February 2024 Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A
Added 2024-02-08 17:00:04 +0000 UTCWelcome to the Sly Flourish Patreon Questions and Answers thread for February 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, 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 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.
- ask only one question each month.
- 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
Regarding Magic Items... It seems that magic items may need to be a little more magical. If you have a +3 Longsword, does it have a name? Who made it? Where? Does it have any powers... or ones that you dont know about? Another thing I try to do is not always have a flat +/- bonuse or penalty. I think some weapons may have a different bonus to hit and then one for damage. +1/+2 etc. or just a flat +2 to both. You see, someone put a lot of time, effort, and magic into this item. This doesn't regard all items. You can give potions dirfferent names, but I'm really talking about items that are more permanent. Sorry to ramble on, but I do you think magic items should be handled with a little more uniqueness. A lot of lesser items may be available due to some sort of quirk with the item because it was someones early attempt aat making a magically imbued item. Some items may be superior without any magic, but due to quality and balancing. These would be a perfect candidate for a bonus to hit but not as much damage: +1/-2. Anyway, I've rambled on long enough, please post any comments you may have.
WombatV
2024-03-03 23:40:13 +0000 UTCI'll turn your question around a little bit – is it important to remember that sort of thing? Does it come back up often or do the players remember? One way to do it is to ask the *players* to write down such notes in a way that you can refer to them. Personally, it's rare that I need to go back and keep track of which secret was revealed in which way. Sometimes I reveal something the players already knew but that's ok. It reinforces what they learned. So my big question is – is it worth keeping track of in the first place? And, if it is, maybe ask the players to keep track of it in a way you can reference yourself.
Michael Shea
2024-03-01 14:36:39 +0000 UTCGood morning! Was just listening to your prep episode where you discussed what notes the GM needs to take. For me the biggest thing that I struggle to remember is where I dropped the secrets and clues (which ones have the players uncovered, and who told them what). It's a bit too complicated to easily note in the moment while improvising (or at least, the way I'm trying to do it isn't working very well). How do you keep track of this?
Laura
2024-03-01 14:11:14 +0000 UTCHi there, in your home games how much cross talk is there. Do you guys spend an hour talking about your week. I struggle because everyone else is talking about work and I just want to play the game and I feel like I am annoying by always telling people it's their turn. Do you make a rule to keep talk on the game or do I just need to get over it and just have fun even if everyone doesn't take it as serious as me. Thank you keep up the great work
CustomAlex .
2024-02-27 06:10:58 +0000 UTCRecently, I’ve started an Eberron campaign. As part of my online research, I discovered Keith Baker’s “Exploring Eberron” on DM’s Guild. I bought it immediately, and I’m glad I did. But I’m having a hard time making sense of DM’s Guild’s policies on which campaign settings can be used by third party publishers for DMG products. It seems that some settings—like Eberron and Ravenloft—are fair game, and others—such as Greyhawk and Dragonlance—are not. Why is this? And might it change with the 2024 D&D update? I don’t understand how the restrictive policy helps WotC/Hasbro. Why not allow third party DMG publishers to use all the traditional campaign settings? For example, a more open policy could breath life into Greyhawk beyond just Saltmarsh.
Unfrozen Caveman Roleplayer
2024-02-26 18:15:17 +0000 UTCAloha Mike, I understand that having a campaign above 10th level makes creating good, challenging, and meaningful encounters more tricky while also trying to avoid artificially scaling everything up in difficulty (i.e. the guards in this city are all of a sudden much more difficult and tough than in the last one). However, when I'm creating encounters I wish I had some kind of checklist or guidelines to follow so that I don't find out that the players can easily circumvent things during the game. Any good advice on this? My players are currently level 13.
Arash Steindamm
2024-02-17 00:50:46 +0000 UTCTwo things that you'll need to know 1) there are two schools of worldbuilding top down, where you design the outer part and infrastructure of the world before going into details, and bottom up, when you start with the details your need right now for this adventure in this world, and continue build up as needed for further adventures. 2) You'll need to figure for yourself when is the point that enough is enough, don't design things the players most probably will not get into.
Gustavo Campanelli
2024-02-16 17:03:12 +0000 UTCI'm fairly new to DM'ing, having only run prewritten official 5e modules, with the second one due to finish in a couple of session. During both of these modules (Witchlight and Strixhaven) I felt that I was at my most comfortable when I was forced to come up with my own ideas and characters as it gave me the freedom to add my own flair to things. As a result, I've decided my next campaign will likely be set in a homebrew setting. This will give me the opportunity to truly make the world my own and hopefully allow me to bring A-Game when DM'ing as I'll have a better understanding of the world itself when the randomness of the players choices require me improvise. Over the last few weeks I've been looking to start worldbuilding but I've been hesitant to start because quite frankly, I don't know WHERE to start. Do you have any recommendations on where I should start worldbuilding and some key aspects I need to have prepared. Alternatively, if there is no one right answer, how do you reccomend I figure out what works best for me? (apologies if this is too long)
Cameron Hall
2024-02-16 14:40:23 +0000 UTCHow would you apply the lessons you've learned running Shadowdark, adjusting the game to incorporate factions and other changes, to plan and begin a new Shadowdark campaign with that foundation in place?
Russel Hiatt
2024-02-09 04:39:55 +0000 UTCNo question that you haven't already answered elsewhere so I'll just pop in to say thanks for continuing the Lazy RPG Talkshow. I look forward to it every week!
PhD20
2024-02-09 02:04:52 +0000 UTC
