Probably Lazy RPG Ideas

I wanted a place to compile all the random suggestions I made on reddit.

[probablylazyrpgideas]

Gateless Background

Proficiencies: Stealth, History.

As a Gateless, your anti-Guild organizing doesn't make you very popular with members of the Guilds and you're used to fleeing Boros soldiers and Orzhov enforcers. You know how to blend in with a crowd, which alleyways are safe, and which shopkeepers will let you use the back door.

You're also very much aware of the history of the Guildpacts and the millennia of oppression the Guilds have forced upon the unguilded. You can, of the top of your head, mention several attempted revolts and revolutions, as well as the various ways in which the Guilds have harmed people like you.

Tool proficiency: One type of artisan's tool

You still need to put food on your plate and you'd hate to be reliant on the "food" the Golgari distribute, charity from the Conclave, or "charity" from the Church of Deals. This means working for a living. Maybe you own a shop, maybe you're in someone's employ. Either way, you contribute to the Ravnican economy.

Equipment: A set of artisan's tools (one of your choice), a set of common clothes, a pamflet denouncing the Guilds, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp.

Feature: Mutual Aid

As a member of the rebellious organization, you can rely on help from your comrades for a variety of things. Just as your conspirators come to you for assistance of all kinds, you can reach out to other members of Gateless groups in times of need.

You can spend your time calling on your allies for a variety of benefits. Work with your Dungeon Master to decide how much time is appropriate and whether or not your network can actually provide an item, information, or assistance.

Calling upon your comrades in this way isn't without risk and doing so risks harming you, them, or the entire Gateless movement. Even if your request is successful, your Dungeon Master might decide it leads to future complications.

Getting organized

You weren't born as part of the Gateless, since it's a rather new movement. Rather, something happened that caused you to see the Guilds for what they really are: dangerous, oppressive, and unnecessary.

You can select your introduction to the Cause from this table or roll randomly.

A friend invited you to a clandestine meetup and you were convinced of their cause.

After five different Guilds were responsible for the destruction of your workplace, you decided you had enough.

You started a local chapter of the Gateless movement after hearing rumors of people standing up for themselves.

You are part of a street gang that sees the destruction of the Guildpact as a way to increase their power.

Your research into the history of the Guilds made you see them as dangerous.

You were once part of a Guild but grew disillusioned with them.

Personality trait

I speak passionately about my cause whenever it's safe to do so.

I'm always on the lookout for opportunities to hinder the Guilds, even in small ways.

The Guilds have nothing to offer me and I avoid their services at all costs.

I keep to myself to avoid being found out by a member of the Guilds.

In-depth knowledge of Guild rules and regulations help keep me and my comrades out of trouble.

I don't mind using what the Guilds offer me until we can overthrow them.

Ideal

Freedom. Once we abolish the Guilds we can be truly free.

Community. I care about those around me and want to improve all of our lives.

Power. Once we've changed the established order, I can finally take what should be mine.

Destiny. The Gateless are going to be successful and nothing can shake me of that belief.

Greater Good. Without Guilds ruling over the city, everyone will be better of.

Independence. The Guilds are only part of a larger problem. People shouldn't be ruled over by anyone.

Bond

I still have connections with several Guild members, who unknowingly feed me information.

The people in my community are all I care about.

I long to be seen as a true revolutionary who will set Ravnica free.

I've been nurturing a grudge towards a high ranking Guild official.

I idolize an anonymous champion of the Gateless who I am desperate to meet.

A nearby Gruul clan knows of my efforts and supports them.

Flaw

I can't help myself from loudly complaining about Guild oppression, even when doing so is a bad idea.

I'm in debt to an Orzhov pontiff, who tries to pressure me into joining the Church.

After getting into a few street fights, Boros and Azorious agents are always keeping their eyes out for me.

I'm willing to do anything if I think it helps further my cause.

I fear I'm only part of the Gateless because none of the Guilds would have me.

I won't let anyone say anything positive about one of the Guilds.

(Originally on reddit.)

[probablylazyrpgideas]

DM Burnout Prevention

In professional situations, burnout typically happens when you no longer feel in control of the circumstances you're working in. Being overwhelmed by all the moving parts of a long-running campaign can feel similar, where you feel more like the campaign is running you and you're just responding to events rather than being in charge of the events that happen.

One solution could be to make things less detailed and less complex. That would give you a better handle on the story and the NPCs and you wouldn't need to juggle, for example, the agricultural imports of seven regions and how that relates to the geo-political situation in 23 cities. I think that as DMs, we tend to go for the more complex and "realistic" in how the world reacts to the actions of our players, where a much simpler "if-then tree" would suffice. This gets even worse when most of those preparations are never really front and center. Talk with your players about what level of depth and story complexity they require for an enjoyable experience.

Also think about tasks you can delegate to your players. One of my players, for example, is responsible for scheduling the sessions. My players also take care of food and drinks and holding each other accountable for things like being on time, moving swiftly through your turns, knowing your skills, etc. If you have a more experienced player at your table, you could let them have part of the responsibility of referencing spells and abilities or going over newer players' character sheets to see if they didn't make any mistakes.

Being a DM isn't just one big job, it's actually a ton of little jobs. The DMG divides this into "Master of Worlds," "Master of Adventures," and "Master of Rules" but even those don't cover your entire set of responsibilities. No-one is equally good at everything people expect from a DM and there's no shame in delegating some of the things you're not as good at.

Finally, if you find yourself spending a lot of time preparing for your campaign, give yourself a limit. I understand wanting to spend a lot of time preparing and that's very enjoyable but too much preparation can be a problem. It can make stories or NPCs too complex or lead to disappointment when your preparation doesn't end up being relevant.

If you find yourself with too much time on your hand, try to tackle preparation in a different way. First, you prepare what is strictly needed for the next session. After that, you prepare a couple of "maybe" scenarios. Then, if you still have time, you work on some unlikely scenarios, scenes, encounters, NPCs... and make sure they're flexible enough that you can recycle them later.

If you still have time after that, try to prepare in a way that doesn't create more content for your campaign. If you're into arts-and-crafts or drawing, spend some time making cool set-pieces, more detailed maps, character portraits, handouts, etc. If you like reading, spend time on some (fantasy) novels that might give you inspiration or read some non-fiction. Anything you read can be used for D&D at some point. If you're a gamer, spend some prep time playing a video game that you're curious about. If you want something more physical, spend some time figuring out the mechanics of complex fight moves or scenes or how hard it is to scale a cliff. If you like cooking or baking, try to make some appropriate snacks for the next session. If you're a writer, work on descriptions or write something that isn't directlyrelevant for your campaign. Being able to give your players snippets of an in-universe book is going to be really cool. Or look at movie scenes and try to describe them. Or maybe work on your acting.

The important thing is to keep things varied and fun and not spend too much time on things you have to do. If you find yourself wanting to spend a lot of time preparing, keep that preparation fun and different and avoid preparing too much.

[probablylazyrpgideas]

I started playing with Fourth Edition.

The general consensus about it seems to be that it was either very, very bad or that it was okay, but just not D&D. I think both of those are wrong, although I'll admit the edition was flawed in some ways (as is every other game).

Because people either see it as irredeemable or "not D&D" it often gets glossed over in discussions about the hobby.

Now, the D&D Fourth Edition is a perfectly fine game. It has some issues but the combat is really fun (if you have players that actually know their abilities) and it has a lot going for it. The gamedesign isn't actually that bad, apart from the Monster Math in the early books.

I'll briefly address some of the game's actual flaws, before getting into the good bits.

The game was combat focused to a fault

Now, D&D is a game about a group of extraordinary people addressing problems you can punch, so of course combat is a big deal. Most of the material written for Fifth Edition also has to do with combat. That's fine.

Fourth Edition swung the pendulum a little too far in that direction. A lot of powers are needlessly templated to work in combat.

For example, the Shaman's Wrath of Will power allows them to teleport their spirit companion towards a target. Can you use this power without a target? Outside of combat? Most DMs would say yes, but the rules don't make it explicit. Another examples are the utility powers. They're a really cool idea (more on that later) but a lot of them are focused on combat and because the game has so much combat in it, those options often outshine the more exploration or interaction-based options.

Too many numbers

The Advantage system of Fifth Edition is often criticized for not allowing nuance. There is, for example, no difference between having disadvantage on an attack because of moderately heavy rainfall and a blizzard, despite the former being less bad on your vision than the latter. Fourth Edition did allow for this nuance for both advantages and disadvantages. The problem was that figuring out the actual result of your roll could take a bit of math and haggling between DM and players. "So, I get a +2 on my roll because I'm flanking, +1 because the target is bloodied, +1 because I'm using using a one-handed weapon, +3 from our Warlord, and +1 because I'm using a hammer." "Oh, but you aren't flanking because of X and you get -2 because of the darkness." "Didn't our wizard create a light source?" Etc.

The numbers on your character sheet and on the monster stat blocks also became inflated pretty quickly. There was no such thing as bounded accuracy and this could quickly get ridiculous. My wife's Bard managed to roll a result of 30 (or more) on a Diplomacy check as a first-level Bard. It's really silly.

Armor Class also inflated to the point that low-level enemies literally couldn't hurt the players after some point.

Too many blood books

This probably hurt the edition a lot. Most of the books are good but having to buy a second book to be able to play rather iconic classes such as Bard, Barbarian, and Druid was rather ridiculous.

Because of this, there was also a ton of material available, but not always accessible to those that needed or wanted it. Feats are the perfect example of this. They're an awesome tool to make each character you make different but there are so damn many.

Wizards of the Coast just didn't handle the edition all that well

This is related to there being too many books. Apart from that Wizards also made it harder to offer unofficial material for Fourth Edition and stopped collaborating with other companies and groups. They also alienated a bit of their core fan base by offering a game that was quite different to what existed before and by marketing hard towards new players. This is also part of why the game gets criticized for being too much like an MMO. Wizards actively pushed towards that demographic.

I also vaguely remember playtesting being a bit lacking with this edition and especially the later material can show this. There are a ton of errata for all material that came out.

Now, onto the good bits:

A lot of interesting concepts

I'm just going to list a few and if you want to know more, just ask, because there's a lot of cool stuff in Fourth Edition:

Monster stat blocks are easy on the DM

Utility powers

Warlord

The different power sources

Minions

Bloodied

Monster roles

Healing surges

Standardized defenses

Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies

Having Martial classes also shine at later levels

Things like minions and bloodied are still frequently used by DMs despite not existing in Fifth Edition.

Skill challenges

As much as Fourth Edition gets criticized for being too much at combat, it at least made a solid attempt at fleshing out non-combat situations. Skill challenges were flawed in some ways and could do with a better explanation in the DMG but with some additional development, they could do pretty well.

Interesting martial classes and options

Now, this might have gone too far but it's really cool to see martial classes improve and progress beyond "I hit the enemy harder and more often." Just like all other classes, martial classes continued to gain cool and impressive new abilities, rather than only spellcasters getting the coolest options to choose from.

Even at level 1, all classes had a few interesting options and comparing a Fourth Edition Fighter to one in Fifth Edition (even if they picked Battlemaster) shows a clear difference in the options you have available.

---------

Fourth Edition had a lot potential but could have done with a bit more development and looking beyond mere combat. There's a lot to love about the game but also quite a lot of room for improvement. I'd be really nice to see an alternative Fourth Edition that actually lived up to its potential and I think it's sorta sad that Fifth Edition broke rather hard with a lot of what made Fourth Edition good instead of improving upon it.

[probablylazyrpgideas]

Fantasy drinks

Based on this reddit post, asking about drinks in a pirate bar:

Imaginary Thunder

A clear-blue liquid with low alcohol content. When it touches your lips, it briefly shocks you. Not enough to seriously hurt but definitely noticeable. The drink itself is very sweet and is sometimes mixed with gin for those who think it's too sweet.

Pirates like to give this drink to unsuspecting comrades who've never heard of it.

Rosemary Cognac

A young cognac. Very strong. The most noticeable aspect is that rather than having sugar or caramel added to it, it had honey added to it making it a bit more viscous than you'd be used to.

Very expensive, as it comes from only one specific area of the world. One pirate constantly boasts about only boarding ships just for barrels of Rosemary Cognac.

Sea Dying

A rum-and-lime cocktail that's been colored with squid ink, making it rather salt. Properly made, the bartender hands the patron a clear liquid with a single point of darkness which slowly spreads throughout the entire drink. Fans of the drink have really strong opinions on how much the ink has to be spread out before drinking it.

Noxious Night

A pale ale, fruited with berries from the Feywild. The drink helps people sleep but drinking too much of it before bed gives you nightmares. When a bartender offers you a free Noxious Night, it's a way of saying you should go home.

Krakens Eye

Names for the large round bottle with a moving eyeball in it. The drink itself is just very strong black rum.

High Bolt

Carbonated soda that's best had cool. While it has no alcohol in it, it does seem to have a tendency to make people overconfident. Legend has it a trickster god first made it, although others say it contains bits of each of the elemental planes. The family that makes it closely guards the secret.

Innocent Kiss

Mint-flavored gin enchanted to have small strawberry-flavored hearts floating up towards the drink's surface. Having one of the hearts pop open in your mouth is a weirdly pleasant experience.

Most young pirates think they're too cool for something like this, but hardened seafarers know to get pleasure where you can get it.

Great Monsoon

This drink is served in a tall glass, despite a single portion being fairly small. This is because after serving the drink, a tiny storm breaks loose inside the glass. The taste depends on the specifics of the storm: how long it rages, what direction the winds come from, whether or not is was a thunder storm, etc.

One pirate captain thinks this is all foolish nonsense and just drinks the entire storm.