Michael E. Shea's Blog, page 27

Darkvision Isn't As Good As You Think

Creatures with darkvision in darkness have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and -5 to their passive perception. Light up those torches, dungeon explorers!

In many D&D games, any sort of light such as torches, lanterns, use of the light cantrip, or other forms of illumination are shunned in favor of character races possessing darkvision. Darkvision is treated as a perfect way to navigate the darkest corridors, tunnels, and dungeons in our D&D games.

Except it doesn't work that way.

This is actually the combination of three rules so it's easy for players and DMs to miss it. Here's the description of darkvision from chapter 8 of the Player's Handbook:

Darkvision. Many creatures in fantasy gaming worlds, especially those that dwell underground, have darkvision. Within a specified range, a creature with darkvision can see in darkness as if the darkness were dim light, so areas of darkness are only lightly obscured as far as that creature is concerned. However, the creature can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Here's what happens when you're in dim light also in chapter 8 of the Player's Handbook:

A given area might be lightly or heavily obscured. In a lightly obscured area, such as dim light, patchy fog, or moderate foliage, creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

And finally under "Passive Checks" in chapter 7 of the Player's Handbook:

If the character has advantage on the check, add 5. For disadvantage, subtract 5.

Joining these three rules together we come to this:

A character with darkvision has -5 to passive Perception checks while within darkness.

Light Those Torches

Most of the time, characters in dangerous areas won't want -5 to their passive Perception checks or to have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks. They'll want to light the area up if they want to be careful. Darkvision is no longer Superman's see-everything vision. If the group decides they want to be sneaky, they're going to miss those traps. If they light up those torches, they might give themselves away to lurking enemies.

Of course, the same thing is true for our enemies. Monsters with darkvision are just as likely to miss that stealthy rogue if they don't have lights of their own. Will they risk it? Only creatures with blindsense have no need to worry.

Choosing whether to light up or not is one of those fun in-world decisions that makes D&D fun. Instead of having a cure-all to the problem ("I have darkvision, we're fine), the players have to make hard choices with consequences. Sure, you can rely on darkvision, but you may step into a spiked pit trap you might otherwise see.

The next time the characters enter an old crypt, best to remind them of the dangers of relying completely on darkvisioon.

New to Sly Flourish? Start here, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or support Sly Flourish on Patreon!

Check out Mike's books including Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, Fantastic Adventures, and Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot.

Support Sly Flourish by using these links to purchase the D&D Essentials Kit, Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, or dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Send feedback to @slyflourish on Twitter or email mike@mikeshea.net.

This article is copyright 2020 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

D&D 5e Numbers to Keep In Your Head

Note: This article has been updated since the original written in February 2015.

The following tools are intended to make it easier to improvise situations in your D&D games. These numbers are designed to be simple and straight forward enough to keep in your head. You can, of course, write them out on a 3x5 card or sticky note and paste it in the inside of your DM screen as well. These numbers help you create challenges, traps, encounters, environmental effects, and horde battles without needing to look anything up in a complicated chart.

Most of these numbers are based on a challenge rating for the sitiuation. This challenge rating is roughly equivalant to the average character level of a group of adventures between 1 (1st level characters) and 20 (20th level characters). This challenge rating is based on the situation, however, not the actual level of the characters in the game. The world does not conform to the level of the characters.

For more tools like these, check out the Lazy DM's Workbook.

Here's a summary of D&D numbers you can keep in your head:

DC, AC, Saving Throw DC: 10 (easy) to 20 (hard)
Attack Bonuses, Trained Skills, Primary Saves: +3 (easy) to +12 (hard)
Single Target Damage: 5 (1d10) per challenge level.
Multi-target Damage: 3 (1d6) per challenge level.
Hit Points: 20 per challenge level.
Deadly Encounter Benchmark: 1/2 or 1/4 of total character levels. An encounter may be deadly if the sum total of monster challenge ratings is greater than half the sum total of character levels, or one quarter if the characters are below 5th level.
Fighting a Horde of Weaker Monsters. 1/4th succeed. About one quarter of the horde succeed on attacks or saving throws; adjust up or down depending on the situation.

Difficulty Check, Armor Class, Saving Throw DC: 10 to 20

When a situation comes up requiring a difficulty check, choose a number between 10 (easy) and 20 (hard) as the target. The harder the challenge, the higher the number. A 10 is considered relatively easy yet still challenging enough to warrant a roll. A 20 is considered nearly impossible for most common folk.

This number also works for an improvised armor class and saving throw DCs if needed. If you happen to improvise a trap or an effect of some sort, or the characters start attacking a stone statue, you can use this range to set the AC of the statue or the DC of the trap's saving throw.

Example: The Icebolt Trap

Say you've decided a particular room has an icebolt trap in it. How tough was the wizard who planted the trap? Was he an apprentice or an archmage? Choose a number between 10 and 20 to determine the difficulty of finding and disarming the trap. For this example, let's say this icebolt trap has a DC of 14 to detect and disarm.

Note, we're not setting the trap based on the level of the characters. The world is a dynamic place and the characters are just living there. The world does not change it's DCs based on the characters who face it.

Attack Bonus: +3 to +12

If we ever need to improvise an attack score, choose a number between +3 (not particularly accurate) and +12 (very accurate). Anything lower is going to be unlikely to hit and not worth rolling. There are some situations where the attack is lower or higher than this but this range is likely for most situations. When you have an improvised attack, choose a bonus based on the accuracy of the attack.

Example: The Icebolt's Attack

Going back to our example from before, let's look again our icebolt trap. If a character fails to detect it or disarm it, it fires an icebolt at the one who triggered the trap with a +6 to attack.

5 (1d10) Damage Per Challenge Level

If you need to inflict some improvised damage, 5 (1d10) damage per challenge level is a good rule of thumb. It's roughly the challenge faced by four characters so a challenge 6 is the equivalent of four level 6 characters. If this damage would affect more than one creature, reduce it to 3 (1d6) per challenge level. As mentioned before, this challenge rating isn't necessarily based on the level of the PCs but instead the level of the challenge they face.

Example: The Icebolt's Damage

Returning to our icebolt trap example, we'll have to decide how dangerous this icebolt is and choose 6 damage per challenge level. Assuming the goblin wizard was a challenge rating of 3, the ice bolt inflicts 16 (3d10) cold damage. If this ice bolt had been placed by the lich Xathron, a challenge 16 monster, the bolt might inflict 90 (16d10) cold damage instead. The challenge rating of the villain setting up the trap gives you the idea how much damage to dish out.

20 Hit Points Per Level

If you need to improvise hit points for an object, use 20 hit points per challenge level. This doesn't match up perfectly to the hit points of monsters in the Monster Manual or the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating chart on page 274 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, but it's close enough.

Example: Xathron's Icy Automaton

Let's say the PCs have invaded the lich Xathron's treasure vault and inside is Xathron's Icy Automaton. This isn't Xathron's best guardian, but it's pretty solid. We'll consider it a level 5 challenge.

The PCs fail to notice the Automaton's danger (failed on a DC 15 perception) and it begins to fire icebolts at random PCs (two attacks, +7 to attack, 15 damage). The PCs can't seem to get it disarmed (failed on three potential DC 15 Arcana or Athletics checks) and now they want to bash it down (AC 15, 100 hps). After inflicting 100 damage to it, the automaton falls apart.

Not Intended for Monster Building

Looking at these number ranges, you may be tempted to use them to build a monster. Instead, consider reskinning existing monsters from the Monster Manual rather than building a monster from scratch with these numbers. While you might be able to build a reasonable monster with these scores, the asymmetrical nature of the stats in the Monster Manual makes creatures much more fun to fight than a static box of perfectly aligned scores.

Deadly Encounter Benchmark: 1/2 or 1/4 of total character levels

When building combat encounters, you can skip the complicated math outlined in the Dungeon Master's Guide and instead use this simple encounter building benchmark:

First, build encounters based on what makes sense for the story and the situation. Let the story drive the number and types of monsters.

Then, if needed, check to see if the encounter may be deadly. An encounter may be deadly if the sum total of monster challenge ratings is greater than one half the sum total of character levels, or one quarter of character levels if the characters are below 5th level.

This isn't perfect and lots of variable can change up how difficult a battle is but it's a good rough benchmark that, I'd argue, is as good as any of the fancier methods for benchmarking encounter difficultly found in the Dungeon Master's Guide, Xanathar's Guide, Kobold Fight Club, or any other encounter calculator.

Here's a Youtube video on the Deadly Encounter Benchmark.

Running Hordes of Monsters: One Quarter Succeed

Sometimes the stories of our games lead to the characters facing large hordes of monsters. Rolling tons of attacks and saving throws can suck the energy out of what would otherwise be a really exciting fight. The Dungeon Master's Guide includes rules for adjudicating a lot of attacks from a large number of monsters. So does the [Lazy DM's Workbook]Lazy DM's Workbook.

For an easier method requiring no table, we can start with a baseline assumption that when a large force of weaker monsters attacks the characters about one quarter of them hit. Likewise, when a character hits a large number of monsters with a big area-of-effect ability, about one quarter of them make their saving throw.

For example, our party of 8th level characters gets attacked by fifty skeletons. Many of the skeletons slash with swords or fire splintered recurve bows. Split the attacks evenly across the five characters so each character gets attacked ten times. Instead of doing a bunch of comparisons of attacks to AC, we can assume one quarter of them hit. If the character is particularly well armored we round down. If they're wearing lighter armor, we round up. Thus each character takes between 10 and 15 damage when attacked.

Now the cleric casts Turn Undead. We can likewise assume one quarter of the skeletons succeed on their saving throws and three quarters fail and are destroyed as a huge wave of radiant energy blasts them to dust. Now only twelve of the skeletons remain.

We can do a lot of math to figure all of this out but the result is essentially the same after we round it out.

Instead we can just remember a simple rule: when a large number of weaker monsters faces the characters, about one quarter of them succeed on attacks or saving throws..

A Quick Summary

In summary, here are some numbers to keep in your head:

DC / AC / Save DC: 10 to 20
Attacks, Trained Skills, Primary Saves: +3 to +12
Single Target Damage: 6 (1d10) per Challenge Rating
Multi-target Damage: 3 (1d6) per Challenge Rating
Hit Points: 20 per Challenge Rating
Building Encounters: 1/2 or 1/4 of total character levels. An encounter may be deadly if the sum total of monster challenge ratings is greater than half the sum total of character levels, or one quarter if they're below 5th level.
Fighting a Horde of Weaker Monsters. 1/4 succeed. About one quarter of the horde succeed on attacks and saving throws.

With those numbers in mind, you have a simple toolbox for running all sorts of challenges for your D&D 5e group.

New to Sly Flourish? Start here, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or support Sly Flourish on Patreon!

Check out Mike's books including Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, Fantastic Adventures, and Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot.

Support Sly Flourish by using these links to purchase the D&D Essentials Kit, Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, or dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Send feedback to @slyflourish on Twitter or email mike@mikeshea.net.

This article is copyright 2020 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

Understanding Surprise in D&D 5e

A few of 5th edition D&D's rules aren't quite as simple and clear as we'd like. How surprise works is one of those. Today we're going to dig deep into surprise, how the rules are intended to work, and some ways we can make it easier to run at the table.

Rules As Written

The rules themselves describe surprise thusly:

The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.

If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.

Most of this is completely straight forward except for one part. It's that final sentence of the first paragraph. Where it says "doesn't notice a threat", is that "any" threat, or "all" threats?

Given the above description, we can almost consider "surprised" to be a condition. If you are surprised, you can't move or act on your turn and you can't take reactions until your first turn ends. But what happens if you are surprised by one creature and not another? The rules don't say but the official Sage Advice Compendium does. Here's the relevant passage from page 9.

You can be surprised even if your companions aren't, and you aren't surprised if even one of your foes fails to catch you unawares.

I take this to mean that a creature isn't surprised if it detects any potential threat.

When does surprise actually come into play? We'll look at two scenarios. In one, the characters attempt to surprise a bunch of monsters. In the second, a bunch of monsters try to surprise the characters. There are tricky bits to both.

Characters Surprising Monsters

Let's say the characters find a situation in which they can try to catch a group of gnolls off-guard in the caves of the underdark. The gnolls are coming down the cave and the characters know it. The characters spend a bit of time preparing. They each roll a stealth check. Stompy the paladin rolls a predictable 6 while Darkshadow the rogue rolls a 17. The gnolls have a passive perception of 10. When they come around the corner and the rogue pulls the trigger of their crossbow, time stops and we roll for initiative.

Remember, there is no surprise round. The shot doesn't go off and get resolved before initiative is rolled. The minute any creature begins a hostile action against another creature, time stops and we roll for initiative.

When rolling for initiative the rogue gets a 19, the gnolls get a 12, Stompy the paladin gets a 7. When we compare the original stealth checks to the passive Perceptions of the gnolls, the gnolls clearly hear Stompy and clearly do not see Darkshadow. They're not surprised by Stompy and therefore are not surprised. Darkshadow still gets a shot off with advantage because the gnolls totally missed them but when their turn comes around, they can move and act. They're not surprised.

This means that the group is nearly always going to fail attempting to get surprise on their enemies because Stompy is always dragging them down. Instead, if the situation is right, we DMs might rule that instead of individual stealth checks, the characters can roll a group stealth check. See "Group Checks" in chapter 7 of the Player's Handbook. While Stompy is still dragging the group down, they are likely offset by Darkshadow's high stealth check. If the majority of the group gets a stealth chech higher than the passive Perception of the gnolls, the gnolls are surprised by the whole group.

This interpretation highly favors the characters so we likely want to ensure it takes work to set it up. The characters should have a clear understanding of their enemy's position and intent, and the characters should have time to work together to hide. In the right circumstances, though, a group stealth check makes sense.

Monsters Surprising Characters

What if we switch sides, though? How does it work if the monsters are trying to ambush the characters? Let's say the gnolls know the characters are coming and they want to hide. Let's say there's sixteen gnolls. We're not about to roll 16 stealth checks. Some gnoll is going to screw it up for sure, and that makes sense. We're also not going to roll a group stealth check for 16 gnolls. Instead, we can use the passive Stealth of the gnolls. They have a passive Dexterity (Stealth) of 11. Not so great. The characters will see them if any of the characters have a passive Perception of 11 or better. However, each character has their own passive Perception. Let's say Broadchest the fighter has a passive Perception of 9; he's going to miss the gnolls and get surprised. And since Broadchest missed all of the gnolls, they're truly "surprised". They can't move or act on their turn and can't take reactions until that turn is over.

This is pretty harsh. Players hate losing actions. While it makes sense, we should use this sparingly; only when it really reinforces a key aspect of the game.

If you don't like the idea of a passive Dexterity (Stealth) check, you might roll a Dexterity (Stealth) check at disadvantage for the whole group and use that against the passive Perceptions of the characters to see who is surprised.

Your Own Rulings Apply

The above is my own interpretation of the rules as written. Many DMs have their own favorite rules they drop in for handling surprise in D&D. Some DMs use full "surprise rounds", a holdover from previous versions of D&D. Others simply let the story dictate how things go. For about five years I would give either characters or the enemies a free round of attacks if I decided one group surprised another. It was simple and worked just fine but I'd rather run the rules as written as much as I can unless I have a really good reason to avoid it.

Hopefully this article offered a better understanding of the intent of surprise in D&D. Take it and add it to your arsenal for sharing stories of high action and adventure with your friends and family.

New to Sly Flourish? Start here, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or support Sly Flourish on Patreon!

Check out Mike's books including Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, Fantastic Adventures, and Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot.

Support Sly Flourish by using these links to purchase the D&D Essentials Kit, Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, or dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Send feedback to @slyflourish on Twitter or email mike@mikeshea.net.

This article is copyright 2020 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

The Minimum Viable D&D Game

What is the minimum preparation we need to run a great D&D game? In a previous article we've explored what we might do if we spend an entire day preparing for a D&D game and Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master already boils down game preparation so we can spend less time preparing for our D&D games, instead focusing on what we need to improvise the game when we run it.

Today we're going to start from the ground up, looking at what preparation we might put together to have enough to run a great game.

The D&D Essentials Kit is a great example of the minimum you need to play D&D. The kit includes fourteen adventure locations that take characters from 1st to 6th level. Many of these adventures are only two pages long. We can learn a lot from the Essentials Kit as a model of the pure simplicity of D&D.

How much do we really need to have ready for our D&D games so we and our players can have some fun?

A Strong Start

Second only to reviewing the characters, the strong start is a critical component of a D&D game. How does the game begin? What happens to draw the players into the game? What hooks the characters into the rest of the adventure? We often don't need more than a sentence to describe this but it's a critical sentence. Maybe it's big. Maybe it's small.

Here are some example strong starts:

Two parents weep for their teenage child who has gone off to make a name for themselves by exploring Nightstone Cave and never came back.
A bandit with the heads of three village elders from other villages rides into town demanding that the town turn over all of their food and wealth or their own elder's neck will fall under the bandits' knives.
Miners return to town describing a collapsing cave revealing an ancient drow vault.
A carnival has come to town operating out of an ancient amphitheater and villagers have begun to disappear after the performances.
A comet appears in the sky that reveals a mysterious doorway on the nearby mountainside. The locals fear what may step through and ask the characters to investigate it.
A recent rockslide has revealed an ancient dwarven crypt and skeletons have been seen nearby.

We can think of our strong starts under the same lens as the rest of our minimum viable D&D game. What is the minimum a strong start needs to hook the characters?

Discoveries

Combat, interaction, and exploration are the pillars that make up a D&D game and exploration is often about discovery. What are ten things the characters can learn in the next game? This is a core step from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master called secrets and clues. Here are ten example secrets and clues for that last strong start on the list above.

The dwarves had an ancient burial site in the side of a nearby mountain. Erosion has recently revealed its entrance.
Not all dwarven gods are good. Some were downright sinister.
The uncovered dwarven crypt was in worship of Dumathoin, the god of buried secrets.
The dwarven crypt is full of traps and hazards.
One of the buried dwarven heroes is said to have once held a powerful mace capable of smashing stone.
A band of grave robbers known as the Ghostbloods tried to loot the site. None returned.
A drow necromancer was said to have taken over the site. Since then undead have been seen walking in the dead of night around the area.
The dwarven burial site was maintained for centuries. There are crypts and sepulchers below the main halls.
A monster-infested roaring river flows through the dwarven ruins.
Rumors whisper of a dwarven ghost who still haunts the crypts.

After our strong start, writing out ten secrets and clues gives us the material we need to fill in the story as the characters engage in their adventure.

A Dungeon

Often adventures begin or lead to an interesting location to explore. Many times these adventure locations are dungeons, a core component of D&D. Whenever I need a location, I hit up Dysonlogo's maps and grab the first map that fits what I need. Here's a cool one we can use that should last for a session and fits the secrets we have above:

Pits of the Black Moon by Dysonlogos.com

Locations are more than maps, though. You'll want to list out the interesting features the characters may run into in these locations. In Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master I recommended an evocative name and three features for each location. That may be more than we need for our minimum viable D&D game. An evocative name alone might be enough to fire up your imagination when you need it.

Here are some example location descriptions:

Desecrated Hall of Dwarven Heroes
Slippery Sinkhole
Dark Altar of Myrkul
The Pillars of Dumathoin History
The Crawling Moat
The Smuggler's Cove
The Hall of Roaring Kings
The Sunken Sepulchers

If we're feeling crafty, we can write these names right onto the map so we have a key.

Monsters

A good minimum viable D&D game is all about delving into dungeons and fighting monsters. Often, when we want to put a game together, we can start with the Monster Manual, find a monster we like, read about it's lair, and build our minimum viable adventure around that. The Monster Manual is a great place to start to get inspired for any adventure.

Here are some fun monsters around which you can build a fun adventure:

Hibernating ankhegs
Burrowing azers
A hunting Behir
Ravenous bugbears
The solitary cyclops
Expanding ettercaps
A helpful hag
The sequestered medusa
A disguised lamia
Terrorizing troglodytes

For our map above, we'll go with decrepit skeletons, murderous bandits, devouring carrion crawlers, and a raving specter. We can also drop in a sinister drow necromancer by reskinning a cult fanatic.

NPCs

Fighting monsters isn't the only fun to be had in D&D. In fact, many players prefer NPC interaction to combat or exploration. We should always drop in an NPC or two into our adventures so the characters have people to interact with. When in doubt, use Donjon's random NPC generator to pull up some NPCs and jot them down in your notes.

Here are some interesting NPCs I generated using the Donjon NPC generator:

Harrey Gysby. Male Human Peasant. Harrey is fair in appearance, with short silver hair and narrow blue eyes. He wears sturdy clothing and a wide-brimmed hat. Harrey has red fox named Brose.
Almar. Male Dwarf Monk, LG. Almar has a round face, with red hair and green eyes. He wears simple clothing and wields a bo (quarterstaff) and sai (dagger). Almar is loyal and gentle.
Ancin. Male Half-elf Cleric, LN. Ancin has gray hair and blue eyes, and a straight moustache. He wears studded leather and wields a light hammer and sickle. Ancin seeks to save his family from financial ruin.
Galaser. Female Elf Rogue, LN. Galaser has a round face, with messy auburn hair and gray eyes. She wears studded leather and wields a shortsword and darts. Galaser suffers an acute fear of death.
George Pycey. Male Human Fighter, LE. George has golden hair and hazel eyes. He wears hide armor and wields a war pick and hand crossbow. George has an animal companion, a badger named Rende.

For our dwarven crypt adventure we'll go with the dwarven ghost Almar, a former dwarven monk who protects the crypt and hates the defilement of the drow necromancer.

Treasure

Much of the fun in D&D comes from the tangible rewards for adventure. For our minimum viable D&D game, a quick roll for some random treasure may be enough. Donjon.bin.sh has us covered again with an excellent random treasure generator built from the tables in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Run it a few times until you find a treasure hoard that excites you and paste that into your notes.

Here's a suitable hoard for our dwarven crypt adventure:

2100 cp, 1500 sp, 50 gp, Bolt of Fine Cloth (25 gp), Feathered Ribbon (25 gp), Pewter Hairpin (25 gp), Ceramic Urn (25 gp), Polished Stone Coffer (25 gp), Feathered Shoes (25 gp), Slippers of Spider Climbing (uncommon, dmg 200), +1 Weapon (shortbow) (uncommon, dmg 213)

The Minimum Outline

Our minimum viable outline comes very close to the eight steps fro Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, only omitting the steps "review the characters" and "outline scenes". Those two steps also have something to offer for our game and don't take a lot of extra time. It turns out the eight steps from Return are pretty close to our minimum viable D&D game already.

When you think of your own D&D games, what are the steps you find most vital? What's the minimum you need to run your own game? For the thought experiment in this article, I've come to the following:

Develop a strong starting scene.
Write out ten secrets and clues the characters may discover.
Grab a map and jot down ten to twelve evocative location names.
Pick some monsters to inhabit our location.
Drop in one or more NPCs the characters can talk to.
Add some interesting treasure.

That's often enough to get a game going. The rest will play itself out as the players get involved and the story starts running free at the table.

New to Sly Flourish? Start here, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or support Sly Flourish on Patreon!

Check out Mike's books including Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, Fantastic Adventures, and Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot.

Support Sly Flourish by using these links to purchase the D&D Essentials Kit, Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, or dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Send feedback to @slyflourish on Twitter or email mike@mikeshea.net.

This article is copyright 2020 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

Running Wars, Big Battles, and Massive Combat in D&D

D&D is designed to cover the stories of a small party of characters adventuring in a land of high fantasy. Sometimes the story of these characters goes into areas not covered well by the rules in the core books.

Here at Sly Flourish I try to offer guidelines to help run this wider range of stories and situations that can come up in our D&D games.

How can we run hordes of monsters in a battle without it getting bogged down? How can I quickly see if a battle may be deadly for the characters? How can we run combat without using a battle map and tokens? It's these sorts of questions I want to answer. I want these guidelines to be quick, easy, and to stay out of the way of the story that evolves at the table.

One of these common situational questions is "how do I run a big war in D&D?".

Today I'll offer guidelines for running big battles as background set pieces in D&D.

Often our DM instincts lead us to build complex new mechanics and systems for atypical situations like running a war in D&D. Just as we have mechanics to handle small-party combat, we figure it seems likely we can build another such system for massive combat. Back in 2017, Wizards put out an Unearthed Arcana playtest document for massive combat but it never made its way into a sourcebook. Instead, early in 2020, Wizards of the Coast published the following in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount:

Since D&D is primarily a game about a small group of characters going on adventures alone, it can be difficult to simulate massive battles using D&D combat rules. Because of this, it's generally best to keep the characters away from mass battles. However, huge conflicts with thousands of combatants are a cornerstone of epic fantasy, and your players might be disappointed if your war campaign doesn't have at least one climactic battle.

To solve this problem, you can break down your mass combat into manageable chunks. Find a significant location that the characters can either defend or conquer with minimal reinforcements, like an overrun citadel. Then, have the major battle proceed in waves that guide the characters from one cinematic encounter to another. You can think of these encounters like rooms in a dungeon; some rooms have multiple doors that the characters can choose from, while others only have a single passage.

This is good advice and my main recommendation for running mass combat in D&D.

Instead of building a bunch of mechanics for running a big battle, keep the spotlight on the characters and their role in th battle. Let them hunt down lieutenants, plant explosives, uncover spies, protect negotiators, and engage in other such activities. Run big battles off screen. Describe larger battles (quickly) and give characters a first-hand view of the battle through the eyes of their characters, from the trenches to the war-room. Find quests and stories that put the characters in the middle of the war but continues to focus on the small party adventures at the core of D&D.

Here's a list of war-based adventure seeds to help inspire you to build your own war-based quests.

Sabotage enemy equipment
Hunt down opposing lieutenants
Assassinate opposing leaders
Protect negotiators
Root out saboteurs
Hunt down assassins
Protect the queen
Smuggle out prisoners
Find an ancient weapon
Steal the enemy's treasury
Deliver a message to the front
Forge an alliance with a questionable ally
Dismantle a capitalizing thieves guild
Capture someone vital to the enemy's war effort
Defend a chokepoint
Steal a ship
Sink a ship
Protect a ship
Rescue hostages
Relocate civilians caught between two armies

You can lay out a handful of such options so the players can pick the ones that sound like fun to them. Maybe they have to go spy on, infiltrate, or sabotage the enemy's stronghold. Maybe they have to sneak away and go on a diplomatic mission to recruit nearby reclusive elves. Maybe they have to defend a small watchtower about to be overrun while the bulk of the force defends a front line. Even in a big war we can still offer up the three pillars of play — combat, roleplaying, or exploration — and let the players choose which sound cool.

Not Everything Needs Mechanics

All DMs are game designers. We all tweak our game to fit our desires and the the drive to have fun at the table. Sometimes we grab on too heavily to the idea that everything needs mechanics; faction mechanics, political mechanics, travel mechanics, vehicle mechanics, and war mechanics.

Not every aspect of our game needs heavy mechanics. Sometimes we can just describe things. When it comes to running big battles in our D&D games, run them off screen and keep the spotlight on the characters and their impact in the larger war.

New to Sly Flourish? Start here, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or support Sly Flourish on Patreon!

Check out Mike's books including Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, Fantastic Adventures, and Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot.

Support Sly Flourish by using these links to purchase the D&D Essentials Kit, Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, or dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Send feedback to @slyflourish on Twitter or email mike@mikeshea.net.

This article is copyright 2020 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

Running Descent into Avernus Chapter 3

Note: this article contains spoilers for Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus.

This article is one of a series of articles covering the D&D hardcover campaign adventure Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus. These articles include:

Running Descent into Avernus: The Fall of Elturel
Running Chapter 1 of Descent into Avernus
Running Descent into Avernus Chapter 2
Running Descent into Avernus Chapter 3

For other takes on running Descent into Avernus, see the following:

Merric's Musings on Descent into Avernus
Descent into Avernus Alexandrian Remix
Powerscore's Guide to Descent into Avernus
Running Descent into Avernus One-on-One by the D&D Duet
Eventyr's Running Avernus as a Sandbox

If you prefer this article in video form, take a look at my Running Avernus Chapter 3 Youtube Video.

Chapter 3 of Descent into Avernus is the big meat of this adventure and also takes the most work to wrangle into a great Avernus campaign. Lke the crawl through Chult in Tomb of Annihilation and the exploration of the Sword Coast in Storm King's Thunder, chapter 3 is what makes Descent into Avernus what my wife and I like to call a "yam-shaped adventure": narrow in the beginning and narrow at the end but wide in the middle.

Chapter 3 contains about 25 locations the characters might explore while traveling across the hellscape. As written, chapter 3 begins with the adventurers meeting Mad Maggie at Fort Knucklebone and then follows two potential paths towards the end of the adventure: the Path of Demons and the Path of Devils. This makes chapter 3 less flexible than the big exploration chapters in other published adventures. Some DMs, like Justin Alexander with his Avernus Alexandrian Remix, have worked to turn it into more of a pointcrawl exploration. In my own game, I've added a third path, one with some meaningful choices in it: the Path of the Hellriders. More on this in a minute.

Theme of Descent into Avernus

As mentioned in previous articles on Descent into Avernus, my number one recommendation for this adventure is to tie the characters to Elturel, Reya Mantlemourn, and the Hellriders. In the beginning of the adventure, let them witness the fall of Elturel and ensuring their characters care about its return to Toril. Without this, the characters can lose their motivation for much of the adventure. Why go into hell to save a city you don't really care about?

This shift in theme away from the one in the adventure — the brooding conscripted hunters of cultists in Baldur's Gate — can result in big changes to the adventure in chapter 3. With this change in theme, the characters may not want to follow the paths laid out in the book. It's up to you to make new ones.

The Morality of Soul Coins

This thematic shift becomes clear when the characters received soul coins and realize they'd have to burn soul coins to power their infernal war machine. Think about what it means to destroy a soul permanently. It's way worse than murdering someone. Even if the soul is evil, destroying it forever is not a good act. Souls in D&D have a path they take, good or bad, and pulling one out of that path and destroying them forever is perhaps the worst act a mortal can commit. And we're doing it to move a car a few miles down the road.

In my Youtube video on Soul Coins I recommend an alternative approach to fuel war machines — demon ichor or demon essence. Demons have no souls. They're not reincarnated mortal beings like devils are. They're manifestations of chaos from the primordial sludge of the abyss. Turning them into fuel has no moral complications.

Now perhaps you and your group enjoys the moral complications of soul coins. If so, go with the Gods. If, however, your players want to continue with the theme of light in darkness and good versus evil, you can give them another option for driving around those cool war machines other than the permanent destruction of a mortal soul. Let them run on demon ichor.

All Roads Lead to the Bleeding Citadel

As big as it is, chapter 3 of Descent into Avernus has one main path running through it. Chapter 3 takes the characters from Elturel to the Bleeding Citadel. How they get there and what steps they need to take are up to you and eventually up to them. The book lays out a bunch of locations and two main paths, the Path of Demons and the Path of Devils, but you're free to break away from these paths and choose your own, as I did.

To do so, read through all of the locations in chapter 3 and make a list of locations that sound cool to you; places you're excited to run. Then tie the story and threads together between these locations to connect them from Elturel to the Bleeding Citadel.

You can also fill in your path with an interesting random Averus monuments or extend the whole area with Abyssal Incursion and Encounters in Avernus written by some of the original writers of Descent into Avernus.

Fort Knucklebone

Fort Knucklebone, the first stop in chapter 3, works well as written. Mad Maggie is a fun character and the jobs she puts the characters through can be a good time. Watch some Mad Max Fury Road for inspiration here. The war boys are a great model for the redcaps and madcaps surrounding Mad Maggie.

Near the end of this part of the chapter is when we lay out the first steps in the characters' quest to recover the Sword of Zariel and save Elturel. You decide what they learn from Lulu's dream and which paths become available for them to follow as they hunt down the Sword of Zariel in the Bleeding Citadel.

Path of the Hellriders

For my own running of Descent into Avernus I stepped away from the Path of Demons and the Path of Devils and created a new path: the Path of the Hellriders. This path reinforced the initial themes of the adventure I laid out with Fall of Elturel. Because the characters had such a strong connection to Elturel and the Hellriders, keeping the story focused on the Hellriders helped tie the rest of the adventure together.

The Path of the Hellriders follows Zariel's generals. I rewrote some of the history of these generals to fit the theme I sought. These generals include:

Jandar Sunspire. One of the original Hellrider generals, Jandar did not submit to Zariel when she turned. He is the only being who knows the location of the Bleeding Citadel where Yael hid Zariel's sword. Gideon Lightward turned Jandar into a vampire and impaled him on a silver-spired tree on Harumon's Hill to find the location of the Sword of Zariel.
Harumon. Zariel's most loyal general who followed her into Avernus and stayed by her side when she bent the knee to Asmodeus. Harumon seeks the sword of Zariel and knows Jandar knows where it is, thus keeping him pinned up at Harumon's Hill.
Gideon Lightward. One of Zariel's generals who charged into Avernus and returned to Elturel a vampire. The Companion protected him from Toril's sun. Now that Elturel has fallen into Avernus, Gideon acts as Zariel's spymaster. I'm not sure where he'll show up in my own campaign but he's a fun variable to have around.
Olanthius. A fallen general of Zariel, Olanthius became a death knight but hates his new existence and seeks to redeem Zariel. His journals in the Crypt of the Hellriders exposes his true feelings and makes him a strong possible ally for the characters.
Yael. A general of Zariel who took Zariel's sword from her before Zariel bent the knee to Asmodeus. Yael buried the blade in the fleshy earth that soon became the Bleeding Citadel. Only Jandar knows its location.

The following outlines the clues the characters follow along the path of the Hellriders.

Yael the Hellrider general who broke away from Zariel after Zariel made her pact with Asmodeus took Zariel's sword deep into Avernus and stabbed it into the ground forming the Bleeding Citadel.
Only Jandar Sunspire knows the location of the Bleeding Citadel. He was turned into a vampire and impaled upon a silver tree at Harumon's Hill by those generals still loyal to Zariel in hopes he would tell them the location of the Bleeding Citadel.
Only the remaining Hellriders know where Jandar is held. These other Hellrider generals include Harumon, Olanthius, and Gideon Lightward. Harumon rides in service of Zariel. Gideon serves as Zariel's spymaster now that he has led Elturel into hell. Olanthius resides at the Crypt of the Hellriders.
Olanthius hates what he has become and with some careful negotiation can tell the characters that Jandar is held at Harumon's Hill and can give them directions there.
Atop Harumon's Hill the characters can save or destroy Jandar and learn the location of the Bleeding Citadel just before Harumon attacks them in order to learn the location himself.
At this point the characters make their way to the Bleeding Citadel in chapter 4.

Releasing Tiamat

As the characters follow this path they may be drawn towards other alternatives as well. Krull, Arkhan's speaker, may tell the characters that Arkhan the Cruel wishes to talk to them. Arkhan offers to save Elturel if they recover a particular puzzlebox he cannot find. An ancient sibriex knows the location of the puzzlebox (choose a location for the characters to locate the puzzlebox) and the characters can recover it. Giving the puzzlebox to Arkhan lets him release Tiamat, trapped after her loss in Rise of Tiamat, back into Avernus at which point all hell breaks loose (pun intended). Tiamat, true to her word, breathes and destroy the chains binding Elturel, releasing it back into Toril.

Gargauth

Gargauth, the archdevil trapped in the Shield of the Hidden Lord, can play another important part in this adventure. Throughout their journeys the shield may influence the characters to seek Gargauth's release. Perhaps only two things could do this. First, it could be melted in Bel's Forge. If the characters traveled to that location for any given reason, the shield may either try to convince the character wielding the shield to throw it into Bel's molten fires or attempt to overtake the character and force them to. With Gargauth's release, more chaos ensues. Bel, subservient to Gargauth, would likely kneel to the being and join together to overthrow Zariel. The Sword of Zariel can also break the shield. Gargauth seeks an opportunity to force the wielder of the sword to smash against the shield, thus releasing the archdevil as well.

Filling Out the Crypt of the Hellriders

Unfortunately, one of the locations that works best for the path of the Hellrider, is also one of the most disappointing. The writeup for the Crypt of the Hellriders has fifteen keyed locations and only seven descriptions; offering repeated descriptions for many of the chambers. You'll want to fill out these rooms with your own details as the characters explore them. Here are a few suggested features of these otherwise empty or repeated room:

A former Hellrider general turned into a mummy lord and trapped in an iron sarcophagus.
The remains of an ancient gateway showing glimmers of Zariel's home plane.
A sinister black obelisk dripping blood into a pool on the floor.
A pit of charred ashes swirl together into specters.
A burning violet flame in a brazier speaking dark secrets.
A large ornate mirror showing Zariel's ship cutting across the Avernus skies.
A table with a large chess set. The black pieces move in response to the white pieces, moved by a remote player (Bel? Gideon Lightward? The Sibriex?)
A slashed painting of Zariel's ride into hell showing each of her generals.
A deep well leading down into the underground waterways of Styx.
One of Gideon Lightward's two sarcophagi.
A holy well hidden behind a cracked wall.
The sarcophagi of a half-dozen vampire spawn loyal to Gideon Lightward.

The Wandering Emporium

Adventuring in Avernus is almost all downward beats. It can be depressing, not just to the characters but to the players as well. How many festering blood-filled bogs, tasteless meals, and nightmare filled rests can the characters take? The Wandering Emporium offers an excellent opportunity to bring in an upward beat — a place protected from the horrors of Avernus where the characters can rest, recover, shop, and pick up rumors.

By this point, however, the characters may not trust it. So broken have they become by the horrors of Avernus that they won't trust a shining light in the darkness even when it does show up. They may want nothing to do with it. When Mahati drops a contract on them to eat and rest at the Infernal Rapture, they may decide not to sign it, ending their opportunity. Players hate contracts. They don't trust them, even when they're simple. Surely they're getting screwed.

If they choose to pass on the Emporium, be ready to drop another upward beat in the story for them. Remember, Avernus used to be a beautiful place filled with temptations. Some of these ruined places of beauty still exist; perhaps a ruined elven pavilion with a fountain of healing and respite beckon to them.

Traveling from Place to Place

As described, traveling through Avernus isn't like traveling through any real world. The world changes and shifts, elongates and contracts. For the characters to travel from place to place, they need some sort of guide — often a magical guide. Here are a few potential ways the characters can find direction in Avernus as they travel from place to place.

A leathery tattooed finger points then way when dangled from a string, perhaps when hanging from the rear view mirror of an infernal war machine.
A constellation of stars points the way while the rest of the stars shift and move.
Strange lines in rocks and sand seem to all point in one direction for those who can see it.
A huge stirge (a fiendish roc) flies in the sky towards the location the characters seek.
A hammer banged into the cracked earth causes cracks to form in a line towards their location.
A line of corpses, each with an ancient ring on one finger, points the way to one another, eventually ending at the destination.

Building Your Own Adventure

As written, Descent into Avernus is a bit of a mess. While some may read it and find it to be a fun adventure focused on descending into darkness, others, myself included, find the theme and structure difficult to manage. Instead of looking at Descent into Avernus as a cohesive adventure, it works best to think of the adventure as a loose outline around a central theme and a toolbox of NPCs, locations, and encounters you can tie together into an adventure all your own.

New to Sly Flourish? Start here, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or support Sly Flourish on Patreon!

Check out Mike's books including Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, Fantastic Adventures, and Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot.

Support Sly Flourish by using these links to purchase the D&D Essentials Kit, Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, or dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Send feedback to @slyflourish on Twitter or email mike@mikeshea.net.

This article is copyright 2020 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

Owlbear Rodeo: A Simple D&D Virtual Tabletop

If you're seeking a lightweight virtual tabletop, try out Owlbear Rodeo. It's awesome.

Covid-19 forced many DMs to move games from in-person to online. For a lot of us, running games online is an entirely new experience. I moved all of my games, about three a week, online and lept into trying out all sorts of systems for online play. My favorite, and the one I've been using for eight months now, is to run D&D over Discord. By copying and pasting pieces of maps, usually grabbed from Dysonlogos, I can show the players where the characters are without using a full virtual tabletop like Roll 20. For combat, I use text-based combat tracker for rough zone-based combat more similar to theater of the mind than gridded combat.

There are times, however, where dropping down a map with tokens for monsters and characters can be useful. Many players and quite a few DMs prefer this style of play.

The big dogs among virtual tabletop tools are Roll 20 and Fantasty Grounds. There are other popular and well-loved tools as well like Foundry but these two typically come up when someone talks about virtual tabletops.

These other VTTs are fine all-in-one systems that integrate D&D's rules with the rest of the tabletop.

The problem is, I'm fine with running games mostly on Discord. I don't need a fully integrated D&D experience in my VTT. My players like using D&D Beyond and I'm not picky about how they roll dice, whether it's with Avrae in Discord or a plug-in like Beyond20.

Unleash the Owlbear Rodeo

When I want a VTT, I really just want a map and tokens. That's what Owlbear Rodeo provides. Owlbear Rodeo is a slimmed down virtual tabletop that focuses on maps and tokens. It has no integrated ruleset, although it does have a shared dice roller in it if you want one. Owlbear Rodeo makes it easy to drop in a map and includes a bunch of default tokens you can use if you don't feel like adding your own.

If you do want your own tokens, you can upload a bunch of them right into Owlbear Rodeo all at once, whether your tokens are from Printable Heroes (my personal favorite tokens; search for "vtt") or your own hand-made tokens using Token Stamp. Grabbing an image off the net, dropping it into Token Stamp, and uploading it to Owlbear is fast and easy.

Owlbear Rodeo requires no login or account from either you or your players. You can log in if you want to keep track of your previous maps and tokens, but it isn't necessary. Owlbear uses some sort of cookie to keep track so if you come back it will likely remember what you already uploaded but only if you're coming in from the same machine. Not requiring a login makes it easy for players to jump right in. No accounts means any player can move any token around since everyone's permissions are the same. I'm assuming your players aren't a bunch of 4 year olds (that's a big assumption, of course).

Owlbear Rodeo has two features that aren't the easiest to figure out at first: grid alignment when bringing in a map and using the fog of war. This three minute video by GoGoCamel camel shows how to use both the grid-alignment feature and fog of war. It's well worth the watch.

If you're used to a more full-featured VTT like Roll 20, you're likely to find features missing from Owlbear that you really want. If you dig more powerhouse tools, it probably isn't for you. I prefer to keep my D&D games as minimal as possible. I want tools that only do what I need them to do and keep the cruft out of the way. Owlbear Rodeo does just that. I can run the rest of my game in Discord and only drop into Owlbear when I need to use a VTT. When I'm done, we drop right back out again.

At this point I've used Owlbear Rodeo with dozens of players and have heard no complaints. Many have described it being the exact kind of VTT they want. If you're in need of a lightweight virtual tabletop, give Owlbear Rodeo a try.

New to Sly Flourish? Start here, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or support Sly Flourish on Patreon!

Check out Mike's books including Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, Fantastic Adventures, and Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot.

Support Sly Flourish by using these links to purchase the D&D Essentials Kit, Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, or dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Send feedback to @slyflourish on Twitter or email mike@mikeshea.net.

This article is copyright 2020 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

Paths for DM Expertise

John B., a Sly Flourish patron, sent me a note describing an awesome video series by Wired on levels of complexity. Two of them really grabbed my attention, the levels of complexity of origami and Tony Hawk's levels of complexity of skateboarding. Tony Hawk's video begins with the basic ollie and ends with two moves having never been done at the time of the video. It's fascinating to see how the levels of complexity get exponentially harder the further along the rank you go.

D&D complexity, however, doesn't always make our games better. I'd argue Matt Mercer's Vecnca Ascended; the finale of the 114 previous episodes of Vox Machina, is about as complicated and amazing as any D&D campaign we're likely to see. It isn't, however, a realistic model of the vast majority of D&D games. Like pulling off a 1260 on a skateboard, games like this are nearly unattainable. And that's ok because complexity doesn't make great games.

I'm fascinated to look at D&D through the lens of escalating complexity but it isn't exactly practical. We may have run incredibly complex campaigns from 1st to 20th level, with detailed character story arcs, amazing tabletop dioramas, beautiful handouts, and cool props; but they're not necessarily the model of all great D&D games. A great D&D game might be a one-shot drawn from the inspiration of the DM at the spur of the moment. It might be run totally in the theater of the mind. Sometimes the best games are the simplest games: four adventurers crawling through a dangerous dungeon seeking a valued treasure.

Though simplicity may be a virtue in great D&D games, that doesn't mean we DM's can't get better at DMing. What are the paths we DMs can take to get better at running D&D games? What would it look like as a curriculum?

Instead of breaking D&D games down into levels of complexity, I'll describe potential paths for getting better at DMing D&D games. These are often parallel tracks, not a single path. There are likely as many paths for DM proficiency as there are DMs but I'm going to offer my own suggestions here.

Along with the videos on complexity in origami and skateboarding, this article was also heavily influenced by Mark Hulmes's Youtube video on Becoming a Better DM. Check it out.

The Beginner's Path: Running the D&D Starter Set or Essentials Kit

One can do far worse than to start running D&D games with either the D&D Essentials Kit or the D&D Starter Set. A set of pregen character sheets from the Starter Set is a great way to get new players on board with D&D. Other than making your way through the rules and through the adventure, I wouldn't expect a new DM to do much else. We're not necessarily going to have deep character background integration, detailed story threads, or amazing tabletop displays. This is just plain and simple D&D and it can still be an awesome time.

In reading tons of posts on Reddit's D&D Next, and the DM Academy subreddits and clearly many new DMs choose to go the homebrew route. I don't recommend it for new DMs but likely others disagree and I doubt I'll be listened to by those who want to anyway. I do, however, recommend keeping things simple. Avoid house rules until you know the system. Choose straight forward character options. Start at 1st level characters and be nice. That said, I still recommend starting with the Starter Set or Essentials Kit.

Recommended reading: Getting Started with D&D, D&D Starter Set, D&D Essentials Kit.

Running Your First Short Campaign

With a few games under one's belt, the next level of experience occurs as a DM runs their first campaign up to about 5th level. Here I'd expect the DM to begin to customize the adventure to fit the backgrounds of the characters. Maybe the guy running the inn is the cousin of the dwarven cleric. DMs here should likely begin improvising some scenes as they come up, including building NPCs on the spot when the moment calls for it. DMs here can hopefully start developing situations instead of building scenes already planned out. The complexity of characters below 5th level are easier to handle than higher level games as well. Games at this level are still often awesome games.

Beyond this is when the complexity of DMing goes up and the paths to becoming a better DM split into parallel tracks. Each of these parallel tracks shores up different areas for being a well-rounded DM.

Becoming the Characters' Biggest Fan

Once we get beyond the basics, it's time for a DM to look at the people around the table and the characters they bring to it. We can deeply internalize a concept from Dungeon World to become the characters' biggest fan. Here we put aside any idea that we're competing with the players in a game. We put aside our own drive to force a story down one particular path. We play to see what happens. We put the characters first and foremost in the spotlight. We make reviewing the characters the first step in our game prep. We run session zeros to calibrate everyone's expectations of a campaign.

We serve the fun of the game first and foremost. Our goal is for everyone, including ourselves, to have a great time.

Recommended reading: Dungeon World.

Run Lots of Games, Run Lots of Systems

We get better at DMing by DMing more games. We also get better by playing more games, with as many other DMs as we can, good or bad, so we can see how it's done. Playing and running other roleplaying game systems also helps us become better DMs. There are lots of ways to run RPGs and lots of systems to help you do so. These systems often have great ideas we can bring back into our D&D games. Running games for a wide range of players also teaches us a lot. Convention games and organized play programs offer great opportunities to run games for many players.

Recommended reading: Numenera, Fate Condensed, Blades in the Dark, 13th Age, Shadow of the Demon Lord.

Flexibility, Adaptability, Improvisation

As the most valued DM traits; we can follow a lifelong path for improving our flexibility, adaptability, and improvisation skills. We can work harder at thinking on our feet, building scenes as they occur during the game instead of planning them ahead of time. We let go of fixed scenes and predetermined stories and build situations. We can learn how to improvise NPCs. We can seek out the tools that help us best improvise during the game. Learning how to stay flexible, go where the story goes, and steer it delicately towards the fun is an advanced DM trait that leads to more enjoyable games for both DMs and players alike.

Understanding Pacing

According to RPG veteran Monte Cook, there is no more important skill for a DM to learn than pacing. Robin Laws teaches us that understanding how upward and downward beats feel during the game and knowing how to shift them one way or the other to avoid apathy or despair is an advanced and critical skill for running great games. Like a curling player, our job is to smooth out the path in front of the story, not grab control of it. Recognize and take hold of the dials you have available to change up an encounter, a scene, or a whole adventure to fit the feeling and theme of the adventure's pacing as it plays out.

Recommended reading: Hamlet's Hit Points.

Maps, Props, Terrain, and Handouts

Physical stuff increases the immersion of a game. When players have things they can see, touch, and hold that ties them to the world, that world becomes ever more real. While not necessary to run a great game, tabletop accessories, when used well, can make a great game better. Some of these things can be made at home for almost nothing. Others can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. These exponential costs often result in linear gains, however. Before spending a lot of money, consider that there are often ways to make our games better that cost nothing at all.

Rules Proficiency, Not Rules Mastery

One might think that a better understanding of the rules is critical to run a great D&D game. Certainly being proficient enough with the rules to run the game is important but, according to tens of thousands of surveys conducted by Baldman Games for their organized play program, rules mastery, as one of four tracked attributes, has the least correlation to a fun game. Instead, being friendly and being prepared have a far greater correlation with running a fun game. DMs should have enough of an understanding of the rules to keep the game running smoothly. Rules mastery, however, isn't required. Instead, focus attention on the other areas that have a higher impact described above.

Recommended Reading: Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual.

Learning from Other DMs

The internet has given us unparalleled access to other DMs. We have unlimited sources to run our ideas by other DMs, see what ideas they have, and get differing points of view. I argue that the D&D-focused subreddits on Reddit offer some of the best access to DMs of all experience levels. Look at the questions those DMs are asking and learn from the answers they receive. Further, if you happen to be running a published campaign book, there's almost always a subreddit focused on it with advice, tips, tricks, and accessories to help your own campaign run well.

Recommended reading: DM Academy, D&D Next, DM Behind the Screen, numerous campaign subreddits.

A Lifelong Pursuit

Being an expert DM is a lifelong pursuit. Never have we had more access to more knowledge about being a great DM. We have access to videos of more D&D games than we could ever watch. With a few clicks we have access to the knowledge of thousands of other DMs. Spend time figuring out what makes a great D&D game for you, build your own path, and keep running D&D games.

New to Sly Flourish? Start here, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or support Sly Flourish on Patreon!

Check out Mike's books including Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, Fantastic Adventures, and Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot.

Support Sly Flourish by using these links to purchase the D&D Essentials Kit, Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, or dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Send feedback to @slyflourish on Twitter or email mike@mikeshea.net.

This article is copyright 2020 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

Building Lazy Dungeons

The eight steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master mentions little about maps. The expectation is that the "develop fantastic locations" step covers locations big and small and stick-figure diagrams are enough to connect locations together.

Recently, though, I've been using actual location maps — mostly dungeon maps — in my prep and found a nice lazy way to fill these maps out.

Behold Dyson Logos

There are lots of sources for great maps out there but my current favorite is Dysonlogos. Dyson offers nearly a thousand maps on his site for free, many of them usable in commercial works if you're so inclined. Visit the site, grab a map that fits the location you're thinking of, and you're off to the races. For lazy map making, think in general terms about the location you need and grab the first map that fits the idea. Need a crypt? Grab the first crypt you find. The less picky you are, the easier it is to find a map that works.

Annotate Locations

Next, as part of "developing fantastic locations", annotate the map with evocative names that fuel our minds when the characters reach the room. This way we don't waste time on rooms the characters don't visit and yet still have enough detail to improvise the room if the characters do go there.

Annotate the map with whatever image editor is easies to use. On my Mac, I use Preview to add text labels with white backgrounds to the map so it's easy to read against the map's background. Here's an example map from my Eberron game.

Microsoft Paint works equally well. More advanced image editors can also do the trick but you don't need anything too fancy. It should be fast and easy. We're not making publication-level work here. Friends of mine like dropping the map into Roll 20 and annotating it right in the virtual tabletop. Anything can work as long as it's fast and easy.

Define Ten Locations

Sometimes we'll want to annotate every room in a dungeon if it isn't too much trouble. Other times, though, it isn't so clear how many places we need to label. A city for example, may need a bunch of locations to feel real and alive. In this case, I recommend defining ten locations. Ten seems like a lot, and it may be more than you actually need, but defining ten locations pushes our brains into interesting and creative directions. Here's an example of a city map for the city of Eston in which I defined ten locations the characters could explore:

Dropping evocative names on a map like this gives us ideas should the characters visit a location. For larger locations we might use additional maps to further break down these larger places. Otherwise, if the characters never bother to explore them, we need nothing more than a couple of words.

Use Evocative Labels

When you're considering your labels, make them unique and interesting. Inspire yourself with your descriptions — even of they're only two words long. "Lighting Rail Station" isn't very interesting but "Wild Lighting Rail Station" sounds cooler. We have an idea what might be going on there. "Radiant Sinkhole" is more interesting than a straight sinkhole. Here's a list of ten example evocative labels for the inner cars of Karshak, the rogue warforged lighting rail in my Eberron game modeled after Blane the Mono in Stephen King's Wastelands:

Manifest Portal Engine
Karshak's Artificer Brain
Warforged Guardian Car
Automated Dining Car
Transparent 1st Class Cabin
Gas-induced Sleeping Cabin
Cryofreeze Cabin
Dragonshard Storage Car
Automaton Construction Car
War Caboose

These aren't perfect examples but hopefully it gives you the idea. The main thing is that the labels mean something to you. You're not writing these for anyone else.

Need some inspiration? Try out the random monument generator or this Eberron location generator to get some ideas for interesting location labels.

Home Use Versus Publication

When we're preparing stuff like this for our home game, remember that we're only doing this for ourselves. We don't need to meet the high standards required for publishing adventures. We only need a few words to spark our own imagination, not pass this along to others. Fast and dirty is perfectly acceptable for our own prep. Leave it rough, no one will care what it looks like. The game is your painting, your maps and prep notes are your messy palette and brush rag. Don't worry if they're rough.

New to Sly Flourish? Start here, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or support Sly Flourish on Patreon!

Check out Mike's books including Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, Fantastic Adventures, and Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot.

Support Sly Flourish by using these links to purchase the D&D Essentials Kit, Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, or dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Send feedback to @slyflourish on Twitter or email mike@mikeshea.net.

This article is copyright 2020 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

Building a Great D&D Character

Here at Sly Flourish I focus on advice for D&D dungeon masters. Today I'm breaking away and offer some advice for players. This is, however, advice for player from the perspective of a dungeon master. You're not going to find optimal feats for any given build. Instead, I offer thoughts that might make the game more fun for you, for your DM, and for the rest of the group.

Here's a quick summary and checklist to consider when building your character:

Build your character around the theme of the adventure or campaign.
Build a character that fits in well with the group both from a story and mechanics standpoint.
Use the Xanathar chapter "this is your life" to generate a fun background.
Keep your backstory to a few lines instead of dozens of pages.
Build your character's background over time.
Choose mechanics that synergize with the group.
Hold back on mechanics that frustrate the DM.

Build Around the Theme of the Campaign

Everyone's going to have more fun if you understand the theme of the campaign before you build your character. Just as DMs can review the characters first while preparing their D&D games, the players can digest the theme of the adventure and campaign before building their characters; both in story and in mechanics.

Many players dive right into character creation without considering the story or the theme of the campaign. They get excited about a particular class or a race and class combination and run with it. They plan out a bunch of levels ahead of time and never consider whether the themes of that character fit well with the themes of the campaign. This leads to ham-fisted attempts to draw the character into the story and into the adventuring group.

If your DM hasn't told you about the adventure or campaign yet, ask them. Ask them what themes will come up. Ask them what skills will be most relevant. Suggest they run a session zero if they're not already planning one and don't build your character fully until you're in that session zero.

Once you have a handle on the theme of the campaign, spread that information around. Talk to the other players. Ask them how they plan to build their characters around the theme of the campaign as well. Help the DM steer the other players towards building characters that fit well with the story.

Build For the Group

Once you have a good idea what the themes of the campaign are and start to build your character around it, consider how you can build a character that fits in well with the group from both a story and mechanics standpoint. Ask yourself this key question to help integrate your character into the group:

Why does my character want to travel with others while going on these adventures?

Often players come up with backstories that seem antithetical to the story of the campaign and traveling with a group. Nobility that would rather spend time alone with a good book in a royal palace often doesn't enjoy traveling through dungeons with a group of smelly adventurers. This doesn't mean you can't have a character where adventure is foreign or even undesired but they must still have the motivation to adventure with others. The character doesn't have to like adventuring with others but they should be motivated to do so anyway.

The same is true for the mechanics you choose. DM David wrote a wonderful article about choosing character abilities that work well with other characters. It's an eye-opening idea. Choose classes and abilities that support the other characters and you'll build a much stronger bond with the characters and players when you use them. When you have a choice for new spells or abilities, ask yourself which abilities help other characters and choose those as often as you dare. Building huge high-damage characters is fun but so is helping other characters do their thing best. Consider how your character's mechanics can directly benefit the group.

Build a Digestible Backstory

Our characters are the heroes of the story in our eyes. As players, our own character is the hero of our journey and we don't often put other players' characters in the same spotlight. We are, most of the time, one fifth of the group but our own character feels more important than that.

When developing the backstory for your character, keep that one-fifth spotlight in mind. Keep your backstory brief. Describe it in one to five sentences instead of one to five pages.

You don't need to build out your character's backstories all at once. As a player, I don't start filling out my backstory until I've played at least one adventure and reached 2nd level. Then I'll spend the time to start filling in the details.

Until we start seeing our character going on adventures with the rest of the group, we don't really know that character. Our idea for their background may change. Like the DM who lets the story of the campaign evolve from session to session, we can let our character's backstory evolve as we begin to know who they are. Think of it like carving a statue. It starts as an undefined block and slowly, as we play them at the game, they begin to take better definition.

Xanathar's Guide to Everything has an awesome way to generate your character's background in the section called "This Is Your Life". You might have two older sisters and a younger brother. You might have an old childhood friend who you hurt through a mistake and still regret it. Lots of interesting backgrounds come from these tables, backgrounds we're unlikely to have thought of ourself. When you have one, share your background with your DM and the other players, keeping in mind to keep it brief.

Be Nice to Your DM

Our character is at the center of that story but players can remember that the DM is invested in this tale too. Don't build characters intended to circumvent every challenge or "easy mode" their way through the adventure. We all want our characters to be effective but there's such a thing as too effective. Avoid focusing on just one aspect of the character, like focusing on a crazy high armor class, huge damage output, or paralyzing single powerful creatures. Remember that you're DM wants to have fun too and it's just as lame for their boss monster to be stuck in a force cage for a whole battle as it would be for your character.

If your DM lets you choose multi-classing and feats, choose options that fit the story of your character rather than chasing a particular combination of powerful mechanical benefits. D&D is a complicated game and there are ways to break it. Instead of zeroing in on those spiky bits, consider the story of your character and act as they would act in a great action movie.

Be wary of abilities that "break" the game or take the fun away from the DM just as you would hope they do not take the fun away from you.

Building For the Group and the Story

Building a great character isn't about optimizing mechanics or building a unique story that no one has ever heard about. Building a great character means bringing in a character that fits with the group and with the adventure. Do your whole table a service and think about how your character can best serve the other characters and the story overall. Build the character that brings the most fun to the story and the group.

New to Sly Flourish? Start here, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or support Sly Flourish on Patreon!

Check out Mike's books including Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, Fantastic Adventures, and Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot.

Support Sly Flourish by using these links to purchase the D&D Essentials Kit, Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, or dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Send feedback to @slyflourish on Twitter or email mike@mikeshea.net.

This article is copyright 2020 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.