Patience
Take note that this article has been updated since the original dated March 2012. In particular, you'll notice the topic of combat length coming up more than once in the article. This original article...
View ArticlePlayer-Generated Secrets
Here at Sly Flourish we're big fans of game preparation through secrets, small tweet-sized bits of lore, plot, or information that the PCs discover in many different ways such as a strange mosaic on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Case For Published Adventures
As long as there have been published Dungeons & Dragons adventures, there have been debates over whether we're better off running published adventures or running our own homebrew adventures. There...
View ArticleFailing Forward on a Banshee TPK
Actual monster difficulty in the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Monster Manual varies within challenge ratings. Monsters such as the beholder and the wraith punch well outside of their challenge...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What D&D Looks Like
D&D lead designer Mike Mearls had some interesting things to say about the growth of D&D as we've gone from pre-internet, to forums, to video as a method to discuss and show D&D. Here is a...
View ArticleSly Flourish's Vampires
Vampires make outstanding villains. These creatures of the night walk among us and yet are not us. Their intellect, moralities, wisdom, and villainy are beyond mortal comprehension. Vampires make...
View ArticlePool Table Dungeon Mastering in Barovia
Barovia is a living breathing place. Though the D&D adventure Curse of Strahd sets it all out on paper, when we run our games in this fog-enshrouded sandbox, the world comes alive. Barovia is a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
James Introcaso on Running Great D&D Games with Roll20
Nearly all of the D&D games I've run over the years have been at a table with live players, dice, books, and pencils. As we know, however, finding and keeping a good group of players for live home...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Building Encounters in 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons
Note: This article is a rewrite of the original from March 2015. Recently on Twitter, lead D&D producer Mike Mearls stated that he is working on new simplified encounter guidelines. We hope that,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Playing D&D Anywhere
RPG superstar Monte Cook has a new game he's working on called Invisible Sun. A big part of the game is the recognition that it's hard for players to all gather around the table to play an RPG during...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Building Set-Piece Battles
The fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons takes us back to a time when combat encounters can be as short or as long as we want. Where many battles in D&D 4e took an hour or longer, 5e's design...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Strahd's Negotiation
Note, this is part one of a multi-part series in running Strahd in the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure Curse of Strahd. In this article we cover Strahd's motivations and attempts to end...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Stories of Magic Items
Players love magic items and they are one of the few rewards that we DMs have almost total control over. Whether our games use random loot, an item wishlist, complete DM control, or some hybrid...
View ArticleThoughts on Unearthed Arcana's Encounter Building Guidelines
On 10 October 2016, Wizards of the Coast released a new set of Unearthed Arcana encounter building guidelines as part of their series of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition playtest documents. These new...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Running Strahd Von Zarovich
Goodbye to a Dear Friend On 21 October, I lost a dear friend and the D&D and roleplaying community lost a great man, Randall Walker. Randall Walker was a father, husband, a great roleplaying...
View Article2016 D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master Questionnaire
Four years ago, as part of my preparation in writing The Lazy Dungeon Master I surveyed a number of Dungeon Masters that I knew personally and knew held their craft to a high standard. This past summer...
View ArticleEmbracing D&D's Asymmetrical Balance
"Love the one you're with." -Crosby, Stills & Nash David Hartlage, friend of Sly Flourish and author of the excellent Dungeons & Dragons blog DM David, wrote an interesting article entitled...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Running Curse of Strahd
When writing about the adventure Hoard of the Dragon Queen we here at Sly Flourish wrote chapter-by-chapter deep dives of the whole book to help DMs run this adventure. With more recent adventures,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Deadly Lich
Few creatures in the world of Dungeons & Dragons are as feared as the lich. A wizard of countless ages, a being beyond the morality of good and evil, the lich brings a threat greater than most to...
View ArticlePreparation Step Zero: Review the Characters
Here at Sly Flourish we've often discussed the steps in game preparation that make the biggest difference in running a great D&D game. Starting strong, building a good adventure skeleton, having...
View Article