May 2024 Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A
Added 2024-05-09 16:00:06 +0000 UTCWelcome to the Sly Flourish Patreon Questions and Answers thread for May 2024!
Ask your monthly RPG-related question in the comments below!
Every Friday morning I answer every question on this post. Some questions make it to the Lazy RPG Talk Show or fuel an RPG Tip video or Sly Flourish article. Don't be upset if your question doesn't make it to the show – only a handful do.
As you consider your question for the month, please
search the SF Patreon Q&A database, the Lazy RPG Talk Show Topic Database, the Sly Flourish website, and the Sly Flourish YouTube Channel to see if I've done an article or video on your topic previously.
focus your question on tabletop RPGs.
stick to one question each month.
keep your question brief. I love your stories but I get overwhelmed.
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Now bring on the questions!!
Comments
Hi Mike :-). You mentioned multiple times you have several 'stand by' players in case regular players can't make a session. I would like to get to this as well, some questions how you do this in practice. Do they have their own characters or do they use the characters of the regulars who can't make it? If they have their own, do you let them level up together with the regular players to keep PCs roughly in sync? How do the stand-by players feel about missing out on the final boss fight at the end of the campaign? Other practical things related to this you think might be useful to keep in mind?
Peter Hohenstein
2024-06-18 10:51:15 +0000 UTCWould it work if you had one of the players play *two* characters? Maybe twins or something like that? You might even talk to the player ahead of time to explain why but not let the rest of the group in on it. Otherwise it might be an NPC that's part of the group as well. The players will probably know what's going on but that doesn't mean they won't be invested. Just a couple of thoughts off the top of my head!
Michael Shea
2024-06-07 12:57:49 +0000 UTCNot necessarily. Often its woven into the narrative but players can tell when it's something important and I seem the noting it down. I might even have an NPC say "hey, you might want to write this down".
Michael Shea
2024-06-07 12:56:01 +0000 UTCDoing liveplay games is a whole enterprise that takes a significant amount of time and investment I just don't have. Sorry!
Michael Shea
2024-06-07 12:55:25 +0000 UTCI'm unfortunately not that familiar with the beastmaster ranger but I'd read through the class and subclass yourself and see what you'd want to be able to do with it. Maybe having the beastmaster chase foes while the main characters have to deal with another force. It really depends on what the beast itself can do. If it can fulfill a tank role, having it take on bigger creatures one on one might be good. Other opportunities outside of combat where the beast can be useful might also work like stealthing into a compound or otherwise reconnoitering a location.
Michael Shea
2024-06-07 12:54:44 +0000 UTCHi Mike, first off - long time fan starting back when Lazy DM came out, it's always been a joy reading or listening to your content. Keep up the great work! :) My question: I'm currently prepping Wild Beyond the Witchlight for my group and would love to run the Lost Things Prelude Adventure. So they'd get to the carnival as kids, lose something, then the real adventure starts years later when they get back and want to return what they've lost. I'd like to set them up as close friends as kids (think: the Goonies), let them sneak into the carnival and have a fun session there. And the end of the session they'll get caught, carried into a dent, the Hourglass Coven shows up and kidnaps one of them. My players love a dramatic story and we've been playing for years, so I'm certain they would enjoy the idea and I'm not crossing any boundries here. So far so good. However kidnapping a pc means basically removing him from the story for 90% of the game, so I need to introduce a new character and have no good idea how to do it. - the pc could be a sibling, but that's kinda lame and you somehow have to force a connection with the other kids - the pc could be a student of Madryck Roslof and take his Warlock master's quest ... not sure how to tie that together though. It feels a bit disconnected imo since this pc would have no connection to the kidnapped kid, which the whole plot revolves around. So my question would be: do you have a good idea, how I could intoduce a new pc that doesn't feel shoehorned? Thanks a lot and have a great day! :) (sry for the long post)
simon
2024-06-06 08:01:51 +0000 UTCWhen you are distributing secrets and clues, do you state explicitly that what they're hearing is a Clue, or do you try to weave it more naturally into the narrative?
topher mehlhoff
2024-06-03 16:13:16 +0000 UTCHi Mike, I know that actual play is not what you do but I would find it really useful to see you prep with the 8 steps for a session and then see how you use your prep in game. It would be even more fun/useful if it could be with your own work like an adventure of Grendleroot or in th City of Arches where I will be going with my players in a few months! So, not really a question, more of a wish 😁 Would you be ok doing something like this? (Btw, as a new DM playing Icespire Peak, listening to your play was really helpful) As always, thank you for your work !!!
LiseronNocturne
2024-06-02 14:59:46 +0000 UTCThis was a great question, and especially timely because I experienced just this same feeling after our last session. The whole session comprised of a single, dynamic ambush combat encounter from Daask gnolls (Eberron), and while everybody was having fun during the first 70% of the session the last 30 minutes dragged and I found myself turning the monster hit point dials down again and again. The final moments was more of a “huh” experience compared to the first half of “whoa! all hands on deck!”
Egill Rúnar Viðarsson
2024-05-31 21:26:05 +0000 UTCHi Mike, thanks again for your extensive and great work. I’m having some trouble coming up with compelling lightning rods for the beastmaster ranger in the 5th level adventuring party. The player in question looks at their abilities and feels they’re lagging behind in damage dealing ones – especially when the wizard casts fireball, when the fighter dishes out a ton of damage and actions surges, and when the rogue sneak attacks.
Egill Rúnar Viðarsson
2024-05-31 21:12:53 +0000 UTCI hear so many good things about it. I'll have to pick it up.
Michael Shea
2024-05-31 15:03:57 +0000 UTCOne thing is to not be afraid to end a little early. If the moment is right, end the game even if you have 15 or 20 minutes left. Use that time for something like stars and wishes if you want, or ask players how they feel about their characters. I think finding the right moment to end on a high note is something we can learn over time. We can feel where the energy is and figure out to end on that high energy – also in a way that gives is an excellent chance for a strong start in the next session. Right before a big fight is always a fun one. We know it's high energy. We know players are excited for it. It leads to our strong start. It can hose players who can't make it for the next situation but I think it's as good as we can get to end with the energy up. https://slyflourish.com/end_sessions_before_big_battles.html
Michael Shea
2024-05-31 15:03:19 +0000 UTCI definitely love dragonbane and I'd love to do another one-on-one game like that with Enrique. We've both gotten really busy, though, so who can say. It was a ton of fun though.
Michael Shea
2024-05-31 15:00:31 +0000 UTCOne easy thing would be to use static damage on the character side. Boil it down to just the attack roll and use static damage on both the character and monster side. That way it's just d20 rolls. I think you still want your characters to be crunchy. You can also reduce character options to just core PHB, skip feats and choose simpler subclasses.
Michael Shea
2024-05-31 14:59:40 +0000 UTCI'd start with ten adventure seeds of about two or three sentences. Each would describe the hook for the adventure, the location it takes place in, and any other aspect I'd need to describe it. Think of it as an elevator pitch for the adventure. When I have ten, I'd read through them until I can see which one really grabs me. Maybe cut half of them, then another half and another until I have the best one of the bunch. At that point I'd outline the adventure. Where does it start? How do the characters get involved? What does the adventure location look like? Depending on how professional a job this is, I'd try to commission some artwork and a map. I'd probably use a Dyson commercially-licensed map as a model and then have another cartographer do a new version of it or I'd just use the dyson map if black and white is good enough. Same for art – there's a lot of good stock art if this is on a tight budget. Then I'd write it out. Then I'd playtest it and give it out to others to playtest. Get feedback. Hire an editor. Bring all that together and publish the adventure.
Michael Shea
2024-05-31 14:58:27 +0000 UTCA couple of tricks. First, sandwich mechanics with in-world narrative. What does the monster look like? What do their attacks look like? Listening to action-based fantasy audiobooks can help too. You can grab descriptions from such writings and add them to your subconscious. Maybe watch action movies and think to yourself how you'd describe them. You don't have to be perfect at it but its nice to add some flavor. You can also put it on your players – asking them how they'd describe their attacks or killing blows. No reason you have to take it all on yourself!
Michael Shea
2024-05-31 14:55:12 +0000 UTCThere's no great alternative. You could see if Shard does it better than A5e. I think Shard has Deep Magic books along with core 5e stuff but it doesn't have all the WOTC D&D stuff in it either. Another option is using something like powerpoint and taking screenshots from PDFs or websites and pasting them into a page so you can just print that page. A lot of GMs do this for monsters. With a system as crunchy as 5e, it's definitely a problem.
Michael Shea
2024-05-31 14:53:02 +0000 UTCThere isn't that I know of. As I learn more about the 5e variants, I'm keeping my own list. 13th Age and Shadowdark are really different than 5e. Shadowdark definitely has 5e elements. 13th Age builds off the bones of 3rd and 4th edition, though. It's quite a bit different. At some point I want to do a video talking about those other systems. Here's my look at a5e and ToV: https://slyflourish.notion.site/5e-System-Comparison-95e8b070a43949ae93765b2b9ad0bc70?pvs=4
Michael Shea
2024-05-31 14:51:07 +0000 UTCI imagine the longer the session, the more likely it is for the pacing to be off. One option might be to break your prep and your sessions into individual segments. Think of it like two four-hour sessions each with their own plan and arc. Aim to finish the first session before lunch and begin the next session. Pull your changes to pacing in each of those halves instead of trying to do it all at the end so you can either add stuff or subtract stuff for each half. That might help a little with the pacing. Break it into segments and then focus on pacing for each segment independently.
Michael Shea
2024-05-31 14:49:32 +0000 UTCI too have picked up Dragonbane and have ran it at a convention. My immediate thought was Mike Shea would really dig this game. The easiest way I can describe it mechanically as 5e married BRP (Call of Cthulhu, Runequest) and had a baby. After listening to your Dragon of Icespire Peak series it feels like it would be a really good fit. Are you tempted?
Clym Arnold
2024-05-29 10:31:50 +0000 UTCHi Mike - I have noticed that how my session ends greatly affects how I feel about it. A strong ending can make an otherwise lackluster session feel great, whereas a weak ending can make an otherwise solid session feel terrible. I realize that we can't prep endings in the same way as starts because we don't want to railroad toward a particular ending. So my question is: what *can* we prepare to give ourselves the best chance of finding/improvising a strong ending? Thanks!
Jake
2024-05-29 03:29:09 +0000 UTCGood day Mike, I enjoyed your one-on-one sessions of Icespire Peak, or what I like to call "Mike and Enrique try to see who can make the other one laugh first". "Bing!" "Yes sir?" "We need to work on your reading comprehension." You two had me laughing so hard. Seeing you do the techniques I have read about in your books and articles and heard you talk about in your videos and podcasts was invaluable. Do you have any plans to make other videos of your online play sessions available to watch? Also, I was excited to hear you mention Dragonbane in a recent video. This is a game I really like and thought you would appreciate. The monsters always hit! I hope you start playing or GMing a campaign of this soon. I'd love to hear your opinion on it, as you have so much experience with multiple trrpgs. As always, thank you for all you do and for all of the thoughtful content you provide.
Tiffani
2024-05-28 06:33:35 +0000 UTCGot a strange one for you; probably not in your wheelhouse, but maybe would be interesting to think about, at least. I play solo dnd, and I've actually found that using "player" mechanics is exceedingly overwhelming when I'm trying to run both sides of combat. Would you consider using the Forge of Foes method of creating monsters a good way to make characters that are meant to be PCs? If so, how would you go about doing it?
Dylan Watts
2024-05-27 18:57:14 +0000 UTCIf you had 1 month to create and publish a digital RPG supplement from scratch (e.g., an adventure), how would you structure your time?
Vijay Robinson
2024-05-27 18:02:49 +0000 UTCAny advice on improving narration during combat? When I run combat, my left brain takes over, focusing on arithmetic, rules, statblocks. I report hits, misses, damage. Although I never had a player complain about this, I am sure it gets repetitive. I am going to give myself a break - they thank me after each session and I have had the same group of 5 stick around for about 50 sessions, so I must be doing something right. Still, I wish my combats could rise above the game mechanics.
Peter W
2024-05-27 17:28:20 +0000 UTCI started DMing back in the early 1980s and have been playing D&D off and on since. Because of my AD&D roots, I’m very much a pencil and paper and dice kind of guy. I am very fortunate to have a great group of three players who meet almost every Sunday afternoon for a 3-4 hour session, often preceded by some social time around the grill in my backyard. I taught this group the game a couple of years ago and they’ve all stuck with it. One of my rules from square one was that we don’t use technology to play the game. It’s all character sheets, dice, maps, and minis. I own all the spell cards and my spellcasters have plastic card protector sheets with their spell cards so they can refer to them. I have several slotted wooden stands which I place in front of me where I place monster cards or other images. We’re definitely low tech and we love it that way. That being said, we do use technology to some extent, but only to enhance the game. I have several TV screens around the game room where I display artwork of locations, flowcharts of the progress through the current story arc, and overall maps of the region. We use D&D Beyond to create and update our characters and then print out the character sheets from there to use at the table. This is where we’ve run into a bit of a problem. The printed character sheets from D&D Beyond are really quite awful. The players are up to level 10 and they have accumulated quite a nice selection of abilities and options. On the printouts, the text for those abilities is miniscule and very poorly organized. Some of the text doesn’t even appear on the character sheet at all. I watch my players poring over those printouts trying to find some ability, muttering “I know it’s on here somewhere!” Adding to the problem is that I use the Deep Magic books for some spells and also have been playtesting the Mastery rules for weapons from the UAs. I homebrew my world which means that the players have also accumulated lore-specific magic items. My wizard has resorted to using his phone to look up some spells when there are no spell cards available. I see a real need for some really good, usable character sheets. So here’s my question. Is there an alternative way to print out character sheets using the D&D Beyond data? I have taken the step of going into D&D Beyond, copying text from their characters, and creating cheat sheets for them, but that’s very time-consuming. Is there an edit-friendly way to export that character data?
Steve VanderArk
2024-05-27 16:02:47 +0000 UTCHey Mike, Is there a good video or document that lays out the key differences between all the 5e adjacent games? 13th age, A5E, ShadowDark, Black Flag etc. My players want to play a high fantasy game but are a bit burned out on Wizards version of 5e. Thanks Sam
Sam Erickson
2024-05-26 20:30:37 +0000 UTCHi Mike - How would you handle a consistent, once a month gaming session that is 9 hours long? My players are all good players, but can only meet once a month (10 hours and a 1 hour lunch). I use the 8 steps and generally try to double the amount of content I prepare for a session. But my pacing is ALWAYS off. Depending on what the players do, if they take longer than I expected to get through the content I prepared, then at the end of the session I have to dump too much info and story on them. If they are quicker getting through content then I expected, I run out of things to do. Either way I usually find that at the end of the session I don't know what they will do the next session and find it hard to prepare (“how much of X?, “how little of Y?”) and it creates a cyclic problem for me. Thanks for any advice!
Spleen AmI
2024-05-26 15:39:43 +0000 UTCSad to hear that! As someone who loved Die, Vecna, Die and couldn't wait to run this one for my players (and potentially for the DM that ran DVD for me over twenty years ago), I really hoped they'd managed to design as super adventure. As a sidenote, I 100% agree with both your opinion that published adventures should make the DM's job easier (i.e. I don't need to fix things) and that running homebrew adventures in published settings is probably the best way to play.
Chaz
2024-05-26 11:45:01 +0000 UTCIt's the 0 level Shadowdark one :)
Chaz
2024-05-26 11:40:49 +0000 UTCHi Matt. You're right and it's something I'm working on. Scott Gray and I have worked on this a lot as we go through edits of the City of Arches. It's not gone completely but much reduced. Using the term "black" as a synonym for "evil" is definitely a problematic habit of mine and one I'm working on. Your tool is fantastic!
Michael Shea
2024-05-25 02:49:41 +0000 UTCHey Mike! Sometimes in your games you use the word 'black' as a negative descriptor, like The Black Cathedral, Black Hoof, etc.. It's a common cultural habit a lot of people including myself can lapse into, but it's not great. I made a Perchance generator called the Evil Generator of Evil that produces adjectives for locations or groups besides 'black' or 'dark'. https://perchance.org/evil-gen-of-evil . I hope you find it useful, I really enjoy all you do. Thanks for your time.
Matt Brooks
2024-05-25 01:35:39 +0000 UTCNice
Luka Pejovic
2024-05-24 20:22:27 +0000 UTCSorry, I wasn’t very clear with my question. I meant, ”how do you keep track of the details in a published adventure while you’re prepping a session, as in the things that haven’t happened yet.” In other words, if you were to run the carnival from TWBTW and you needed to remember all the plot threads, what each ride does, etc. How would you do this? Do you just check the book mid-game, or do you write the details, for example, in shorthand in you Notion scenes?
Christopher Smith
2024-05-24 15:00:00 +0000 UTCYep! I ran a long Numenera campaign campaign using Cypher and did a video of my experiences here: https://youtu.be/TUCxPJhlVAU
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 14:10:32 +0000 UTCHi Lukas! See the first post on this Q&A for a similar question. I focus on NPCs and their actions or reactions more so than plot threads. I also think its' fine to let a plot thread fly away instead of trying to keep track of all of them. The focus on major NPCs and villains, what they want, and what they're doing to accomplish their goals is about all I need to keep a plot thread going. I don't have huge detailed stories – just NPCs and what's going on with them. Hopefully that helps!
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 14:08:38 +0000 UTCI am really lucky to have the sort of life that lets me commit dedicated time to prep and run games two to three times a week. I don't claim to have any system that helped me – more circumstances that let me do so. My recommendation is to try to commit to a weekly game at the same time, maybe for two or three hours instead of four. And commit to an hour of prep max. Focus on the things you really need to run the game (check out Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master of course). Try a regular schedule and see if that helps. And focus on that next game. It's very easy to get caught up in larger ideas and then get overwhelmed. Just worry about your next game. Hope that helps!
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 14:06:57 +0000 UTCThis is likely a pretty common problem – one I saw often back when I perused Reddit for common D&D questions. This video response might help a little: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PkN-IAf4irk&t=2267s It definitely falls into my category of "time to sit down and talk to the player one on one". Do so either in person or over a video chat so you can both see eachother's body language. Talk about the situation. Talk about how you feel – not what they're doing. Go in with a request you'd like to make and try to get them to agree to that request. Focus on the situation, not the person. If things still aren't working out, you might have to try to see about forming a different group. Some groups just don't work out very well. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 14:04:21 +0000 UTCI have a feeling that some would consider a level or two to still be a short adventure. There are one-shot adventures intended to last only a session but there are also more classic three-level adventures where they're expected to take somewhere from four to twelve sessions. Honestly, I think we all have different preferences and find different values in different types of products. Some what short adventures in PDF. Some what a bunch of short adventures in bigger books. Some what detailed long campaign adventures. Some just want campaign settings. And some don't want anything at all. I think there's room for all of it and there's so much of it already in all these different formats that we have lots to choose from. That way we can find out what works best for us.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:58:04 +0000 UTCMy games run about two and a half hours within a three-hour block including chit-chat, breaks, dinner, and other stuff. I feel like I manage to get a lot done in that time. Maybe you can negotiate for three hours instead of four? Maybe they're giving you another message too, that things are a little too long in the story? I think there's a value in trying to focus attention in shorter sessions but two hours is going to be pretty tight. You can try it out for a couple of sessions and see how it goes. Some other tricks: fewer players and lower levels. I don't know how big your group is and what level they are but 1st to 4th level 5e games with three or four players move far faster than high-level games with six players. Hope that helps!
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:51:14 +0000 UTCI think Shadowdark is an example of what 5e looks like for OSR play. Under the hood it's a lot of 5e but has clear old school sensibilities. I think, if you really want to get across the old school feel, try an old-school system. If you have players who know and love 5e, I'd try Shadowdark.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:48:27 +0000 UTCThat's really hard. I don't know that I would. It's one of the reasons I didn't run anything in Theros. It's extremely easy to pull agency away from the actions of the players and the characters if there's a predetermined outcome. But a prophecy that doesn't come true? That might be fun.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:47:07 +0000 UTCThe killer app for me on this are adhesive tabs. I don't print out stat blocks unless I'm using an abbreviated Forge of Foes stat block like this: Darakhul High Priest – CR 12 AC/DC 17 HP 175 Atk/Prof +9 DPR 77 Atks 4 × 1d6 + 16 and, in that case, I'll drop it right into my notes. Otherwise I just use the books and flip around. I have a small side table I use to stack up my books and that works fine for me. Flipping around is ok.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:46:07 +0000 UTCI generally suck at writing after-session notes but it can really help. I've started doing it more and it helps me remember what happened, but also, you can ask the players to help you keep track. They can take on a little responsibility for remembering what they've done and what they haven't. Ask them to take notes and share them with you and the group. As far as prep goes, you see how I prep in my videos. I'm a loosey goosey sort of GM so I don't get too wrapped up in the details. I might highlight elements in the book or jot down my own notes but mostly I just read what's on the page and go with it.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:38:44 +0000 UTCI do. I played a wonderful 5e campaign with my friend Chris up to about 10th level. I really dug it. I also play at gaming conventions a lot. But yeah, I much prefer GMing. I'm fully engaged when I GM in a way I'm not as a player. Knowing myself, I have some good tips to help myself stay engaged as a player: - Take notes. - Be a supporting actor to the other characters. - Choose complementary mechanics to the other characters. - Grab what the GM's bringing to the table.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:37:18 +0000 UTCI don't know that either MCDM's material or Kobold Press's material is the type of material you'd give your players access to. There really aren't any player options. For me, D&D Beyond is really only useful as a character builder. There are lots of nice GM tools but none of them are necessary and having a version you can have on your own computer seems better than leasing it from them. That said, if I were running an adventure of theirs online, I'd probably buy it to have access to the high-res digital maps and their Maps application. I talked about this a little bit on last week's talk show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1395s&v=VC-PGkLVVhI&feature=youtu.be When we buy a version of a product on a platform like D&D Beyond, we're really buying something different than when we buy a physical book or PDF. It's used differently. It serves a different purpose. Maybe it's too much money for us to spend but, given the hours we spend, maybe it's still worth it. If you think you'll use it a lot and you're ok potentially losing it in the future, I don't see a problem buying it on D&D Beyond.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:35:29 +0000 UTCDon't. Seriously. Players hate it when you remove their agency and taking away their gear and their abilities just sucks. I know there are story-reasons why it might make sense. I know there might be ways you can do it where it sucks less. But some ideas and tropes are just best left aside. Don't have a mandatory situation where the characters get captured. Don't take away their gear and abilities. Maybe, for like 30 seconds, you can have them get captured and lose their stuff if the situation led that way (like a TPK you didn't plan on). But get their gear back to them quick. Otherwise they feel like they were better off not having played at all.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:31:39 +0000 UTCI think level 1 should be its own adventure. I don't think there should be adventures for 1st to 3rd level characters or what not. There should be short, maybe even one-scene, adventures that bring characters to 2nd level and then you can do 2nd to 4th, 5th to whatever, and so on. I think level 1 should be its own tier. https://slyflourish.com/building_1st_level_encounters.html https://slyflourish.com/tier_appropriate_adventure_locations.html
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:29:21 +0000 UTCI think the lead story designer brings in a lot and then individual writers write their pieces and then the lead writer goes back in. I don't think WOTC actually has a managing editor which is a problem. I also know that the whole process for putting together these books is a bit of a mess up through Frostmaiden and Avernus. The process isn't smooth. Editing occurs after its been in layout and stuff. This led to the big Hadozee problem in Spelljammer. When I read the latest Vecna adventure, it reads like another adventure where someone on top (I'll give you one guess who) wrote the story outline and then the actual writer and designer had to "make it true" by putting in tons of qualifiers to offset a plot that, for me, just doesn't work. I don't think WOTCs process to design adventures is nearly as good as the rest of their production process. Their books look fantastic but the design of the adventures seem to be lacking about half the time, at least in my opinion.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:27:13 +0000 UTCI don't. Sorry!
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:24:06 +0000 UTCI can't say it rings a bell. I know I didn't run it so it wouldn't be on my tier list.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:23:50 +0000 UTCI love watching big evolving stories. Keep in mind that I've been letting this big Gloaming arc grow from each session and the results of that session. I didn't start out with this vast idea about the battle of multiple god-like entities overtaking this weird haunted forest. That just sort of came out of the gameplay, which I think is fine Shadowdark. At least Kelsey seems to think so =D I don't think it had anything to do with running Scarlet Citadel beforehand. I had a pretty big plot for that one too – a motivation I had to include. I just like some story-rich evolving campaigns, whatever system I happen to be playing. Otherwise it just feels like playing the board game Dungeon!.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:23:22 +0000 UTCI have a copy and I think I've played a session of it at a convention but I haven't really done more than that. Sorry! I hear wonderful things about it though.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:21:27 +0000 UTCHI Seandaw! I have a video response to a similar question about what to do when your players know more about the lore here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0hiVQz96g0&t=3350s Some of this research into the world is a good use of prep. It helps you fill your mind with the world's lore and build a vast network of interesting tidbits you can drop into the game when you're playing. You might not want to get too caught up into the plots of NPCs because those plots can change a lot depending on the actions of the characters. Instead, focus on the actual next session you're going to run and what you need to get that session going and lay the foundation for the next. Break down lore into manageable secrets and clues you can drop in. Think about what's going on with the NPCs right now, but don't worry too much about the future. Reading lore books and taking notes, though, is a fine use of prep time if you have it. Do as much as you want and then focus your attention on the next game you're going to run.
Michael Shea
2024-05-24 13:20:58 +0000 UTCHave you ever tried Cypher System? Apperently, it's much more flexible system. But in the other hand it seems that there is much more work on GM side
Luka Pejovic
2024-05-24 10:43:55 +0000 UTCHi Mike, my question is about managing and organizing multiple plot threads. In one of my campaigns I have 3-4 plot threads that are dangling, and as time goes on, I'm having a hard time organizing the progression of each as they become tangled and occur at different times. How do you cleanly organize your individual plot thread progressions during a campaign without constantly going back to old session notes ? Thanks for all you do for the community!
Lukas Carlson
2024-05-23 23:17:15 +0000 UTCHey Mike, I am curious if you ever find yourself struggling to commit the time to run a game and how you get over that hump? I am trying to get back into running games but keep finding myself questioning how committed I can truly be to running the game. I even try and put together a one-shot and then back out because I feel all my prep and time invested for it will be wasted since it's "just" a one-shot. Looking for some wisdom on getting over the idea that everything I do has to be an epic year-long game or nothing!
Dawson Johnson
2024-05-23 18:11:14 +0000 UTCHi Mike! This is kind of a mess of a question, and maybe more of a venting session, but please bear with me! :) So it sounds like you have a strong group of players in terms of respect and maturity, but I have a couple players who are great folks but are right on the edge of pushing it, from criticizing my lack of "funny voices" (I am more of a descriptive roleplayer, to use the A5E term) to not characterizing NPCs/monsters "correctly" (I had Cryovain accept an offering, which is apparently something dragons don't do??). While *I* know these things aren't actually my shortcomings as a DM, how could I address these tiny jabs swiftly in-game without losing focus or losing the other players' buy in?
Alex W.
2024-05-23 02:06:06 +0000 UTCHi Mike - thanks for your recent campaign tier rankings. That, and all of the talk recently about short versus long adventures, has really been making me think. Probably because we’re nearing the end of our current 2-year campaign. One thing that struck me between short vs long is what about medium? We really like those mini story arcs that last 8 - 12 sessions, maybe a level or two in experience, and then move on. The equivalent I suppose is a single chapter in a large campaign book, but a chapter that completes the story. It seems we have a lot ‘lair’ books, or one-shot adventures or the big campaign books. Perhaps I’m struggling because I’m not the most experienced or imaginative person yet I want to create the situations that our group likes and have been searching for those solutions. Not sure if this is more a download of thought or if there’s a question in there.
Jason
2024-05-22 16:58:43 +0000 UTCHi Mike - long-time listener, first-time caller. Recently my group, with the onset of summer, has decided that our D&D sessions are a bit too long (close to 4 hours, not including travel time) and will need to be pulled back to 2 hours, and be online fully for time management (families, vacations, travel, etc etc). I am the DM and while I enjoy running, am left considering just dropping it due to the challenge of figuring out how to cut up sessions into effectively 1/2 of our normal amount. In your opinion is it worth it to still run a game? With the usual, we all jump online (now at 2 hours) - there is chit-chat for about 10/15 minutes on how everyone's week was, some times people are "be there soon" in that window as well, and after a recap are only getting about 1.5 hours of actual playtime. It is harder to run more than an encounter. Any tips to be more effective in that window of time?
Sloan Grever
2024-05-22 14:03:23 +0000 UTCThank you again for producing a lot of great content for everyone interested in improving their DM skills. Listening to the latest show about A5E and my own readings of the material, other 5E material and OSR systems (Dolmenwood, Knave 2E, OSRE etc.), I was wondering: If we look at 5E/A5E RAW, how do you think these rules would support OSR like play. Of course the difficulty of character creation might make it such that you don't want a deadly game, but could you theoretically run an open ended exploration champaign? Or do you think that the rule system in 5E/A5E is too complex to handle this sort of evolving gameplay/storytelling for both GM and Player alike?
Bo Thomsen
2024-05-21 00:57:11 +0000 UTCHow would you integrate fate and prophecies in a DnD campaign (Greek mythology style) without taking agency away from the players and the story feeling like it‘s set in stone?
Jose Schroeder
2024-05-20 18:57:00 +0000 UTCDo you print out/make copies of the monster stat blocks that you will be using in given session? I was running the boss battle at Castle Orzelbirg from Empire of the Ghouls yesterday and I found myself doing rather a lot of flipping through the books (even after jotting down notes as to many of the monsters at issue). Any advice (in addition to printing everything out) that you could lend as to how to minimize this would be greatly appreciated.
Luke Baumstark
2024-05-20 15:49:26 +0000 UTCLong time fan (since the first Lazy DM book), first time commenter here. I know you don't often run published campaigns/adventures as-is but rather use them as a setting instead. However, if you wanted to run, say, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight as it is in the book, how would you go about making notes about the different things that happen in the adventure? I know you have a Youtube series on prepping TWBTW, but I mostly saw the classic Lazy DM elements (secrets & clues, NPCs, etc), but for example when you run the rides/activities at the carnival, how do you remember what's available? Do you write them down in shorthand or do you just check the book? Essentially, how do you prep for the more involved scenes of a published adventure? Do you just jot down the complex stuff under the "scenes" portion of your Notion page?
Christopher Smith
2024-05-20 10:04:44 +0000 UTCMike, I get the impression that you are a Forever GM. Do you ever get to play on the other side of the screen, and if so, how does being a Forever GM impact your play style?
Jason Kemp
2024-05-20 05:51:34 +0000 UTCI think it's great that titles from MCDM and Kobold press are now being offered on dndbeyond... but I've had the book & pdfs for awhile now and I don't really want to buy them again. What are other DMs doing if we want to offer this content to our players within dndbeyond? Just continue to homebrew everything that we use? Appreciate you taking the question.
Mr. Smith
2024-05-20 02:22:55 +0000 UTCHow do you feel about disarming or altering characters’ long-held loot for a particular scenario? e.g. putting a “lock up your weapons and spellcasting focuses for this high-stakes wedding you’re all going to”? Should it be a surprise or telegraphed? Is it challenging in a fun way, or needlessly punitive?
Edmund O'Neill
2024-05-19 11:56:48 +0000 UTCYou've mentioned several adventures having potential TPK adventures at level 1. If you're selecting 2 from 3 quests at level 1, and you would ostensibly do #2 at level 2, what should publishers do to ensure they're challenging at both levels? My obvious one is stick "if they're level two, add x of y monster here, here, and here" or not let them go to level 2 before 2 quests are concluded, but there may be a more elegant solution.
Chaz
2024-05-19 05:59:45 +0000 UTCYou raise the point that of your favourite adventures, they are all designed by a single person. I've got an issue you didn't mention with Rime of the Frostmaiden related to that. The adventures are all of varying degrees of light-heartedness and darkness. Going from widdle-wuddle gnome mind flayers and playing hide and seek with friendly nature spirits to Deliverance (Dougan's Hole should have a banjo-playing kid)/The Thing/Mountains of Madness is extremely jarring. Why do you think that happened? Is it the editor, the instructions each individual writer got, or something else?
Chaz
2024-05-19 05:56:51 +0000 UTCHello Mike et al. I went into my local TTRPG shop recently looking for content and world books (Midgard), and the owner pitched me at length on the 5e revamped version of Scarred Lands. The pantheon, grit, and crunchiness of the world were his biggest selling points. I walked out with the book and it definitely is as he described. Wondering if you or anyone else has had any experiences with it. Thanks in advance!
Mr. Smith
2024-05-19 02:19:50 +0000 UTCYou didn't include Hoard of the Sea King in your tier list, where would it go?
Chaz
2024-05-18 19:21:15 +0000 UTCMy question is about your Shadowdark campaign-- first, because it followed on the heels of the Scarlet Citadel campaign, where you had to build in so much "story arc"/quest infrastructure to motivate the characters, do you think that affected how you built Gloaming campaign? Put another way-- do you think you'd have the overarching storyline if you hadn't just had to do that with Citadel? I ask because it's the one place where it seems more "Sly Flourish" than Shadowdark in play style. Also, I haven't heard you talk much about the much more structured experience/levelling system of Shadowdark-- how do you think it compares to 5e or other systems?
Justin Colussy-Estes
2024-05-18 01:25:09 +0000 UTCHey Sly — just curious if you had used the Savage Worlds system at all, and had any thoughts on it? It's a really pulpy action system, nice as a contrast to the current low-power OSR trends. No worries if not, love what you do! Cheers!
coots
2024-05-17 16:27:22 +0000 UTCHi Mike. I am a year into my first campaign which has turned from module into homebrew adventures in an established setting. I find that alot of the time my mind is concerned over creating plot hooks / or npc plans that make sense to the lore of the setting or mechanics of the game. As a novice dm this extra research can add alot to prep time and cause concern that my ideas don't land well with a few of my players, who themselves are more experienced dms and lore buffs. I suppose my question is if there is any advice or process for this, or is it just a case of gathering information over time, trusting your gut and developing creativity in the area?
seandaw
2024-05-17 15:35:06 +0000 UTCHi Harkness! Here's my best advice on handling lots of players with differing schedules: https://slyflourish.com/the_on_call_list.html https://slyflourish.com/finding_players.html https://slyflourish.com/interviewing_new_players.html Good luck!
Michael Shea
2024-05-17 13:37:11 +0000 UTCVery coo!!
Michael Shea
2024-05-17 13:35:55 +0000 UTCThere used to be in old days. Now you can usually get map packs for regions from the artists. Mike Schley for example, has lots of maps of his Forgotten Realms stuff. I think Anna Myers has the same for Greyhawk.
Michael Shea
2024-05-17 13:35:37 +0000 UTCFirst, pay careful attention to the beats in a dungeon crawl. Too many battles against monsters over and over can definitely get boring and repetitive. https://slyflourish.com/beats_of_a_dungeon_crawl.html Include friendly NPCs, things to explore, secret paths and chambers, ways for the characters to get the drop on monsters, and that sort of thing. It's fine to have monsters behave sub-optimally. They don't all have to attack at the slightest noise. You can also have a more dynamic situation going on in the dungeon like two factions at war. That's a common way to spice up a dungeon crawl. Hope that helps!
Michael Shea
2024-05-17 13:34:15 +0000 UTCI always like handing the story over to the players in the epilogue so I wouldn't push one of a new evil after they just defeated another. I think the idea that a bunch of vampire spawn have gone to protect strahd while he's in the coffin is cool. Maybe some smaller spawn and then some more powerful vampires like Ez. You could have a new version of him in his "weakened" state so they can fight another version of Strahd instead of the same one. The 2014 vampire stat block for vampires and Strahd isn't great but you might get some ideas from other monster books. Good luck!
Michael Shea
2024-05-17 13:31:48 +0000 UTCThat's a tough one, mostly because you have a whole bunch of other players at the table too and I doubt all of them have as rich a backstory and quest as this one does. That's something to consider. I would probably look at the theme of the overall campaign and see what I could weave in that would also connect to the work of the other characters and their goals. The idea that there's now a gap in the Shadow Realm due to the removal of the Shadow Fey Queen could be fun to explore. Perhaps things have gotten more chaotic with her removal and now that chaos is its own problem. One evil faction turned into twelve and now it's even worse but needs someone to stand in and fix it. But I don't know if that goes along with the rest of the campaign arc you have planned. Perhaps the other fey lords give them a quest to solve this imbalance and that is what gives them access to being an archfey.
Michael Shea
2024-05-17 13:13:05 +0000 UTCProbably two: The Dungeon Crawl: https://slyflourish.com/running_dungeon_crawls.html and the Infiltration / Heist: https://slyflourish.com/running_infiltration_adventures.html The structures are well known to me, I know how to prep and run them. They have a nice fixed and focused structure but lots of freedom for the players to make choices which means I have more fun because I don't know what they're going to do. These are my favorites.
Michael Shea
2024-05-17 13:08:46 +0000 UTCI think you might consider letting them use the Shifter race from Eberron Rising from the Last War. It's balanced against other character races so it's not so unbalanced. If they want other features too, like fully shifting into the shape of a beast, I'd probably try to work with them on figuring out what they have to give up to have that feature. There are probably also other character-focused options that might fit the bill but that's the one that jumps out to me.
Michael Shea
2024-05-17 13:07:16 +0000 UTCI have more players than I know what to do with, and they all have their own wild schedules, how would you run a game with 8 plus players if only a random assortment of 3-5 can make it to each session?
Harkness Granger
2024-05-16 19:15:31 +0000 UTCKaren has other books like the Atlas of Dragonlance. There's Atlas of Pern, Atlas of the Land, Atlas of Middle Earth, Forgotten Realms Atlas
Kaique de Oliveira
2024-05-16 13:12:00 +0000 UTCNot sure if you recall but I posted a question a few months ago about how best to destroy a city when the players had learned of a doomsday device but then forgot about it: I ended up running the adventure as a one-shot all-wizard party where the players were wizard guild operatives trying to infiltrate the enemy complex. It went great! They remembered they'd already seen doomsday device when they encountered it, and it even got set off early when one character insisted on tampering on it without the other's knowledge. I even made a cool mission briefing document for them based on US Military operation briefs. So there you go, if you have an iffy campaign twist or suicide mission, run it as a one-shot with throwaway characters! Thanks! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KSxXqhqsdLRGTZHjTKDo-cOM6UOtlyFnBhisMpsx4GI/edit?usp=sharing
Patrick W.
2024-05-15 15:45:29 +0000 UTCDo you know of any sourcebooks that are a collection of maps belonging to the same world? In other words, a fantasy atlas rather than a setting book. I would think this would be something many GMs would be interested in, but I can't seem to find anything. The closest thing I could find was an Atlas of the Dragonlance World, which has a global map, detailed maps of various regions, city maps, and dungeon maps. However, I don't want to use the Dragonlance atlas because I'm too familiar with the setting. I like the idea of an atlas without a detailed setting because it feels like a blank slate with plenty of inspiration. I'm open to anyone answering this question.
Christopher Willson
2024-05-15 04:45:18 +0000 UTCWhen my characters walk into dungeons or places with a lot of monsters, often times the gameplay can get laborious. It starts to feel like “roll initiative”, “kill the monster”, ohhh there is another monster in this room “roll initiative”, “kill the monster”, rinse and repeat. I have tried to solve this by having the monsters all come in throughout combat but that ends up sacrificing the story and taking autonomy from the players (because maybe they won’t ever go into the room that the monster is in). How do/would you solve this issue?
Blake
2024-05-14 17:45:30 +0000 UTCDuring the last session, my group reduced Strahd to 0 HP. He transformed into mist and floated to his coffin. Unfortunately, the battle was a little boring. I started with a hit-and-run tactic and soon realized that my players were expecting a big showdown, so Strahd started to take more risks, and that was his downfall (he died pretty quickly). The characters know where the coffin is and are aware of the teleport trap and how to avoid it. Next session, they are heading to the catacombs to kill him once and for all. I've got a few ideas for the next session: 1. They know Ez is in the castle, but they don't know she has been turned into a vampire spawn and is waiting to reluctantly kill the party on behalf of her new master. She might be a good "second boss" since Rahadin is dead. 2. The castle itself may sense that Strahd is in danger and might animate (furniture, doors, stairs...) and attack the party. 3. Perhaps include waves of vampire spawns. 4. I'm considering a "5 years after" epilogue and maybe a hint about a new evil master in Barovia. Any suggestions on how to make this last session memorable and exciting? (or comments on the ideas above).
Kaique de Oliveira
2024-05-14 01:06:33 +0000 UTCHey Mike! My group just recently finished our 52nd session of our current campaign that I’m running in Midgard. After a long, dynamic arc that ended with the player’s wiping out an evil Shadow Fey Queen and her court, they reached level 8, completed about 8 weeks of downtime and traveled from The Margreve/Zobeck to the Queensmeet Tournament in the Migdar Kingdom (I stumbled across a bunch of festivals and events while taking your advice and just reading through sections of the Midgard World Book). It is a great change of pace for the campaign and the players are having a good time competing in the different events: jousting, wizard duels, battle of the bards, etc. While I use the time to seed as many story/adventure hooks as I possibly can for them to pursue once they leave the festival. There are all sorts of people from all over Midgard attending, so I am really opening up the world to them (they had been pretty much confined to the margreve and the shadow realm before this). One of my players is a Fairy bard who, along with his brother (another player), is the son of a Minor Fey Lord from the River Kingdom. As part of the first arc of the campaign, he had retrieved and subsequently been cursed by a family heirloom he was tasked by his father to return (a crossbow modeled after The Thorn and Rose from Destiny). As a player, he really leaned into it and used it as a way to pursue power but ultimately he was possessed by the Shadow Fey Queen and the party had to take care of her in order to release him. In the process of all of this, he decided to multiclass into warlock for a few levels for narrative reasons, but once they defeated the Queen his character was really questioning if he should pledge himself to another entity or not. Being an insanely charismatic Glamor Bard, he has gotten a taste for “worship” and “praise” and has decided that, going forward, he will only believe in himself, taking a Patron of the Self (reskinned Archfey patron) and telling me that his character has decided that he would like to pursue the course of becoming an Archfey. I made it very clear that this was something that, if possible, would be extremely difficult and take a very long time. Essentially something that he could work towards for a long-term, campaign-spanning goal. He is all in, and he is also a long-time DM, so he knows that this won’t just be something he can do. I am working on compiling as much information about the fey courts in Kobold Press books/articles and coming up with very obtuse and esoteric goals, like anything Fey-related. Knowing that there are many abandoned “Elf-nations” in Midgard, it seems like one of the goals could be to “Claim a Domain” with the idea of reclaiming one of these nations and reconnect it to the Fey-wild. Any ideas for very broad, esoteric achievements that one would need to complete in order to become an Arch Fey? How can I reveal the logistics of such tasks or should i let them lead with creative ideas based on how they interpret it? Or things I could seed at this tourney that could help move this forward? (that might have been too much context to get to the question lol) Thanks again!
Dan Dredgen
2024-05-13 19:14:02 +0000 UTCThanks for the link - this nails it.
JspaceRyan
2024-05-13 18:34:51 +0000 UTCI found that a balance of interesting replies but no over eager to provide them tends to make the character trust the NPC more. for example, in answering where some NPC went, the NPC provides an answer sort of "That way, and..." perhaps wanting to say something more like "that guy changed his cape to a yellow one" or "I could recognize her if I saw her again" but waiting for the characters to engage in asking before providing the answer. And if asked why he stopped talking he replies something along "you seemed to be in a a hurry"
Gustavo Campanelli
2024-05-13 14:59:47 +0000 UTCI played D&D by forum and yeah, combat slows, but it's the nature of the format. What you can do while waiting for all to reply is doodle some maps and offer thus better understanding of what is going of, and keep a tally in every post of creature status (even HP if you dare) and who is fighting who. This allows players to notice situations and thus require less time to reply with something meaningful. If you are using some kind of dice roller, require attack roll and damage roll in the same post. as well as intended actions. all this lessens the need to waste posts in clarifications and makes turns roll just a tad faster.
Gustavo Campanelli
2024-05-13 14:28:27 +0000 UTCOne DM/content creator made a name for this: "pineappling" https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/50515/roleplaying-games/random-gm-tip-pineappling Basically if you specifically identify some object/circumstance, you should expect a group of PCs to make a big deal about it. And it's up to you to decide whether to immediately identify it as "just a pineapple," or to instead let them ponder over it for an hour to eat up game time as needed.
Chris
2024-05-13 04:59:48 +0000 UTCYou have talked a lot about different adventure structures in the past. Yam style, heist, dungeon crawl etc - What one do you personally find you go back to over and over?
Great Diviner Games
2024-05-12 11:01:09 +0000 UTCgood morning mike, hope your enjoying the weekend. i have a group of players that want to make a run of the curse of stradh campaign. the issue is that two of the players want to start the campaign as lycanthropes. personally i dont mind but i think that would make the low levels unbalanced in their favor. what im think of is once they get to some of the higher levels and they get bit, it will basicly unlock as a hidden ancestry. Thoughts?
astray darkblood
2024-05-11 17:43:30 +0000 UTCSounds like good advice! I’ll try it out. Thank you so much!
Justin Underland
2024-05-11 06:15:04 +0000 UTCjust thinking aloud, given the high mortality rate in SD and players lamenting a lack of defensive options, maybe also ruling that a PC could use the actual combat action "Improvise" to "dodge" and give DIS on enemy attacks that turn. That one interpretation might give the players some more agency in their own defense to stay alive, maybe even run away, should they choose. Of course, we would also want the players to give us a quick description of what that looks like :) In a way, the elegant brevity of the Improvise action as designed by Kelsey can really allow everyone at the table to explore other combat ideas in SD besides attacks and casting spells. When combat can become a fail state so much more in this system, it might help soothe some of the character mortality pain that 5e only players feel when coming over to try SD. Anyways, cheers and thanks for the fast reply.
Cloaker
2024-05-10 23:01:10 +0000 UTCOk. Interesting. I haven’t engaged very much TOTV. I would be curious for your thoughts once you have moment to digest them via your big comfy chair + beverage process.
George PR
2024-05-10 15:11:44 +0000 UTCHi there! I have some thoughts here: https://youtu.be/yaRpkhrvLAU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0biCGqN4pc&t=2296s I think its fine to teach D&D 5e. It's complicated but hundreds of thousands to millions of new players have learned it. I think going with the Dragon of Strormwreck Isle starter set is a fantastic way to go.
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 14:10:07 +0000 UTCI think players have a hard enough time figuring things out without us throwing out red herrings. I do it from time to time but it's usually obvious. For me, secrets and clues are almost always true.
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 14:07:19 +0000 UTCYeah! That's probably the answer I'd still give =) Thanks for checking the database!
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 14:06:50 +0000 UTCI haven't. I know there are doom points in Tales of the Valiant but I haven't studied it yet. I just got the core books yesterday! Exciting!
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 14:06:16 +0000 UTCSure. This is also why there's passive Perception, Insight, and Investigation. I think players might feel cheated if you're not using those scores but that's why the passive scores exist. If they're actively doing something, you can ask for their bonus and roll behind the screen. This is great for traps. More on that here: https://slyflourish.com/ability_check_toolbox.html
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 14:05:48 +0000 UTCThanks so much for running City of Arches!! I think its ok to have the Dread Necropolis rise and not have to end the whole arc. Instead, build a short two-session arc of a specific story recognizing that this threat may still be there on the horizon. It's ok to leave some parts of it unfinished but focus on a good clear story and arc and conclusion for the sessions you have left. Think of it like Rogue One. It's not the end of the story, it's the beginning but it ends in hope.
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 14:04:44 +0000 UTCUnfortunately I have no experience running play by post sorts of games. I'm sorry. You might hit up the SF discord server and see what others have to offer!
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 14:03:10 +0000 UTCI think you can be clear with them that "hey, this thing makes a great landmark but after careful study, it doesn't look like it has anything else to offer you". But maybe they come up with something cool and you can roll with it!
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 14:02:16 +0000 UTCHi Kennith! I wrote a bit about my GMing style here: https://slyflourish.com/describe_your_gm_style.html I like a mix of theater of the mind and tabletop terrain or loose maps with abstract distances. I like a mix of all three pillars with a heavy focus on describing what's happening in the fiction of the game. I think I prefer homebrew adventures in published settings. https://slyflourish.com/homebrew_adventures_in_published_settings.html
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 14:01:36 +0000 UTCThank you for your support! I'll check it out!
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 13:59:56 +0000 UTCHi Craig! I have a bunch of responses to AI in the Q&A database. Here's one that best answers your question: https://slyflourish.com/sf_patreon_files_898123050001223/qa/?id=1890
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 13:59:36 +0000 UTCI block a lot of YT channels. Honestly, my YT front page has little to do with D&D and more to do with other hobbies of mine. I think the hobby is in a fantastic spot, really. I don't have to work to stay positive because I *am* positive about it. We have amazing games and amazing supplements to run at our table. It's fantsatic. I've left a lot of social media behind. I left X more than a year ago and never miss it. Mastodon's RPG postings aren't very negative and I don't spend a lot of time on Bluesky. I don't go to Facebook or Instagram or Tiktok or Threads. We have some somewhat negative conversations on Discord about the hobby or whatever bit of drama WOTC is in but really, that just doesn't matter. The games are great. I have to be honest, though, Eve of Vecna doesn't look good to me. One important thing is not to hinge our joy of the hobby to whatever's going on with just D&D or WOTC. The hobby is huge. There are a ton of great adventures out there. We have a lot to chose from even if WOTC's big heavily-marketed campaign doesn't hit the mark.
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 13:58:49 +0000 UTCI have it but I haven't really dug into it. The production value looks really high. I bet people in the SF discord server have something to say!
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 13:56:01 +0000 UTCIt's an interesting idea but I'd clear it with my players first. Learning a bunch of new systems might not be as interesting to them as it is to you. But see what they think and maybe give it a shot and see how it actually works out.
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 13:55:44 +0000 UTCIt's blasphemy but: 1. I'd give the characters 5 extra hit points at 1st level. Just enough to maybe take an extra hit or two instead of dropping on every hit. 2. I'd let everyone start with a luck point at the beginning of a session but they can only use it to get advantage on their attack or give advantage to another character. They can't use it to put disadvantage on a monster. Honestly, those are the only two that come to mind.
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 13:55:01 +0000 UTCI hate reactions. Shield, counterspell, and other things that break the flow of the game. It's not even the power of these things but the way they take the story and have it hit a brick wall. "nope" sort of stuff. It also overcomplicates the game because I have to ask things like "are you going to do anything before I roll all these attacks?" because sometimes players will try to retroactively interrupt stuff that happened a round or two back. Reactions, man.
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 13:52:49 +0000 UTCI think you need a strong hook to bring them in but a lot of the time players are happy to play what you're running. Still, having a strong hook that shows the players what sort of adventure they'll be playing is helpful whether it's homebrewed or published. Also, if you use a published setting but a homebrew adventure, you might get the best of both worlds – a world the players recognize but an adventure you have the freedom to build. This article may help! https://slyflourish.com/homebrew_adventures_in_published_settings.html
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 13:50:31 +0000 UTCFirst off, it's totally cool to run shorter campaigns up through tier 1 and 2. Characters get a lot of cool abilities and are very empowered and a lot of players recognize that things go off the rails as character power continues to grow quadraticly. It's also ok to give yourself a break. You don't have to remember everything all the time. You also don't need to remember every hook if the players themselves don't remember them. And this isn't unrealistic either. I life, there are few tied up loose ends. Sometimes they're just loose and unresolved. That's ok too. Important stuff comes back and sometimes a loose thread just falls away. I find that by keeping track of NPCs, I am usually able to keep track of the plot threads as well because the threads are often tied to NPCs. I had dozens of NPCs in my Empire of the Ghouls game and brought a lot of them back in the final session. The players barely remembered any of them but it was a lot of fun to whip up pictures of all the NPCs and remind them of these interactions they've had over two years.
Michael Shea
2024-05-10 13:41:27 +0000 UTCHi Mike! Hope all is well! A frequent topic you bring up and one I find fascinating is that in order to see this hobby grow is to be “good stewards” of the hobby. Still not 100% on what that actually looks like but one thing I strongly believe in is teaching and getting new players into the hobby is the best course of action. This came up because Zipperon Disney made some recent shorts sharing how he runs for new players. He gives them a simpler character sheet and guided character decisions. I feel conflicted because DND 5e, although much simpler than previous editions, is maybe not the best choice because I feel like it is too heavy on rules for new players. Yes there is Shadowdark with its simpler rules but isn’t it too deadly? I’ve thought that maybe there are some games would fit the bill like my favorite ICRPG. If I have new players wanting to learn DND but I feel bad for turning around and teaching them a system I think will be a better stepping stone into the hobby. In short how does become good stewards of the hobby? What does that look like? How should one be teaching new players? is DND 5e the best choice? If it isn’t what system? Whats the best course of action here?
Justin Underland
2024-05-10 09:08:20 +0000 UTCAs far as I can tell, your Secrets & Clues are always true. Do you ever give out false information as a distraction or false lead, etc?
Unferth
2024-05-10 01:20:26 +0000 UTCNever mind, I found the answer in the Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A Database: https://slyflourish.com/sf_patreon_files_898123050001223/qa/?id=836
Brad F
2024-05-10 00:16:24 +0000 UTCIn your experience, what is the easiest way to grab the interest of your players in an NPC?
Brad F
2024-05-10 00:13:41 +0000 UTCWhen using the Luck system from Kobold Press do you also provide a similar currency to bosses or BBEG? Or would that be lair actions or legendary resistances?
George PR
2024-05-09 23:56:42 +0000 UTCWhat are your thoughts on rolling PC insight, perception, and investigation checks behind the DM screen to streamline / keep the action based on what the characters and not the players know?
Adam Wieberg
2024-05-09 23:38:30 +0000 UTCHey Mike so my City of Arches Campaign is having to end abruptly due to my wife and I moving states. This is leaving me with 2 sessions to wrap up the campaign to a satisfying state. The Dread Necropolis was recently risen and it felt like the beginning to a new arc so I am unsure how to make it a satisfying ending. How would you recommend or do you have any tips for a campaign being cut short abruptly? Thanks!
Ben Hodges
2024-05-09 22:26:12 +0000 UTCmy usual D&D group are struggling to get together due to RL issues, so i had the idea of running the new Vecna Nest of the Eldritch Eye (i went against my own advice and pre-ordered) over a Whats-app group chat in almost a "chess by post" style where players aren't necessarily responding in real time or even at the same time. Against all odds it seems to be working quite well, one thing that is difficult is combat, 1 bad guy vs party wasn't too bad i just said here's 3 rounds of attacks one against each of you, you guys roll your attacks x 3, but now there are larger groups of hostiles, have you got any ideas on how i could simplify things down to fit the "by post" format but still keep it interesting and meaningful?
William Jones
2024-05-09 22:16:15 +0000 UTCI like using Fantastic Locations, wilderness dressings, and landmarks to help the locations come alive, but I've noticed a side effect. My players often think these interesting things must "be" or "do" something important simply because I mentioned them. Sure, sometimes a Tree of Flowers reveals a secret/clue, (even if I have to improv something at the time), but sometimes an Unsettling Sculpture is just a sculpture. How do I balance creating interesting places without distracting my players? Am I making too much of this?
JspaceRyan
2024-05-09 20:02:43 +0000 UTCMike, you've talked a lot about your DM style generally, but I don't think you've gone into the specifics. What are your personal tendencies and preferences? Theater of the mind vs battlemaps? Combat every session? Multiple role play sessions in a row? Pre-writren campaigns with tweaks, or fully homebrew campaigns in established settings?
Kenneth Hamilton
2024-05-09 19:09:30 +0000 UTCHi Mike, thanks so much for all the content! The amount of free material you have made available to the community is staggering. Enough so that it only seemed right to me to join the Patreon :). We recently started a Vaults of Vaarn campaign - would love to see you give this a look some time and share your thoughts! Thanks again-
Reluctanse
2024-05-09 18:50:52 +0000 UTCMike, what are your thoughts on the use of generative AI to support GM's running their games? Not for purposes of sales, or creating some product, but for personal use at home? Is it ever okay? Thoughts about using technology to generate gaming maps, images of NPC's, using it to generate campaign ideas or to figure out what that Bugbear has in its pockets when your players search it, etc?
Craig Pressley
2024-05-09 18:40:08 +0000 UTCWith so much negativity towards D&D in social media and YT, how do you manage to stay positive and not leave social media altogether? I ask this because the current negativity towards Eve of Vecna and any thing WotC related has gotten me down.
Drunken Yoda
2024-05-09 17:42:12 +0000 UTCWhat are your thoughts on Chains of Asmodeus, WOTC’s high level campaign module? I’ve never heard you mention it and am curious on your thoughts
Rover Bernhard
2024-05-09 17:34:42 +0000 UTCI am working in an idea for a planar campaign where the PCs will choose missions based on descriptions provided. These missions may occasionally send them to realms where different rulesets will apply. Choose this one, and we run an adventure in 13th Age, choose that one and it is B/X D&D, etc. The default will be 5e, and it is my plan to offer substantive clues as to which missions may involve system switches versus which one will not, but without outright saying it. I would also plan on working up alternate versions of the character myself based on what the players have made for 5e. Have you ever run anything with system-switches like this? Do you have any advice to offer?
Luke Baumstark
2024-05-09 16:46:24 +0000 UTCYou've been running a lot of Shadowdark obviously--if you were going to add (if you haven't already) 3 house rules to make it more appealing to not only source but retain 5e only players, what would those House Rules be and why?
Cloaker
2024-05-09 16:34:27 +0000 UTCDuring our session 0 I usually ask which specific elements my players like about D&D so I can make sure I add a little of whatever they like in the campaign (puzzles, herbalism, etc.). But I’ve recently started asking what they hate about D&D or what drains their energy. It’s been very interesting to see which topics come up: PC theft, players being late, interrupting eachother, complex lore, meta gaming. Are there elements to the game or player behaviour that just drains your energy and fun out of a session for you?
Rien Van Dingenen
2024-05-09 16:29:57 +0000 UTCHi Mike! Thanks for all the great content! I find it easy to get my players excited about published adventures, since they might have heard about the adventure and since it's the written by professionals. But I find it really hard to get them excited about homebrew campaigns. Do you have any tips on how to get players excited about homebrew stuff?
Jon
2024-05-09 16:26:53 +0000 UTCI feel my abilities of campaign complexity management caps out around the end Tier 2. I love just slapping together encounters and single level adventures from scratch or reskinned from published adventures, playing off what the party did last session. But unless I’m running a campaign arc that’s published (and fills in all the major plots and NPCs) I feel overwhelmed by the complexity of managing an appropriately late Tier 2 or higher story / situation. Once there’s more than a few threats, major reoccurring locations, and NPCs I start forgetting things at the table even with prep, as I’m a very “in the moment” DM. Any thoughts or tips? Honestly I’m happy to keep running level 1 to 8-9ish campaigns, but I wonder if I’m missing something obvious. Is there a trick to make an expansive situation or story actual narrow to think about when DMing, without being stuck with a published yam or heavily railroading the players?
Ryan McIntyre
2024-05-09 16:20:50 +0000 UTC
