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Episodes
The Lazy RPG Talk Show and the Lazy GM Prep show. D&D news, commentary, spotlights, Q&A, and lazy GM prep with Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.
Episodes
Sunday May 30, 2021
Sunday May 30, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Friday May 28, 2021
Friday May 28, 2021
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
Wednesday May 26, 2021
Wednesday May 26, 2021
Mike talks about the value of running simple D&D adventures.
Wednesday May 26, 2021
Wednesday May 26, 2021
Mike argues for the value of published RPG material even when running our own homebrew adventures and campaigns.
Monday May 24, 2021
Monday May 24, 2021
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
Sunday May 23, 2021
Sunday May 23, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Tuesday May 18, 2021
Tuesday May 18, 2021
Mike discusses the value of running more easy battles in our D&D games to maintain the oscillation of upward and downward beats.
Sunday May 16, 2021
Sunday May 16, 2021
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
Wednesday May 12, 2021
Wednesday May 12, 2021
Another short episode in which Mike talks about the importance of focusing on your next D&D game.
Sunday May 09, 2021
Sunday May 09, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Friday May 07, 2021
Friday May 07, 2021
Mike offers three tips to draw players into the fiction of your D&D game in three minutes.
Sunday May 02, 2021
Sunday May 02, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Wednesday Apr 28, 2021
Wednesday Apr 28, 2021
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
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Thursday Apr 22, 2021
Thursday Apr 22, 2021
Mike talks with Celeste Conowitch of 2C Gaming about her upcoming Venture Maidens campaign sourcebook currently live on Kickstarter!
Sunday Apr 18, 2021
Sunday Apr 18, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Thursday Apr 15, 2021
Thursday Apr 15, 2021
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
Tuesday Apr 13, 2021
Tuesday Apr 13, 2021
Mike chats with Teos Abadia about D&D skill challenges!
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Wednesday Apr 07, 2021
Wednesday Apr 07, 2021
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
Sunday Apr 04, 2021
Sunday Apr 04, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Sunday Mar 28, 2021
Sunday Mar 28, 2021
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
Wednesday Mar 24, 2021
Wednesday Mar 24, 2021
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.
Sunday Mar 21, 2021
Sunday Mar 21, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Wednesday Mar 17, 2021
Wednesday Mar 17, 2021
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.
Books and Articles
Sunday Mar 14, 2021
Sunday Mar 14, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Sunday Mar 07, 2021
Sunday Mar 07, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Wednesday Mar 03, 2021
Wednesday Mar 03, 2021
Mike talks about the importance of being on the players' side when we run our D&D games.
- 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.
Sunday Feb 28, 2021
Sunday Feb 28, 2021
Mike prepares for his latest session of Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden!
Wednesday Feb 24, 2021
Wednesday Feb 24, 2021
Mike discusses tips for running awesome D&D combat.
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