Sly Flourish's The Lazy Dungeon Master

This book is short, which is actually one of its design goals: short, concise, immediately useful advice you can bring to your table at the very next game session.And man does it succeed!The advice in here amounts to about 10-15 main "tips", most of which are "Things you can and should fit onto a 3x5 notecard to keep preparation to a minimum and utility at a maximum." There's a few other tips and tricks, but the vast majority revolve around that. The thing of it is that the tips are highly specific, and concisely stated regarding what goes on the notecard, and in what order, allowing it to be an excellent tool at the table.Other tips and tricks include having portfolios of different information -- maps, monsters, stats, personality ideas for roleplaying -- so you can literally pick and choose every element of an NPC, monster, trap, or encounter on the fly, and make it all work. Dozens of quotes from professional game designers, long-time Dungeon Masters, and other bloggers help to clarify or customize these tips, so you know you'll find stuff that's useful for how you DM and how you prep. One person might be OCD, while another totally wings, and there are good tips for both types (and everything in between) in this book.As the introduction states, this book is more for experienced DMs, though I'd say it's worth reading almost immediately, even for newbies. You may not understand the advice right away if you're a n00b, but you'll have several "Ah-HA!" moments once you get a few sessions under your belt and refer back to this book.As a 25+ year veteran gamer, I can honestly say this book is worth every penny, and every bit of advice is good. There's little -- maybe nothing -- I won't use from this book, and that's rare in RPG books filled with tips and advice.

Much useful information. It helped inform me about what I should focus on as a DM. DM'ing can be as easy or difficult as I want to make it on myself. In general, one should define the high level story lines, mix in some middle level story lines that work with the high level, and for each game session have a set of goals that can be moved forward per the various story lines and let the players decide what course of action to take. I just need to worry about the encounters and details generally on the fly which means that I need to be organized and know where/how to build monsters/buildings/encounters/loot/experience as needed and do so on the fly without the players realizing it is all ad hoc. The game session is about everyone including the DM enjoying the game session.Yes there is preparation time that needs to be spent before each game session, but only 1-2 hrs per session is likely more than enough and can be done with little or no preparation between game sessions if a certain amount of preparation is performed at the beginning before starting a group of game sessions. Generate a set of recurring NPC characters that will re-appear through out the campaign to help move the story line along.

I've been gaming now since waaay back in the late 70's & I'd have to say this is probably one of the BEST books I've ever come across, whether for new Game Masters or those who have been running games for as long as I have or less. The book emphasizes using the imagination and gives loads of great ideas, input and feedback from many other GMs and players. The book is divided up into several chapters and I truly wish I would have had this book when I first started running games. There are very few books I can think of that are equal to the this one that will help develop your storytelling and game-running expertise as well as this one will for such a cheap price. Books 5-10 times the price will be heavy on text and advice but this one will, in my honest opinion, assist you the GM in becoming a MUCH better storyteller. I could go on but let me honestly say that I love this little book and the emphasis is on simplicity and winging it. If that's NOT your strong point just yet, go through the book and I honestly think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much better you will become. Of course, there will be some GMs who love planning their adventures, campaigns and other 'essential' info down to the T (I used to be one of those) but since reading this, I usually just wing it, having run hundreds of games with as much as perhaps, an hour's worth of brain-storming. A GREAT purchase worth every gold piece oops, I mean penny paid for it!

SUPERB book! As a person who, until now, has been a very "hands on" DM who crafted elaborate encounters and more than once had his players pull the rug out from under him when they came up with new and better ways to get AROUND them, this book was just what I needed. Chock full of good tips on how to, in my own words, "prep less, let go and have more fun," it really made a difference in my game and served to remind me that games really are a work done by the players and the GM/DM - not elaborate scenarios in which players are moved around like chess pieces to make sure that they encounter everything that the GM/DM has created for them.My best advice? Read it and see for yourself! I truly believe you will NOT be disappointed.

I recently started being a dungeon master a couple months ago and was kind of lost when it came to the whole prep side of it. Thanks for this book I have gotten much better at being prepared for my sessions. I strongly recommend it to New dungeon Masters.

I recommend this book for any TRPG enthusiast! It has suggestions I would never have even considered on my own.

meine Spieler lieben meine Encounter und Welten, doch bis jetzt habe ich jede Kampagne wegen Übwältigung abgebrochen, es wurde einfach zuviel Arbeit.Dieses Buch hat mir gezeigt, wie ich das ändern kann, auf eine klare und sehr unterhaltsame Art und Weise.Und dazu gibt es am Ende 12 Lairs, die beinahe sofort spielbar sind, davon sogar mehere für Lv 17+ wofür es kaum Material gibt.absolut empfehlenswert!

Il libro è ben strutturato per far comprendere cosa può essere sbagliato nella spesa del tempo di preparazione di una sessione di gioco di ruolo e cosa si può fare per ottimizzare il tempo: è un "corso di formazione" per imparare a ragionare su come si vuole approcciare la preparazione delle sessioni.Spiegato bene e fornisce molti spunti anche esterni da guardare e valutare.

Are you suffering as a DM? are players ignoring your crafted encounters?Are you freaking out before sessions? then this book might have some handy advice on helping your DM burden and getting to enjoy the game again. A nice softback easy to read book with some interviews with other game designer DMs and some random tables thrown in, you might find its advice useful on improving your sessions of Dungeons and Dragons.

Great tips for experienced DMs.