Level Up Advanced 5e Adventurers Guide Spotlight - Lazy RPG Talk Show

D&D and RPG news and commentary by Mike Shea of slyflourish.com
Video Contents
00:00:00 Show Start
00:01:03 Sly Flourish News: Sly Flourish Bundle of Holding!
00:02:22 Kickstarter Spotlight: MCDM's RPG
00:05:31 Kickstarter Spotlight: One Dollar One-shot by Penny Dragon Games
00:09:16 Patreon Spotlight: Game Master Screen for Lazy GMs
00:12:04 Sly Flourish News: Mike on EN World's Podcast Talking D&D Beyond
00:13:27 Product Spotlight: Level Up Advanced 5e Adventurer's Guide
00:46:19 D&D Tip: Tips for Using Paper Character Sheets
00:58:48 Patreon Question: Secrets and Clues Creating Too Many Adventure Hooks
01:01:37 Patreon Question: Running a Prequel Campaign
01:03:43 Patreon Question: Preparing a Big Campaign Adventure
Links
Sly Flourish Bundle of Holding
bundleofholding.com/presents/...
Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter
slyflourish.com/subscribe/
Support Sly Flourish on Patreon
/ slyflourish
Buy Sly Flourish Books:
shop.slyflourish.com/
MCDM RPG Backerkit Campaign
www.backerkit.com/c/projects/...
One Dollar One-Shot - Tomb of the Undead King Backerkit Campaign
www.backerkit.com/c/projects/...
Petero's Tome of Adventure by Penny Dragon
www.pennydragon.games/product...
Game Master Screen for Lazy GMs (affiliate link)
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
Mike on Morrus's Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk Show
morrus.podbean.com/e/278-dd-b...
Level Up Advanced 5e's Adventurer's Guide
enpublishingrpg.com/collectio...
KZbin Discussion on Paper Character Sheets
• Post
EN World Discussion on Paper Character Sheets
www.enworld.org/threads/tips-...

[@RPGwithDBJ]

As a contributing writer to A5E, it brings a smile to see you spotlight Level Up. My influence was in Trials & Treasures, as well as a huge playlist on my channel for Exploration, can't wait for your overview. BTW, you gave a shout out to my channel many years ago. Thanks for the consideration.

[@wirelesstkd]

Re: erasing your pencil marks on your character sheets. Consider using a Frixion Pen. This is an erasable pen you can buy in any Walmart, Staples, etc. It's really amazing. It uses a heat reactive ink that becomes transparent at a high temperature, so the "eraser" just creates friction to activate the ink, which makes it a super clean erasable. Honestly, not only is it better than those awful blue erasable pens we had in the 90s, it's better than a pencil. For color coding, you can even get it in every shade of the rainbow.

[@DaudAlzayer]

Glad to see that A5e spotlight- I kinda love a5e and I get pumped any time it gets attention (which is rare). RE: subclass compatability. I don't actually have an opinion about how compatible it is- but I want to say that A5e progression is much ritcher: in 2014 5e subclass seemed so important because it was one of the only choices you got to make about your character- but in a5e you choose things every level and every character feels much more unique (especially layered on top of the new choices about culture). So for me, I suddenly cared way less about subclasses and multiclassing.

[@DocEonChannel]

This! The fact that there is essentially no character customization in 5e after subclass (unless you multiclass) is the thing that has completely turned me off vanilla 5e on the player side. The one thing that I feel LU could have changed even more is the spells. They're tweaked a little bit, as said, but the spell list is still not good. But I understand that changing more would clash with compatibility.

[@423RedWolf]

I love these paper character sheet tips! For my most recent campaign I requested my group to all use paper character sheets, haven't regretted it one bit. A previous group I had, a few of the players used D&D Beyond on their phones, and it threw a rock in my pond seeing them looking at their phones during D&D time.

[@crawdadnc479]

For me, a paper sheet is far more convenient. For one, I can set it up in whatever way makes sense to me. (I use plain notebook paper.) I can also see all the most pertinent information at a glance. I don't have to swipe, or tap, or fiddle with menus. The stats, the AC, the weapon damage are all right there on the page. I can jot down brief descriptions of spells and feats, and a reference to the page number of the source book if I need more details. And it's all designed for me by me. Someone also made the point that writing out a paper sheet helps the player to understand how their character works. I have also seen players use a phone app for several sessions, and still not understand some basics. Even simple actions required consulting the phone, finding the right screen with that info on it, etc. etc. etc. Next time I play with them I'm going to suggest writing it all out, with help from me or another veteran player, and see if the info sticks better.

[@SalsaDoom1840]

I use the paper character sheets with the kids to get them off devices. Using a pencil / rubber to track spells and hp - seems so simple now I think about it.

[@Franimus]

I've been keeping a lazy eye on a5e, so I'm very excited to hear more about it! And it will be very interesting to see how it compares to 2024x5e in terms of fixing the many shortcomings of vanilla 5e. It gets difficult scouring for supplements all over the place to try to improve the game and risk unbalancing everything.

[@D_A_D_]

One tip I've heard but not used yet for paper character sheets is to use a piece grid paper as your backpack. When you find an item and want to keep it, cut out of another sheet of paper of a size specified by your DM and write the name of the item on it, then use double sided sticky tape to tape it to your "backpack." So, let's say you find a rock you want to keep. DM says "okay, cut a 2x2 square out." You cut it out, write "rock" on it, and find a place to put it in your sheet. Handy Haversack? It's two or three pieces taped together. Bag of Holding? It's a HUGE piece of grid paper. Looking forward to using that in my upcoming IRL campaign.

[@YourTinyHans]

I have been running an A5E campaign since October. 7 sessions in, spells and monsters are fantastic, but definitely lots of crunch- character creation/updating takes longer because of more choices. We did not use destinies, specialties or exploration rules yet but do use supply for rest. I like fatigue/strife and characters falling unconscious get fatigue levels so they have to go back to town to rest. We have two wizards, a warlock, and druid. Druid selecting 3 wild shapes was a surprising improvement in both balance and flavor- the Druid is now known for being a giant vulture most of the time.

[@DaudAlzayer]

Fatigue has been pretty cool in my campaign - it really made it feel like the pcs were getting beaten up in a way they couldn't casually sleep off. It also made the Ranger's ability to build a haven super useful.

[@GateKeeperPat]

Enjoy the discussion of paper character sheets. I'm finding my group to have an over reliance on dndbeyond and the result is that so much automation makes them uneducated on their own character they've been playing for nearly 2 years. I'd also like to adopt some content from Kobold Press' Heroes Tome of Heroes. The material in the book looks awesome!

[@nathanaelthomas9243]

My two favorite things about A5E are the additional rules for exploration and changes to expertise. I like the idea of everyone picking a role for a travel scene, using supplies, and the various terrains and challenges for inspiration. I don’t think you should be able to roll a skill check over 30 so expertise always felt too good and too reliable so I like the die better.

[@Fnorder23]

I'm currently making pregens to run my first A5E mini-campaign and I'm having a lot of good feelings about it!

[@Gaiawolf]

Call me antiquated but I never stopped using paper character sheets. Designed our own version, accommodating all of our in house eccentricities or rules. Includes Spellbooks/Spells Memorised, along with reference next to each entry. Never felt the need to change. But I have been playing since 1982, so I might just be set in my ways.🤔

[@andrewstraight2961]

Great paper character sheet ideas, Mike! As much as I love vtts and software tools, every time I play I go back to the paper. I also thought it was a really interesting/cool choice that Spenser Starke & Rowan Hall of the Candela Obscura team built in filling-in/erasing into their character sheets with Drives & Marks. Low-tech/low-budget for the win!

[@LUZ_TAK]

Paper char sheets also keep a record of al the sodas spilled and greasy cheetos eaten while saving the universe.

[@Zr0din]

During the OGL crisis, I was looking for an alternative. I saw LevelUp 5e and I saw Pathfinder 2e... Pathfinder asked for my vote. I didn't see anyone talking about LU5E. I didn't see any marketing from them. I wanted to. I wanted something closer to 5e than Pathfinder.

[@ken.droid-the-unique]

I can sympathize. I was considering Pathfinder but watched a video about how versatile a character could be... And all I saw was combat bogged down and slow as molasses. Ok ... It was a demo with commentary but I would have to explain this to others. Yeesh!

[@tylerreed2409]

I think that Level Up is not a great name for it, and this being from a publisher that the 5e community isn't super familiar with made it not get much traction

[@LeeJCander]

I backed the MCDM rpg also! Super excited about it. I also bought A5E Monster book and it’s way better than the monster manual. That combined with ‘Flee, Mortals!’ Make for some real fun combat encounters!

[@AdventuringwithMeech]

Great video! Thanks for expanding on my question!

[@FablesD20]

18 seconds in. LAZY DM SCREEN you say.... (twirling mustache)

[@lonic123]

Thanks

[@samuelbroad11]

smug paper and pencil player here. Everyone else at the table is tablets. I therefore tend to always have notes of interest scribbled willy nilly. Aha! was summing up my notes in a clean word doc after 4 levels of play and noticed the dracolich we were trying to defeat and destroy it's phylactery actually had it's soul protected by a ring, not an urn. A note we had all forgotten after 10 months of play. No wonder the 13 urns we uncovered whilst searching were useless. THIS is the reason for going pencil and paper, include a notes section of 2 sheets of paper with your paper D&D sheet, OR your tablet. just write stuff down , especially NPC names and descriptions as well as clues. Nothing like a physical memory in black and white.

[@Keovar]

42:42 - Advantage on a passive check +5, but when rolled, it's closer to +3. The average of 1d20 is 1/2 of the maximum result on the die, or 10.5. The average of 2d20 advantage is 2/3 of the die, or 13.33_. The average of 3d20 advantage (Elven Accuracy) is 3/4 of the die, or 15. If there were any situations that took the highest of 4 dice, that would average to 4/5 of the die, or 16. The diminishing returns only get worse from there. 13.33_ - 10.5 = 2.833_, so roughly +3. The inverse is true for disadvantage, giving you 1/3 of the die, or 6.66_. 1d4 expertise averages to 2.5, which is close enough to advantage, and because it isn't advantage, it doesn't enable sneak attack. You could turn True Strike into a bonus action that grants 1d4 expertise in order to make the cantrip a viable choice for martial attacks while not making it a must-have for every rogue.

[@danesmane2220]

I've had some good luck going old school with our in person sessions. Paper, pencils, improvised mini's, and a few props here and there. The only device at the table is my little surface pro i use for notes. I think it improved the atmosphere.

[@arnovanboxem2519]

starting lvl tiers is what sold me. Every time you start a one shot on higher lvl it is the same question. I just want a table where they can look at without bothering me with it. As a dm i have enough on my plate already I prefer paper character sheet but I use dnd beyond template. It takes just so long to make a character sheet from scratch otherwise.

[@jamesm2577]

I ran levelup for several months, the martial maneuvers & player facing class overhaul are the big changes. My takeaway is that it could have been soo much better had they been willing to take a step or two away from a near SRD equivalent level of mechanical compatibility in the rules themselves. A lot of changes like adding supplies you can't easily make with spells were a great start but suffer from what seems to be a compatibility goal of making it also unimportant by allowing the PCs can carry sooo much supply that it really only matters if the GM starts massively destroying it

[@davidrempel4862]

That’s what I like about the digital fantasy grounds character sheets, it doesn’t stop you from adding anything or change anything. Downside is that they don’t work on mobile so you need to use a laptop or a PC. Works awesome though when either doing virtual play with a video conference, or using the FG VTT. (And it’s local to your drive. It’s not in the cloud. If SmiteWorks goes away, it should still work)

[@adambusenbark63]

I just grabbed the lazy GM screen when I switched to my smaller modular screen over my big chonker to save table space. Don't feel like printing out more, think I'll soldier on with the basic version 😅 I am always torn between digital convenience and the nostalgia / tactile experience paper and notebooks give me. I love the idea of setting up databases on Notion, but honestly I haven't been using them nearly to their potential and wonder if I wouldn't be happier switching back to paper. One thing I have noticed is that no matter how many devices, pc, phone, tablet I have, it's never quite enough tabs or pages open and flipping back and forth is probably easier in a notebook.

[@PhilipDudley3]

I love to draw my own character sheets in my journals. The only one that was a huge pain in the neck to capture the data on the official sheet was Pathfinder.

[@PhilipDudley3]

At 51:00 you'll want to index your journals, and make sure you use stickies at times too.

[@paulbigbee]

I look at the MCDM RPG as a smart idea, specifically because of the tactical: take what people like about WotC-5E (heroic fantasy), fuse them with Warcry/Frostgrave (tactical) and add MCDM’s cinematic flourishes to the composition. Nothing in the market tries to appeal to this potential cross-section of gamers, especially if they deliver a VTT around it. MCDM has a secret weapon (their art director)…

[@tylerreed2409]

I think it will be interesting to see how they do, I think Colville's own idiosyncrasies might be a bit of a roadbump in people taking it on. For example he has very 80s inclinations in naming, and to some degree in storytelling as well, and that can be a bit of a disconnect for some players.

[@Keovar]

28:30 - Paladins are named after the knights of Charlemagne. While there are heroic legends about them, the real ones were often oppressive and brutal.

[@henrymalinowski5125]

I think the comparability question is a little simpler than you’ve made it out to be. I imagine A5E uses different names for classes as a way to signal the reader that a Berserker isn’t a Barbarian even if they inhabit the same thematic and gameplay space. You’ll have to check, but I bet comparability is present if you’re talking about A5E classes that share a name with its 5e counterpart.

[@philbest]

No, not really. The barbarian was changed to berserker and the monk to adept to broaden the class theme, not to indicate a lack of backwards compatibility. Adepts and berserkers have excellent backwards compatibility with 5e subclasses. Fighters have the biggest issues with backwards compatibility right now, as the base A5e class lacks both action surge and second wind, and several archetypes in 5e build on these features. Rangers are also a little fiddly, because A5e rangers lack spellcasting, and while there are rules for how to accommodate 5e ranger subclasses with spellcasting, it does alter the power level of the subclass.

[@benjaminalexander7028]

Really feeling like a dumbass having never thought to put a page number for a spell on my character sheet lol

[@mcgheestrees5030]

I'm so sad I didnt get to that bundle of holding since I watched this vid late /cry

[@torak2000]

Where can you get physical Lvup5e? The only place I can find it is from the company and shipping is insane to the US.

[@joshuabrown-clay4858]

Cults! Get your bingo at seven minutes in.

[@loganmcgee18]

I agree and share worries with the "Chaos" moniker for one of the Destinies... perhaps "Freedom" or something, usually that feels more in-line with the what creators are going for whenever I see this type of thing. Think Pirate, Vigilante, Terrorist... maybe Revolutionary is more "book" friendly lol. Freedom Fighter, rebels etc Side Rant: What type of ordering/listing is that for Cultures*? It's Alphabetical...sorta? Made me do a doubletake

[@derekchamberlain3729]

Perhaps with the Level-Up Chaos destiny, you should just change the name to Revolutionary or Anti-Establishment if the term 'Chaos' is fraught with risk, which I can totally see it being.

[@LUZ_TAK]

Is A5E getting a revision post OGL, or that's basically TOV?

[@SlyFlourish]

A5e now has a fully CC released version.

[@LUZ_TAK]

Me bad, I got mixed up between EnWorld and Kobold Press.

[@keithulhu]

A5E is appealing to me as a way to play D&D without the taint of Hasbro. What they tried to do to third party creators and the TTRPG community is something I cannot forgive--or forget.

[@seileurt]

The internet loves MCDM but I really disliked jumping on their Strongholds and Followers kickstarter. There's so many new subsystems that don't mesh well with 5e that it's just collecting dust on my shelf. Meanwhile, systems like Worlds Without Number I'm using consistently for random tables and inspiration. Within the first dozen or so pages of S&F you're told that you don't get the rules for Kingdoms and Warfare till their next book so I felt coaxed into buying that one but that's where that money train stopped. Very charismatic crew but they're not offering me anything that helps my game so I disagree that their products are well tested.

[@ChuckWestfield]

Didn’t kickstarter cave with the OGL fiasco and enable WOTC’s nefarious attempts a year ago?

[@Anime300]

There hasn't been a single thing imported from vanilla 5E that I've found to be incompatible with an A5E game.

[@Jason-96]

I'm stealing their flanking rules...

[@fraqtl]

Every time you say you don't want to rely on a single digital tool, all I can think of is that this attitude is why there's no digital tool that actually does everything you need without massive amounts of futzing around.