The Skull of Memnon - Shadowdark Gloaming Session 33 Lazy GM Prep

Visit the Sly Flourish Blog
slyflourish.com/
Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter
slyflourish.com/subscribe/
Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Podcast
slyflourish.podbean.com/
Support Sly Flourish on Patreon
/ slyflourish
Buy Sly Flourish Books:
shop.slyflourish.com/
Shadowdark RPG
www.thearcanelibrary.com/page...
Cursed Scroll 1
www.thearcanelibrary.com/prod...
Using Notion for RPG Prep
slyflourish.com/lazy_dnd_with...

[@jamesalexhowlett]

I love the shadowdark content you’re recording

[@mathieupythoud]

Great that you cover several play styles with Shadowdark in addition to 5e. Very inspiring content !

[@gedece]

As in a Medusa lair, the place is a maze and dark, If they blind her, she casts magic dark. Now EVERYBODY is at a disadvantage. And if they dispel the magic dark, now they face the prettification. Alternatively, she has 6 snakes, and every time they blinde her, one snake becomes blind. by the time they reach the sixth snake, the first one recovers sight. Also, you were seeing a table on 1 vs 1 equivalences, so it's not the party one.

[@ZeKiwiOfTheNorth]

Ughh.. a late game fight in the last 5e campaign i played in was a Medusa + Basilisks, it was an incredible slog in which i resorted to only using the Help action to try to let someone else occasionally the disadvantage.. so, yeah, something other than Basilisks for minions would be best.

[@ElShowDeJason]

👍🏽

[@taejaskudva2543]

In order to deal with those powerful single target spells against bosses, what if you do the JRPG thing and give a boss multiple target locations, like each is its own creature. Perhaps they blind the merits eyes, but they didn't blind the snakes. Or maybe the mirrorless can't see, but her demonic left side with three arms and wavy swords can oneringly find anyone within reach.

[@AKNeal81]

@13:00 treat it like the old JRPGs like Chrono Trigger or FF3/6 where the boss has two or three minions that just give the boss a boon, like spell reflection, or say a resistance or even immunity but all they have to do is pop the pod or cut off the tentacle to drop the buff on the big bad. Maybe even have to kill all three to drop it.

[@nightlight-zero]

I guess it depends on what you define as a long-term campaign. Not sure if you've ever done a poll on this, but I have people in my group who think that a "long-term campaign" is 100+ sessions.

[@BLynn]

For Drusilla's voice do you attempt to simulate Juliet Landau's gothic sounding voice?

[@PhilC_PhD]

I am sure you realize this Mike, but Focus spells do require re-rolls at the start of each turn for the caster along side any other distractions so it is not 100% that the blindness would continue to last. Also, I would disagree that Shadowdark is not heroic. It isn't super hero fantasy but it definitely still is heroic. I think of Old-School style D&D as trying to imitate Lord of the Rings. The characters in Lord of the Rings are heroes but they relied on armies and the strength of will of those around them. Now to preface this little rant so to speak: As long as everyone is having fun at the table, my opinion doesn't matter. Just think it relates to the starting discussion in this video. This is just my personal opinion and how I prefer to run Shadowdark (I mix in some rules form Old-School Essentials as well). The issue with character level is not really there for the games I run even if they have some great spells or magic items they have found because I never look at monster level and if things are balanced in that sense. I never pre-write combat encounters as I run reaction rolls. I am also 100% okay with someone havining invisibility and silence set up in just the right way that they could stab the "BBEG" in the neck, no roll needed, and kill them outright (ala David playing Anwir in the 3d6 Down the Line podcast liveplay). This is just me preferring the old school style of play that Shadowdark (to me) is trying to encompass more than the modern (post 2000s WotC D&D) style of play. Does this mean my players might come up to a fort that is currently filled with 40+ soldiers and their only real option is to retreat and reasses, yes. I have had many times where the players were in situations that just running up and fighting would not be smart, so they though up creative alternatives and survived. That is the "combat is war not combat is sport" nomenclature that is used to delineate between the two styles of play. To end this long rant, it also comes down to as a GM I do not pre-write situations. For instance I use the Lazy-GM steps but I disregard the "scenes" as the players decide the scenes each session, not me.