Review of Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Welcome to the first proper article on the blog! There's still plenty to do on the campaign site, but it's relatively stable now. Which is to say, the basic skeleton of a campaign world is there, and I just need to keep adding to it. But it's time to work on some in-game campaign tasks, like miniature painting and terrain building, and also sharpen my own Dungeon Master skills.

I wouldn't say that I'm a great DM. Average, probably, but also inconsistent. To fix that, I've been watching a lot of Matt Colville videos while preparing for my upcoming campaign. You've probably heard of his Running the Game series—and if you haven't, be sure to check it out. There's a lot of valuable advice for Dungeon Masters in those 100+ videos.

But I've also been hearing about Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael E. Shea. Some have said that it's a better Dungeon Master's guide than the official Dungeon Master's Guide itself. That's strong praise, so I wanted to check it out. I'll mention right now that this is not a sponsored post. I bought the book myself and I'm under no obligation to review it. I will include a link below with an Amazon Affiliate code, meaning I may earn a small commission if you buy it, but that's it.

So what is Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master? It's a variety of DM tips and tricks to make your life as a Dungeon Master much easier. Being a "lazy" DM is really about efficiency and optimizing how you prepare and run your game, so these are DM hacks to help you do that. Some examples include starting each session strong to get your players invested, having your players create wishlists of rewards (like magic items), and using upward and downward beats to maintain a fun pace. But you'll also find general DM advice, like ignoring whatever doesn't work for your game. That's true in Dungeon Mastering, gaming, and life in general, right?

Chapter 6 ("Define Secrets and Clues") is a standout DM tip for me. It involves writing down ten or more secrets or clues before each session. These are basic story elements, like a part of the villain's plan or a non-player character's secret identity. What's important is that you don't specify how players discover them. They're meant to be like breadcrumbs that you sprinkle in whenever the players find something. That might start a new quest, connect elements in a current quest, or reveal some secret about the world itself. It's a great way to keep your game flexible by preparing small details ahead of time and dropping them in when the time is right.

Another favorite of mine is chapter 20 ("Three Tricks for Group Storytelling"), which is all about transferring some of the burden of DMing to your players. We're probably all familiar with Matthew Mercer's "how do you want to do this?", where his players describe the killing blow. I like to let players "build a dungeon" by coming up with their own rumors about the location. (I'm sure I'll write about this soon.) Shea suggests asking players to describe interesting features about monsters, taverns (and other locations), and even events that happen during travel. They're all wonderful ways to involve your players beyond combat and role-playing.

I don't want to give away all the secrets, so check out Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael E. Shea (commission link) if you're interested in being more efficient in your own DMing. Or check out more of Sly Flourish's advice at slyflourish.com.

Take care,

Wyatt