Michael E. Shea's Blog, page 20

Three Choices

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Whenever your adventure or campaign reaches a moment of decision, offer three good choices to the players. Whenever the characters complete a quest or story arc, give them enough new quests to get back to three choices. Let old choices fall off the list when they become irrelevant and let the players add their own choices if they have some.

Three choices offer enough variance to let players make meaningful decisions without so many options that the players become paralyzed with indecision.

Offer Reasonable Choices

These choices should all be reasonable and you, as the DM, should be ready to roll with each of them. There shouldn't be a "bad" choice or one that's too obvious. Each of these choices should hold some potential interest to the players and none should lead to pure disaster.

Offer Choices at the End of the Session

If you're coming to the end of a quest, give yourself extra time at the end of the session to offer three choices and let the players make their decision before the session ends. This way you know where the game is headed next and don't have to prepare three different paths for your next session depending on what they would choose at the beginning of the session. This goes hand-in-hand with thinking two horizons out. You want enough information to see past the next horizon so you know what to prep for the next session.

Facilitate Decisions

Let the players discuss where they want to go next. Often they come to an agreement on their own. Sometimes, however, you'll need to help facilitate the conversation — clarifying the details and trying to bring them to a consensus. In the end, you're seeking a unanimous decision or at least one where everyone is ok with the choice. If someone clearly does not want to follow one of the choices for a particular reason, re-open the conversation and see if the group can come to a consensus on a different path. Ideally the group can all agree where to go even if some of them aren't 100% happy with it.

Reveal Gameplay Options Through Choices

Use choices to identify particular paths of gameplay. The characters may have the choice to either meet with the emperor and her advisors to help build a strategy to deal with the Red Spear hobgoblin siege, explore the old sewers beneath the city to see if they can find a way past the Red Spear lines, or travel over the wall and attempt to slay the Red Spear wizard Kallax Graytongue in the ruined watchtower south of the city. Each of these options offers very different gameplay from the others and gives the players a chance to guide what sort of game they'll enjoy.

Offer Meaningful Directions Without Paralyzing Decisions

Three choices gives just enough options to the players to truly steer the direction of the game in new and interesting ways without getting bogged down in continual debate and in-decisions. Offer three choices and enjoy the new story that unfolds.

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:

Sly Flourish Bundle of HoldingWOTC Buys D&D BeyondD&D Direct Announcements Coming Thursday 21 April 2022Flee Mortals by MCDMVolo's Vetted VendorsSeeding Future Quests Without Starting ThemHandling AuguryManging Sources and Books for Game PrepHandling Curses That Remove Curse Doesn't FixRunning a RebellionUncomfortable Roleplaying NPCsPassing Complex Lore to PlayersHandling Mounts in CombatStrong Starts and Cold OpensRelated ArticlesOffer Real Choices Facilitating ChoicesOptimizing Towards FunGiving Characters Hard ChoicesMusic for 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

Optimizing Towards Fun

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I got an email from Tatum V. who mentioned that, as their group changes a few players, they're looking to experiment by running published adventures and other RPGs instead of homebrew D&D games. They asked if I had any advice and I offered some thoughts I thought I'd share with you as well.

Focus On the Fun of Your Game

You don't owe RPGs anything except providing a good time for you and your players when you run your games. All your prep, all of your tools, all of your stories, all of your systems; all of that can focus on one thing — running a fun game.

You don't owe your tools anything. You don't owe any steps of your preparation anything. If you don't want to try other systems, you don't have to. You may learn a lot by trying out other systems but not at the cost of having a good time. I certainly wouldn't run a published adventure as-is at the cost of a good time. Bend everything towards the fun of your game.

There's great value in trying out new things when we run our games. We can learn from everywhere and everything. We can learn a lot running other systems and other adventures for other groups of players. We all learn a lot talking to one another and sharing our ideas and experiences. But should we try things out at the expense of the fun of our group?

Last year I ran a published adventure because it was popular and I wanted to help other DMs run it well. I got caught up in the hype. It was a mistake. I wasn't happy with the adventure as soon as I'd started reading it and struggled for a year to run it. We had a good time but it wasn't my best. There are other less-hyped campaign adventures I like better in reading them and I missed opportunities to run them.

How do we know what's fun? Do you like the thing you're reading? That's a good start. If you aren't digging the system or the campaign world or the adventure you have in hand, give it a pass. Just because everyone else likes something doesn't mean you have to run it. You and your friends get to decide what you want to do, independent of everyone else in the world. Talk to your friends. See what they're interested in — or really not interested in. As the GM, you have 51% of the vote, though. If you don't like it, you don't have to run it. But it's always worth making sure the rest of your friends like the thing you do.

Aiming towards the fun goes deeper than a system or campaign setting too. If you're running a campaign or adventure, you have full rights and authorities to change anything you don't dig for something that you do. Change out that dungeon for another one. Switch that map for one that grabs you. Replace NPCs with those near and dear to your heart and, especially, the heart of your players.

Nothing published is sacred. No time is more valuable than the time we have with our friends and loved ones creating fantastic stories at our table. No book, no tool, no system, nothing else deserves more attention than those times. Focus on the fun times you share with them in these fantastic worlds of ours. That's your priority.

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:

Sly Flourish Bundle of Holding! $100 of PDFs for $20!City of Arches Update with Amazing Side-View Cutaway MapKenku.fmTome of Adventure DesignFast and Slow Initiative in D&D 5eRun Eberron in Sharn and in the WildsFive Elements of Storytelling in D&DPlayers Running NPCs or MonstersTactical Combat in Theater of the MindManaging On-Call PlayersRecovering from a Bad GameRelated Articles2016 D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master QuestionnaireThe Case For Published AdventuresUsing Published AdventuresHow to Customize Published Campaign AdventuresChoosing the Right Steps from the Lazy DM ChecklistGet 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

Wielding Knives in D&D

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I first heard about the concept of "knives" at Pax Unplugged 2019 in a panel on Worldbuilding for Lazy Dungeon Masters with Mackenzie De Armas, James Haeck, Renee Rhodes, and Morrigan Robbins.

A "knife" in this context is a bit of fiction you take from the players in your game and use to make the story more interesting. It might be a piece of character backstory, it might be an off-hand remark, it might be a description they throw out. Whatever it is, we grab it and run with it. Like a real knife, this bit of fiction may have sharp edges and someone might get cut.

For a video on this topic, check out my YouTube video on Wielding Knives.

As an example knife, in my Ghosts of Saltmarsh game, one of the players bluffed an NPC into believing that the characters' boat had been attacked by an "acid kraken" to explain the big acid arrow blast in the side of the ship. I carefully filed that bit of lore away and, many sessions later, they faced the actual acid kraken.

Wielding knives is like using the improvisational technique of "yes, and" but with a gun loaded with yetis.

We need to be careful not to take a knife and just plain stab our players. We use knives first and foremost for the fun of the game. We need to be careful not to break trust with your players. We shouldn't use a knife to take away character or player agency. If cutting with a knife might leave a permanent scar, we should check in with our players to make sure they're cool with how we're running with their idea. We don't use knives to screw characters. We use them to build opportunities for heroics and fun.

Like many advanced DM techniques, we can start with a small knife. We can use a knife to change the mannerisms or appearances of NPCs. We can use them to make small changes to the world; or things those monsters say. A knife might make an overhang unstable or a lock more complicated than we had intended. We start by using knives to change the world in small and interesting ways. We don't cut too deep.

When the opportunity is right, when you know your players and you know yourself and know it will bring fun and excitement to the moment, start cutting.

Properly using knives is an advanced DM technique. It requires careful use with trusting players who understand what you're doing and, like you, are here to play to see what happens.

Related ArticlesPlaying D&D Anywhere2016 Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master Survey ResultsImprovisation for New D&D Dungeon MastersEasy Tricks from DMs on TwitterEmpowering Player-Driven StorytellingGet 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

Single Encounters for Overland Travel

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How best to handle overland travel comes up often when DMs get together to talk about the hard parts of their game. Do you arrange a bunch of jobs the characters can do while traveling? Do you roll for random encounters? Do you set up a hex map or point crawls?

If you're lazy, like me, here's an easy trick. Run a single encounter in an interesting location along the journey. With this trick you don't have to set up a bunch of skill checks for the journey, you don't need to map anything, and you don't have to worry about the distance. Quickly describing the journey before and after the encounter covers the rest. Along the way the characters visit a fantastic location and face an interesting encounter.

Choosing Fantastic Locations

When seeking a fantastic location for your journey you can fall back to the "Monuments" and "Weird Locales" on pages 108 and 109 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, use the monument generator on page 12 of the Lazy DM's Workbook, or use the core adventure builder tables from the Lazy DM's Companion to generate your location.

When you're running an adventure or campaign in a particular world, write out a list of factions, gods, or historical organizations from that world. When building a fantastic location, roll on that list and tie the location that group.

Here are five example random monuments tied to Rime of the Frostmaiden using my Frostmaiden Random Monument Generator:

Ancient necrotic mosaic of AurilPoisonous ancient obelisk of the IllithidsGlowing runed geode of the NethereseCharred cracked tomb of the Arcane BrotherhoodMarble ornate archway of the Netherese

For the encounter itself you can use one of numerous random encounter tables. Xanathar's Guide to Everything has random encounter tables by environment and challenge rating which work well. Many published adventures likewise include random encounter tables. And, of course, the Lazy DM's Workbook and Lazy DM's Companion both have you covered.

Not all encounters need be combat encounters. Meeting some friendly travelers, apprehensive monsters, or the remains of a previous battle can be great fun. If they are combat encounters, they don't always need to be challenging encounters. Encounters in which your party of 7th level characters get jumped by two ambitious bandits can be loads of fun. Run easy battles.

Next time you're feeling overwhelmed trying to prepare meaningful overland travel, get lazy and try running a single encounter in a fantastic location.

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:

Spelljammer Confirmed??Crown of the OathbreakerElderbrain's 2,000 Player D&D SurveyPatreon Q&A for April 2022 Coming WednesdayEvolving Villain Stat BlocksFavorite Classic D&D EncountersDealing with Insight Checks for Lie DetectionMaking Awesome SkeletonsHelping Players Understand High Level QuestsWhat Makes a Good Cultist?Mixing Ruins of the Grendleroot and Where the Machines WaitOutlining Scenes vs. Defining SituationsRelated ArticlesRun Meaningful Random EncountersExploring ChultThree Things to Do While TravelingNon-Focal, Past, Future, and Combined Random EncountersPrepare a D&D Game in 15 MinutesGet 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

What Does Passive Perception Show You?

Perception can be a weird skill to use, particularly passive Perception. Jeremy Crawford describes passive Perception as a "floor" for active Perception. It represents the minimum a character perceives just walking around. Some characters have very high passive Perceptions, particularly if they take the observant feat. This gives the impression that they can see just about every secret door or spike trap without having to look around at all.

Here's a trick for giving characters the benefits of a high passive Perception without revealing everything all the time. A high passive Perception reveals something, but it doesn't have to reveal everything.

As an example, a character with a 16 passive Perception walks into an old crypt chamber. There's a secret door over on the western wall of the crypt requiring a DC 14 Wisdom (Perception) check to detect. Our perceptive character notices some of the cobwebs are moving over by the wall where there shouldn't be any airflow. Now, when we reveal this to the players, they know there's something going on over there. They just don't know what. They can roll Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) checks if they want to learn more, finding the secret door and its mechanisms by beating a 14, or they can talk their way through their investigations, eventually learning about the secret door.

In another example, the characters walk through the hall of a sundered castle now being used as a headquarters for hobgoblins. A character with a passive Perception of 14 is up front. Without a roll, they may see that some of the tiles in the hallway up ahead are cleaner than the others, maybe they've been replaced or manipulated in some way. A deeper intelligence (Investigation) check gives the character more information on how the trap works and what to avoid but that initial passive Perception gives them the clues they need to choose their next actions.

For more on running traps, see the Flow of Trap Detection.

Passive checks give characters some sense of what's going on but it doesn't have to reveal the whole thing. This makes passive checks still useful without making them so powerful that there's almost no reason to roll.

Related ArticlesThe Flow of Trap DetectionDarkvision Isn't As Good As You ThinkOur Ability Check ToolboxUnderstanding Surprise in D&D 5ePreparation Step Zero: Review the CharactersGet 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

Secrets Serve You

The concept of "secrets and clues" from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master is a powerful tool. They changed my own game so much that I had to write a whole new book just to include them. Secrets and clues help you prepare to improvise. They give you the fuel and rewards for exploration and discovery. They break down whole worlds of information down into ten bite-sized chunks of information you can reveal wherever they best fit during the game.

I've talked to a few people recently who get some stress from secrets and clues. Are they doing them right? Do they cover the right material? Are they too vague? Are they too specific? Do they give away too much? Do they not give away enough?

This led me to an important point I think we all have to remember: secrets work for you. They're a tool to help you run your game. Thus, there is no wrong way to use them as long as they serve that purpose. You don't owe secrets and clues anything at all. You don't serve them. They're your tool.

There's no single format for a secret or clue. There's no perfect forumla. For me, a secret and clue follows these guidelines:

They're short. About a sentence or two at most. Think about a tweet back when they were 140 characters.They represent something the characters can learn in the next game. They don't cover material for forty sessions from now. They're useful in your very next game.They serve the characters. They're something the characters want to know.There are ten of them. Ten serves well for games of three to four hours and ten is enough that you have to really stretch your brain to get the last three.

Secrets and clues can be about anything. Here's an incomplete list of types of secrets and clues:

Information about a character, their background, family, symbiotes they're carrying, or anything else.History of the immediate location, land, old factions, old battles or any other bit of old lore.Information on a villain or villainous faction.Clues that lead to a bigger reveal. Think of the individual pins in the big yarn-connected conspiracy board.Information on hidden locations, secret passages, or other location-based information. Think of the medallion and staff revealing the Well of Souls in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

This isn't a complete list, of course. Secrets can be anything the characters might learn in the next game.

Above all, remember that secrets and clues (along with all of the other steps in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master) serve you. These are your tools to use however they best serve you. If they take away some of your anxiety, save you some time, and help you run a great game; they're doing their job.

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:

Journeys through the Radient CitadelWarlock Lairs - Into the WildsThe Intractable Problem of Maps for In-Person GamesTracking Secret Organizations In Your CampaignHow do You Grab Artwork?How Are Heists Different than Dungeon Crawls?Challenge Ratings for Custom MonstersRunning a One- or Two-Hour AdventureHow Do You Run a Dungeon?Solidifying Choices in a Homebrew CampaignWhy Do Bosses Need Mobility?Related ArticlesRevealing SecretsTypes of SecretsSecrets and Clues, the Secret Weapon of the Lazy Dungeon MasterClue CardsPrepare a D&D Game in 15 MinutesGet 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

Music for D&D

In chapter 13 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master I include a list of great background music for D&D. Here are a few other albums I love, both for playing D&D and for listening to while preparing my games or writing about D&D.

Annihilation Original Motion Picture SoundtrackArt and Soul of DuneAssassin's Creed Odyssey SoundtrackAssassin's Creed Origins SoundtrackAssassin's Creed Valhalla (there are like six of these, they're all great)Color Out of Space Original Motion Picture SoundtrackDarksiders 2 SoundtrackDune Original Motion Picture SoundtrackDune SketchbookFar Cry Primal SoundtrackHorizon Forbidden West SoundtrackHorizon Zero Dawn (and expansions) SoundtrackMandy Original Motion Picture SoundtrackPrince of Darkness Original Motion Picture SoundtrackWitcher 3 Blood and Wine Soundtrack

Some websites offer fantastic music selections too. I'm a huge fan of Tabletop Audio for great ambient music.

What are some of your favorite albums to enjoy while you lose yourself in your world?

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 Product Announcements TuesdayCall from the NetherdeepRemarkable GuildsAnother Look at "Attack on a Miss"Players Won't Interact with Quest NPCsHow to Use 3rd Party MonstersVillainous Banter During CombatYour Own Canon for Published Campaign WorldsAll-in Group Checks and Secret Ability ChecksUnderstanding Which Monster Make Sense For a SituationOverwhelmed with Locations and NPCs in StrixhavenRelated ArticlesThree Ways to use Music in your GameThinking Two Horizons OutReturn of the Lazy Dungeon MasterSpending a Whole Day Preparing a D&D GameConverting Older D&D Adventures and SourcebooksGet 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

Lightning Rods �����Showcase Powerful Character Abilities

Ginny Di has an excellent YouTube video discussing the dangers of ruining the players' good time by counteracting powerful character abilities. Her tip? Instead of counteracting powerful abilities, showcase them.

This is a concept I've pondered since the end of my Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign. Certain spells and abilities are tremendously effective in certain situations. Spells like banish, polymorph, hypnotic pattern, and abilities like turn undead can remove one or more monsters from play with a single failed saving throw. Other spells like fireball hit way above their spell level in the right circumstances.

The first few times DMs see these abilities in action, the abilities feel broken. Huge monsters disappear with a single bad charisma saving throw. Large groups of monsters get blown away with a single spell or become completely helpless. This can frustrate DMs when we had an expectation for how a battle might play out only to see it end before it barely began.

The reaction to this is to fight back. We might put in monsters that counterspell or have resistances to these abilities. We might set up situations where a fireball only hits a few monsters by spacing them out. A common piece of advice is to wear characters down with lots of battles ahead of time so they blow their abilities on earlier fights and can't use those big removers because they're simply out of slots.

What if there's another way? What if, instead of fighting back against these abilities, we leaned into them. What if we designed combat encounters to showcase these abilities?

Big Brutes and Small Hordes

When we look at most of these super-powerful spells and abilities, they often do two things: incapacitate big brutes or incapacitate (or kill) hordes. This means, in general, we only need to worry about two types of monsters to showcase these abilities: big brutes and small hordes.

Big brutes are any non-legendary monster with lots of hit points inflicting lots of damage. Giants are fantastic brutes. They hit hard, have lots of hit points, and yet can be taken out with a single good use of a control spell like banish or polymorph.

Instead of choosing big brutes who might withstand spells like polymorph or banish, choose monsters particularly vulnerable to these spells. They're lighting rods for those spells. When players see them, they can't help but see how useful it'll be to get rid of them.

Small hordes consist of any large group of weaker monsters all funneled in together. Imagine thirty skeletons pouring in a doorway or a vanguard of hobgoblins charging in from the characters' flank. Instead carefully placing these monsters in a wide spread to avoid area attacks, they charge in in a perfect 20 foot radius circle begging to be fireballed. We want them to be fireballed. What player doesn't want to watch a fireball explode in a horde of baddies and watch them all flying through the air, Wilhelm-screaming in a beautiful fireworks display of carnage?

What cleric doesn't want to see themselves atop a hill as their turn undead sends waves of radiant energy through forty ghouls screaming and burning to ash?

Typically Needed at 7th Level and Above

We can use lighting rods to showcase character abilities early on, but it really takes off around 7th level when characters get a lot of "save or suck" spells like polymorph and banish. Monks get stunning strike at 5th level and wizards get hypnotic pattern as early as 5th but most of the time it's 7th level and above where this really kicks in.

Project the Lightning Rod

Lightning rods aren't useful if players don't actually target them. You certainly don't want to tip your hand too much, but don't shy away from a little shove. Overplaying the situation "a hoard of hobgoblins run in in a perfect fireball formation!" can get a laugh like it's a bad Bollywood movie and still get the point across. Sometimes we need to project the lightning rod.

Lean in to those big powerful character abilities. Use big brutes and small hordes to showcase those abilities.

Make the characters look awesome.

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:

Heroes of Krynn PlaytestBook of Wonderous Magic Volume 2Free Dwarven Forge AdventuresAttack Again on a MissLunch break Heroes on Making Money in RPGsScaling Combat for Six PlayersLazy Tricks for Incorporating Character BackgroundsTools for In-Person GamesHanding Out Magic ItemsBest Adventure I've Ever Played InRunning Structured Social EncountersBlades in the Dark for D&D HeistsRelated ArticlesRunning Hordes: The Lazy Way to Run Lots of D&D MonstersD&D's Nastier SpecialsEmbracing D&D's Asymmetrical BalanceBalancing D&D Combat for One-on-One PlayStorytelling with Spells: FireballGet 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

End Sessions Before a Big Battle

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Ending a session right before a big battle is a powerful trick for lazy dungeon masters. It builds in your next strong start. It adds excitement for the next session. It gives you time to plan out that big battle. And it gives you some breathing room for the rest of your next session. Today we're going to dig deeper into the advantages and disadvantages for ending before big battles.

Knowing What Comes Next

We'll start with a few advantages for ending a session before a big battle.

First, you know exactly where your next session is going to begin. We call this a strong start and it's a great way to get your players into the game quickly. Starting a game with a fight is an easy way to get peoples' attention but it's particularly powerful if the players know the battle is coming ahead of time.

Second, it adds excitement and drama to the next session. Ending before a big battle offers a great cliffhanger that keeps your players excited for the game to come.

Third, ending before a big battle gives you more time to prep that battle. You know exactly where your next game is going to start and you know it's going to be a big deal. This gives you time to set up a cool map, tweak some monsters, consider how you can turn the dials to tune the battle. All of the tricky bits of preparing a boss battle won't go to waste because you know it's going to happen.

Fourth, because you're starting with a big battle and such battles take time, you don't have to prepare as much for the rest of the game. It gives you a bit of a break.

Finally, ending before a big battle is much better than trying to shoehorn in a big battle right at the end of a session when energy is low, time is tight, and your players are thinking abou going home. Instead, we end early (often not a bad thing) and get their excitement right at the beginning of the next session.

Disadvantages

The biggest disadvantage for ending before a big battle is when not all of the players can make it to your next game. People are busy and with four to six players at your table, its not unlikely that someone can't make it. It can be a drag for players to miss out on a big fight like this because it got pushed to the next week.

There isn't a great way to deal with this, unfortunately, other than either rescheduling or running a one-shot instead of the big fight until everyone can make it. The most likely way to deal with it is to accept that not everyone can make it to the boss fight.

Another problem is figuring out where the story heads after the fight. Often such boss fights happen at the end of a major arc of the story. Where the characters head next may be anyone's guess. We might use this opportunity for a downtime session in which the characters rest, recouperate, train, study, and prepare for the next leg of their journey. If your game is short enough, you might end that session with their big decision about where to head next.

Finally, ending right before a big battle can get repetitive if you do it too often. Just like starting with a fight for your strong start, ending before a big fight all the time can get stale. Keep this technique handy when the opportunity presents itself but don't do it all the time.

A Great Tool For Lazy DMs

Ending before a big battle has some tricky bits to it but it stands as a fantastic tool to help keep your players excited and give you a bit of a break in your preparation for the next game you run. Keep it in your lazy DM bag of tricks.

Related ArticlesStarting StrongEnding CampaignsRunning Wars, Big Battles, and Massive Combat in D&DBuilding Set-Piece BattlesThe Tyranny of the GridWant More from Sly Flourish?Read more Sly Flourish articlesSubscribe to the Sly Flourish newsletterWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonCheck Out Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

Send feedback to mike@mikeshea.net.

Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

Tracking Combat in D&D

New to Sly Flourish? Start Here!

Octain, a Patron of Sly Flourish asks:

Can you help me better track monsters in combat when there are more than 1. I have tried the dndbeyond combat tracker which works well with an encounter with the same monster type but really falls down when there are multiple types and multiple of them. I am asking about tracking monsters hit point and conditions and knowing which one is which on the battle map.

When we're running combat, there are basically five things DMs need to track:

Initiative. Who goes when?Damage Tracking.��How much damage has a creature taken?Conditions. Are any of the characters or monsters affected by a condition?Positioning.��Where is everyone in relation to one another? Who's standing next to who?Stat Blocks. What can the monsters do on their turns?

There are many ways, and many combinations of ways, to track these five things. Common methods have changed over the years and many DMs have their own preferred ways. It's also highly dependent on whether you're playing in person or online although there are some overlaps.

I always recommend going back to the core books to answer questions like this. Page 247 and 248 of the Dungeon Master's Guide offers advice for tracking initiative, damage, conditions, and the position of monsters. It's good advice.

You can also track all of these things with free or almost-free tools. A pencil and paper can handle almost everything on this list except the stat block. Still, some systems are better than others.

Some online tools, like Roll 20, Fantasy Grounds, and Foundry, track everything in one system. Many people use and love these systems. For some, they can be complicated to set up and tricky to run.

Below I offer some of my own favorite systems for tracking the five elements of combat.

Tracking Initiative

The lowest tech way to track initiative is to write down the names of the monsters and characters in initiative order on a piece of paper, a white board, index cards, or a digital notepad but it can get cumbersome. Some love to use fold-over tent cards over the top of their DM screen for monsters and characters. I'm a huge fan of Paul Ellison's Easy Initiative Cards, a re-usable, cheap, fast, and flexible tool to track initiative in person. That method is my favorite.

There's also loads of digital tools to track initiative. D&D Beyond's Combat Tracker handles initiative as well as monster stat blocks, and damage tracking.

For online play you can also write down the names of the characters and monsters in a text editor, Google Doc, or any other way you write down text on your computer. I like to keep track of initiative in a scratchpad section of the Lazy DM's Campaign Notion Notebook. You can cut and paste names up or down in initiative order easily and paste the whole initiative order into the text section of whatever tool you're using to talk to your players online like a D&D Game Discord Channel.

With this text-based approach you can track initiative, damage, and conditions by just writing them down next to the name of the creature in your initiative list.

Whatever tool you use, make initiative visible to the players so they know who goes when.

Tracking Damage and Conditions

Tracking a monster's damage can be as easy as writing it down. I'm a big fan of using for individual monsters. Write those evocative names down and how much damage they've taken.

Here's a quick tip. Instead of trying to subtract damage from a monster's hit points, add damage up until it hits the monster's hit points. For many people it's far faster to add than subtract. I don't know why. So don't try to subtract 12 damage from an ogre's 51 hit points. Instead, just add up from 0 until you hit 51.

If you find yourself needing to track damage for a lot of monsters (like more than twelve), instead of worrying about the damage of each monster, track damage done to the whole group. Every time the group takes enough damage to kill one monster, remove that monster and reset the damage counter to zero. If the monster or monsters take enough damage to kill multiple members, remove multiple members. This way you don't have to track damage to each monster. This method scales well for dozens to even hundreds of monsters.

If you're using a virtual tabletop like my favorite Owlbear Rodeo and it doesn't have a clear way to track damage in the tool, you can track the amount of damage a creature has taken by typing the number in next to the creature's name on the token.

If you're playing at home, it's easiest to write down monsters and the damage they've taken on an index card or piece of paper and toss it when you're done. You can write down this damage right on the same list you use for initiative.

For tracking conditions, most virtual tabletops have ways to put a colored ring around a token to mark and remind you of a condition. You can also write it down next to a monster on an initiative card or wherever else you're tracking hit points.

Monster Stat Blocks

I'm a fan of using monster books directly when you want to run a monster's stat block. Keep the book on hand and bookmark the monster you plan to run with an index card (index cards, if you haven't guessed, are the powerhouse tool of D&D). I'm not a fan of copying, retyping, or printing out stat blocks. It may seem like you're better organized but it takes a lot of time and can waste a lot of paper.

If you have online tools like D&D Beyond, you can use stat blocks right from the tool. Same with the other bigger virtual tabletops. Other third party publishers produce awesome monster books in PDF. Taking screen shots of monster stat blocks from PDFs is fast and easy and you can paste them right into your digital campaign notebook like OneNote or Notion.

Overall, though, it's hard to beat the convenience of using the physical book on hand. That's what it's there for.

Combat Positioning

Showing combat positioning is a huge topic and has been one for nearly 50 years. I recommend using a number of different methods instead of focusing on just one. Instead of doing everything on a big gridded map with miniatures or online tokens or doing everything in pure Theater of the Mind, keep a bunch of different methods in your toolbox. Here are some articles offering a range of choices:

Running D&D Combat in the Theater of the MindText-based Combat TrackerZone-based CombatOwlbear Rodeo, my favorite Virtual TabletopA New DM's Guide to Miniatures

Above all, ensure whatever method you use is easy to set up, easy to use, and doesn't get in the way of the story. Use the simplest tools and style you can to get the job done of representing the high action and fun of the story.

A Common Topic with a Myriad of Options

How to run combat in D&D is something every DM needs to know and for which almost every DM prefers different solutions. Try out different things. Experiment. Find the tools you love. Be hard on them. Make sure they're doing the job you want them to do and aren't getting in the way. Throw them out if they're not doing the job. Be wary of spending a lot of money or a lot of time on any one solution or you'll get caught up in the sunk cost. Use the tools that help you best share your tales of high adventure with your group.

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Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.