Twenty Things to Do Instead of Checking Social Media

1. Read a sourcebook, campaign book, or world book.
2. Read some third-party campaign books.
3. Think about what your villains are doing right now.
4. Watch a movie or show with great characters and fantastic locations.
5. Read a fun fantasy novel.
6. Listen to an audiobook and practice your voices.
7. Call a friend and chat about their game.
8. Fill your campaign's geography with little-known dungeons and lairs.
9. Come up with three fun sidequests.
10. Read a monster book seeking fun lairs and encounters.
11. Read the descriptions of the characters' race, class, and background.
12. Write down a personalized quest for each character.
13. Find evocative art for your campaign.
14. Share an experience from your last game with fellow DMs.
15. Update your campaign journal.
16. Write down a character-focused summary of your previous game to deliver at the beginning of your next one.
17. Make a cool handout.
18. Write and email short flash fiction to your players showing the movement of the world.
19. Find music to build a great soundtrack for your game.
20. Flesh out the details of NPCs the characters know and love.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

The Lazy DM's Forge of Foes is live on Kickstarter! Back it today and grab the 30 page sample PDF!

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

• Forge of Foes Kickstarter This Wednesday!
• Arcana of the Ancients Bundle of Holding
• Mastering Dungeons on Shadow of the Demon Lord
• New One D&D Playtest
• Iskandar Player's Handbook

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patreons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

• Co-DMing Two Groups in the Same Campaign Adventure
• Managing and Referencing So Many Monster Books
• Updates to the 5e Artisenal Monster Database in Notion
• Worldbuilding Book recommendations
• Sharing RPG PDFs with Google Drive
• Running D&D for a 5 year Old
• Getting Players to Be More Tactical

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Never forget. The number one goal of an RPG is to get together and share some laughs and tales of high adventure with your friends.
• Your friends love you. You're game will be great.
• Stack multiple encounters together. Mix in roleplaying and exploration.
• Monsters often aren't tactical masterminds. Play them dumb.
• Provoke opportunity attacks.
• Keep tools on hand to improvise monster statistics at the table.
• Keep a handful of basic monster powers you can drop in when you need them.

Related Articles

• Describe your GM Style
• Sandwich Mechanics with Story
• Write Down Page Numbers on D&D Prep Notes and Character Sheets
• The Near Perfect RPG Session
• Seven Fantastic Tools to Play RPGs Online

Get More from Sly Flourish

• Read more Sly Flourish articles
• Buy Sly Flourish's Books
• Watch Sly Flourish's YouTube videos
• Subscribe to Sly Flourish's Podcast
• Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Buy Sly Flourish's Books

• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• The Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Fantastic Lairs
• Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures

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