Build from the Characters Outwards
The characters are the heroes of the worlds we create together. They're the focus of our lens. The world outside of their view doesn't yet exist — except for the villains and their own quests. It's...
View ArticleOrganizing Digital RPG Materials
One effective way to organize digital RPG material is by making a directory structure of "RPGs", then by system, followed by publisher (if needed), and finally, by product. It should look something...
View ArticleUsing Maps for In-Person Games
Broccoli, a Patron of Sly Flourish, asks: Do you have any tips on preparing and using maps for in-person games? After fifty years of different approaches there is no perfect solution for preparing and...
View ArticleHow Many Encounters Per Day in D&D?
How many encounters should you run in a typical adventuring day? As many or as few as make sense for the story and the situation in the world. The Dungeon Master's Guide describes the "Adventuring...
View ArticleCreating Villains
Villains often drive the story of our RPG. They frame the situations in which the characters find themselves. Good villains drive the game forward, building momentum and reacting to the characters...
View ArticleRunning Travel Scenes in 5e
Travel scenes can be hard to run. Like downtime, travel scenes can lack structure, not offer any meaningful actions to the characters, and not offer any interesting choices to players. Some GMs run a...
View ArticleThree Reasons to Fudge Monster Hit Points
Fudge monster hit points whenever it leads to a more fun game. This seems obvious but it's not always easy to know when that is. If the curtain gets pulled back and players realize hit points are more...
View ArticleCalm Pre-Game Nerves with Session-Focused Character Hooks
Sometimes, right before a game, I get the pre-game nervousness. Am I really ready? I've done my eight steps. I've got my maps. I've got my minis. I've got my strong start and my secrets and clues. But...
View ArticleFive Ways to Integrate Characters Into Your Campaign
When we think about where best to spend our time to maximize the fun of our game, we can do far worse than focusing our attention on the characters. In the eyes of our players, no aspect of our game...
View ArticleEnsure the Resilience of Your RPGs
In January 2023 we saw the biggest up-ending we've seen for the RPG hobby. After 23 years, Wizards of the Coast attempted to de-authorize the Open Gaming License, shaking third party publishers of...
View ArticleFocus Your Campaign
"Child Rowland to the dark tower came." - Robert Browning, 1852 Chapter 16 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master describes focusing your game around a single campaign hook and presenting this hook to...
View ArticleGive Boss Monsters Awesome Nicknames
This excellent Reddit thread by BigEditorial describes the value of adding Zelda-like "boss subtitles" or Dark Souls-like epithets to RPG bosses to easily add richer flavor to our named monsters. This...
View ArticleAnatomy of an Environmental Effect – Chernobog's Well
Including monuments with environmental effects the characters can dork with is a great way to spice up combat encounters. It's important to get the mechanics of said dorking correct though, or they...
View ArticleUnderstanding the Six Truths of Your Campaign Setting
Joshua, a [Patreon of Sly Flourish] asks: I'm having trouble squaring the Six Truths about a world with not providing spoilers to the players. What if one or more of the truths are entirely unknown to...
View ArticleAsk Players to Describe New Character Abilities
Each time characters level up, ask players to describe their characters' new abilities. One way to make our games great is to regularly talk to our players. I've written before about the value of...
View ArticleHow Do You Feel Rolling a Crit?
When you roll a critical hit for a monster attacking a character, how do you feel about it? Does it feel awesome? Does it feel like justice? Do you feel guilty about the crit? Do you enjoy the...
View ArticleBuilding a D&D Situation – Castle Orzelbirg from Empire of the Ghouls
I love running situation-based RPG sessions. A situation-based session is one in which the GM sets up the situation at a location and lets the characters navigate the situation as the players wish,...
View ArticleUse a Damage Pool for Lots of Monsters
Sometimes, when running lots of monsters, it's a pain to track the damage done to each monster. Thus, GMs don't tend to run more than sis to eight monsters at a time. But some of the best fantasy...
View ArticleRe-Using Secrets and Clues
In Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, I recommend writing down ten fresh secrets and clues during your prep for your next session. In Chapter 6, I state: Sometimes your unrevealed secrets will make...
View ArticleRun Homebrew Adventures in a Published Setting
Running your own adventures in a published campaign setting offers the best benefits from both – the freedom to customize homebrew adventures with the high production value and depth of lore of a...
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