## Thread Rules

​

* New to Reddit? Check the Reddit 101 guide.

​

* If your account is less than 5 hours old, the /r/DnD spam dragon will eat your comment.

​

* If you are new to the subreddit, **please check the Subreddit Wiki**, especially the Resource Guides section, the FAQ, and the Glossary of Terms. Many newcomers to the game and to r/DnD can find answers there. Note that these links may not work on mobile apps, so you may need to briefly browse the subreddit directly through Reddit.com.

​

* **Specify an edition for ALL questions**. Editions must be specified in square brackets ([5e], [Any], [meta], etc.). If you don't know what edition you are playing, use [?] and people will do their best to help out. AutoModerator will automatically remind you if you forget.

​

* **If you have multiple questions unrelated to each other, post multiple comments** so that the discussions are easier to follow, and so that you will get better answers.

We at /r/DnD are excited to host Mike Shea of SlyFlourish.com! He'll be discussing his upcoming Kickstarter, his vast history as a freelancer in the TTRPG space, and anything else! Save all your questions and join us on Tuesday, July 7!

From Mike:

Hello!

I'm Mike Shea, writer for SlyFlourish.com and author of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master and other books. A few years back I also released the Lazy GM's Resource Document into the Creative Commons to share what I've learned and gathered from other GMs into the world.

I've been playing RPGs since the mid-80s and writing about RPGs since 2008. I've been freelancing for various RPG companies for the past 15 years or so including Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, MCDM, Arcane Library, Pelgrane Press, and many others.

The Kickstarter for my latest book, Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster, is going on now! This is the latest of the Lazy GM books, expanding each of the eight steps of Lazy GM prep and taking a new focus on campaign planning, adventure types, and an expansive lazy GM toolkit. I hope you'll check it out.

I'm excited to be here to talk to you all about RPGs!

My player is a dragonborn wild magic sorcerer. For context, he LOVES wild magic. He rolls it a lot and I let him because it's funny, even if sometimes it's not RAW. Sometimes it causes trouble — we had a chase fight on magical minecarts, and he got teleported into the abyss from the minecart he was riding. But most of the time it's just harmless fun.

Today my players were fighting a major boss. He was tough so the sorcerer used a lot of re-rolls and rolled a lot of wild magic. First, he rolled that Reincarnate will apply to him automatically if he dies within 1 minute. It was the 3rd round of the fight, me and my players kinda joked about it but I didn't think he would actually die.

On his last turn he rolls a 1. He has to roll for wild magic at the start of his every turn for the next minute. Other players shuddered in horror. Thankfully, the fight was over. But it meant that my sorcerer got to roll for wild magic 10 times.

He rolls for the first time. Fireball. He magically lives and leaves one other player with 1 HP. That player runs away into the other corner of the room. Others' characters watch in shock as the sorcerer's wild magic continues.

Second roll. Nothing interesting. Third roll. Fireball. At this point the sorcerer falls unconscious. We stop the rolls to argue if we should continue. My warlock rightfully points out that, since the sorcerer is down, he can't cast wild magic and that after he is reincarnated or healed he shouldn't roll for it anymore. And he's right, of course. But my sorcerer looks at me with those puppy eyes and asks if maybe he can roll the rest of his wild magic before he goes unconscious. This man just exploded 2 times and he wants to continue to roll, who am I to say no? We decided that it'll be funny and all watched as he rolled wild magic and death saves.

At the start his death saves were okay. Then he rolls another Fireball. He exploded AGAIN. Of course, with that he fails his death saves. The warlock pulled out an extended table for Reincarnate and they rolled for his new race. So, from the ashes as a phoenix he rose, as a kenku. And we continued rolling for wild magic.

At this point, all the other characters, the antagonist included, are huddled in the opposite corner of the room. It turns into a straight-up religious experience — they watch as the now kenku sorcerer starts floating, turns into a plant, dies as a plant (so he is kenku again), casts Mirror Image, turns into a plant AGAIN, floats AGAIN, casts Mirror Image once again and, in the end, embraces sobriety. We end the session with me describing how the walls of the dungeon begin to collapse, which I decided is a natural consequence of bombardment of that scale.

Moral of the story — don't let your sorcerer roll for wild magic 10 times. Or let them IDK it was pretty funny.

If a character is ahead of the rest of the party, and I have melee combat enemies, that character is getting swarmed and possibly brought down because I keep enemies on an adversary once they've attacked it unless another character has proven they're more of a threat.

On one hand, I think that's what they should do. Concentrate attacks until the adversary is down.

On the other hand , I'm discouraging heroism.

So I’m dming a campaign, and one of my players seemed upset at the result of a Nat 20

For context, they entered a dungeon, which then after they exited it became a regular wine cellar. That’s what it was at the moment. Player rolled investigation and got Nat 20. Told him he found a gamblers coin he can exchange for a large sum of money (400+ gold, and was even thinking I could lead it into some kind of subplot or side quest.)

Now said player seemed bummed out. Saying “I’ve seen a campaign where someone rolled a Nat 20 to breed w a dragon!” (I think they’re referring to critical role or some kinda dnd show) and was basically implying how the Nat 20 was underwhelming.

I don’t know what I could’ve realistically put or improvised in that Win cellar (which I kinda meta gamed and told them straight up it’s a regular wine cellar now that the dungeon is completed) than woulda satisfied him.

I do wanna mention that this player has had similar reactions in the past to passing checks not going as expected, for example he tried to intimidate guards but I told him that intimidating them isn’t automatically gonna make them run away, rather just hold a defensive stance

idk what to do cuz I did talk to him briefly and told him that whatever his expectations of passed checks or Nat 20s might be kinda high and unrealistic but like he kinda starts comparing to the aforementioned campaign shows and what Nat 20s can do

Help🙏

This character is basically one of the lower royalty holy children of sin (contradicting name I know); got idea cambions (children of human and demon) in a universe I’m building. They basically found a way to madly overpopulate quickly using the candle wax made from organic life in that things she’s carrying but as fast as she grows new life the likely hood for them to be deformed or “unholy foot shoulder” is more likely. The holy children basically raise higher in the ranks because of their heritage and shes the 2nd daughter of the origin point of cambions. The religion grown around them is called the conduits worshipped by humans much like Aztec religions with their sacrifices for the “gods”; this is where they get lots of their organic wax for production;
What do you think about the concept how can I make it stronger and would you use in your campaigns?

So awhile ago I posted a question on how to handle bureaucracy in a fantasy world and boy did people not like that idea. well now after three sessions of playing in my world filled with red tape, insurance and lawyers I wanted to share what I’ve learned in hopes of helping others insert bureaucratic hurdles into their campaigns

Lesson 1: it will infect every decision the party makes.

No seriously every decision. The choice as to whether sneak past the town guard or knock them unconscious. Well do we have enough coverage to knock three guards unconscious, and will doing so raise our premiums. It really adds a layer of difficulty, a little frustration but mainly creativity to every encounter.

Lesson 2: letting your party decide.

Before the campaign in session 0 I let my players pick their insurance if they wanted to carry any and how they would represent them selves in the world. Would they join a guild, wealthy benefactor, go rouge. My group surprised me by forming their own LLC adventuring company complete with an HR goblin named Gloria. By letting your players choose how they’re represented and what insurance coverage they want it gives them actual stock and stakes on what adventures they choose.

Lesson 3: get ready for debates

My group has always been one for arguing anyways. But oh buddy a 45 minute debate on whether or not the dragon was green or forest colored and whether they were covered for the damages caused is not something I saw coming.

Lesson 4: balance

It can be tricky but you need to make the act of insurance, registration, and general paperwork annoying enough to act as a thorn in the party’s side without being downtrodding. The idea is to act as a little bit of sand in the gears not a mountain to push against. Yo annoying and the party fights against the whole system, to unburdening and it might as well not be there at all. It’s a delicate balance. But get it right and it adds just enough friction to the world to encourage creativity and lateral thinking without being hindering

if you’re my DM i’m so sorry, i just want to get this out

so the group i’m in plays DND regularly on saturdays, usually at a local gaming store. my DM runs the beginner table there, so he takes in all kinds of beginners or people new to DND in general. his table was how i learned to play, and i’m having a lot of fun with the group

however, since he does take all beginners, the group has been increasing in number slowly. i think at the beginning it was 6? now, at the last session, there was 10 people. it was so overwhelming that i left mid-session and four other people weren’t able to play much

we have a discord group, and i messaged our DM about it. i asked him if he could maybe think about splitting it into two tables or finding another DM for another beginners’ table. but he told me he wants to try out a new system where (hopefully) a 10 person party will work out. it’s a hex exploration / westmarches type system where we’ll have quests posted on the discord and we’ll all vote for what to do next session. so in a way, we’ll already know what we’ll be doing and there won’t be so much discussion about next steps at the session

i’m still wary about it though, i feel like it’s still going to be overwhelming. i have autism and i don’t work well in such big groups, small groups like we had before were perfect for me. i’m going to try out the new system, but i’m just nervous

this morning, someone new posted in our discord server, asking if there was room for another player at the beginners’ table. our DM said “yeah there should be room”

there was 10 people at the last session?? what do you mean there should be room??? i know there’s a chance not everyone’s going to show up. but still

am i overreacting? am i just not good enough socially? there are other tables i can join, i’m not stuck to this group. but i’m just disappointed (maybe) with how it is now

Just wrapped up our sixth session in a homebrew 5.5 game. It's been an amazing game, centered around a small farming village. Five players and the DM. The DM has very professional quality materials, and the sessions are more like anime episodes, where each session introduces a conflict, and it is resolved in the 3-5 hour time frame. Episodes build on each other, and the huge cast of NPCs all have memorable personalities and backstories.

Thing is, we're still using the same character sheets we started with. We've solved mysteries, did some minor combat, explored places, avoided traps, and have been doing adventurer stuff. We do have classes and abilities and spells, and we have gotten treasures and improved our place in the village - but the DM hasn't had us upgrade our levels or hit points.

No one has asked or even seems to care. We are having an absolute blast and honestly, nothing we have encountered would require more firepower or skills.

Does this seem super weird? I want to think the DM is just being sneaky and doing some behind-the-curtain improvements to our modifiers and whatnot, and he'll eventually just be like "okay here is your new level 5 sheets," but I afraid to ask and maybe spoil a surprise.

What do yall think?