Wielding Knives in D&D
I first heard about the concept of "knives" at Pax Unplugged 2019 in a panel on Worldbuilding for Lazy Dungeon Masters with Mackenzie De Armas, James Haeck, Renee Rhodes, and Morrigan Robbins. A...
View ArticleOptimizing Towards Fun
I got an email from Tatum V. who mentioned that, as their group changes a few players, they're looking to experiment by running published adventures and other RPGs instead of homebrew D&D games....
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...
View ArticleUnderstanding the Exploration Pillar of D&D
D&D is built around three pillars of gameplay: combat, roleplaying, and exploration. Of these three, exploration is the least well understood. I struggled to understand it myself early on in 5th...
View ArticleBuild Resilient and Evolving Villainous Plots
Chapter 16 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master describes the use of fronts as a way to move campaigns forward through the goals and progress of its villains. This concept comes from the Apocalypse...
View ArticleIncluding D&D's Three Pillars Anywhere
The D&D Player's Handbook describes three pillars of gameplay: exploration, social interaction, and combat. We can think of these pillars as things to discover, people to talk to, and monsters to...
View ArticleTying Characters to a Campaign's Theme
The value of tying characters to the theme of your campaign during a session zero cannot be overstated. It avoids tons of problems often plaguing long-term campaigns in which the characters'...
View ArticleOffer Choices at the End of the Session
When you have a game with multiple paths the characters can take, describe those paths and get the players to pick one before the end of the game. This helps you stay lazy and still offer a range of...
View ArticleUpward and Downward Beats
Pacing may be the most important skill we GMs bring to the table and can be notoriously hard to do. We must always have a gauge on the current pacing and feeling of the game, slowing things down or...
View ArticleTake a Break
Take a ten minute break every 90 minutes of gameplay. As DMs, it's easy to lose track of time when running our game. We're fully on when we're running the game. We're in the zone. We're in a state of...
View ArticleAvoid Predetermined Overwhelming Combat Encounters
Avoid designing and running combat encounters intended to defeat the characters. It’s common for DMs to have ideas for stories they want to see take place in their D&D adventures. D&D...
View ArticleManaging D&D Tips
Kevin B., a Sly Flourish Patron asks the following: "We all want to improve, but is there a point where watching, reading and online chatting just becomes counterproductive? Is there just too much...
View ArticleSolid Character Motivations
Character motivations are vitally important to run a smooth D&D campaign. Characters must have good reasons to explore the world and engage in dangerous adventures. Their motivations should be...
View ArticleSeven Tips for Better Dungeons
Though built into the title of the game, not every DM enjoys the process of running dungeons. For some, dungeons can be tedious slogs — inching along old corridors, poking the floor with ten foot...
View ArticleBalance Realism and Fun in Your D&D Game
There's a false dichotomy in D&D between the "Realism" of the game and the fun of the game. Some say the game's world and everything in it should behave as realistically as possible. The world...
View ArticleProgress Clocks for Complex Situations in D&D
The core mechanic of D&D works something like this: The DM describes the situation The player describes what they want their character to do If this action is difficult or if failure is...
View ArticleIdentify Good D&D Adventures and Products
Jayme, a patron of Sly Flourish, asks; "I've always ran homebrew adventures, but for the first time, I'm incorporating short published adventures into the campaign. The problem is, I don't really know...
View ArticleThe Only D&D Subsystem You Need - The Ability Check
A lot of D&D books include new systems for all sorts of things including dealing with avalanches, piloting boats, running a performance, or managing a tavern. As DMs, we're often tempted to build...
View ArticleInterviewing New D&D Players for Online Games
Getting and keeping a D&D group together remains the hardest part of this hobby. For general tips on this topic read my previous article on Finding and Maintaining a D&D Group. Things have...
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