Last night at the workshop, we had a nice discussion about weaving character goals together. I wanted to post that example here so people looking for a more hands-on expression of this proactive stuff can see it. Here's how it worked: we had a group-designed setting (very loose) with a few facets we had decided on (starting conflicts, a few factions, locations, etc). Each player had a vague goal they were bringing to the table: 1. See the world 2. Uncover the truth of my origin/heritage 3. Get back the magical artifact that raiders stole from my community 4. Reconsider my stance on the ethical use of magic and come to a new understanding 5. Figure out what happened with the magical disaster all those years ago These are pretty vague, and they aren't specific enough to build encounters around - yet. Your job as a GM is guide the conversation (live, ideally) to help the players attach these goals to SPECIFIC people, places, and things, with as much overlapping interests as possible. I first asked Player #1 about seeing the world, and he said... 1. Travel to every island in the vast sea, starting with my list of islands I haven't been to yet This was slightly better, and it allowed me to ask for clarity on #3... 3. Follow the raiders to their island stronghold of [name]. I have never left the island before, so I need a crew who is well-traveled and capable. We can then use #3's goal to tie together #1's goal: we can have Player #1 be the well-traveled character who knows where the raider's island is, but hasn't been there yet - and wants to visit it because he hasn't been there. This points both of their "objects of desire", or the focus of their goals, at the same place. Meanwhile, we have goal #2 develop into... 2. Use my grandfather's secret notebooks to understand the magic of the [stolen magic item]. Since that item was stolen by the raiders and taken to the island that unites goal #1 and #3, this goal must also tie into that island destination (and also to the magic item itself, which is the object of desire for goal #3.

How do you use the passive abilities in D&D: passive perception, passive investigation and passive insight? I know passive perception are things that a character automatically (or passively) notices whenever they enter a situation/encounter with no roll needed e.g. a player with a passive perception 13 will notice that an NPC appears to be out of breath, has some welts that haven't yet turned into bruises, is in shock, and is missing the purse that usually hangs from his belt. Ok that's all well and good. Other examples could be perceiving things in a room that look out of place, seeing signs of travel through a location. But how do you use the other passive abilities. A quick look in the PBH and DMG didn't really come up with a great answer. So this is what I came up with. Passive investigation is what a character automatically notices about what is happened in the past. With the NPC example I gave before a player with the requisite passive investigation will take that information and deduce that the NPC was probably just beaten and robbed and managed to escape and depending on what the players know about the NPC and the characters passive investigation the player might even know who did it. The point is they can take what they see and already know and deduce what has happened in the PAST. Some other uses could be finding hidden doors and traps, determining if anyone had been this way before and how many. Passive insight on the other hand focuses on the future. A character with a high enough passive insight will know that the NPC is likely to do next whether it be to run, hide, get his own weapons and rob someone else, find his own gang and take revenge or call the city guard. Passive insight is the ability to deduce what is going to happen NEXT. Other examples could be knowing that if a trap door is opened a firebolt will shoot out or that the group that came this way before left things behind so they will probably be coming back or vice. There are some strengths if this approach that springs to mind

Hey folks, Jonah and I try not to use the lab to spew our own cynical, penny-pinching schemes too often, but this is both pretty relevant to the lab and has a really big impact on our work, so I thought I’d share it anyway. You can preorder our book through Barnes and Noble here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-game-masters-handbook-of-collaborative-campaign-design-jonah-fishel/1147035456 Barnes and Noble is running a preorder discount on a bunch of books, including our own! Preorders make a huge, HUGE difference in the success of a book in physical retailers—they’ll decide how many books they want to buy/stock when it actually releases, so if you’re at all interested in our next book, please consider checking it out. If the book preorders well, they’ll place a larger order, which (1) helps us sustain our authorial careers, (2) makes our publishers more likely to approve future projects for them, and (3) helps us work on future cool projects for here! With that said, we always advocate for shopping with your friendly neighborhood bookstore, so if you prefer, hold off until they’ll carry it! There are other folks who’ll carry it as well, the easiest to access for most people being Amazon. We’re extremely proud of this book, and in many ways we think it’s an overall stronger work than the previous one (and we certainly had a lot more experience when we wrote it). You also don’t need to have read the proactive one if you want to read this one, although the two books can work well with one another. If you’re interested in any level of narrative in your game, consider checking it out! Thanks everyone, we’ll see you in the lab.

Hi everyone! I just finished creating a lost temple with several puzzles for my 5e (2024) campaign, but I would love feedback on the final fight I designed to access the vault, as this is quite a unique fight. I got the inspiration from here and hearing how achieving a specific goal can be the way to win the fight, but I have no idea of how to balance it properly. Basically, it would be a non-lethal fight where enemies are only there to prevent the players from moving around and place themselves where they need to be in the room for as long as possible. So CR is not much of a guidance there. Would any of you experienced D&D DMs be kind enough to either read the script & enemy stat block and share your thoughts, or even playtest that fight in an online sesh one of these days?

https://youtu.be/Hg9BWF7KYqE?si=hSY00HhcOV_6yiAZ I'm definitely going to apply this into the next session. It's just about getting more movement in battles through a special mechanic in each battle, and I Absolutely love it.