Michael E. Shea's Blog, page 16

Experiences Running Wild Beyond the Witchlight

I had the distinct pleasure of running the Wizards of the Coast hardcover adventure Wild Beyond the Witchlight for my home group and I loved it. I don't think I really understand what an adventure brings to the table until I run it and wanted to share these experiences and offer a few tips for making the most of it.

If you prefer videos, here's a YouTube playlist with a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

Note, this article contains spoilers for Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

Modify What You Want

Moreso than other hardcover adventures, I didn't feel like I needed to modify much of Wild Beyond the Witchlight. I changed it plenty, but the changes I made were ones I wanted to make; not ones I felt like I had to make. This, to me, is the difference between a good adventure and a bad one — how much do I have to change an adventure to make it playable versus instead of changing what I want to change just to customize it for my group.

The only exception to this might be chapter 5: Palace of Heart's Desire which I describe later.

Let the Characters Drive the Adventure

From the first session zero of our campaign, my Wild Beyond the Witchlight game focused on the characters. I changed NPCs. I shifted plots around. I wanted the story to focus on the characters, their drives, their motivations, and their lost things. This carried through the whole adventure and paid big dividends in the end.

For example, in chapter 1, the characters met a bunch of kids who wanted to get into the carnival but didn't have tickets. The characters gave their tickets to the kids who later also got pulled into Prismeer and replaced the Getaway Gang. This gave strong NPC connections from the first session that paid off to the end.

The story of Witchlight is loose enough to give you lots of opportunities to build it around the backgrounds, drives, and motivations of the characters.

Consider Dreadful Incursions

As written, every combat encounter in Witchlight is optional. This might be a fun change of pace from other combat-heavy adventures but you and your players may miss it. One option, which worked well in my game, is the inclusion of "Dreadful Incursions". I talk about these in my Dreadful Incursions article but the gist is that the domains of dread from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft are leaking into Prismeer due to Zybilna's absence. These domains bleed in as either an encounter, a dungeon, or maybe whole realms through the mists between the lands of Prismeer. Twisted horrors from these domains cause havoc in the land of whimsy and wonder. As a DM, you get to decide how much or how little to use these dreadful incursions and can use them to add another layer to the story along with some combat encounters without moral consequence.

Choose Your NPCs

Witchlight is packed with NPCs. You don't have to use them all. Choose the NPCs you like and focus on those. Drop a few NPCs in front of the characters and see which ones the players enjoy. Keep those in mind, bringing them back into the story as it evolves instead of introducing tons of new NPCs. Regularly ask your players which NPCs they're digging and which they'd like to see more of so you know which ones to focus on.

Streamlining the Palace

Reading this Reddit thread clued me in to some strange organization of the Palace of Heart's Desire. Instead of what's written in the adventure, I skipped 90% of the palace when my characters arrived. I was ready to get to the big conclusion so I had the characters fight the jabberwock out in the gardens, see the main villain of my campaign kill the other main villain in area 31, and then fight the main villain (the Dark Lord Vladeska Drakov of Falkovnia in my campaign) in area 22. While I ended up skipping a huge amount of this chapter, I didn't feel robbed and the conclusion was a fun one for my players.

Don't be afraid to make huge cuts to your published material for the fun of your game.

A Fine Adventure of Whimsy and Wonder

I loved Wild Beyond the Witchlight. The feeling of high fantasy with a good deal of humor was a perfect break from Rime of the Frostmaiden and Descent into Avernus. Though I added in a dark streak with Dreadful Incursions, the overall theme of the adventure still brought a smile to my face and those of my players.

I highly recommend Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

This week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Jaquays-Style Design for D&D Dungeons and Overland Travel and Scarlet Citadel Session 9 ��� Lazy D&D DM Prep.

Last Week's Lazy D&D Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy D&D Talk Show in which I talk about all things D&D. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

Tome of Beasts 3 Monster Cards by Inkwell IdeasBlades in the Dark Bundle of HoldingFree Monstrous Compendium 2Arcadia 22 Heroic ChampionsGMs Miscellany Dungeon Dressing for 5eAI for DM InspirationPatreon Questions and Answers

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

Tips for Running 20th Level One-Shot GamesCampaign Hooks for West Marches Style GamesRunning Hordes and MinionsD&D Tips

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

Write a secret and clue built around each character. What bit of lore ties each character into the next game?Let the characters find interesting ways to avoid combat.Make every magic item unique. Each one is a vehicle for a secret, clue, or piece of lore.Don't forget about those tag-along NPCs!Kick yourself out of a creative rut with random tables.Sharpen your tools and clean your toolbox. What works for your game and what can you discard?Think about what ties your characters into the world, not what you think they'll do in the next session.Related ArticlesAdd Dreadful Incursions to Wild Beyond the WitchlightReinforce the Theme of your D&D CampaignBuild Cities Around the CharactersA Guide to WOTC D&D Published AdventuresVillainous TitlesGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

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

Building Stronger Friendships through D&D

Keotep, a Patron of Sly Flourish asks:

Online tools, like Discord, create amazing opportunities to meet and play D&D with many new people from literally everywhere. Do you have any top tips on building online D&D friendships?

I truly believe that, not only is D&D important, but that D&D saves lives. Friendships are critical to our health — as critical as exercise and more critical than career advancement.

D&D is a fantastic way for us to build and reinforce friendships. It gives us a catalyst to get together regularly, break away from other real-world commitments, and get together to play.

2020 and 2021 saw many of us physically isolated. For many, playing D&D online became the way we continue with the hobby. Playing online helped maintain friendships around D&D even when we couldn't get together physically.

But it's hard to build deep friendships online. While social media makes us feel more connected, the bonds we create there are often weaker than those we make in-person.

So how can we build new friendships online and strengthen those bonds? I offer my own thoughts in this article.

If you're looking to build a group, read my article on Finding and Maintaining a D&D Group.

Prioritize Friendships

Pay active attention to your friendships. Deep friendships can sometimes just happen but in today's disconnected world and constant state of busyness, it can be hard. We can start by making it a conscious activity to build, develop, and maintain friendships. This means doing something, every day, to build and strengthen a friendship. Just like exercise. What can we do?

Call a friend on the phone or in voice chat.Make a list of your friends. See who you haven't talked to in a while. Then call them.Schedule a one-on-one game with a friend.If you're not avoiding physical meetups, ask someone to grab a coffee.Schedule games with two or three people who haven't played before.Help People

Volunteering is a fantastic way to meet people in a friendly and giving way. There are lots of ways to volunteer in the world of D&D including signing up to run games for online conventions, helping organize such conventions, or hanging out in Discord channels with the specific intent of helping solve peoples' problems. It's possible to meet other people who also like helping people. The friendships formed between those who regularly run or organize games for the Adventurer's League come up often. The AL organizers are a tight-knit group who have formed their own community.

It's really easy to fall into the pit of cynicism when dealing with people online. Put your cynicism away and become an ambassador for the hobby. Bring new people in. Be positive. Don't debate or argue. Run games for them. Find and befriend others who do likewise.

Track Casual Friends

When meeting people online, it's easy to lose track of them. When you meet someone in a game you enjoyed playing with, make a note of them somewhere. Write their username (and real name if you got it) somewhere so you'll remember it. Send them a note a day later and thank them for the chance to play with them. Maybe ask to join together in future games or offer to run a game for them sometime. Send a note to check in later, see how they're doing or bring up an interesting bit of news. Check to see if they're playing in other online conversations. If they're not getting back to you or you get the sense they're not as into the connection as you are, that's fine. Let it go.

Remember the people you enjoyed meeting. However you choose to do it, take note of them so you'll have the chance to meet them again.

Take the First Step

Building and reinforcing friendships can feel weird sometimes. It feels invasive for us to reach out to someone we're just getting to know. But it can be worth it to create a closer bond. Build up the courage to take that first step and reach out. Be aware that reaching out may result in no real connection and that's ok. It's still worth doing. Send a note to them. Ask them how they liked whatever game you played with them. Find a specific topic to bring up. See how the conversation goes.

Talk To Them

It's really hard to build meaningful friendships in just text chat. It can happen but there's a lot getting missed. Find a way to chat voice and, ideally, video. We're physical creatures and we build a stronger relationships with those we see and hear. Texting and online chats seem easy and comfortable but they're not building a strong bond. Really talking and seeing someone builds a stronger bond.

Playing games online together is a great catalyst for this. We want to use audio and video when playing online. It's easy to feel self-conscious about it and it takes courage to take that step of putting ourselves out there but it helps.

Run Games

Player's lament how hard it is to find a good group. That goes away when you become a DM and run your own games. Now, especially online, many players are looking to play games. Finding the players who gel with you and your style may be hard. Find out other tricks for building a great group in my article Finding and Maintaining a D&D Group.

Don't Be That Guy

Speaking to my fellow men here, building friendships isn't about seeking a romantic partner. Women often feel over pursued by men in situations like this. Many men often engage with woman stating they want to be friends, then get angry if the woman isn't interested in a romantic partnership. Be clear and genuine about wanting to build friendships. Don't reach out to people as a friend if what you're really looking for is a romantic partner. Don't be a creep.

Take the Effort

Take the effort to meet people, re-connect with people, and build stronger friendships. In today's world we're ever more connected and yet easily overcome by loneliness. Building friendships is important. It's worth our time as much as eating right and exercising. Give friendships the attention they deserves. Our lives will be better for it.

Special thanks to Dr. Megan Connell and Dr. Michael Mallen for their help with this article.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

This week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Empire of the Ghouls Chapter 2 Tips and Game Prep and Seven Fantastic Tools to Play D&D Online.

Last Week's Lazy D&D Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy D&D Talk Show in which I talk about all things D&D. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

Leaving Twitter for MastodonChronicles of Eberron by Keith BakerDragonlance Shadow of the Dragon QueenWOTC's Non-Answer About a One D&D SRDTomb of the Twilight QueenPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer some of the questions I get on the monthly Sly Flourish Patreon questions and answer thread. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Incorporating Random EncountersRunning Pointcrawls with Flying CharactersSupporting Players Who Roll PoorlyMaking Friends from Online D&D GamesFavorite Cult and Why Cults?D&D Tips

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

What choices can the characters make in each scene in your next game?What lore can the character learn about in your next dungeon crawl?What's the history of that new magic item the characters picked up?Who inhabited this lair before the characters showed up? Who before that?What non-hostile NPC frequents this dark lair?Why are the monsters here? What do they do when they're not busy eating characters?What traps did this dungeon's occupants set up? Who else ran into them?Related ArticlesTwo Years Playing D&D OnlineShared Experiences Playing D&D OnlineInterviewing New D&D Players for Online GamesFinding and Maintaining a D&D GroupReach Satisfying Campaign ConclusionsGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

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

What Does Challenge Rating Mean in D&D 5e?

If you take nothing else from this article, consider this:

A monster's challenge rating is a loose approximation of a monster's difficulty. Many factors not included in challenge ratings often affect the difficulty of a battle. Use the lazy encounter benchmark and dials of monster difficulty to build and run fun encounters and don't be afraid to run easy battles sometimes.

The 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons uses "challenge rating" (hereby referred to as CR) as a measure of the challenge of a monster. Every stat block for a monster or NPC has a challenge rating. Here's the description from the front pages of the Monster Manual.

A monster���s challenge rating tells you how great a threat the monster is, according to the encounter-building guidelines in chapter 3 of the Dungeon Master���s Guide. Those guidelines specify the numbers of adventurers of a certain level that should be able to defeat a monster of a particular challenge rating without suffering any deaths. An appropriately equipped and well-rested party of four adventurers should be able to defeat a monster that has a challenge rating equal to its level without suffering any deaths. For example, a party of four 3rd-level characters should find a monster with a challenge rating of 3 to be a worthy challenge, but not a deadly one.

Monsters that are significantly weaker than 1st-level characters have a challenge rating lower than 1. Monsters with a challenge rating of 0 are insignificant except in large numbers; those with no effective attacks are worth no experience points, while those that have attacks are worth 10 XP each.

Some monsters present a greater challenge than even a typical 20th-level party can handle. These monsters have a challenge rating of 21 or higher and are specifically designed to test player skill.

I've highlighted a couple of key sentences. The first highlighted sentence is the one we should pay the most attention to. A monster should be a worthy challenge — but not a deadly challenge — for four characters of an equal level to the CR of the monster.

That's not a terrible rule of thumb, but it's not terribly useful. Many factors go into whether a particular battle is going to be challenging beyond just the challenge rating of a monster and the levels of the characters. These factors include

How many monsters there are in the battle compared to charactersWho wins initiativeHow well rested the characters areWhat spells the characters have access toWhat magic items the characters haveThe environment in which the battle occursHow well the characters work together

and more.

What's important to note from the CR description above is that a single monster is roughly equivalent to four characters of an equal level to their challenge rating. That doesn't help us understand how multiple monsters work out, though. Which is why the Dungeon Master's Guide has it's crazy two-dial system for figuring out combat difficulty — a system both overly complicated and inaccurate in its results.

Challenge rating is a loose guide at best. Not only does monster difficulty vary significantly within a given challenge rating but monster difficulty also changes as challenge ratings go up. CR 1/2 creatures, for example, are much more deadly to 1st level characters than CR 5 monsters are for 10th level characters.

An Average of Multiple Statistics

Challenge rating is an aggregate score of several statistics in a monster's stat block. A monster's challenge rating is the average of two measurements: offensive challenge and defensive challenge. Each of these two categories have various characteristics, measurements, and weights affecting their final calculation. You can find a full breakdown of these characteristics and measurements in the "Creating a Monster" section of chapter 9 in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Sometimes these weighted characteristics dramatically change a monster's challenge rating but might not come into play in an actual battle. Other times, particular characteristics are overweighted, giving a monster a greater challenge rating than the actual threat it brings to a battle.

I often complain that high challenge monsters aren't nearly the threat that lower challenge monsters when compared to appropriately leveled characters. I argue that the characteristics of higher challenge monsters are weighed too heavily — high CR monsters need those abilities to challenge high level characters. An example is "legendary resistance" which counts as increasing the hit points of a monster but the whole reason a monster has "legendary resistance" is because it's going to be a huge target of "save or suck" spells. It needs those resistances because of the role legendary monsters play in the game. That's one example of many.

It's not important to break down every characteristic to see why a monster landed at the challenge rating it did. Instead, note the most important conclusion of this article:

Challenge rating is, at best, a loose approximation of the difficulty of a monster.

How do you make sure high CR monsters fight at their challenge rating? Bump up their damage.

Tools for Encounter Measurements

Two online tools help calculate encounter difficulty using the math from the Dungeon Master's Guide: Kobold Plus Fight Club and the D&D Beyond Encounter Builder. Both use the DMG math which, as noted, isn't particularly accurate in a vacuum. I'd argue "hard" encounters by these calculations aren't actually hard above level 7 or so given what characters bring to the table.

CR Guidelines to Keep In Mind

If you're looking for easy measurements of combat challenge you can keep in your head, consider the lazy encounter benchmark. This benchmark doesn't break down "easy", "medium", "hard", or "deadly" levels. Instead, it focuses on identifying potentially deadly encounters. Encounters below that benchmark are easier and things above it are harder. Here's the benchmark:

An encounter might be deadly if the total of monster challenge ratings is greater than 1/4th of the total of character levels, or 1/2 if the characters are above 5th level.

These are loose measures at best. Due to all of the factors described earlier in this article, this comparison is only a loose gauge. Various circumstances and criteria change an encounter's difficulty dramatically.

The Higher the Level, the Swingier Things Get

High level characters have so many resources at their disposal that combat gets even less predictable. In the original Monster Manual description above I highlighted the section talking about CR 20+ monsters being significant challenges for 20th level characters. That's certainly not been my experience. I've watched high level characters eat through challenges far greater than a single CR 20 monster.

So What Does CR Mean Again?

Returning to the main question, what does CR actually mean?

Challenge rating is a loose approximation of the difficulty of a particular monster compared to the level of the characters. Only when combining it with some encounter building math can we figure out its true relationship to the characters and those results are, at best, a loose approximation of encounter difficulty. Many factors go into the difficulty of a battle and thus it's up to each of us DMs to gauge each encounter and the potential difficulty it brings to the table.

What can you do with challenge ratings? Use the lazy encounter benchmark to gauge a potentially deadly encounter and use the dials of monster difficulty to tune monsters to suit the situation and pacing of the game.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

This week I posted a couple of YouTube videos including the Lazy D&D Talk Show and Session 7 of my Scarlet Citadel Lazy DM Prep.

Last Week's Lazy D&D Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy D&D Talk Show in which I talk about all things D&D. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

Level Up Advanced 5e on Bundle of Holding Justin Alexander on PointcrawlsMorrus on One D&D and the Open Gaming License Dragon+ Goes OfflineIs Takhisis Tiamat? Who Gets to Decide?Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer some of the questions I get on the monthly Sly Flourish Patreon questions and answer thread. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Using Side InitiativeReading an Entire Campaign AdventureMaking a Campaign World Feel AliveCuring Lycanthrope with a Wererat PCFocusing Over-PreparingNon-Lethal Attack OptionsMaking NPCs Stand Out in Online GamesPlayer-Driven Character MotivationsD&D Tips

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

Leave blanks in your story and setting. Fill them in as the campaign moves forward.Don't get too wrapped in the zeitgeist of D&D. Focus on what helps you and your friends enjoy the game around the table. It's easy to get overwhelmed with how awesome this game is. Remember it's just a game and focus on what will make it fun at your next session.Build overland travel like a dungeon with paths and locations instead of hallways and chambers.Increase the detail of a location only when you know the characters are going there.Add interesting side locations to your overland travel. Fill them with interesting lore and treasure to discover.Playing D&D one-on-one is a fantastic way to focus the campaign around a single character and much easier to schedule. Give it a try.Related ArticlesA New Dungeon Master's Guide For Building EncountersBuilding Encounters in Fifth Edition Dungeons & DragonsD&D 5e Numbers to Keep In Your HeadThoughts on Unearthed Arcana's Encounter Building GuidelinesThe Lazy Encounter Benchmark, a Simple Measure for D&D Encounter DeadlinessGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

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

Reinforce the Theme of your D&D Campaign

Campaigns like Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Rime of the Frostmaiden, and Descent into Avernus all have themes to them. Your homebrew campaign has a theme to it. We can best try to articulate this theme by defining it with a short phrase or even a single word. Here are some examples:

Rime of the Frostmaiden: IsolationWild Beyond the Witchlight: WhimsyDescent into Avernus: Redemption

You may not agree with the themes above. That's cool. Reinforce the themes you want for your campaign. Perhaps, instead of "redemption" for Descent into Avernus, you prefer "fall from grace". You get to choose.

Defining the theme of your campaign gives it focus. Every strong start, every scene, every secret or clue, every location, every NPC, every monster, every piece of treasure; every component of our prep and story reinforces this theme.

Wild Beyond the Witchlight doesn't just have bullywugs, it has bullywugs in a silly court of constant betrayal all while wearing funny hats and frocks. Descent into Avernus doesn't just have death knights, it has death knights who once were members of an angel's army and now serve her after her fall knowing how far she has fallen. Rime of the Frostmaiden doesn't just have a ruined city, it has a city trapped under the ice for thousands of years.

Here are two questions to ask yourself right now:

What is the one-word theme of your current campaign?

How do the components of your next game reinforce this theme?

More Sly Flourish Stuff

This week I posted a couple of YouTube videos including "Describe D&D Character Abilities on Leveling Up" and "lazy DM Prep for Scarlet Citadel Session 6".

Patreons of Sly Flourish got lots of cool new things this past week:

A biography and stat block for the assassin-priest Brother Cavel for the City of Arches PDF.A greatly expanded section on the Worlds Beyond the Arches for the City of Arches PDF.A new Lazy DM Generator with random generators for all sorts of people, places, items, and worlds.

Check out the November Patreon preview in the Lazy D&D Talk Show. Patrons can find them in your Patreon rewards post.

Last Week's Lazy D&D Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy D&D Talk Show in which I talk about all things D&D. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

November Patreon RewardsWOTC's New Inclusivity ReviewJaquays-Style Design for Dungeon and Overland TravelPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from the monthly Sly Flourish Patreon Q&A thread. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Keeping Villains Alive in CombatUsing Paper Notes for In-Person GamesMourning the End of a CampaignDeciding on a Campaign to RunUsing Time Flies Rules from the Midgard WorldbookTips for Promoting Paper Character Sheets with PlayersScaling Up Monsters and their Stories to 11th levelD&D Tips

Each week I ponder what I learned in my last D&D game and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's D&D tips:

Prep scenes with fantastic locations, interesting NPCs, potential secrets to unravel, and a situation to unravel. Expose history and narrative in small bites over the course of an adventure.Don���t take away magic items.Keep a list of potential magic items that fit the characters. Award them when it fits the situation.Make each magic item unique with a history and, if it makes sense, a once per day spell effect. Be wary putting the characters up against undefeatable foes. It���s a downward beat before it even begins. Dot your maps with small lairs and old ruins to explore as sidequests. Draw simple pointcrawl maps by hand. Be a kid again!Related ArticlesBuild Cities Around the CharactersTying Characters to a Campaign's ThemeWrite Down Page Numbers on D&D Prep Notes and Character SheetsReach Satisfying Campaign ConclusionsPrep Lazy D&D With HandoutsGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

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

Prep Lazy D&D With Handouts

Handouts are a valuable and under-appreciated element of D&D game prepration. Building and delivering handouts for our D&D games serve many purposes.

They help us focus on what's important in the game. They hand over import names of NPCs and locations in a permanent format.*��They clarify the current drive of the game to both you and your players. They give your players something physical to hang onto and read — something that looks like it's right out of the world we're playing in.They're easy to make.

For a video on this topic, see my YouTube video on Building Fantastic Handouts for D&D.

We don't often think about how building handouts helps us prepare our game, but they surely do. Thinking through a handout helps us understand what's happening in the game and in the world we share with our players. It tells us what's important. It forces us to think about things in concrete ways. We need real names, real places, real plots to fill in our handout.

A handout might include details of the characters, descriptions of coming events, secrets of the villains, location names, the names of important NPCs, descriptions of potential monsters, and potential treasure — components of all eight steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. In this way, the handout itself is our game prep.

Often a handout is a note found by the characters (and thus handed to the players). Such notes might include:

Instructions from a boss to an underling.A journal or diary entry.A lost letter from an NPC.An order of goods or services.A formal proclamation.A contract or signed agreement.A local newspaper article.A final confession.A note to remember something.An inventory.

Each of these can give valuable information to the characters, and thus to the players.

Construct a Cool Handout

To build a handout, use any word processor with fancy fonts. Google Docs works just fine for making handouts and has a bunch of fonts that work well for fantasy fonts including:

Aguafina ScriptAlex BrushBilbo Swash CapsMonsieur La DoulaiseNothing You CouldRock saltRogue ScriptUnifrakur Maguinta

Other word processors and the website Dafont also have hundreds of potential fonts to use for our handouts. Select a font that makes sense for the writer. A drow high priestess is going to have a fancier and more beautiful font than a ratfolk ruffian.

Print your handout on fancy copper parchment resume paper to make it feel like cool parchment. A 500 pack of fancy resume paper lasts a long time. For a cheaper solution crumple up and soak normal paper in coffee. It's cheaper but takes longer.

Tear the edges of the page to make it look unique and non-uniform. Crumple it up and flatten it back out to make it feel even more rustic.

Use Handouts in Online Games

If you're like many DMs and running your games online, you can still make great use of handouts. First, you can still make it physically and share a photo of the handout in your online platform of choice. Photos of physical things still give players the feeling that this handout is real even if they can't touch it themselves. Instead of, or in addition to, sharing a photo of the physical handout, you can send the handout as a PDF or a screenshot so players can read it. Instead of printing it out on resume paper, you can use textured backgrounds for the documents to give them the same rustic feel even online.

Write a Great Handout

When writing handouts, keep these thoughts in mind:

What would the author write down in such a handout?What information do I, the DM, want to give to the players?

Balance both of these questions when writing your handout. What would the author put down on paper? Lean towards revealing too much. Players only grasp half of what you're throwing out so being too coy and secretive means they're going to miss stuff. Instead, lean towards revealing clear and useful information in your handout.

Second, ask what information helps the player and put that in the handout. Fill your handout with specifics. Don't be too abstract. Say what's really going on. Use proper names. Use specific location names. Use nouns and verbs. Give important details. Pack your handout with clear information useful to the characters. If you want to make it even easier, bold the important words in a note to make it easy for the players to reference them.

Keep your handout to one page. Any longer and it'll be too hard to grasp. Fancy fonts can be hard to read so make sure the font is big enough to represent handwriting.

Prep With Handouts

Writing handouts isn't just about building an accessory we hand to our players. Writing handouts helps us prepare our games. It helps us get our hands around the story — identifying what's important and where the focus of our story lies. Handouts don't just help the players focus on what's going on, they help us focus on what's going on too.

Handouts are a fantastic high value element of game prep. Write an awesome handout for your very next game.

Sly Flourish Patreon Releases

The Sly Flourish Patreon had a lot of big releases this past week.

First, I added a new NPC villain biography and stat block for the priest-assassin Brother Cavel. I also greatly expanded the "Worlds Beyond the Arches" section with new adventure hooks and more narrative descriptions. Patrons can find this in the City of Arches PDF.

I also released a new random generator for items, monuments, locations, treasure, encounters, and adventure hooks that flavor the results with factions from different worlds including Eberron, Midgard, Forgotten Realms, and more. The link for this generator is on your main Patreon rewards page, pinned at the top of the Sly Flourish Patreon homepage along with all your other rewards.

Patrons also get a sneak preview and playtest of a new project I'm working on with Teos Abadia and Shawn Merwin. The most recent Patreon post has details.

The Sly Flourish Patreon is packed with lots of fantastic stuff. If you're not a Patreon, you should really check it out.

Last Week's Lazy D&D Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy D&D Talk Show in which I talk about all things D&D. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

Mastering Dungeons Goes IndependentD&D on ESPN??Heretics Guide to Devotion and DivinityUltimate Guide to Foraging, Harvesting, and Natural DiscoveryPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer some of the questions I get on the monthly Sly Flourish Patreon questions and answer thread. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Managing Pacing with Heavy Roleplay ScenesDoes Writing Help You Become a Better DM? No.Players Coordinating Leveling UpMagic Items for Higher-Level Pregen CharactersFeelings on Boxed and Read-Aloud TextHeroes and Anti-VillainsD&D Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last D&D game and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's D&D tips. What tips did you learn in your last game?

Build fantastic locations from random tables and your own imagination fueled by fantastic fiction.Use monuments, items, and locations to tell small pieces of the history of the world.Print or screenshot pictures of NPCs or monsters to hand out during the game.Look for opportunities for roleplaying and discovery even in the thick of a battle.Pull on the characters��� backgrounds during NPC roleplaying. How do the NPCs act based on the characters��� history?Note new character features, magic items, and wish lists in your character notes. Review before every session. End on a cliffhanger. Give yourself a strong start next session.Related ArticlesMaking Great HandoutsThings Worth PreparingWrite Down Page Numbers on D&D Prep Notes and Character SheetsSpending a Whole Day Preparing a D&D GameBuild Cities Around the CharactersGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

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

Running Dragons of Stormwreck Isle ��� The 2022 D&D Starter Set Adventure

Wizards of the Coast released a new D&D Starter Set with a brand new adventure — Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. This article intends to help DMs, both new and veterans, make the most of this excellent starting adventure.

Choose Your Format

These days, more DMs than ever run their games online. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is available on the three most popular online platforms for running D&D games:

D&D BeyondRoll20Fantasy Grounds

The digital version on D&D Beyond gives you everything you need to run in other virtual tabletops such as Foundry, Owlbear Rodeo (my personal favorite), Above VTT, or even directly over Discord.

Of course, you can play Dragons of Stormwreck Isle in person using the D&D Starter Set box. To do so, you'll want some other tools and accessories to make the most of the game. Zipperon Disney has a fantastic YouTube video showing how to fill out the Starter Set with some fantastic crafted accessories for under $20.

Top Tips for Running Stormwreck Isle

Here are my top tips for running Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. These are detailed further in this article.

Combine the "additional encounters" together to build interesting dynamic situations.Be ready to deal with the zombies' "Undead Fortitude" ability. It can drag the fight.In Dragon's Rest, focus on a few NPCs instead of trying to introduce every one of them.In any given location, feel free to move creatures from one room to another, remove them completely, or change their hostility to support the pace your game.Lean in on the lore presented in the adventure. Let the characters learn about Sharuuth, Bahamut, Tiamat, and Orcus and the draconic battles plaguing the island for centuries as they explore the island.Read the Initial DM Tips

The beginning of the Stormwreck Isle adventure book includes a short section of tips for new DMs. Whether new or experienced, it's worth reading over these tips to refresh yourself. If you're looking for more tips for new DMs, see my Getting Started Playing D&D article.

Drowned Sailors

The first scene in the game has the characters witness a handful of zombies coming up the beach. This is a great encounter to get the characters into the action but gives them the option to leave well-enough alone if they choose. I expect most players fight the zombies. This isn't a difficult fight, and perfect for a Starter Set adventure. All too often published adventures throw 1st level characters against extremely difficult battles. This is a fresh change.

Note that the zombies start far enough away from the characters that the characters have a round or two to fire arrows or prepare for the attack. The zombies begin 30 feet away which means on their turn they must dash to reach the characters if the characters don't charge up first.

Choose How to Run Combat

You have options for how you want to run combat in this and every D&D encounter. This battle is simple enough that you can simply describe what's going on without any tokens, maps, or visuals — a style known as the "Theater of the Mind". You can, instead use tokens or miniatures to represent monsters and characters. See my Lazy Monster Tokens guide for building nice tokens to represent monsters and characters or, again, check out Zipperon Disney's video to see how to make tokens out of glass beads. If you want a more tactical 5-foot-per-square grid, check out the Pathfinder Flip Mat.

If you're playing online you too have the choice of running the battle in the theater of the mind or using an online virtual tabletop for gridded play.

Saved by Runara

Pay attention to the sidebar in chapter 1 called "Runara Saves the Day!". Should the characters fail in this adventure, they don't simply all die. Instead they awaken back at the temple under the care of Elder Runara. You can use this feature everywhere in the adventure, ensuring that a "total party kill" never ends in full defeat. Runara likely wouldn't describe exactly how she saved them, only that she was in the right place at the right time. This can further allude to her true origin as a bronze dragon.

Choose Your NPCs in Dragon's Rest

Chapter 1 is packed with NPCs to introduce to the characters. Instead of introducing every single one, choose the most important ones for the adventure so you and your players can keep them in mind. This includes:

Elder RunaraTarakVarnothOne of the kobolds. I'd recommend Myla who has a connection to chapter 3.Dive Into the Lore

Dragon of Stormwreck Isle is a largely traditional and straight forward D&D adventure. It's simple in its structure but heavily enriched by the lore presented in the text. Expose the characters to this lore as they talk to NPCs and explore the island. The histories of Bahamut and Tiamat, even the epic poem in the beginning of Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, can tell the characters more about the lore of dragons.

The lost effigy in the Cursed Shipwreck can likewise reveal information about Orcus, demon prince of undeath.

Lean in on the lore. Let the players discover this lore as they explore the island and its inhabitants. Such lore binds the actions of the characters to the world around them.

Move Things Forward

There isn't a sense of urgency going on at Dragon's Rest. Give the characters time to explore the place, enjoy a dinner, and talk to NPCs. Then be ready to move things forward if the characters don't start exploring. The kobolds, for example, can push the characters to ask Tarak and Varnoth about their quests. Too much sitting around the temple can get boring fast so be ready to move things forward.

Combining Additional Encounters

Dragons of Stormwreck Isle includes three additional encounters you can run as the characters explore the island. Consider combining the "Kobold Renegade" and "There There Owlbear" encounter into one single situation. The characters might be tracked by two of the kobolds early on who decide they're not enough to take on the characters. Later, the kobolds run past the characters as the owlbear crashes in. You can combine these two encounters however you like to build a fun crazy situation the characters can get involved in. Mixing and matching encounters like this is a great way to keep situations unique and interesting.

Tips for Seagrow Caves

Like all of the chapters in this adventure, Seagrow Caves runs well without much modification. The one major tip I'll offer is to choose which battles you want to run and which you want to skip. As written the characters could face one battle after another between the plant octopus, the violet fungi, an the stirges. Feel free to skip or move around these encounters to pace the game so you're not throwing battle after battle at the characters which can get stale fast. Move both the violet fungi and the stirges around to suit the pacing of the game.

One fun detail I added to the two Stormwreck adventures I ran is to give the guardian plant octopus one of Tarak's boots. Not only can it whack someone with a tentacle but bonk them with a boot as well. Don't be afraid to give the octopus another melee attack as long as it's against a separate target. This makes it a more dangerous threat when facing four or five characters. Tarak will be happy to get his boot back when the characters defeat the octopus.

Lean in on the idea that the myconids, as afraid as they are, aren't hostile. Stage things carefully so it doesn't end up a mushroom bloodbath.

In the final battle against the fume drakes, let them share information about Sharuuth's tomb or prison beneath the island. Let the players ponder whether Sharuuth is alive or dead and what power she may possess but make it clear that answering such questions is better for another day far away.

Tips for the Cursed Shipwreck

The Cursed Shipwreck is an excellent derelict ship dungeon crawl. Like Seagrow Caves, be ready to move combatants around to suit the pacing of the game you want to run. Add or remove zombies and ghouls to increase or decrease the threat the characters face based on what feels right for the fun of the game.

Let the characters learn more about Orcus and his terrible realm of Thanatos based on the characters' religion checks when they discover the effigy and its accompanying note.

Tips for the Clifftop Observatory

Depending on how the characters approach it, there may not be a lot of combat in the observatory. If this fits the pacing of the game you want, that's fine. Otherwise, you can use the kobolds and flying kobolds as your combat dial — making them more aggressive and clearly villainous if you want an extra fight or more goofy and easily intimidated if you want to focus on the final battle with Sparkrender.

The puzzles in the observatory can be a little tricky so freely offer up clues to the more perceptive characters in the group if it helps keep things moving. Pacing such situations is always key. Don't be afraid to tell the players what their characters would notice.

When it comes time to run Sparkrender, a variety of circumstances can make the battle either easy or hard. Thus, you'll want to have your hands on the dials, changing up Sparkrender's hit points, number of attacks, and any allies who help him. If you have more than four characters you may want to add one or more flying kobolds into the battle to harass back-line characters. You can also give Sparkrender an additional claw attack if he doesn't seem very effective. Use his bite attack but change the piercing to slashing and don't include the lighting damage. Increase his hit points if you think he's going to go down too fast.

The fight against Sparkrender should feel epic but not completely deadly. Be ready to change things up to keep that danger high without completely wiping out the characters.

Continuing Your Journeys

Should you wish to continue your journeys, you can have the characters return to the Sword Coast by boat. I've written a bridge adventure in partnership with Scott Fitzgerald Gray and Jeff Stevens called Stars Over Stormwreck. This adventure connects Dragons of Stormwreck Isle with Light of Xaryxis, the adventure in the D&D Spelljammer boxed set but you can use this same adventure to tie to any adventure going on in Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Luskan, or elsewhere on the shores of the Sword Coast.

If you want to set Stormwreck Isle in the lands of Exandria, the world of Critical Role, you can connect Dragons of Stormwreck Isle with Call from the Netherdeep by placing Stormwreck Isle in the Emerald Gulch Sea and having the characters catch a boat that takes them to Jigow and the beginning of the adventures in Call from the Netherdeep which begin at 3rd level.

Stormwreck Isle is a fantastic adventure for both new and veteran DM's alike. Hopefully these tips help you run this adventure for your family and friends.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

This week on YouTube I posted my Scarlet Citadel preparation of session 4 and a tip video on How Surprise Works in D&D.

Last Week's Lazy D&D Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy D&D Talk Show in which I talk about all things D&D. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

Free MCDM RPG Safety ToolkitThe Gloaming Wild 5e Survival HorrorRunning Ravenloft 2022 with Level Up 5e VampiresPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer some of the questions I get on the monthly Sly Flourish Patreon questions and answer thread. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Keeping Big Battles from Being BoringWhat Other RPGs Do You Recommend?Filling In the Gaps During the GameFaction Ideas from Blades in the DarkTargeting Loot for the CharactersBetter Level Draining and Exhaustion for VampiresWhat to Get for Staring Out with NumeneraComparing Midgard to the Forgotten RealmsIncluding Every Character's Story ArcShowcasing High-Level AbilitiesBuilding Open World D&D GamesBuilding Problems Without SolutionsHow Many Encounters Before a Long Rest?Offering Headquarters and Lair Upgrades to the CharactersSecrets in Clues for Dungeon Crawls and Combat-Focused GamesD&D Tips

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

Build motivations for the characters to enter the room in combat to avoid the dreaded doorway fight. Flaming walls, hordes of skeletons, necrotic gas. Whatever works.Build encounters from the story first and challenge rating second.Paint your adventures and locations in short descriptions of lore, history, and setting.Double-check spell descriptions. If it feels too good to be true, it probably is.Tie third-party spells to single-use magic items. If the spell is broken, it only works once.Let tag-along NPCs handle their part of a battle off-screen. Keep the focus on the characters.Give the characters secret paths and side quests during travel sequences.Related ArticlesHow to Play Dungeons & DragonsBuild Cities Around the CharactersTwo Years Playing D&D OnlineWrite Down Page Numbers on D&D Prep Notes and Character SheetsDungeons & Dragons Starter Set: Running PhandelverGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

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

Running Dragon's of Stormwreck Isle ��� The 2022 D&D Starter Set Adventure

Wizards of the Coast released a new D&D Starter Set with a brand new adventure — Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. This article intends to help DMs, both new and veterans, make the most of this excellent starting adventure.

Choose Your Format

These days, more DMs than ever run their games online. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is available on the three most popular online platforms for running D&D games:

D&D BeyondRoll20Fantasy Grounds

The digital version on D&D Beyond gives you everything you need to run in other virtual tabletops such as Foundry, Owlbear Rodeo (my personal favorite), Above VTT, or even directly over Discord.

Of course, you can play Dragons of Stormwreck Isle in person using the D&D Starter Set box. To do so, you'll want some other tools and accessories to make the most of the game. Zipperon Disney has a fantastic YouTube video showing how to fill out the Starter Set with some fantastic crafted accessories for under $20.

Top Tips for Running Stormwreck Isle

Here are my top tips for running Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. These are detailed further in this article.

Combine the "additional encounters" together to build interesting dynamic situations.Be ready to deal with the zombies' "Undead Fortitude" ability. It can drag the fight.In Dragon's Rest, focus on a few NPCs instead of trying to introduce every one of them.In any given location, feel free to move creatures from one room to another, remove them completely, or change their hostility to support the pace your game.Lean in on the lore presented in the adventure. Let the characters learn about Sharuuth, Bahamut, Tiamat, and Orcus and the draconic battles plaguing the island for centuries as they explore the island.Read the Initial DM Tips

The beginning of the Stormwreck Isle adventure book includes a short section of tips for new DMs. Whether new or experienced, it's worth reading over these tips to refresh yourself. If you're looking for more tips for new DMs, see my Getting Started Playing D&D article.

Drowned Sailors

The first scene in the game has the characters witness a handful of zombies coming up the beach. This is a great encounter to get the characters into the action but gives them the option to leave well-enough alone if they choose. I expect most players fight the zombies. This isn't a difficult fight, and perfect for a Starter Set adventure. All too often published adventures throw 1st level characters against extremely difficult battles. This is a fresh change.

Note that the zombies start far enough away from the characters that the characters have a round or two to fire arrows or prepare for the attack. The zombies begin 30 feet away which means on their turn they must dash to reach the characters if the characters don't charge up first.

Choose How to Run Combat

You have options for how you want to run combat in this and every D&D encounter. This battle is simple enough that you can simply describe what's going on without any tokens, maps, or visuals — a style known as the "Theater of the Mind". You can, instead use tokens or miniatures to represent monsters and characters. See my Lazy Monster Tokens guide for building nice tokens to represent monsters and characters or, again, check out Zipperon Disney's video to see how to make tokens out of glass beads. If you want a more tactical 5-foot-per-square grid, check out the Pathfinder Flip Mat.

If you're playing online you too have the choice of running the battle in the theater of the mind or using an online virtual tabletop for gridded play.

Saved by Runara

Pay attention to the sidebar in chapter 1 called "Runara Saves the Day!". Should the characters fail in this adventure, they don't simply all die. Instead they awaken back at the temple under the care of Elder Runara. You can use this feature everywhere in the adventure, ensuring that a "total party kill" never ends in full defeat. Runara likely wouldn't describe exactly how she saved them, only that she was in the right place at the right time. This can further elude to her true origin as a bronze dragon.

Choose Your NPCs in Dragon's Rest

Chapter 1 is packed with NPCs to introduce to the characters. Instead of introducing every single one, choose the most important ones for the adventure so you and your players can keep them in mind. This includes:

Elder RunaraTarakVarnothOne of the kobolds. I'd recommend Myla who has a connection to chapter 3.Dive Into the Lore

Dragon of Stormwreck Isle is a largely traditional and straight forward D&D adventure. It's simple in its structure but heavily enriched by the lore presented in the text. Expose the characters to this lore as they talk to NPCs and explore the island. The histories of Bahamut and Tiamat, even the epic poem in the beginning of Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, can tell the characters more about the lore of dragons.

The lost effigy in the Cursed Shipwreck can likewise reveal information about Orcus, demon prince of undeath.

Lean in on the lore. Let the players discover this lore as they explore the island and its inhabitants. Such lore binds the actions of the characters to the world around them.

Move Things Forward

There isn't a sense of urgency going on at Dragon's Rest. Give the characters time to explore the place, enjoy a dinner, and talk to NPCs. Then be ready to move things forward if the characters don't start exploring. The kobolds, for example, can push the characters to ask Tarak and Varnoth about their quests. Too much sitting around the temple can get boring fast so be ready to move things forward.

Combining Additional Encounters

Dragons of Stormwreck Isle includes three additional encounters you can run as the characters explore the island. Consider combining the "Kobold Renegade" and "There There Owlbear" encounter into one single situation. The characters might be tracked by two of the kobolds early on who decide they're not enough to take on the characters. Later, the kobolds run past the characters as the owlbear crashes in. You can combine these two encounters however you like to build a fun crazy situation the characters can get involved in. Mixing and matching encounters like this is a great way to keep situations unique and interesting.

Tips for Seagrow Caves

Like all of the chapters in this adventure, Seagrow Caves runs well without much modification. The one major tip I'll offer is to choose which battles you want to run and which you want to skip. As written the characters could face one battle after another between the plant octopus, the violet fungi, an the stirges. Feel free to skip or move around these encounters to pace the game so you're not throwing battle after battle at the characters which can get stale fast. Move both the violet fungi and the stirges around to suit the pacing of the game.

One fun detail I added to the two Stormwreck adventures I ran is to give the guardian plant octopus one of Tarak's boots. Not only can it whack someone with a tentacle but bonk them with a boot as well. Don't be afraid to give the octopus another melee attack as long as it's against a separate target. This makes it a more dangerous threat when facing four or five characters. Tarak will be happy to get his boot back when the characters defeat the octopus.

Lean in on the idea that the myconids, as afraid as they are, aren't hostile. Stage things carefully so it doesn't end up a mushroom bloodbath.

In the final battle against the fume drakes, let them share information about Sharuuth's tomb or prison beneath the island. Let the players ponder whether Sharuuth is alive or dead and what power she may possess but make it clear that answering such questions is better for another day far away.

Tips for the Cursed Shipwreck

The Cursed Shipwreck is an excellent derelict ship dungeon crawl. Like Seagrow Caves, be ready to move combatants around to suit the pacing of the game you want to run. Add or remove zombies and ghouls to increase or decrease the threat the characters face based on what feels right for the fun of the game.

Let the characters learn more about Orcus and his terrible realm of Thanatos based on the characters' religion checks when they discover the effigy and its accompanying note.

Tips for the Clifftop Observatory

Depending on how the characters approach it, there may not be a lot of combat in the observatory. If this fits the pacing of the game you want, that's fine. Otherwise, you can use the kobolds and flying kobolds as your combat dial — making them more aggressive and clearly villainous if you want an extra fight or more goofy and easily intimidated if you want to focus on the final battle with Sparkrender.

The puzzles in the observatory can be a little tricky so freely offer up clues to the more perceptive characters in the group if it helps keep things moving. Pacing such situations is always key. Don't be afraid to tell the players what their characters would notice.

When it comes time to run Sparkrender, a variety of circumstances can make the battle either easy or hard. Thus, you'll want to have your hands on the dials, changing up Sparkrender's hit points, number of attacks, and any allies who help him. If you have more than four characters you may want to add one or more flying kobolds into the battle to harass back-line characters. You can also give Sparkrender an additional claw attack if he doesn't seem very effective. Use his bite attack but change the piercing to slashing and don't include the lighting damage. Increase his hit points if you think he's going to go down too fast.

The fight against Sparkrender should feel epic but not completely deadly. Be ready to change things up to keep that danger high without completely wiping out the characters.

Continuing Your Journeys

Should you wish to continue your journeys, you can have the characters return to the Sword Coast by boat. I've written a bridge adventure in partnership with Scott Fitzgerald Gray and Jeff Stevens called Stars Over Stormwreck. This adventure connects Dragons of Stormwreck Isle with Light of Xaryxis, the adventure in the D&D Spelljammer boxed set but you can use this same adventure to tie to any adventure going on in Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Luskan, or elsewhere on the shores of the Sword Coast.

If you want to set Stormwreck Isle in the lands of Exandria, the world of Critical Role, you can connect Dragons of Stormwreck Isle with Call from the Netherdeep by placing Stormwreck Isle in the Emerald Gulch Sea and having the characters catch a boat that takes them to Jigow and the beginning of the adventures in Call from the Netherdeep which begin at 3rd level.

Stormwreck Isle is a fantastic adventure for both new and veteran DM's alike. Hopefully these tips help you run this adventure for your family and friends.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

This week on YouTube I posted my Scarlet Citadel preparation of session 4 and a tip video on How Surprise Works in D&D.

Last Week's Lazy D&D Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy D&D Talk Show in which I talk about all things D&D. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

Free MCDM RPG Safety ToolkitThe Gloaming Wild 5e Survival HorrorRunning Ravenloft 2022 with Level Up 5e VampiresPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer some of the questions I get on the monthly Sly Flourish Patreon questions and answer thread. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Keeping Big Battles from Being BoringWhat Other RPGs Do You Recommend?Filling In the Gaps During the GameFaction Ideas from Blades in the DarkTargeting Loot for the CharactersBetter Level Draining and Exhaustion for VampiresWhat to Get for Staring Out with NumeneraComparing Midgard to the Forgotten RealmsIncluding Every Character's Story ArcShowcasing High-Level AbilitiesBuilding Open World D&D GamesBuilding Problems Without SolutionsHow Many Encounters Before a Long Rest?Offering Headquarters and Lair Upgrades to the CharactersSecrets in Clues for Dungeon Crawls and Combat-Focused GamesD&D Tips

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

Build motivations for the characters to enter the room in combat to avoid the dreaded doorway fight. Flaming walls, hordes of skeletons, necrotic gas. Whatever works.Build encounters from the story first and challenge rating second.Paint your adventures and locations in short descriptions of lore, history, and setting.Double-check spell descriptions. If it feels too good to be true, it probably is.Tie third-party spells to single-use magic items. If the spell is broken, it only works once.Let tag-along NPCs handle their part of a battle off-screen. Keep the focus on the characters.Give the characters secret paths and side quests during travel sequences.Related ArticlesBuild Cities Around the CharactersTwo Years Playing D&D OnlineWrite Down Page Numbers on D&D Prep Notes and Character SheetsGetting Started with Dungeons & DragonsDungeons & Dragons Starter Set: Running PhandelverGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

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

Build Cities Around the Characters

Introducing cities can be tricky in D&D. Even small ones have lots of locations and lots of NPCs. Big ones, like Waterdeep, can have hundreds of notable locations and thousands of NPCs. How can we introduce cities to the characters and their players without overwhelming both them and us?

For a quick minute-long video on this topic, see How do you introduce players to big cities in Dungeons & Dragons?.

As difficult as it is for you to make up or internalize so many locations in a big city, it's just as hard for the players to remember those locations. The minute you describe the eighth location the characters see, they forget the first one.

Instead, focus on the important locations. These might be the home base for the characters — a place to hang their hat. It might be the place they pick up quests, like an adventurer's hall or the local bulletin board. Maybe there's a clear adventure location like the old abandoned well, the creaky house no one goes to anymore, or the ruined watchtower out in the bay everyone says is haunted.

After these main locations build your city by thinking about what locations fit the characters. Where would they want to go. Bards like taverns, dance halls, and theaters. Clerics and paladins like temples or monasteries. Wizards, warlocks, and sorcerers might like a shady library or an arcane guildhall. Druids and rangers might like an overgrown wild grove with a grumpy caretaker. Fighters and rogues like shops where they can "buy" stuff or sharpen their weapons.

When you're building out a story, build from the characters outward. What do they want? What would interest them? This helps focus down to just a handful of places. Here's a quick checklist of the locations you might want to focus on in your next town or city:

Places to pick up new quests.Places to rest, recuperate, and call their own.Places their particular character might want to visit.

When you're introducing a story, focus on the locations designed to draw the characters into the rest of the story, adventure, campaign, and world.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

This week I posted a video on Running Dragons of Stormwreck Isle with Tips for New DMs and my Scarlet Citadel Session 3 Prep video.

Last Week's Lazy D&D Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy D&D Talk Show in which I talk about all things D&D. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

Under the Harvest MoonsVenture Maidens Campaign GuideD&D Lead Designer Ray Winninger Leaves Wizards of the CoastOne D&D Expert Playtest Feedback SurveyOne D&D Ideas We Can Use Right NowPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer some of the questions I get on the monthly Sly Flourish Patreon questions and answer thread. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Using NPCs as Assets in D&D GamesUsing 5e Rules with Numenera's Ninth WorldProps, Decorations, Accessories, and Themes in your D&D GamesFilling Out Big Climactic Boss BattlesD&D Tips

Each week, after my Wednesday game, I try to think about what I learned from that game and offer them as tips. Here are this week's D&D tips:

Prep interesting and unique magic items for each of the characters. Reward them when the time and situation is right.Build scenes from interesting set pieces, creatures, and situations.Offer a couple of meaningful choices for paths of overland travel.Use monuments as the backdrop for a scene.Make random encounters meaningful with interesting lore and the revelation of secrets and clues.Describe fantastic features of a city and the locations of most likely interest to the characters and their players.Tie monuments to the history and theology of your campaign world so the players can learn about it a piece at a time.Related ArticlesWrite Down Page Numbers on D&D Prep Notes and Character SheetsReach Satisfying Campaign ConclusionsSingle Encounters for Overland TravelBuild Resilient CampaignsWest Marches Campaigns in GrendlerootGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

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

Write Down Page Numbers on D&D Prep Notes and Character Sheets

Add page numbers to your preparation notes and character sheets. This is a tip for both D&D DMs and players. For 1,500 years people have learned how to create the equivalent of digital hyperlinks in physical books by referencing locations in an index.

While many of us prep our games or run our characters using online tools, sometimes we're using PDFs of products which still have page numbers and no easy way to hyperlink specific locations. For others running in-person games using physical books, writing page numbers in your notes or character sheets speeds up referencing spells, powers, character abilities, magic items, monsters, locations, NPCs, campaign information, and just about everything else in D&D right at the table.

For players, think of your physical character sheet as an customized index of specific options in the books you use to make your character. Write down the book's abbreviation and page number next to spells, feats, class features, and anything else you might reference. Write down the page number while building your character. It'll save you considerable time during play.

If you're a dungeon master, write down page numbers next to monsters, magic items, locations, NPC descriptions, or anything else you think you might reference during the game. You can do this in your notes whether they're digital or physical. You can also recommend and help your players write down their page numbers as well.

Writing down page numbers pays huge dividends in gameplay. No longer do you have to rifle through the Player's Handbook trying to figure out how big the cone of a cone of cold is (PHB 224). No longer do you have to page through Kobold Press's Tome of Beasts to find the empty cloak stat block (ToB 176). No longer do you have to scramble through your copy of the Midgard World Book to learn more about the dwarven canton of Grisal (MWB 71)

Use technology proven over 1,500 years. Write down page numbers in your character sheets and game prep notes.

Other Sly Flourish Stuff

This week I posted a video on customizing your Lazy DM Notion Template and recorded my preparation for session 2 of my Scarlet Citadel game.

Last Week's Lazy D&D Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy D&D Talk Show in which I talk about all things D&D. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

New Patreon Adventure - The Silver GrottoMidgard Sale - 30% OffApocalypse - The Complete Guide to Ending the WorldTorrents of the SpellhoarderElder Brain 5e SurveyExperiences Running Dragons of Stormwreck IslePatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer some of the questions I get on the monthly Sly Flourish Patreon questions and answer thread. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Differences Between DMs and Players and Tips for DMs Becoming PlayersAdventure for New Local Game Shop GroupModifying Published Adventures with a Different MapInjecting Horror into our AdventuresPontification on RPGs Moving Towards DigitalWarlock Patreon of Evil God?Last Week's D&D Tips

Every week I ponder what I've learned from my last game and put them into some D&D tips. Here are last week's tips! What did you learn from your last game?

Build two-stage bosses that turn into their final form after their first defeat.Add environmental features that weaken bosses. Destroy the four unholy glyphs to remove the boss's advantage on all attacks and saving throws.Reward lots of healing potions for groups with limited healing spells.Clarify the lack of urgency when traveling so players can go off the trail sometimes and enjoy the sites.Every few sessions ask your players what they're enjoying about the campaign and what they want to see more of. Every few sessions run a "campfire tales" scene in which the players describe what their characters think of the current situation, their hopes for the future, and what it reminds them of from their past.Combine multiple random encounters together to build something rich and unique.Related ArticlesTwo Years Playing D&D OnlineReach Satisfying Campaign Conclusions2016 D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master QuestionnaireManaging D&D TipsTools for New D&D Dungeon MastersGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

Reach Satisfying Campaign Conclusions

K. Ivan R., a Patreon of Sly Flourish, asked:

Most of the games I've run and played did not have a satisfying conclusion. This jives with what I've heard talking to every gamer I've brought this up with, and received wisdom I've heard from people online: Maybe once in your life will you get a campaign that goes every week for multiple years, only a handful of times in your life will a campaign come to a satisfying end, and for every campaign that ends, five or more will fizzle out before anything major happens. And yet, you run campaign after campaign, straight bangers - two campaigns a week and every man jack (??) of them ends properly. How do you do it?

I wasn't sure I agreed with Ivan's assessment of the situation so I ran a YouTube poll and the results astounded me:

Question: This is a poll for D&D players and dungeon masters. How often do you reach a satisfying conclusion to your D&D campaign?

YouTube poll posted 25 August 2022, 2,600 respondents.

Response% of totalAlmost Never26%Rarely21%Sometimes31%Often14%Almost Always7%

About half of polled players and DMs rarely or almost never have a satisfying campaign conclusion. That's appalling.

I had lots of thoughts about how more groups might reach satisfying conclusions but I wanted to get a better gauge on why this is the case. So I hit up Twitter, asking why people didn't reach satisfying conclusions. You can read the Twitter thread here.

Scheduling was, by far, the number one reason. There were others, though, including:

Getting excited for the new thingChanges in players and groupsDM burnoutConflicting playstylesA general lack of interestLack of campaign clarityTPKs

I've managed to run two dozen successful campaigns since 2014 and a good handful of campaigns before I started counting. I've rarely had a campaign fizzle out before a solid conclusion, but it has happened.

It's clear survivorship bias to assume the the things I do in my game more likely lead to a successful campaign. Having read peoples' experiences, however, I do believe the following things helped me run as many successful campaigns as I've run. So I humbly share my ideas for reaching satisfying campaign conclusions:

Run Six Full-Time Players and Two On Call

Finding and maintaining a D&D group is the hardest part of D&D. One way to manage a group once you've put it together is by keeping an on-call list. Try to have six regular players who can make it most of the time and have two "on call" players who know that, when available, they're standing in for one of the open seats if someone can't make it. Then be ready to run even if you only have four players. This way it takes five people cancelling before you can't run a game. Ensure you bring in new players should anyone step away from the group. If one of the regulars steps out, ask the on-call players if they want to step in. If on-call players tend not to be able to make it, extend your list of on-call players.

Run Shorter Sessions Weekly at a Regular Day and Time

I run regular games on Wednesday nights from 7pm to 10pm and Sunday's from noon to 3pm. The Wednesday game has gone on for about fifteen years. The Sunday game for about eight. We don't schedule these games — that's when they happen. When games happen at a regular time they become part of people's weekly rituals. Their lives get scheduled around the game, not the other way around.

Run Short, Focused, and Flexible Campaigns

The longer a campaign goes, the more likely it is to fall apart for any number of reasons. Shorter campaigns are more likely to reach a clear conclusion. I tend to run campaigns of roughly 12 to 14 months — about 50 three-hour sessions. These are good meaty campaigns but have a clear ending. This solves a few problems I saw from those who described why their campaigns fell apart. It's easier to stay interested and still move on to the new cool thing if your campaign is short enough to accommodate this.

A focused campaign keeps you and the players engaged. You all know there's an ending and you know where things are generally going. This doesn't mean railroading but just knowing there's a single focused goal.

Keep these campaigns flexible. Avoid focusing on one character only to have the player of that character leave. Do your best to incorporate the stories of the characters into the game but ensure the campaign, or even a specific session, isn't so wrapped around one character that it can't go on if that player is there.

And what do you do if that character's missing? Just let them fade into the background. Everyone knows why the character isn't there.

Each session ask the players who attended the last session to summarize what's happened so players just coming back to the table can catch up.

Ask For "One Year Later" Character Conclusions

It's really easy to blow a good conclusion by trying to turn the story on its head. Instead, give players what they want in the conclusion. Let them fight the big bad. Let them enjoy a tremendous victory. Let them tie up their loose ends.

How do you ensure each character gets the ending their player wants? Let them narrate that ending. I call this the One Year Later montage. Warn your players before your final session that you're going to ask them to talk about where their character ends up one year after the end of the campaign. Then, when the campaign closes, ask each player to talk about where their character ends up one year after the final conclusion of the game. I've done this for dozens of campaigns and every time the stories delight me. It's my favorite part of the campaign and it ensures the players get what they want out of their characters arc. It's one of my favorite lazy tools for awesome campaign conclusions.

Run Games Online

I love in-person games but having spent the past two years learning how to play D&D online, it's clearly made attendance at my games more consistent. Online games fit easier into peoples' lives. They don't have to travel anywhere. They can keep an eye on the kids. It's just plain easier.

Playing online also opens up your potential pool of players by many orders of magnitude. Instead of only those who can make it to your gaming space, you can recruit players from, literally, all over the world. You can seek players who best fit your style and can commit to the times, leading to more consistent games.

Nothing beats the fun of playing in person but solid and reliable online games are better than inconsistent in-person games.

Send a Reminder Email

Even though we've played for more than a decade, I still send out a weekly reminder email two or three days before our game. This gives players a weekly reminder to get their affairs in order and make it to the table — or let you know they can't make it with enough time to do something about it. I schedule a reminder to myself every week to send reminder emails to my friends for our upcoming games.

Continual Efforts

Keeping games going takes continual effort. Game scheduling and attendance doesn't happen on its own. Getting people to your table and keeping them coming week after week takes regular work.

Building and maintaining a solid D&D group is the hardest part of this hobby. Hopefully this gives you a few ideas to keep your own group going and let you finish more awesome campaigns.

Last Week's Sly Flourish StuffLast week I posted my prep for my first session of Scarlet Citadel to YouTube.Patrons of Sly Flourish received The Silver Grotto. A 10 page 7th level City of Arches adventure written by my friend and long-time colleague, Scott Fitzgerald Gray.Enjoy my D&D tip video on Prepping Awesome D&D Handouts on YouTubeD&D Tips

Here are some quick D&D tips I learned this week.

Fill travel with interesting situations with choices to make and lore to discover. Watch carefully for players having a poor time from bad luck. Find ways to give them an upward beat. Maps, minis, and terrain work as well for exploration and roleplaying as they do for combat. Bathe in the lore of your world, whether your own or published.Write down page numbers in your notes for quick referencing at the table.Offer tactical suggestions for hard battles. The characters know more than the players. Offer multiple paths with clear choices during travel.Last Week's Lazy D&D Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy D&D Talk Show in which I talk about all things D&D. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

Stars Over Stormwreck Released on the DM's GuildDread Thingonomicon by Raging Swan PressGrimoire of the Grave by 2C GamingDungeoncraft Review of the Lazy DM's Workbook and Lazy DM's CompanionNew Senior Vice President of D&DKeeping D&D Resilient for Us and our GroupsOther Commentaries on the One D&D Experts PlaytestD&D Lego ContestPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer some of the questions I get on the monthly Sly Flourish Patreon questions and answer thread. Here are last week's questions and answers:

New Lazy Combat Encounter Benchmark for One D&D?How to Destroy ArtifactsManaging Dungeon Crawling and Offering Useful OptionsGood Material from Older EditionsChanging Character Personalities with Magic ItemsRelated ArticlesFinding and Maintaining a D&D GroupManaging Player Attendance with an On-Call ListEnding CampaignsTwo Years Playing D&D OnlineInterviewing New D&D Players for Online GamesGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures