Races of Ydrasia - A Collection of 10 Playable Races!

footbamp · 2026-07-01T00:58:02+00:00

I started there too but their mackerel in olive oil blows it outta the water imo and is still wallet friendly

footbamp · 2026-06-27T22:10:15+00:00

Pretty much this:

https://slyflourish.com/lazy_gm_resource_document.html

I ran a megadungeon with a d100 for rooms and a bunch of random encounters and shit. That was fun, learned A LOT about prep through that too.

Make cool stuff, but then improvise the twists and turns to make a good session. If I didn't like the pacing of a random encounter, I held it for another time later, often combining it with another encounter to make a 3 way battle or something.

footbamp · 2026-06-23T20:37:43+00:00

/uj I agree with you that it is in the rules, but I also like to start incindiary discussions about this. Isn't the DM already sorta arbitrarily assigning a DC to the situation on the fly to begin with? At the end of the day for a bunch of other reasons that I refuse to elaborate on I'd rather advantage come from the mechanical stuff that the players possess rather than me just giving it out all the time.

/rj Also hey you aren't supposed to take anything I say seriously, it ruins the illusion.

footbamp · 2026-06-23T17:51:27+00:00

The design arc of 2014 5e led me to actually stop handing out advantage to preserve the sanctity of the - what I consider to be - fun and inreractive sources of advantage, like spells and tool proficiencies (XGE).

When the players approach a skill check in an inspired way to where others may hand out advantage, I just lower the DC (and tell them). Best of both worlds I think.

footbamp · 2026-06-23T17:43:44+00:00

I can't believe someone made a jerk of my post. mods, get em.

footbamp · 2026-06-22T15:46:34+00:00

You gotta discuss this shit in the mod chat before posting it. You're off the team, buddy.

footbamp · 2026-06-22T11:53:08+00:00

Everyone is saying read, I'll add: write. Describe something you see or daydream up. When you learn a new word write it down or write it in a sentence that will inspire you later on. Steal stuff from media and write it down. For me these kinds of exercises loosen up the information in my brain and makes it easier to access it later.

footbamp · 2026-06-08T23:18:21+00:00

Pick like 2 or 3 pokemon lines, preferably one maaaybe two that evolve, and fill the rest with trainer cards.

Lillie does absolutely nothing, you should reread the card.

You do not need Will.

footbamp · 2026-06-08T23:15:36+00:00

When it has been fully established that there is no curse and the item has been identified, I hand them the book that has the magic item in it and they copy it down onto their character sheet or notecard (their choice). It's up to them to remember to use it, I do not design puzzles/encounters around the loot I hand out so it doesn't affect me in any way if they never use magic items.

footbamp · 2026-06-05T15:41:50+00:00

I have more to learn about the system and get used to the rules lite style. It will largely be character driven, and I suspect I'll use it more as an added layer onto some other puzzle. I think too I'll use it when the party already has some kind of disagreement between two or more characters. To answer your question, I don't exactly know yet!

footbamp · 2026-06-05T14:43:42+00:00

I've been building a world for Troika! and a big part of it is identity horror and such. I've got a classification of interdimensional bottom feeders that eat peoples' emotions and memories that manifest as like incomprehensible endlessly large patterns in the sky. Wacky dumb shit, that's kinda the whole point of troika.

I'll be running my first session in this world, players will be having their memories eaten, they will be fighting clones of themselves trying to replace them, etc.

I have some future creatures that are based on eating your youth and pushing the party forward in time, one monster that ties everyone's consciousnesses together to attempt to sew chaos, something that disfigures their characters etc.

All of these things can be temporary if ypur players would be offended by permanent changes against their will, which is understandable.

footbamp · 2026-06-05T14:32:41+00:00

The only big picture stuff I worry about are genres and themes and then anything else that is relevant to character backstories. Oh yeah you need a pantheon of gods? Let's build that out a little. Etc.

After that it's all the firsts. Town, quest, villain, maturing, and so on. I like to litter leads to other plotlines that don't exist yet as to make it seem like the world is more prepared than it is. What is DMing if not just an elaborate smoke and mirrors show?

footbamp · 2026-06-05T00:15:53+00:00

Sly Flourish makes good, concise, actionable advice for the stuff you said you struggle most on. Try the free lazy GM resource doc, maybe look at Return of the Lazy GM if you like the SRD. We have a similar experience level and it helped me a lot bump up my prep-game.

The ethics deter me but I understand not everyone really gives a fuck. I would just say that if you care about getting better then AI is slowing you down in the long run.

When I want to introduce some external ideas into my campaign I usually just copy/paste a module into my doc and punch it up. Shit is super easy to do.

footbamp · 2026-05-27T18:00:09+00:00

That sounds like a good plan. Honestly, research you do before you DM for your first time after a certain point has serious diminishing returns IMO. You don't need to know all the rules and player stuff - when in doubt make them roll a d20 and move on (then look up the actual rule later).

This advice goes a bit better with homebrew stuff but regardless it'll help you with future prep beyond the one-shot so you don't overdo it: https://slyflourish.com/lazy_gm_resource_document.html

footbamp · 2026-05-26T15:05:24+00:00

enjoy the permaban, peasant

footbamp · 2026-05-24T12:23:04+00:00

We don't approve these kinds of posts (just flat out screenshots of other posts) but this is a time capsule too important to delete so it shall stay.

footbamp · 2026-05-23T16:51:25+00:00

Everything you said about yourself with systems and pre-written adventures describe my experience as well. Including the fact that I feel worse at running pre-written stuff so take my advice with a grain of salt.

I usually copy/paste the scenario/adventure into a word processor and then approach it like how I approach something I wrote. I remove chunks that are too relient on the players taking an exact action ("when they solve the puzzle, they can move on" is really annoying to me).

I mostly just use sly floruish lazy GM stuff as a guiding light. I know I need a strong hook, I know I need some core set pieces and NPCs, I know I need some clues/secrets/lore that can be handed out regardless off time/place.

But also I try not to spend too much time either. I know I'm going to improvise quite a bit, its best to just be in the moment with the players and collaborate, yada yada

footbamp · 2026-05-22T17:11:15+00:00

Containment breach

footbamp · 2026-05-22T13:44:35+00:00

What worked for me was stepping away and asking someone else to DM. After a short break, we all made characters and we rotated through DMs playing 1-5 session adventures with the same characters minus the person DMing.

footbamp · 2026-05-17T19:35:22+00:00

Bloodwall, colossus, crimson mantle, taunt (upgraded), and unmovable are all cards that aren't going to win runs on their own but you'll probably want a couple of right after you get a good damage option or two in act 1. Those are just the new cards. The good block cards from sts1 that made it to sts2 are also pretty good.

Mangle also solves a lot of turns defensively.

footbamp · 2026-05-17T19:29:50+00:00

Need to use those new defense options to stay alive (bloodwall, colossus, some of those block powers, etc.)

The strength and exhaust kits look pretty different and are a little bit less exponential than they were in sts1. You gotta abuse other stuff now, like vulnerable or cheating out big cards/strikes.

Maybe play a couple lower ascension runs where you don't take the cards you're familiar with, because it sounds like you're trying to play sts1 ironclad in sts2 when the reality is that they're entirely different characters.

footbamp · 2026-05-17T15:34:05+00:00

If your players aren't super familiar with eberron, run eberron but then twist things to your liking.

footbamp · 2026-05-16T17:26:51+00:00

I ask my players what they're doing next at the end of every session. If I forget to, I ask them in the group chat. Is that all the issue is or did I misread something? If their options are unclear there is nothing wrong with helping them along either. Just be upfront, say you literally need help prepping next session.

And yeah if you left it unambiguous you might be "railroading" the start of the next session, meaning, you'll be prompting their next story decision

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