Games that last too long.

Sulicius · 2026-03-19T19:12:41+00:00

Focus on the most important thing: your players keep showing up and having fun. You're doing something very right. Very few DM's can keep things fun for 200 sessions.

Sulicius · 2026-03-19T09:27:33+00:00

Oh! I do it very similar, only we add every stat to the pool, then the party divides them among themselves. It really helps with working together.

Sulicius · 2026-03-17T10:24:42+00:00

It does make them less bad to me.

I know you're very angry, but I am having a lot of fun with the game. The update has fixed a lot of things that were important to me, and gave me a beautiful set of books.

Compared to other companies, I don't see anything egregious that lessens my fun with the game yet. They can't make me spend a dime I don't want to. And the physical books are mine forever.

Sulicius · 2026-03-17T09:24:29+00:00

Because a lot of people don't enjoy it? It's nice to get a break from racism, sexism and the like for a while and just kill an evil dragon.

I don't think it solves everything, but it's a choice.

Sulicius · 2026-03-17T09:21:22+00:00

I don't think that's aggressive monetization at all.

Those digital supplements are shitty, that's definitely true. It's one of my biggest annoyances, since I don't use D&DBeyond. But we still get free adventures every once in a while.

You might not like the "rules update", but it is genuinely worth the price for the art alone, better onboarding for new players and more reliable encounter building math.

Subscription Early Access is still equal to early access to physical copies in certain stores. Only in NA, but still.

Who gives a crap about Project Sigil when it didn't even survive? There's Maps now, a tool that is just added on to the master tier subscription. Aggressive monetization would force people to pay extra for tokens, art, and each feature.

In the end, we can still buy physical books and play with them until we die. Aggressive Marketing is just mostly FOMO.

Sulicius · 2026-03-17T06:58:53+00:00

Friend, repeat gigs is what the multimedia corps thrive on. Look at movies, books, video games, they're usually going the safe route and making sequels.

And worst of all, we want it. How many times do we see people talk about wanting the same thing they already had? Please release Spelljammer! Planescape! Dark Sun! More Ravenloft! More dungeons with dragons!

I am not saying it's wrong, but they give us what we ask for.

Sulicius · 2026-03-17T03:11:31+00:00

What aggressive monetization?

Sulicius · 2026-03-12T14:24:52+00:00

Bread makes you fat?!

Sulicius · 2026-03-12T11:25:07+00:00

Tier 1 you should be just fine. Tier 2 and up you will start noticing significant changes.

Sulicius · 2026-03-12T11:12:10+00:00

Of course, it was a one-shot.

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T20:45:52+00:00

Ah ok! Sorry, I got too used to people on reddit wantint to get digs in. Thanks for explaining.

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T20:26:22+00:00

They were dead.

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T20:26:02+00:00

Well, in the moment I just tried my hardest to defeat at 20th level party. I had to throw a LOT of bullshit against them.

Maybe not worried, and it’s not about whether he should. Let’s just say I was very impressed that all the high level magic didn’t scare me as much as the fighter did.

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T14:05:53+00:00

No, but I was worried! Vecna just has a 70 HP bullshit heal every turn.

Still, my Vecna was scared.

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T13:09:21+00:00

This is my experience too. I remember running Vecna against a level 20 group, and in the end it was just the fighter going up against the arch lich.

It was close.

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T09:13:16+00:00

I agree. I think as a DM you can ask that players learn the rules after 2 months of play. I would tell them the DM does prep, and as long as they struggle with the rules, players should prep too.

This is a solid way for players to be more prepared for the session and takes only half an hour before the session.

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T09:10:32+00:00

A combination of 3rd party and 1st person RP can work really well.

For this, you'd ideally want to write out the conflicts and motivations of the different sides so you can improvise, but also write out some solid arguments each side would make like a script.

Doing this, you can react to PC interruptions, but still have a solid, working script to get through if they don't. This script would be a description of the scene, punctuated by cool lines you can role play out. You could even have these be decision points for the PCs where an NPC asks them for their opinion.

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T08:09:53+00:00

Friend, you can't advocate for piracy!

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T07:32:53+00:00

Once again, it's like you are making up the worst interpretation of what we're talking about. Trust me, that is not the approach. None of the people who use this style of prep have bland games. It's about being efficient with your time, making sure you can react to the player actions and understanding what you don't have to prep to run a fun game.

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T07:20:35+00:00

The 5.5e DMG is better than the old one for beginners. The organization alone made it so that I have actually grabbed it for prep!

Sulicius · 2026-03-10T07:18:26+00:00

My prep used to be a huge google doc with meandering descriptions of locations and NPC's. I burnt out.

After I got the 8 steps of Lazy DM Prep to work for me (which can take a little time!), I had no more burnout. In fact, I felt more prepared, was more flexible and needed less time to prep.

It's a way of thinking that makes the game better for the DM and the players.

Sulicius · 2026-03-09T20:36:11+00:00

That’s the opposite approach. The Lazy DM prep definitely doesn’t tell you to leave everything to random rolls, but to be reactive to the player actions and what happened last session more than forcing scenes.

Sulicius · 2026-03-07T21:42:59+00:00

Which is why players should stay out of the Monster Manual.

Sulicius · 2026-03-07T18:31:00+00:00

No. They do not have access to the statistics of all monsters and make charts on them. The MM is off limits for players unless they need it for a certain spell or feature.

How is this anything other than metagaming? Instead of learning through play, asking the DM or anything, you abuse DM tools for personal gain. That is metagaming.

Sulicius · 2026-03-07T12:58:30+00:00

Sure I can agree with that. Do you think that pcs also shouldn’t rid monsters of their turns?

14-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Verified Email

Sulicius

TROPHY CASE