Recent content by SlyFlourish

I'm late to the show but I've had some thoughts about this. First, it seems like WOTC is talking out of two sides of its mouth. At the summit last year, on X, and in their FAQ they talk all about the importance of human-created art. But then Chris Cocks talks about wanting to harvest old D&D...

I do wonder how much lock-in they'll really have. Obviously we're all very aware of tech lockin and see it everywhere but seeing Owlbear Rodeo come out with such an outstanding VTT made by two people during lockdown is pretty great. There's a lot of content lock-in with these systems – once you...

Congratulations on the new position! Any chance at a stand-alone 5e character builder?

I think focusing on how important it is to connect with friends regularly, share laughs, and capture being a kid again can help. A lot of Gen X folks, I imagine, have a hard time building and maintaining close friendships. It’s not like it was in college. Gen Xers are now becoming empty nesters...

Also they're fantastic books with great design and a ton of features that aren't in the SRDs like monster knowledge checks, complementary monster groups, treasure parcels and more. And that's just the Monstrous Menagerie.

If you're going into things with good intentions and are able to recognize your own mistakes, you shouldn't have to worry about saying the wrong thing. If you're actually worried, people will forgive you if you overstep. And, of course, safety tools – some type of X card (I like "pause for a...

I think RPGs are the best hobby in the world. They get us together with our friends so we can laugh and be creative together. I think it hits a lot of core needs of people all at once – community, creativity, flow. I think RPGs save peoples' lives. I think today, more than ever, it's easy to be...

Not skip a chapter. Skip all the chapters. It’s super clear they wrote in this “what if” expecting to force the story along Kas’s ruse. Again, If you’re good with it, you’re good with it. I’m not trying to convince people who read it to hate it. I want people to consider whether that sounds...

Yeah. It’s like multiple DC 30 checks and the result is Kas either murders the party or they defeat him and you can skip the rest of the adventure and go right to the end. Its very clear that isn’t how the adventure is intended to go.

I'm not a fan of roles because I think it leads to a more cookie-cutter approach towards building and prepping games than it should. Combat tactics is a fine section to include in a monster book and friend Keith Amman has done a great job diving into this in his various "Monster Knows" books. I...

Sure. I don’t have to. I could just run a multi-month campaign adventure that takes all agency away from the players, reveal that all the work they did was for a bad guy they couldn’t ever reveal themselves, and then blame the book when they’re pissed off at never having a chance to change the...

You have to mix the two together. Frankly, no single monster stands up well to a full group of high level characters. They always need some sort of backup. So the Lazy Encounter Benchmark gives you both – four 14th level characters gives you a LBM of 28 with a single creature being...

I follow the a5e rules that a single monster greater than 1.5x the average character level of the group might be deadly.

I think, for many GMs, running a published adventure doesn’t save much time over a homebrew campaign. It’s more about the depth of material you have to work with. But I agree with your sentiment. I shouldn’t have to rework the plot of an adventure I spent $60 on.

In case anyone cares, here's a draft article I was working on that offers an alternative take on the Vecna adventure. I'd paste it here but it's big. https://slyflourish.notion.site/Vecna-and-the-Tears-of-Unmaking-f9a950da21cc42caa02273569e326998?pvs=4