Michael E. Shea's Blog, page 11

My Favorite TTRPG Products of 2023

Over 2023 I've been lucky to look at a lot of various tabletop roleplaying game products and I wanted to give you a list of my favorite five for 2023.

First, I have some disclaimers. I didn't see everything published and I didn't even read everything I've received. I'll likely find new gems in all the stuff I've picked up the further I get into them. Second, this list is just my opinion. If you disagree, that's totally cool. If you have favorite products not on this list, that's also cool. We each get to decide what we love.

Without further waffling, here are my favorite five RPG products of 2023.

Shadowdark RPG

Wow. Shadowdark. This book nails its intentions of "old school style, new school sensibilities." Anyone familiar with 5th edition D&D can easily understand the stripped-down mechanics of Shadowdark but its style of play is very different from 5e. Shadowdark is grim. It's dark. Characters die...a lot. The characters struggle with inventory. They struggle with travel. But they mostly struggle to stay in the light. I've been running a regular Shadowdark RPG for seventeen weeks now and my players and I love it. I ran it with the original I6 Ravenloft and thought it fit perfectly with the classic 1st edition D&D adventure. Shadowdark is an opinionated RPG. It's not about clean character arcs, deep background stories, or character growth over a campaign. It's about diving into dangerous holes in the ground and finding treasure before you're murdered by a bugbear.

Flee Mortals

MCDM's monster book exploded on Kickstarter and the results do not disappoint. Flee Mortals is what I like to call an opinionated RPG book. It wants to do certain things a certain way and it focuses on those things. Monsters in Flee Mortals all have unique and interesting things they do. Many of them can replace monsters you'd typically find in a core 5e monster book but not all of them. I don't really think of it as a replacement to a core monster book the way I think of the A5e Monstrous Menagerie. It has the best examples of Matt Coleville's "action oriented" monsters and a unique style for creating and running minions. I'm clearly biased in my opinions of Flee Mortals ��� I had the awesome opportunity to write the vampires in here along with consulting on the book's encounter building guidelines.

Uncharted Journeys

Cubicle 7 got a lot of praise for the exploration system they put into the Adventures of Middle Earth roleplaying game. They took that experience and put it into the more world-neutral Uncharted Journeys. This thick book focuses on creating and detailing exploration scenes, encounters, and journeys. It has a section on the four roles characters can take while exploring but the bulk of the book focuses on the details of various regions and tables of potential encounters for different types of beats like "a chance meeting", "monster hunt", and "a place to rest." It's a big book with a lot of ideas so it's best used to help you fill out scenes during prep ��� not during play. With hundreds of different potential scenes, there's a lot to dig into in this book.

Zobeck Clockwork City

Zobeck Clockwork City is a book put together from the previous material Kobold Press published on the city of Zobeck from their Midgard campaign, stretching back to earlier Pathfinder material and including stuff from Warlock magazine. It's an awesome city sourcebook adding life and depth to this central city in the world of Midgard. If you're planning on running Midgard and beginning your campaign in Zobeck, this book is an excellent resource to fill it out.

Tome of Beasts 1, 2023 Edition

Kobold Press revised their first book of monsters and updated them into the new style we're seeing for 5th edition monsters. But, more importantly for me, the new book is printed on beautiful glossy paper instead of the more rough matte paper of the original book. The old paper didn't carry darker colors nearly as well as the new one. The new monster designs are great, but if you have the old one, you don't need to buy the new one unless you really want to. If you don't have it, however, Tome of Beasts 2023 is an excellent book of monsters.

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Our hobby is rich with awesome products, these days. I don't think there's ever been a better time to enjoy the full breadth of what the TTRPG hobby has to offer. Keep yourself open to RPG material from lots of different publishers. These five products are only a small sample. Keep your eyes open and enjoy the wealth of materials so many creators have to offer.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Last week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Use the Lazy DM 8 Steps At the Table and Vault of Shune ��� Shadowdark Gloaming Session 17 Lazy GM Prep.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

A Player's Primer to Level Up Advanced 5eGM Screen for Lazy GMs Portrait ModeBen Riggs on the Fall of 5eMaking 5e Your Own on the GM Side of the ScreenPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Tracking Alternative Endings for CombatGetting Shadowdark Treasure RightBest Designs for Published AdventuresSecrets and Clues and the Quantum OgreRPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Find ways to get the characters into the room. Hallway fights are boring.Build a series of rooms together as one big multi-dimensional encounter.Use GM rulebooks and sourcebooks from many different 5e publishers.The Trials and Treasure book from Level Up Advanced 5e is a fantastic drop-in replacement for the DMG.Give characters the chance to craft interesting magic items.Build environments that showcase character abilities.Build your own game from your favorite components behind the GM screen.Related ArticlesD&D Beyond, Wizards of the Coast, 5e, and YouNotable 5e ProductsFocus Extra Prep Time on the CharactersGet More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

Bathe Your World in Lore

Lore matters. The histories and backgrounds of the worlds we run in our RPGs makes them unique among all others. We don't need to write a thousand pages of lore for our world but we need enough lore continually flowing during our game to make our world and our campaign stand apart from every other fantasy world out there. The lazy trick is to take lore from published settings. If you're making your own world, be ready to keep digging ever deeper into the lore of your world: gods, history, people, factions, and empires. Continually reveal these facts of your world through secrets and clues as the characters explore the world around them.

Setting Our Games Apart

Without the lore in our games, each game would feel very similar. You delve in dungeons. You walk across dangerous lands. You have hard conversations with people. You pick up treasure. You fight monsters. What keeps us going week after week, year after year, for decades?

The story. The lore.

It's not just a dungeon ��� it's a lost laboratory of the shadowy Netherese. It's not just a ruined tower ��� it's a ruined watchtower of Thrakus the Witch King. It's not just another noble fop �����it's Artinias Faine, whose bloodline goes back over fifty generations to the empire of Vorigan.

Lore Matters

When we talk about spiral campaign development we talk about focusing worldbuilding around the characters and their location. You don't need a full pantheon of gods, fifty thousand years of history, and a detailed atlas of the twelve empires ruling across the world.

Or do you?

Well, not really, but it sure helps to have enough details to set your world and your campaign apart from every other generic fantasy world out there. This is why secrets and clues are so powerful ��� you can take a bunch of lore and break it down to ten one-sentence bits you can drop into your game wherever you need it.

Embrace Published Settings

In a previous article I talked about running homebrew adventures in published settings and I think using lore from published settings is the most valuable lazy way to ensure your world is set apart. Your typical adventures of dungeon delving, overland exploration, and NPC interaction feel completely different if you're running them in Eberron, the Forgotten Realms, Midgard, or the Gloaming. The setting makes our adventures unique and published settings have already done the heavy lifting. They have the pantheon, the history, the people, and the empires all written up and ready for you to break down into secrets and clues the characters discover in the game.

Staying One Step Ahead

But maybe you're stubborn and want to run your own world. You don't have to write a 400 page sourcebook to do so. You can start small ��� keeping the focus on what the characters find around them. You don't need all the gods, just the ones the characters follow or the gods followed by those individuals and groups who oppose the characters. You don't need a world history, just the history of the local town and the dungeon below it.

Focusing on just the stuff around the characters keeps you one step ahead without needing to overprep. Each session you'll want new pieces of the world you might reveal that slowly teaches them (and you!) what this world has to offer and what makes it unique among fantasy worlds.

Don't Forget the Importance of Lore

Lore is easy to forget. We get caught up in the game's mechanics, the stories of our individual sessions, the actions of the characters, and all the rest. It's lore, however, that makes our adventures truly unique and noteworthy in the sea of fantastic worlds in which we surround ourselves.

Bathe your game in lore.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Last week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Balancing Encounters with Waves of Combatants and A Troll Named Barborog ��� Shadowdark Session 16 Prep.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

Adding Free Monstrous Menagerie Tokens to Owlbear RodeoCORE20 RPG Playtest5e Artisanal Monster DatabaseA Look Back at 2023Sly Flourish 2024 CalendarPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Best Adventure to Learn Shadowdark RPGUsing The Books We BuyWhen Will You Run Drakkenheim?Leaving a Game GracefullyDealing with Missing Players in Character-Focused AdventuresWhat To Do with Players of Dead PCs?RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Build complex combat encounters with two or three complementary monster types.Use simple stat blocks for lieutenants of more complicated boss monsters.Use environmental effects that either side can turn to their advantage. Focus on the flavor of spells more than their mechanics.When your players come up with something awesome, lean into it.Print maps, write simple descriptions.What would be going on at this location if the characters weren't around?Related ArticlesSpiral Campaign and World Building in D&DFive Ways to Integrate Characters Into Your CampaignFocus Extra Prep Time on the CharactersGet More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

Alternative Standard Arrays for 5e Ability Scores

Here's an easy house rule to help players more easily select ability scores when building characters in 5e games.

Instead of using a mixture of point-buy systems and either racial or background-based ability bonuses, suggest the two following standard arrays, applying them to the player's abilities of choice. These standard arrays already include any potential racial or background bonus:

16 (+3), 14 (+2), 14 (+2), 12 (+1), 12 (+1), 8 (-1)

or

16 (+3), 14 (+2), 14 (+2), 12 (+1), 10 (+0), 10 (+0)

These standard arrays work for whatever flavor of 5e you happen to be playing including the 2014 D&D Player's Handbook, Tales of the Valiant, or Level Up Advanced 5e. Each of these 5e variants has their own ways to handle ability scores and bonuses but they're all close enough to these standard arrays that any differences don't really matter.

Experienced players who want to get into the weeds can use the ability point-buy rules of your chosen 5e flavor and apply additional bonuses based on whatever ability bonus points the system provides.

New players, and players who just want to get on with their adventures, may find these all-in standard arrays much easier to understand and apply without needing to worry about any complex point-buy systems and ability bonuses from other parts of character creation.

Add these standard arrays to your session zero guide to help players more quickly build their characters.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Last week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Music for RPGs and Owlbear Rodeo for Lazy GMs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

Numenera Bundles of HoldingKobold Guides Bundle of HoldingDetailed Random Encounters with A5E's Monstrous Menagerie and Trials and TreasuresPJ Coffey's Intro to Level Up Advanced 5EPatreon Discord ServerTravel Options from 5e BooksPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Tips for One on One GamesWhat To Do with Weeks of Prep Time?How Much is Too Much for Describing Scenes? How Much Do I Need to Get Buy-In from Players on a Future Campaign?Offering Feedback to Other DMsRPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Never forget ��� your goal is to have a great time laughing and sharing stories with your friends.Keep things simple. Focus on prepping a fun session for your friends. We each get to decide what D&D is to us. Don't be afraid to make it your own.Focus characters around factions for deadlier games so character motivations continue even when characters die. Don't let others determine your happiness with your games. Boil your next game to the essentials and build up from there. Ask questions. Write down answers. Read your sourcebooks. Related ArticlesAsk Players to Describe New Character AbilitiesDescribe your GM StyleDo We Need a New D&D Player's Handbook?Get More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

Hard Conversations

Whether we like it or not, whether it's fair or not, GMs often find themselves in the position of needing to have hard conversations with people. Maybe it's a player who isn't fitting in well with the group. Maybe it's someone upset with the way the game is going. There's lots of reasons but beyond just running the game, we often find ourselves in the position of managing the group. Group Management is hard for anyone����� not just GMs. But when we find ourselves in this situation, it's best to have some ideas for how to handle it.

Address the Problem, Not the Person

First, we need to understand the problem. What's really going on? What are all the sides and views? Focus on the problem, not the people. If we attack the person, we're not going to get anywhere. It's not our job to fix people. It's our job to get our game running in a fun direction. What are the behaviors and the circumstances causing problems? Address those issues directly.

Don't attack the behavior of the person themselves. Focus on the situation and its causes affecting the game at the table. Look at the situation objectively and separate it from the individuals. Certainly people are responsible for their actions at the table but it's the situation you're trying to correct, not the person.

Know Your Goal

What do you want your hard conversation to accomplish? Maybe write down your goals and objectives and the things you need to reach them. What are you aiming for with your hard conversation? Are you trying to modify behavior? Are you trying to have a player demand less of the spotlight? Are you trying to avoid arguments during the game? Are you trying to give quiet players more attention? Are you trying to make sure you're having fun at the table too? Write down, review, and try to really understand the goal of your hard conversation. What would it look like if it all worked out?

Recognize Your Own Bias

All of us approach situations from an angle. None of us has objective truth. There are many variables we're not seeing. We are not the people we're talking to. We don't walk in their shoes. So we know that what we're seeing is our own observations and our own feelings. It's best to conduct the conversation recognizing this view. This is where the idea of stating how you feel and what you're seeing is better than dropping "truths". People often simplify this idea to statements like "sometimes I feel like X" where X is the problem going on. It's cliche but it can work.

Handle It One-on-One

You might be tempted to have such hard conversations in a group but public confrontation is almost always a bad idea. Handle hard conversations one-on-one. Step away from the group. Talk in a separate channel if you're online or in a separate room if you're in person. Have such conversations either in person, with face-to-face video, or in an audio call. We're always tempted to have such conversations in text or email because it's much easier but it's almost always the wrong way to handle it. It's hard but direct conversations are best.

Be Honest and Direct

Given your own recognition that what you're saying isn't objective truth, it's still best to be as honest and direct as you can. Tell them what's going on. Be specific. Tell them what needs to happen for the game to continue and what happens if it doesn't work out.

If you're dealing with a situation and, after you've done your deep dive into the cause, recognize that the only way forward is for a member to leave the group, it may be best to just go your separate ways.

"I'm sorry but having you in this game isn't working out. I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave the group."

It's easy, in the stress of the situation, to fill the air with lots of words, get into arguments, and so forth but it's often best to just say it and move on. Let them say what they're going to say but stand firm if you really think it's not going to work out.

No one likes being kicked out of a group. As social animals, we have hundreds of thousands of years of evolution fighting against leaving a group. That's all going to come up with situations like this. Defensiveness, anger, remorse, bargaining; all of it may come up but, if you feel it's not going to work out, best to just focus on the goal and move on.

Handle Big Problems Right Away

Sometimes things can get really nasty during a game. As a GM, unfortunately, it's your responsibility to shut down harmful behavior fast. These behaviors might include racism, misogyny, sexual harassment, violations of safety tools, or anything that hurts the game or the players playing it. You don't have time to step back and ponder the matter. You need to handle it right away. Pause the game. Talk to people one-on-one. Do your best to keep your own emotions out of the situation. But, above all, handle the situation as best you can at the moment before more damage is done. It���s not easy to do but it���s important.

An Unfair but Necessary Job

It's not fair that GMs get put in this position but we're often in it. It's our game. We're the ones invested enough to bring everyone together. Anytime people get together there can be conflicts. Taking as objective a view as we can and trying to get to a solution we can all live with is the best we can do. We won't be perfect but maybe we can resolve issues with as little damage as possible.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

This week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Lazy Magic Items and Deadly Bridges ��� Shadowdark Gloaming Session 15 Lazy GM Prep.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

Last Hours of the Lazy DM Bundle of HoldingHasbro Lays Off 1,100 WorkersGet Exponentially More Value out of Random TablesReadings and Reflections PodcastFavorite RPG Products of 2023Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Dealing with GM BurnoutCharacter-Focused Side Quests Versus the Main QuestRPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Mix up small improvised encounters with big set-piece battles.Don���t worry about saving time ��� focus on appropriate pacing.Steal ideas from movies, books, TV shows, and video games.Reveal information in the second person. What do the characters discover?Use initiative when characters split up. Keep the spotlight moving.Avoid linear maps. Give players meaningful options. Steer them towards the fun.Never forget ��� your goal is to have a great time laughing and sharing stories with your friends.Related ArticlesRecovering From a Bad GameFocus Extra Prep Time on the CharactersHow Many Rounds of Combat Are Ideal?Get More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

D&D Beyond, Wizards of the Coast, 5e, and You

Get $96 of Sly Flourish books for $20 at the Sly flourish Bundle of Holding!

Wizards of the Coast continues to expand D&D Beyond's dominance in 5e tabletop roleplaying games and they've proven they don't always act in the interests of the larger 5e tabletop roleplaying hobby. It's up to us to ensure our handle on the 5e TTRPG hobby remains strong and beyond the whims of any single company.

We can do two things to strengthen our hobby:

Show WOTC how they can better support the larger 5e TTRPG hobby.Make our own use of 5e products resilient to the whims of any one company.

Don't let D&D Beyond determine your happiness with 5e.

In addition to this post, you can watch my YouTube Talk Show on the subject or listen to me, Jessica Hancock, and Russ Morrissey talk about it on the Unofficial Tabletop Podcast.

WOTC Built a Resilient 5e

Earlier this year, after the OGL fiasco, Wizards of the Coast released the 5.1 SRD into the Creative Commons. This made the core concepts of D&D available to 5e publishers big and small. Not only can people write 5e compatible materials, but they can write D&D-style games with all of the nomenclature of D&D and not worry about getting sued.

They also released the 5.1 SRD in French, Spanish, Italian, and German. By doing so, they helped creators all over the world build 5e products in languages other than English.

Download these documents and save them on your hard drive so they'll be available forever.

Releasing 5e into the Creative Commons makes the larger landscape of 5e publishing extremely strong. Any of us can publish products compatible with 5e (not just the 2014 D&D but all other 5e compatible products and systems) without needing anyone's permission.

That's great for print products and static digital products like PDFs.

But the landscape for digital tools is changing.

Growing Their Walled Garden

WOTC's expansion of D&D Beyond, including adding products from other 5e publishers, gives WOTC further control over the larger 5th edition TTRPG hobby �����the very control they hoped to acquire when attempting to violate their own contract by deauthorizing the Open Gaming License. That failed, and, in return, the 5.1 SRD is now under a Creative Commons License.

Digital play of 5e continues to grow. Just shy of 40% of the 3,300 GMs and players I surveyed on YouTube regularly use D&D Beyond (yes, I know such polls are flawed but polls do give us a sense of what trends are emerging). The more players and GMs depend on D&D Beyond to run 5e games, the more they depend on WOTC to dictate what that game is and how it's played. If you're reliant on D&D Beyond,

you're stuck with whatever options are available in D&D Beyond and don't have access to nearly all 5e material published by other publishers.players often expect that everything in D&D Beyond is "official" and anything else is not.you're stuck with their version of 5e, not any of the others like Level Up Advanced 5e or Tales of the Valiant.WOTC can change material on D&D Beyond without notice and with no way to roll back to previous versions.the more you buy there, the harder it is to jump to a competitor.you must live with it even as WOTC changes their business model however they want.WOTC can shut it down at any time, for any reason, and you lose everything you "bought". This isn't hypothetical. They shut down the 4th edition D&D character builder ten years ago.What Can WOTC Do?

WOTC greatly strengthened the 5e hobby by releasing the 5.1 SRD into the Creative Commons. Here's how WOTC can further strengthen the hobby.

Let us download PDFs of our purchased material on D&D Beyond. WOTC is one of very few publishers who doesn't offer PDFs of its books.Let us import structured versions of subclasses, spells, items, and monsters from other sources into our D&D Beyond homebrew collections. This access would allow the community to offer open content in a structured format we can import directly into Beyond.Give us an official API to export structured versions of characters, class features, spells, items, and monsters we paid for so we can use them in other tools if we want to.Continue to release D&D products on Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds.Release D&D products on Foundry, Shard, Demiplane, and other character builders and VTTs as they come up.Continue to make physical books the primary product of D&D.Follow through on your promise to release the 3.5 SRD into the Creative Commons and release updated 2024 D&D material into the Creative Commons.Make Your Hold on the Hobby Resilient

WOTC may or may not follow through on any of these things but there are things we can do to strengthen the resilience of our 5e TTRPG hobby.

Buy physical books and PDFs from other 5e publishers on their own store even if they're on D&D Beyond.Back Kickstarters. Help fund the development of new 5e products from independent publishers.Offer character options to players from other 5e publishers.Try other online tools such as Shard, Demiplane, Foundry, Fantasy Grounds, and Roll 20.Steer players towards using pencil and paper character sheets. Tug on their nostalgia for a disconnected analog game.Try other systems like Shadowdark RPG, Numenera, 13th Age, Shadow of the Demon Lord. You don't have to leave 5e forever but try some other games every so often.If you're a techie, get your hands dirty converting open gaming content into structured data formats so more tools can use them. Join Open5e and their Discord server to see how you can help.WOTC's Role in the 5e Community

WOTC is in the unique position to bring more people into the hobby. I want them to spread the word of D&D far and wide. I want D&D postage stamps. I want movies. I want critically acclaimed, popular AAA video games. I want them to bring in every person they can into this hobby, show them how the game is played, and show them the value it can have in our lives.

I want them to bring those people into the larger community and show them that there's more. There are other options, other monster books, other sourcebooks, other adventures �����thousands of products published by hundreds of publishers ��� all in support of this larger hobby we love.

These games enrich our lives. They saves lives. I want us all, WOTC included, to make this hobby as strong as it can be.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

This week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Running Monsters in Dynamic Situations and Saving Barborog ��� Shadowdark Gloaming Session 14 Lazy GM Prep

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

Sly Flourish Bundle of Holding!MCDM's RPGOne Dollar One-shot by Penny Dragon GamesGame Master Screen for Lazy GMsMike on EN World's Podcast Talking D&D BeyondLevel Up Advanced 5e Adventurer's GuideTips for Using Paper Character SheetsPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Secrets and Clues Creating Too Many Adventure HooksRunning a Prequel CampaignPreparing a Big Campaign AdventureRPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Continually expand and contract the aperture of your lens to keep the focus on the fun parts of the game.Know the capabilities of the characters. Showcase their strengths.You're the architect of your game. The books and rules are tools you can use or discard to serve that game.Use paper character sheets.Buy physical books.Support independent publishers.Don't let your game depend on any digital tool.Related ArticlesWhat 5e in the Creative Commons Means to YouYou, Me, and the D&D Open Game LicenseFeedback to WOTC on the OGL 1.2 DraftGet More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

Roleplaying Between Sessions

Get $96 of Sly Flourish books for $20 at the Sly flourish Bundle of Holding!

Judge, a Patreon of Sly Flourish, asked the following thought-provoking question:

"Any ideas on engaging players between sessions? Not everyone can make every weekly session and I was looking to engage people in the off weeks in particular."

The idea of playing RPGs when all the players aren't sitting around the table (physically or virtually) is a powerful one. How can both GMs and players stay engaged with the game away from the table?

GMs have lots of ways we can stay engaged in the game �����sometimes so many we feel overwhelmed by the number of options. Figuring out where to spend our time between games is its own problem ��� one I try to tackle with Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master.

But what about players? How can we keep players engaged in the game between sessions?

Flash Fiction

Writing short bits of flash fiction ��� 100 to 500 words of in-world narrative ��� is a great way to keep players engaged between sessions. You can email these stories out or share them over a campaign Discord server if you use one. Flash fiction doesn't typically involve the characters. It might follow a villain or an important NPC or fill out parts of the story the characters don't witness but the players can. Sometimes this fiction breaks the connection between a character's view of the story and the player's view of the story but that isn't often a problem.

When writing flash fiction, pick a particular NPC for the point of view and a central idea you want to come across. What's the main thing you want to reveal in your flash fiction? Make it specific. Add important details. If you're using it to introduce important NPCs or locations, you might even bold their names to show players what's important. You can also use flash fiction to show the players the results of their actions in the world.

Such pieces of between-session fiction are a great way to keep players engaged in the game and to show off angles or perspectives they wouldn't have otherwise had.

One-on-One Roleplaying

If you have the time and circumstances, you can do some one-on-one roleplaying between yourself as the GM and a player in between sessions. This bit of roleplay could be a simple conversation over lunch, coffee, or during a walk. It could be online over Discord either using voice chat or text. Often this one-on-one roleplaying begins with a particular question like "do you go visit your uncle, the sage, back in the high district?" and then builds off of the results. If it feels weird, you don't have to jump in character�������just talk about what the character is doing and what the world is doing around them.

This idea of one-on-one roleplaying anywhere works great for one on one games in general but it's also a great way to fill in time between sessions.

Such roleplaying works well if the characters are in a spot for downtime, so their actions fit in with whatever the other characters are doing during their own downtime. Downtime isn't required, though. Instead, such scenes could be a flashback�������something they did the last time they were in town.

Between-Session Downtime

If you're in between adventures and have the option for some in-world downtime, you can run downtime activities in between sessions. Discuss these activities at the end of a session, over email, or in whatever campaign tool you use like Discord if you know your players check it. Like running downtime activities in general, it works best if you offer up a handful of options �����ideally ones tailored to the characters. Then ask them to write up what they want to do and reply back with the results. Downtime works well with this type of asynchronous gameplay since specific time isn't as important in downtime as it is with something like combat.

Prompt-driven Character Exploration

It's one thing to run one-on-one activities between sessions but doing so puts a fair burden on the GM who's already busy prepping for the game at the table. One way to give players options for in-between sessions that don't require much work from the GM are prompt-driven character exploration activities. For this idea, the GM gives a prompt to one or more players to fill out some of their backstory, drives, motivations, or character development. Campfire prompts are an example of the sorts of questions we might ask.

Here are a handful of potential prompts:

Back in the city, how do you train as you level up?Thinking back on what's happened, how do you feel about the direction you're taking?Tell me about your relationship with your grandmother, the hero of the battle of Twin Oaks?Describe what it's like to research your new arcane rifle.Tell me one of the adventures you had with Parlina, the NPC you grew up with.Now that the truth is revealed about your origin, how does that change your character's view of the world and the direction they're taking?Tell me about your training as a young warrior with the Daughters of Perunalia.Back in Zobeck, how does HB try to organize things back at the Southern Mirage?As you use the infernal machine to strip your soul and protect it in a soul vessel, how does it change the nature of your character?What letter do you write to your family back in Zobeck?

These one-sentence prompts are a good way to pass ideas to your players and give them the prompt they need to engage with the game in a way that doesn't require a lot of extra work for the GM.

Other Resources

While researching this topic, I found three useful resources discussing this topic:

Bluebooking by Justin Alexander on the Alexandrian. This excellent article talks about the history of "bluebooking" in which players kept their own journals of activities and shared player to player roleplaying outside the eyes of the GM.

De Profundis by Michal Oracz and Cubicle 7. Recommended by Justin Alexander, this game is a roleplaying game in which players share Lovecraftian-style letters to one another, all in character, describing the weird stuff they see in their journey. It's a cool look at asynchronous roleplaying.

Invisible Sun by Monte Cook Games. A very different sort of mysterious worlds-outside-of-worlds roleplaying game which has multiple phases of gameplay����� only some of which happen at the table. Invisible Sun is sometimes available as a Bundle of Holding for a low price. The book The Gate includes descriptions of these phases of gameplay including an out-of-game "Development Mode" where characters develop outside of the normal game around the table.

Another Option for Roleplaying

Such out-of-game activities aren't for everyone. With three games a week, I barely have time to prepare for an actual session, much less engage with different players individually. For groups with a fair bit of time between games and players and GMs eager to keep playing, between-session activities are a great way to stay engaged and enjoy the game we love.

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This week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Adventure Structures for RPGs ��� Adventure Crucible by Robin Laws and Empire of the Ghouls Deep Dive

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

Sly Flourish Bundle of Holding!Raging Swan 2021 5e MegabundleDrake Koboldson's Exotic Weapons and GadgetsDyson Royalty Free Maps GalleryOther 5e Publishers on D&D BeyondWhat Can We Do to Strengthen 5e?Is D&D Beyond Good for Publishers?Why D&D Beyond's Issues Matter to GMsWhat Can Wizards Do For the 5e Community?What Can We Do For a Resilient 5e Hobby?You Can Get InvolvedWOTC's Role in the CommunityHigh Value Prep ActivitiesPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Helping Players Discover Secrets and CluesHigh-Level Monster TacticsAlignment for FactionsRunning Aerial CombatRevealing Lots of Campaign Info as Secrets and CluesRPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Don't depend on digital tools for your happiness with your favorite RPG.Offer multiple paths. Prep enough to fill out whichever ones your players choose.Restate and reinforce the characters' goals often.When things get complicated in the story, add another complication.There's always another faction.Fill your mind with fantastic fiction����� books, movies, TV shows, games.Layer history under the streets of your cities.Related ArticlesRunning Downtime SessionsWriting Great Flash FictionPlaying D&D AnywhereGet More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

Offer Secret Paths in Dungeons or Overland Journeys

Get $96 of Sly Flourish books for $20 at the Sly flourish Bundle of Holding!

Good dungeons and overland travel paths offer choices to the characters. We make such scenes interesting not by forcing one direction but by offering meaningful choices to take one path or another.

One of the easiest ways to expand options is to include a main path and a secret path. If the characters seek to infiltrate a hobgoblin fort, they can fight their way in through the main gate or they can sneak in through the abandoned sewers below. If they're traveling through the Shadow Realm, they can stay on the main path of the Archer's Walk, or they can take the shorter and hidden path along the Cliffs of Mother Matrede.

A secret path not only offers an alternative path but information as well. A secret path means staying hidden but perhaps running into unknown dangers. Hidden paths make the players feel good because they've discovered something �����something other people don't know.

And here's a real dirty trick for you ��� players almost always pick the secret path. Secret paths are unique and cool. Main paths are typical and boring. Players still have the choice of one over another but the lure of the secret path is almost always too good to pass up. It's worth having a rough idea what would happen if the characters went down the main path but more useful to assume the characters take the secret one.

When you're planning a journey across the wilds or building a dungeon down in the depths, add secret paths. They'll excite your players and give them the feeling of getting a leg up on the challenges they face.

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This week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Pacing in D&D ��� Prep or Improvise? and Build a Goblin Town ��� Shadowdark Gloaming Session 13 Lazy GM Prep.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

Grimtooth's TrapsSeekers Guide to Enchanting EmporiumsBig Sales This MonthEN World's Article on Free and Bundled RPG ProductsAwarding Treasure in 5ePatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Best Features for FunnelsForgetting Things in CombatRunning Short Episodic SessionsAdding Spells to MonstersRPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Print or share pictures of NPCs with names and titles. Draw and share maps of cities, towns, and settlements noting important locations and landmarks. Have encounters in your back pocket that go against the potential flow of the adventure such as combat encounters for mostly roleplay sessions or upward beat NPC interactions in dungeons.Set up larger "situations of situations" where characters can choose many locations or factions to follow or thwart. Have locations of light in the darkest cities. Let the characters' reputation precede them. Offer paths and clarify gameplay styles. Negotiate your way through city streets or fight monsters in the sewers. Related ArticlesRe-Using Secrets and CluesHow Many Rounds of Combat Are Ideal?Focus Extra Prep Time on the CharactersGet More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

Prepping a Dungeon

Dungeons are probably my favorite structure for fantasy RPG adventures. There's a fixed location, interesting options, clear goals, and a nice flow for the game.

In the context of focusing on the minimum prep we need for a night of adventure, we're going to look at a simple way to prepare specifically for dungeon adventures.

Here's a quick summary for preparing a dungeon adventure:

Define a clear goal and session start. An NPC asks the characters to do something at a location. Alternatively, skip right to the dungeon explaining the job they've already accepted.Pick a location. Choose a map from Dyson Logos to fit the type of location you need. Pick the first map that fits the overall purpose of the dungeon you want to run.Write down brief chamber descriptions with one or two words. You can print your Dyson map and write the descriptions on the printout yourself with a pen or sharpie.Write down inhabitants. These inhabitants can be a mix of monsters and NPCs. Who might the characters run into? Make sure to include some non-hostile or friendly NPCs.Write down ten secrets and clues the characters might discover in the dungeon.Roll for random treasure the characters might acquire such as a pile of gold and gems, a couple of consumable items, and one or maybe two nice permanent magic items.Keeping Things Simple

It's easy to get overwhelmed when thinking about your next game. This game is so vast, how can we not get lost in the deepest reaches of our imaginations? But what if we focus down on simply running a fun dungeon delve? How can we refine the eight steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master around this focus?

Here's an example of that refined list. For our dungeon delve, we need

a goal.a location.inhabitants.secrets and clues.treasure.An NPC Offers a Job

An NPC offering a job to the characters is an easy strong start. There's lots of different potential jobs. Page 12 of the sample chapters of the Lazy DM's Companion has a list of potential goals from NPCs. When considering your dungeon delve, pages 12 and 13 of the sample (pages 6 and 7 of the Lazy DM's Companion itself) have lots of tables to inspire you.

But the easiest way to get started is for an NPC to give the characters a job to do at a location. Fill in those blanks and you're ready to go.

Alternatively, you can skip this part and jump straight outside of the dungeon and describe the job the characters already accepted. This pre-assigned mission works great for single-session and short-session games. Skip the process of receiving and accepting the job and jump right to the dungeon with quest in hand. Just tell them what their quest is and you're off to the races.

Prep the Dungeon Map

Now we need a location. Personally, I grab the first Dyson Logos map that fits the concept of the location. Dyson has over a thousand maps with just about every type of dungeon location you can imagine. Scroll through until you find the first map that suits your needs both from the style of location (worked stone versus natural caverns) and the general number of rooms you need. Don't be picky. Grab the first one that works.

Now fill in room descriptions with one or two words. One easy way is to print the map on a piece of paper, grab a pen or sharpie, and write in one or two words to describe each chamber. Don't use long descriptions. A couple of evocative words does the trick. If you need a digital version, take a picture of your hand-annotated map and put it back in your digital notes.

Alternatively, write down location descriptions in a list with a vague idea about where they might go on the map. Creating this list is easier than trying to digitally edit the map to add your own annotations.

Choose Inhabitants

Now create a list of potential inhabitants. These inhabitants might be monsters. These monsters might be intelligent bad guys, mindless minions, or hungry beasts. They might be good guys or potential NPCs to talk to. If you're using a monster book of some sort, write down the page number of the stat block for the monster on your list.

If you want to go really light, write down their CRs and use the Forge of Foes monster stats by CR and monster powers to build monsters as you need them.

You don't have to decide where these monsters reside in the location. You can decide encounter locations during play. Some monsters may make sense for specific locations��while others might wander about.

Include friendly NPCs as well as monsters. Offer opportunities for roleplaying. Remember your story beats.

Write Down Ten Secrets and Clues

This tip is a direct lift from the eight steps of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. The characters need to learn things as they explore the dungeon. Maybe it's knowledge about the location's history. Maybe it's the villain's secret plans. Maybe it's the history of the gods. The characters should gain knowledge as they explore the dungeon and interact with its inhabitants. Secrets and clues are the treasure of exploration.

Write Down some Treasure

While secrets and clues may be the treasure of exploration, it won't buy you a hot bowl of stew and a tasty beverage at the local pub. Players love loot, so give it to them. Roll up random loot from your favorite GM's guide or use one of the many online treasure generators (Sly Flourish Patrons have access to the Lazy GM's Generator with some awesome random loot options).

Include coins, interesting jewels and art objects, consumable magic items, single-use magical relics, and one or two permanent magic items suited to the characters. Like inhabitants, you can decide later where to drop this loot ��� often after fighting a big boss or discovering a hidden treasure vault.

What We Skip

This outline skips a few of the eight steps including:

Review the Characters. You still want to do this review if you can, but it's not any different for a dungeon delve than any other game. Reviewing the characters (and the players) is a great way to focus on what you can include that may resonate with them and what styles of play you want to reinforce during the rest of your prep.Outline Scenes. Dungeon delves give characters the option to explore any direction they wish. Thus, we don't have a linear set of scenes. We can often omit this step for dungeon delves.Develop NPCs. I wrapped this step up into inhabitants because you'll likely have more monsters than NPCs in a dungeon delve.

Sometimes you can skip the steps above. Other times they make sense even for a dungeon delve.

A Simple Checklist for Limitless Options

Dungeon delves give us a solid adventure structure with lots of variability. Who gave the party the job? What does the job entail? What larger purpose does the job serve? What makes the location and its inhabitants unique? Like the Seven Samurai adventure model, the dungeon delve is a fantastic framework around which to build a fun and unique session.

Hopefully, with the steps above, we can get past the nervousness we all feel and prep an awesome night of high adventure.

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Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

Free WOTC D&D After-School Materials and AdventureThis Is What We Want WOTC To DoPractical 5e Digital Interoperability TodayLazy GM's Random GeneratorPrepping on a High Stress Short TimelinePatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

When to End a Campaign Prep NPCs with Personality QuotesGetting Backstory for New CharactersRPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Give new characters the "Heroic Spark" and avoid the tiresome "who the hell is this guy" moment of their introduction.Understand and reinforce what motivates the characters to risk their lives in such dangerous places.Print maps and annotate with a pen. Your prep notes are just for you. They don't have to be fancy or complete.Write notes to spark your memory and imagination not to publish.Choose monsters that make sense for the situation. Then check to see if that might inadvertently wipe the characters. Know the play structure of various situations like dungeon delving or overland exploration. How do these situations play at the table?Related ArticlesThe Eight Steps of the Lazy DM �����2023 ReviewUse Dyson's MapsRunning a Dungeon CrawlGet More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

Do We Need a New D&D Player's Handbook?

One Word Summary

No.

Two Sentence Summary

There's no need to discard the millions of existing copies of the 2014 Player's Handbook. A frank conversation with our players can move us past the game's rough spots and keep us playing this fantastic version of the game for the rest of our lives.

Longer Article

If you're wrapped up in the D&D zeitgeist, you know that Wizards of the Coast plans to publish new D&D core books in 2024. It's not 6th edition, they remind us, or even 5.5. The best name we have for these new books is the "2024 Revised D&D Core Books." I can live with that name.

But then I think about how many copies of the 2014 D&D Player's Handbook are out in the world. Over the past ten years, more people played D&D than at any other time in the history of the game. More people started playing D&D in the past five years than all previous players since 1974. There are likely millions of copies of the Player's Handbook out there and the game plays just fine.

Do we really need new ones?

It seems like a tremendous waste to discard millions of fantastic books and replace them with new ones.

But if we stay with the 2014 books, don't we need to fix them?

Not really.

From Nerfs to Open Conversations

I discussed this question at length with fellow lazy DMs over on the Sly Flourish Discord server, available to Patrons of Sly Flourish and shot a YouTube video called [House Rules for the 2014 D&D Player's Handbook]. What do we need to do to "fix" the 2014 D&D Player's Handbook to keep it vibrant and useful for the next ten years (or twenty or fifty or two hundred)?

I came up with a big list of changes for spells I didn't like banishment, heroes' feast, force cage, counterspell, shield, and the various conjure spells. But this list was just a bunch of nerfs. Sure, some of these spells are either overtuned, clunky, or make life for a DM harder, but do they really need to be fixed?

What if, instead, we just talk to our players about why these spells are burdensome and how they disrupt the game. Maybe we can come to an agreement about them.

For example, a common issue with a lot of spells is how effective they are against boss monsters. Banishing one of four giants is one thing. Banishing the big bad evil guy is a whole different story. Legendary resistance helps but only if they have it and typically we don't see monsters with legendary resistance before CR 11 or so.

What if we gave more bosses legendary resistance and also the ability to use legendary resistances to break out of other effects like the chain-stunning of a monk, a force cage, or other effects that are simply too effective on bosses?

And we can just explain this to our players. "Look, a lot of the things you might use to lock down monsters won't work on boss monsters." Every major video game figured this out. You don't pin down bosses in World of Warcraft or Diablo with a single ability. Game designers nerf the minute they prove to be overpowered.

Conjure animals gives a single player up to nine turns in a round if they summon eight wolves each with pack tactics and a knockdown ability. That's 27 possible d20 rolls on a single player's turn. How about we ask our players, for the sake of the enjoyment of the game, to not summon more than one or two creatures.

Those people I discussed this with resonated much better with this approach than just a bunch of direct nerfs. It's addressing the actual problem instead of just the mechanics of a single spell.

The drive to optimize around the mechanics exists in any player who's interested in those mechanics. But maybe if we explain how the combination of those mechanics ends up disrupting the game for the other players and the DM (whose fun is as valid as anyone else's), maybe we can skip the mechanical nerfs and just ask our players not to do it.

Discuss During a Session Zero

If you're going to have this conversation, have it during your session zero, before players start making characters. This way they know what's acceptable and what isn't. A player considering an enchanter might think differently if they know they can't pin down every boss in the game with a well-placed hypnotic pattern. Most importantly, your requests won't come as a surprise in the heat of things. Have a rational conversation before the game begins so no one is surprised.

So Does the 2014 PHB Need to be Fixed?

Maybe we don't need to fix anything in the 2014 D&D Player's Handbook. Every time I suggested fixes to the 2014 Player's Handbook, people told me it works just fine for them. Many groups still run and enjoy even older versions of D&D. Given the sheer number of 2014 Player's Handbooks out there, I expect many groups will continue to play 2014 D&D for a long time.

Above all we shouldn't forget that the important part of this game is getting together with our friends to enjoy some laughs while sharing tales of high adventure. As long as we agree on it, we can have fun with any RPG.

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Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

Fantastic Deals on D&D and 5e Books Roll 20 D&D Character Builder Outside the VTTA D&D Digital UtopiaBuild Monuments of Power for Big Battles in 5ePatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Dialog Options for NPCsGood AD&D Adventures for Shadowdark RPGLearning New RPGsRPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Only have a few minutes to prep? Plan a strong start and write ten secrets the characters might discover in the game. Add in anything else you really need such as locations, monsters, treasure.Need a map in a hurry? Grab one from Dyson Logos!Rely on random treasure generators to inspire your rewards.Add a daily-use spell to typical magic items for a unique treasure your players will love.Narrow your campaign down to the big final scene as you get close to the end.Build monuments in battle like monsters. Choose their CR, AC / DC, hit points, and damage if needed. Successful skill checks apply damage equal to a portion of their HP such as 1/2 or 1/3.Choose the components you want to build the D&D you want at the table. Only you and your players get to choose what you want to run.Related ArticlesHow Many Rounds of Combat Are Ideal?Focus Extra Prep Time on the CharactersAsk Players to Describe New Character AbilitiesGet More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

Running Towns in Fantasy RPGs

When the characters reach a town or other large settlement, the pacing of our D&D game changes — and not always in a good direction. Towns are tricky environments to run. They have a wide range of locations, oodles of NPCs, and often too many options for things to do.

"You enter the village of Redtower. What do you want to do?" can be a game-killing introduction.

So how do we ensure when the characters reach a town, it's as interesting as the rest of our game? Let's take a look.

Identify a Fantastic Feature

What makes this town unique or interesting? What noteworthy feature grabs the characters' attention when they enter the town? What famous or infamous landmark lies near the town? Add at least one of these fantastic features and probably no more than three ��� enough to define the town in the eyes of the characters and your players.

Here are ten examples of notable features:

The town surrounds a huge sinkhole with a river flowing down into its depths.The town surrounds the skull of a huge twisted beast half-buried in the ground.The town floats on an earthmote one hundred feet above the edge of a vast canyon. Rope bridges connect smaller floating earthmotes providing a path to the town.The town surrounds a single obsidian spire piercing out of the ground.The petrified form of an ancient dragon snarls in the town square.The town always appears to be in the darkness of night with an alien moon above.An ancient portal to an alien world lies dormant, only opening every five hundred years.The horns of a sleeping tarrasque pierce out of the ground beneath the town but no one can be bothered to move it.The marble statue of a priestess shining a wand into the heavens stands in the center of town, the light of the wand seems to reach a golden star above.

You can find more fantastic features, and generate your own, using the "Random Monuments" table on page 12 of the Lazy DM's Workbook or the "Core Adventure Generators" tables on page 6 of the Lazy DM's Companion.

Set Up a Situations

When the characters enter the town, it works best if they get involved in something right away. Try launching into a situation just as they walk into town. Such situations help define the town and offer interesting choices. Here are ten examples of situations the characters may encounter in town:

A trained owlbear gets loose.A pair of ogres wander into town, demanding their yearly promised wheel of cheese. The vendor who promised them the cheese has long since moved away.A mob accuses an old man of witchcraft.Villagers scream as three giant vultures fly off with two haunches of meat and a bemused child.An escaped prisoner runs down the street throwing spells with the local battle-mages's wand of wonder.A sinkhole into an unknown tomb collapses and begins belching out ancient skeletons.A recently unearthed vampire walks into the local bar offering 200 gold pieces for a suitable drink.A ghost asks the characters to avenge her death. The locals say she's been asking for revenge for a century but she was run over by her own ox cart.A giant crocodile crawls out of the well and attacks but the local priests beg the characters not to hurt the holy creature.Local toughs start trouble with the characters and challenge them to a dance-off.

Come up with your own list of potential encounters as the characters first travel into the town. You don't need one every time they return but something to set the stage always helps. The "Framing Events" table in chapter 3 of the Dungeon Master's Guide is a great go-to, as are the "Random Town Events" table on page 15 of the Lazy DM's Workbook and the "Settlement Events" on page 37 of the Lazy DM's Companion.

Clarify Options Customized to the Characters

When the characters come to town, they might have twelve to twenty options or more. Do they go to the inn? Visit the blacksmith? Talk to the local mining guild? The decisions can be paralyzing. Instead of building a huge town and offering the whole thing to the characters we can start with the characters and build the town around them. What sorts of locations would they be interested in? Here are ten examples:

The fighter might be interested in the local mercenary company headquarters.The paladin might be interested in the local temple or the citadel of guardians.The cleric might be interested in the local temple or the observatory of the gods on the mountaintop above.The rogue might be interested in the seedy bar or the thieves' den they hear about.The bard might be interested in the local theater or music hall.The sorcerer might be interested in the strange floating obelisk of power hanging over the pond.The warlock might be interested in the house of the coven who follows their patron.The wizard might be interested in the local sage's tower.The barbarian might be interested in the local fighting pits.The druid might be interested in the wild grove just outside of town.

These locations of interest are based on classes but you can do the same thing with races or backgrounds. Perhaps the mushroomfolk character finds a local compost heap where others of their kind hang out, enjoy the meal, and share rumors. Perhaps the clockwork character is interested in the local Temple of Rava — deity of the clockwork folk.

When you're preparing to introduce your town, write down locations you think may directly interest the characters based on their class, race, background or interests.

Towns ��� Locations of Adventure

It's hard to think of a town as another location of adventure but that's what we're trying to do. Instead of running a town with an open end of possible directions and decisions, focus your town to make it an interesting place to run a session.

Give it an interesting feature.Include situations in which the characters can get involved.Highlight locations that suit the characters.

By giving the characters interesting things to see, interesting places to go, and interesting things to do, a town can be as exciting as any other location they visit in their games.

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Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

What's the Value of an RPG Product?Using the 8 Steps At Your TablePatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

How I Feel about D&D 2024Where to Get D&D NewsEncounter Builiding for Waves of MonstersRunning Gladiatorial ArenasRPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Give bosses strong protections and include easily disrupted lackeys. Tie the history of magic items to the story, the wielder, and the character who may acquire it.Build interesting environmental effects into boss fights.Have a good handle on the mechanics of unique combat monuments like godly statues protecting boss monsters.Damage is the strongest dial in combat.Note the many types of combat: big boss battles, set-piece battles, small skirmishes, conversations-gone-wrong, etc. Know how best to run them and what tools you need to do so.Give characters a single-use nuclear bomb. See what they do with it.Related ArticlesAdventure Seeds: The Night of the DecimationSpiral Campaign and World Building in D&DThe Eight Steps of the Lazy DM �����2023 ReviewGet More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.