D&D on Foundry - Lazy RPG Talk Show

[@ohsohologramic]

Something I appreciate about this channel is the host is reasonable and well-adjusted and doesn't feed into the really negative, cynical narratives surrounding WOTC and official D&D content. He criticizes when it's deserved, but it's well-formed and fair criticism, as opposed to exaggerated doom-and-gloom criticism which is all too common in ttrpg communities, but seems especially concentrated in discussions surrounding D&D.

[@loganmcgee18]

Piggy-backin' off of this I want to highlight what a pillar Mike is in the community, in my opinion at least. He not only contributes his groundbreaking ideas for game-running but also emphasizes and extensively spotlights others he finds exceptional - like Notion, Owlbear, etc.

[@SlyFlourish]

❤️

[@vintagezebra5527]

I agree! Mike’s channel has always been my favorite. Since I began deleting the sort of “content creators” (clickbait creators) you mention from my feeds, my engagement and excitement for my favorite hobby has increased dramatically. I strongly recommend rewarding channels and creators that ADD something to the hobby, rather than make a living trying to tear it down.

[@zacpallier2564]

Foundry has quickly become our group default platform - the official announcement was a welcome suprise!

[@bettsdn]

This will make Foundry SIGNIFICANLTY more useable for many D&D groups.

[@urbanassassin26]

I've run d&d with foundry (both completely online and using it in person) for years now and it is, without fail, the best VTT on the market right now if you want anything more than just something to throw maps on. The mods are incredible and with its automation processes (which is easy to set up mind you) you can drastically speed up play while missing nothing.

[@loganmcgee18]

Agreed, but i'll add 'easy,' with the caveat that anything outside your comfort zone has loads of support and how-to guides on how to set it up.

[@marsoll84]

Love the positivity and enthusiasm in your videos. It's a fantastic contrast to all the doom and gloom youtubers 😊👍 cheers, Marcus

[@johnmickey5017]

Glad to see an official Foundry license. I wasn’t sure if it would happen because, out of necessity, 5e support was very… grey-market to put it lightly. The solution is always to make the official option easier - really happy to see that win out. Foundry is way too decentralized for my personal tastes, but I’ve seen some VERY cool things done with it. I may try a Savage Worlds game in Foundry to give it a spin with the group at some point.

[@JoshTheColeman]

There actually are tools to go between roll20 and Foundry. Odyssey of the Dragonlords is sold as a module on roll20, but not foundry, so it's pretty common for people to buy it on roll20 and then bring all the assets into foundry to run it.

[@Shu_BLN]

Support comment as always! Love a good morning with a fresh Sly Flourish video

[@kevindavis14]

Hey Mike, wanted to share my experience. I was running Starfinder and it was taking hours to plan my sessions and we all kind of just lost steam and interest. Then I heard about DD Beyond and checked it out and my players were all on board with the idea of digital character sheets so we started playing again. 3 years later we still use it but my library extends out into physical books as well. We play in person and we have a smaller game that we run once a month that is all virtual. If it wasn’t for DDB I don’t think we would have gotten back in to d&d again.

[@Linruat]

I have always been worried that wotc would BUY foundry and just totally ruin it. *edit* In my opinion, the modding and community content is just fantastic and makes it by FAR the superior vtt!

[@Wraithing]

39:20 "I'm eating my own dog food here." Weird Statement of the Week prize goes to Mike!

[@RecklessFables]

It was a common term in business in the 90s.

[@Wraithing]

​@@RecklessFables I had no idea. Sounds ghastly, so '90s corporate idiom makes sense.

[@madjarov42]

I have loved Foundry since i first laid eyes on it. The one-off purchase was almost all i needed to know. I don't have a super good PC but it runs well in my in-person game with a bit of tweaking. After 2 years of almost daily use, I still feel like I'm just scratching the surface. Tried some premium modules and they were so worth it (MrPrimate's importer, JB2A, couple of others) but they're really not necessary. It does have a steep-ish learning curve though. But also, it just works.

[@oscargarciahinde4247]

I WISH my players were engaged enough to bring non WOTC character options to the table. It's always me who is looking for interesting stuff and offering it to them. My wife's ranger is a Tasha's/MCDM Frankenstein beast master and we're having lots of fun with it.

[@mtenbruggencate]

Perhaps an annual State of the Hobby Address? 😉

[@rickprocure6321]

I would love a video on lazy dm using foundry. I love the lazy dm style but i find it hard when using foundry, not saying it is i just need to learn how to do it

[@johnmickey5017]

Mike’s current solution is Owlbear, Discord and Notion. Foundry isn’t very lazy and Mike usually avoids heavy VTT solutions.

[@rickprocure6321]

@@johnmickey5017 i do love foundry for the walls, lights and cool mods. I dont go all crazy with animations or anything but they do have cool rollable tables, a gm screen

[@bryan__m]

@@rickprocure6321 hopefully 6 months later you've found a good balance. I've definitely been scaling back the wiz-bangery on my maps, except for ones where it truly matters. 8 times out of 10 just adding walls to a pretty map is enough for me. That being said, I have a LONG list of little tweaks that I want/need to make that I haven't found time for yet. Things like upgrading versions and troubleshooting modules just don't fit into the Lazy GM mantra.

[@missmeaghanj2482]

How do you calculate the CRs of monsters from Flee, Mortals! using the Lazy Encounter Benchmark. Specifically interested in how Solo and Minion monsters translate. Thanks for reading and I love what you do!

[@SlyFlourish]

The encounter building guidelines in Flee Mortals is pretty solid and built from lazy GM guidelines. Solos aren’t calculated differently but minions count as a ratio of a normal monster. Look in the early chapter of Flee Mortals for details.

[@missmeaghanj2482]

@@SlyFlourish thank you!

[@missmeaghanj2482]

@@SlyFlourish Also I'm running the Rhodar stat block for my lvl 12 Curse of Strahd party's final battle.

[@PhilipDudley3]

Did you make a post on your blog about Continuity in Shadowdark based upon your last Patreon question?

[@jorgecomas9263]

Does anyone have any data regarding FVTT being the second most popular vtt as mentioned in the video?

[@OmegaDeathBunny]

How do I make sure the new character has a reason to be in the dungeon? I tell the player: If you want to play in this dungeon with the others, make a character that has a reason to be in the dungeon. There, it's that easy. 😉

[@zarlack8759]

Mike: Have you ever done a survey of what proportion of your audience play 5e? I listen every week and have purchased your products in the past, but only play other RPGs (which means even when I see them, I almost never participate in your surveys).

[@FattyMcFox]

"Is DND Beyond killing 5E" isn't the question on my mind. The question i have been asking is " Would they if we didn't raise a stink, and will they try to in the future" and the fact i have to ask that now, means that i can not in good conscience get entangled with beyond. Just because they aren't trying to put a stanglehold now, that does not mean they won't try when people got a taste on other platforms. A few liscenses that don't get renewed, and suddenly you have people from other platforms have to come to beyond to get their previous materials. I don't trust that WoTC won't try that.

[@SlyFlourish]

So how do you protect your hobby from this?

[@FattyMcFox]

@@SlyFlourish Buy physical or non DRMed PDFs. Then it is sharable, non retractable. Get something they can't remove. Foundy is a good start, as you can backup your materials onto a hard drive, but the service that don't have that are still vulnerable.

[@MarshmallowMadnesss]

I dont depend on these online tools other than random need to Google spells or other things like that - reference.

[@obiteljskitablet9995]

DnD 5e is one of many DnDs out there. 4e, 3e, ADnDs, BX, etc they're all DnD. OSRs as well. Thus teaching DnD does not equate to teaching WotC DnD 5e.

[@Aliktren]

There is an open tap from dndbeyond to foundry and pirated books to foundry, so i will guess the reasoning will be something like, lets sell our stuff on foundry, make it so good people dont want the knockoffs, and then upsell from there. Not going to complain because I'm sick of having no one location i can buy wotc and 3rd party products. Do all that and i will happily drop a few hundred quid buying the books yet again from wotc and kobold, etc

[@sqoody7invegas625]

I've been pronouncing Taldorei as "tal-dor-aay", it's tal-dor-eye? Sounds weird to me.

[@PhilipDudley3]

I'm kind of surprised that Hasbro didn't add some DRM to the Phandelver module that "phones home" or requires you to verify your purchase each time you run it or something goofy that would make it nigh unusable.

[@rgnadeus]

Haha! To be fair, the Phandelver module was developed by the Foundry Team. They have a track record of creating awesome modules that are GM/Player/user friendly.

[@darrellglenn4113]

Promo sm 🔥

[@doingitsidesways]

In my opinion using anything that isnt foundry as your vtt is just shooting yourself in the foot, also imagine supporting roll20 lmao.

[@sqoody7invegas625]

I started 3 years ago using owl bear, it's much more efficient than roll20. I can't stand roll 20 I'm sorry but I can't. From that I went to Foundry and have been using it for over two and a half years. To me the map system on D&D beyond is horrible. One person I was looking to join one of my campaigns said that above VTT was better than Foundry. I immediately banned him from my server. You have got to be kidding me.

[@Stefano-rp2go]

Yeah interesting, professor dungeoncraft just mada a video about the fact that with the layoffs the entire WotC team that worked on the non digital version of the books were fired

[@zephyr_gg]

This and hearing that they fired the Book Team at WotC probably means we won't get physical copies of 2024 rule books...

[@SlyFlourish]

Almost certainly false.

[@zephyr_gg]

@@SlyFlourish I don't know, sure seems like they want to move away from physical media and push us towards digital and subscriptions models just like the video game industry. "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." All these layoffs are showing me what Hasbro are doing.

[@brnddi]

I don't even play 5e, I don't like it.