Take note that this article has been updated since the original dated March 2012. In particular, you'll notice the topic of combat length coming up more than once in the article. This original article and conversation took place in the middle of the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons run, before Dungeons & Dragons 5e had ever come out.

In my opinion, 5e D&D has done away with the issues surrounding combat length, thought it still brings up potential situations that can still try a DM's patience such as save-or-suck spells, swingy combat, deep tactical discussions that break away from high fantasy, or abilities that circumvent the stories we're trying to tell. Many of Michael Mallen's ideas continue to be useful as we've transitioned from 4th edition to 5th edition of D&D.

Let us continue.

A twitter conversation some time back focused the top virtues of good dungeon masters. One particular trait continued to come up and it was one that struck a particular chord with me.

Patience.

We DMs can get frustrated at our game table, sniping at players who take too long for their turn or spend too much time pontificating the strategy of their move. We might lose patience when players use abilities that circumvent, neutralize, or outright kill monsters we thought would be a big threat. These mini-tantrums don't serve anyone. They don't make our game more fun. They don't ease our stress levels. They alienate members of our group. They can hurt our relationships with our friends.

To dig into this question a bit more, I contacted Michael Mallen of the Id DM, a professional psychologist and fellow D&D enthusiast. Back in 2012, Michael and I had recorded a podcast on the psychology of D&D and I thought he would be the perfect guy to talk about patience.

Here are the responses he gave me to the three questions I asked. Note, the emphasis of certain phrases below is my own as these concepts in particular resonated with me.

1. What are three things willing DMs can do to improve their patience?

The primary goal should be to identify the things that are causing you to be frustrated and annoyed. That may sound like a silly place to start, but we often find ourselves irritated without knowing exactly why we're feeling that way. As a DM, think about the moments that cause your pulse to speed up and increase your desire to scream. Perhaps it's the length of player actions during combat or players interrupting the flow of the game with distractions (e.g., side conversations, cell phone use). Whatever the cause may be for the irritation, gain a clear understanding and awareness of the situation. That is the first step.

The second thing DMs can do to improve patience is to determine how much control exists in the situation. To take one of the examples above, the DM might get quite frustrated with over-analysis in combat. The DM has to determine how much control they have to change this dynamic during the game. If the DM feels empowered to make changes to speed up player actions, then set up a plan to do so. Our groups actually have a small service bell for when the group needs to get back on track; it's rarely used, but everyone knows that when it's rung, the DM needs everyone to focus on the game. If the situation can be changed, then take action.

However, if the DM does not feel empowered - the options are pretty clear. Either accept that player over-analysis is going to happen in combat (increase patience) or continue to get annoyed by it (beat your head against the wall!). As with all things that are beyond our control, we can either change our expectations and accept the outcome or continue to maintain the same unrealistic expectations. It relates to the saying by Einstein labeling insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

A final piece is to lower our stress level overall. I can only speak for myself, but I'm a bundle of nerves when preparing for my time as a DM. Plus, our group meets on Friday nights so I've just finished a (usually) long week at work and now I have to turn around and run a game. Walking into the game, my stress is already high so of course my patience is going to be affected by that. Before sessions, I now strive for a calmness so I'm not feeling stressed out. I use the drive to our game, which takes about 20 minutes, to listen to music or just take a series of long, deep breaths in silence. Walking into a session already feeling somewhat surly and angry is not a good idea if you want to increase your ability to let irritations at the table "roll off" your shoulders. Work to head off the problem before it starts!

2. What can DMs do to build an environment at their table that promotes patience?

I am a strong advocate for communication around the table. The DM has a good deal of authority to model behavior for the table. If the DM shows signs of irritation at small things, then players will learn that it is acceptable behavior to show frustration toward others. The DM has a unique role to not only model but shape behavior. I think the host also has a strong role to play in this area. The host (who may not be the DM in many groups) can assert herself or himself by saying, "This is my home, and I really don't want any ___ here. Can we please avoid that from happening?"

Returning to the example above once again, a DM who is frustrated by the length of combat should speak openly about it with the players in and out of the gaming sessions. Inquire if others in the group are feeling the same way. Find out the players' expectations for the game. Perhaps speak with players as a group and also individually to see if there is a difference in the type of feedback you receive. And I cannot stress this enough - be open to feedback yourself. If you are unwilling to hear feedback or quickly shutdown player suggestions, then you are modeling impatience for your players.

3. What is the REAL cause of impatient DMs?

I think that gets back to my first point earlier, each DM has to figure out what is causing them to be annoyed. Perhaps they really don't want to DM in the first place, but it's the only way they can play because no one else wants to perform those duties. I cannot imagine a resentful DM is a happy DM.

Another possible factor is personal issues between players. One or more players may rub the DM the wrong way, especially if the group is comprised of people that don't know each other all that well. If the DM and Player X don't seem to get along in real life, then it's not a mystery why those people would get on each other's nerves during gameplay.

Last, a DM should think about what they are bringing into the session. Work-related stress? Stress from raising children? Relationship issues in their own life? That stress doesn't magically disappear because dice are being rolled! (If only we were so lucky)

My thanks to Michael Mallen for his detailed and insightful advice on the topic. You can see all of Michael's excellent D&D related articles at his site, the Id DM, follow him on Twitter, or listen to he and I discussing the psychology of D&D at Critical Hits.

Here at Sly Flourish we're big fans of game preparation through secrets, small tweet-sized bits of lore, plot, or information that the PCs discover in many different ways such as a strange mosaic on the wall of an old ruin, the rumor of a local guard with too loose a lip, or the dying scream of a hobgoblin mercenary.

Discovering secrets helps players unravel the greater story going on while not being overburdensome on the story or taking up a lot of time to prepare.

In his DMing 202 seminar at Gencon 2015, Teos Abadia went through a series of player archetypes and, during his discussion of the explorer, he brought up a powerful and subtle technique that fits well with the way of the lazy dungeon master. When a player notices some detail and expounds on the potential origin of that detail, there's nothing wrong at all with us incorporating that detail right back into the story.

Here's an example:

Dungeon Master: An altar of bones and skulls sits on the western wall of the dank chamber.

Player: Are the skulls tied together by ropes threaded through their eyes?

Dungeon Master: Why yes, there are!

Player: That's a sign of their worship of Demogorgon. These horrid beasts worship the insane demon lord!

Did the DM actually know that the skulls are tied together? Probably not, but why not dive right into that idea.

Not all secrets have to come from our preparation ahead of time and not all secrets need to come from us GMs. Players are just as able to drop in the clues and secrets that keep a game going.

In the fantasy RPG Dungeon World their system of fronts is built on the interesting threads and interactions that come from both players and GMs during the first game. Likewise, our stories can lead on from the secrets and clues PCs discover through the minds of their own players rather than just the GM.

Not all players or groups fully embrace the idea that they can dive as deeply into the story as the GM. In fact, many GMs probably aren't comfortable with players diving into the creation of the story. We can fall back on some simple tricks to help players go there such as identifying notable characteristics of their foes or ask them to describe their killing blow. With these simple tricks, we can get our players thinking outside of their character sheets and use the old improvisation trick of saying "yes, and" to help them come up with new and interesting secrets.

Here's another example:

Dungeon Master: Describe an interesting characteristic of this orc you face.

Player: He has tusks embedded in the sides of his cheeks.

Dungeon Master: Ahh! What do the tusks represent?

Player: He must be some sort of champion.

Dungeon Master: What would a champion of the Boar Tusk clan be doing way out here?

Player: I don't know, that's something we really should investigate!

This sort of back and forth can build entirely new story threads right out of a random bit of flavor thrown in during a battle.

Not For Everyone

Of course, this free-form RPG style isn't for everyone. Players who love coming up with little bits of lore are fountains of ideas but others might be just as happy to follow the story the GM comes up with. Some might feel that the story is too loose when one simple statement during a fight can turn into a whole story thread.

In good story-focused games the world is built of flexible malleable gray clay until the PCs put their eyes on it. Be careful that it isn't clay when the PCs put their eyes on it or the whole world feels insubstantial.

Teaching All of Us to Let Go

Techniques like this teach all of us how to let go and let the story sprout from the ideas of everyone at the table. It's not an easy thing to do well and letting go can be very hard. Technique's like this aren't an all-in proposition though. Most of the time our story might go in the direction set forth by the GM and the adventure. Sometimes, however, the opportunity is right for us to "say yes" when a player comes up with an idea we might not otherwise have thought up on our own. Look for these opportunities and give it a shot.

As long as there have been published Dungeons & Dragons adventures, there have been debates over whether we're better off running published adventures or running our own homebrew adventures. There are lots of good reasons for both options covered extensively in other articles across the net.

The truth, of course, is run what you love. Do you love running published adventures? Go forth. Do you love writing your own. Dive in!

Today, however, we're going to look running published adventures from a different angle.

Simple Economics

Let's start with some numbers. How much money have we invested in our home campaigns? If we quantify our effort at the industry rate of six cents a word, how much would we value what we've put together? Now look at a published adventure like Curse of Strahd or Out of the Abyss. How much do you think it cost to produce those? I'd bet it's deep into five figures to make a book like that. Editing and writing alone at the industry rate for a book that size is about $20,000. That doesn't include artwork, maps, development, or page design.

Look at the number of people involved on the copyright page. Look at the production value. Look how much playtesting went on for those adventures. I asked industry D&D veteran designer and creator of Shadow of the Demon Lord, Robert Schwalb, how much something like a published adventure costs to produce and his response was, I quote, "a whole fucking lot". Let's throw a ballpark number out here and say it costs $50,000 to build an adventure, and I wouldn't be surprised if it actually cost a lot more.

Whatever the cost, published adventures come certainly cost way more to make than we can afford to spend on our home adventures.

Lets look at the economics another way. How much would you value the work you put into your own homebrew adventure or campaign? If someone did pay you six cents a word, how much would you have made on it? Is it more than $50? That's the equivalent of eight hundred words—about half the length of this very article you read now. If you put any real time into building out your own homebrew adventure or campaign, you probably put ten times as much as that into it. Maybe one hundred times. I bet a lot of DMs out there have 50,000 words worth of homebrew campaigns and settings sitting on hard drives. That's worth about three grand if you were getting paid for it.

How much does a big published adventure cost to us? About $30 to $50 depending on where you get it. That's for a roughly 175,000 word adventure.

So one way to think about it is that we're getting a $50,000 adventure for $50. How can we compete with that?

The Campaign World Investment

Assuming we're looking at a published adventure set in a game world, and most of them are, we can also capitalize off of the world in which it is set. Just like the economics of the adventure itself, think about the value we get when we set a game in a well published world. Granted, a lot of fantastic people don't care much for the Forgotten Realms, and that's fine. We all have our own tastes.

Think about all of the material that exists for the Realms, though. That setting is almost 40 years old. There are literally millions and millions of words written about the Forgotten Realms we can use. There's almost nothing at all "forgotten" about the Forgotten Realms. We have Forgotten Realms supplements coming out of our ears and each one of them has that same value we calculated above. About 1000:1 or more.

Millions of dollars has been spent putting together the Forgotten Realms. How much has been spent on our own setting?

Our Players' Investment

Many of our players are also already invested in these worlds. They may have read the novels or played D&D games in these game worlds already. It makes people feel good when their knowledge is useful and it can save us a lot of time and energy when much of the world is already in their heads to begin with.

Some DMs find this intimidating. What if our players know more about the world than we do? What if we make a mistake? There's a way to flip this around in a few ways to turn it to our advantage. First, if our players know more about the world, they can help us describe it. We can use what they know to form more focused adventures. Players experienced in our game's world can become co-DMs of sorts, filling in blanks with their knowledge and experience. We just have to know how to use it.

Second, we can make it clear that the world is forked. Some pieces of history might have changed in our campaign. It is better if these forks came from the group rather than the DM personally. For example, if you ran Rise of Tiamat and Tiamat actually won, the Sword Coast is a very different place than it would be if she lost. In this case, your group knows the difference and why it happened that way.

Capitalizing off of the experience our players have of our game's world is a great way to learn to relax, let go, and let the whole group partake in the telling of a grand tale. It's some higher-level DM magic, but it's very good magic indeed.

Does Production Value Matter?

While discussing this topic on Twitter, I definitely saw differences of opinion. Some people love published adventures and settings. Others couldn't care less. One of the angles this latter group took is whether the production value of an adventure actually matters to the table. That's a worthy consideration. Does the art, layout, or maps of a published adventure actually make it better when we run it at the table? Do players care? They don't get to see a lot of that artwork unless we show it to them and even then it's mostly glimpses.

Ultimately, until the Id DM does a 10,000 person scientific exploration of the use and impact of published adventures, we won't really know how much more impact a published adventure has over a homebrewed adventure. We'll all make that choice for ourselves.

There are a couple of unarguable facts about published adventures, though. First, hundreds of groups likely play them out, which means we're sharing a larger story with a larger group than just the four to six people at our table. Second, these adventures are, most often, heavily playtested—an advantage our home games rarely, if ever, receive.

A Good Adventure Needs a Good DM

Tied to this discussion of the impact of published versus homebrewed adventures comes the clear truth that a good game needs a good DM, regardless of source of the adventure. Good, solid, well-published adventures won't run themselves. They need good DMs to bring them to life. The same is true for homebrew adventures. The quality of the DM, along with the quality of the players, will determine home much fun people have at the table and this is likely independent from whether it is a homebrew or published adventure. Thus, we can safely set it aside for the discussion of the actual value of a published adventure. Let us assume we have good DMs running them and move on.

Squeezing the Most out of Published Adventures

The secret of published adventures is that we don't have to, nor should we, run them as written. We get the best leverage from published adventures when we take what we love, add other stuff we love, remove things we DON'T love, and then let the story flow organically.

There isn't an adventure writer I know of who would be sad to hear that DMs twisted the writer's work to fit the story at the DM's table. We've talked about this before in Running Published Adventures. In this sense, we take a published adventure and we turn it into our own home campaign. We get all of the production value of the published adventure with the freedom of our own table's unique campaign. It's the best of both worlds.

"I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member." - Groucho Marx

The time we and our players spend together playing D&D is precious. The difficulty of squeezing time out of everyone's lives for us to get together is huge. When we manage to do it, we owe it to all of us to run the best game we can run in that time.

Does that best game come from the pile of notes we have about our own game world or does it come from the polished pages of a published adventure? Again, we probably have many differing opinions on this but it is highly unlikely that we've put the same amount of energy and resources into our own world as companies like Paizo, Pelgrane, or Wizards of the Coast have put into their own published adventures. There's a lot of power in those published adventures. All we have to do is take it.

Actual monster difficulty in the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Monster Manual varies within challenge ratings. Monsters such as the beholder and the wraith punch well outside of their challenge rating when compared to equally-rated monsters. The banshee is another such monster, due to its devastating wail attack. Though only a challenge 4 monster, the banshee's wail attack can drop an entire group to 0 hit points if they fail a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, regardless of their hit points.

This variance of monster difficulty in D&D 5e is something we DMs will have to learn to deal with. We have the tools to handle underpowered monsters with tricks like increasing their hit points, increasing their ability scores, adding environmental effects, or adding other complications to the battle. Sometimes, though, things can go far in the other direction and take everyone by surprise. A bad few rolls with a monster like the banshee can lead to a total-party kill (TPK).

Jerry Behrendt had this very thing happen to his PC and fellow companions.

"3 players showed today. Entered a room with 2 banshees who won initiative. All PCs failed the save. Dropped to 0 HP."

What does a DM do in this situation? How do we recover from a total-party kill? We have a few options, including simply ending the campaign with the death of the party but there are other less harsh ways to handle it that can open up entirely new pathways for the story.

What if, instead of ending the campaign, a TPK by the banshees put the PCs in a new and entirely unexpected situation? What if they found themselves somewhere else, in some other predicament led to by their loss at the banshees?

Story-focused gamemasters and game systems refer to this as "failing forward". It's a simple idea but a difficult one to put into regular practice. In fact, we may never put it into play if we never find ourselves facing such a situation.

The core concept of failing forward is to put the PCs in a new and interesting position when they fail at something rather than have them simply fail. As a simple example, let's say that a thief is trying to pick the lock on a sturdy door and rolls a thieve's tools check with a DC of 12. If they roll a 5, we might simply say "sorry, you can't open the lock", but what if the story is really on the other side of that door? What if this failure pushes the entire game away from a fun path? Instead of pure failure, we can have them fail forward. Sure, the rogue picks the lock, even with a 5, but the racket from the clicking alerts the guards down the hall who come running. Now the duke's wife woke up and burst out of the door of the duke's longtime advisor wearing nothing but her smallclothes. Now that failed lock picking has some interesting consequences.

A banshee knocking an entire party down to zero hit points is different from failing a lock picking check, though. How do we deal with a total-party kill on the wail of the banshee? We can still fail forward, even in this extreme circumstance. Here are a couple of thoughts:

One of the PCs (whoever rolls the highest constitution check) wakes up, barely able to open their eyes but still, miraculously alive. They see the banshees slowly draining the life out of one of their other companions and has an opportunity to do something to get away, stir up trouble, or lure the banshees away from their companions so they can get them back on their feet.

What if there's something even worse than the banshees that comes for the PCs. From their dream-like state, the PCs see a hulking armored figure come in and, with a single abyssal word, send the banshees cowering. The armored figure pulls up the PCs and drags them into the depths of a ruined castle, where they are dropped into a charnel pit as fuel for a horrible undead ritual.

What if a necromancer comes, uses "control undead" to push the banshees away, and collects the PCs for his own hideous experiments within his dark laboratory. Now the PCs have to figure out how to escape from the necromancer's clutches.

A Dark God in the Machine

Notice that the PCs aren't miraculously saved in any of these situations. If the PCs got wiped out by some monsters, we can find a way to bring them back into the story that doesn't simply make the world right. Instead, they are still in a tough situation and have to find their way out of it. There are no easy ways out when you're wiped out by a pack of banshees but that doesn't mean there isn't a way out at all.

Keeping Alternative Paths In Mind

These failing forward moments work best when we have some idea how they might come to pass. It behooves us to have some ideas prepared if we know a battle is going to be particularly tough. Before our game we can ask ourselves what we'll do if the game heads towards a TPK. We don't need to plan much, just enough to make sure we have something to lead in to if things go bad.

Avoiding the Predetermined TPK

This is very different from expecting and planning for a TPK. In my opinion, planning for a losing battle is a lame way to force the story into one particular direction. In 5e D&D, its definitely possible to build battles that wipe out PCs (it was a lot harder in the 4e days) but doing so just to move down one path of the story is the worst form of railroading. The PCs, and by extension the players, have little to no agency in such stories. They're not even given the benefit of a false choice. They go in against insurmountable odds, wipe out, and then end up following whatever path you want them to go.

Exposing PCs to powerful monsters is fine but they should always have options to escape, negotiate, or, in some cases, actually fight their way out without the predetermined path that they're supposed to lose. Such battles hold little appeal. Instead of being afraid, players will recognize the impossible threat and just wait for the story to come along and save them.

Instead, we can offer hard situations with hard choices, some of which might lead to a TPK and some which might lead to a powerful victory. We can prepare (the lazy way of course) for numerous outcomes.

Any time we're designing a powerful battle we can do a quick test to check if we're railroading by asking "what two or more outcomes are possible from this situation?" If there are two or more solid outcomes, we know it's not a pure railroad. If there is only one, we might be pushing things too hard in a single direction.

The Rise of Orcus: God of Death

In an old 4th edition D&D game, our band of adventurers faced a particularly powerful upgraded version of Orcus. I had really made this guy hard, with the intent of pushing our group of level 30 PCs to the brink of death. There was a good chance the PCs might all die. What then? Do we end the 30th level campaign with the PCs losing to Orcus? I don't think so.

Instead, I prepared to fail forward. What if Orcus won? What if he was the new God of Death? What if the entire prime material plane was now fueling his giant soul-eating machine?

What if the PCs awoke fifty years later, fifty years into Orcus's reign, resurrected by one of the other gods or demon princes (maybe Lolth herself!) to once again infiltrate Orcus's new bone palace and slay the new God of Death?

Just because Orcus could win doesn't mean the game is over. It might mean it's just beginning.

That's failing forward.

D&D lead designer Mike Mearls had some interesting things to say about the growth of D&D as we've gone from pre-internet, to forums, to video as a method to discuss and show D&D. Here is a transcript courtesy of Morrus from Enworld.

"I believe that the rise of 3/3.5e and online discussion forums created a massive, fundamental shift in how RPGs were viewed and used. 3e, and then into 4e, D&D was very dense, rules heavy, complicated, and filled with character building options. That was the game. That spread to other RPGs, placing the baseline complexity of the typical RPG at the extreme upper end of what we saw in 80s/90s.

At the same time, online discussion veered heavily toward character optimization and rules details. It was a culture of read and dissect. Both the indie and old school design movements rose in counter to this, focusing much more heavily on actual play at the table. However, the prevailing, forum-based online culture made it very hard to communicate meaningfully about actual play.

That changed when streaming and actual play vids became accessible to the average DM. The culture of actual play had a platform. We can now meaningfully interact based on what we're doing when we play, rather than talk about the stuff we do when we don't play. This is HUGE because it shifts the design convo away from "How do we design for forum discussions?" to "How do we design for play?'

As game designers, we can actually watch how RPGs play and what rules and concepts facilitate the effects we're looking to create. The tension between theoretical discussion vs. actual play has always been a big part of RPG design. I believe at the table ruled for a very long time, swung hard to theory, and now back to table-driven design. Theory is useful, but it has to be used in service to actual, repeatable results in play. And I say this as someone who veered to theory.

So that's why I see Critical Role at GenCon something that can be very good for the hobby and designers. All of this is IMO, based on observations from this specific perch over 16 years. Your mileage may/can/should/will vary.

This ties into the huge success of 5e and the growth of RPGs - people can now learn by watching. The rulebook is not a barrier. We don't learn sports like baseball or soccer by reading the rules - we watch and quickly learn how to play. The rulebook is a reference, like the NBA's rulebook. Comes out only when absolutely needed. Barriers are now gone. Design accordingly."

(This is not typically what D&D looks like...)

D&D in the Internet Age

Back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, we had little access to the minds and experiences of other dungeon masters. Now, in the internet age, we can learn from thousands of other dungeon masters across the web and make all of our games better.

This has changed again recently with live-play video and podcasts. Not only can we share experiences through forums, blogs, and social media but now we can actually see what these games look like.

Think about this from the point of view of a new dungeon master. You buy these books, you look at the character sheets, you ponder the maps, but you really have no idea what the actual game is supposed to be like. When and how do you call for skill checks? What do you do when the rules don't cover something? How do you bring excitement and energy to the game? What the hell is all of this "say yes" bullshit you keep reading about?

Dozens of game master guides have written out examples of gameplay in them, describing what players and GMs say during a game but that is a one dimensional look at what a game looks. It's barely helpful.

When you watch Matt Mercer run Critical Role or Force Gray or watch Chris Perkins run the Acquisitions Incorporated games, you get to really see what a game looks like. You get to see the jokes. You get to watch the body language. You can watch how they throw out some of the mechanics to keep the game exciting. We can see what combat looks like without a gridded map. We can watch how DMs build off of the players' ideas when they come up with wacky ideas or even change components of the world themselves.

It's one thing to talk about all of this (as we do here on Sly Flourish) and to actually see it in action.

That's the value of these live-play videos.

Learning Adventures by Watching Them

Beyond simply understanding D&D, we can also dive deep into understanding how other DMs run a particular adventure. If we have the D&D Starter Set, we can watch the Wizards of the Coast staff play Lost Mines of Phandelver. If we're running Curse of Strahd, we can watch the adventure's lead designer, Chris Perkins, run it himself.

Not for Everyone

Live videos aren't for everyone. For one, they're lengthy and time is already short for a lot of people. Reading an article takes about 3 to 5 minutes but watching a live-play video can range from 30 minutes for the short ones to up to four hours for the long ones. Some people have that sort of time and attention available but not all of us. Still, even watching a short video series like the Force Gray series or the Acquisitions Incorporated series can give us a lot of insight into how fantastic DMs run their games. If we have the time, watching a variety of DMs run the game gives us an even wider range of experiences.

Unconscious Influence

Another interesting advantage of these live-play videos is that we might find ourselves mimicking the styles of these excellent DMs without even realizing it. I discovered that, after recently watching Matt Mercer on Force Gray, I was much more enthusiastic when describing the results of spells or attacks. When we watch Chris Perkins, we might take on some of his calm and neutral tone; a tone that removes any misconception of the DM being a competitor to the players and focuses on the DM as the facilitator for the story. The more we watch excellent DMs, the more we might pick up unconsciously along with direct tips and tricks.

No One is Perfect

We can't and shouldn't assume that the DMs we watch are perfect. Even the masters make mistakes from time to time and it's worth taking the time to see what these flaws are and how we might learn from them ourselves. By delving into these live-play videos we can get ideas that help us refine our own style rather than try to mimic one of our favorite DMs directly.

Great Experiences, Poor Rules References

It's important to note that, while these games give DMs a wonderful look at what D&D can look like, it is a poor substitute for understanding the rules of the game. Both Chris Perkins and Matt Mercer run with their own set of houserules that diverge from the rules as written, and it isn't always clear when they are doing so.

These live-play videos go hand in hand with a thorough understanding of the rules themselves but they're not a substitute for learning those rules directly from the books. The videos do show, however, how we can run our game and ignore or change the rules with little determent to the fun of the game. We're better off learning the rules as best as we can before we decide to change them, but its nice to see that changing how critical hits work won't break our games.

A Wonderful Tool for the New Dungeon Master

Back in the 70s and 80s, so few people had any idea how to play Dungeons and Dragons. There are far more stories about how people like Monte Cook and Mike Mearls played the game using the wrong dice or fighting monsters from A to Z. It's amazing this game lasted as long as it did considering how little the rules actually helped us play. Few of us had actual examples of games to learn from. Most had no idea what a game even looked like. We knew this game was magic but we didn't know how to wield it.

Now we know how. We can watch hundreds of different DMs run their actual games. We can share our experiences, take pictures of our battle mats, and share videos of us directly in the moment, having fun with our friends.

For new players, this is priceless. These videos show them what D&D looks like, not by explaining the rules for spell memorization or the limitations of stealth checks, but by showing five people sharing a story, rolling some dice, and having fun. That's what will hook new players on D&D. That is what will really help them out. We're not playing in the dark anymore. We're swimming in a great sea of shared experiences.

Vampires make outstanding villains. These creatures of the night walk among us and yet are not us. Their intellect, moralities, wisdom, and villainy are beyond mortal comprehension. Vampires make fantastic 5e villains, yet we're limited with the vampires presented to us so far.

Thus, we give you Sly Flourish's Vampires. This document presents six new vampires for your own 5e game, including the following:

• Feral vampires (Challenge 1)
• Bonded Vampire (Challenge 5)
• Vampire Bloodknight (Challenge 8)
• Vampire Bloodmage (Challenge 9)
• Bloodmist Vampire (Challenge 11)
• Ancient One (Challenge 22)

With the support of the backers of Sly Flourish's Fantastic Locations we were able to bring on the help of Chris Sims, a long-time designer, developer, and editor of Dungeons and Dragons, and one of the creators of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Chris had his hands in many of the monsters published in the Monster Manual and brought that experience to develop and tune these powerful minions of darkness.

Download Sly Flourish's Vampires

Due to the fantastic support many have given to Sly Flourish, we're releasing this product for free. All you have to do is download it. If you like it and want to give back, send $4 to this paypal account, pick up Fantastic Locations, or pick up the Lazy Dungeon Master if you haven't already.

Download Sly Flourish's Vampires and let these beings of darkness drain the light of hope out of the eyes of your heroes tonight.

Barovia is a living breathing place. Though the D&D adventure Curse of Strahd sets it all out on paper, when we run our games in this fog-enshrouded sandbox, the world comes alive.

Barovia is a perfect example of a potential pool-table campaign. Imagine that Curse of Strahd is a great big pool table. We have the table, represented by the land of Barovia itself with clear borders defined by the fog surrounding the lands. We have a bunch of balls each representing the major NPCs in this land. We have the cue ball representing the PCs and we have the stick representing the actions the PCs take.

When the PCs take actions, the cue ball smashes against all of the other balls and those balls go zipping around, hitting the bumpers, hitting each other and, sometimes, hitting back at the cue ball itself. When the PCs take these actions in Barovia, there are reactions. When the PCs choose to save Ireena, that starts a series of events. When they get Madame Eva's prophecy, that starts another series of events. When they fight or negotiate with Vistani in service to Strahd or deal with the werewolves, that fires off other events.

Not knowing exactly what actions the PCs will take means we don't know what reactions the NPCs will take. The story can go in a lot of different directions and not knowing makes DMing the adventure that much more fun.

The Factions of Barovia

There are many groups and factions in Barovia to react to the PCs' actions. Here's a list of some of the ones in the book:

• The Revenants of Argynvostholt
• Baba Lysaga and her minions
• The druids in worship of Strahd
• The werewolf Children of the Night Mother
• The Vistani in service of Strahd
• The Vistani not in service to Strahd
• Strahd himself
• Fiona Wachter and her family in Valliki
• Those weird-ass dusk elves
• Ireena, Izek, and Ismark
• The hags at the Old Bonegrinder

There are others too, of course.

For funzies we can add a few of our own factions just to make things more exciting. Here are a couple of factions I've added to my own games.

• The Children of Strahd. A group of wild, fun-loving vampire adventurers who do Strahd's bidding out in Barovia.
• The Brothers. Two vampire bloodkights who have served Strahd for a thousand years.
• The Order of the Silver Dragon. Militant religious townsfolk turned vigilantes who think they serve the lost knights of the Silver Dragon outside of Argynvostholt.

Connecting These Factions to the PCs

If we have the opportunity, we can tie these factions to the background of the PCs. Did one of the PCs lose a relative to those jerk hags at the Old Bonegrinder? Did the PCs escape from the evil Vistani outside of Valliki? Does a brother of one of the PCs serve in the Order of the Silver Dragon, hanging villagers who showed some small sign of potential servitude to Strahd?

We can focus on the factions with the closest ties to the PCs. For example, instead of having vampires go crazy in Valliki, we could have the werewolf clan of the Children of the Nightmother go crazy in the town because one of the PCs is secretly an escaped member of their clan.

Smashing Things Together

Now comes the fun part. The PCs start to do things. Maybe they defeat and destroy the death house. Maybe they get into a scrape with the Knights of the Silver Dragon or get in the middle of warring factions of Vistani. This all starts things colliding together. One faction might start fighting with another. When the werewolves of Barovia cause chaos in Valliki, maybe the Knights of the Silver Dragon take control of the city, hanging the burgomeister, his wife, and his son alongside Lady Fiona Wacther and her corrupt book club.

The point is that the PCs take actions and the world of Barovia reacts. The more of an impact the PCs have in Barovia, the more it changes.

Strahd is Always Watching

Strahd is the land. Strahd is the 8 ball on our Barovian pool table. As a villain, Strahd knows what is going on in Barovia. He has spies everywhere. He has scrying magic. Aside from a few specific areas (like Madame Eva's tent), he watches with amusement as the PCs create chaos in Barovia. This probably ceases when the PCs kill Baba Lysaga.

When the PCs kill Baba Lysaga, Strahd starts to get concerned. She was a very powerful entity in Barovia and one tied closely to Strahd's will. If she falls, that means he could fall, and he has no intention of falling. He might play new cards at this point, summoning his former adventurers-turned-vampires to fight for him. He might personally visit the werewolf children of the Nightmother and send them to further harry the party.

Another action might put Strahd into motion—the risk of death for Ireena Kolyana. He wasn't too worried about her before but if it looks like her life is at risk, either by journeying with the PCs to face Baba Lysaga or if they decide to take her with them into Argynvostholt or the Amber Temple, he might step in. If Ireena separates from the PCs and heads towards the Amber Temple, Strahd might even visit the PCs directly to bargain with them to rescue Ireena as his typical servants are less careful about protecting life.

However it works out, Strahd is an active force in Barovia. He can visit the party multiple times, putting challenges in their way, striking dark bargains with them and, eventually, inviting them to dinner.

A Setting for Improvised DMing

Treating Barovia as a fixed but flexible mini-campaign is a great way for us to have fun watching the world come alive. We can see through the eyes of our villains and watch them collide together with the PCs, with each other, and with the land itself.

When we open the pages of Curse of Strahd, we're not just reading a book, we're staring through the gates into another living breathing world. It's up to us to make it come alive.

Nearly all of the D&D games I've run over the years have been at a table with live players, dice, books, and pencils. As we know, however, finding and keeping a good group of players for live home games is extremely difficult. Like in nearly every other aspect of our lives, the internet has made things easier for us to find players online and even play our D&D games with players from all over the world.

The friends of Sly Flourish over at Roll20 have one such system, a free web-based online gaming table to bring DMs and players together to play D&D wherever they are in the world.

Roll20 is the recent winner of its fourth gold Ennie for best software and recently began partnership with Wizards of the Coast, releasing the excellent adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver and the campaign adventure Storm King's Thunder on Roll20.

These Roll20 adventure packs contain all of the virtual maps, tokens, statistics, and text you need to run these adventures. As an all-inclusive package, these digital versions of the adventures may very well be the most complete experience we can run for our players. Instead of drawing maps out on a flip map or using whatever miniatures we happen to have on hand to represent a pile of frost giants, we can use the actual maps drawn by the original artists directly in play and use the right tokens to represent those storm giants. These adventures also include the premium featured lighting effects, giving each PC token their actual point of view when traversing a dungeon. It's amazing space-age stuff if you ask me.

Running a D&D game online is very different from running one at the table, however. While some aspects are easier, like using the actual battle maps and tokens, other things, like reading the body language of our players, can be much harder.

Because I have little experience running games on Roll20, I reached out to my friend, James Introcaso. James is a fantastic force for good in the world of D&D, producing piles of excellent podcasts on the Tome Show and producing fantastic free products for D&D over at Ennie-award-winning site Worldbuilder Blog. James has run hundreds of games on Roll20 including games for D&D legends Greg Bilsland and Chris Perkins and was also one of the Roll20 conversion producers for Storm King's Thunder. He's extremely versed in running (and building) Roll20 games and possesses a fantastic D&D-focused brain from which, like the great illithid, we can slurp powerful ideas, experiences, tips, and tricks for making our online games great.

Let the slurping begin.

What, in your mind, are the big differences between running games at a table and running games online?

The Good

Your acting can be smaller. Because everyone is zoomed in on your face, the acting is closer to your face. What you do with your arms isn't as important as every movement of your face, since you're acting in close-up.

There's more you can do at a virtual table. A virtual table allows you to have a traditional top down battle mat and roll dice, but they also provide a lot of other options. Dynamic lightning and vision settings make darkvision and the number of torches a PC carries matter more. Tokens won't slide off the map if you want to try a side view mat. Any digital map, mini, or picture you own or have access too can be used in your table—many of them available for personal use for free.

It speeds up play, prep, and improv. All the math in a virtual table is there and ready to roll. Building PCs is often faster. Spells can be resolved more quickly. Instead of drawing out a map, you can just drag and drop. Instead of digging through a box for a token, you type in it's name and bam, it's there. When you buy a module through a VT, not only do you get the PDF, all the tokens, maps, handouts, etc are in the table ready to go. Plus you're online so looking up the rules via various SRDs is a quick search and click as opposed to flipping through a book.

There's less side conversations. When someone's turn is taking a long time or you're looking up a rule, there's less people having a side conversation, since everyone can hear everything you say. Whispering into the mic is basically the same as shouting into it.

The Bad

Players are more easily distracted. Keeping players engaged is key since their favorite websites and social media are literally a click away.

It is more difficult to maintain intimacy. Just as many people would rather have sex in person instead of cyber sex, most people would rather play in person than online. When you're all together, it's easier to activate the collective imagination, to experience personal connection, and to get immersed in the story.

What are your three best tips for running the best online games we can?

Take advantage of virtual table features. To counter the lack of intimacy, you want to make sure you pick a great virtual table and get familiar with it. Not only do you not want to spend half the session figuring out how to roll a d6, you want to wow your players by using the table to its fullest ability.

Do some prep. You don't have to go overboard, but be prepared with a few encounters or scenes. If you stop to draw out a map, or look something up, try to keep the game moving by asking a character to share part of their backstory with everyone else (something they might share over a meal or on the road with the rest of the party).

Keep the game moving. Whenever you stop, someone could click over to facebook or their favorite Twitch stream and then that person has been taken out of the story. Online games suffer when they slow down, even moreso than in-person ones, so keep that pace going!

What are the three things best avoided when running online games?

Watch out for scenes where only one person does something. You certainly want to give each player a time to shine, but don't get bogged down for more than a few minutes in a scene where one character does all the talking, or is the only infiltrator into an enemy base, etc. If this is necessary for the story, have your players roll initiative, spend 3-5 minutes with one character and then switch scenes to another in initiative order.

Other websites. If you don't want your players constantly surfing the web while you're playing, stay off them yourself. They can tell when you're not engaged, even if you aren't with them in person.

Multitasking. A lot of people think they can run a game online and wash dishes or cook at the same time. This can be possible for a player, but for a GM it's not advised. You need to keep the story moving, so plan on limiting the distractions just like you would if all your friends were coming over.

How can we maximize the impact of our preparation time online? Where should we focus our attention when preparing a game?

I'd say it's the same as prepping for any in-person game, except that you should spend some time up front and get familiar with the table. These tools are fairly new and always updating and getting better, but to take advantage of those improvements you have to keep up with the tech.

Where do we think many end up spending time that doesn't have a big effect on the game? What should we avoid doing?

Virtual tables let you build huge maps - which is great... but only if you need them. Just because you can build a 300 x 300 grid map, doesn't mean you necessarily should. You might not even need to waste your time building a mat for certain encounters. Think realistically about what your players will use and don't get bogged down in your prep with your new toys. Learn to use them, get creative, but keep all the tricks you use at the table as well. Theater of the mind should still be on the table for sure. Not everything needs a battlemat.

How can we best keep our players' attention when we're competing with the entire internet?

Pacing and knowing the software you're using are key. Those things can slow down play which makes people open a new tab. Also if you have a player who takes a long time to decide what to do in combat, make sure that person understands the importance of keeping things moving along. Then do all the things you'd do at the table to engage players. Remember—it's not all about combat, just because a virtual table makes it easier, doesn't mean you should leave exploration and interaction behind.

What parts of the game do players seem to enjoy most when playing online?

The features of the virtual table that let me do things I can't do at a normal table. Dynamic lighting, side-view battle mats, and macros to speed up play.

What do you think people are missing about running games online? What word do you want to get out there about running online games?

The tools out there can really enhance your game plus it means moving away for work or family doesn't have to break up your game. Roll20 literally saved my game. We had been defunct for a year and then were able to play again when we discovered it. It cuts down on commute time, which means more time gaming with friends. Plus these tools can be use in-person if you want to explore them with your regular group around a physical table.

What is the best way to find players and GMs for online games?

Tons of message boards. Roll20 has a place on their site to advertise for players or GMs. Google+ has groups. Facebook has groups. Put out the call on Twitter with a hashtag. Meetup.com has places for virtual groups. The AL has a digital region now. You have tons of options.

[Finding a good GM] is a little more difficult. I'd say search around on the places above, find a GM with a cool concept and then google away or search the site you found them on for other posts to make sure they're not hateful. There's less risk gaming online than going to a stranger's house, so you have to be willing to take the plunge. One shots are a great way to meet new GMs and then ask if they have a longer campaign you can join.

A Different Way to Play

A big thanks to James Introcaso for sharing his experience running Roll20 D&D games. Above all, it's useful to understand and remember the differences between running a tabletop D&D game and running one online.

Note: This article is a rewrite of the original from March 2015. Recently on Twitter, lead D&D producer Mike Mearls stated that he is working on new simplified encounter guidelines. We hope that, in the mean time, these encounter building guidelines help DMs quickly and easily set up encounters appropriate for the challenge they want to deliver.

The following guidelines aim to help dungeon masters running the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons build combat encounters quickly and easily. This article begins with a set of quick encounter building guidelines and then get into the design considerations later in this article.

These guidelines are intended to give us a rough idea what number and challenge rating of monster equates to a "hard" encounter so we can tune our own battles from that baseline depending on the story and our goals. These guidelines, like the underlying challenge rating of monsters, is not an exact science and will not build perfectly balanced encounters. Nor will any other system. Instead, it gives us an easy-to-remember guideline for determining the rough balance of monsters to characters for challenging encounters.

Quick Encounter Building Summary

1. Start with the story. What encounter and monsters make sense?
2. Select story-appropriate monsters with a challenge rating (CR) roughly equivalent to the characters's level or below.
3. Choose the number of monsters by comparing the monster's challenge rating to the character's level. Note, these ratios assume a "hard" encounter.
   • For monsters with a challenge rating of 1/4 the character's level, use two monsters per character.
   • For monsters with a challenge rating of 1/3 the character's level, use one monster per character.
   • For monsters with a challenge rating of 3/4 the character's level, use one monster per two characters.
   • For monsters with a challenge rating equal to or above the character's level, use one monster per four characters.
4. Adjust difficulty by adding or subtracting monsters or adjusting hit points.
5. Evaluate the action economy. Too few monsters will make the battle much easier. Aim for at least one monster for the first four characters plus one creature for each additional character.

A Deeper Dive Into the Encounter Guidelines

The following is a more detailed look at the guidelines above. Note, these are intended to help you understand what a "hard" encounter looks like so you have the freedom to tune the battle to make it easier or harder depending on the story and your goals for the encounter.

1. Start with the story. What type of encounter makes sense for the current location and direction of this story? You might know this ahead of time or might want to build a quick encounter right at the table. When designing an encounter, start with the story first and the mechanics second.

2. Choose appropriate monsters. Use the monsters by challenge rating index or the excellent Monsters by Environment list in appendix B of the Dungeon Master's Guide to help you choose the right monsters for the encounter you want to build. Aim for creatures with a challenge rating roughly equivalent to 3/4 the level of the characters or less. If you're aiming to have them fight a single monster, the challenge rating should be at the character's level or up to two ratings higher.

3. Determine the number of monsters. Choose a number of monsters based on the monsters' challenge rating compared to the characters' level. For monsters with a challenge rating of 1/4 the character's level, use two monsters per character. For monsters with a challenge rating of 1/3 the character's level, use one monster per character. For monsters with a challenge rating of 3/4 the character's level, use one monster per two characters. For monsters with a challenge rating equal to or above the character's level, use one monster per four characters.

Here's a quick lookup table. Note that this table better follows the encounter guidance in the Dungeon Master's Guide than the simple equations.

4. Adjust difficulty. These guidelines aim for a "hard" encounter as described on page 82 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Increase or decrease the difficulty by adding or subtracting monsters, choosing monsters with higher or lower challenge ratings, or by increasing or decreasing the monsters' hit points.

5. Evaluate the action economy. Compare the number of monsters to the number of characters. Too many creatures on one side or the other will have a big effect on the difficulty. Big monsters that fight by themselves are much easier to defeat than a somewhat big monsters with a couple of lackeys to keep the wizards busy. In general, for most encounters, have at least one monster for the first four characters plus one monster for each additional character.

Design Considerations

The rest of this article discusses the design philosophy behind these guidelines. You need not read further unless you wish to understand how and why these guidelines were put in place.

Mix and Match Monster Types

The guidelines above let you mix and match a bunch of different monsters in a single battle by matching monsters with different challenge ratings with the level of the characters. For example, if you have a group of five level 7 characters, you can build an encounter with one challenge 5 troll (the equivalant of two level 7 characters), two challenge 2 ogres (the equivalant of two additional level 7 characters) and two challenge 1 bugbears (the equivalant of the one remaining level 7 character).

The math isn't perfect since 1/3 of level 7 and 1/4 of level 7 both round out to challenge 2. Theoretically you could have five ogres and a troll instead of two ogres, a troll, and two bugbears. That's certainly a harder battle but it still falls within the guidelines.

Loose Guidelines for an Imperfect System

"Once you analyze, it's obvious CR is imprecise, and any precision it has diminishes the higher the character level." - Chris Sims, D&D Monster Manual developer.

The challenge of any encounter in 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons cannot be easily measured or quantified. There are too many variables to know how any battle is really going to go. Some of these include variance between monsters at the same challenge rating, the class mixture of characters, the particular spells a character group has access to, who wins initiative, circumstantial or environmental considerations, and the skills and proficiency of the players. The Dungeon Bastard reminds us that whether a group is fully rested or worn down will have a huge effect on how easily they can overcome the next battle.

Thus, all systems to determine the difficulty of an encounter in 5e will lack precision.

Due to the complexity of the encounter building rules in the D&D 5e Dungeon Master's Guide and the lack of precision in any encounter building system, we aim for a faster system that gives dungeon masters loose guidelines to balance encounters while acknowledging that the actual difficulty will still vary.

A Guideline for "Hard" Encounters

The encounter building tables in the Dungeon Master's Guide or the DM Basic Rules offer four levels of difficulty: easy, medium, hard, and deadly. As a rule of thumb, however, we really only need to worry about the "hard" battle. If we use fewer or lower challenge monsters than the "hard" budget allows, the battle is easier. If we use more or bigger monsters, the battle will be harder. This gives us a single baseline we use to balance each encounter instead of worrying where it fits within a range of four imprecise difficulties.

We calculated these guidelines using the traditional encounter building rules aimed at a "hard" encounter and using the multiplier for the number of monsters assuming that the number of monsters will be roughly comparable to the number of characters. We make the assumption that most battles will have a roughly equal number of monsters to characters. Adjusting the difficulty from this baseline is easily done by removing monsters, choosing lower challenge monsters, or increasing or decreasing hit points.

We intend for these encounter building guidelines to be easy enough to keep in our head and usable right at the table when we want to build an encounter right now. We intend for these rules to aid in improvisational DMing with very little, if any, preparation required before the game is run.

On the Action Economy

There's a good reason the Dungeon Master's Guide has two tables we must cross reference to put together an encounter. Regardless of the individual power of a monster, the difficulty goes up every time we add another combatant to the battle field. Regardless of how hard they swing a sword, two knights get twice as many actions as one.

We call this the action economy. The more total actions on one side of a battle, the stronger that side is. The multiplier in the standard encounter building guidelines intends to account for this. If there are three to six monsters, they are significantly more effective than if there is only one. Thus we have a 2x multiplier on their experience point budget when we include them into an encounter. This increase in the action economy is why the rules for encounter building are so complicated. As Benjamin Reinheart often points out, the overall threat in combat increases at a geometric rate as you add more combatants to a fight.

For this reason, you likely want to have no fewer than one monster for the first four characters plus one additional monster for each character above four. Even an ancient red dragon is going to have trouble handling six high level characters and all of the things they can do in a round.

Not All Encounters Need Be Balanced

The intent of these guidelines isn't to ensure that every encounter our characters face is balanced. There should be many times our characters face small groups of easily defeated monsters and a few occasions where they might run into a foe they simply cannot defeat with straight-on combat. Instead, these guidelines are intended to give us a gauge to help us understand how any given battle might go. If we're way above the baseline, we know things are going to be rough and can help our players see that. If we're going way below, we know it will probably be an easy fight. Varying difficulty is a good way to ensure the story and the game feel fresh.

Modifying the Guidelines for Individual Groups

As we begin to understand our group's actual power, we can alter these guidelines to face them and D&D 5e's speed of combat makes it easy to do so. If a group of experienced players is running a strong group of well-coordinated and well-built characters, we can increase the challenge dramatically by increasing the challenge rating of the monsters we choose, increasing the number of monsters in the battle, increasing the hit points of those monsters, or increasing their damage. We can also go in the opposite direction with groups who aren't as experienced or well-coordinated. Fewer monsters, monsters of a lower challenge rating, or both will make battles easier for less optimized groups of players.

Again, these are loose guidelines meant to give us a starting point. As DMs, we are free to tweak these guidelines depending on our goals and the actual results we see at the table.

Breaks Down at Higher Levels

As Chris Sims stated above, the higher level the characters, the more the standard encounter building rules break down. Strong groups of characters played by experienced players can fight deadly battles far outside of the baseline for a "hard" encounter and still win. Other less experienced groups will have a harder time with such battles.

As DMs, we can start by using these guidelines and then tweak them as we need once we know more about the actual strength of our groups.

A Simple and Powerful Tool for Easy Game Preparation

We built these encounter building guidelines to make your life easier when putting together a battle. Keep these numbers in your head: For monsters with a challenge rating of 1/4 the character's level, use two monsters per character. For monsters with a challenge rating of 1/3 the character's level, use one monster per character. For monsters with a challenge rating of 3/4 the character's level, use one monster per two characters. For monsters with a challenge rating equal to or above the character's level, use one monster per four characters. With that in your head you can quickly build a roughly balanced encounter for a challenging fight. Tweak to suit these guidelines to match the skills of your players and the power of your characters and focus your attention on the grand story of the game you share together.

RPG superstar Monte Cook has a new game he's working on called Invisible Sun. A big part of the game is the recognition that it's hard for players to all gather around the table to play an RPG during our busy lives. This is a great concept and it's one we can ponder and consider for other RPGs like our own favorite, Dungeons & Dragons.

How can we play D&D anywhere? How can two players play it without a DM? How can a DM and a single player play together? How can a DM or player play alone?

The truth is we do this all the time. We're playing D&D every time two people talk about their characters together or work together to develop a backstory. We play every time the DM and a player go back and forth in a scene while they happen to be chatting over lunch or during a walk.

We're playing D&D every time we're bored at work and thinking about what our villains might be up to. We're playing D&D every time we sketch out a ruined castle surrounding a hooded obsidian statue.

D&D is far more than just the game at our tables, although that's the most important part. D&D games are the stories and adventures going through our heads all the time, if we give ourselves the freedom to let them do so.

We often don't think about these activities as "playing D&D" and we certainly don't refine them like we do the other parts of the game, but there's no reason we can't.

Let's look at a few ways we can play D&D anywhere. We'll start with some solo activities for DMs and then move on to the activities players can do. This is, of course, not an exhaustive list, but just a handful of ideas.

Thinking Through the Eyes of our Villains

No matter where we are, we can always unfocus our eyes for a moment and ask ourselves "what is our villain up to right now?" This is a great way to think of our villains as living breathing entities. We're not plotting stories with this, we're watching the balls collide on a huge pool table. Villains act and react to the actions of the characters so our thoughts about the villain's reactions likewise keep our thoughts on the actions of the characters themselves—where they should be.

Thinking through the eyes of our villain is a fantastic way to play D&D because we can do it wherever we are, without any materials in hand and, even better, no one even knows that we're doing it. We're using the most complicated computer we know of, the human brain, to build a living and breathing simulation of our villains, and watching this simulation behave as the villain really would.

Moving Fronts Forward

While we're daydreaming through the eyes of our villains, we might begin to move forward their plots and their quests. We can steal the idea of Dungeon World's "fronts" and think about how the threats of these villains are moving forward. Here's a great thought seed for our mindful D&D game:

• What three villains are in our current story?
• What are each of those three villains doing right now?
• What goals do each of these villains have?
• What terrible plots are these villains pushing forward?

Those questions could fill up an hour of daydreaming and at the end we'd have something cool and useful for our game. Maybe we write this stuff down or maybe we just put ourselves to sleep at night thinking about it. This stuff isn't set in stone. We can let it come to life or we can let it morph the more we think about it. It doesn't become true until it takes form at the game table.

Outlining Secrets

In case you haven't heard, sharing secrets is a fantastic technique for building clues our characters can discover in our next game. Better than overall worldbuilding, secrets are small, bite-sized pieces of information and lore directly relevant to the characters and the world around them. We can use secrets to reveal mysteries, add or reinforce story seeds, share bits of interesting history, build deeper NPCs, or use for many other great purposes.

Coming up with secrets for our games is a great way to play D&D away from the table. Like many of the other techniques we've described, much of it can be done in our own minds with nothing at all. When we get a chance, we can jot them down in a notebook or on a 3x5 card and then review it during our next game.

Building Fantastic Locations

Our minds have no limits when it comes to building places too. Building out entire worlds might end up wasting brainy clock cycles but building interesting places for our characters to visit could be very useful. These locations can move around depending on what choices the characters make and we can always keep them on hand when the time is right to whip one out.

Thanks to our Kickstarter backers, we wrote a whole chapter in Sly Flourish's Fantastic Locations about building fantastic locations. Here's a quick summary:

• Come up with a big picture theme for the place. Mix and mash up ideas. Make it big in scale.
• Describe three or more rooms, chambers, or smaller specific places in this location.
• Choose three interesting features for each of these eight places.

We can even cut this down to just worrying about a single small location, a set-piece if you will, and the three things that make it interesting. It's a fun five minute mental exercise.

Outlining Flash Fiction

When we're not able to get to the table, sending out some flash fiction is a great way to keep the group connected to the game and even show them some things they might not otherwise know. Flash fiction, bits of in-story fiction at 500 words or less, can take us outside the perspective of the characters and into the eyes of someone else.

Flash fiction works hand-in-hand with seeing through the eyes of our villains and moving fronts forward. Our players can directly see what our villains are up to without the characters necessarily knowing themselves. Alfred Hitchcock called this the difference between suspense and surprise. In a surprise scene, a bomb might go off. In a suspenseful scene, the camera pans down to the bomb sitting under the chair of our hero. We know its there but our hero does not.

As many of us have experienced, trying to keep mysteries a secret from smart players is hard. Keeping them in suspense, though, when they see that Strahd is about to unleash the hordes of darkness throughout Barovia, that's powerful.

The key to great flash fiction is knowing, specfically, what we intend to reveal. This is the D&D we can play in our heads. Sure, we want our players to see what Strahd does after the characters kill Baba Lysaga. What specifically does he do that they'll care about?

1. He introduces the Brothers, two powerful Vampire Bloodknights.
2. He unleashes a horde of Feral Vampires.
3. He plans to meet with Madame Eva directly to convince the Vistani queen to give over Ireena before even worse troubles arise.

Those are the sorts of things we can noodle through in our head and, when we have a moment, peck out in an email and send off to our players between sessions.

Playing D&D with Two People

If you happen to be with another player, either a player and a DM or two players, you can still play this head-space version of D&D. The two powerhouse questions here are "what does your character do?" and "what did your character do?" One is better for a DM and a player. "What does Beringar do after Strahd's confrontation outside of Argynvostholt?" might be the DM's question to Beringar's player. "I shapeshift into a wolf and explore the woods around the castle," might be the answer. "You easily follow the tracks of Strahd's wolves. You note that they all seem to head north. One of the wolves leaps upon a rock and sniffs at the air to the south. It whines quietly, its tail going between its legs as it peers out to the storms surrounding Mount Grakis, and then dashes north to the safety of Ravenloft."

No dice needed. No other players required. No fancy-ass Dwarven Forge arrangement on the table. Just two people talking, sharing a little bit of a story, and it's all some fine D&D going on.

What about handling interesting loot?

"As you return to Argynvostholt, you see the body of the revenant, the one that Strahd's vampire knight disarmed and killed. It is pierced through its black armor with a greatsword, pinning it to the ground in a kneeling position. A white mist seems to swirl around the blade. What do you do?"

"I take the sword!"

"A your hand grasps the black leatherwrapped hilt, you feel a deep chill travel up through your hand and a voice speaks in your mind. 'I awaken.'"

"Vengeance. Cold Vengeance."

"It would appear you have found the name of the blade."

You probably want to be careful handing out loot in a scene like this, but if you know it won't piss off the other players, it can be a fun way to get in some item-based storytelling with just a player and a DM.

Developing Player Characters

What if you're a player on your own? What can you do to play a bit of D&D in your head? There are lots of ways players can build out their characters, in backstory, side adventures, or just their own version of "seeing through their eyes". Some refer to this style of play as blue-booking, a term I hadn't heard of until researching this article.

If you really want to make your DM happy, as you develop your character's backstory, find a way to hook into the adventure the DM is already running. Find elements that have shown up in the game and discuss them with the DM. Play your own improv version of "yes, and" with the DM, giving the DM some room to guide your background around elements of the adventure. This can be done in email or in face-to-face conversations.

As a player you might also work with other players to tie your backgrounds together. A bit of improv "yes, and" between the two of you. Like above, you can then work with the DM to tie the results to elements of the game, building out a rich tapestry of deep stories, side quests, and interesting threads to explore.

Manage Your Expectations

All of this D&D playing we're doing in our heads is fantastic and fun, but we can't expect that everyone, or even anyone, at our table is going to be into it as much as we are. As both DMs and players, it behooves us to manage our expectations about how involved others will be in what we come up with.

As a DM, we shouldn't expect that our players will hang on our every word of flash fiction we email to them between games. We all have busy lives and that bit of flash fiction might just not make the cut when our players are triaging all of the stuff they have to do every day.

Likewise, as a player, we shouldn't be disappointed if our DM doesn't absorb every ounce of our character's background and incorporate it into the game. DMs have to manage a lot of story threads including all the villains, the fronts, the general plot of the adventure, and each of the characters.

Some DMs work hard to incorporate the backgrounds of characters. Some just plain forget to do it. And some instead really focus on the adventure itself and spend little time at all thinking about the backgrounds of the characters. That doesn't make them terrible DMs or the game a terrible game. It might still be a lot of fun. But its unlikely that the DM will love the thirty pages of backstory you developed if they'd rather worry about the text of the published adventure.

Overall we're best off managing our expectations and remembering that, as passionate as we are about our own little D&D games going on in our heads, others may not be nearly as passionate about them as we are.

Changing How We Think About D&D

Many of the things we've discussed are already well known. No one needs an article to tell them to "think about D&D" like it's some sage-like wisdom. More importantly, we can change our focus and redefine what we think of as "playing D&D". It gives us permission to let our minds wander and know that we're still deep into our hobby. It might give us a clearer framework for how we let our minds work on the game.

In this crazy age and with this crazy hobby, thinking is working and how we spend those brain cycles matters. When we consider that our time spent thinking about D&D is the actual act of playing D&D, we might end up a lot happier with how we're spending our time. No matter where we are, we can let our minds pierce through the fabric between worlds and enjoy what we find on the other side.

The fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons takes us back to a time when combat encounters can be as short or as long as we want. Where many battles in D&D 4e took an hour or longer, 5e's design allows for everything from tiny skirmishes done completely in narrative to giant set-piece battles with multiple waves of opponents, tons of complications, and interesting goals.

Today we're going to focus on the far end of this spectrum: the big set-piece battles. These are the huge battles that take as much time as they need to and that your players will remember for years. Let's jump right in.

Choosing Your Location

A good set piece battle needs a fantastic location (!). The place needs a lot of nooks and crannies. It needs objects to screw around with. It needs lots of nodules and bony protuberances that your players can look at and say "woooo".

You can grab some high level inspiration for your set-piece battle at places like DeviantArt and see what catches your eye. That will give you an overall feel for the battle but, for more detailed encounter locations, poke through images of battle maps from both Wizards of the Coast (which are mostly now out of print unfortunately) or Pathfinder flip-mats.

If you like these maps and have access to the physical copies of them, they can become the center of your set-piece battle. Most of these detailed maps have all of the nooks, crannies, nodules, and protuberances we want to grab our players' attention and make the battle interestingly complicated.

Adding the Third Dimension

Great set-piece battles often go into the third dimension. They have towers, they have raised platforms, they have battlements. Players are often use to fighting on two dimensional planes so when you add all of these raised bits, it really grabs their attention.

Adding that third dimension can be costly, though. You can go all out on the Dwarven Forge if you can afford it but many cannot. Instead, you can use some tricks like building a portal prop or using sewing spools from Michaels. With some creative thought you can dig around the house to find interesting ways to build up your battle arena.

A lot of players have had luck with Hearst Art Molds for building Dwarven-Forge-like pieces without having to refinance the house. There's a definite trade-off between time and money when it comes to 3d terrain, although ANY 3d terrain is likely to take up a good bit of time. This may seem contradictory to the teachings of the Lazy Dungeon Master but we'll get to that in a bit.

Adding miniatures as props is another cool way to go 3d. If you have any giant or unpainted miniatures you can use these to represent statues in your set-piece battle. Statues are an awesome complication because many players will assume they're going to come alive and drop a beating on them. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, but the threat is always there. Creative players will even learn how to use these statues to their advantage, which we should encourage.

Statues can also form the centerpiece for an ancient monument to add a nice hairy complication to the battle area.

Another option is to build up using foam. You can buy a giant slab of this stuff for about $15. You'll need a nice long craft knife to cut it into the right shape and size. Some 4x4, 4x6, and 8x8 blocks can build up all sorts of interesting shapes. Stick some dungeon tiles on top with some poster putty and you can have a cool 3d setup without spending a ton of money.

A Goal or Two

Good set-piece battles need to have some interesting victory conditions other than just "kill all the bad guys". This could be really complicated like completing a series of skill checks to charge four ancient statues with arcane energy or it could be as simple as killing a particular monster or monsters to defeat the rest of them. Here are a handful of ideas for goals:

• Destroy a huge idol
• Fill four stone bowls with holy water
• Destroy eight vampire coffins
• Complete the reading of an ancient primeval text
• Close a huge portal to the abyss
• Open a large stone door before dying of poison gas
• Light five braziers
• Defend the beacon for five rounds
• Disarm four huge mechanical traps
• Solve the puzzle of the clockwork statue

You can combine a couple of these goals in a single big battle or mix up a goal like this along with a couple of waves of monsters to switch between stressful puzzle solving with good old fashioned slaughter.

Waves of Monsters

Set piece battles are begging to be used for longer and more complicated combats. If you throw giant piles of monsters at the characters, however, you could overwhelm them. One way to keep things interesting and still use the same set piece for your battle is to break it up into parts.

Waves of monsters is a good and easy way to do this. During a fight, at a certain point, a bunch of new monsters can enter the arena. Maybe they're summoned or teleported in. Maybe they rush in from the outskirts. Maybe the characters even see them coming and know they have to deal with whatever is in front of them fast before the next wave comes.

If these waves would overwhelm your characters you can put in some in-game systems that can replenish the characters' health, spells, and abilities. Maybe the rush of combat fills them with a new resolve, giving them the equivalent of a short rest. Maybe defeating a particular foe fills them with a powerful energy of vengeance and victory. Maybe there's something more practical like a pool of holy water that, when ingested, replenishes hit points, allowing for the use of a recovery, or allowing for the expenditure of hit dice.

The waves of monsters might come in a wide variety as well. Some waves might be dozens of minions whose threat comes from their sheer numbers. Other waves might include a single powerful beast. Some waves might just be a good mix of monsters roughly as powerful as the characters. Some battles will have all three!

Changing the Environment

As the characters do battle, the environment might change on its own or they might be able to change it as they fight. Perhaps they fight on a crumbling tower slowly falling over the edge of an abyss. Perhaps they battle on an airship that's on fire. Perhaps a great ritual brings those huge demonic statues to life while a portal in the center of the room grows ever larger and more violent. There's lots of ways the environment of a set-piece battle might change.

The characters themselves might have interesting ways to change the environment. Instead of planning it all out, fill the arena with interesting features and enjoy how the players figure out what to do with them. Load-bearing pillars, strange holy relics, vast statues, narrow crumbling bridges, razor-sharp stalactites; there are many details that crafty characters can use to their advantage.

Set Piece Battles and the Lazy Dungeon Master

Building big set-piece battles seems contradictory to the ways of the Lazy Dungeon Master. The maxim of the lazy dungeon master says that the less we prepare, the more flexible our game becomes. Building a single big location can remove that flexibility. If we spend two hours building up a really cool 3d terrain setup, how likely are we to let the game steer away from it?

For this reason, it's important that we understand when to build a big set-piece battle. In short, we can come up with a single simple rule for building a set-piece battle:

We only build a set-piece battle when we KNOW the game is headed that way.

This doesn't mean we should force it that way, it means the game is already headed that way no matter what our desires were or what actions the characters take.

Here's a cheap trick for ensuring a game will include a big set-piece battle without forcing the story to head that way: end your game right before a big set-piece fight. If the characters kick in the door of the lich queen and witness the resurrection of the six antipaladins; THAT'S when we end the game. We leave it on a cliffhanger that's sure to stick in the minds of our players AND lets us build out a big set-piece battle to begin our session next time.

Another cheap trick is to use the cold open and begin your game with a big set-piece battle even if the previous game didn't end there. You can jump the story forward a bit and throw the characters right into the middle of a big fight. This works well for single-session games or the first session of a longer campaign.

As an example, say we're running a Dark Sun campaign. We can jump right into the story by starting off in the arena or being ambushed by a band of cutthroats at an old ruin. If we know our campaign is going to start that way, we can set up a our nice big set-piece battle without worry that it won't get used.

A Nice Change of Pace

Not every fight needs a set up this big. Now that games like D&D 5e give us flexible encounter lengths, we can choose which fights should be fun small skirmishes, perhaps executed in the narrative, and which should be big fun set-piece battles with 3d terrain, interesting goals, waves of monsters, and lots of details the characters can interact with.

Like many aspects of this hobby of ours, set-piece battles are an excellent tool to add to our ever-expanding toolkit. It's there, ready to use, whenever it will make our game even more fantastic. Give it a try.

Note, this is part one of a multi-part series in running Strahd in the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure Curse of Strahd. In this article we cover Strahd's motivations and attempts to end things with the characters without bloodshed. In a future article we will cover combat with the devil of Barovia himself. Let us begin.

Strahd is a smart villain. When we're running Curse of Strahd, it's important that we run Strahd as smart as we can. Strahd isn't doing what he does because he's crazy. He's had a thousand years to get smart and if you're in Barovia, you're in his domain.

Our characters get into all sorts of shenanigans as they roam Barovia. Maybe they fight the witches at the Old Bonegrinder. Maybe they overcome the cursed knights at Argynvostholt. Maybe they defeat Baba Lysaga at the ruins of Berez. Maybe they even beat the lich, Exethanter, in the Amber Temple.

Side note, a lich without spells is like a dragon without claws, teeth, or a breath weapon. Our Exethanter definitely has spells and woe be to the characters who challenge him unprepared. If you're worried that Exethanter wipes out your characters, be prepared to fail forward.

All this time, Strahd is watching. Sometimes he's watching as a big wolf off in the distance. Sometimes he's peering out through the eyes of one of his creatures. Sometimes he's gazing through a scrying mirror or a pool of black water. He's always watching, though, and smart characters know he's always watching.

What happens if Strahd sees that the characters have become really powerful, maybe too powerful? What is his strategy of he realizes that, even in his own home of Castle Ravenloft, that they could actually win? What is his strategy then?

Strahd's Negotiation

Strahd's brilliant mind will focus on a few questions to get what he wants without putting himself at risk. He wants two main things.

First, he wants Ireena at his side. He wants the rich life she has within her for his own. Even in his own mind he wouldn't be hurting her. He would be saving her. He would be coveting her. Even under a zone of truth his motivations towards her, while not pure, are not hostile.

Second, he wants the characters the fuck out of his land. By this point they've caused all sorts of mayhem and while it was fun at first, he's starting to get worried. He's lost control and he wants them out.

So how does he get these things? He asks another question. What do the characters want?

First, they likely also want to get the fuck out of Barovia. In this, both Strahd and the characters are of like mind. That's a strong starting position. You want out. I want you out. To quote Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (a book no doubt Strahd has read), it's a win-win!

They also might want some treasure and Strahd has a lot to offer. He won't arm them with a barrel full of vorpal swords but money he has. He can offer them enough to live their lives as they wish in the lands outside of the mists.

Good aligned characters also want safety for the people of Barovia. If they leave him to his whims, the devil Strahd still rules over Barovia but he's willing to negotiate. If not peace, he can curb his appetites and the appetites of his minions. Perhaps they might even negotiate a Barovian blood drive between the people of the lands to feed their vampire neighbors. Strahd's fine with this. He might even follow it for a century or two. He has all the time in the world.

What about Ireena? To save her village and the people of the land, she may be willing to stay with Strahd. Perhaps her good heart can push his away from darkness. Her life is but one to save the many of the lands. A fair trade as far as she is concerned.

This is also where Strahd offers up any other rewards the characters might want. He has been watching them a long time and has many spies. What does each of the characters seek more than anything else? If it is within his power, it is another chip he can throw onto the table.

So that is the carrot. But what is the stick? Simple. While he is negotiating with the players, his crypts are opened. Hundreds of his feral vampires surround the village of Barovia and Valliki. They await but a single command of his before descending onto the villages and turning them into oceans of blood. Yes, the adventurers might fight and even defeat Strahd, but not without the blood of dozens to hundreds of innocents on their hands as well.

Thus is Strahd's masterful negotiating position.

Guests for Dinner

At the right moment, Strahd invites our adventurers to dinner so they might negotiate in peace and civility. In this he is not lying. He is not an idiot either, though. His own two vampire bloodknight guards will be in attendance as well as a number of his children, former adventurers turned vampires, who attend the dinner as well. Should things go poorly with the negotiations, he will be well prepared for the battle and the characters know this.

Say Auf Wiedersehen to your Nazi Balls

Of course, it is very possible things do not go well with the negotiations. Strahd does have a line none can cross. Once she enters the castle, Ireena may not leave as long as Strahd still remains. It is the one thing he will not allow.

Your group might also come to the realization that mine did:

"Wait a minute. He is totally playing us! We killed his rivals. We brought the one thing he wanted to his very table. Now he wants us gone and then he gets everything he wants! This is bullshit!" - Argjhan the Sorcerer

If the negotiations fail, his calm beautiful demur falls, the blood knights close the doors, and the whole thing turns into the basement tavern scene from Inglourious Bastards.

This should be a very hard encounter, of course, and harder still because Strahd cannot truly be killed here. If he and his vampiric guards are defeated, they all return to their coffins, the feral vampires are released, and the characters have a limited time to find and destroy the devil of Barovia. Every short rest means more dead villagers. Every long rest means the end of entire villages.

No one said it would be easy.

We will cover running Strahd in combat in a future article. Stay tuned!

Players love magic items and they are one of the few rewards that we DMs have almost total control over. Whether our games use random loot, an item wishlist, complete DM control, or some hybrid approach for magic item distribution; to our players, magic items are major components of their character that lies with the DM.

We DMs might be less enthusiastic about magic items. D&D 5e's power curve doesn't take magic items into account. Unlike in D&D 4e, monsters and encounters aren't tuned around an assumption of a certain level or power of magical equipment. In this way, we DMs might see each magic item as a hack against the system. They push characters past challenge ratings and give them solid advantages over their foes not accounted for in the math.

This is good because balance is boring.

Players love it when their power pushes past the curve. They love it when they're hitting monsters far easier than they expected. They love it when those same monsters have a hell of a time getting past their magic armor. Players love this system hacking and it's baked right into 5e.

Still, we DMs might narrow our eyes, furrow our brows, and whisper passive aggressions when we see it; but to us, magic items can be something else. Magic items can bring something wonderful to our story.

We've spent a lot of time talking about the idea of secrets and clues as a way to build tweet-sized elements of information and lore our players discover as they travel through the game. Magic items are a wonderful tool upon which we can wrap these secrets. Here are a few examples:

• The frostbrand greatsword recovered from the dead revenant was once the blade of a knight of the silver dragon who fell under the attack of Strahd and his forces.
• The +2 poison crossbow is a weapon of a Vistani assassin passed between generations of family members of a tiny assassin's guild.
• The belt of hill giant strength is the belt worn by the lost barbarian tribe of the Direwolf whose members devolved into cannibalism and the worship of the demon prince Kostchtchie.
• The staff of power is a staff wielded by the lich Exethanter who lured Strahd to the Amber Temple and turned him into the vampire lord he is now.
• The flametongue greataxe is a weapon infused with the spirit of an Azir bound to the weapon by druids of Barovia who sacrified themselves to complete the binding.

The video games Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 are fantasic examples of games who tell much of their story through the descriptions of magic items. Every item in those games includes a sentence that reveals one more piece of the larger picture. We don't get all of the story in a nice sequence, but we get bits and pieces that help us fill in a larger puzzle with a grand image in the center.

The same is true for the lore we tie to magic items. Each piece can give the players a wider view of the whole. Each item lets us share one fragment of the grand history that lives deep witin the earth and eons back in time. Giving it out one piece at a time helps us DMs hold back from vomiting forth forty five minutes of backstory and history that no one really has the time or energy to digest.

Even better, because players love magic items so much, it makes them interested in hearing the history of the item they received or its connection to the rest of the world.

No Real Prep Needed

If we follow the advice of sharing secrets, we don't have to bind the lore to the item ahead of time. Instead we have a good solid list of interesting bits of lore and we can choose the one that best fits the item itself. As we roll on random loot tables or distribute loot in some other way, we can look down our list of secrets and find one that fits well with the item.

Items as NPCs

Intelligent magic items can serve a very useful role in our games. Often its hard for us DMs to give a vital piece of information to the players without stepping outside of the game or reminding them of something they might have forgotten. If one of the players has an intelligent magic sword, the sword itself can serve as an advisor, reminding the characters about a previously forgotten quest or nudging them in one direction over the other. We have to be careful not to let the sword lead the group completely or else it's just another way to railroad the campaign. Instead, it can give small clues or warn of terrible dangers without us DMs having to step outside of the game to warn the players directly.

Magic items act like any other NPC. They have their own history and only know what they know. Some might even lie about what they know to serve their own agenda.

When we award an intelligent magic item, we probably want to write it down on our campaign worksheet and review it before each game to decide if it has a role to play in our next session. A forgotten intelligent magic item is a wasted opportunity for some fun roleplaying.

Lightning Rods for Interesting Stories

Magic items are fantastic physical objects that can, when treated correctly, act as wonderful conduits between the characters and the world they inhabit. Each magic item can tell its own tiny tale, its own slice in the universe. If we just think of magic items as a stick of statistics, we're missing a much more interesting way to incorporate them into your game. What slice of history will your next magic item tell?

On 10 October 2016, Wizards of the Coast released a new set of Unearthed Arcana encounter building guidelines as part of their series of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition playtest documents.

These new encounter building guidelines are a huge improvement over the encounter building guidelines found in the 5th edition Dungeon Master's Guide. They're simple, straight forward, easy to use, and give us the same output as the standard encounter building guidelines in the DMG.

The default encounter building system in the 5th edition Dungeon Master's Guide present a system with two problems. First, they're too complicated, with too many variables that must be continually cross referenced to build a "balanced" encounter. Second, it doesn't build balanced encounters even when you do it right.

Next to limited rules for narrative combat, poor encounter building rules are one of my main criticisms of the 5th edition of D&D. Here at Sly Flourish we've attempted to address both of these problems with our guide to narrative combat and our own encounter building guidelines.

WOTC's latest Unearthed Arcana playtest document for simplifying encounter balance brings a welcome addition to our 5e DM toolbox. Let's dig into them.

A Single Step to a Roughly Balanced Encounter

These guidelines make it much easier develop a roughly balanced encounter without resorting to the overly complex system in the Dungeon Master's Guide. While the original system required that we match an experience budget based on character level with the experience budget of the monsters we chose multiplied by a modifier based on the number of minsters. This resulted in a constant back-and-forth tweaking of two dials that, frankly, I imagine few actually use. These new guidelines only require that you compare the characters' level to the challenge rating of a monster to find the number of monsters that make a roughly balanced fight.

This table format matches the way DMs build encounters, by discovering the number of monsters they can use given a monster's challenge rating and a character's level.

These guidelines also give us more than just simple encounter math and include other variables that can make an encounter interesting such as the motivations of the enemies, terrain and traps, and other random effects. This gets into what makes each battle unique and interesting, which is as important as the math.

The Wrong Order of Steps

In a query on Twitter regarding the steps DMs take when building encounters, most DMs who responded said their process for building encounters starts with the story. We tend to start our encounters by picking out sets of contextually relevant monsters before we even begin noodling through the math.

Once we know what sorts of monsters the characters might encounter, we really only have one important question: how many. This is actually the only mathematical system we need. If we know that the characters might run into goblins, bugbears, or ogres; all we really need to know is how many goblins, bugbears, and ogres would make for a good but challenging fight.

If we think hard about it, it turns out we might simplify encounter building to simply two steps:

1. Choose monsters contextually relevant to the story that the characters may fight.
2. Figure out how many monsters we need for the difficulty of fight we want to run.

While these new guidelines are much improved, the five-step process they outline is probably overkill for building quick and interesting encounters and also feels out of order.

Too Detailed for an Already Inaccurate System

The truth is, any encounter building guidelines will have wild variance in actual results. The mechanics behind player and monster power is too widely varied to guarantee any particular outcome, regardless of their challenge rating. There are lots of variables not accounted for in these or any guidelines. These include character group composition, damage output, saving throw and DC variance, resources previously expended, player skill, and a host of others. Since we know no system will be very accurate, a simple system that gives us a rough guide is better than a complicated system that is harder to use.

The new encounter building guidelines are definitely simpler but they still give the false impression of precision in a system that is anything but precise.

We really have no idea how a battle with forty ogres will go against a group of five level 15 characters.

Likewise, the multiple monster chart can be confusing when we look at high challenge monsters that account for four or more characters. I asked Mike Mearls on Twitter about this and he confirmed that the intent is that any monster on the multiple monster chart will always have at least one friend, even if it's 6:1. That's why the challenge rating is lower for a 4:1 monster on the multiple monster chart than the solo chart.

Of course, at the highest ends, this only makes sense if you have seven or more characters and, really, all bets are off in that case. No chart is going to tell you how to balance an encounter for seven level 17 characters.

I don't think the chart should bother with encounters that set a monster up against five or more characters. If we're running groups of five or more players, it's far better to add another smaller monster than it is to use a bigger one.

Solo Guidelines Fall Apart at Mid to High Levels

The solo guidelines give the impression that a single monster can handle a group of five or six characters. This might be true up to about level 7 but after that characters have so many resources and so much synergy with each other that very few legendary monsters will, by themselves, withstand a full group.

In my experience, every solo or legendary monster should have one ally for every character above four, and maybe more at higher levels.

Only if a legendary monster has a challenge rating significantly higher than the level of the characters will it stand a chance and that will result in an extremely swingy battle one way or the other.

Challenge Ratings Are Here to Stay

One criticism often mentioned across the net is how much easier encounter building was with 4th edition. It definitely was but the whole system in 4e was significantly different than 5e. There are no minions or elites in 5e. Monsters are intended to remain a challenge to characters for a greater number of levels, going from solo to elite, to normal, to minion as the characters raise levels.

Regardless of how we feel about it, 5e's challenge ratings are here to stay. The books are printed. The system is set in stone. WOTC isn't going to go back and come up with an entirely different way to compare monsters to characters. Challenge ratings are what we have so any solutions we come up with will have to use them. Such is life.

Choose Your Favorite Imperfect System

With two different encounter building guidelines available from WOTC and numerous other systems proposed by fans, including the Sly Flourish encounter building guidelines, and fantastic tools like Kobold Fight Club we have a lot of options available to help us build encounters.

We can each make the decision about which system best supports the type of preparation we do and the game we like to play. We must, of course, keep in mind that none of these systems are perfect and we're likely to see some difficulty variance in our battles no matter what system we choose. Regardless, having a lot of options makes the whole game stronger. Try them, use them, and choose the one that helps you the most.

Goodbye to a Dear Friend

On 21 October, I lost a dear friend and the D&D and roleplaying community lost a great man, Randall Walker. Randall Walker was a father, husband, a great roleplaying gamemaster, and a great friend to many of us. Randall and I had met a few times in person, been on a panel at Gencon together, and spoke often in email, Twitter, and on numerous episodes of the Behind the DM Screen podcast. I will miss him.

Friends of Randall have put together a Gofundme page to help his family get through this horrible time. If you can, please help them out.

That's a picture I took of Randall running a game in a hotel lobby at Gencon. I didn't get a chance to play in that game but, looking at it now, I imagine everyone in that picture is exactly where they wanted to be at that exact moment. Every moment we can get together with our friends and turn into nine year olds again is a great moment. Let's cherish them.

Another Side to Strahd

This article is part 2 in our detailed look at running Strahd von Zarovich in the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure, the Curse of Strahd. You can begin by reading part 1 of this series, Strahd's Negotiation, to see how Strahd might handle things with the characters without necessarily drawing blood.

If things get ugly, however, it's best that Strahd is prepared for the fight.

Boss monsters in Dungeons & Dragons are notoriously hard to run, though. In boss fights, there's a fine line between the battle being too easy or too hard. Experienced players with well-built characters might have an easy time with this vampire lord. Other less experienced groups might find themselves completely captivated by this fiend, ending up dead, in his dungeons, or as one of his eternal playthings. If we push things too far with Strahd, the battle just turns into a pain in the ass rather than something fun and exciting. Overusing Strahd's charm, for example, takes agency out of the hands of players without necessarily making the battle much more fun.

The truth is, we can't really know how a battle against Strahd will go until we run it. But that, right there, is our way to find out. How can we know how a battle against Strahd will go? We can run him more than once.

Strahd's Confrontations

As we run the later levels of Curse of Strahd, Strahd may begin to test the merit of these adventurers who are mucking around in his lands. Because he's a vampire, he's not too worried about losing. If the characters possess powerful items like the Sunsword, the Icon of Ravenloft, he can find this out the hard way. If he's knocked down and killed, he simply returns to his coffin and rests up before trying them again later.

Each time Strahd faces the characters, we can make that battle unique and interesting. Perhaps Strahd attacks the party while transformed as a dire wolf surrounded by a number of other dire wolves or werewolf companions. Another time he might leap in as a giant bat among dozens of swarms of bats. Other times he might simply harass them with spells to see what sort of defenses they put up. Only at the end, when he is in the one place they know they will find him, will he fight them fully and completely.

During all of these battles, Strahd can't really be killed. Unless the characters destroy the big crystalline heart in the high tower and find him in his coffin, they can't destroy him. Strahd knows this as well as we do. If they face him and they defeat him easily, he'll come back with new tricks, new allies, and new magic items to make it harder the next time. He can do this both inside and outside of his castle.

And, if he does defeat them all, that's a good time for us to fail forward.

Strahd's Dinner Invitation

In the adventure as written, Strahd invites the characters to Ravenloft just about the time he's had enough of their bullshit. This is probably around the time they defeat Baba Lysaga, clear Argynvostholt, or return from the Amber Temple. In game-terms, it's just about the time they have discovered the final item they need that isn't in the castle itself.

In the book, they see Strahd at the organ and then he disappears, but this misses out on a great opportunity to playtest our villain. Maybe he's not alone at the dinner. Maybe he has some of his vampire children there. Maybe a couple of vampire bloodknights to spice things up. This is a great chance for Strahd to discuss his negotiation with the characters and, if that fails, it's time for a fight. Strahd can see the characters fight at their full strength and each side can see what the other is made of. If they have an easy time by blinding him with the Sunsword or preventing any of his cool charm abilities with the Icon of Ravenloft, he (and we!) will take note of this. He might go from brute force to hit-and-run tactics. He might send in hundreds of rats when they try to take a long rest and eat away at their resources piece by piece until their final confrontation with him.

Know Your Enemy and Know Yourself

During these battles, we can see what's going on. Strahd is a brilliant combatant, probably better than we are, which means we're going to have to be extra crafty to keep the characters on their toes. Where are the characters having an easy time? What tricks do they have that hose up Strahd's tactics? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

If the characters are holding the Sunsword, the Icon of Ravenloft, or the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, they might have a huge advantage against Strahd. The Power Score blog has a great writeup on running the final battle against Strahd worth reading. The author linked to an Enworld Thread on experiences running battles against Strahd with wide ranging results. Does Strahd have access to this forum? Probably!

The Equalizing Power of Darkness and Fog Cloud

The heavy obscurement effects of fog cloud and darkness are interesting and not real intuitive. They are also really helpful in your Strahd battle if your group is using protection from evil, the Sunblade, or the Icon of Ravenloft's sun power.

Here's the weird bit about fog cloud and darkness:

When a creature cannot be seen, it has advantages on attacks against those who cannot see it. When a creature cannot see, it has disadvantage when trying to attack those it cannot see. This ends up working both ways. If a character is within the effects of darkness, all of this cancels out since advantage and disadvantage cancel out and the effects do not stack. Thus, if a creature is in darkness, advantages and disadvantages cancel out. ANY advantages and disadvantages cancel out. So if our vampire friends, including Strahd, find themselves at a disadvantage, all they have to do is wrap themselves and their foes in darkness or fog and suddenly all advantages and disadvantages are canceled out on both sides.

Strahd's primary defense against the Sunsword or Protection from Evil is heavy obscurement. Anything that clears out advantage and disadvantage will aid Strahd in these fights.

Strahd's Nastier Specials

Even with his great genius and strategic mind, Strahd might have too hard a time against characters dishing out 140 points of damage in a single turn. We might need to tweak him a bit to keep the challenge high. There are a few ways we can tweak Strahd to ensure he's a solid challenge. Think of these tweaks like the "nastier specials" in 13th Age. Use them as you need given how things went in the previous battles against Strahd. If your group is having a hard time already, you might skip these. If your group is made up of a bunch of powerhouses, though, these might come in handy.

Empowered Vitality. Strahd begins with his maximum hit points of 204. Remember that the crystalline heart gives him a boost of survivability as well. You can either include this in his hit points or just treat it as an emergency buffer.

Enhanced Armor. Strahd has the habit of all good wizards, by casting mage armor at breakfast and tea-time. He also wears a pair of bracers of defense and a ring of protection. This gives him an armor class of 20. No power attacks here!

Lifedraining Touch. Strahd's unarmed strikes inflict 21 (6d6) necrotic damage instead of 14 (4d6).

Mirror Image Contingency. When a battle begins, Strahd is immediately protected with mirror image.

Prepared Spells. Strahd might choose a different lineup of spells when facing foes in combat. He prepares shield instead of comprehend languages, counterspell instead of animate dead, lightning bolt instead of fireball", and dispel magic instead of nondetection*.

Beguiling Gaze. Strahd doesn't have any good bonus actions so we can give him a nice beguiling gaze attack taken from Sly Flourish's Vampires. As a bonus action, Strahd fixes his gaze on a creature he can see within 30 feet of him. If the target can see Strahd, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or Strahd has advantage on attack rolls against the target. The effect lasts until the target takes damage or until the start of Strahd's next turn. For that time, the affected creature is also a willing target for Strahd's bite attack. A creature that can't be charmed is immune to this effect. A creature that successfully saves against Strahd's gaze is immune to it for 1 hour.

Choose the options above that best fit the areas where your characters need the increased challenge. If they hit often and hit hard, increasing hit points and AC are valid choices. If they are heavy spell casters with lots of tactical superiority, give him the spells to deal with that. If they have a lot of hit points and survivability, go with the lifedraining touch. If they're just really powerful, give him all of the options!

Strahd Never Fights Alone

Strahd is never going to face the characters all by himself. Many times he'll surround himself with vampire spawn, vampire adventurers, tons of rats, and maybe his two vampire bloodknight bodyguards who have served him for centuries.

Strahd's Puzzle Rooms

Building a challenging encounter against Strahd that maintains the proper pacing for an exciting battle is really hard. Groups that possess the Sunsword, the Icon of Ravenloft, and the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind push things heavily in their advantage when fighting Strahd. Strahd can counteract this, to a point, with spells like darkness and fog cloud, as we mentioned, but they either might not work or might end up screwing over characters who really need to see their enemies to be effective at all.

Instead, we can lean a bit on the game side of our situation here and build an encounter environment that aids in building a fun encounter against Strahd. Probably on his second encounter with the group, Strahd lures the characters into a room or chamber of the castle with one of the effects below. He then seals the doors and windows using his first lair action and then the effect takes place before combat begins.

The Dark Idol. Two centuries ago, Strahd found an ancient idol to a dark demon god in the swamps of Berez. When called upon, the statue vomits forth a thick cloud of necrotic gas that fills an entire room. This gas has the effects of a fog cloud. Any living creature that begins its turn within the chamber of the idol takes 7 (2d6) points of necrotic damage with a DC 14 Constitution save for half. The statue has 40 hit points and an AC of 14. It is resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage and immune to all elemental effects except for force or thunder damage. A creature can inflict 15 points of damage with a DC 14 Intelligence (Arcana) check or Strength (Athletics) check. When it is destroyed, the fog dissipates.

Strahd's Lightstealing Torches. Upon the walls of this chamber burn six violet torches in iron sconces. Upon a word from Strahd, these torches steal all light from the room, leaving it in complete darkness. The entire room is under the effects of a darkness spell. Each torch has an AC of 12, 20 hit points, is resistant to piercing, and slashing damage. They are immune to all elemental effects except for force and thunder damage. A torch can be destroyed by casting a dispel magic, or light upon it. Daylight can destroy two of the torches with a single casting. Torches can also be destroyed with a DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) or Strength (Athletics) check. Only when all six torches are destroyed does light return to the room.

The Bats. Massive cracks break through the ancient stone walls of the castle. First one, then two, then thousands of bats pour forth from the wall, heavily obscuring everything in the room. Stepping through the cloud of bats is the lord of Ravenloft himself, half-transformed into a twisted batlike humanoid. On initiative count 20, each enemy of Strahd within the room is attacked by a swarm of bats. Due to their blindsight, the bats have advantage on this attack. The bat swarms act as a single creature with the statistics of the bat swarm but with 25 hit points per character in the room. Like the bat swarm, they are resistant to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing. When the giant swarm of bats is reduced to zero, so many bats have fallen that the room is effectively clear, though many remaining bats skitter about.

These effects are designed to make the first couple of rounds against Strahd scary and dangerous, drawing the attention of the characters away from Strahd and his minions while the characters deal with the torches or statue. They can probably figure out what is going on with these, in full, about half way through the first round, giving Strahd two rounds before he's blind and burning to ash. In the second half of the battle, the characters have defeated the traps and can use the full powers they have been given to give Strahd what for.

This is definitely a gamified approach to Strahd and may not to be your or your group's liking. It isn't typical 5th edition D&D design style, which is much more of a "let the chips fall where they may" sort of approach.

It doesn't punish the characters, however, and gives them a chance to face a challenging foe in poor circumstances but then turn the circumstances in their favor and have a strong ending to the encounter.

Not Being a Complete Asshole About It

When we have a super-smart villain and a desire to ensure that our big bad final boss is a good challenge to the characters, it's easy to go too far. The line between a boring slog of a fight and a TPK is really slim. Pushing the characters to their limits is a worthy goal, but counteracting all of their primary abilities, abilities they worked hard to acquire, can remove a lot of the fun of the game.

Beyond acting as our villain would act, running a fun game is a much more important goal. "That's what my character would do" is as much of a bullshit excuse for the DM as it is for the player if doing so hurts the fun of the game. Strahd's charm ability, for example, can be easily overused and remove just about all agency from a character and remove a lot of joy from the player.

Other Sources of Inspiration

A few other writers have discussed this topic and their articles are worth a read as well. You can find them below.

• A Review of Curse of Strahd - check out the end of the article for Strahd tactics.
• Undead Tactics: Vampires - good summary at the end of the article.
• Power Score: Running the Final Battle Against Strahd

The Ultimate Villain

Strahd may be the ultimate Dungeons & Dragons villain. His visage has frightened the players of D&D for three decades. We owe it to our players, to ourselves, and to Strahd himself to make him as memorable a villain as possible. Luckily for us, we have some major advantages in being able to do so. Like us, Strahd himself wants to see what sort of heroes these adventurers really are. Let's find out.

Four years ago, as part of my preparation in writing The Lazy Dungeon Master I surveyed a number of Dungeon Masters that I knew personally and knew held their craft to a high standard. This past summer and fall I sent out a similar questionnaire to a number of dungeon masters with the hope that, now that we've had a couple of years with the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, we'd see how DMs are preparing for and running their games.

I selected these dungeon masters based on those I either knew personally or came highly recommended as DMs who were excellent practitioners of the craft. These are people who think about D&D a lot and spend a great amount of time preparing and running their D&D games. It is far from a perfect and fully inclusive list but it does give us a view into wide range of styles and techniques for preparing and running D&D game.

A New Survey for All 5e DMs

This questionnaire goes hand-in-hand with a new survey for all 5th edition Dungeon Masters to help us all understand how we prepare for and run our 5th edition games.

If you are a 5th edition dungeon master who regularly runs games, please take the survey and help us all get this wider view of the mysteries of dungeon mastering.

Results of the Questionnaire

This page contains the full raw results of the questionnaire and will continue to grow as I get more responses back. I have not yet begun the deeper analysis of the results. Instead, I wanted to make these results available to all of us so we can see how these excellent DMs run their games and think about how we run our own.

Enjoy.

Respondents Index

• Teos Abadia
• Jay Africa
• Enrique Bertran
• Jeff Greiner
• David Hartlage
• James Introcaso
• Will Jones
• Derick Larson
• Mike Mearls
• Shawn Merwin
• Russ Morrissey
• Davena Oaks
• Karl Resch
• Allison Rossi
• Liz Theis

Teos Abadia

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

Teos Abadia (Alphastream on Twitter) is a frequent contributor to organized play, freelances for Wizards of the Coast and other RPG companies, and writes at alphastream.org.

How long are your gaming sessions?

I like 4 hours for the amount of story we can accomplish. I feel like around hour 2 I see players really get into the role they play and their minds are fully on track with what a campaign is doing (team objectives, campaign story, personal goals, etc.). I do increasingly run 3-3.5 hour sessions just to accommodate schedules, but I prefer 4. With kids ages 12 or younger, I aim for 1-2 hours, due to attention spans.

How often do you run them?

Right now, I don't have a regular group. Long story, but my travel wrecked my regular groups and then after I stopped traveling I was writing a lot. But, when I run a campaign, I want it weekly. Bi-weekly, I think, leads to cancellations and players forgetting why it all matters. I find this when I play as well.

Where do you run your games?

I prefer my house, due to gear. I want to be able to leverage everything I have. Some of my players like a gaming store (we have a really good one), but I love running at home.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

At the end of the session, preferably that day, I write up a one-page summary of what took place. Then I review that. On my copy, I have written DM notes around player goals, secret DM stuff, etc., so I especially review that. This is all a strong story focus. Then, for the upcoming session, I look at what I want to create, pick/create monsters, develop encounters/scenes, and decide whether to go TotM or use some mix of battlemaps, minis, tiles, Dwarven Forge, etc.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

Hard to say, it really varies. On my own campaign I can spend a lot of time if the right monsters aren't there, or if I need to really develop NPCs, plot threads, locations. Most typical is an hour on monsters, an hour on encounters/scenes, an hour on plot, maybe 30 min on physical props.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

I think I'm good on the time. I just want to play more often right now.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

Effort on plot with personal connections to players, cool props.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

When I run published, it is because I really like it and want to change it up, or because I'm playtesting. My ideal is homebrew so I can tell a more personal story. Certainly harder to try to come up with a great campaign plot.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

I prefer maps for the tactile and eye candy, but I run about 50% each.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

I use the encounter spreadsheet. I'll do things for players, such as create spell cards if they don't have them, or create fun player handouts.

I don't really think I do much tools-wise. Maybe the listing of MM monsters by type (such as elemental) and the listing by CR. Those are helpful. For minis, I use that gallery of maps to keep organized and pick one quickly. I use my minis tracker to search what I have.

One overlooked tool... Microsoft Word. I really like using it to sort my outline for the session, trying to get everything on 1-2 pages so I can easily see my plans.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Hard to think back on this one. The presentation on player types I did captures a lot of it - to try to understand what my players want out of the game and cater to/balance those needs. Creating a visceral experience, where the play matters to the character and their player, is always critical for attention spans. And, maybe just to DM for the goal of fun, vs. a sense of how the world/game should be.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Run organized play - especially the same adventure for many different tables.

Jay Africa

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

I'm Jay Africa, designer and former US Far West Local Coordinator for the D&D Adventurers League. I first started playing D&D in 1986 with the 1st Edition Mentzer Red Box. I played and DMed 1st, Ed., 2nd Ed., took an unplanned hiatus from the game during the 3/3.5th Ed. days, then returned to and fell in love with 4th Ed. in 2008. I started playing D&D Encounters, picked up DMing again, and have been playing D&D Organized Play in one form or another ever since.

How long are your gaming sessions?

It depends on the adventure I'm running. I typically prefer sessions that are between two to four hours long.

How often do you run them?

I try to run at least one weekly game. Additionally, I DM at game days and conventions, usually averaging an additional twice a month.

Where do you run your games?

I like running games in-store, though I've recently started running a monthly game at my home.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

I more frequently run published modules, so much of the prep is taken care of. Still, there's a good amount of figuring things out and connecting dots, even within pre-written adventures. My main focus is on giving the adventure a good read and preparing the story. I like to know how to begin the story (introducing the scenario to the players or recapping past events, and setting up the location or the situation), what paths the players may take during the session, what the session's "hook" or "emphatic element" is, and ideas on how I can resolve the story and conclude the narrative. I try to make sure that each session has a solid beginning, middle, and end. If I have time, I look up lore around specific settings and characters. If there are NPCs, I make characterization choices and decide how they might first relate to the player-characters. Next, I focus on what conflicts the players will or may face, whether combat or narrative. I prep stat blocks and maps, make notes about traps (check/save DCs and consequences), and figure out whether any parts of the story might require skill checks or a sequence of checks. If I'm not familiar with a monster, I'll look up its entry in the Monster Manual. Finally, I prep any physical materials I might need: handouts, maps, minis, props, etc.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

Like the timing question prior, it depends on the adventure I'm running. Generally, I'll take an hour or so to read the module or adventure chapter, then mull over the details over the next few days. The night before game time, I pick out or draw maps, gather up my DMing supplies (though they're mostly all in my pick-up bag already) and sort out minis. For a four-hour session, I'll do an average of two to three hours of prep, I'd say.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

Frankly, I've got my preferred processes down. If anything, I'd like to have more time to read up on lore or history for whatever I might be running.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

Thoroughly reading an adventure and getting to know the material well enough that I can say yes to whatever the players throw at me (as much as I can, at least).

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

I greatly enjoy both. I ran a 4th Ed. hombrew in a setting of my creation for a few years. Then I started DMing D&D Encounters, Adventurers League modules, and the 5th Edition hardcover adventures. In more recent years, I've not had as much time to dedicate to a homebrew setting, so I've run more published adventures than otherwise. Published adventures are great for quickly diving into play.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

I prefer some form of representation on a map, whether it be gridded combat or unscaled/relative positioning, with minis or just jotting down positioning directly on the map. I prefer this because it takes care of a lot of details that the players might find unclear otherwise. Also, I really enjoy drawing maps, and sketching a map out is part of the fun that I draw from the game.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

My first main set of tools are the D&D 5th Ed. core rulebooks. I'll often have my rulebooks to look up rules, spells, monsters, and magic items that I come upon in the adventures I read.

Second, I love Gale Force 9's D&D Spellbook Cards. They're incredibly handy in gathering up spells that monsters and NPCs use throughout the course of the adventure.

My final tools are mapping supplies. I pre-draw maps about half of the time I DM, either on my Paizo Flip-Mat or with a marker on grid paper. I love Arcknight Games' maps. I have a selection of them and pull sheets out as needed.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

The Rule of Yes. As much as possible, I try to accept what players give me and work with what plans and schemes they concoct. It empowers them to make creative decisions and leads to fulfilling and entertaining moments.

Emphatic Elements. This is something I learned during my days studying theatre in college. Every play has "emphatic elements": aspects of the play that appeal to audiences in different ways and drive the play forward. Published adventures also generally likewise have emphatic elements (plot, characters, setting, spectacle, monsters, etc.) Knowing what the emphatic elements are in an adventure helps me draw in players, encourage progress within the story, and build tension.

Pacing and volume. Varying the speed at which I speak, respond to players, and demand player responses adds to the mood of the story. The same applies to how loud and boisterous or quiet and subdued I deliver the narrative.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Narrative is key. Run the game like you're telling a story around a campfire. Make sure the adventure has a distinct beginning (drawing the players in), middle (keeping the players moving), and end (leaving the players satisfied)—regardless of whether the adventure is a one-shot or a continuing story. Apply this to the shorter beats within the adventure and to combat, as well. Weaving a good tale keeps players coming back for more!

Enrique Bertran

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

My name's Enrique, but I blog online as NewbieDm. My first dnd product I owned was the BECMI red and blue boxes, but I've really been playing since high school, with AD&D 1e.

How long are your gaming sessions?

My gaming sessions are once a week, and they run for about 2.5 hours.

How often do you run them?

Once a week.

Where do you run your games?

From the comforts of my home office, as I run a Roll20 game.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

Right now I'm running a 3.5 published adventure, using it to complement an original plot I've created, but most of the monsters have no 5e counterpart, so I spend my time reskinning or seeing what monsters I can replace the ones in the adventure with.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

I spend about 2 hours per session prepping my digital desktops and creating monsters.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

I wish I had the time to craft a more original story, but that would probably take me longer than what I'm doing now. my time is unfortunately at a premium these days.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

I think my players are just happy to be gaming.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

I want short, episodic adventures... most of WOTC's stuff is large hardbacks, which do me no good. After I finish this thing I'm running, my approach to campaigns will change.

I want to go episodic... short adventures that the party can go on without needing a long overarching plot that will only be resolved once they hit level 20. Nope. Because chances are we'll never get there.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

Gridded combat. Although if I were good at running TotM, I totally would. Less stuff to track.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

Roll20, a token making website I go to, and the Forgotten Realms wiki.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Look, listen and Learn. Try to gauge your players' investment through body language and how much attention they are paying to you... Listen to what they say they want to get out of the game, and learn all you can about different DMing styles and techniques. We are constantly learning, nobody is ever done.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Think small at first, then expand as you go. Don't try to be Tolkien from the get go.

Jeff Greiner

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

Jeff Greiner, founder of the Tome Show podcasts, played his first game of D&D at the age of 8. It was second edition, he played a half-elf ranger who once killed Strahd by himself, and he's never played a half-elf ranger since. He has recently leveled up and is now a 29th level mage.

How long are your gaming sessions?

5-6 hours

How often do you run them?

Every other week.

Where do you run your games?

My house.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

Lately...building interweaving storylines and NPCs to deliver those storylines. I also spend some time detailing interesting locations that might come up in each session and the opponents that might be located there that would then further that storyline. Second place, putting book marks in books so I can easily find monster stats quickly.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

Story prep - 1 hour.

Encounter prep (including book marking stats in various books) - 15 minutes.

NPC prep - 30 minutes.

Prop prep - 10 minutes.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

I think I'm pretty happy with my current prep proportions. I mean, in a world where I have infinite time I would probably spend more time crafting props and maps and the likes, because that's sort of fun of it's own right. But given that time is limited I like the proportion of prep time use that I currently have, if anything, it would be good to simply increase the amount of time while keeping the ratios. That said, I wouldn't want to increase it too much. I want to have just enough prep time as it takes to be prepared and just little enough that I'm more inclined to stay flexible during the game session. I don't want to calcify my ideas about the story and session so much ahead of time that I'm not as willing to pay attention to where the players want to take the storyline.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

I think focusing my preparation on story and NPCs has the biggest impact. When I have story elements and characters tied to those stories ready to weave in an out at key moments in a session the rest of the game prep ends up taking care of itself. Figuring out locations and good opponents or interesting objectives...all of that falls into place when you already know the story beats and the people that highlight those storybeats.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

I prefer the published adventures for one main reason...shared experience. I try to be an active part of the gaming community and being able to have shared experiences with the other members of that community as a result of shared stories we told at our tables, that's meaningful to me. That said, my first rule of using a published setting, be it through an adventure or a campaign guide, is that you can't be afraid to tearing that setting to shreds, and making the story your own. It's okay to break the world beyond fixing...once your story is done you can move on and start in a new setting. Unlike publishers, you don't need the setting to continue on in perpetuity, and there are advantages to having that freedom. Use them, make the stories in published adventures your own.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

I prefer theater of the mind, probably simply because it's faster. If I map out encounters I probably accomplish half as much in a session than if I just ran it theater of the mind. That said, I still like to pull out the maps sometimes, but I reserve it for moments when a fight is supposed to feel like a bigger deal. Sometimes simply putting it on the map, because I otherwise don't do so very often, can make an encounter feel special.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

My laptop, where I have all my story map, a system that I use to keep track of how I introduce each session, and how one way to bring in an element from each storyline in each session.

A spreadsheet of monsters that I can sort by CR, type, etc. for easy reference (although I really wish I had one that was updated with more of the monsters in other books that I own...maybe I should do that with some of my prep time).

The adventure(s) that I'm running. I'm currently running multiple published adventures simultaneously in one campaign, so keeping track of various locations, NPCs, etc. is difficult, I find myself referencing each adventure at least once as I prepare for each session.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Focus on stories and characters.

When adding new story elements try and directly tie them to different PCs, which encourages players to allow more sharing of the spotlight.

Have elements prepared to pull out...but don't plot out the actual direction the session will take. Let the session go where it's going to go, and have a handful of elements ready to use when the opportunities arise.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Don't get caught up in the mechanics. Avoid describing things in mechanical terms and instead focus on the setting and the story. My many years of 4e instilled in me a bad habit of saying, "the orc spear hits you for 7 piercing damage" instead of "the orc whips the spear at you, leaving you on your heels and vulnerable, the swipe was so close you could feel the air from the swing slap you in the face". The same is true in other places as well, rather than "make a diplomacy check to see if you can get the shaman to help you out" I'm trying to spend more time asking players to role-play the attempt to seek the shaman's help, and if they do a bang up job giving them inspiration or advantage or the like. I'm trying to be better about using the game mechanics to support the story, instead of making it a story about game mechanics.

David Hartlage

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

David Hartlage writes the DMDavid blog where he searches for unseen aspects of Dungeons & Dragons design and history. He writes to inspire dungeon masters and players-and because he loves spouting off about his favorite game. In 1977, the blue Basic Set made young David a DM.

How long are your gaming sessions?

The Dungeons & Dragons games I run at my neighbored store fit in 2-hour sessions, while the Adventurers League games that I run at conventions last 4 hours.

How often do you run them?

Once a week, plus several sessions at each of 3 or more conventions a year.

Where do you run your games?

Virtually all my play is in game stores and convention ballrooms. Sometimes I dream of a game where I can use my inside voice and still be heard.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

When I prepare a printed adventure, I pay special attention to three things: (1) the clues that lure players through the adventure, (2) any memorable non-player characters, and (3) climactic encounters.

Scenarios that fit in 4 hours typically lead players through some key scenes toward a climax. Where an adventure design expects players to take a certain path, I want them to feel they chose it as their best option. Where the design offers a real choice, I want to make it an interesting dilemma. When I run the adventure, I can miss a bit of color, but I must communicate the details that weigh on decisions.

For NPCs that deserve a spotlight, I tend to emphasize some personality trait or quirk that makes them lively or memorable. At the table, subtle characters disappear. I dream up ways to call out character traits in dialogue or action. I love drawing humor from character.

If the adventure features big combat encounters, I study the foes' spells and stats so they can offer a good fight. I aim for climactic fights that have the players feeling a sense of peril, bring them to their feet, and leave them excited by a hard-won victory. When a battle fizzles because I missed some monster's ability, I missed an opportunity.

I may invest too much time gathering maps and miniatures for encounters. I enjoy those trappings, but players at other tables never leave unhappy because they needed to use their imagination.

For more, see my post on preparing to run an adventure as a dungeon master at a convention.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

My time preparing typically equals the time spent in play. This holds whether I invent my own material or run published adventures.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

I aspire to spend more time customizing my games to involve the player characters. I would like to do better at connecting NPCs, hooks, and backstory to the party members.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

I think my emphasis on preparing interesting decisions, memorable characters, and dramatic encounters leads to the most fun at the table.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

When I started as a dungeon master, I favored my own ideas and created a game that suited my tastes. I felt disdain for published adventures.

When public play required that I run published adventures, I improved as a DM. Many times, I prepared an adventure that included bits I expected to flop at the table. Instead, the players had fun, and my list of potential ingredients for a good D&D game expanded. Published adventures still encourage me to try new things I would not consider for my homebrew.

Although I mostly run published adventures now, when they fail to connect with my players, I may leave the book and dream up my own episodes. I still enjoy creating a game tailored for myself and my players.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

Count me as loyal to the grid.

During my games, I work hard to communicate with the players so they keep a clear vision of the game world. If players misunderstand or feel confused, I've failed in the DM's most essential duty. For clarity, I lean on visual aids more than most DMs. I like to show pictures of recurring NPCs. I sketch maps in dry erase. I use my battle mat like an instructor uses a white board. The battle map supports my drive for clarity. Even if I dispensed with the grid, I would still use a sketch or diagram so players can see an encounter.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

To manage my maps and miniatures, I rely on my own site's map galleries and the miniature database at dracosaur.us.

I lean on my scanner and printer. For my reference, I scan and print maps and monsters. For the players, I scan and print non-player character portraits, magic item descriptions, and other visual aids.

The rest of my tools come from the office supply store. When I prepare an Adventurers League module, I mark the pages in colored pens that stand out from the print. For published adventures, my notes must go on post-it notes.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Give each player as much spotlight time as possible. Part of this means administering the game quickly, so players spend as much time as possible playing. The other part comes from finding ways to bring players from the sidelines into the game. I love having NPCs single out the PCs in the background for dialog. I love throwing the what-do-you-do question to someone uninvolved. I love when monsters attack from the rear.

Project confidence. As a dungeon master, you channel the imaginary world to your players. When you seem uncertain about what happens in that world, it yanks the players out of their imagination and reminds them that you just make things up. Confidence in your rules knowledge matters much less, because players will happily look up rules and help apply them.

Delegate. Dungeon masters take on many more duties than the players. You can administer the game more quickly by letting players adopt some of those jobs. Have one player look up a rule and another draw the 50-by-50 room on the battle map. Sometimes I even have a player track the damage monsters take. I wrote more about delegation in Delegate to run better role-playing game sessions by doing less.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Watch your players. Listen to their reactions. If everyone seems intent, keep doing what you're doing. If a few seem uninterested, try to think of a way to involve them. If they all seem to lack interest, find a way to move the game ahead.

When I think back on my worst DM moments, they all come from times when I failed to shape the game to suit my players. They come from times I ignored what the players wanted because I decided to stick to my rigid notion of the game world, from times I let players fail because I stuck too zealously to a challenge, and from times I kept to material I prepared even though it bored the players.

I used follow the old-school notion that a DM should focus on applying the rules while testing players with challenges. I still value that part of the game, but now I see my part as less referee and more entertainer. I share the game so everyone at the table finds something they enjoy.

James Introcaso

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

I'm James Introcaso, a dungeon master, game designer, podcaster, and blogger who plays/reports on/designs for primarily the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons ruleset.

How long are your gaming sessions?

Usually 3 hours, though some can run as short as 2 or as long as 4.

How often do you run them?

In general I run about 6 games a month. I have two biweekly games and then a handful of games that meet once a month or so. Any given month at least one of those engagements gets canceled.

Where do you run your games?

Most often I run them on Roll20, since I have players spread out all over the East Coast. I have one group that meets in person and we play most often in my own apartment and occasionally at the home of two of our players, since they have a child.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

If I'm running a homebrew campaign (most often) spend my time reading through my player's notes about what happened last session and looking through and updating my campaign outline for the overall story, crafting the story for the next session, and preparing maps and encounters.

If I'm running a prewritten adventure, I read the section I'll likely be running that night, and then spend time thinking about how I'll modify the adventure to fit the backstories and actions of the players so far.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

If I'm running hombrew, I spend 15 minutes going over my notes, about 30 minutes crafting the story, and 1-2 hours preparing encounters.

If I'm running prewritten, I spend 45 minutes going over the adventure, and 30 minutes thinking and writing down what I want to change.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

I really need time to think of stories that will lead to more original combat, exploration, and social encounters. At this point, I've been playing with the same players for 8 years in some groups (one player for 14) and I want to wow them with something fun and different. That keeps getting harder and there are times I feel if I was less focused on creating enough content for the game, I could focus on making ORIGINAL content for the game.

When I'm running something prewritten, it's usually because I don't have more time to spend, but if I did have the time, I'd spend it on shaping that story to better fit the backstories and actions of the PCs.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

The crafting of the story. A surprising twist, a great mystery, a tough choice, or an element that relates directly to a character's backstory seems to beat a fun combat any day of the week.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

Homebrew adventures are best for me because I feel more in control. I'm more comfortable improvising on the spot and creating a new villain, NPC, organization, location, dungeon, etc. In a world as huge as the Forgotten Realms or Eberron, I might make something that already exists and not know it, or contradict something that's an established truth about the world that may confuse some of my players if they're part of another group that's also playing in that world (which is a common occurrence with organized play).

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

When playing on Roll20, I find gridded combat draws the players into the story more and keeps them from wandering to check Facebook or their email.

When I'm playing in person, I usaully only whip out the gridded combat for big set piece or climatic battles. I find theater of the mind in person speeds up play since I don't need to draw out or build a map and the players take less turns by committee (saying things like, "Well if you put the fireball here you can hit one more orc," or "You should move here instead because then when I cast dissonant whispers you can hit the enemy.")

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

Kobold Fight Club - The encounter building math for 5e is time consuming and this site makes it so easy. You can even use it for monsters not in the Monster Manual, by simply selecting a equivalent challenge rating monster.

Roll20 - The marketplace has some great cheap maps and tokens that make it easy for me to build the exact encounter I want when I'm short on time. As a pro member I can swap tokens and maps between tables to make my life easier.

Google Docs - It's synced to all my devices, so I can work on game prep during my commute, when I'm in line at the grocery store, in bed at night, or when I get an idea in the middle of the day. I have all my notes there, including session recaps, a loose outline for the entire campaign, and anything else that I need.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Make it meaningful to the players by bringing in their PCs' backstories. From session 1, start involving their personal histories, stories, and motivations to get them involved. Not only will this give each player personal investment, they'll get invested in each other's stories and create a strong bond between the heroes.

Don't wait. If you have an idea for a great encounter, cool NPC, or plot point, introduce it as soon as you can. It will make every game exciting and interesting, instead of a constant build up to something you're "saving for the final session." (that may never come because of schedules, life, etc)

Write all your ideas down. It's why I love Google Docs. This way when you sit down to prep you won't think, "What was that great idea I had for Mike's PC?" You'll know by looking at your list and you can begin preparing for it.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Relax and remember it's a game. You're just telling a story with friends. If you mess something up or something doesn't go as planned, that's ok. It's like sex. As long as everyone agrees and everyone's having fun, you're doing it right.

Will Jones

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

My name's Will, I'm a 20 year old Brit who runs EncounterRoleplay; a D&D Twitch Stream broadcasting 5 days a week. I started playing as a kid 10 years ago, now it's my job!

How long are your gaming sessions?

3 hours long.

How often do you run them?

I run 10 games a week, two every day, and a 24 Hour Stream every Month for over a year now.

Where do you run your games?

Online via Roll20 and on my Twitch Stream.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

The story mainly, and important combats. I like to map out flowcharts of possible routes and spend lots of time finding voices and personalities for the main NPCs in my games.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

Per 3 hour session I tend to spend 1 hour on preparation overall. Due to the amount of games I run I try to prep as much work into the least amount of time. I tend to spend the most amount of time preparing the story elements and flow chart, then a small amount of time balancing encounters and the like.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

Part of me wishes I spend more time on Encounter building, but honestly that tends to bore me. As a player, I'm rarely that interested in the Combat Encounters, and this translates into my DMing.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

I think all player's want a strong narrative and evocative characters to interact with. I've had some great responses from creating unique handouts in the past, too.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

Homebrew adventures, for the most part. I enjoy the freedom in creating my own narrative and characters. That being said, 5E has had some brilliant Adventure Modules that I've had a lot of fun switching around to fit my own style - Curse of Strahd, for instance.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

Theater of the mind every day! It saves me hours upon hours of time, it's less restrictive than mapping, and generally fits with my group's style of story above all else. We still have challenging and engaging combats, but that's not the reason I or my player's play D&D.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

Roll20.net, Google Documents and the LOTR OST.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

The "Yes, and" or "Yes, but" rule is invaluable. It's a improvisational actor's best friend, and as a DM it's yours too. If a player pitches you an idea, you roll with it and see where it takes you, it always ends up somewhere cool and unexpected.

Always assume omnipotence! There are plenty of times I have no fucking clue what's about to happen, but if you show that fear with your player's it makes you story less powerful. Even if something goes wrong, it went right! If I get a rule wrong I'll tell everyone though; this only goes for story points! I find it immersion breaking when a DM says "Oh god I have no idea...uhhh...." so I try to eliminate that from my own games.

Make mistakes. It's the only way you learn anything. Be honest with yourself about those mistakes too, because no one ever "makes it" as a DM. I probably make more mistakes than most when DMing even though I play a silly amount of D&D, and that helps me improve for the next time around.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Expect the unexpected! You're never going to be able to prepare for everything the player's are going to throw at you and that's one of the most enjoyable things about D&D. A lot of newer DMs struggle with that idea. A friend of mine put it far more eloquently than I ever could: "No one wants to read your shitty unwritten fantasy novel." It's so fucking true. Collaborative storytelling is the most fun for everyone.

Derick Larson

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

My name is Derick Larson. I'm a husband and father, Star Wars fan, and gamer. Dungeons and Dragons began for me in 1979 with some friends at my local hobby shop - I was in 9th grade. I've played a lot of different games since then, but it always comes back to DnD. You can find me online on twitter @wookieedaddiee or at dragonrobotgames.com.

My thanks to Mike for including me in his survey. I learned a lot about myself and my prep for games by answering these questions.

How long are your gaming sessions?

Gaming sessions with my adult group average about 3 hours. Sessions with my kids are between one and two hours.

How often do you run them?

The adult group meets weekly and we rotate between 3 DMs about every 5 weeks. So, I DM weekly for about 5 weeks and then get a couple months off. For games with my kids we normally play every week.

Where do you run your games?

I almost always run at my home. It's nice to have all my supplies nearby.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

Two things take most of my time, NPCs and Combat. Whether I'm running a module or something of my own, I try and make the NPCs have their own motivations and hopefully something that makes them memorable. I've taken to recording information on 3x5 cards for each NPC (or group) so that I can remember and reference it easily. Combat takes more time right now, because my group is higher level, and they and their opponents have more options.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

In general, prep time is about twice actual gaming time. I normally spend more time preparing ahead of my first session, and find that I have "extra" prep for the next few sessions already done. For DMing my kids I will do less prep and improvise more. Twelve and thirteen year old boys throw more curveballs than "adults". About half of the time is spent on NPCs which can include parts of the story/conflict and their options and abilities. The remaining time is divided between researching opponents, combat prep (environment options), going over PCs to see how they incorporate into the adventure, and recording what has happened in previous sessions.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

I wish I could spend more time on maps. I've always had a deep love of maps. Drawing a map is often my first step in prepping an adventure because it both stimulates and puts limits on your imagination. I also wish I could spend more time on physical props, notes, letters, etc.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

Two activities make the game fun for the players. First, getting to know their characters, and taking the time to incorporate something about them into the game. Including their backstory in the history, or bringing someone from their past in as an NPC or villain. I also try and make sure that there are moments for everyone to shine. Let the wizard visit the Arcane College or make sure the village has a temple for the cleric. The second activity is to ask questions of the players for what they want to see. I've been playing with the same group for about 20 years, but still find it valuable and surprising what they want out of gaming.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

I normally prefer to run my own homebrewed adventures. Creating my own adventures gives more freedom to me and my players to explore. I learned long ago to never come up with solutions, only come up with problems for the group and this can be an issue with some published adventures. However, right now we are getting close to completing the Tyranny of Dragons adventures from Wizards. The first book was fairly rail-roady (not sure if that is a word) with a set progression of encounters/solutions. I am enjoying the second book better with its plug and play options. It feels like I can give the players more control of the story.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

When I first started playing 5e we did almost all grid based combat. Now we are gradually moving to theater of the mind. It started when one player moved out of state, and only joins via Google Hangout. Tough to focus on a map when one player is restricted to the camera on a laptop or iPad. Now that we've started getting off the grid more, I find that I enjoy it. Not focusing on a map can help folks think of outlandish actions and the players imagine more than I can draw. One of the downsides of theater of the mind is that it can marginalize some of the abilities of classes and races. One that I have a hard time with is speed. I have a monk in my current group that is 15 to 20 feet faster than most of the other players. Something like that is hard to model in theater of the mind. My reality for combat is often a hybrid. I will draw "not to scale" map and then use a miniature to represent characters and NPCs just in relation to each other.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

Number one prep tool - 3x5 index cards. I cannot imagine how I ever DMd without using index cards. I use them for everything from NPC info, magic item tracking, initiative cards, temporary terrain, and of course just plain notes. Getting them in different colors can also be helpful.

Number two - Evernote. I use this application to record what happened in the previous session, and to outline what I think will happen in the next session. It's free and works across multiple platforms. I don't normally use it during a game, but it is where all my thoughts and plans go between games.

Number three - Internet. For published adventures I search for previous examples of play and get ideas on what works, what doesn't, and any possible customization. For homebrewed I search for specific monsters, or terrain areas. The DMs Guild is also useful for premade encounters and other ideas to drop into my own adventures.

I didn't include any of the game manuals as tools - take them as a given. Outside of any module, I normally just use the PHB and the Monster Manual. The DMs Guide is helpful, but I use it more for a magic item reference than anything else.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Number One - Call the players by their character names (stolen from Dungeon World). Make Players always think about their character and their relationship to the other characters.

Number Two - Forget the rules. There's no way you can remember all the rules so don't even try. (OK, learn as much of the rules as you can, but understand that you can't learn them all.) Don't stop the game for rulings, just make it up and come back later.

Number Three - Yes, And... This one is the most important for fun. Build on the ideas of the players. Encourage their creativity and it will spread to other players.

If all else fails - bring beer.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

The single most important thing that helped me is to play in as many other games as I can and see how other game masters run games. This is one of the things that keeps me going back to GenCon year after year. Conventions are one of the best places to experience a wide variety of games and game masters.

Mike Mearls

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

I'm Mike Mearls. I run the design and development team for D&D at Wizards.

How long are your gaming sessions?

My Monday night game runs for about 2 hours. My theoretical Friday afternoon game is about the same length, though we meet fairly rarely right now (vacations, conventions, special projects, and so on put a damper on gaming at work). Having a toddler at home makes it much harder to set aside long stretches of time for gaming, but I manage!

How often do you run them?

Both games are weekly, though the fall is a rough time for scheduled games. Working at a game company has the benefit of giving me a big pool of players, but it also means that convention season makes getting together difficult.

Where do you run your games?

I run both at the WotC offices.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

I focus entirely on story elements - the why behind what's going on, what my NPCs are up to, what interesting stuff is happening in the world. Combat prep is my lowest time. I copy down a few stat blocks and make notes on what makes an area interesting. I don't use the encounter building rules. Fights are as tough as is appropriate to the location and situation.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

For story, I have it in the back of my mind and stew on it for a few days. I spend an hour before the session organizing my notes and creating maps as needed. For combat stuff, 30 minutes copying stat blocks and making notes. However, that prep usually lasts 3 - 5 sessions.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

None I can think of. I am fairly prep light, though I do miss having the time to paint miniatures for specific villains and monsters in the campaign. When I do use minis, I like to try to make it special.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

Interesting NPCs to mess with. I think a hallmark of my campaigns is that the players find plenty of people to hate. An NPC-focused campaign is also easier for me to make open-ended. No matter where the PCs go or what they want to do, my NPCs can meddle in their plans or spark their next line of action.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

I mix the two. I scavenge published stuff all the time. I start with what I need, and then grab the published thing that is the closest fit, and then modify it as needed. I've used The Lost City as a stand in for sunken Atlantis (run at 10th level), Master of the Desert Nomads for an expedition to hunt down yetis for their fur (converted from desert to tundra), and a few other adventures.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

Theatre of the mind. Faster, and it allows me to spend more time describing things in dramatic terms. However, I do sometimes use a grid. I don't snap to grid when I do use minis. Distances are rough, I don't count squares, and so on. It's a loose representation of what's going on rather than a strict simulation.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

My PDF catalog of classic D&D titles. I print maps and refer to the PDF as needed.

The Monster Manual. I reskin like crazy. I've used the cockatrice for statues that turn intruders to stone, and the aboleth as the avatar of a demon lord.

A nice organizer with a stout cover, plenty of pouches, and a pad of graph paper.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Keep combat interesting by describing every blow in a dynamic way.

Make your NPCs devious and awful. If the players hate your villains, you're doing a good job.

When in doubt, make it weird.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

The key to a good game is giving your players' characters exactly what they want with plenty of strings attached.

Shawn Merwin

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

Shawn Merwin, freelancer of Wizards of the Coast, Programs Manager for Baldman Games, Lead Editor for Encoded Designs, and co-host of the Down with DnD podcast.

How long are your gaming sessions?

From 1-5 hours, depending on the games I am running.

How often do you run them?

I generally play in a regular game every other week, and then on top of that, at least once a month, I either run playtests of works in development or run games at conventions.

Where do you run your games?

For our regular bi-weekly game or playtests, we run at the house of whomever is best suited to host depending on the situation with travel needs and child care/family issues. For conventions, wherever the wind takes me.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

I generally spend very little time preparing outside of reading and re-reading the adventure. If there are special rules for situations or monsters, I will take the time to freshen up my knowledge of those. I sometimes make maps beforehand, but only if I know I am going to be running the same adventure more than once.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

How long it takes to read an adventure or chapter twice depends on its length. Reading special rules takes less than an hour. Preparing maps generally takes less than an hour as well.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

I wish I had the time and money and storage space to make nicer maps and models that the players might enjoy.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

Reading and understand the adventure is the most valuable thing the DM can do. Not having to take 20 minutes to read a section of an adventure before proceeding is the greatest gift you can give players.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

I generally end up doing both. Since I publish a lot of adventures, I am generally running a publish adventure that I wrote. I do prefer, however, to run other people's material rather than my own. It gives me a greater feeling of excitement to explore the adventure with the players rather than running something that came out of my own head 12 months ago.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

I don't have a preference per se, but I understand the benefits and drawbacks of each, and I try to use each when the encounter will minimize those drawbacks and maximize the benefits. Theater of the mind is harder to do well, but works best when it can be done well. Grids are easier to run and less mental work, but much slower than a well-run TotM encounter.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

Erasable flip-mats, index cards, and the 3 core books.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Ask your players to provide on aspect of their character that makes them unique, and make sure you use that somehow, somewhere in your game.

Be quiet as often as you can when the players are keeping the game moving on their own.

Learn to read social and body/face cues.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Have fun running the game, and make sure that the fun you are having is expressed clearly at the table. Speak slowly and clearly with a smile, making eye contact with all the players.

Russ Morrissey

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

Russ Morrissey, or Morrus, owner of EN World, EN Publishing, and the ENnies.

How long are your gaming sessions?

3-4 hours, usually. We run from about 8-11, maybe a bit longer if things are exciting and nobody has to be up too early the next morning.

How often do you run them?

Weekly, on the same evening each week.

Where do you run your games?

At a friend's home. I've never run a game in public or in game store.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

Preparing handouts and props are a big part of my prep time.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

Not too much; I like to be able to wing it a little. It also depends on if I'm running a published adventure or a home-brew - the latter I will wing a lot more.

Handouts and prop making are a large part; I feel they add to the game immensely.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

Reading published adventures. I find it hard reading pages of room descriptions, so it often gets left until last.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

Handouts, having the info I need ready so there's no "hang on while I look this up", making sure I'm in the right mood/frame of mind for a fun adventure.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

I prefer home-brew, but don't necessarily have the time to prep them (unless I just wing it). I find published adventures can be hard to read, especially site-based ones with lots of room descriptions. I've also never liked boxed text; I always try to be sure I know what's in the room, what I want to highlight, and describe it myself in my own words.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

Both are very different experiences and I love them both. The former is more tactical and the latter is more cinematic. Both can be used to set different tones or moods depending on the scene; they're tools in a toolbox to be used when appropriate.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

Peace, quiet, and a printer!

Depending on the game, of course, I might use electronic tools to prepare stat blocks and the like.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Don't look for reasons to say "no".

If you don't know something, make it up and move on. There's nothing less exciting than watching a DM reading a book. The secret is it doesn't really matter what you decide, as long as the game moves on.

Ban mobile phones at the game table. In my D&D games, if somebody touches their phone, the DM gets an inspiration die which is used against the PCs on the next roll I make. Peer pressure means that doesn't happen very often!

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Listen to your players and if they suggest something which sounds cooler than what you have planned, run with it and pretend like that was the plan all along. They can unwittingly provide some fantastic plot twists!

Davena Oaks

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

I'm Davena Oaks, TheSheDM, and I am the Oregon Senior Local Coordinator for D&D Adventurers League. I began with D&D 3rd edition and got involved with organized play with 4th edition and never stopped volunteering after that. Sometimes I update theshedm.com, but can't right now because it is infested with kruthiks.

How long are your gaming sessions?

On average, my D&D sessions last about 4 hours.

How often do you run them?

I run D&D sessions weekly, sometimes twice in a week.

Where do you run your games?

90% of my sessions are played at my local game store, and a few sessions happen at my home, in the living room.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

I spend time preparing the key story elements I want to reveal, deciding how the NPCs will act, and planning combat or skill encounters.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

I spend a little time for every session just thinking about NPCs - how they should sound and act, trying to anticipate what they'll need to say in response to the players actions. I spend the most time working on the story elements, but I tend to spread it out over several days - working on ideas and notes for 10 or 20 minutes at a time. Preparing for a combat takes less time, but I'm more likely to sit down and try to get it all done in an hour or so.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

I wish I could spend a little more time crafting unique and clever encounters, but often it is the last thing I work on, so it tends to be thrown together hastily the evening before.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

I think preparing interactive materials draws a big "Wow!" from the players. Things like physical puzzles, props, terrain, even well-done player handouts do a lot to make the players invested in what is going on right now.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

I enjoy running many published adventures and they provide a great convenience, but I prefer my homebrewed campaigns. As wonderful as the best published adventure may be, it'll never be as deeply satisfying as running a successful homebrew adventure. I enjoy worldbuilding and a published adventure will never satisfy that need. I also enjoy character-driven narratives and most published adventures tend to focus on events and locations the characters can react to - rather than be the driving force behind.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

I enjoy using miniatures and maps, especially full color maps vs. hastily scrawled diagrams on my vinyl. I used to abhor "theater of the mind" and avoided it at all costs. However, 5e has taught me to love "theater of the mind" and I use it quite a lot now, especially for quick or unplanned combats. I think TotM keeps players focused on more instinctive-type actions and ensuring swift turn resolutions, while maps and grids get players looking at broader tactics: thinking two or three turns ahead, considering their allies and environment more, and making more thoughtful, deliberate actions. I keep that in mind when I'm planning my encounters.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

My top three tools right now are Google Docs (for organizing notes and images), Kobold Fight Club (for encounter building), and Youtube (for sound effects and ambiance).

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Let the players contribute to your world - have them name NPCs, create minor locations, or describe small details. Occasionally something created this way has a chance to be important in your campaign - which means the contributing player will feel immensely invested!

Pay attention to pacing - in both the short and long term. In a single session try keep a rhythm to the activity and don't let interactions lag for too long without good reason. Over the course of several sessions, interrupt longer arcs of similar activity with something different to keep your whole campaign from feeling too much like a wash-rinse-repeat cycle.

Always strive to improve. Let your player's know you are open to feedback. Ask for feedback often and if your players are too shy to give you their feedback directly, find a way to let them share it privately or anonymously - with notes or tools like google forms or online surveys.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Here's a simple trick that helped me improve my DM craft: record your play session, then play it back to yourself at a later date.You don't need fancy equipment or a sound engineer. I have found my phone's microphone works quite well if I just place it near me on the table, preferably on something soft like a mousepad or an empty dice bag to dampen the table's bumps and bangs. The recording won't be podcast quality, but you'll gain so much value from hearing your session after you've had a few days away from it. The best moments will make you feel proud and happy. The weak points will give you guidance on how to improve. You'll learn what you sound like to your players - do you say "Uh" a lot? Do you forget to describe environments? Do you take too long figuring out initiative? These are small things I learned about myself from listening to my recorded sessions. DMing takes a lot of focus and energy and sometimes you can't stay on top of everything that is unfolding at the table - but if you record and review your sessions, you'll catch every detail and it will be fresh in your memory when you sit down to DM your next session.

Karl Resch

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

Hi, I'm Karl Resch, also known as @artificeralf on Twitter. I've been playing D&D for about 7 years now, and with that I've had some amazing opportunities to get involved with the game and the community. I wrote Court of Stars: The Trinket Lord in Dungeon 205, and recently published a Rage of Demons side trek called Fear of the Dark on the DM's Guild. I've also been a playtester for many of the recent D&D products in the last few years, starting with Murder in Baldur's Gate and the recently published Storm King's Thunder.

How long are your gaming sessions?

My gaming sessions typically run between 4-5 hours.

How often do you run them?

My group typically plays once a month.

Where do you run your games?

Aside from running at conventions, my games are always at my house.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

Map preparation Combat Encounters Adventure outline major events, NPC's, treasure, etc

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

By my estimate, the following is how long it takes me to put pencil to paper in preparation, not my brainstorm sessions that come to me whenever:

2 hours map preparation (drawing, assembling tiles) 1 hour any combat encounters 2 hours outlining adventure, major events, NPC's, etc

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

I always feel like the "boxed text" read aloud portions of my adventures could use a little more work, especially after watching live play games with Chris Perkins or Critical Role's Matt Mercer. Those guys always create these sensory descriptions that make the game come alive. It's always something I think can be ad-libbed successfully, but I always walk away after the game wishing I had done better. It's definitely a delicate balance, because I don't want my descriptions to become too boring the players miss the point. I want enough to evoke a sensory response, and then let them decide how to proceed.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

My group has a Facebook page that we post our downtime activities in. As the DM, I can also use it to introduce events that are happening to lead in to the next session. I don't ever post anything the characters wouldn't know or be interacting with, because I feel that those surprises and plot twists are best discovered through the characters' actions, not as prior PC knowledge.

I also try to continually ask players about their characters. Some players come to the table with a full backstory about their character. Others come knowing a few main points ("my family was betrayed by my uncle"), and by continuing to ask as the game proceeds, these details become more and more fleshed out ("he opened a portal to the lower realm, unleashing fiends upon my family"). These details then give incentives to me as a DM as I put together various plots and adventures. In the above example, knowing what I know about the character's backstory, I could begin giving some of the enemies connections to the uncle. This develops the story in a new way for me as a DM, while presenting more character development opportunities for the players.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

I run about a 50/50 mix between homebrewed adventures and published adventures adapted for our home campaign world. Despite an adventure already being published, I still find the prep time to be about the same! Homebrew adventures allow me to explore ideas and directions the players have wanted to go, while published adventures provide ideas to tweak and play with. Sometimes I just I love the layout of a particular dungeon and decide to borrow it for my own. There's a ton of amazing maps, traps, and stories to be found if one dives in to the older modules. Some personal favorites that I've adapted include Evil Tide, by Bruce R. Cordell, and Fane of the Sun Swallower by Christopher Perkins, Robert J. Schwalb, and James Wyatt (part I of Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle). My most recent adaptation was of Menace of the Icy Spire, a 4th edition adventure from Dungeon 159 by Sean Moley.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

I prefer gridded combat with maps for a few reasons. First, maps and miniatures provide a visual gaming experience, which my group really enjoys. Gridded combat allows them to choose/create their own PC miniature, adding more imagination to the game as they look at their figure on the board and imagine them interacting with their current environment.

Another reason I prefer maps is because I love to draw them! While this takes a lot of time (and preparation), the payoff is always worth it to me. It creates a sense of wonder that pulls the players in to the game more, and there are some amazing things one can accomplish that theater of the mind cannot. For example, when running Writhings in the Dark by Alan Patrick at Winter Fantasy 2016, I filled every square on the grid with black and purple crosshatching. The result was a trippy-looking map, perfect for what I wanted to convey about fighting a mind flayer in its lair. Such a thing would have not been possible had I chosen to run theater of the mind.

Additionally, Dungeon Tiles are a really cool resource, but the preparation for them takes quite a bit of time. A session based around Dungeon Tiles adds serious prep time to my games.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

Old Modules/Poster Maps I cannot stress enough how much inspiration I draw from the wealth of material I was able to collect from 4e. I spend a lot of time reviewing my old Dragon/Dungeon pdfs for maps and adventure hooks. I've also been able to track down a number of the old 4e Lair Assault modules, and try to use those maps whenever the moment seems appropriate, as they are quite unique and flavorful.

Art Inspiration/Campaign Guides I have a large number of books that showcase concept art and published art. As I write this, a few that I see are The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Art of Magic the Gathering: Innistrad, and The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. These texts allow me to find interesting looking locations, characters, or in some cases, maps that I can take and develop in to something I want to make use of. For example, I might peruse the Zelda book looking for some sort of volcanic location if I need to prepare for a fire motif in some way in my home game.

Twitter when I get stuck on an idea, I like to tweet my thoughts and ask for help. I get tons of ideas from other DM's who have either used a similar situation in an adventure, or have a new insight I may not have. I also favorite and re-tweet maps and other pictures people post, as they serve as ideas I can borrow and adapt. The Internet is a powerful tool. Use it for good!

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Wow the players. This is that one big moment of the gaming session. Maybe it's revealing something dramatic to the players, such as realizing the mundane trinket they acquired is a lich's phylactery. Maybe it's bringing forth an amazing set piece, like an inclusion of 3d terrain. Or maybe it's just placing a single figure, like a tyrannosaurus rex, on the map. These become the moments that define the session, and you want to make them count. It's always worth spending some time before each session to figure out what your moment is, and how to make it as dramatic as possible.

Play Your Strengths Some DM's prefer combat encounters, while others prefer the social or exploration parts of the game. All of those things are ok. In fact, it's what make every DM unique and creates different play experiences for those that partake in playing in your games. While not every session focuses on each of these three pillars equally, be sure to try and include one of your strong points for at least one part of the session. Chances are, it will make you feel more comfortable running the parts you're not entirely sure of. I struggled with combat for a while the bookkeeping, the monster powers, etc. I felt slightly overwhelmed and didn't believe I could give my players a solid experience. However, I always enjoyed letting the players explore the world and learn interesting tidbits about where they were. By playing up the exploration part of the game, I went in to combats feeling more comfortable since I was already riding that DM high for the night.

Believe in Yourself One of my favorite trinkets of advice is "you only have to believe to achieve". While it's not an umbrella statement for everything in life, it definitely applies to DMing! The fact that you have decided to DM for your group is already a momentous task in and of itself. Don't downplay it! The entire table is there to have fun, so just roll with it. Chances are you've spent a good deal of worry and preparation to make sure things go smoothly, so take the time to enjoy it. Worst case scenario is that you have to take a moment to gather your thoughts, which is totally ok. If players have to do it from time to time, so can the DM!

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

I got this piece from one of Chris Perkins' DM Experience columns: Don't squirrel away your ideas. Use them, even if you're not sure how to get the most out of them.

There's not too much more to add, as Mr. Perkins wrote an entire column around that sentence (I Don't Know What It Means, But I Like It, March 3, 2011). It's a simple statement, yet there are huge implications for following it. First, it encourages the use of whatever ideas one is excited about the most at that very time. Have gelatinous cubes on the brain? Find a way to use them in the next session! Have a super interesting NPC you want to introduce to the party? Guess what, they are currently staying in the same village! I've been on both sides of the table when this piece of advice has been used. From a DM's perspective, I had the idea of introducing the idea of an Unseelie fey with ties to winter. With a little DM creativity, I was able to take Menace of the Icy Spire and turn it in to an adventure that fit where the campaign was currently, as well introducing the ideas I had suddenly been inspired by. It definitely shook up the players expectations for what they were expecting for the night, and I got to see my ideas play out in a way I was happy with.

As a player, I've had moments where I'm completely surprised by events that have unfolded, both for and against the party. It seems that these ideas, which can be seen as random, really do define characters and some of the adventure moments. For example, I play a satyr warlock in another 5e game (the satyr is homebrewed, since I didn't get to play one in 4e). While at level 3, one of the treasures given to us by a sage was a +1 flaming longsword. As a player, I was floored. This was an incredibly powerful magic item, in the hands of a third level character! Our DM knew what he was doing though, as the sword had a rich history and was gifted for a purpose. The young, carefree satyr has slowly learned the responsibility of wielding such a weapon, causing him to grow in the process.

In short, never second guess yourself when it comes to the story you and your players are telling. It creates something better than one would expect.

Allison Rossi

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

You can introduce me as Allison Rossi, but I also go as "Ehloanna" online - (Ell-oh-ah-na). (Yes, I did steal that from Ehlonna, but I always read it with an A in there. When I realized my mistake it was too late, and I actually liked how it sounded. So I stole it. LOL)

My relationship with tabletop games started in college, where a friend introduced a few of us to Gamma World. After I graduated from college I needed to play more TTRPGs, so I ended up searching high and low for a D&D group. Within a month I found a local group on reddit who were looking to play around with D&D Next, which we all now know as D&D 5e. About a week or two later I picked up an online group running 3.5e via Roll20, and we actually just celebrated our three year anniversary as a group. We average about 30 sessions of D&D a year, with some Dungeon World and Stars Without Number thrown in. Outside of my groups where I play, I've also been a D&D 5e Dungeon Master for the Adventurers League for two years as of this month.

If you wanted more info about me as a person outside of D&D (like, other hobbies) let me know and I can add more info there. Wasn't sure what all you wanted to know specifically. :)

I DM in Falls Church. I generally have anywhere from 4 to 9 players. We could probably fit one more DM in the space if there was interest, but otherwise the shop is pretty packed between us and the Magic players.

How long are your gaming sessions?

Generally 3-4 hours.

How often do you run them?

Once a week.

Where do you run your games?

I run games in a comic shop that also sells RPG/tabletop/card related games.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

I probably spend the most time thinking out the possibilities. "If my players do this..." type situations. If they choose not to follow my hints, how do I give them more hints, or keep them going in the generally correct direction.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

Reading the module. I try to reach each part of the module at least 3 times. I can spend up to an hour on this depending on how many times I read it, and how much I take notes in between making NPC or town info sheets. If you count these somewhat separate from regular notes, I sometimes make special table tents for NPCs. I also sometimes do a lot of outside research on towns, places, or things they may encounter. I try not to spend more than an hour on this.

Taking my own notes. I spend probably 10 minutes on this.

Making physical props. This is expensive, so I spend generally zero time on this at this time. I DO try to make big/fun things for finales like when I made the Temple of Tiamat for RoT. I spent about 10 hours on that total. I also made all the floors of Death House, which took me just about as long because of the painting and cardboard cutting I had to do.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

I would like to spend time on props, but it's just too expensive.

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

NPC and town prep. Giving them photos and being able to have a deeper understanding of their backgrounds and where they art allows me to add so much more flavor to the dialog.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

Right now I prefer running published modules. I don't have the time to develop an entire storyline of my own since I like to spend my evenings PC gaming. If I had infinite time, sure, I'd love to write some homebrew. Until the publish stuff stops comin' off the printer, I think I'll be mostly running those.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

Yes and no. I like miniatures and combat grids, but with the size table I have and space I have...it isn't really easy. It's too hard to reach across the table or spend time drawing when we've got such short sessions that have to end at a pretty set time every week due to the shop closing.

I do really enjoy narrative combat a la "theater of the mind" play, but with big combat sometimes it's just too confusing for me or the players to keep up with.

In an ideal world I'd have a digital tabletop using Roll20 with a touch screen that all my players could use to move themselves around. I can dream...

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

The internet is where I get a lot of my ideas. Reading posts, asking for help, using generated content like NPC info, towns, etc. It's fantastic the resources we have.

Other DMs - I love talking through things with other DMs when I have the time to. Every few weeks I'll pose a question on Twitter about my game and I often get a ton of helpful or creative replies/DMs.

Flipping through modules or rpg related books - sometimes when I'm unsure how to handle something or where to go next, I try to flip through old modules or the core books to get inspiration for where to go next.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Avoid saying "no" whenever possible - if it's even remotely feasible, try and find a way your players can do their actions.

Develop rapport with your players and know their characters as best as you can. What motivates them? Why are they adventuring? What's their attitude like? How do they act with different types of NPCs? What angers their characters?

Have digital resources at the ready - I use a spellbook app and the 5e srd often to make my job quick and easy. If you can't do digital, have things bookmarked in your core rulebooks!

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Minimize your prep if you can. You shouldn't be spending more than 3 hours a week prepping for a normal campaign once it's successfully "up and running." If you do, I think you're going a little overboard with prep, and potentially putting your players on rails. Know where you ended the last session, where you're beginning this session, and 2-3 possible directions you could take the storyline.

Liz Theis

How would you like to be introduced on Sly Flourish for this questionnaire? Who are you and what is your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons?

My name is Liz Theis (pronounced like "nice"), and I've been playing D&D since I was about 5 (~23 years). I also worked in the tabletop RPG industry for a few years, though I recently went back into the non-gaming work world.

How long are your gaming sessions?

Usually 6 hours or so.

How often do you run them?

Usually ever 2-3 weeks.

Where do you run your games?

My house.

What elements of the game do you spend time on during preparation?

General plot points, important NPCs, and villain/monster details.

Per session, how much preparation time do you spend overall and on each element?

I usually spend 3-4 hours prepping, though I'm not really sure how much per element as they're usually so related.

What game preparation activities do you wish you could spend more time on?

Everything! I feel like I'm always racing against the clock, trying to get everything ready for the next game (in between work and school).

What preparation activities do you feel makes the game the most fun for your players?

Spending time thinking about what I could do if the players go off the rails at any important point.

Do you prefer to run published adventures or your own homebrewed adventures? Why?

Homebrew! I'm probably biased because that's what my dad did as I was growing up. I didn't experience a published adventure until after college.

Do you prefer to run gridded combat with maps and miniatures or more narrative "theater of the mind" combat? Why?

Theater of the mind. Again, that's what I grew up with. I think the moment grids aren't introduced it gets more focused on very specific battlefield tactics rather than story and broader strategy.

What are your top three favorite tools to help you prepare your game?

Google Drive (for writing notes, sharing images across computers, etc.), Hero Lab for easily creating encounters by challenge rating and customer villains, and most recently Hexographer to map out my world as I create it with the players.

What are your top three favorite tricks for running a great game?

Involve your players' characters' backstories in the story and encourage connections between their characters (this is why it's important to do a Session Zero)

Be open to your players' twists and turns and influence on the story. If you're running a published adventure, think of ways to personalize the story to your characters.

Read the table. If the combat is running long, wrap it up - drop the creature to near zero and allow for an exciting finish. Are they really enjoying what's going? Note it, so you can recreate it again.

What single tip, trick, or piece of advice helped you run a better game and become a better game master?

Don't worry too much about the official rules and minutiae. Even better, set that expectation with your players from the beginning. At the end of the day, it's about having fun.

"Love the one you're with." -Crosby, Stills & Nash

David Hartlage, friend of Sly Flourish and author of the excellent Dungeons & Dragons blog DM David, wrote an interesting article entitled how new changes created the 4 most annoying spells in Dungeons & Dragons. This follows along in a series of articles he's written looking at spells. Here's a big list of these articles, all of which are worth reading.

David's strong premise is that certain spells in the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons remove the challenge of an encounter and thus remove the fun of the challenge as well. Spells like sleep, banish, protection from evil, hypnotic pattern, counterspell, and many others can circumvent many challenges characters face in D&D. These spells often remove the ability for a DM to predict how any scene will turn out, be it be a fight with some ogres, a stern conversation with the captain of the guard, or the exploration of an ancient dwarven vault.

Whether we like it or not, the D&D 5e isn't a predictable game. It's a game with a lot of sharp spikes in power for both characters and monsters. There's no smooth line of power progression in 5e. Monsters, characters, spells, magic items, and just about any other measurable aspect of the game don't smoothly progress in power as characters level up. Like it or not, this is the design of the game. Wizards, for example, get significantly more powerful when they learn fireball at level 5. It's a huge spike in power that will radically change their effectiveness in combat.

These unpredictable power spikes make encounter balance really hard. The truth is, there is no real encounter balance. We can aim for a general difficulty but then circumstances will quickly take over. Some challenges might be easily bypassed while others might force a complete retreat.

Spells like hypnotic pattern and banishment are completely unpredictable. They might remove threats to the characters with a single die-roll or they might fail completely. Challenges become a lot easier when one of the larger creatures disappears from combat.

This is the reality of the D&D 5e.

We DMs are highly creative types. I hypothesize that nearly every DM has their own hand-built roleplaying game sitting around on a hard drive somewhere. We love to tinker. We love to create. We love to dig into the details of the system because we're not just playing D&D, we're making D&D every time we sit down to prep or run a game. We likely spend a great deal of time thinking about mechanics and struggling with these strange spikes in character power, whether it be the detection of lies, invisibility, flight, shapeshifting, or banishment.

When we see these strange spikes, our instinct is to try to fix them. The day I discovered my long-standing annoyance with the hit point restoration effects of the Moon Druid's wildshape ability, I wanted to fix it. I even enforced my fix during a couple of campaigns. I invoked a simple "damage carries over between forms" house rule intended to make wildshape less useful for tanking and steer players towards using it as a utility for sneaking around as a chipmunk or climbing a mountain as a giant spider. Still, I was probably wrong to houserule it. Numerous discussions on Twitter showed me that lots of classes have ways to mitigate damage like the moon druid, from the barbarian's rage to the mage's shield. These spikes in defensive capabilities are part of the game.

However we feel about it, D&D 5e is the way it is. The books are printed. The mechanics are locked in. Wizards of the Coast has made it clear that any errata they do for the game is mostly for clarification or misprints, not to "fix" things that appear unbalanced.

That's because, like it or not, D&D 5e is inherently unbalanced and that's what makes it so fun.

Symmetrical games can get boring fast. If everyone knows that their capabilities are exactly matched to whatever monster they face, things quickly become a grind. The results are expected and predictable. Some of us DMs might like that predictability because it makes it easy to know how things will turn out but players don't. When a balor steps through a fiery gate and the characters manage to pull off a banish with a single poor saving throw, they feel empowered. That's like Indiana Jones shooting the swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The power spikes work the other way too. All the dexterity in the world won't stop a banshee from dropping a rogue with a single scream. All the plate armor in the world won't prevent the paladin from getting polymorphed into a frog. A lich's power word kill might drop the wizard with a single word if the lich manages to win the initiative.

This unpredictability of D&D reveals another advantage of narrative combat. If we're less invested in the battlespace itself; the maps, the miniatures, the terrain, and the grid; we're less likely to care when the battle gets circumvented with a single well-placed fireball or the clever use of pass without trace. Narrative combat flows into the rest of the story of the game, meaning the game's "modes" of exploration, interaction, and combat flow within one another much easier than if we shift from spoken descriptions to a map with a grid for each fight.

David's description of summon woodland creatures is another good example of how narrative combat can help. If we're running on a grid and someone casts this spell, that's like 16 extra miniatures we need to set out. Big hassle. Instead, we can just have the player describe what the woodland beings do all at once, roll a handful of d20 rolls for it, and arbitrate the number of sprites blasted in a fireball using the targets per area of effect rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Even if we run on a grid, it might be best to skip the minis for hordes of summoned creatures and take care of their actions by just talking it out.

If these asymmetrical spells seem to make things too easy for the characters, we DMs have a lot of options. The speed of combat in 5e means we don't have to worry too much about adding more monsters or increasing the challenge rating of the monsters we do choose. Increasing monster hit points, monster damage output, and the variety of monsters is all possible on the fly. As we mentioned in our encounter building guidelines we're best understanding the capabilities of the characters an building challenges around than than we are assuming the default encounter building guidelines should work all the time.

Of course, constantly pushing the characters to the edge isn't always what we want. Players enjoy that feeling of empowerment when they eat through mobs of enemies with their powerful spells and weapons. We should revel in those blowout encounters as much as our players do. After all, the kid in Stranger Things killed Demogorgon with a single fireball and those kids looked pretty happy about it.

However we feel about the mechanical choices built into the design of 5e D&D, they're here to stay. We all have perfect systems floating around in our heads but the one we have in front of us is pretty damn good. How about we love the one we're with?

When writing about the adventure Hoard of the Dragon Queen we here at Sly Flourish wrote chapter-by-chapter deep dives of the whole book to help DMs run this adventure. With more recent adventures, Sean McGovern over at the Power Score has written fantasic guides of each of the Wizards of the Coast published adventures that put our Sly Flourish chapter-by-chapter writeups to shame. The same is definitely true with his excellent guide to the Curse of Strahd also available on the DM's Guild. For that reason, we're not writing in-depth coverage of the entire Curse of Strahd adventure. Go read his in its place.

Instead, we're going to cover a few big thoughts and a few concepts that might make running Curse of Strahd more fun. This isn't a deep dive into the adventures. This is more of a "what if" scenario. These ideas aren't for everyone and likely each DM will have their own thoughts on how to run it. That is, of course, how adventures run best.

I've written a bunch of other articles about Curse of Strahd that might be worth your time. Here's a list:

• Running Death House
• Tarokka-based Random Encounter Effects
• Pool Table Dungeon Mastering in Barovia
• Strahd's Negotiation
• D&D 5e Bonds Based On Fiasco-Style Relationships (includes Curse of Strahd examples)
• Running Strahd von Zarovich
• Sly Flourish's Vampires

These each cover specific pieces of the adventure and offer tools to help run Curse of Strahd. This article, however, will cover some larger overall thoughts and ideas on this large campaign adventure. Let's dig in.

Strahd, the Omnipresent Villain

This adventure is all about Strahd. Based on his motivations and potential interactions with the characters, he's almost the perfect D&D villain. He's powerful but his goal isn't to just wipe the characters out. We don't have to worry about the hypocrisy of not killing characters the minute they step into Barovia. That's not his goal. Strahd brought the characters to Barovia because he's bored. He wants to add some excitement to the land, some new variables, and those variables are our heroes.

When we run Curse of Strahd, it works really well when Strahd is in their faces a lot. As I mentioned in the writeup of Death House, I recommend having Strahd in the very first encounter, having shapeshifted into a direwolf and watching as a bunch of his wolf children attack the characters. This can happen right before the characters discover that their journey to Barovia was a ruse. He wants to see them first hand. If they try to attack him? Great! He's not really going to fight back but he's not beyond throwing up a counterspell or shield to show them that he's no simple direwolf himself.

We can bring Strahd in like this a lot throughout the adventure. In graveyards, hovering over ancient bridges, standing at the tops of ruined towers, whenever they think they just had a huge victory—there he is smiling at them.

You can do a lot of this outside the view of the characters as well, with some well-placed flash fiction to give players the impression that he's always paying attention even if the character's don't know it. Follow Alfred Hitchcock's rules for suspense here. A surprise is when the viewer doesn't know if there's a bomb under the seat of the hero. Suspense is when the viewer sees the bomb under the seat but the character doesn't know it's there.

Make Strahd's Plot Your Own

Strahd's plot may change depending on what the characters do. As the game evolves, as we look at the backgrounds of the characters, Strahd's actions might change. For example, Strahd might design a much more dastardly plot by attempting to convert Ireena not just into a vampire, but into THE vampire—the Red Queen! He might know that his time in Barovia is done and it's time to put a new leader in charge, one more benevolent, one more lawful, than he.

It's also possible that, should they go to the Amber Temple, the characters awaken a darkness or an evil even worse than Strahd. This might be unleashing the lich, Exethanter. It might be awakening a being of horror yet unseen in the worlds. It might even be the Ancient One, the first vampire born a quarter of a million years ago whose blood created Strahd in the Amber Temple.

Any of these threats can change the landscape of Barovia and change Strahd's motivations and interactions with the characters. With an Ancient One loose in Barovia, it's possible Strahd himself becomes a quest-giving NPC instead of the primary villain.

When you run Curse of Strahd, you have full authority to change Strahd's motivations and actions however the flow of the story goes. He is always watching and always reacting.

Choose Your Favorite Locations

Curse of Strahd is a big book with a lot of locations in it. You certainly don't have to run them all. It's worth your time to read through the adventure and decide which parts of the adventure resonate with you and which ones don't. Sean McGovern, for example, didn't feel like the Amber Temple fit with the rest of the storyline while I thought it was a neat way to see Strahd's origins and add a new powerful villain, the lich Exethanter, into the mix.

I, on the other hand, didn't dig the whole Island of Doctor Moreau theme going on over at Krezk. Small baby heads growing out of the backs of deformed mongrel-men creeped me out.

The point is, each of us gets to choose which parts we want to run. It helps if you know which of these parts you're going to want to run before you dig into the game, of course.

A Sandbox of Sandboxes

Like Out of the Abyss, each chapter in Curse of Strahd is its own little sandbox with interesting NPCs, strange happenings, cool locations, powerful events, and lots of potential plot hooks. Feel free to fill them out as little or as much as you want.

Keep in mind that, as your characters travel through Barovia, you'll have to stay two steps ahead of them. If they are just about to head into Vallaki, read up ahead of time on the Ruins of Berez, the Wizard of Wines, or the old wizard's tower so you're ready to drop in the hooks to go to these locations as the characters wander around Vallaki.

This is a good general rule of thumb for adventure prep. Always be two steps ahead of the characters so you can drop in next session's plot hooks now.

Tie In the Backgrounds of the Characters

Right from the beginning we can tie in the backgrounds of the characters into the game. Maybe one of the characters is a former werewolf who seeks redemption within the walls of Ravenloft. Maybe another character seeks her former mentor, the amazing Rictavio, who became lost in the fog. Maybe a character seeks to eliminate the cursed barbarian tribe of the Dire Wolf who have become the servants of the devil Strahd.

We can incorporate these backgrounds by changing some of the events that take place in the adventure. Instead of vampires attacking the town of Vallaki, maybe it's a pack of werewolves to which one of the characters formerly belonged. Maybe the barbarian character learns that the Dire Wolf barbarian clan worships the twisted tree containing one of the three gems of the Wizard of Wines. Maybe the younger sister of one of the characters had been kidnapped and drawn to Barovia to serve as Baba Lysaga's servant two decades earlier.

The more we can tie in the backgrounds of the characters to pieces of the adventure and into the evolving story of Strahd, the more investment our players will have in the game. Start and end with the backgrounds of the characters and we'll share a story everyone will remember.

The Order of the Silver Dragon

When we think about the various factions in Barovia, there's one more we can add that can create quite a bit of fun. What if, over the years, members of the villages of Barovia banned together under the banner of the Knights of the Silver Dragon? These self-ordaned knights might act as crusaders of the light, seeking those who have fallen under Strahd's corruption and bringing those they deem "corrupted" to the torch.

Though these Knights of the Silver Dragon revere the revenants at Argynvostholt, the revenants themselves care none at all for these false knights. As the characters travel through Barovia, they might find themselves fighting with, or fighting against, the Order. If the characters can get the revenants at Argynvostholt to vouch for them, the characters might find themselves in a position to direct and lead the knights.

Vallaki, a Home Base

Depending on what happens in Vallaki, it can become a home-base of sorts for the characters throughout most of the game. If they become allies with the Order of the Raven, they will find respite at the Blue Water Inn. Depending on how things go with the mayor, they might find themselves in service to the leader or watching his corpse hang from a nearby tree by angry villagers. As events in Barovia unfold, its possible the Order of the Silver Dragon takes over, fortifying the town and instating martial law. As a central town, Vallaki makes for a nice spot to return to as the characters explore the rest of Barovia.

The Wilds of the Southern Mountains

South of Argynvostholt and the Ruins of Berez the lands become wild. The icy mountains hide a chaos well beyond the structured madness found in the more "civilized" domains under Strahd's control. We can make these southern mountains our own by placing long forgotten ruins within them. These ruins can hold secrets of the world of Barovia before Strahd. They can speak of the vampire's origins and the origins of those he destroyed upon his ascendancy. They can speak of the noble knights and adventurers who attempted to guard against the evils of the Amber Temple centuries ago.

There is a lot of room for expanding the depth of Barovia in these lost lands if we want to take it. And, if we don't, there's much to be said for focusing in on the core story of Curse of Strahd.

Making the Curse of Strahd Our Own

When we sit down to run it, Curse of Strahd is our own campaign. We can use everything in this book or use nothing at all. We can select what pieces speak to us and our players and discard those that don't. Each of us builds the adventure we want from Curse of Strahd and each story, as it unfolds, becomes something filled with beauty and horror. Make this beautiful horror your own.

Few creatures in the world of Dungeons & Dragons are as feared as the lich. A wizard of countless ages, a being beyond the morality of good and evil, the lich brings a threat greater than most to our characters in the D&D universe. Running a lich can be a daunting task for a dungeon master and yet we should give the lich as much attention as we can. A poorly run lich hurts the reputation of the monster in the eyes of our players. A lich deserves better.

In today's article, we're going to dive deep into the power of the lich with a focus on understanding how best to run it at the table, not just so it retains its deadly reputation but so it's also a fun foe to fight.

The Tactical Summary

The following is a quick tactical summary on running the lich to its full potential.

• The weakest part of the lich are its low hit points. Boost them up with shield guardians, shield-guardian-like golems, potions of invulnerability, protective pillars, or by simply increasing its hit points up to 200.
• The lich should already have mirror image ready when the battle begins or might cast cloudkill on itself if it's a real dick.
• Give the lich some powerful magic items like a staff of power (+2 AC, attacks, and spell DCs), black robes of the archmagi (base AC 15, +2 spell DC and spell attacks, advantage on spell saving throws), and maybe a ring of protection (+1 AC and saves) or ioun stone of protection (+1 AC). Write down the stat changes on a sticky note and stick it in the monster manual.
• In general, use spells and effects that target saving throws against characters clearly weak to those saving throws. Use constitution saving throws against wizards and rogues and wisdom saving throws against fighter types. Lichs are no idiots and can judge from sheer physical size and equipment which spells will work well against which characters.
• For legendary actions, use frightening gaze against fighter types or paralyzing touch against rogues or wizard types. Use the remaining legendary action for ray of frost. Remember that a ray of frost at this level inflicts 18 cold damage on a hit. Ignore the disrupt life option since it uses all three legendary actions and isn't particularly effective.
• For lair actions, choose spectral assault against ranged attackers and the damage transfer effect against rogues or wizards. Ignore the spell restoring effect since the lich already has tons of spells to use.
• For reactions, use shield to increase armor class or use counterspell to get rid of pain-in-the-ass environmental effect spells or to get into a counterspell battle. Rely on legendary resistance to take care of save-or-suck abilities like banish.
• For main actions when running a really deadly lich, use power word kill, power word stun, finger of death, and disintegrate. For less experienced players, use spells like cone of cold and fireball to threaten the whole group without wiping them out completely.
• Even when running a deadly lich, focus on making it fun. Give players ample warning of the dangers they face. Be ready to fail forward on a total-party kill.

The Lich's Glowing Weak Spot: Low Hit Points

As designed in the 5th edition Dungeon & Dragons Monster Manual, the lich is a powerful foe. Legendary resistance gives it near immunity to typical save-or-suck effects. It's ability to counterspell, dispel magic, and disintegrate lets it avoid most environmental incapacitation.

As powerful as they are, though, a lich can still be defeated. Sometimes a lich can be defeated easily. Though it has a towering challenge rating of 21 (22 in its lair), the lich has one big vulnrability, low hit points—135. A strong group of PCs can hammer out that much damage in under a round if they plan it right. If initiative goes against the lich, this could be a real problem.

There are many ways to account for this weak point and, given the actual power of the characters facing it, we can choose one or more of these to help reinforce the lich's defenses.

Shield Guardians: A lich might have one or more shield guardians in its lair. Not only will a shield guardian increase the threat against characters with their attacks but they also absorb half the damage that would normally go to the lich. Normally a wizard would only have one such guardian but lichs are really powerful. Not only might they have more than one shield guardian but they might even have more powerful shield guardians, like, say, iron golems.

There's a fun strategy involved in removing these guardians from the field so one can start hitting the lich itself. Actual shield guardians have a lower AC than the lich so smart characters will focus their attacks on the guardians to remove the lich's defenses.

Shield Runes: If we want something slightly different, we might put up two or more runed pillars that place a protective shield around the lich, maybe even a prismatic sphere. Only when the pillars are destroyed does the sphere drop. These pillars might have a number of hit points or crumble under a number of athletics or arcana checks.

Protective Spells: In its default state, the lich has access to mirror image and shield. These two spells can help the lich significantly. A good lich likely has some sort of contingency in place to automatically cast mirror image when hostile creatures enter. It shouldn't have to burn an action on mirror image unless its dispelled and he should likely try to counter any attempt to dispel his protections.

Potions of Invulnerability: A lich might have some sort of concoction similar to a potion of invulnerability that gives it the same effect. Like mirror image, the lich will likely use this before a battle is about to begin. It isn't quite as thematic as shield guardians or environmental shield runes, but it gives the same advantage.

Cloudkill: Cloudkill isn't really a protective spell but it will eat the lunch of melee attackers who get close to it. Since the lich is immune to poison, it can cast cloudkill on itself. Like other protective spells, the lich might cast this ahead of time. If paired with iron golems, the lich's immunity to poison can be even more effective. Thanks to Chris Sims for this little evil nugget.

Magic Items: Lich's have had centuries to amass powerful magic items and there's no reason the lich won't use these in combat. Some good magic items include a staff of power which gives the lich +2 to AC, saves, and spell attacks and black robes of the archmagi which gives the lich an AC to 18 and another +2 bonus to saves. There's really no way anyone will land a spell on him now and his armor class with these two items is a flat 20 before shield. If you want to be a real ass, a ring, bracers, or an ioun stone of protection can knock it up another 1. Really that's all the magic items the lich will need or be able to use in a fight.

Bonus Tip: Write this shit down. When you apply a bunch of magic items to a lich, a lot of stuff changes. Write down the lich's new stats on a sticky note and stick it onto the page with his stats so you don't forget. It is super easy to forget all of this stuff when you're in the thick of combat. Do yourself a favor and review it before the fight and keep it in front of you during the fight.

Increase Hit Points: If you want to make things easier to manage but still reinforce the lich's vulnerability, remember that the listed hit points are just the average. You can increase the lich's hit points up to 198 and still be within range of its hit dice. You probably want to increase the lich's hit points like this if you have more than four characters fighting it. Another 34 hit points per character above four on top of its base hit points 135 isn't unreasonable.

The Lich's Battle Tactics

Now that we've reinforced the lich's defenses, we can focus on its tactics during an actual encounter. Keep in mind that our goal is a fun encounter, not just the complete destruction of the characters, although that is a possible, even likely, outcome when facing a lich.

First, keep in mind that a lich is a very complicated monster to run. Between its legendary actions, lair actions, reactions, and high number of spells; it has a whole lot of options in combat. It's easy to forget things like lair actions but these actions have a big impact on the fight. Keep a checklist of the lich's actions in front of you during the fight to remind you which you've used and which you haven't.

Focusing on the Characters' Weaknesses. Lich's are no dummies. They can judge which of their spells will be most effective against the characters just by looking at them. It won't drop a spell or ability that forces a constitution saving throw on a big hulking armored melee character. Nor will it focus a wisdom saving throw on a cleric. The lich will always choose the right ability against the target weakest against that ability. Constitution saves hit those thin of arm and thick of head. Wisdom saves hit those thick of arm and thin of head.

Choosing Legendary Actions. The lich is likely to get two legendary actions for every action it takes so its worth choosing the right ones for the right circumstances. If it has a good chance at hitting someone with a paralyzing touch, that's not a bad option. The lich will know to focus its paralyzing touch on a low AC character with a low constitution save. It won't bother trying to hit a highly armored warrior with paralyzing touch. Frightening Gaze works much better against big armored brutes. Ray of Frost as a cantrip is quite effective as an additional legendary action. It's +14 to hit with the staff of power and does 18 cold damage on a hit. It's a good way to keep the threat on characters who aren't taking the bulk of the lich's wrath. The lich likely won't bother with disrupt life. It just doesn't do that much damage and eats up all three legendary actions. If it did twice as much damage it would be worth it but it isn't worth it as written.

Choosing Lair Actions. It's important not to forget lair actions for the lich and it's easy to do so. Most of the time the characters will face a lich in its lair. The most effective lair effect is the third one in which the lich raises apperations that inflict 52 necrotic damage to a single creature or half if it makes a constitution save. That's a whole lot of damage for any creature to take outside of its turn.

The next most useful effect is the crackling cord that sends half the lich's damage to the target. It's a straight success or fail so it should be aimed at a character with a weaker constitution like a rogue or a wizard. If the lich has another way to distribute damage, we can rule that the damage first gets distributed to the target of this spell before the rest is split among pillars or golems or whatever.

It's highly unlikely the lich is going to run out of spells so the spell recovery lair action isn't likely to be very beneficial compared to the other two options.

Choosing Reactions. The lich has two likely reactions in any given round: counterspell and shield. Because a lich has legendary resistance it doesn't need to counterspell typical spells that require a saving throw. If it's armed with robes of the archmagi it gets advantage on these saves anyway and if it fails, it can choose to succeed instead. Most players will just stop wasting spell slots if they know that they won't land a spell anyway and focus on other things. The lich can save counterspells to counter counterspells coming at it from the characters. This seems like a weird tactic but it becomes common with smart players and powerful characters. Spells that will block the line of sight of the lich or otherwise alter the environment heavily against the lich are also good targets for counterspell.

Shield, then, is a more likely choice but a risky one. If the lich has the option of dropping a shield early on in a round to get that +5 bonus to AC for a long time, it will likely want to take it. This means losing the chance to counter a character's spell that might end up being trouble. Players will learn to game this system, which is a fun tactical choice they make so don't screw them too much. The bluff of spells versus attacks is a fun mini-game in itself.

Choosing Actions. Now we come to the big choice, what to do with the lich's action. The lich has a huge list of spells, many of which are complete battle changers. We have spells like power word kill, power word stun, disintegrate, and finger of death. If we're going for the full-on kill, that's not a bad order for casting those spells. If the lich has a chance to cast it ahead of time, cloud kill or wall of force from the staff of power can set up some nasty environmental traps. That's probably not worth burning actions on during combat, however.

Making a spell like power word kill fun is as tricky as managing the tactics of the lich itself. First of all, it's nice if the characters and the players are aware that this is in the lich's arsenal. The lich's use of the spell might come up in a secret or clue before the characters ever face the villain. The lich itself, if it has a chance, might simply ask which one of the characters wishes to die first. Which one will save the rest from its deadly magic?

If characters have more than 100 hit points, the lich is likely to know it and focus it on characters with fewer hit points like mages or rogues.

If the characters are grouped up, nothing grabs their attention like a cone of cold or fireball from the staff of power but that's not likely to be nearly as devastating as the top four spells mentioned above.

Making the Lich Fun to Fight

All of the above actions are designed to make the lich as dangerous as possible. Against an experienced group of players running powerful characters, this might be perfectly acceptable. You'll have to gauge the power of the characters and the experience and desires of the players before you decide to wipe them all out with a super-smart lich. If you're running the lich against less experienced players, fireball, lightning bolt, and cone of cold might be better options than power word kill and disintegrate. Just because a lich can wipe the party out doesn't mean it should. Fighting a lich should push any group of players right to the edge.

Prepare for the Total-Party Kill

No matter how you run the lich, always have a fail forward option planned for a total-party kill. Maybe the lich twists the characters into beings of its own devise. Maybe the characters awaken in the lich's charnel pit just before they are descended upon by piles of hungry ghouls. Maybe the characters find themselves tearing free of a mass grave, resurrected after one hundred years to right the wrongs they failed to face in life.

A Note About Challenge Rating

It's important to note that these changes to the lich very likely knock up it's challenge rating. As we've discussed in our guidelines to encounter building and our thoughts on the Unearthed Arcana encounter building guidelines, the challenge rating component of D&D 5e can be highly inaccurate and isn't a rigid guideline for how any battle will go. In this article, we're making the assumption that the lich needs to be improved or a powerful group of characters ran by skilled players will cut it down quickly. We won't attempt to judge what challenge rating this lich would be but it would be significantly higher than the stated when given a slew of magic items and powerful environmental protections. If you're not sure how well your characters will do against a lich, consider testing them out with a similar spellcasting monster.

Six Minds Against One

We DMs face a strong tactical disadvantage. We have but one brain and, when we're running a significant challenge in our adventures, we face four to six other brains. It's hard for us to manage running the game, facilitating the story, keeping the spotlight moving and focused, ensuring everyone's having a good time, and run a creature like a lich. Here we dug deep into the tactics of the lich so that, before you need to run one at your own table, you've thought through all of the tricks you'll need to know to run this most deadly villain.

Here at Sly Flourish we've often discussed the steps in game preparation that make the biggest difference in running a great D&D game. Starting strong, building a good adventure skeleton, having some fantastic locations on hand, preparing secrets to share; all of these are quick and effective steps to prepare what we need to run a fun game.

There's one big step we might put ahead of all of the rest, however. Before we take any other step when preparing our next session, we can take a few minutes to review the characters and let that guide us as we prepare for our next session. Our new step zero: study the characters.

As much as we love our story, players love their characters. The more we focus on making them the heroes of the story, the more fun our players will have. We can't do this if they feel like the nuances of their characters don't really matter.

"Yeah yeah, it's great that you're a deposed prince, but you're fighting off rat swarms like everyone else."

Write It Down

We can't effectively review our characters if we didn't bother to write down the details. Maybe we have copies of their character sheets or some emails containing character background information. Maybe we're using a campaign worksheet. Whatever we do, when we start hearing about peoples' characters, we should write that shit down. Players love it when we tie the ideas of the characters into the story. It's an easy win.

What sorts of things should we pay attention to? Well, first off, know their goddamn names. Make flash cards if you have to but spend some time remembering the names of the characters. With those names in your head, you're likely to remember a lot more about them. When you're stuck somewhere or out for a walk you can go through each of the characters and think about what you might draw from them into your next game.

Some GMs like to focus on statistical stuff like what level they are, what their passive perception and passive insight are, and things like that. That sort of information won't really help you integrate the character into the game. Backgrounds are great. Connections between characters and NPCs are great. Motives, drives, quests; these are all great things to remember. Was the dragonborn glave-wielder part of a family of ale brewers? Jot that down and use it!

If we're running a pre-published adventure like Out of the Abyss or Curse of Strahd we might think that much of the work preparing for the adventure is done for us, but these published books know nothing about your characters. Even if you do nothing else to prep the next part of a published adventure, take some time to think about how the characters will fit into it.

Here's another cool trick. Say you're using the campaign worksheet to capture the basics of a character. Take a picture of it with your phone. If you're stuck in a meeting or in line for your mocha frappuccino, pull it out and take a look. Ideas may start to jump right out at you wherever you happen to be.

Next time you're getting ready to prep your game, before you do anything else, take a good look at your notes on the characters. What are they about? What hooks can you tug on? What can you do to make them the hero of the story?