Michael E. Shea's Blog, page 19

Solid Character Motivations

Character motivations are vitally important to run a smooth D&D campaign. Characters must have good reasons to explore the world and engage in dangerous adventures. Their motivations should be in-line with the campaign's premise. If we're running Tomb of Annihilation, the characters should have good reason to risk their lives in the jungles of Chult to restore the souls of the dead. If we're running Rime of the Frostmaiden they should have a good reason to help the people of Ten Towns survive the endless night. I spoke before of the importance of character motivation when running Descent into Avernus in particular.

There are, however, some universal motivations around which players can build characters that work with just about any typical D&D adventure. There also exist motivations that work poorly.

This article serves both players and dungeon masters. DMs can work with their players to ensure their characters' motivations are solid and fit the campaign. Players might read this article and consider what drives their characters so they'll have more fun in the game.

Of course, all of this should be discussed during a [session zero].

Universal D&D Character Motivations.

Here are a few typical D&D character motivations that work particularly well across campaigns.

A drive for exploration, discovery, and adventure. When characters want to adventure, when they have a natural curiosity of the ancient world around them, just about every D&D adventure becomes a joy for them. Even when diving into the lower layers of hell, their wanderlust drives them to explore. Building characters around a desire to explore, discover, and adventure cannot steer you wrong in just about any D&D game.

Seeking treasure and riches. We sometimes scoff at the materialism of characters seeking treasure and riches but that's often a perfect reason to go on adventures. Materialistic rewards can drive characters into the darkest dungeons and accept quests from the lowest bartender to the highest king. As we know from the real world, greed drives well past the point of comfort so there's no end to the riches and treasures a character may seek. Scoff not. Greed is a fine character motivation as long as it doesn't go against the other characters. Rogues stealing from party members is a no-go.

Heroism. Some hold in their heart the desire to make a better world. This is a fine character motivation for most D&D games. Evil is out there and it must be rooted out and destroyed. Villages must be protected. Evil must be thwarted before it grows beyond its current limits. People must be saved. Holy relics must be acquired.

Why not all three? When building a character, consider using all three of these ideas to ensure your character is driven to engage in nearly every D&D adventure out there.

Troublesome Motivations

Some common character motivations end up being counterproductive to a typical D&D game even if they might seem like good ideas. These are motivations best avoided or handled carefully between DMs and players.

Solitude. Characters built around solitude and isolation don't work well in groups. Loners don't fit the model of the adventuring party and it ends up a strain most of the game. If a character does prefer solitude, you then need to add a motivation to ensure they stay with the group anyway. Better yet, build in the connection to the other characters as best of friends or even family.

Personal greed. Characters whose greed is stronger than their bond with the other characters almost always ends up a problem. Greed is a fine motivation as long as camaraderie stands stronger.

Pacifism. Combat is at the heart of D&D and while some characters can attempt to avoid violence, that's often broken at some point in the game. Sure, there's a new peace domain in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything but even that character is likely to swing a mace once in a while. The pacifist character seems like a good idea until you realize how many options it cuts you off from that are core to D&D.

Revenge. Revenge works if the big bad boss is the one against which you seek your revenge. Otherwise you have a motivation that may or many not fit the rest of the story. If you work out this motivation with your DM ahead of time, it can work fine. Otherwise the DM has to come up with a whole side plot just for you.

Build Towards the Story

While DMs build sessions and adventures around the backgrounds and motivations of the characters, it's the responsibility of the player to build backgrounds and motivations that work well for the group and for the story. Together, the DM and each player can wire in the characters to the central themes of the campaign. When they mesh well, there's no limit to the adventures we can share.

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:

Vecna Stat BlockCypher System Open LicensePotbellied Kobold's Guide to Villains and LairsRunning War Priests and EnchantersDealing with Overly Cautious PlayersReading and Running Published Adventure TextExposing Narratives and Events Outside of the CharactersTying Characters to the Game with Limited Background LoreInfluences on our Games

[session zero]: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%... zero

Related ArticlesReinforce Cooperative Character MotivationsTying Characters to a Campaign's ThemeBuilding a Great D&D CharacterA Guide to WOTC D&D Published AdventuresAdventure HooksGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport 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

Managing D&D Tips

Kevin B., a Sly Flourish Patron asks the following:

"We all want to improve, but is there a point where watching, reading and online chatting just becomes counterproductive? Is there just too much advice ��� even good advice ��� to keep track of?"

This is an excellent question touching on how we use our D&D tips, not just focusing on the tips themselves. As in all things, your results may vary, but I'll offer my thoughts.

The Two Extremes: Change Everything or Change Nothing

There are two dangerous sides of this spectrum — change everything or change nothing. Both of these can hurt our games. If we change our game completely every time we get a new idea, constantly gravitating to entirely new systems of preparation and play, we'll never get good at one approach. It will never feel solid to us. It won't become ours. On the other extreme, if we change nothing, we become stale. Instead of running one hundred games, we run the same game one hundred times.

So where's that balance?

Small Experiments and Small Adjustments

Instead of completely shifting our styles every time we hear a new idea, we can take tips that resonate with us and try them out. D&D is a wonderful platform to run small experiments. Did we hear about running easier battles when we typically run only deadly battles? Try one out. Do we like a particular way of running NPCs? Try it for one NPC. As DMs, we can try all sorts of stuff out in our game, see how it feels, throw it away if it doesn't work, or try it again if it does until it either fades away or becomes part of the norm.

"What seven things did I learn in my last game?"

I ask this question after each of my games, used to harvest new #dnd tips for Twitter. This question can work for all of us, though, particularly when we try a new idea. Did it work? What do we think? What did we learn from the game? What new tip might we try next time.

By thinking of each tip as a small experiment and making small adjustments every time we run our games, we continue to grow but not so fast that we find ourselves floundering with entirely new approaches every game.

Above All, Run Games

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot."

Stepen King, On Writing

The best technique for becoming a better DM is to run games. Nothing beats practical experience. If, for some reason, you find all of the tips and advice steering you away from running games, it's too much. Step back. Focus on what works. Unsubscribe from the feeds. Step away from the subreddits. Focus on your game and run it for your friends.

There are, of course, other fantastic ways we can grow as DMs. Watching other DMs, running other systems, playing with other groups; all of these help considerably. Above all, run games.

Let Tips Go, Good Ones Come Back

For the past eleven years I've posted more than three thousand #dnd tagged tweets to Twitter with the intent of helping DMs run great D&D games. I have no expectation that anyone, including I, tracked these tips. Building a database of tips does little good when the database becomes too big to manage. Instead, good ideas bubble up to the top and bad ones get forgotten. We each get to decide which are which.

Be Careful of Tool Obsession

It's easy to get caught in tool obsession. A lot of DMs gravitate towards the tools we use to prepare or run our games. Worse, we may find ourselves switching from tool to tool often as a hot new tool pops up. These tools largely don't matter when it comes to preparing or running our games. I have my favorites. Others have their favorites. Most importantly, we pick the tools that work for us and stick to them. We can talk about them. We can share ideas. Maybe we can experiment with other tools to see what we like and bring some of those ideas back into our own toolbox. But switching continually from system to system takes time and energy we often don't have. If you have tools that work; stick to them. Tweak them, sure, but stick to them.

Add What Works, Eliminate What Doesn't

Building an awesome D&D toolbox for preparing and running games is as much about throwing away ideas as it is about adding them. We each build this physical or mental toolbox as we grow as DMs. Look at each component of it, decide if it helps, keep it if it does, and toss it if it doesn't.

Build your own toolbox to prepare and run awesome games.

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 Campaign Arc in City of ArchesBattle Walker from the AbyssFocusing on the Fiction and Starting with the StoryFocusing the LensHooking Characters Into AdventuresHeralds for FactionsHeuristics for Running Current and Future D&D ConceptsRelated ArticlesGaining Confidence to Run D&D GamesOptimizing Towards FunAlways Be Learning2016 D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master QuestionnaireDungeons and Dragons Tips From Gencon 2015Get More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport 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

Avoid Predetermined Overwhelming Combat Encounters

Avoid designing and running combat encounters intended to defeat the characters.

It���s common for DMs to have ideas for stories they want to see take place in their D&D adventures. D&D adventures don���t work like that. DMs don���t tell stories to the players. We watch stories unfold at the table. Those stories can���t unfold if we force the story in only one direction.

Worse, forcing the characters��� defeat is the worst of downward beats and likely follows a whole series of downward beats as the characters get pounded into the ground round after round.

Worse still, it take a long time to defeat a group of determined characters, even with an overwhelming force of monsters.

So now you���ve forced the story into one direction, done so by taking agency away from the characters, shoved them into a forced defeat, and took a long time at the table to do it. There are a few bad quest models we might find ourselves gravitating towards when we have a story to tell but this is one of the worst.

This doesn���t mean the characters won���t face deadly encounters during our games. The world doesn't conform to their level. If they do face deadly foes, it should be a matter of circumstance, not a forced direction in the story. If the characters are likely to face a deadly situation, warn them and let them make choices about what to do about it. If the characters are 2nd level and go down to the ninth level of our Gygaxian megadungeon, they should expect to face foes outside of their capabilities.

Whenever the characters face enemies, they often have a few choices about how to deal with them. Can they sneak around or otherwise physically avoid them? Can they talk to them? Can they defeat them in combat? If we���re taking choices away, as we do when the characters face an insurmountable foe, it helps if we offer new choices somewhere else. Surrender and supplication doesn���t count.

If you absolutely must force the story into a situation of defeat, skip the combat and go right to the conclusion. If the whole theme of a campaign or adventure is the capture of the characters, begin with them captured. If they have to die, start them off in the charnel pit. Your players will still protest but at least it's fast. Think about how Out of the Abyss starts. Some may not like beginning imprisoned by drow slavers but its better than being beaten to a pulp with no chance for success.

Always consider the agency of the players when choosing the challenges they face. Think hard before removing agency to move the story down one particular path. Instead, build situations and let the story unfold at the table.

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:

Arcadia 16 and the BlackwealdAlphastream on Defining Your Success in RPGsMonsters of the Multiverse Part 2How can DMs Enjoy Being Players?Running Third Party Campaigns with D&D BeyondChoosing a VTT to Invest InCollapsing a Wide-Spread CampaignRunning StrahdSharing Villainous Plans and ActionsChoosing Third Party Character OptionsRunning Multi-Table EventsUsing Gold in Mythic AdventuresDefining Leveling MilestonesDrawing Out Character BackstoryManaging Chaotic CharactersRecognizing GM BurnoutSurprise Twists in D&D CampaignsRelated ArticlesFacing Insurmountable FoesCommon D&D DM MistakesChoose Monsters Based on the StoryUpward and Downward BeatsTroublesome Quest ModelsGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport 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

Take a Break

Take a ten minute break every 90 minutes of gameplay.

As DMs, it's easy to lose track of time when running our game. We're fully on when we're running the game. We're in the zone. We're in a state of flow. One characteristic of this state is losing track of time. We start our game and, before we know it, hours flew by.

But we have physical bodies, and so do our players. We need a break. Maybe it's to go pee. Maybe it's to grab snacks. We need that ten minutes to get up from the table and walk around.

How do we remember to call for a break? Continually watch the clock. Set an alarm if you need to. One of the best DMs I've played with used to keep an hour stopwatch throughout his game and he never had a problem with pacing and never had a problem taking a break.

There are a lot of hidden advantages to taking a break beyond the obvious.

As DMs, this break gives us time to step out of the game and see where we are. Are we where we expected to be in the game? Have we given out the [secrets and clues] we expected? Are there any we should prepare to give out in the remainder of the session? Do we have a big conclusion planned? How close are we to it and what can we cut to get there quickly? These ten minutes give us the time we need to step back, figure out where we are, and prepare for the rest of the session.

Take your own time to take a physical break but, if you have the chance, give your lazy DM prep notes a skim and see if you've missed anything important.

Players can use this time too. Ten minutes outside of the game helps them think about what they're doing, where they are, and what they need to go. Maybe they've lost the thread and need a reminder. Players miss about half of what's going on. Use the 10 minutes to get everyone back on the same page.

The next time you're running a game, keep your eye on the clock or, better yet, set an alarm for 90 minutes and call for a break. Use the time to recenter yourself in the game and give your players the chance to do the same.

Related ArticlesPrepare a D&D Game in 15 MinutesImproving PacingHow Long Does it Take You to Prep Your D&D Game?My Top Advice for D&D DMsDungeons and Dragons Tips From Gencon 2015Get More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport 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

Upward and Downward Beats

Pacing may be the most important skill we GMs bring to the table and can be notoriously hard to do.

We must always have a gauge on the current pacing and feeling of the game, slowing things down or speeding things up when appropriate.

RPG luminary Robin Laws wrote an excellent book on the topic called Hamlet's Hit Points. Robin uses the pacing and beats of movies as examples of how to keep an audience engaged. While typical movie plots often don't make great RPGs, the concepts of beats fit well.

Hamlet's Hit Points covers a large range of different types of beats but us lazy DMs can focus instead on two: upward beats and downward beats. In addition to this article, chapter 24 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master expands on this topic.

Upward beats occur when anything good happens to the characters. Upward beats occur when the characters

meet a friendly NPC.recover some treasure.find a safe place to rest.uncover a secret.find a secret tunnel.successfully sneak around an enemy.thwart a rival.get a good deal in a negotiation.face weak enemies.open a powerfully locked door.

Downward beats occur whenever something bad happens to the character or whenever they get through something but with a big struggle. Downward beats occur when the characters

face a powerful foe.get discovered while sneaking.get thwarted by a villain.trigger a trap.get drained of resources.battle through a tough encounter.find a dead end.die.lose a valued NPC.get surprised by enemies.Oscillating Upward and Downward Beats

We keep players engaged with our game by oscillating between upward and downward beats. Good things happen and then bad things happen and then good things happen and then bad things happen. Too many upward beats and the game gets boring and stale. Too many downward beats and the game becomes helpless and frustrating. Mixing upward and downward beats keeps things interesting and keeps them moving.

This oscillation shouldn't be perfectly symmetrical. A few upward beats followed by a big downward beat can work, as can the opposite. The main thing is to vary between upward and downward beats when running our games.

Improvising Beats

Our game is dynamic. We GMs rarely know how the beats will fall out before running it. We generally can't plan beats ahead of time. Instead, we can learn to improvise upward and downward beats. This means being ready to drop in an upward or downward beat as we're running the game, wherever they are.

For example, be ready to either add or remove monsters from upcoming combat encounters based on the current pacing. If the characters have had a string of hard battles, it may be time for an easy encounter. If they've had an easy time recently, add more monsters to a future encounter. Be ready to turn the dials to change the pace of combat if the dice aren't already doing it for you. When planning adventures, keep potential upward and downward beats in mind for the area you're running.

A Lazy Trick for a Hard Topic

Pacing RPGs is hard work and takes a lot of practice. Luckily, tricks like oscillating upward and downward beats can help. As Robin Laws described, eventually you get good enough managing beats that you don't even think about it. It becomes second nature.

Oscillate upward and downward beats and keep your players engaged in the story you share at the table.

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 Phandelver and Acq Inc on D&D BeyondMonsters of the MultiverseMurder in the Shielding PeaksTreacherous TrapsEncouraging Player IngenuityRunning Dungeon CrawlsDescribing Irregular Caves in a Dungeon CrawlWitchlight with Three PlayersResource Management During TravelRelated ArticlesImproving PacingThe Beats of a Dungeon CrawlRun Easy BattlesDM's Deep Dive with Robin LawsGM Intrusions and Complications in D&DGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport 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

Offer Choices at the End of the Session

When you have a game with multiple paths the characters can take, describe those paths and get the players to pick one before the end of the game. This helps you stay lazy and still offer a range of choices to the players.

Offering choices and getting decisions at the end of a session works well for adventures like Rime of the Frostmaiden where the characters have numerous quests at any given point and must choose a direction for their adventures. Instead of needing to prepare every possible option, you can time things so those choices land at the end of the session and the players make their decision before the session ends. Now paths collapse and you know exactly what you need to prepare for the next session instead of needing to prepare for all contingencies.

Timing is critical for this trick. Ensure you end the main event of a session ten or fifteen minutes early so the players can discuss, debate, and choose options before the game's over. It won't work well if players have to rush through their choices. Keep an eye on the clock and move the story forward to give yourself this time at the end of a game.

Great games come from laying out lots of options and watching the world come alive from the choices the players make. Open worlds with options can be hell on DMs who must prepare for all potential paths. By timing your sessions to offer meaningful choices and eliciting decisions from your players at the end of a session, you can offer those option and reduce your prep at the same time.

Offer choices at the end of a session.

Related ArticlesThree ChoicesOffer Real Choices Facilitating ChoicesTiming and Pacing AdventuresRunning Episodic GamesGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport 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

Tying Characters to a Campaign's Theme

The value of tying characters to the theme of your campaign during a session zero cannot be overstated. It avoids tons of problems often plaguing long-term campaigns in which the caracters' motivations aren't clearly tied to the plots and themes of the campaign. Though it seems heavy handed, wiring the character's motivations to the theme of the campaign pays dividends throughout the entire campaign.

A Valuable Piece of a Session Zero

Session zeros offer tremendous value for our RPGs. They ensure we and our players manage our expectations before our campaign starts. They help ensure players build characters together with a clear cohesion to the rest of the group. They expose the most important elements of the campaign and the world to the players so the players know what they're getting into and can build their characters appropriately. They ensure we're all playing the kind of game we're comfortable with including a good escape button.

Session zeroes also give the DM the opportunity to wire the central theme of the campaign into the character's backstories before the players run wild with their ideas and ended up with characters that don't fit the campaign's theme.

Example 1: Descent into Avernus

The hardcover adventure Descent into Avernus has a problem with themes. I wrote about this in my series of articles on Descent into Avernus previously but to summarize, as written, the characters have little motivation to actually go into Avernus to save a city they have no connection to. The solution to this is simple:

Tie the characters to Elturel, the Hellriders, and Reya Mantlemourn.

During character creation we can reinforce this by writing the following in our one-page campaign handout and discussing it during our session zero:

Your characters work together with Reya Mantlemourn and the Hellriders to protect and serve the city of Elturel.

Right up front we've tied everything together. The players can choose how their characters fit with this theme but they'll understand the theme of the adventure. They may be ambassidors from another city. They may be knights or squires or sages or priests. They can decide the particulars. What they can't do is decide they don't give a fig for Elturel and wander off when the city falls into a hell-pit.

Example 2: Rime of the Frostmaiden

As written, the hardcover adventure Rime of the Frostmaiden could have a similar disjointed theme if we don't handle it right. If the characters' theme is to end the endless night surrounding Icewind Dale, they won't have much reason to complete the quests in and around Ten Towns. Thus, it's important that we wire the theme of the early campaign to the backgrounds of the characters as well as the larger goal. Thus, we end up with:

Your characters work together the help the people of Ten Towns survive the Endless Night.

This theme fits with the quests in the early part of the book as well as the late. If the theme were to stop the endless night, the characters would question why they were doing all of these unrelated odd-jobs for townfolk that seem to have nothing to do with the endlesss night of Icewind Dale. If the characters find themselves later able to do something about it, that still fits the theme of helping Ten Towns survive it.

Knowing how the theme you push fits all of the adventures your going to run is critical when designing this theme.

Push the Theme Hard

On the assumption your players are on board with the overall theme of the campaign in the first place, they shouldn't have much trouble accepting the theme as it relates to their characters. It's important to push this theme before they start working on their characters. It's harder to shoehorn the theme onto a character if they already have one built.

Characters Working Together

Part of our theme should always reinforce that the characters work together. They are a group, not a bunch of infighting hermets. They can have their own individual backgrounds and motivatons of course but they're working together towards the fulfillment of the campaign's goal.

Guided Character Development

Many D&D games ignore connecting characters to the theme of a campaign. It can feel like railroaiding before the campaign even began. However, when the players build characters with a clear focus on the theme of the campaign, everyone's going to be happier with the result. Many questions fall away and everyone enjoys their time going on adventures with their friends.

Tie characters to the theme of the campaign.

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:

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes Comes Out on 16 MayCan't Buy Tome of Foes or Volo's Guide to Monsters on D&D Beyond after 17 MayAbove VTTCampaign Builder - Cities and TownsHex FlowersIntroducing Villains in your CampaignChallenging Characters vs. Players with PuzzlesDealing with Bickering PlayersEvoking High Adventure in our RPGsPacing Games with Split PartiesWhat To Do With GoldFocusing a Homebrew CampaignRelated ArticlesBuilding a Great D&D CharacterWriting a One-Page Campaign GuideReinforce Cooperative Character MotivationsRunning Session ZerosRime of the Frostmaiden Session ZeroGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport 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

Including D&D's Three Pillars Anywhere

The D&D Player's Handbook describes three pillars of gameplay: exploration, social interaction, and combat. We can think of these pillars as things to discover, people to talk to, and monsters to fight.

When we're doing our prep, we can build opportunities for all three pillars regardless of the circumstances. It doesn't mean all three always come into play, but the opportunities are there if the players want to grab them.

We can make a quick checklist of these opportunities while we prep. For any given adventure do we have the options for:

someone or something to fight?secrets to uncover?someone (or something) to talk to?Exploration is Discovery

Exploration is the least well-defined pillar in D&D. We know what social interaction is — roleplaying between characters and NPCs. We know what combat is. But what is exploration?

For me, exploration is about discovery. It's about learning things. It's about moving through old dungeons and uncovering of its history or examining piece of art and learning of an old empire.

Exploration is often built around ability checks but it doesn't have to be. Sometimes characters just learn stuff. The concept of preparing ten secrets and clues in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master directly supports exploration. These secrets are what characters learn while exploring.

Pillars for Every Situation

Some situations seem like they don't support all three pillars. What opportunities are there for combat at a fancy dinner party? What opportunities are there for social interaction in the dungeon lost and sealed up for a thousand years? We need some creative thinking to drop in these less obvious pillars.

Combat at the Dinner Party

A fancy dinner party obviously has great opportunities for social interaction and roleplaying. There's also good opportunities for exploration and discovery as the characters listen to other guests and examine the location. But what about combat?

Here are a few ways to offer the option for combat at a fancy dinner party:

Mercenaries attack the dinner partySpies launch an attackThe manor's lord has a secret dungeon in the cellars below filled with constructsA monster gets loose from a monstrous menagerieA trapped demon gets loose when someone messes with an artifactA mimic lurks in one of the studiesOne of the guests summons a wyvern to assassinate the hostThe host's budget flesh golem servants go inadvertently berserkA painting of a vampire and their spawn comes to lifeThe host shows off their latest purchase, an ancient sarcophagus containing a thousand year old mummy lord who's not pleased about the acquisition

These are just a few ideas. Figuring out how to offer options for combat in a dinner party isn't as easy as figuring out opportunities for roleplaying but it can be done.

Roleplaying in the Lost Dungeon

What about opportunities for social interaction in a dungeon sealed up for a thousand years? The big key here is that NPCs don't have to be people, or creatures at all! Here are some potential NPCs for roleplaying in a sealed-up dungeon:

An explorer lost for centuriesFriendly or confused ghostsA talking skullAn intelligent swordTalking relics or artifactsTalking statuesAn illusory tour guideSpeaking paintingsA galeb dur working on a thousand year sculptureA dungeon denizen turncoat

There are lots of things to talk to in every part of the world.

Injecting Options, Not Planning Scenes

When we talk about dropping in the three pillars, this doesn't mean building scenes around each pillar. It means having the options available if the situation arises. Instead of planning a combat scene, a roleplaying scene, and an exploration scene; build situations and let the pillars flow from the characters' choices and the evolving situation.

Preparing to Improvise

Thinking of the three pillars while setting up situations is a great form of "preparing to improvise". We don't know what the characters are going to do but we've set up our situations and found ways to include all of the pillars so our players can choose the approach they want to take. Set up the situation, drop in hooks for the three pillars, sit back, and see what happens.

Related ArticlesUnderstanding the Exploration Pillar of D&DD&D Environmental Effects: The Unhallowed PillarsBuilding for the Three PillarsBuilding Situations in D&DRevealing SecretsGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport 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

Build Resilient and Evolving Villainous Plots

Chapter 16 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master describes the use of fronts as a way to move campaigns forward through the goals and progress of its villains. This concept comes from the Apocalypse World and Dungeon World RPGs but works very well in our D&D games. A "front" may be a natural disaster or supernatural phenomenon but most often it's a sentient villain.

Here's an example villain from my Eberron game.

Villain: Leto Skalle. An oni and former member of the Daask, the monstrous nation ruled by the hag sisters known as the Daughters of Sora Kell. Leto is now a member of the aristocratic society known as the Aurum.

Goal: Build a second Weapon of Mourning. Leto wants his own Weapon of Mourning to control his own destiny. He could use it to take over the Droaam and have the Droaam added to the Treaty of Thronehold to make the monstrous state "official".

Steps Required

Acquire the massive Eberron Dragonshard from Xen'drik.Acquire the Tome of Cul'sir.Find the location of Clawspire, the House Cannith laboratory in the Mournland.Travel to the Clawrift.Build the second Weapon of the Mourning.Evolving and Resilient Plots

Of course, during our game, the characters likely thwart some of these steps. What happens then? What happens when the characters acquire the Tome of Cul'sir? What if the characters blow up Leto's big dragonshard? What if they grab the location of Clawspire before Leto Skalle does?

Our villain's steps must evolve. The villain's plot needs to be resilient. One way to make a villain's plot resilient is to give each step a backup step. What can they do to keep their plan moving even when their steps are thwarted?

If the characters blow up Leto's dragonshard, he knows that the Daughters of Sora Kell have another. He can negotiate with them to get it. Not ideal but doable.

If the characters grab his Tome of Cul'Sir, he can work with the quori to steal into the world of dreams and find the information he needs there.

If the character capture the location of Clawrift, Leto can hire Emerald Claw necromancers to rip the location from the spirits of the dead.

Resilient villains engage in resilient quests. See the three of five keys quest model as an example resilient quest.

Failure is an Option

Or maybe Leto just loses. Certainly the characters might succeed in destroying a villain's plot. That's why we have three villains. When one villain gets thwarted, two others move their plans forward and maybe a new villain appears.

When a villain is thwarted, they might make one last desparate plunge. Maybe they have an all-out attack against the characters. Maybe they conduct a last desparate move. Or maybe they just lose! Arrested and shamed on the front page of the local newspaper.

Don't Force the Plot

Avoid villainous plots so fragile that we have to force the plot forward even if the characters thwart it. Avoid having villains steal the keys back from the characters without any hope that the characters stop them. Villains may make such a move, but the villain's failure to acquire what they hope should be an option.

A Campaign Driven by Villainous Quests and Character Actions

Villainous plots evolve every session. Our villains are not static entities sitting atop a throne waiting for the characters to show up. They're doing things. Their minions excavate million-year-old superweapons and research ancient spells in hellish towers. The characters see this stuff and counter it. The villain evolves. Their plot evolves. The story keeps going. Some villains die. New ones rise. Three villains, each with their own goals and quests, build a complicated interwoven tapestry leading to fantastic adventures. Weave the tapestry and watch it evolve every 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:

Lots of Wizards AnnouncementsThe Monstrous Compendium Volume 1Campaign Case - CreaturesCampaign Case - TerrainD&D Starter Set - Dragons of Stormwreck IsleSpelljammer Boxed SetDragonlance - Shadow of the Dragon Queen and War of KrynnShadow Under Hardflint HallWho Do I Listen To, Watch, and Read?On Fudging Rolls and Choosing TargetsDealing with Familiars and Dungeon ReconnaissanceThe Order of Describing Room ContentsHow Do we Actually Begin our Sessions?Introducing Players to Other Game SystemsMaking NPCs DistinctHow Strict to Represent Time PressuresShould I Worry about my Evil PC?Projecting Evil Humanoid CreaturesWhat Bad Habits Have I Broken?Checklist for Homebrew FinalesRunning Deadly Standoffs in D&DRelated ArticlesBuilding Villains Like Pro-WrestlersQuests for Villains Facing Insurmountable FoesHow to Protect Your Villains Thinking Through the Eyes of our VillainsGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport 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

Understanding the Exploration Pillar of D&D

D&D is built around three pillars of gameplay: combat, roleplaying, and exploration. Of these three, exploration is the least well understood. I struggled to understand it myself early on in 5th edition's release and that led me to the value of secrets and clues as aids for exploration.

Part of the problem is that exploration is the largest pillar in the game. Combat is well-refined and well-understood. Roleplaying isn't that hard to understand either. We know what both of those look like.

But exploration? It can be everything from watching your step in a dank dungeon to going on a ten week journey along the High Road to Waterdeep.

Complaints abound about the lack of solid tools and frameworks for exploration. The Dungeon Master's Guide offers suggestions for dungeon and overland travel but most of it is loose at best.

So how do we deal with this huge open pillar of gameplay?

Let Go of the Label

One way is to worry less about defining it as a pillar of gameplay. Different circumstances require different approaches. Running a dungeon crawl is different than running a long overland journey and any one journey is different than the next.

Sometimes digging into the details of a situation is better than worrying about what pillar it's in.

The Core Mechanic and Ability Checks

D&D's core mechanic follows three steps:

The DM describes the situation.The player describes their intended action.If it has an interesting chance for failure, we call for an ability check.The player rolls.The DM adjudicates the result.

This core mechanic fills out much of the exploration pillar. If the intended actions of the character are difficult or uncertain, we call for an ability check. The attributes and skills of a character are their interface to the world. Those actions the characters take and the checks they make when they can't simply do a thing are the way they engage with the exploration pillar.

Thinking About Discovery

Discovery is the key to exploration. All throughout the game the characters learn things. They discover things. This might be the layout of a dungeon or the secret to defeating a stone giant lich. It might be learning the 30,000 year history of the war between dragons and giants (and why they should care about it). Exploration is about learning things and uncovering things. It's about seeing things that haven't been seen before.

When we're thinking about how to fill in our exploration scenes, we can start by asking ourselves a simple question: what might the characters discover?

Fantastic Locations, Secrets, and Clues

Exploration and discovery requires interesting places. Fantastic locations are hard to improvise (it's why I wrote a book about it) so it's worth spending time to either steal locations from published adventures or jot down fantastic features.

Whenever I need a map for such a location, I head to Dysonlogos and find the first one that fits my need. With over 1,000 maps online, it's a hard source to beat.

Secrets and clues, a core step from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master also drives the concept of discovery. When we ask ourselves "what can the characters discover?" we can jot down ten answers to this question every time we're preparing a session. This is a quick way to ensure we have something to fill those scenes of discovery without writing a novel.

Twenty Discoveries

If we keep going with our concept that exploration is about discovery, we can take a look at twenty examples of the sorts of things characters might discover while exploring. Let's take a look.

The inner workings of a trap in a later chamber.An entombed vampire lord.The secret truth about the king's bloodline.The story of the sleeping horror frozen under fifty thousand years of ice.The truename for the elven sword carried by the rogue.The name of the dragon sorceress who nearly destroyed the world with her single terrible spell.The bloody spellbook of the lost mage Creston Bluecloak.The buried ruins of the lost city of Al'Kanan.The key to the Vault of the Dragon Queen.The glyphed spear of the Bloodrain lizardfolk tribe.The blood-covered dagger of the assassin Soulwhisper.The lost verse of the song sung by the singing statue in the town square.The map to the temple of the All Father.The glyphed tooth of a dead dragon said to guide the possessor to the dragon's lost hoard.The journal of the gnomish explorer Leopold Spiderchewer.The black gemstone known as the Voidstar said to contain an entire plane of existence within its depths.The half-burnt page telling the tale of the Death King's betrayal.A drow statue thought lost across space and time now half-buried in volcanic stone.The tiny yet ancient Grandmother Tree.A masterwork music box said to contain the song that ends creation.Understanding the Wide Nature of Exploration

Unlike combat and roleplaying, exploration is a wide open field of possibility. With the core mechanic in mind and armed with fantastic locations, secrets, and clues, we can work with our players as their characters explore the world around them. Keep on hand the tools that best help you improvise and let the characters discover the world around them.

Related ArticlesRevealing SecretsTypes of SecretsWest Marches Campaigns in GrendlerootThe Default Adventure SkeletonBuilding for the Three PillarsGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport 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