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Using Notion.so for Lazy D&D Campaign Planning
For the last few years, while using the steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master to prepare for my game, I'd write my prep notes in a text file using markdown and saved my files to a campaign...
View Article1d20 D&D Adventure Hooks from Movies
Few movies work as well as models for D&D games than we think. This is usually for one big reason: the movie's story depends on how the characters act and we can't count on that in D&D....
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Text-based Combat Tracking for D&D on Discord
Since all of my in-person games have moved online in 2020 I've become fascinated with the best practices for playing D&D online. While there are many solutions out there, I've found that playing...
View Article1d100 Forgotten Realms Factions
In previous articles on Sly Flourish I wrote about the value of randomness in our D&D games and offered random tables to help inspire your own adventures such as those in the Lazy DM's Workbook,...
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Zone-based Combat in D&D
D&D is a game of action and high adventure yet sometimes we lose the sense of wonder and excitement when we fall into the minutia of the mechanics. We also may want a combat system that doesn't...
View ArticleInstant NPCs for Fifth Edition D&D
Note, this article has been updated from the original posted in February 2016. When improvising an NPC or custom monster during the game, you can often start with a base DC between 10 (easy) and 20...
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Running Descent into Avernus Chapter 2
Note: This article contains spoilers for the adventure Descent into Avernus. This article is one of a series that covers tips and tricks for running the hardback D&D adventure Descent into Avernus....
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Improving Pacing
"The key to becoming a great GM, more than anything else, is an understanding of pacing." - Monte Cook and Shanna Germain, Your Best Game Ever As dungeon masters who take their craft seriously, we...
View ArticleThe Most Valuable DM Tool: A Good List of Names
For a video on this topic, take a look at the Most Important Lazy D&D DM Tool: A Good List of Names on Youtube. Names are hard. It's hard to come up with them. It's hard to remember them....
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A Framework for One-on-One D&D Games: Sherlock Holmes and Watson
Playing D&D with one player and one DM is a wonderful way to play the game. With one player and one dungeon master, we can truely focus our stories on the character. Playing D&D one-on-one is...
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Running D&D Games in Eberron
I love Eberron. D&D's fantasy world of high magic, noir intrigue, and swashbuckling adventure manages to be fresh and new and still hold true to the core of D&D. Everything in D&D is in...
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Dreamscape Investigations
What if we combined the reverse-clues of Memento, the dreamscapes of Inception, and in-media-res clue-gathering scenes from the video game Return of the Obra Dinn into a model for dream-based...
View ArticleAverage Hit Points of a D&D Character
Sometimes it's useful to have a rough gauge of how many hit points we can expect D&D characters to have at any given level. Will our deadly trap be truly deadly? Will the dragon's breath weapon TPK...
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Thinking Two Horizons Out
In Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master I recommend focusing attention on what we need to run our next game. This mostly comes down to the eight steps of lazy DM prep: Review the characters Create a...
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Using the Guilds of Ravnica in Eberron
Mashing up the ideas from published D&D books is one of the best ways to capitalize off of the massive benefit from published books while, at the same time, turning published worlds into one of our...
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Running Ravenloft / Curse of Strahd in a Single Session
Note: This article has been updated since its original version published in November 2012. Published in 1983, the classic D&D adventure I6 Ravenloft, was ranked in 2004 by Dungeon magazine as the...
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D&D Prep: Write Down Ten Things
Everyone has creative habits that work well for them. Today I'm going to share one of mine. Write down ten things. Write down ten notable locations in your fantasy city. Write down ten dungeons the...
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Building a Great D&D Character
Here at Sly Flourish I focus on advice for D&D dungeon masters. Today I'm breaking away and offer some advice for players. This is, however, advice for player from the perspective of a dungeon...
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Building Lazy Dungeons
The eight steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master mentions little about maps. The expectation is that the "develop fantastic locations" step covers locations big and small and stick-figure...
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Paths for DM Expertise
John B., a Sly Flourish patron, sent me a note describing an awesome video series by Wired on levels of complexity. Two of them really grabbed my attention, the levels of complexity of origami and Tony...
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