Lazy DMing

I've run a few games in the past month, and I should reflect on them here a bit. But this is all through the filter of lazy DMing. I bought a bundle of holding a while back, that had the Lazy Dungeon Master in it. Its pretty good, and I think must have been some of the intention behind those creating 4e.

See, I was also playing 13th Age, and I've come to suspect that the big minds at Wizards actually run games differently than the publish them. Perhaps normal D&D needs to be sanitized a bit for the mass market, and maybe we're getting some of the variants back in 4e rather than scripture to run games by. Anyway, as I look back on 4e I think that its not as bad or video-gamey as people suggest, but the presentation influences the play style to be even more so.

In a 4e game, I often felt like I was building a set of 3 encounters for the night. Now, I would keep things a little flexible, and its a testament to the encounter building of 4e that it was easy for me to swap creatures in and out on the fly while my PCs were taking their turns. It helped that I printed out a huge stack of loose-leaf monster sheets and shuffled through them constantly, I suppose.

I felt a little of this while running 13th Age and a 5e Planescape one-shot. But I've tried to consciously keep it lazy. Its not hard to build a quick list of all the possible monsters and their XP/CR/whatever stats you need to build encounters for the night. For this planescape one-shot, I knew there'd be a mind flayer, probably some intellect devourers, githzerai thralls, rival githyanki hunters, maybe some Harmonium goons, and assorted citizens of Sigil who may or may not be thralls (sad, I didn't end up pulling in the host of children in the end). But this is basically what I used towards the end of my Dark Sun game, just a bit differently organized because I don't have everything printer-ready.

The planescape one-shot would have gone a little smoother if I had had time to write down some more notes on the creatures, and realized that both Intellect Devourers and Mind Flayers force Int saves so I could have given the players that for their Githzerai bonus instead of recommending useless Wis saves. Meh. Live and learn.

Aside: The plot was the PCs were a (mostly) githzerai rrakkma band trying to oust a mindflayer from Sigil. They had a deadline for when a deed would be signed making the mind flayer a property-owning citizen of Sigil, and had to act before that deadline. There was a scheduled delivery of some trunks to the property, and an inn (stolen from In the Cage) where the mind flayer was staying. Pretty darn simple but enough for a solid 6-hour session (1-9pm but we took at least an hour to chat and get started and had a couple minor interruptions, though I also meant to give one more quick break).

I didn't get as much feedback from the players as I might have liked for the Planescape one-shot, so I hope everyone mostly enjoyed themselves. There were 6 players because I wanted to invite people who I hadn't played with in a while, and also possibly get a new person or two into (or back into?) Zack's orbit for his regular games. I had thought going in that I would say from the beginning that I was going to be an anti-phone/tablet tyrant, but decided not to. There was a lot of investigation with a lot of players, and its hard to keep that engaging for everyone. I tried to hand-wave some table-talk by saying that players could still give suggestions and stuff, and I think that worked reasonably well. At least no one was sharing youtube videos during the game, which was an unfortunate thing I also saw recently.

In terms of what to prep to be lazy, I really liked Zack's contacts he gave people for his Planescape one-shot, so I totally lifted that, though it wasn't as well-done as it could have been. Particularly for a one-shot, you need to give people some short and clear info that's useable. I was relatively proud of my Githzerai racial bonds table (though some were lifted from ENworld or Wizards of the Coast forums:

Githzerai Racial Bonds (roll d12 or use the list as inspiration).

1. Any enemy of the mind flayers is a friend of mine.
2. All my friends know I said that githzerai should only think about their freedom and independence, leaving ancient feuds behind.
3. Once, when I nearly died, I had a vision of the Nine Hells flash before my eyes. Now I seek to atone for whatever sins I’ve committed.
4. Our race’s traditions are as important as our personal beliefs.
5. I swore an oath that I would only kill in the most dire of circumstances.
6. I’ve been convicted of a crime I didn’t commit and must redeem myself in the eyes of my fellow githzerai.
7. My significant other is a leader of the githzerai in Sigil.
8. Something from my childhood makes me afraid of the dark.
9. The destruction of mind flayers is more important than any faction or feud (even with the githyanki).
10. My best friend will never walk again because of a battle I provoked. I choose my fights with greater care now.
11. I hate mind flayers and githyankai so much it drives me to take irrational risks, even when I know I shouldn’t take them.
12. My brother is a drunk, so his wife and children depend on me to keep them safe and financially secure.

Obviously not all of these came into play and some could have been better, but I thought it would give players some possibly appropriate personality traits for their Githzerai, who are supposed to be a dour and stoic lot. I even made good use of #7 by replacing the not-so-great NPC (Parakk the Rat Catcher) I was going to used to instigate things with the spouse. This was somewhat inspired by the Appendix A from Hoard of the Dragon Queen which I also loved in its simplicity, though I could have probably personalized it a bit more if I had more time. But its a hard balance between what to prep and how much time to spend prepping it. A few of my own plus some cut-and-paste from a forum search got me in solid B range.

The racial bonds table isn't something you need for every session, but I had a couple very similar lists I was referencing at the table: rumors they might find, the actual facts they needed to discover, and the true motivations of the illithid. But I was ready to roll some random rumors if people were into streetwise checks and that. It turns out when you give actual contacts then players tend to focus on what they have in front of them though (their contacts). Its all about prepping the right lists. Also, I like lists.

Rambles aside, I think that Lazy DMing is a pretty good way to go. At least for me. Though I still love me a good module at times, even prepping a module requires a good list or two.

Planescape 5th Edition Patch: Initial Thoughts

Planescape, unlike Al-Qadim, seems a bit easier to convert to 5th edition largely because of the lack of iconic class variants and unique magic system(s). But there are a few things that need to be converted.

Races. Obviously the original boxed set has distinct races. Races seem like relatively quick, if not easy, conversions though. Aasimar, Bariur, Genasi, Githzerai, & Rogue Modron. A friend did this with the playtest rules, but apparently advantage doesn't necessarily convert all those +1 or +2 bonuses well. I'm thinking being able to add proficiency bonus to some saves, a skill proficiency, or occasionally a double proficiency bonus might be reasonable. Some of these might show up in the DMG too.

Factions. These are a big deal. Its been suggested that factions translate to backgrounds. Well, maybe factions could be translated as backgrounds is a better way to put it. I'm not sure I like this idea though. Sure, its nice and easy (and someone else did all the work!) but this eliminates a layer of depth in the setting. A friend suggested that factions ought to have bonds and flaws and beliefs. I like this too. Inspiration seems to be quite similar to the belief points of the Planewalker's handbook. But one aspect of Inspiration points is they can be given to your friends when they need them. Belief points from a Guvner don't seem to fit when transferred to a barmy chaosman or member of the revolutionary league. Or the Fated: they can't give. At all. But that might be a conceit you need to ignore, or else you just bar factioneers from giving inspiration to their antagonistic peers. That would be a simple flaw:

Now, why not factions as backgrounds? It just feels like you lose something by not being able to use nobles and urchins and charlatans, but also you have absolutely no diversity of skills if you wanted to run a one-faction game. A few factions will be difficult to convert if you give them a special benefit, but I think it could be done. So factions maybe just as an extra layer (just as in the original boxed set) with a namer benefit, belief, and flaw. Maybe the advanced abilities could be converted if players need them.

Proficiencies. The basic set seem good, but I can see a little argument for adding a bit. I'm not quite sure what it would be though. The basic boxed set doesn't add any new proficiencies or some other second edition equivalent. The Planewalkers Handbook adds Chaos Shaping, Planar Sense, Planar Survival, Planology, Portal Feel, Spell Recovery, and Planar Direction Sense. The question is do all of these just fall into Arcana? You want to say no, but you're not sure. Chaos Shaping seems pretty unique but not all that useful. Planology lets you use a Celestial Etherscope, so that might be cool as a tool proficiency. Then there's all the languages... If we're back to having oodles of languages, I might consider giving out bonus languages based on intelligence again. It'd be cool if Plane Lore might be a unique still in addition to Arcana perhaps, and one tool (Celestial Etherscope) could help make things a little more Planescape. More than that though... Seems too much. If each plane has a "lore" type skill then each PC could have the lore based on their home plane. Then Intelligence could give a lore or a language? That seems too fiddly though.

All sorts of undecided on proficiencies here.

Spells and Magic. Most of magic works fine as is, though I'm not sure about the whole "lose power on different planes" thing. For wizards and clerics, it seems harsh. It might be better to have the penalties happen only at the extremes. When a cleric is in a rival deity's realm, not just on a different plane, perhaps. You can probably leverage the dis/advantage mechanic for augmented and diminished spells if you want. Another option is to say you can't spend your highest level spell slots on diminished magic, which seems nicer than saying you lose spell slots automatically or your spell slots themselves are diminished when casting the spell (i.e. your 4th level slot becomes a 1st level slot when you're 3 planes away from your deity, instead you can only use your 1st level slots).

Augmentation/diminishment gives an interesting option for magic items: you can give out more and limit their usefulness. A weapon that only gains its enchantment on Baator all of a sudden becomes a little more interesting (Thanks for the notion, Z.).

It would be cool to keep the augmented/diminished spells and items in the game somehow, but the original 2nd edition material is a bit... extensive. Or overly specific. Rare and memorable seems like a better option at the moment. But a few options aren't bad.

Adapting a handful of basic spells from 2nd edition stuff would also be easy and nice additions. Warp Sense seems like a great option. Surelock has some relatives, and could be adapted with a at higher levels set of options perhaps. Protection from Prime, Portal Alarm, Portal Beacon, Know Faction, Avoid Planar Effects... they'll fit on a page or two. Perfect.

So, to sum up:

• Convert a 9 races:Aasimar, Bariur, Genasi (x4), Githzerai, Rogue Modron, & Tiefling
• Convert 16 faction benefits and restrictions.
• Consider adding a skill and tool; if languages are important give bonus languages (old school style).
• Convert a couple spells. Consider how augmented/diminished spells and items might work.

Voilà!

XP, Levels, and Alternate Rewards

So 5th edition has the same XP problem of the previous two editions: everyone advances the same.

This has one massive benefit: you can simply have everyone level up every other game or so, and you've got a nice rate of advancement and no one is really left behind. There's no need to crunch the math at all. But there's a crucial drawback too: individual awards are gone as well as XP penalties or costs.

Now, third edition and Pathfinder might be slight exceptions: you can play a level-adjusted race and be a level or so behind the other PCs, but that's a little problematic because the benefits of being a Drow might be worth about a level at lower levels, but not higher levels. Also, item creation gets mucked up: if a wizard is going to be a level below the other PCs because he made one scroll, you better believe he ought to make a whole tone of them to get that missing levels worth.

So 5th edition gives us one alternate reward at least: inspiration. Inspiration is like action-points-lite from 4e and later third edition: advantage on a check (presumably cancelling disadvantage as well). It seems ok, but I'm not sure if its quite enough to really be a reward like bonus XP.

Planescape in 2nd Edition had Belief points in the Planewalker's Handbook. They could be spent for an auto-success on a roll (similar to advantage) and also a more story-oriented type of intuitive clue. That makes for a nice additional use of inspiration.

Another option for rewarding awesomeness at the table is to give story-based awards. In a Planescape game, for example, most characters are members of factions. Those who consistently are acting in line with their faction's goals might be up for promotions. Not every game has such factions, but you can imagine rewarding someone in a 13th Age game with bonus to Icon relationships, or using other factions or non-adventuring followers in a a more traditional D&D game (Thieves' guilds, Druidic Circles, Bardic Colleges...).

This is all very different in a non level-based game. I'm getting ready to run a Vampire game online (set in Alexandria around 360 AD). There I plan on using XP as a reward for accomplishing goals because XP simply improves your character's stats and allows you to learn new disciplines. There's no need to worry about level advancement since there is none: XP does it all. I like that. I wonder if you couldn't add an aspect of this back into D&D.

Take the Planescape factions, if you will. Or otherwise the concept of the Theme from 4e or the Prestige Class or Paragon Path. As you gain power within your factions (whether they're the formal Factions of Planescape or something more nebulous) you gain some game mechanics. You could track it with a rough system like Renown in Werewolf: 5-10 points and you've got a new level or "rank". Each rank comes with mechanical benefits, though they could be mostly story-based benefits rather than combat ones.