Running Heists in D&D
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! Previous articles describe troublesome quest models and how the Seven Samurai quest model fits well into our D&D games. The heist is another useful quest model...
View ArticleFrostmaiden Chapter 5: Auril's Abode
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! This is one of a series of articles covering the Wizards of the Coast hardcover D&D adventure Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. The other articles include:...
View ArticleAdd Necrotic Damage
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! A lot of undead monsters in D&D tend to inflict light damage at higher CRs. Much of this has to do with the other abilities they possess such as resistance to...
View ArticleRequire Consent for Adverse Character Interactions
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! No character can adversely affect another character without their player's consent. This is an easy rule to put in place during our session zero that short circuits a...
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The Lazy D&D Cheat Sheet
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! James W. a Patreon of Sly Flourish asks: "I feel like a natural progression for you would to create a DMs screen. Have you thought about this before and what do you...
View ArticleCall on Individual Players During Online D&D Games
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! During 2020 and 2021, many DMs and players learned how to play D&D online for the first time. It takes time to get used to running games online. In particular,...
View ArticleRunning Rime of the Frostmaiden Chapter 6 & 7 - The Caves of Hunger and the...
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! This is one of a series of articles covering the Wizards of the Coast hardcover D&D adventure Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. The other articles include:...
View ArticleBuild Layered Quests with Random Tables
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! Back in 2017, Joseph Manola at the blog Against the Wicked City wrote an excellent article called Scenario Building: From Cliche to Complexity in which he describes...
View ArticleNotable Third-Party Products for D&D
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! While we tend to focus on the new D&D material coming out of Wizards of the Coast, many third-party publishers put out tremendous products to expand our games....
View ArticleTracking Combat in D&D
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! Octain, a Patron of Sly Flourish asks: Can you help me better track monsters in combat when there are more than 1. I have tried the dndbeyond combat tracker which...
View ArticleEnd Sessions Before a Big Battle
New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! Ending a session right before a big battle is a powerful trick for lazy dungeon masters. It builds in your next strong start. It adds excitement for the next session....
View ArticleLightning Rods – Showcase Powerful Character Abilities
Ginny Di has an excellent YouTube video discussing the dangers of ruining the players' good time by counteracting powerful character abilities. Her tip? Instead of counteracting powerful abilities,...
View ArticleMusic for D&D
In chapter 13 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master I include a list of great background music for D&D. Here are a few other albums I love, both for playing D&D and for listening to while...
View ArticleSecrets Serve You
The concept of "secrets and clues" from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master is a powerful tool. They changed my own game so much that I had to write a whole new book just to include them. Secrets and...
View ArticleWhat Does Passive Perception Show You?
Perception can be a weird skill to use, particularly passive Perception. Jeremy Crawford describes passive Perception as a "floor" for active Perception. It represents the minimum a character...
View ArticleSingle Encounters for Overland Travel
Hello friend! Just a reminder to pick up the Sly Flourish Bundle of Holding and get seven Sly Flourish books in PDF for 80% off! This limited-time offer is the best deal you'll ever see on these...
View ArticleWielding Knives in D&D
Hello friend! Just a reminder to pick up the Sly Flourish Bundle of Holding and get seven Sly Flourish books in PDF for 80% off! This limited-time offer is the best deal you'll ever see on these...
View ArticleOptimizing Towards Fun
Hey friends! There's just a couple of days left for the Sly Flourish Bundle of Holding! This is the best deal you can get on the PDFs of my books. Don't miss it! I got an email from Tatum V. who...
View ArticleImproving 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 ArticleThree Choices
Whenever your adventure or campaign reaches a moment of decision, offer three good choices to the players. Whenever the characters complete a quest or story arc, give them enough new quests to get...
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