Types of Lightning Rods for D&D and 5e
Lightning Rods are monsters selected to showcase specific character abilities in our D&D and 5e games. You can learn more about this concept in my article, Lightning Rods – Showcase Powerful Character
Sly Flourish
Building the better RPG Game Master.
Latest posts
The Rest of the Stuff in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
Only a few days remain for the Kickstarter for Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster! If you haven't checked it out or grabbed the free preview, please do and share the link with your friends! https://www.kicks
The Lazy GM's Toolbox in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
The Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter marches on thanks to all of you who supported the project, shared it with your favorite GMs, and posted it on your favorite online haunts! If you haven't,
Adventure Types in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
Our Kickstarter for Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster continues to march on! If you haven't, please check out the campaign, enjoy the free 36 page PDF preview, and, if you dig it, support the project. Backi
Prepping and Running Lazy Campaigns
The Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter campaign is going strong! We had the strongest first days of any campaign we've ever run and we can't wait to get this book into your hands. Please check ou
Expanding Each of the Eight Steps
The Kickstarter for Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster has begun! I hope you'll check out the Kickstarter, download the preview, and support our new book. Please pass it along to other GMs you think might en
Five Scenes
Five scenes is all you're likely to get through in a four-hour RPG session. Narrow your prep down to the five scenes you might run to help you focus and avoid getting lost in the vast and overwhelming
Make Monsters Unique
Describe monsters instead of labelling them so every encounter with a monster is a unique and fresh experience. Ogres are scary. Even if a player watched previous characters battle ogres twenty times
A Single Target Number
The Index Card RPG has a neat idea we can try in many of our tabletop RPGs – using a single target number for an entire scene. Pirate Borg has the same idea. Here's how it works. Instead of worrying a
Announcing Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!
For the past year I've been working on a new book. I've kept it somewhat quiet, only more recently showing chapters (and eventually the entire second draft of the book) to our fine Hero-tier Sly Flour
Roll to Target
Roll a die to see which character a monster targets. I roll to see who monsters target almost all the time. It's my default behavior for a monster. I usually only target specific attacks when it makes
Defending Out of the Fun
Kelsey Dionne, the creator of Shadowdark, was on the Dungeon Master Diaries podcast and mentioned something that clicked in my head in a way I had never considered. Kelsey mentioned that she can tell
Draw Small Maps
You don't need to get fancy when drawing maps for your RPG. Nor do you need to rely on hundreds of dollars of tiles, terrain, pre-printed maps, or computer hardware to run your games. Instead, draw sm
Defining RPGs with Tags
Over on the Lazy RPG Talk Show I talked about defining the OSR, my attempt to try to better define what separates one RPG from another. I think it's useful for GMs to be able to describe RPGs to one a
Quantum Ogres and the Eight Steps
Opponents of the dreaded "quantum ogre" argue that players lose agency if you move encounters to whatever path players choose. Breaking down encounters into the separate components of the eight steps
Every Roll Doesn’t Need a Mechanical Outcome
Not every roll needs a mechanical outcome. Sometimes a successful or unsuccessful roll can, instead, result in a fictional outcome without a mechanical component. As GM's we're drawn to the mechanical
House Rules from Various 5es
I've talked about the beautiful mess of 5e before. With so many different 5e-based RPGs and supplements available, we can build our own ideal 5e from the components of several systems and hundreds of
Let's Learn Together
Note: This article was originally posted on 21 December 2015. "He never assumes that he knows more than you do. He says: 'We'll learn this together.'" Annette Kowalski, Bob Ross's Strange Afterlife
What Separates Adventure Types?
A while back I wrote a series of articles talking about adventure types. I got the idea from the excellent short book by Robin Laws called Adventure Crucible. Here are those articles: Dungeon Crawls
Because of X, You Know Y
Connect characters to the fiction with second-person narration: "Because of X, you know Y." "Because of X, you know Y" is a simple model to connect characters to the fiction of your RPGs. In this mode
General Purpose Domains
While custom faction lists help you flavor NPCs, locations, monuments, items, and other things in your game; sometimes you don't have a clear list of such factions ready to go. Here's a list of forty
Experiences Running a 20th Level Multi-5e Game
Nine years ago I talked about my first experience running D&D 2014 from 1st to 20th level. Recently I ran an eighteen month long 1st to 20th level 5e game set in the City of Arches. It began while the
Play Solo RPGs
Solo RPGs are a fantastic way to engage in the tabletop RPG hobby. They stretch your imagination in ways you wouldn't expect, help you get better at improvisation for the games you run with your frien
Do the Eight Steps Work for Other RPGs?
Yes. I wrote the eight steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master at the beginning of the era of D&D 5th edition but, at the time, I had played a lot of other RPGs that sprung up between 4th and 5th
Greed, Heroism, and Wonder
Motivate characters to go on quests by pulling on their drives of greed, heroism, and wonder. What motivates the characters to go on adventures? Why would they risk their lives delving into dungeons d