The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish

Mike chats about all things D&D including the new D&D book leaks and other stuff! Video Contents 00:00 Show Start 03:15 New D&D Books Leaked 03:49 Wild Beyond the Witchlight 04:50 Curriculum of Chaos 05:50 How to Enjoy D&D + MtG Books More 12:51 The Problem Challenging Players 38:16 Critical Role and the 20th Level Complexity D&D Game Links EnWorld on the new D&D books: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight and Curriculum of Chaos Using Ravnica in Eberron Alphastream on the Trouble Challenging Players Choose Monsters Based on the Story Lazy Encounter Benchmark The Dials of Monster Difficulty Paths for DM Expertise

Mike offers three simple quest models you can keep in your toolkit when preparing your D&D games. Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike does an in-depth review of Van Richten's Guide to Everything. In short, it's awesome. Original YouTube Video Buy Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Video Contents 00:00 Video start 00:58 I Highly Recommend This Book 03:09 Are "Ravenloft" and "Domains of Dread" the same thing? (Yes) 04:25 Great Player Guidance I Wish Was in the PHB 06:14 Lineages (they're awesome) 10:09 Building Domains of Dread (Meh) 14:27 Genres of Horror (I loved this section) 17:53 Domains of Dread (110+ pages of awesome) 24:47 Travelers in the Mist (didn't dig in too much) 30:04 Haunted Traps (What the hell is a haunt bonus?) 30:39 Survivors (0 level characters???) 34:47 The House of Lament Adventure (Awesome) 36:01 Monster Traits and What-Not 38:12 Monster Stat Blocks 46:49 Concluding thoughts

Mike talks about the value in understanding that secrets and clues serve you. Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike discusses and ranks nearly all the hardcover WOTC-published D&D adventures. Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Guide to Published D&D Adventures Video Contents 00:00 Beginning 03:52 Lost Mine of Phandelver 06:17 Dragon of Icespire Peak 08:47 Curse of Strahd 12:10 Ghosts of Saltmarsh 16:05 Tomb of Annihilation 22:23 Storm King's Thunder 26:15 Tyranny of Dragons (Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat) 29:52 Waterdeep Dragon Heist 33:32 Out of the Abyss 36:07 Rime of the Frostmaiden 42:01 Princes of the Apocalypse 44:13 I've enjoyed ALL of these adventures 45:25 Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus 48:04 Even rough adventures can be great fun Amazon Associate Links for these adventures... D&D Starter Set: Lost Mine of Phandelver D&D Essentials Kit: Dragon of Icespire Peak Curse of Strahd Ghosts of Saltmarsh Tomb of Annihilation Cellar of Death for Tomb of Annihilation Storm King's Thunder Tyranny of Dragons Waterdeep Dragon Heist Out of the Abyss Rime of the Frostmaiden Princes of the Apocalypse Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus Fall of Elturel

Mike talks about the value of running simple D&D adventures. Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike argues for the value of published RPG material even when running our own homebrew adventures and campaigns. Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike chat's about D&D! Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Video Contents 00:00 Intro 01:21 Scaling Adventures & Dials of Monster Difficulty 03:54 All the ways to subscribe to Sly Flourish! 06:01 Beefing up an ogre 11:10 "Roles" in 4e and 5e 13:05 Why Minions, Normal, Elite, and Solo roles don't work for 5e 17:32 Monsters Know What They're Doing is awesome 21:03 Initial thoughts on Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft 42:59 Thoughts on 6e from a indie publisher's point of view Links Dials of Monster Difficulty Monster's Know What They're Doing DM Deep Dive with Keith Amman Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e Raging Swan Press Patreon Raging Swan Press DriveThruRPG Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike discusses the value of running more easy battles in our D&D games to maintain the oscillation of upward and downward beats. Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike chats about general D&D topics and ponders how to handle chapters 2 and beyond in Rime of the Frostmaiden. Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Ptolus by Monte Cook Frostmaiden Chapters 2+ Thoughts Notion Notebook Video Contents 00:00 Beginning 00:30 Become a Patreon: https://patreon.com/slyflourish 02:34 Ptolus by Monte Cook Games 11:27 Van Richten's Guide and overly positive early reviews 16:50 New Adventures c Can we see more optimistic adventures? 24:39 Are WOTC hardback adventures all about marketing? 34:50 How do we steal from published adventures for our own game? 44:05 Embrace third-party D&D publishers 51:34 New Sly Flourish three-minute tip videos 56:52 Mire's End – A Patreon-exclusive adventure location coming soon 58:54 Increasing Patreon subscription for new patrons? 1:05:13 Frostmaiden: Auril's Endless Night 1:13:21 Auril as a "Front" 1:16:40 Frostmaiden as a Three-Act Story 1:21:00 Sub-quests and hooks for Chapter 2

Another short episode in which Mike talks about the importance of focusing on your next D&D game. Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike offers three tips to draw players into the fiction of your D&D game in three minutes. Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike offers three quick tips for getting started running Rime of the Frostmaiden. Original Youtube Video Sam Dillon's Creed of Auril Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Podcast Contents 00:00 Intro 00:27 Tip 1: Apply the Right Character Motivation 01:33 Tip 2: Start in Bryn Shander 02:42 Tip 3: Add the Cult of Auril

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike talks with Celeste Conowitch of 2C Gaming about her upcoming Venture Maidens campaign sourcebook currently live on Kickstarter! Venture Maidens Kickstarter Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike offers guidelines for running huge hordes of monsters in D&D and looks at a number of alternative approaches. Show notes Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Podcast Contents 00:00 Intro 00:41 Mike's recommended horde system 05:03 Why we care about horde guidelines 05:58 Mike's criteria for good horde guidelines 06:54 Horde guidelines from the Dungeon Master's Guide (Chap 8, Pg 250) 08:26 4e D&D style minions 09:38 Single-stat-block hordes 10:36 5e Hardcore Mode's horde guidelines 12:09 13th Age mook rules 13:25 Mike's recommended horde guidelines review 15:53 Problems with Mike's horde guidelines 18:14 The importance of horde guidelines for D&D

Mike chats with Teos Abadia about D&D skill challenges! Original Youtube Video Mastering Dungeons Alphastream.org Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike gives a short talk about ability checks, failing forward, and succeeding with a cost. Show notes Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Podcast Contents: 00:00 Intro 00:38 The core mechanic of D&D 01:35 You don't need an ability check for easy stuff 02:02 Easy steps to choose a DC 03:04 DCs don't change based on the character's abilities 03:52 The power of improvising ability checks 04:32 Ability checks in complicated situations 07:08 Understand the in-world situation instead of focusing on mechanics 09:09 Asking for a check without a DC to see if they succeed at a cost 10:45 The improvisational power of ability checks, succeeding at a cost, and failing forward

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike describes a robust D&D adventure or campaign quest model that offers a lot of flexibility and prevents quests from being thwarted with the capture or removal of a single key. Read the Show Notes Watch the Original Youtube Video Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Join Sly Flourish's Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Mike offers tips and tricks to maintain a good pace in your D&D game; one of the most important traits a DM can practice. Show Notes Books and Articles Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Chapter 24 Hamlet’s Hit Points by Robin Laws Your Best Game Ever by Monte Cook Games Kobold Guide to Plots and Campaigns by Kobold Press Timing and Pacing Adventures on Sly Flourish Improving Pacing on Sly Flourish

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Rime of the Frostmaiden One-Page Campaign Guide Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Mike talks about the importance of being on the players' side when we run our D&D games. Youtube video version Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Core principles - Working *with* the players, not against them. - You're not a competitor. - The DM is an antenna to another world. We're the vehicle for storytelling. - We're not the baddies. We're not our villains. We're not on the opposite side of the chess board. - We're *fans* of the characters (Thanks Dungeon World!) - The players understand about half of what's going on. - The characters understand far more than the players do. - The characters are smart and skilled in their roles. They have knowledge the characters do not. - Fun doesn't mean just upward beats, it means risk and reward, upward and downward beats. Hard situations and hard meaningful decisions. The DM's Job - Build the situation around the story, not around the characters. - Clarify that situation to the players. We're their eyes and ears. - Help them meet their intent. - Let the dice complicate things. They are the cold-hearted arbiter of the results of the situation. - Balance acting true to the situation with the fun of the game; leaning towards fun and away from things that are *not* fun. - The world and the story puts the characters in hard situations. The DM helps the characters make informed choices to navigate those situations. Examples - Warn them when they're walking into a potentially deadly situation. - Assume characters that aren't involved in investigating a trap aren't putting themselves at risk. - Let characters move that extra five feet if they can't quite get up to a monster. - Ask the characters to make a group stealth check even if they don't ask for it if it makes sense that they'd be sneaking. - Use characters passive scores to locate secret doors. - Ask "are you sure" when they're doing something that clearly won't work or is clearly dangerous. - Let players roll back spells cast if their character would know that it clearly wouldn't have worked. "A 1st level sleep spell won't be powerful enough to put them to sleep." - Ask for the players intent and help them reach it. - Offer deals: "You can make a DC 16 Intelligence (Arcana) check to channel energy from the unstable arcane node. On a success, enemies will have disadvantage on their saving throws against your spell. Fail and you'll take 2d10 force damage." - Remind the players about advantageous terrain. - Give players hints and clues about puzzles their characters would clearly understand. - Remind players of things their characters would likely remember. - Use skill checks and the characters' backgrounds go offer clues and tips. - In complicated situations, offer strategic recommendations the players may not recognize. - Remind players of impending dangers: "You have two rounds left before the orcish hoard falls upon you". - Remind the players about items their characters possess that they may have forgotten. - Offer suggestions for spell uses players might not remember or consider. - Give characters inspiration or advantage when they take risky moves that move the story forward. - Offer alternatives: "You can charge the first one and attack or you can ready your attack for the first one to charge up to you and stay close to your protecting paladin." - Clarify impossibilities: "Hard as you might try, this door is beyond your capability to break down. Work With Your Players - D&D is a cooperative game and we're part of that cooperative. - We have to know when to let bad things happen. - Build trust with the players. Don't violate it. Be on their side. Avoid "gotcha"s. - The world is cruel, you are not.

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Rime of the Frostmaiden One-Page Campaign Guide Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Mike discusses tips for running awesome D&D combat. Original Youtube Video Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Podcast Contents 00:00 Intro 00:18 Run with four players. 00:57 Run lower level games. Level 3 is the sweet spot. 01:38 Use static monster damage. 02:15 Run theater of the mind combat for small battles. 03:02 Inject the story and fiction into large battles. 04:49 Draw characters in off-turn with skill checks and info. 05:36 Use abstract maps – break out of the grid. 08:04 Ask for intent. 09:13 Have alternative goals - Add a Combat Out. 11:04 Don't say "Let's Call it Right Here". 11:53 Adjusting the dials (HP, Damage, Number of Monsters, Number of Attacks). 13:11 Offer Cinematic Advantage 15:10 Randomly select targets 16:06 Make boss fights interesting Relevant articles Guide to Theater of the Mind Combat The Abstract Battlemap Replacing Flanking with Cinematic Advantage Collected Experiences Running Boss Fights

Mike talks with Ryan Servis of 2C Gaming about the role of the DM and debating objectivity versus a bias towards the characters in our D&D games. Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Rime of the Frostmaiden One-Page Campaign Guide Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

This week Mike prepares for his session zero of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden! Original Youtube Video Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook Rime of the Frostmaiden One-Page Campaign Guide Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Mike's final thoughts on his homebrew Eberron campaign. This is a rebroadcast of Mike’s Lazy DM Prep show broadcast live on Twitch and reposted to YouTube and here in podcast form. Original Youtube Video Eberron Campaign Notebook This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter

Mike talks about safety tools in D&D including the X-card, lines and veils, script change, and others. Youtube version of this discussion Resources Safety tool reference by Tomer Gurantz Campaign Safety & Consent Checklist Consent in Gaming Digital RPG Consent Checklist Optional Rule Safety Consent RPG Checklist Script Change Script Change Printable Spelltheory on Safety Tools The X card TTRPG Safety Toolkit Resources TTRPG Safety Toolkit Video Contents 00:00 What are safety tools? 01:05 Why use safety tools? 03:01 The X-Card 03:39 Lines and Veils 08:11 Script Change 09:13 The Door is Open 10:20 Why do I suddenly care? 13:48 A Safety Tool Stack (rating, lines & veils, "pause") 16:27 Recognizing full-consent decisions versus majority rule 17:49 DMs using "Pause for a Second" 19:18 More on why we want safety tools 23:08 The Awesome Value of free tools

Mike talks with Dave Chalker about the various combat styles we can bring to D&D including gridded combat, abstract maps, and theater of the mind. This is a rebroadcast of the show broadcast live on Twitch and reposted to YouTube and here in podcast form. Original Youtube Video This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter

Mike's latest episode of Sly Flourish's Lazy DM Prep for his homebrew Eberron game. This is a rebroadcast of Mike’s Lazy DM Prep show broadcast live on Twitch and reposted to YouTube and here in podcast form. Original Youtube Video This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter

In this somewhat-raw discussion with Mike Shea (@slyflourish) and Enrique Bertran (@NewbieDM) we talk about our experiences with the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons! Youtube Version of the Chat This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter

Mike's latest episode of Sly Flourish's Lazy DM Prep for his homebrew Eberron game. This is a rebroadcast of Mike’s Lazy DM Prep show broadcast live on Twitch and reposted to YouTube and here in podcast form. Original Youtube Video This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter

Mike covers tips and tricks for running chapter 3 from Descent into Avernus. Original Youtube Video This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter Video Contents 00:00​ Intro 00:25​ Mike's Top Tips for Descent into Avernus 08:14​ Chapter 4 Discussion 18:50​ Chapter 5 Discussion 27:52​ Overall Thoughts on Descent into Avernus 33:18​ Do I recommend it? Maybe? 36:08​ Useful Descent into Avernus Supplements

Mike's latest episode of Sly Flourish's Lazy DM Prep for his homebrew Eberron game. This is a rebroadcast of Mike’s Lazy DM Prep show broadcast live on Twitch and reposted to YouTube and here in podcast form. Original Youtube Video This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter

Mike's latest episode of Sly Flourish's Lazy DM Prep for his homebrew Eberron game. This is a rebroadcast of Mike’s Lazy DM Prep show broadcast live on Twitch and reposted to YouTube and here in podcast form. Original Youtube Video This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter

Mike's latest episode of Sly Flourish's Lazy DM Prep for his homebrew Eberron game. This is a rebroadcast of Mike’s Lazy DM Prep show broadcast live on Twitch and reposted to YouTube and here in podcast form. Original Youtube Video This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter

Mike's latest episode of Sly Flourish's Lazy DM Prep for his homebrew Eberron game. This is a rebroadcast of Mike’s Lazy DM Prep show broadcast live on Twitch and reposted to YouTube and here in podcast form. Original Youtube Video This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter

Mike's latest episode of Sly Flourish's Lazy DM Prep for his homebrew Eberron game. This is a rebroadcast of Mike’s Lazy DM Prep show broadcast live on Twitch and reposted to YouTube and here in podcast form. Original Youtube Video This episode is brought to you ad-free by the patrons of Sly Flourish. Support Sly Flourish on Patreon Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter