
Episodes

Friday Jul 16, 2021
Handling Rests in D&D
Friday Jul 16, 2021
Friday Jul 16, 2021
Mike offers options and tips for handling rests in D&D. Click "Show More" for notes and links.

Thursday Jul 15, 2021
Thursday Jul 15, 2021
Mike chats about all things D&D!
- 00:00 Show Start
- 00:44 D&D and Magic the Gathering
- 08:07 Playing MtG again
- 16:37 Reviewing Patreons Next Week
- 18:54 Knife to Know You by Doryen Chin
- 24:25 Mork Borg
- 36:46 Downtime in D&D
- 48:07 Getting back to playing in person
Links
- Original YouTube video
- Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter
- Support Sly Flourish on Patreon
- Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- In Scarlet Flames D&D MtG Adventure
- The Hidden Page D&D MtG Adventure
- Knife to Know You by Doryen Chin
- Mork Borg
- Running Downtime in D&D

Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
The Best Improvements to your D&D Game are Free
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Mike talks about the best, and cheapest, ways to improve your D&D game. The best tools to improve your D&D game are free.
- Original YouTube video
- Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter
- Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Monday Jul 12, 2021
Lazy D&D Prep: Rime of the Frostmaiden Session 20
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
- YouTube Video
- Notion Frostmaiden Campaign Notebook
- Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter
- Join Sly Flourish's Patreon
- Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Friday Jul 09, 2021
Using Stars and Wishes for feedback on your D&D Game
Friday Jul 09, 2021
Friday Jul 09, 2021
Mike describes how to use Lu Quade's "Stars and Wishes" to get great feedback from your players on your D&D game.

Thursday Jul 08, 2021
Thursday Jul 08, 2021
Mike talks about all things D&D!
- 00:00 Video Intro
- 00:13 TSR (3) and the Ernie Gygax Situation
- 05:46 Gender Identity Thoughts from an Old Cis White Dude
- 12:14 How Important is D&D Voicework Poll
- 16:41 Why I Review Third Party Products
- 18:27 Empire of the Ghouls by Kobold press
- 27:56 Where the Machines Wait
- 34:17 MtG D&D Adventures and Pregen Characters
- 38:05 Making Cheap D&D Tokens from MtG Cards
- 40:44 Rolling for Monster Horde Damage
- 46:37 Matt Colville making his own RPG? Level up 5e RPG
- 49:21 Dungeons of Drakkenheim
Links
- YouTube Video
- Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter
- Support Sly Flourish on Patreon
- Enworld on TSR (3) and Ernie Gygax
- Morrus's Unofficial Podcast on Ernie Gygax
- How Important is DM Voicework poll on Twitter
- Empire of the Ghouls PDF
- Empire of the Ghouls Hardcover
- Where the Machines Wait PDF
- Where the Machines Wait softcover
- In Scarlet Flames free D&D MtG Crossover Adventure
- D&D MtG Planeswalker Character Sheets
- Lazy Monster Tokens
- Level Up, Advanced 5e
- Dungeons of Drakkenheim Kickstarter

Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Let's Make an Adventure! Keep of the Black Gate Part 2
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Mike uses the Adventure Generators from the Sly Flourish Patreon to build an adventure from scratch for his Saturday D&D game. Part 2 of 2.

Tuesday Jul 06, 2021
Types of D&D Secrets and How to Find Them
Tuesday Jul 06, 2021
Tuesday Jul 06, 2021
Mike offers a tip for thinking up secrets and clues by considering the types of secrets the characters may discover and how they might discover them.
Types of secrets
- Character secrets
- NPC secrets
- Story secrets
- Villainous secrets
- Location secrets
- Historical secrets
- Theological secrets
Ways to discover them
- Character background
- NPCs (friendly or hostile)
- Books, journals, notes, and scolls
- Items
- Frescos and mosaics
- dreams and portents
- sentient magic items
Links
- Original YouTube video
- Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter
- Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Monday Jul 05, 2021
Lazy D&D Prep: Rime of the Frostmaiden Session 19
Monday Jul 05, 2021
Monday Jul 05, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!

Friday Jul 02, 2021
Player-Driven Monster Descriptions for D&D
Friday Jul 02, 2021
Friday Jul 02, 2021
Mike offers a tip to get players to think more about monsters in the story of your D&D game by asking them to define interesting physical characteristics of monsters.

Thursday Jul 01, 2021
Lazy D&D Talk Show - 27 June 2021
Thursday Jul 01, 2021
Thursday Jul 01, 2021
Another episode of the Lazy D&D Talk show. Topics include how to steer damage away from the boss, the Mercer effect, yam-shaped adventures design, and reviews of Grymmworld and the Oath of the Frozen King.
Contents
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:36 Finding a D&D group
- 05:07 How did my Keep of the Black Gate game go?
- 07:05 Player tip: Always have a ranged attack
- 08:36 DM Tip: Redirect damage away from the boss
- 13:30 The Mercer Effect
- 24:21 Grymmworld by Grant Ellis and Ryan Servis
- 33:40 Oath of the Frozen King by Absolute Tabletop
- 40:32 Too many quests in chapter 1 of Frostmaiden
- 43:49 Yam-shaped adventure design
Links
- Original YouTube Video
- Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter
- Support Sly Flourish on Patreon
- Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- Finding and Maintaining a D&D Group
- Dungeoncraft on the Mercer Effect
- Grymmworld
- Oath of the Frozen King

Wednesday Jun 30, 2021
Let's Make an Adventure! Keep of the Black Gate Part 1
Wednesday Jun 30, 2021
Wednesday Jun 30, 2021
Mike uses the Adventure Generators from the Sly Flourish Patreon to build an adventure from scratch for his Saturday D&D game. Part 1 of 2.

Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
Finding Maps for D&D
Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
What makes a good D&D map and where can a lazy DM easily find them?

Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
Lazy D&D Prep: Rime of the Frostmaiden Session 16
Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!

Monday Jun 28, 2021
Lazy D&D Prep: Rime of the Frostmaiden Session 18
Monday Jun 28, 2021
Monday Jun 28, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!

Friday Jun 25, 2021
Use Villainous Heralds in D&D
Friday Jun 25, 2021
Friday Jun 25, 2021
Mike talks about the value of heralds who announce villains far and wide.

Thursday Jun 24, 2021
Lazy D&D Talk Show - 20 June 2021
Thursday Jun 24, 2021
Thursday Jun 24, 2021
Mike chats about all things D&D!
- Buy Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter
- Support Sly Flourish on Patreon
Show Contents
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:17 Tricks for the D&D Encounter Builder
- 12:35 Mork Borg
- 17:41 Old School Essentials
- 24:40 Runehammer Games's 5e Hardcore Mode
- 32:14 2C Gamings Total Party Kill Bestiary 2
- 37:42 Nord's Dreaded Accursed
- 40:19 Increasing the Deadly Encounter Benchmark at level 11+
- 46:09 Returning to our one-on-one D&D game
Links

Tuesday Jun 22, 2021
Preparing for your D&D Game in 15 Minutes
Tuesday Jun 22, 2021
Tuesday Jun 22, 2021
Mike discusses how to prepare for your game in about 15 minutes.

Monday Jun 21, 2021
Lazy D&D Prep: Rime of the Frostmaiden Session 17
Monday Jun 21, 2021
Monday Jun 21, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!

Friday Jun 18, 2021
Two Tools for D&D Encounter Building
Friday Jun 18, 2021
Friday Jun 18, 2021
Mike offers two tools for better D&D 5e encounter building.

Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
Worldbuilding for Lazy Dungeon Masters: PAX Unplugged, December 2019
Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
The lost recording of the Worldbuilding for the Lazy Dungeon Master panel at Pax Unplugged, December 2019, hosted by James Haeck with Makenzie De Armas, Mike Shea, Morrigan Robbins, and Renee Rhodes.
James Haeck
@jamesjhaeck
Makenzie De Armas
makenzielaneda
Mike Shea
@slyflourish
Morrigan Robbins
@MorriLoremother
Renee Rhodes
@raedeanner

Tuesday Jun 15, 2021
Lazy D&D Talk Show - 13 June 2021
Tuesday Jun 15, 2021
Tuesday Jun 15, 2021
Mike chats about D&D!
Show Contents
- 00:00 Show Start
- 00:52 Translations Pushing Back 6e Predictions
- 5:00 Reviews of Third Party Books
- 07:22 Arcana of the Ancients
- 12:07 Ptolus
- 15:07 Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands
- 18:04 Ironsworn
- 20:56 Adventures of the Potbellied Kobold'
- 23:51 Mike's Appendix N (what's yours??)
- 37:25 Mike's Take on Stress Effects
- 58:15 Player vs. Player and Player vs. DM Consent
- 1:10:20 Rant about Adventurer's League
Links

Monday Jun 14, 2021
Be Nice to 1st Level Characters in D&D
Monday Jun 14, 2021
Monday Jun 14, 2021
Mike talks about the importance of being nice to 1st level characters and offers three tips to make their lives a little easier.

Friday Jun 11, 2021
Managing Time While Running Your D&D Games
Friday Jun 11, 2021
Friday Jun 11, 2021
Mike discusses the importance of managing time in your D&D game.

Thursday Jun 10, 2021
DM's Deep Dive: Paige Leitman at Winter Fantasy, February 2020
Thursday Jun 10, 2021
Thursday Jun 10, 2021
Recently recovered from the deepest depths of the ancient Sly Flourish libraries, I bring you my interview with Paige Leitman in which we discuss D&D Adventurer's League, our favorite conventions, and all sorts of fun topics.
Video Contents
00:00 We love Winter Fantasy! What We've enjoyed.
03:07 Who's Paige Leitman?
06:07 Paige's there new tips for current DMs
07:15 Use an X Card (see the link below)
08:44 Cater to your audience and ask them what they want
09:01 Read your published adventures
11:00 What's changed in 2 years? AL moving towards story.
16:56 How are the changes being accepted?
19:20 What people think of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
21:17 Other trends from the 5e Facebook: greater diversity and inclusion.
22:30 Interesting homebrew is popping up.
23:20 The impact of D&D Beyond
26:30 Navigating the curve between tactical and story
31:58 Play a different game

Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
Lazy D&D Talk Show - 6 June 2021
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
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

Monday Jun 07, 2021
Three Quest Models for D&D
Monday Jun 07, 2021
Monday Jun 07, 2021
Mike offers three simple quest models you can keep in your toolkit when preparing your D&D games.

Sunday Jun 06, 2021
Lazy D&D Prep: Rime of the Frostmaiden Session 15
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!

Thursday Jun 03, 2021
Lazy D&D Talk Show: Van Richten's Guide to Everything Review
Thursday Jun 03, 2021
Thursday Jun 03, 2021
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

Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Secrets Serve You
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Mike talks about the value in understanding that secrets and clues serve you.