Sly Flourish
Helping Dungeon Masters run great D&D games.
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Favorite Articles
- Playing D&D can Save Your Life
- My Top Advice for Running D&D
- Getting Started Playing D&D
- The Minimum Viable D&D Game
- Running Theater of the Mind Combat
- The Lazy Encounter Benchmark
- Running Hordes
- Playing D&D over Discord
- Notion.so for Lazy D&D Prep
Latest Articles
- Tying Characters to a Campaign's Theme - 23 May 2022
- Including D&D's Three Pillars Anywhere - 16 May 2022
- Build Resilient and Evolving Villainous Plots - 2 May 2022
- Understanding the Exploration Pillar of D&D - 28 Apr 2022
- Three Choices - 25 Apr 2022
- Improving Pacing - 21 Apr 2022
- Optimizing Towards Fun - 18 Apr 2022
- Wielding Knives in D&D - 14 Apr 2022
- Single Encounters for Overland Travel - 11 Apr 2022
- What Does Passive Perception Show You? - 7 Apr 2022
- View All Articles
Sly Flourish's Books
- Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- Lazy DM's Workbook
- Lazy DM's Companion
- Fantastic Lairs
- Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
- Fantastic Adventures
- Fantastic Locations
New to D&D?
- Getting Started with D&D
- Finding Players
- Your Most Important Game
- Building 1st Level Encounters
- Gaining Confidence to Run D&D Games
- Improvisation for New DMs
- Tools for New DMs
- A New DM's Guide to Miniatures
Lazy Dungeon Mastering
- Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- Running Session Zeros
- Review the Characters
- Start Strong
- Secrets and Clues
- Choosing Monsters
- Choosing the Right Lazy DM Steps
DM Tools
- Tools of the Lazy DM
- Ten Ways to Use Index Cards
- Safety Tools
- Instant NPCs
- Pointcrawls for Overland Travel
- Lazy Monster Tokens
- Replace Flanking with Cinematic Advantage
- Making Great Handouts
- D&D Cheat Sheet
- Easy Initiative Cards
- Random Generators: Names, Monuments, Relics, Traps
DM Advice
- It's Five Minutes to Game Time
- A DM's Reading List
- Paths of DM Expertise
- Thinking Two Horizons Out
- Quest Pattern: Three of Five Keys
- Running Downtime Sessions
- 52 Adventure Hooks
- Random Creativity and D&D
- Recovering from a Bad Game
- Thinking Through the Eyes of your Villains
Combat Encounter Building
- Guide to "Theater of the Mind" Combat
- The Lazy Encounter Benchmark
- The Abstract Battlemap
- Choose Monsters Based on the Story
- Dials of Monster Difficulty
- Reskinning Monsters
- Running Hordes
- Letting Go of Defined Encounters
- Run Easy Battles
- Running Wars
- Two Thugs in the Woods
- Set Piece Battles
- Improving Boss Fights
Running D&D Online
DM Inspiration
- Tier Appropriate Adventure Locations
- 1d100 Forgotten Realms Factions
- 1d20 D&D Seeds from Movies
- 1d100 Eberron Factions
Campaign Outlines
One-on-One D&D
Rules Discussion
- Darkvision Isn't as Good As You Think
- Handling Surprise
- The Flow of Trap Detection
- The Old Man and the Bowl
D&D Surveys and Polls
- A Study of DM Tricks
- Twitter and Facebook Polls
- Analysis of DM Traits
- 2016 D&D Survey Results
- 2012 D&D Survey Results
D&D Published Adventure Guides
- Guide to WOTC's D&D Adventures
- Running Lost Mine of Phandelver from the D&D Starter Set
- Running Dragon of Icespire Peak from the D&D Essentials Kit
- Combining the D&D Starter Set and Essentials Kit
Ruins of the Grendleroot
Curse of Strahd
- Running Ravenloft
- Running Curse of Strahd
- Running Death House
- Tarokka-based Random Encounter Effects
- Pool Table Dungeon Mastering in Barovia
- Strahd's Negotiation
- Running Strahd von Zarovich
- Sly Flourish's Vampires
- Running Curse of Strahd YouTube Video
Tomb of Annihilation
- Session Zero of Tomb of Annihilation
- Running Port Nyanzaru in Tomb of Annihilation
- Exploring Chult
- Urgency of the Death Curse
- Acererak's Prepared Spells
- Lost Temple of the Eshowdow
- Lost Monuments of Chult
- Running Omu
- Handling Tag-Along NPCs
- Generating Enhanced Tomb Guardians
- The Deadly Shift in Tomb of Annihilation
- Thoughts on the Finale of Tomb of Annihilation
Hoard of the Dragon Queen
- Episode 1: Greenest in Flames
- Episode 2: The Raider's Camp
- Episode 3: The Dragon Hatchery
- Episode 4: On the Road Part 1
- Episode 4: On the Road Part 2
- Episode 5: The Carnath Roadhouse
- Episode 6: Castle Naerytar
- Episode 7: The Hunting Lodge
- Episode 8: Skyreach Castle
- Running Rise of Tiamat
Ghosts of Saltmarsh
- Ghosts of Saltmarsh Session Zero
- Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 2: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
- Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 3, Danger at Dunwater
- Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 4: Salvage Operation
- Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 5: Isle of the Abbey
- Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 6: The Final Enemy
- Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 8: The Styes
- Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 7: Tammeraut's Fate
- Ghosts of Saltmarsh Lazy DM Prep Videos
Storm King's Thunder
- Getting the Most Out of Storm King's Thunder
- Session Zero of Storm King's Thunder
- Fronts of Storm King's Thunder
- Adding Depth to Storm King's Thunder
- Running Iymirth
Waterdeep Dragon Heist
- Session Zero of Waterdeep Dragon Heist
- Running Waterdeep Dragon Heist Chapter 1: A Friend in Need
- Running Waterdeep Dragon Heist Chapter 2: Trollskull Alley
- Running Waterdeep Dragon Heist Chapter 3: Fireball
- Running Waterdeep Dragon Heist Chapter 4: Dragon Season
- Running Waterdeep Dragon Heist Chapter 5: The Heist
- Waterdeep Dragon Heist Lazy DM Prep Videos
Out of the Abyss
- Out of the Abyss Chapter 1: Prisoners of the Drow
- Out of the Abyss Chapter 2: Into Darkness
- Out of the Abyss Chapter 3: The Darklake
- Out of the Abyss Chapter 5: Neverlight Grove
- Out of the Abyss Chapter 4: Gracklstugh
- Out of the Abyss Chapter 6: Blingdenstone
- Out of the Abyss Chapter 7: Escape from the Underdark
Descent into Avernus
- Descent into Avernus: The Fall of Elturel
- Descent into Avernus Chapter 1
- Descent into Avernus Chapter 2
- Descent into Avernus Chapter 3
- Avernus Chapter 4 and 5
Rime of the Frostmaiden
- Rime of the Frostmaiden Session Zero
- Running Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden Chapter 1
- Running Rime of the Frostmaiden Chapter 2
- Running Frostmaiden Chapter 3 & 4: Sunblight and Destructions Light
- Running Frostmaiden Chapter 5: Auril's Abode
- Running Frostmaiden Chapter 6 & 7: The Caves of Hunger and the Doom of Ythryn
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