort of theater of the mind idea. They would have already done so. My only hope is that they include more useful guidance for running without a grid in the future DMG but we'll see. Instead, there's always the guidelines I offer in the Lazy DM's Workbook and the Lazy DM's Companion!

Andrew Avery

Thanks Mike! As we get closer to the date, it looks like we've got enough people in-person and online to run two separate tables, one remote and one in-person. Think this will mean we aren't having to run the actual game hybrid, just the preamble and post oneshot tavern analysis of how the games went which I feel much better about!

Michael Shea

I would never refer to anyone as being dumber. People are different and have easier or harder times with arithmetic than others, especially in a fast-paced game of D&D. I've heard may players who are very thankful to have a system tally up the math for them and if it makes the game better and easier for them, who are we to complain about it? I do think D&D can actually be an overly complex game. The basic idea of ability bonus + proficiency bonus is straight forward but D&D tends to bury it in a lot of complexity. The whole ability score generation idea is dorked up. How proficiency is displayed to players is also confusing. I don't think a lot of players even get the relationship between the two. So working it out on a physical character sheet may give them an "aha" moment where things start to click or they might struggle with it. I've heard some say that using a character builder like Beyond makes it harder for a player to really understand the character. I've seen that a little bit going from D&D Beyond to paper character sheets for my two Midgard games. I don't think there's an easy answer to this, though. People are different and need different tools to make the game fun for them. It's a topic I continue to explore.

Mark Johnson

I find myself generating adventures with features I don't have a solution for because they seem cool at the time, and I hope I can come up with something later. For example, I created an NPC who accidentally trapped his consciousness inside a gem in front of him on his desk; his body is now catatonic. I'd like to provide a chance of rescuing him, rejoining his soul with his body, but I don't know where -I'd- start if I were a player, and I'm finding it hard to come up with a plausible solution. Another example might be sending the party to a Domain of Dread, but I haven't yet figured out how they might return. Should I always have a solution in mind when I present situations like this to the players or can I just hope I concoct something plausible later or even let them try things and judge them successful when their solution is cool enough? And if I do create a solution, how plausible must it be?

Bernie the Wordsmith

I want to run WBTW! Plus you have a lot of prep videos about it so it will come in handy. Thanks!

AndreaGM

Hi Mike, I usually run modules, but sometimes I need to come up with "glue" dungeons / adventures. I often struggle when estimating how many combat encounters I should sandwich between two long rests (assuming reasonable short rests). Xanathar suggets six to eight medium/hard encounters. Is that reasonable? Do you have a rule of thumb such as "the adventuring day may be deadly if..."? Thanks :-)

Cameron Hall

When running a homebrew campaign, what is the best soruce for world/city maps? Is there you map maker you would recommend that specialises in these sorts or is the a world/city map generator you would use to create you own? Thanks

Grey

Mike. Downed/dying is not very exciting. Any advice on how to flavor it up? Just rolling 2-3 dice in a period of 20 minutes is just feels like it needs something else.

Keotep

Is there something that jumps to mind immediately that One D&D could do to earn a “oh wow! That is cool, i can’t wait to play that!”? For me… adding new never before seen spells, monsters and magic items. More new toys! 🥳

Baptiste Blanchet - Alakokain

Greetings Mike, I ran the session 1 of Ruins of the Grendelroot. The group was overjoyed to lay claim on Starsong tower. Do you have advice on how to handle the renovation and expansion of their HQ to make it interesting and really their own ?

Thiago L.

Just adding to the response, the Player's Guide only contains info for tier 1 characters. It's nice to get new people introduced, for sure, and it organizes all the tier 1 PC relevant info from Discovery and Destiny in one place, but you can also get away with just Discovery and Destiny (or just Discovery even).

Knights of Roleplay Podcast

I've seen props for D&D games such as healing potions and inspiration markers. Such props could really help with creating an immersive play experience. Other than artwork, maps, and letters, what do you think are some of the best props to use during D&D sessions?

Stapled Spine Fanzine

Hi Mike, I've been running Darkclaw Mountain (just beat the Chuul and let the Aboleth sleep!) and for the Hallowe'en session I'm going "Darkclaw Coven". Skipping to my question: a hag w a flare for creating helmed horrors has heard the call of the grendleroot and has set up shop w darkling minions collecting shards to fashion an animated Grendleroot armor. What special differences would an animated armor with this material contain?

David Russell

Hi Mike, I want to run a more player directed campaign but every time I try to seed multiple adventure hooks and options my players immediately go for the first one. I had a player tell me that he didn't feel like they had much of a choice but in reality I'm trying to give them choices they just aren't patent enough to discover the other ones. How do I seed adventure options or just alternate decisions without making it seem like there's always a correct answer?

Chief_T3

Hi Mike. I’m getting ready to run Ghosts of Saltmarsh and re-watching your prep. Your session one prep included secrets/clues to the higher tier chapters in the book. How did/do you keep your tier 1 players from jumping over to tier 2/3 locations? It seemed you were pretty specific in your clues that they could have traveled there.

saphssquatch

Quick question: are you going to Pax Unplugged this year?

Anthony Bella

Hey Mike! Gonna make this as short and sweet as I can. After a year of playing we added a 5th player to make scheduling easy so 2 players can miss before having to reschedule. He’s great and gets along with everyone but bringing someone in mid campaign is still difficult even if you go over story beats. What are some ways to ease a new player in who’s joining an existing campaign?

Joe Barzilai

Hey Mike, continuing on the Discord discussion. I was designing a mission for my group and took inspiration from a one-shot. As I planned I struggled to come up with secrets and clues. Most of my planning was "what are the battles/monsters/maps?" and "what are the rooms in the dungeon?" What kind of secrets and clues would you create for a combat-heavy session that is basically a side quest from the main plot? I say it's a side-quest because most of the normal plot-related or even character secrets and clues didn't seem to be relevant at the time.

Michael Shea

I think it really depends on how well you're able to improvise those solutions when they come up. If you regularly find yourself struggling to come up with a way, you might want to have one or two ways to solve the problem in the back of your head but also give the players some freedom to come up with their own solutions. If you find it's working for you as-is, you might not need to do anything. I'm a big fan of leaving holes in my planning, particularly for future events, because I like being surprised later. If you want to be safe, having a loose idea for two possible solutions and then staying open to others as they come up can be a good safety net.

Michael Shea

Fantastic question and one I have strong feelings about! I think the idea of worrying about encounters per day is overthinking things and leads to a more procedural mechanics-driven game. Instead, I recommend not worrying about it. Run as many or as few encounters as makes sense in the story. Likewise, let the characters rest as it makes sense. The only time I worry about it is if I'm going overboard with encounters and they haven't had a good opportunity for a rest before going into a big fight. That's where things like a healing font that gives the characters the equivalent of a full rest by drinking from it – think about those magical shining rest areas you find in a Final Fantasy dungeon. Otherwise, I don't have any model for how many encounters in a day the characters should face. Many DMs and many D&D pundits believe strongly in a "number of expected encounters per day" model. I don't. Go with what the story dictates.

Michael Shea

Yeah, it sucks to spend a game down. My only advice is to make sure you let every character know at the beginning of their turn that their friend is down and they can get over there and drop a healing potion on them. It breaks people out of optimal choices if they know they have to save their friend. I've heard of some mechanics you can apply for downed characters to have some way to aid other characters but I've never really tried them and none of them come to mind.

Michael Shea

The things I want are probably not things they're going to do. I'd love to see a rapid character building process where you can build characters from scratch as fast as you can in Fate for one-shots. I think we all want our own things. For new spells, magic items, and monsters – there are TONS of third-party options that are awesome. I highly recommend digging into the material third parties are coming out with.

Michael Shea

Sly Flourish's Uncovered Secrets Volume 2 has a page on upgrades the characters could buy on page 7. It's meant to be a fun menu of options. Other third party products have similar options I think but none jump out to me at the moment.

Michael Shea

Lighting, music, halloween props, physical tokens or coins. You took the best ones with maps, art, and letters!

Michael Shea

Oh wow. A Grendleroot golem!! Honestly, I'd make it impervious to physical damage and require some other way to be defeated. Maybe its control gemstone has to be hunted down and destroyed before it engages with someone and beats the hell out of them. It could be a really fun encounter when no physical damage seems to affect it.

Michael Shea

Is it possible you're projecting the one you want first? Think about writing down the three options and rolling their order randomly before you describe them. Write all three out on index cards or type them out in a chat so the players can see all three in front of them *before* they pick one to run with. Even if they jump on the first one, make sure every player has a chance to discuss them before a choice is made. If you're just describing them, it might be that they really can't keep all the options in their head at once. Try writing them out and see if that helps. Good luck!

Michael Shea

It's been a while so I don't remember how I did it but I don't mind dropping in clues about future locations with the clarification that those areas either can't yet be found or shouldn't be reached. It works well if there's no direct path to the location or a path opens up when the time is right. Foreshadowing is great as long as the characters don't run too hard to the end-zone!

Michael Shea

I am not. My friend Joe Wetzel at Inkwell Ideas will be! Drop by his booth and say hello!

Michael Shea

If you don't hang on too tight to the story and plot, dropping in a new actor shouldn't generally be too hard. Let their character join in on the group, get their background information, and begin to weave their own story into the larger fabric of the campaign. It's mostly about letting them know the current situation and the focus on the current story. The more episodic your campaign is, the easier this is to do. Give each session or small handful of sessions its own arc in the story so the new player can feel a part of THAT session. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Hi Joe! The article on Types of Secrets can help I think (https://slyflourish.com/types_of_secrets.html). When it comes to delving deep into a dungeon fighting monsters and stuff, here are the sorts of secrets I'd consider: - History of the location they're in; including layers of history if more than one group has been here. - Theology of the inhabitants. Do they worship some dark deity? - History of the inhabitants. Where did they come from? What do they want? - Hooks for future adventures. What can the characters learn that lead them somewhere else. - Factions of the inhabitants. Does one group in this place not like another? - Secret rooms and passges. Which ones lie where? Who knows about them? - Secrets about treasure and loot. Are there lost treasures in here somewhere? - Character connections. Do one or more of the characters have a connection here? Hopefully those give you some ideas!

saphssquatch

Ahh sad to be missing you! I’ll stop by and say hi to Joe!

Joe Barzilai

That gives me a TON of ideas, thank you. I was on the right track with a few of my secrets about the motivations of the group that the party was fighting but I didn't go far enough. I also see now that a few other things I had prepped were actually secrets or clues. Like the special treasure that one of the party members was searching for that is in a vault.

Stapled Spine Fanzine

Hopefully to my players' horror, Sir Wobbleknees's de-animated form is in a heap, to be used in this hideous project and Igras, the fire elemental they toiled to free has been re-enslaved in the now relocated Violet falls forge they left behind!

Be Inspired with Dominic

Hey Mike, I have dice that "roll high" and others that "roll low". That's just my gut feeling, and I did not test it beyond the game table. Do you have any recommendations regarding such dice?

ChappyThoughts

I actually phrased my question wrong. What I meant is that I would like to find a way to mimic the player-led exploration not that there was limited open-worldness. That was my bad. I had forgotten about hex crawl and that does get me part way there. Thank you.