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May 2023 Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A (Patreon)

Published:
2023-05-11 15:59:01
Edited:
2023-05-11 21:27:08
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
Q&A

Content

Welcome to the Sly Flourish Patreon Questions and Answers thread for May 2023!

Have an RPG related question you wanted to ask? Ask it in a comment below!

Every Friday morning I'll answer every question here on this post. Some questions I'll answer on the Lazy RPG Talk Show or turn the question into a RPG 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, please consider the following:

Search the Lazy RPG 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 tabletop RPGs.

Please ask only 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

Skyler

I know you’re a big Destiny fan, have you played Dungeons and Destiny? How do you feel about seemingly immortal characters in a 5e ruleset?

Micheal Rackintyre

Any advice on how to handle a player questioning something I’m describing? An NPC motivation, the physics of a rules resolution, etc. I have one player who occasionally (enough that I’ve noticed a pattern) immediately goes “that doesn’t make sense!” Sometimes I react by engaging with them and explaining things they clearly missed or I failed to previously communicate, other times I (perhaps a bit salty at being called out this way) instead just say “that’s what they do” or “well that’s what happens”

Joe Clarke

I'm starting a Dungeons of Drakkenheim campaign soon, and there's some additional rules in it that are campaign specific. How do you go about helping to make sure the you and your players remember any campaign/setting specific rules? I fear that we/they'll fall into default DND mode and end up forgetting about them a lot. Handouts/printouts, reminders, or do I pause the game when needed to remind them and I try and remember for them?

Bernie the Wordsmith

Bernie here. In 5E, is the DM a storyteller or a referee? I always see a massive push for the latter among content creators, but I also love to create some plots and stories during the game. What is your take on this?

Cloaker

With zero GM tweaking of any kind, rules as written, and on a grid, do you think that a majority of medium or higher difficulty combats for four Tier 2 PCs can be consistently run in 45 minutes or less for 5e? If so or not, why?

MtbDM

I'm running a nautical island hopping campaign. Each of the islsnds has a plethora of really wonderful hooks and possibilities. One character has a wanderlust trait and keeps wanting to rush on to the next island (and bypass tons of prep each time.) It's mildly frustrating. Any tips?

Jun Miyazaki

I started a campaign a year ago, this week I hope we will finish a major story arc with the party. Two of my friends wants to join the party - one of them is a fellow player from another party, one of them is totally new to the TTRPGs. Which level characters should them bring? The other party members are around 6-7 levels. I don't like DM-ing 1st level characters in 5e, and I think 1st levels are not really a good match to the veteran charaters. I'm thinking arount lvl3-5 for the new characters.

Victor Navone

What are your thoughts on rewarding players with inspiration? It seems like the RAW intent is to reward players who stay true to their characters' personalities, flaws, etc., but I often forget to do this, and my players are generally good at staying in character anyway. I'm more likely to notice and reward clever combat tactics or creative solutions to problems. I tried giving inspiration when players rolled a natural 1 in combat, as a sort of consolation prize, but that didn't feel right. How do you handle it?

That Italian Guy

Hey Mike! I am using your "check for Deadly encounter" rules and they work great, but I was wondering if you had something similar to gauge how deadly a series on encounters in a row would be? IE: let's say that exploring a dungeon I'll have my party face 4-5 encounters without a long rest, but with maybe 1 short rest (aka "the adventuring day"). Is there a formula I can use to test the lethality of these?

Rigoberto Vigil

There are a lot of great resources and ideas for enhancing your game. I'll often read ideas for house rules, systems, and procedures and want to try it out in my campaign. I don't want to overwhelm my players or even myself by constantly throwing in new ways to run initiative or another procedure for doing overland travel though. How much tinkering do you think is too much?

Deven Morgan

As I've just had my session zero with my players (playing CoS), I wanted to know if you've had any new recommendations or realizations in running your Halloween ravenloft games. Any advice you'd change?

David Pōkiha

Happy May! Short version of the question: In the past you've written about dials to turn for monsters, but how do you dial up or down magic items? I can't find a formula for making *existing* magic items stronger or weaker. Do you have ideas or suggestions? [For context I want to reward my players for finishing an important quest, and would like to upgrade some items players already use & love instead of adding to their already full inventories (to a rough 'very rare' level). Items they love are common, uncommon and rare, while others don't gravitate to a single item. In some respects I don't care if they are actually all "very rare" compared to other magic items, rather I just want it to be fair in comparison - so what dials can I turn to upgrade different levels of existing magic items? e.g. for my context: a cloak of billowing from common to very rare for one player; a belt of dwarvenkind from rare to very rare for another. But would also be interested if there are tools to downgrade existing magic items. The Dragon Masks in the Dragonlance book are cool, but more powerful than my current adventurers would need.]

PhD20

Do you think there's any value in operating from physical tools for online games? You've talked about how you use paper notes at the table and how often, the physical tool (be it notes, dice, etc) is often easier than the digital. Curious if you think any of that can improve online games for game masters.

Timothy Schmidt

Hey LDM: I have a challenge question for you. I know you don't talk much about percentile game systems such as Zweihander, Runequest, or even Simplequest. These systems use a % skill check for just about everything. If you were to use 5e to convert to the percental system how would you stat out monsters and/or characters with a percentage style of check?

Japes

When initially making my homebrew world, I created a pantheon of gods modeled after the cleric domains. I was a relatively new DM and thought that was a good place to start. All the worldbuilding was a bit rushed at the beginning so we could start filling out the world as the adventures… well, adventured. Basically making all the rookie mistakes up front with the pitfalls of being a new DM. That being said, I’m stuck with a pretty boring pantheon. A few gods have been encountered, but I’m trying to figure out how to keep the pantheon looser/introduce new gods without some catastrophic event. Thoughts?

Jun Miyazaki

I've the same problem - I always forget to award inspiration. I like the One DnD test material: if a PC rolls a natural 1, it awards 1 inspiration. But it has to be used before the finish of a long rest. I tested this approach in my table as a homebrew rule and works fine.

Victor Navone

I don't think there's anything wrong with this, I would just prefer to reward players' choices, not dice rolls.

StellarX

A couple of weeks back you warned against the dangers of getting too dependent on any single online tool for running RPGs - however your own recent session prep videos appear increasingly reliant on Notion. I concur that using Notion is tremendously flexible and works great - but what's your 'Plan B' should Notion buy the farm?

Plate

Hey John I totally understand your predicament, as I've been there and it's a common mistake. Just make more gods I do it all the time. You can make an allseer to the gods, and have that be the origin or just make it a mystery one the characters have to discover. Don't worry we've all been there. Your gods can always create new gods and pantheons remember that!

Ashe Strega

Different cultures may worship different pantheons, you could have your players travel to a nearby nation with their own new (and more interesting) pantheon

Crasher gb

I'm going to be running a prison campaign how would you control a the players inventory's and limited resources for a break out.

Plate

Hey Mike, when it comes to dropping seeds in a campaign what is your approach?

Scott Macmillan

Hi Mike. I'm want to make more random encounter tables for the game I run at a high school club, but they're easily the most time consuming part of the process for me - if I don't know the monsters I want off the top of my head (which I never do), I have to look them up, narrow down my list, and then go from there. Although I have found lists of monsters per biome, etc., helpful at times, they don't really cover complicated themes very well. Do you have any advice on lazy encounter table generation? Thanks!

Great Diviner Games

Hi Mike! My players loved it in my last session when I improvised a highly descriptive, moody story that took place in a vision a PC had. They said they really liked it and wanted more of that. How do I incorporate more of this without just long periods of me talking AT the players? Cheers!

Thomas Ryan

If you were to recommend a RPG that is "Simpler" than 5E what would it be. I am running a 5E game for my 9 year old daughters and at 3rd level their character sheets are a bit overwhelming, especially the daughter that is playing a sorcerer.

David Pōkiha

Yah, making things cultural like Ashe said is a really good solution

Purple Martin Games

Another take: Keep your existing pantheon and give it more nuance. Pick two additional "minor" domains for each deity. For example, maybe your deity with the Light domain has aspects of growth and flourishing (nature) and also taking the fight to the undead (war). Now create orders that go with these minor domains (maybe that don't get along super-well with each other; perhaps the light god's naturey followers are pacifistic and think the warrior ones are blood-soaked zealots and the warriors think the nature-aspect members are naive and out of touch with reality - both of which could be correct, by the way!), and think about how these aspects shape the deity's own personality. Remember, more than one god can provide the same domain! To follow on with a second example. Let's say you've got a war goddess (someone like Athena or something). Her two minor aspects are trickery (represented by her followers as clever tactics) and grave (representing the ultimate commitment of a soldier willing to lay down their life). Or to really give her some complexity, go with *peace* that exemplifies a day when she and her militant followers will have vanquished the final adversary and can finally beat their swords into plowshares. Oh, and if you really don't want to give your gods overlapping domains? Turn to the third-party stuff. There's TONS of good material out there with new cleric domains. That lets you maintain continuity with your existing pantheon and still gives you more nuance and flavor for future games. It also lets your players learn more about the hidden complexity of your pantheon gradually in play; maybe the various sects are fairly regional and not encountered often where they've been.

Michael Shea

I haven't seen it before but it looks pretty awesome!

Michael Shea

I run into this sometimes but I tend to do exactly what you do. If it becomes a real problem, I might sit with them to talk about how you feel about it and help them recognize that you're a human being running from the seat of your pants like everyone else. Sometimes when a personality conflict is getting in the way of the game, the best thing we can do is sit with the player and talk through the situation in a non-confrontational and non-combative way. "This is how I feel" or "this is what I'm seeing at the table" sorts of questions. Good luck!

Michael Shea

I definitely think including these rules, or at least references to these rules, in your session zero worksheet can help a lot. You might just have to remind them or help them to remind eachother. The *cool* rules tend to get remembered and the lame rules tend to get forgotten. If they're forgotten, we might ask, were they that important anyway?

Michael Shea

None of the above! At least for me, I see myself as a facilitator for the story that expands at the table. I'm a cook who prepares all the ingredients and then brings them to the table so all of the players and I can cook the meal together. It's not a competition so we don't need a referee. The story isn't just ours so we're not a storyteller. I cheekily refer to myself as an antenna to another world. I'm a facilitator for the story about to happen. Maybe an arbiter of the rules when we need one but only to help move the game forward.

Michael Shea

There's no such thing as no GM tweaking. We're always mucking around a little bit. But if you mean with no real mucking around of the dials... I don't think the majority of battles can happen in 45 minutes or less. There's a lot going on at tier 2. That's the point where characters get access to a *lot* of stuff. I definitely think there are ways to bring the battle back within 45 minutes but I think any relatively complicated battle may take longer than that. How to make it faster? Fewer hit points. More damage Fewer monster types Fewer monsters A simpler environment Theater of the mind =D All of these violate your constraints but I think they all work well.

Michael Shea

That's a tough one. It's part of their character. I think you might try to set up lightning rods for this sort of thing – islands you *have* prepared, maybe lightly prepared with a quick cave dungeon or something, so they'll have that draw. If they're consistent enough about it, it can be come pretty predictable. Quick adventure generators can be your friend here.

Michael Shea

If you don't mind a split-leveled party, you can start them at 3rd level. For the new player you might recommend one of the simpler builds or even a pregen character and let them know they're free to customize the character as they will once they get their feet wet.

Michael Shea

My current house rule is to start each session with inspiration for everyone and then they have one free inspiration per night. I run shorter games so that works well. If you run a longer game you can give them a new inspiration refresh at the middle break of the game. Kobold Press's Tales of the Valiant playtest has the luck mechanic which I like a lot. You can find out more about it here: https://koboldpress.com/playtest-packet-2-is-here-for-project-black-flag/ I also like the idea that a character can refresh their inspiration after two failed attacks or saves. So those are a couple of ideas for you!

Michael Shea

I don't except for the ideas of the beats of a dungeon crawl. I think its easy to try to get wrapped around the math too much and this leads to a more stale game. It's worth keeping in mind how much of their resources the characters have burned up at any given point and maybe give them a chance to refresh things. Otherwise, I really focus on what makes sense given the game world. Sometimes things are easy, sometimes they're hard. We can always work the dials if things stray away from fun. But I don't worry about how many encounters a group can face in an adventuring day and I think trying to do so doesn't actually help the game.

Dan McCarthy

Hi Mike - I love and appreciate your work and insight. I'm hoping you can provide some advice. I am DMing a group and several of the players have insisted to make their characters have overly complicated abilities (special hex blade warlock, special bloodhunter). I don't want to take away their agency or fun, but we are constantly having to stop the flow to look up rules associated with their characters. My question to you is how do you carefully broach the topic that sometimes "less is more" and stress how important it is that they know and understand their traits and abilities - so we don't have to pause our game and research? Thanks for any advice you can share.

Michael Shea

Try just one small tweak at a time. Don't change a whole ton of stuff all at once. Jot down the ideas you like and try one every couple of sessions. Triage them to find the ones you think offer the best fun for the game. Also, try out the ones you can do on *your* side of the GM screen. GM hacks are easy for you to try with low impact to players who often want stability and consistency in the game. Hack on your side all you want.

Michael Shea

Not really. I tweak that article every time I run it to match anything new I find but it's largely been working as I want. One thing is that running it online is far easier than running it in person unless you have a good way to reveal the map as you go in person. A big map and fog of war works really well.

Michael Shea

Good question! There isn't really a dial like the dials of monster difficulty but there are a few easy things you can do. First, you can always give it a plus bonus more than it had. A +1 to +2 to +3 sword and so on. Another trick is to give it a new single-use-per-day spell-like ability. The higher level the spell, the more powerful it typically is. This gives you a way to build the theme of a weapon. Maybe at tier 1 a fighter gets a +1 shield with a dragon emblem on it that lets him cast burning hands once a day. At tier 2 it becomes a +2 shield and lets him cast fireball once a day. Maybe the burning hands becomes limitless. At tier 3 it becomes a +3 shield, offers resistance to fire damage, and can cast wall of fire. Don't worry about the rarity of the magic item when you're just making it up. Like monster CR, it's a formula only useful until you have actual players with actual character sheets. Good luck!

Michael Shea

I find a lot of digital tools to be easier to use than physical tools. PDFs can be searched. Notion pages can be linked. Maps are *far* easier to use online than in person. Except for one thing.... DICE! Dice are so much faster to use on the table. I roll physical dice now for all of my games and having seen a mix of players, some who use physical dice and some who use virtual dice, the physical dice rollers are far faster than the digital ones. So yeah, dice. The rest, though, for me, online just seems easier.

Michael Shea

whoo boy. I don't think I'm up to that challenge. I just played Call of Cthulhu which uses a d100 roll-under system. I like it a lot. I really don't have enough experience with it to know how to build a monster for it, though. Sorry!

Michael Shea

Hi John! Looks like you got a lot of great advice! I'd take a look at the Midgard Worldbook and how it handles the "masks" of Gods. Basically gods can have different "masks" for different cultures that mirror the domains you're already using. Use random tables to generate new gods or steal them right out of another sourcebook. I do think gods have a big part to play in making a world unique but there are so many great sourcebooks full of cool gods, I don't think you have to make up your own if you don't want to.

Michael Shea

Obsidian is definitely my fallback. Barring that, back to text files like I used to do before I used Notion. I love Notion but I don't think I'm dependent on it. On the DM side, I feel pretty good about not being dependent on any one tool except maybe Discord. I love Discord for online games and would be sad if I had to leave it.

Michael Shea

Hard question! First, be sure you're not taking away all the toys the players love. Loss aversion is real and you'll be starting off on a very big negative beat if you force them getting captured and losing their stuff. I speak from experience on both sides of this type of story. If the players are on board, say the campaign is *starting* there, you can worry about tracking things as they're used. There's no great system for it that I can think of off the top of my head but we had some resource management in the initial chapters of Out of the Abyss and it was fun, until it wasn't, at which point we moved it to a normal D&D game.

Michael Shea

Don't! There must be hundreds of sets of random tables you can use. Most monster books or GM guides include them. Check out the Level Up Advanced 5e Dungeon Delver's Guide, the Lazy DM's Workbook, or Xanathar's Guide for excellent random encounter tables. If you must build your own, keep them small since you're not likely to need a lot of rolls. I do like thinking about what monsters make sense for the next game and maybe whipping up a small list of monsters. Sometimes I roll on it but mostly I pick monsters I think make sense for the situation and that'll be fun given the current feeling of the game.

Michael Shea

Woo. That's hard. I wouldn't do it over and over but once in a while is cool. I'm a big fan of the Inception-style mind-heist. A campaign of mind-bending realities lend themselves to lots of interesting visions. One time, in one of my games, the characters repeatedly used a pool that let them invade the dreams of their enemies to steal info. One time they accidentally went into the dreams of a 1000 year old lich and lost themselves in his mind for about a decade before they could make it back out. Great fun. Watch Inception =)

Michael Shea

I'd try Lightning 5e! https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/lightning_5e.pdf You can also try a simplified version of Dungeon World without all the "Moves" per class. Just 2d6 + a stat. Fate Accelerated is also fantastic for this sort of play. I ran it with some very young kids once and they got it. Lots of plusses are good. Lots of minuses are bad. World of Dungeons also has potential but you have to fill in a lot of blanks: http://www.onesevendesign.com/dw/world_of_dungeons_1979_bw.pdf

Jordan Rogers

I really want to be a DM. But I’m also really nervous to do it at the same time. I’m the only one in my inner circle who enjoys D&D so I can’t really test my skills out on friends. I’m thinking about getting an online group together, but playing with people I don’t know makes me more nervous. Any advice for this situation?

Cloaker

Thanks for the response, Mike! My player's constraints, for clarity. After polling them for their feedback, they want to see the game RAW gridded as closely as possible, but with challenging environments/enemies and more combat encounters. It's a challenge to create for consistently, but I'm going to keep chopping wood at it! Cheers sir

Victor Navone

Ooh, I like the Kobold Press rules. Thanks!

Mage vs. Monster

Hey Mike! I was wondering what you thought about adding a countdown dice pool or rolls to the generation of random encounters. LevelUp A5e and Goblin Punch (discovered thanks to Questing Beast Ben) both have systems that sound great. I think Goblin punch’s method sounds better due to the inevitability of encounters. What are your thoughts? https://www.enworld.org/threads/introducing-the-countdown-dice-mechanic.695102/ https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-underclock-fixing-random-encounter.html?m=1

rwix94

I just got done running a session that left me feeling like I did a bad job controlling the pace of the game. There was lots of dead down time that was filled by a lot of fluffy PC and NPC role play and banter (basically an anime filler episode). My players had some fun with it but I could tell that there were points where I probably should have intervened and cranked up a dial to stoke some interest. Do you have any suggestions on how to keep things moving or interesting without just throwing sudden perilous encounters at the PCs?

Thomas Hoiland

How would you go about teaching a moderate (around 15 people) group how to play 5E in a convention setting? I was recently in that situation it turned into about 5% 'how the game is played' and 95% teaching how to make a character. I feel I could to better

Peter S.

Weird question, feel free to skip, I'll understand. I think I am doing the logistic of encounters wrong, spending too much time during prep to be able to run smoother combats in game. In your game you seem to spend most of the time for combat preparation in picking monsters, and locations, and little more. Can you please give us an example of how your system works, step-by-step from initiative and maybe one-two rounds of combat? What do you need to do during the game to run combats? Thanks.

Michael Smedley

I've been making various maps now as a hobby for a few years, from world maps to Dungeons. In that time I've been thinking more about bringing a lazy GM approach to this. (I know making the map isn't the lazy approach but I enjoy it) So in your opinion would it make sense to go from entire Dungeon maps to Dungeon scenes or set pieces as combat maps, Those important areas where an encounter, puzzle, complex trap or interesting scene may occur and then run the rest of the Dungeon theatre of the mind. An example for an upcoming game Im using is a combat map of a runic gate puzzle entrance to a Dungeon where monsters swarm from cracks until the puzzle is solved. Thanks 😊

Ernesto

IMO at the end of a session, you should offer several options to do in the next session they have to agree on one, and you prepare that option. If in the next session, they changed their mind, then you end the session right there and say that you don't have that prepared because it wasn't what you all agree to do, and it will take you another week to prepare it. You aren't a magician that has to react flawlessly to every single craziness that your players can come up with. There is a social contract that says that you will take (a lot) of time preparing content and the players will go through that content.

Peter Hohenstein

Hi Mike. Some of your tools, tips and random generators are useful at the prep stage of adventures. Others are intended to help the GM improvise at the table. Sticking to this second group, which tools, tips and generators do you think are the most important to have on hand while running a game? To put it a different way, what would be on a Lazy GM screen?

G VanBooven

I'd like to hear you discuss diversity and inclusion in your games. As an older, straight, white, cis male playing with a diverse online group, I try to be inclusive, but I'm sure I miss the mark sometimes. Is this something that you consciously consider when world-building or creating adventures? How does it play out at your table?

Chris Hallberg

I really love the general use stat blocks! I especially love the comparisons to players, like the Myrmidon "can serve as a boss monster for 5th level characters, an elite combatant against two characters at 7th level", etc. How is the boss and group comparison calculated? I'm building ahead in a high level campaign but following XP-based advice and pitting a CR 25 solo monster against a party of Level 20 characters is making me nervous.

Graham Dyer

Mike, how does Empire of the Ghouls compare to The Scarlet Citadel? You said the other week that you could not recommend Scarlett Citadel, as the writing was so verbose (paraphrasing). Do you find that Empire of the Ghouls has the same issue? Thanks, Graham

Evan Bouten

Any tips or resources to help improve game improvisation in general, but especially dialog? I feel I do pretty well with setting scenes and combat, but I’d really like to be better with NPC dialogue and keeping game flow feeling good. Thanks! Evan.

Michael Rees

Hi Mike. Any tips to run easier and better chases. Last night I had the party crawling down a tunnel being chased by a Darakhul and a Lich Hound. In my mind it was going to be like something from the Descent or the end of Aliens but I wanted to use the DMG chase rules to do it “properly”. It was a bit of a slog with lots of “How many dashes do I have now?” and more admin than excitement. I found myself losing track of who was where and how far away the pursuers were. There must be a way to make it more exciting. Any suggestions to make it easier to keep track for me and more exciting and engaging for my players? Thanks. Love the show.

Michael Shea

Hi Dan. That's a hard question. I think having a group conversation about it can help. It looks like you've let them grab pretty much everything if they have bloodhunters and the like. I'm a fan of limiting source material to specific sources. D&D Beyond doesn't make this easy, which is irksome, but it does help ensure players are picking just specific books. Making sure if they pick the weird stuff that they're ready to speak to it helps. Of course, you need to watch it too. Many times players don't read the whole text, jumping onto the cool part and forgetting that it has a detriment they seem to forget. I think having an adult conversation about it can help and, otherwise, just accepting that sometimes you have to look things up. That's ok. And, when you start a new campaign, limit source materials. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Hi Jordan! I wrote this article to help new DMs get started in D&D: https://slyflourish.com/getting_started_with_dnd.html I think finding the right Discord server to look for new players can help. Over on the Sly Flourish server we have a LFG location where you can note that you're new, maybe pick three players to keep things easy, and run a short and simple adventure to get your feet wet. Welcome to the hobby and I really hope you find a great way to get started! I think you'll love it =)

Michael Shea

I had never heard of it! I love the idea and Morrus's countdown dice sounds really great. It's a cool idea. I've used count-up timers like the 13th Age escalation die but this has some fun randomness I think could be really fun. I'll have to try it out. Thank you for sharing it!

Michael Shea

This is a good question and a tough one. I think it behooves GMs to always be thinking about how to move things forward. Sort of like "Strong Starts" but just about anywhere. It's really up to the GM to keep things going, know *where* they're going, and motivate the characters to get there. For NPC interaction, the NPC themselves can take a walk or otherwise depart from the scene. It's easy to get caught in the conversation and let the player guide its end but the NPC can do it as well. Pacing is just a really hard GM skill to pick up. Monte Cook says its the most vital of GM skills, and it can take a lifetime to master (if one ever can). Always be thinking how the game can go forward is my best advice. It's not great but hopefully it helps.

Michael Shea

Breaking people up into groups and recruiting some other GMs to run players through the first scenario of Dragon of Stormwreck Isle can work. I'd focus on pregens before I'd jump into character creation. Character creation takes a long time and I'm not sure its the best way to get started with D&D. Instead, they can make the choice of which pregen to go with and go from there. Once they've learned the basics of the game and want to make a character, then they can work together to do so. My goal would be to take the 15 people and break them into three groups of five or four group of four-ish and have them actually play instead of trying to teach in a classroom style setting.

Michael Shea

First, there isn't a wrong way. If it works for you, it's working. Some GMs spend time ahead of time building each combat encounter out with all of the bells and whistles (multiple types of monsters, interesting terrain, interactive features, special win conditions, etc). Others, like me, wing it right at the table. For me, I usually have a rough idea whether a combat encounter might take place but I leave a lot of it up to the moment. Maybe they figure out how to get around the angry mechanical spiders. Maybe they fight them. I don't know until it happens. You pretty much can see my prep system in my prep videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puaqbHmqvQufhsCVyFpZj3Ugn When I'm running, I see where things go and exploit my prep to run combat encounters. I use pacing and beats and the dials of difficulty to manage the encounter for the situation in the world and the feeling of the game.

Michael Shea

Hi Michael! This sounds really interesting but I'm not sure I understand the question. Can you restate it? I'm not sure what it means to go from dungeon maps to dungeon scenes. As far as lazy map making, I really want to try more stick and circle style maps with more advanced maps for important chambers. On Wednesday I ran a dungeon map from Dysons but used Dwarven Forge for the two important rooms. That worked pretty well.

Michael Shea

Great question! I talk about some of this here: https://slyflourish.com/lazy_dm_tools.html and here: https://youtu.be/Qr-Wb-Szedo Here's a quick list: - A Pathfinder Flip Mat - A list of random names - The Lazy 5e Cheat Sheet (https://slyflourish.com/revised_5e_cheat_sheet.html) - 3x5 index cards - Generic monster tokens (https://slyflourish.com/crafting_lazy_monster_tokens.html) - Face cards - The monster stats by CR chart from Forge of Foes (https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/forge_of_foes_preview.pdf) - A handful of printed Dyson maps - The Lazy DM's Workbook and Companion

Michael Shea

I just asked this question to a larger group on the Discord server to get views that *aren't* from another old straight cis white guy. That'd be my first recommendation. I'll come back to this one when I have some better answers from a wider group of people before I start throwing in my opinions (as we straight cis white guys tend to do =)).

Michael Shea

it's calculated roughly with the lazy encounter benchmark (https://slyflourish.com/the_lazy_encounter_benchmark.html) but it's definitely looser (which is how you should think about the benchmark anyway). It's just to give you a rough gauge how this monster might play out in a game. A group of four 20th level characters could take on two CR 20 monsters. Level 20 characters have a *ton* of resources at their disposal. That said, test your characters out as you run higher level games. Remember it's a loose gauge at best.

Michael Shea

Empire of the Ghouls covers a much larger section of Midgard than Scarlet Citadel does. The writing in Ghouls isn't exactly lightweight but it covers more ground per paragraph than Scarlet Citadel does. I find it easier to digest and run, although Ghouls does need work which I've talked about in my current Ghouls videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puaolX3T6CTCA7gYbgZiIXgXQ So no, I don't find Ghouls has the same problem as Scarlet Citadel. Ghouls needs work but I'd still recommend it. I can't recommend Scarlet Citadel.

Michael Shea

Hi Evan! I think my best advice is to really think about great characters in fiction; books, movies, TV shows, etc. If you listen to audiobooks you can pick up how the reader handles voices of characters. Then try it yourself. Try out the voices the audiobook narrator is using. Also, get into the head of the NPC. Who are they? What do they want? What are they trying to do to get there? How would they react to what is happening in the conversation? I find this far more useful than a list of traits or a bunch of DCs. Get into their heads and try to respond as they would respond. Be them for a bit.

Michael Shea

I'm not really a fan of systems for things like chases. I think it works better to run such things in the narrative. If the characters have abilities to help them in the chase, let them use them. If they want to try things out and roll ability checks, let them. I wouldn't worry about things like distances other than the idea that monks and rogues move much faster than other characters. I'd try to abstract it; focusing on the situation, the complications, the goals, the win states, and what the characters want to try. Stay open to their ideas and not to the rigidity of any sort of chase system.

Michael Smedley

No problem. So instead of mapping a whole Dungeon out and drawing all of it out with chambers, rooms and connecting passageways that are slowly revealed on the VTT as they explore the Dungeon, I would draw only the areas where encounters take place, only bringing them up on the VTT when required for combat etc. leave the exploration ellement of the dungeon to be run theatre of the mind. Hope that make more sense, if not don't worry :)

Michael Shea

Gotcha. Yeah, that's one way to go. It can get tricky when you have a room with five potential ways out. No one can keep track of that in theater of the mind. A loose stick-figure map can help with rooms as circles and passages as lines. You can draw it out for players or let them draw it out and then use fancier battle maps for the big rooms. I want to try that out but I think it may work. For playing online, though, I think a Dyson style map in Owlbear Rodeo is really easy to use. I'm going to talk a lot about in person maps this Sunday.

Moozure (Ben Morrier)

Question: Hi Mike! How easy would it be to adapt Scarlet Citadel to the Forgotten Realms (example, Thay region). I understand SC isn't easy to run -- wordy -- but I'm an experienced DM (30 years+) and will give it a shot since I bought the physical map pack. Especially, conversion of gods to FR gods. Thank you for any insight regarding this if possible.

rwix94

If anything I'm happy to know I'm not the only one who finds this difficult! Thanks for your response and your wisdom Mike, I'll be sure to apply it next time around. Thank you for all that you do!

Elliott Balding

Question: I really love the concept of spiral campaign development where I create a single main location and just it's immediate surrounding area. From there building as I need to depending on where the game takes us. However I run into the issue with my players wanting to build their characters and backstories around my world, and that world doesn't exist as it's just a single area. I have tried to encourage them to feel free to build what they like and think is cool and we can work together to incorporate it into one cohesive narrative however that seems to reduce their excitement that they didn't have something to build off themselves too. When they want to know things about the world like this my brain goes to needing to build everything and while I like that idea too it realistically isn't feasible. Any help on any middle ground or different way of viewing the situation would help a lot thanks.

Rich ‘Sandwich Mimic’ Stabile

Maybe not directly GM related. Are you planning or do you have plans in the future to attend GenCon? I can only imagine you’d love the event, plus I’m sure you could hold a few successful seminars on Lazy GM Prep. I love what you do! Thanks

Michael Cole

I actually award it as a sort of "well rested" bonus each time characters long rest in a safe, comfortable location such as an inn. It's worked well for me! The absence of it when resting in the wilderness is felt which was my goal. I also allow Rangers to get it even when in the wilderness so long as they are reasonably safe and protected from the elements.

Artful Dodger

Hey Mike, I just saw that you are listed as one of the developers of Tales of the Valiant on the Kobold Press Kickstarter. I didn't know that you were involved at all and now I'm curious whether you can already share some information about your involvement in the project. I'm a big fan of not only Kobold Press but also of your Grendleroot and Fantastic Lairs adventures, so I think that that's a very promising collaboration

Sargoto

First off Thank you for the lightning 5e Ruleset, very much helped my 11 year old have some good framework for some recess TTRPG play him and his friends wanted. When I was kind of walking through how to resolve certain rules though I kind of had an "ah ha" moment regarding DC for a lot of skill checks and rolls being that most of the time it breaks down into one of like 6 categories. The player can not succeed and shouldn't even roll, the player will always succeed and shouldn't even roll, and an easy, medium, difficult, or nearly impossible outcome. So the question, why don't we use d4s more regularly when we need to figure out something with a 25% chance outcome? Could one use d4s to further simplify many GM rolls, after all a single digit is more readable then a 17?

G VanBooven

A worthy question to ask the broader community for sure. I was also curious as to what YOU do specifically if anything, since you seem to be a reasonably considerate and open minded type of cis straight white guy (like I endeavor to be).

Cleric Ken

Hey Mike! I have an opportunity this summer to do a D&D workshop for some local high school students. While I have run many games and taught a lot of players, this is my first time doing this in a workshop/classroom setting. Do you think it would be better to have pregens and go quickly into playing the game or to start with character creation? I believe I will have four sessions with each group that lasts about an hour. Also is there any other good advice you can offer. Thanks!

Arash Steindamm

Aloha Mike! Because of family obligations, my DND group that I am DMing for will only be meeting once a month rather than twice a month. Unfortunately, we’re in a kind of long and involved campaign. Any suggestions on how to speed things up so it can feel like it’s moving at decent pace?

Chris W

Hi Mike, I notice you are credited on the Kobold Press Tome of the Valiant book. Can you tell us anything about that?

Jason Kemp

How do you handle a player that consistently takes their character in a different direction than the rest of the party, causing occasional strife and mayhem in the process?

Chris Hallberg

Thank you! Do you still recommend using 3/4 of the PC level total for level 11 and above and equal for 17 and above?

Michael Shea

Hi Moozure! I think it can be adapted to the Forgotten Realms. It sort of expects to be plopped down in a typical temprate village-like setting but with some reskinning it could probably fit in Thay. I think the four villains could easily be reskinned as Red Wizards and their dark machinations. I think it could work well that way. I'd be sure to bring a plot to the book based on Thayan influence. I think Ushulux could be a great Red Wizard frenemy. You'll want to have some way for the characters to go to a friendly area to restock and rest and what not that's the equivalent of Red Tower. Maybe it's another plane or dimension or something. Maybe it's just a village the Red Wizards tend to leave alone for some reason. I think it could be fun!

Michael Shea

Great question! You can still use the characters as your focus point and expand out the world to support them. This could be done during or after a session zero when you have some idea what characters they're bringing and what general backgrounds they're interested in. Then build out the world to support those particular characters. Say you end up with a wizard, rogue, cleric, fighter, and paladin. You can talk to the wizard player about her origin, where she came from, and then fill that out after the session zero. The rogue might have a former thieves guild or a seedy city they came from – you can build that out. The cleric needs a god but not *all* the gods, so you focus on that one particular deity for that one faith. The fighter might have come from a particular war so you build out that bit of history. Just like you start with the characters and spiral out *physically*, you can also spiral out just from the lens, looking backward and forward, from the character themselves. This trick works well for cities as well. You don't have to fill out an entire city but ask what locations each of the characters might enjoy visiting and flesh those out. So, overall, run a session zero, get a feel for the characters, and build out the world from their perspective. Let me know if that works!

Michael Shea

My wife and I used to go to gencon every year for more than a decade but a few things happened. Before Covid, it was really hard to get a hotel room within walking distance. It was also *really* expensive to fly there and stay for the days. We started going to Origins instead which we enjoyed and was much easier to get into. Then covid hit and we've only been to one convention since, 1d4 Con in West Virginia because it was close. That was awesome and we didn't get sick! I don't know what our plans are for bigger conventions. We're not going to Gencon, though. Sorry!

Michael Shea

Yes! and Yes! I'll be talking about it on the Talk Show this Sunday morning and it'll be up on YouTube this coming Monday. My part, so far, is small but it's something I've spent a lot of time on so I think it'll be great.

Michael Shea

You can certainly lower the die to a lower die like a d4, d6, or d10. The D20 is nice because every side is a clean 5% chance so it's really easy to figure out the odds and sliding up and down the DC scale increases or decreases those odds by 5%. D100s are too granular. D10s might be too general. I think the d20 is a great evolution in dice. So did the Egyptians =) https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/551072 Because Lightning 5e is intended to teach new players how to play 5e, I'll be sticking to the d20.

Michael Shea

I'd definitely go with pre-gens at first. I don't have any data to support it but I think the general choices of "which class do you want to play" is easier than doing ability allocation and all of that jazz. I'd get together with your GMs before the event if you can and give them good guidance on how to run the games. I'd also stick to simple adventures intended for about 2 hours instead of trying to go four. Maybe one mission from Dragon of Icespire Peak could work. Maybe one or two parts of Dragons of Stormwreck Isle could work but that might go long if roleplaying takes a while. Good luck!

Michael Shea

Take a look at the storyline you have going on and think about how you can streamline it a bit. What are the big beats that *have* to happen and how can you draw the path to get there soonest. Lots of stories narrow down as the focus shifts – think about how they do this in books or movies or TV shows. Get back to the basics. Cut off some loose threads. Maybe even have a mid-campaign session zero to talk to the players about which parts of the campaign they want to focus on and then focus just on that. Hope that helps!

Michael Shea

Hi Chris! I'll be talking about it on the Talk Show this Sunday morning and it'll be up on YouTube this coming Monday!

Michael Shea

Like many aspects of the problem player question, there are a few stages one might take: 1. Try to address it during a session zero before the campaign begins. Make sure it's very clear what sorts of behaviors you expect from players and what sorts of drives you expect from their character. If they want to go a different direction, help them build a character that wants to *cooperate*. 2. If it's too late to do that, the next step is to talk to the player offline. Ideally you do this in person or during a voice conversation – not in text or email. Use all of the techniques for a healthy crucial conversation: Address the problem, not the player. Recognize where they're coming from and what they want. Make it clear what the issue is and how to resolve it. Come to an agreement. 3. If that doesn't work and it's still disruptive at the table, it might be best to part ways. "Unfortunately I don't think this is the game for you." Remember not to pick on them particularly. Maybe they just want a different kind of game than you offer. But make it clear that you can't run the kind of game they want based on what's happening in the game. This isn't a perfect answer or approach. It won't always work and it doesn't fit every situation. But hopefully it gives you ideas.

Michael Shea

Hi GV! We talked about it on Discord and came to some good advice. I'll also sprinkle in my own advice I've picked up from other non-cis-het-white-dudes. - Consume diverse fiction – particularly books which seem to have a wider range than other popular fiction. - Shift genders, races, and orientations. When you catch yourself thinking of a white guy as an NPC, shift them to a non-white woman or non-binary person. Switch some couples from straight to gay couples. - Describe everyone's appearance, particular skin-tones, even if they're white. One stereotype I have is that I tend to only describe skin-tone if it isn't white but if you describe all of them, you're more likely to shift to other skin tones. - I think random generators can help. Whip up a random generator of your choosing in Perchance to help break you from stereotypes. - Seek diverse fantasy art. Look for NPC images of more diverse characters and use those in your game. These are just a few ideas. Talk to your group and talk to wider diversity of people and ask them what sorts of things they'd want.

G VanBooven

Sound advice across the board. I'm currently using almost all the ideas mentioned, so it seems I'm doing ok. The idea of a random generator hadn't occured to me for some reason so I will also start to include that in my bag of tricks. Thanks for your thoughtful response!

Cleric Ken

Thanks for the reply! I'm actually the only GM, which will make things interesting. I did not know my proposed workshop had been approved until like a week before the summer program starts, or I might have tried to recruit others. If this goes well, hopefully it will be an annual thing and I can better plan next year.

Keotep

For my next 5e campaign i’ve drafted a Sly Flourish style one page pitch document, including this on character creation and house rules…”Characters begin at 1st level. Use 27 point buy method for ability scores before species bonuses. You may choose one free feat! You can select any character options from official Wizards material except for Artificer, Firearms, Blood Hunter, Twilight Cleric, Peace Cleric, Strixhaven, Spelljammer or Dragonlance. You can use Tasha’s “Customizing Your Origin”. House rules: OneD&D rule for Exhausted Condition, Sly Flourish rule for “Cinematic Advantage”, and Flanking does not give advantage, rather flanking grants +2 to attack rolls, except there is no modifier when you have advantage from other circumstances.” Is there anything you’d recommend to add, delete or change?

Max Arthur

Recently you talked about your structure for your files and use of maps, what I find is I have filed maps that I buy/find/download by creator but this isn't very efficient when I need them for games especially for quick load into VTTs, do you have a structure or advice for how you file them?

teubi

You recently recommended the work of JP Coovert. I love his style of publishing: short, interesting ideas and concepts plus helpful guides. I find this more useful and inspiring than pages over pages of details and numbers (which are rather limiting in my opinion). Do you have more recommendations like this?

Gábor Hegedűs

Hail to my pal, Mike! I haven't been around for a while, but I've been listening all the time ;) Well, a friend of mine has been running a DnD/TTRPG YouTube channel since 2018, called Dice and Dragons link in the post-notes beeeelooow. :) Sometimes I pop up on the screen with some DM advice, no big deal really. But now he asked me to create content for his channel with some DM advice and I said "Yesss...?" When I started thinking about it, it turned out that a good chunk of the fresh, applicable, useful and I've used DM techniques and tricks came from the Lazy DMs Talkshow and articles. So my question is: how can I "steal" from your work without stealing and "bring" Lazy DM advice "home" to Hungary, for non-English speaking, primarily for the would-be-to new DMs? https://youtube.com/@KockakesSarkanyok

Henrik Sebring

Hello! We are currently considering a NO GODS campaign. We would still like to see healing and cleric spells. What would be an appropriate way to re-flavor clerics? I think of them as medium to heavy armored support spellcasters.

Michael Shea

Lines and veils and the "Pause for a Minute". Also the summary of the campaign and the one-line bond that connects characters together and to the story and drive of the campaign. As far as house rules go, not really. Those all look good. Maybe some replacement spells from Tashas for spells like Summon Woodland Beings.

Michael Shea

For maps, not really. You could put a folder for maps under your system agnostic folder and then expand it all out when you're loading maps into a VTT. I know a mac lets you do that but I'm not sure about a PC. Sorry I'm not more help! Consider asking in the Sly Flourish discord server and see what people are doing.

Michael Shea

I think the work of Raging Swan is very much like this. Also MT Black's work and the work of the Arcane Library.

Michael Shea

Hi Gábor! Any of the advice you find in the Lazy GM's Resource Document can be used for any purpose, including commercially, with the attribution listed in the document: https://slyflourish.com/lazy_gm_resource_document.html As far as other advice I offer on the show, you're certainly free to discuss it and describe it however you want on YouTube videos. It's always great if you attribute it back to me and offer a link to https://slyflourish.com in the notes of the show. Hope this helps!

Michael Shea

Good question. I don't really know. Could the gods just be a mysterious force no one understands? Like the Force in star wars? I don't know how to reskin it without coming up with just another form of gods. Good luck!

Mistborn

Hi, Mike! For my next 5e campaign I was considering adapting a few rules from the Forged in Darkness games (Blades in the Dark/Band of Blades). Specifically, I was thinking about giving every player Inspiration at the beginning of each session and, besides its normal use, allowing expending said Inspiration to call for a Flashback (a la Blades in the Dark). That would require to also somehow adapt the Stress mechanics for when the desired effect is automatic or more complex than requiring a die roll. For that, I was thinking of using Hit Dice as an expendable resource in lieu of Stress. So, if the desired action is complex or unlikely, it would require spending one or more Hit Dice. Do you think these mechanics would add too much complexity to the game? Are there any potential pitfalls you foresee with them? Thank you!

Omar Benmegdoul

Tiring of Witchlight (finishing Hither). Struggling to add stakes, tension, ticking clocks, etc. The world feels like it never acts, only reacts. I want to add your dreadful incursions (domains of dread sliding into the feywild like tectonic plates), and I want to make sure they're not just combat diversions but that they are driving the adventure. They should threaten the players and what/who the players care about and need. I especially like the idea of a Dark Lord trying to escape their domain and preventing Zybilna from being freed, but causing Prismeer to be subsumed into the domains of dread in the meantime. But then what do I do with the hags? They have every reason to address the encroachment themselves instead of letting plucky adventurers handle it.

Schizogen

My players and I are looking for a more narrative driven system. After listening to your recent episode where you mentioned playing Dungeon World at a convention, I picked up a copy and we are really excited by what we have read so far. Given your recent experience, how would you adapt the 8 lazy steps to accommodate such a different style of game, or would you not change anything at all?

Michael Shea

All of that sounds like it could work. The flashback idea is definitely one I've used. Mostly, if the impact of the flashback is something reasonable they would have done, there's no check and no penalty. If it's something important, like bribing a guard, I could see it using up inspiration and, if it makes sense, hit dice. Give it a try and see how it works!

Michael Shea

It's all a matter of perspective. If a dread lord is really trying to break in, they might simply not believe it or ignore it or not even *see* it. That's what I did in my games. The hags had their own motivations and were unmoved by the comings of the incursions until they met the final hag who became aware of it by seeing an artifact from one of these other worlds. She couldn't ignore it then. I think we can run the hags like we run any other major NPCs. What are their goals, quests, and motivations and how would they react to the impact of both the characters and the incursions. Treat them like real people and think through their eyes. How would /you/ act if you were them?

Michael Shea

Dungeon World is one of those RPGs that has a different style than other games when it comes to prep. The first session is really a world-building session involving the character. But once that world is built, the eight steps can fit in just as well as any other RPG. You still need to know the characters, build a strong start, outline scenes, develop secrets and clues, understand the NPCs, monsters, and locations that might come up and drop in interesting treasure. That stuff is pretty universal once you get past the first worldbuilding session.