More Purple More Better - Lazy RPG Talk Show

D&D and RPG news and commentary by Mike Shea of slyflourish.com
Video Contents
00:00 Show Start
01:18 D&D & RPG News: WOTC Begins Posting to EN World
04:15 Product Spotlight: Solodark for Shadowdark RPG
09:10 Product Spotlight: More Purple More Better Character Builder for 5e
22:43 Patreon Spotlight: 5e Artisanal Monster Database
27:23 DM Tip: Finding Players and Building a Resilient Group
41:24 Patreon Question: Allowing Alternative Character Options
44:18 Patreon Question: Uses for Generative AI and RPGs -- Is it Cheating?
Links
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Buy Sly Flourish Books:
shop.slyflourish.com/
WOTC's Post on EN World
www.enworld.org/threads/video...
Solodark - Solo Rule for Shadowdark
www.thearcanelibrary.com/coll...
More Purple More Better
www.flapkan.com/
Finding and Maintaining a D&D Group
slyflourish.com/finding_playe...
How Do People Find In-Person Players?
• Post

[@oscargarciahinde4247]

I've had the artisanal monster dB open during last night's game and the peace of mind it brought is awesome. The fact that I can just search for a creature in a pinch and find a stat block in milliseconds is awesome.

[@darkmagician666]

I've always ran or played in groups of 3-4 players, and I honestly prefer 3! You get more opportunities for individual player spotlight moments while still having a healthy amount of player interaction. 6 players at once seems crazy to me.

[@alexabel8010]

UGH THIS!!! I've ALWAYS felt this way! I love letting players get their moments and feel like their character is really _in_ a world!

[@chopfitzroy]

3 is definitely my preference as well. Unfortunately it does mean games are more effected by cancellations.

[@joshuabrown-clay4858]

@@chopfitzroyI loved having three players because it’s enough for good banter and everyone gets a fair amount of spotlight time. However, we were often hit by cancellations, too, unfortunately.

[@ScottBaker_]

Your flexible/resilient game is how we always played back in the 70s when I started. Whoever could show up did. We all had multiple characters so there was always a mix of characters--we normally played 1 character at a time. It worked great.

[@user-sk3xz8vy1d]

I love the hot take of "you else what I have found useful and magical: reading the books". So sooo true. I'm guilty of doing tons of improv / homebrew world generation that starts from some basic tables in the books then jumps off into my own thing. The more I read and know high-quality source material, the better I generate my own homebrew material.

[@darrenlodge6322]

I'm a patron of MPMB and the product has been very good (some small bugs do exist) and the product is updated quite regularly. I've been using the product with a large range of players I've exposed it to for about six years. Good stuff, and wonderful to see you giving some exposure to a small producer like this - well done!

[@deejaytee]

Another suggestion regarding finding players, my city has its own subreddit specifically for finding TTRPG players and it works amazingly. I have found perhaps 25-30 players over the years this way. If your city doesn't have one, MAKE one!

[@JunMiyazaki]

I'm DMing for two parties, both have 5 players. Sadly we can play once per month with either group. Our general rule: if 3 of 5 players are available we will play.

[@Corvus-fw2hr]

Same but 6 at each table for us. We go with 4 or more.

[@HereComeMrCee-Jay]

This is the way.

[@madjarov42]

The MPMB sheet is fantastic for its Player Reference page and its class-based spell lists.

[@ericzauche4309]

3 players ideal. Votes never tie. More spotlight time for each player. Run game for two or one player.

[@tomyoung9834]

In my group, absent player's PCs often experience upset stomachs, or meet and date a new npc, or are visiting family, etc., and the next time the player is back, so is the pc!

[@jeffw991]

I have a counter-use of large language models. I've gotten into the habit of asking an LLM to make up some things about a game I'm running, for example. Of course it's wrong, and nonsense, etc. But through examining what's wrong and what I don't like, I can find things that I didn't know I knew, or haven't articulated about what I do want. Then I throw out the AI's response and take what I've learned from all the things I didn't like about what it said. It's a version of the old joke about getting a question answered on Reddit? Post your question, and then get your friend to post a wrong answer. Nobody cares about answering you, but they'll move heaven and earth to prove your friend wrong. Except here, I'm the questioner, the LLM is my friend with the wrong answer, and my subconscious is the one who can't help busting in to say, "Um, actually..."

[@Takeshita_Sakakaki]

i've found they are excellent for brainstorming for that reason, even though oftentimes i'll get maybe 1 answer i can use directly out of 5 or whatever

[@user-sk3xz8vy1d]

I think that AI is a springboard for ideas. I often use it to help me brainstorm ideas for encounters, especially hazards, potential skill checks, etc. But the game doesn't exist until we create it at the table. I still improv at the table and sometimes my characters don't bite as well. AI is (currently) an imprecise tool that we can use to explore many options fast and choose the ones we as GMs feel are best.

[@HereComeMrCee-Jay]

Yes, the crazy stuff AI comes up is often fertile ground for creativity.... and so can the generic stuff it comes up with (as in your example).

[@kraftsoppa1253]

My tip to find time to get together. I have a 4 person Dnd group and we use a online poll (strawpoll) each session to schedule, works like a charm.

[@HereComeMrCee-Jay]

We do this for about 3 or 4 sessions at a time for one of my groups that has constantly changing schedules and it works pretty well. I must say though, I much prefer the scheduling with my other group that simply meets same day, same time. Even doing Doodle polls can get old after a while.

[@Takeshita_Sakakaki]

Really appreciated your thoughts on LLMs. It's clear you've thought about it a lot and are evaluating it very fairly. I've been using them occasionally for some help with brainstorming, basically just shortcutting the rough draft phase of planning, but I think your point about random tables returning more edge cases while LLMs gravitate towards the median is very compelling! Now I'll be on the hunt for some good tables to roll on when I'm in another rut haha

[@ericzauche4309]

Get player for decades. Step one be a scoutmaster. Step two play a ttrpg on campus and hikes with you scouts. Results three fellow Eagle scouts that I have been doing for since 1989.

[@ggnorekthx]

I've been looking for another Python/Django project idea since I also love self hosting stuff. I'm going to take a crack at building a self-hosted, web-based character builder for Level Up A5E - thanks for the great idea!

[@SlyFlourish]

Awesome!!

[@JunMiyazaki]

I like your TV show example - but I think a better comparison would be Star Trek TNG. Lot's of times some main character aren't present at all in an episode (sometimes because of scheduling conflicts of an actor). Our parties could be like the crew of the Enterprise: some of them are present and going to the actual adventure... some of them are doing some background stuff and not really present.

[@SlyFlourish]

Great point

[@pathfinder307]

I am finding the AI function within Notion to be helpful in creating descriptions of homebrewed items and locations. I ask for 20 brief descriptions, and while most of the results are not very good, there is usually enough there to spark my imagination to create a more interesting and evocative description than I might otherwise have come up with.

[@matthewtopping]

When I first tried DnD I had some really good individual games but 6 months of multiple failed campaigns and crappy experiences. So I started an RPG group to do it right. 18 months later there are 200 of us. On Saturday 25 people will be in 5 games. We run games 5 days a week, all IRL. We haven't had a single player not turn up to a game, or be late without notifying the DM in months. If your towns gaming scene is disorganised and plagued by a small number or arseholes- get organised, it's shockingly easy.

[@gedece]

I keep my characters in a freeform format inside Obsidian, using tables to group some things up. It's not as flashy and I have to type more, but I never lose them since I have easy backups I save onto a Dropbox directory

[@chewbacca7856]

Thanks for the stuff about solo rpg. I may be doing this since i have no group to play with.

[@GateKeeperPat]

I'd love a part two on building a resilient game. Deep dive into adventures that work well, or character backgrounds that help facilitate. I recognize the way you run Shadowdark really supports this. Curious of what you'd do different for a more epic fantasy 5e tale.

[@Renseru]

Game theory optimized poker players use similar things to oracle dice to mix up their play. I use something similar to this that Even the NPC is friendly and Odds they are not - and I'll come up with the reason on the spot.

[@junderlandgames1186]

I know it’s a lot of work but I would appreciate if there was a simplified condensed versions of monster stats for 5e.

[@SlyFlourish]

Try Forge of Foes! shop.slyflourish.com/collections/the-lazy-dungeon-master-series/products/forge-of-foes

[@RussellHowes-ky8ux]

Wouldn’t have played 5e this long without this tool. Hope the make one for DC20.

[@synmad3638]

I once copypasted a table from a book into Chat GPT and asked it to convert it into markdown. I think that was the only time AI made my GM life easier (it was pretty cool tho!)

[@mbuhtz]

I think this Westmarches style game is a wonderful solution for adults who have busy lives where work/kids/etc interfere on a random basis. In other types of games, these people would never even GET to play since their lives dont let them commit. This allows more people to play pur favorite games

[@HereComeMrCee-Jay]

If you run headlong into any hobby, you're lucky to crash into reality. I don't know that it's something unique to TTRPGs, beyond the fact that you need a group of other people to make it happen (as opposed to a solo activity). I'd also add that there are a fair amount of younger folks in the hobby, who may not have experience building and leading teams... and that's really what you are doing when you co-create a D&D group, and so it's understandable that they struggle with that. My observation, reading on the forums, is that many DMs struggle co-creating clear expectations with their players, getting agreement, and holding people accountable. In fact, some of them seem to think clear expectations and accountability are inherently oppressive and mean and might lead to fights... when actually I would argue the opposite is closer to the truth. Many of the problems in groups stem from unstated expectations or failure to hold people accountable; unstated expectations are premeditated resentments. In all of my games right now, we have agreed that we play as long as we have min 3 players show up. My online game with long distance folks is the more difficult one...so in that game we have 3 solids who each show up 90% of the time and two 50-50 guys. Never had to cancel in a year and a half of game play. If you don't show up, you don't get XP... which my table agrees is the fair way to do things. Everyone has multiple characters, so the party can be adjusted as necessary depending upon on who shows up. Yes, this impacts immersion a little bit (because characters suddenly appear/disappear across sessions), but I'd rather play an imperfect game on a regular basis that let striving for the perfect game keep me from playing!

[@brentnorton1602]

Oracle dice- if you open up a “magic eight ball” some of them have a d20 on the inside. Some one on KZbin broke it down and was using as a replacement for dying at zero.

[@EdVeal]

I have tried to create all my adventures to be played out in one session. This can be hard given my group, we play about every 3 to 5 weeks, are all old friends so we devote a chunk of time for simple chat time and catching up. We gather for about 5 hours on a Sat. so planning a 4 hr. game is reasonable.

[@RichardtheregularDM]

MPMB sounds so cool. Unfortunately they lost me as soon as you mentioned that it needs Acrobat. I haven’t used Acrobat for over ten years. Oh well. I guess it’s not for me. :-)

[@dffdsbt]

My problem with AI character art is that google image search is overwhelmed by it - it can be hard to find just ordinary images with how much AI art, of varying quality and usability, has swamped image searches.

[@undeadamerican1107]

Surprised there's no coverage of DC20, or did I miss it somewhere?

[@michaeljpastor]

In regards to your bet about Beyond, does it which marinade you prefer with crow? ;-)

[@stephenklien]

Another limitation on MPMB: doesn't work on Android or iOS. Need to be on Windows or macOS; no moblie devices unless they run Windows.

[@ChaseLindberg]

What does Mike have against mushrooms.

[@michaeljpastor]

Did you flip flop what you meant by serial and episodic tv?

[@ChuckWestfield]

I use AI a lot in DMing. I use it to plot out modules I haven’t read through. For example I have a summer game for kids and I have eight sessions to finish Tomb of Annihilation. It helps discern which plot points to hit since they prefer a more linear story. It helps me outline how long each adventure takes. What I can streamline out to make up for things going long. I use it to write dialogue for my villains. I use it as a player to write quips in character. I have a list of goading insults for my character based on Val Kilmer’s Doc Holiday mixed with Steven from Braveheart. Hexadin who talks to God and picks fights with enemies on my best friend in the party (the quietest player).

[@flow6694]

Didn’t you already answer drunken yodas question last week? 😅

[@Ironfranko]

I can leave all the origins options open, never the less my players will pick "Variant human" 2 out of 3 😢

[@ZeKiwiOfTheNorth]

What's wrong with variant human? I feel like human PCs let the fantasy elements of a game world shine

[@Ironfranko]

@@ZeKiwiOfTheNorth nothing inherently wrong, just boring for me. There are settings where origins come with lore and adventure options that can intertwine with the campaign topics, and make easier for the GMs to add interesting situations for a PC. Like the dragonmarked in Eberron, or a centaur in Theros. Still a human PC can have a very good backstory but it loses all the automatic tools for the gm that come with other more interesting races. And all to get the mechanical advantage of a feat

[@garion046]

Try giving a feat (from a curated list so you can curb power) for all races, and remove varaint human and custom lineage. I did this and suddenly I have genasi, lizardfolk and tritons.

[@Ironfranko]

@@garion046 I wish! In my campaign in eberron I granted a free freat in hope for having some in-world feats like aberrant dragonmarked. But I don't have any in-world feat in my group, and I have variant humans with 2 feats :D

[@WaynePeacock]

😢Adobe is a no-go

[@emirefli]

Any creative thing that came out of AI (or LLM) I've seen has been incredibly bland. It feels like death of creativity. I remember our host asking AI to write adventures and it would come up with goblins and rats regardless of the level. I also have trouble finding non-AI art online anymore because my usual sources (Pinterest and Google search) are just flooded with AI

[@mholt76]

I hope the Character Builder in D&D Beyond is not working upon 2024 release. Players need lean and understand starting character creation/builds and those improvements upon leveling. Too many players just rely D&D Beyond for character creation.

[@kasteel5496]

Thank you for gatekeeping character creation. Your service is well appreciated. 👍👍

[@alexabel8010]

Hey, man. The simpler, the better. I don't want my players to learn shit

[@CecilQuetzalcoatl]

I completely agree. Making a character and leveling up isn't nearly as hard as people think it is. Players need to learn how to play the game, and character creation is super important

[@Not_Here_To_Make_Friends]

The lazy players who rely entirely on DnDB don't even understand how the game works. I know people who have played for five+ years and never opened a rulebook. They didn't even know how to roll something without DnDB and treat DMs like rules encyclopedias. I'm okay with barrier ping those people out out the hobby. We need less lazy fucks who don't respect other players enough to learn basic rules.

[@HereComeMrCee-Jay]

@@kasteel5496 There is a difference between having an opinion and gatekeeping.

[@peterclose1545]

I am not sure D&D Beyond is a good character builder. One of my players had a character generated with D&D Beyond that had an armor class of 7 and hit points of 4. Not what I call a good character for a new player. I tried to get him to use a pregen I had made. But NO; he made his on D&D Beyond so it must be good.