Sly Flourish
Building the better D&D Dungeon Master.
Running Hordes: The Lazy Way to Run Lots of D&D Monsters
26 May 2020: The heroes stand atop a mountain of bones with one hundred skeletons swarming in. The cleric holds her holy symbol aloft and waves of radiant energy tear through the skeletons, shattering dozens of th ...
The Grendleroot in Eberron
18 May 2020: In a previous article, we looked at how to place Blackclaw Mountain, the primary location in Fantastic Adventures, Ruins of the Grendleroot, into Avernus, to expand the hardback adventure Descent into ...
Running Descent into Avernus: the Fall of Elturel
11 May 2020: Note, this article contains spoilers for Descent into Avernus. In the popular D&D hardcover adventure Descent into Avernus the characters travel into the first layer of hell to save the city of Elture ...
Using D&D Monster Stat Blocks as Templates to Mash Monsters Together
4 May 2020: Back in the third edition of D&D, monsters could be augmented with monster templates to give them a new feel. The fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, for the most part, lacks these monster templates. ...
Tier Appropriate Adventure Locations
27 April 2020: The characters' levels in D&D mean something within the fiction of the game. Chapter 1 of the Dungeon Master's Guide describes the four tiers of play and the impact the characters have in the world as ...
The Only Dungeon Map You'll Ever Need
20 April 2020: Dyson of Dyson Logos, the best site for D&D cartography on the internet, posted about how D&D BECMI creator Frank Mentzer used a single map over 30 times when running D&D in public. Dyson [recreated t ...
Seven Samurai, the Perfect D&D Adventure
13 April 2020: There are fewer movies more influential than Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and this movie's story makes for a nearly perfect D&D adventure. The theme of Seven Samurai may be a perfect D&D situation t ...
Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 7: Tammeraut's Fate
6 April 2020: This article is one of a series of articles covering the hardback D&D adventure book, Ghosts of Saltmarsh. You can read all of these articles here: Ghosts of Saltmarsh Session Zero Running Ghosts of ...
Playing D&D Over Discord
30 March 2020: In these times of social distancing, it becomes even more important for us to connect and spend time with family and friends. There is no better way to do that than playing D&D. D&D gives us the excus ...
Shared Experiences Playing D&D Online
23 March 2020: Many of us currently find ourselves stuck at home and unable to play our in-person D&D games. If we want to keep playing D&D, we have to move our games online. While it may be harder for us to get our ...
Crafting Lazy Monster Tokens for D&D
16 March 2020: What to use to represent characters and monsters when running combat in D&D is a constant and continual conversation among D&D enthusiasts. Some swear by the need for a large collection of pre-painted ...
Harvesters of Worlds: A 1st to 20th Level Githyanki and Mind Flayer Campaign Outline
9 March 2020: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes includes a wonderful and deep section on the githyanki, the strange conquerers of the astral plane. Volo's Guide to Monsters includes a similar chapter for mind flayers. Th ...
The Lazy Encounter Benchmark, a Simple Benchmark for D&D Encounter Deadliness
2 March 2020: Simplifying the process of building combat encounters has been a focus of Sly Flourish since the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons has come out. Along with running combat in the theater of the mind ...
The Grendleroot in Avernus
24 February 2020: Note, this article contains spoilers for Descent into Avernus. Fantastic Adventures, Ruins of the Grendleroot, my book of ten 5th edition underground adventures, is designed to fit into any fantasy RP ...
Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 8: The Styes
17 February 2020: This article is one of a series of articles covering the hardback D&D adventure book, Ghosts of Saltmarsh. You can read all of these articles here: Ghosts of Saltmarsh Session Zero Running Ghosts of ...
Getting Started with Dungeons & Dragons
10 February 2020: This article is intended for someone who is interested in Dungeons & Dragons but has no idea where to start. My intent is to get you on the right path to enjoy D&D. If you are a veteran to D&D, consid ...
Spending a Whole Day Preparing a D&D Game
3 February 2020: When I think about D&D game prep, often I think about how to streamline it and reduce it to the elements that bring the best value to our game. This is the core idea behind Return of the Lazy Dungeon ...
Combining the D&D Starter Set and Essentials Kit
27 January 2020: Many agree that the best way to get started in D&D is with the D&D Starter Set. With a low price, excellent adventure, and all the materials you need to run a game in a single box; it's hard to recomm ...
Running Episodic Games
20 January 2020: I'm a huge fan of serials. Shows like True Detective put a limit on the overall story but give that story enough room to breathe and fill out across many episodes. The game Shadow of the Demon Lord by ...
Your Most Important Game
13 January 2020: Your most important Dungeons & Dragons game is the next one you're going to run. This might be blindingly obvious or it might be completely alien to you. We DMs have big dreams. We have big plans. We ...
Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 6: The Final Enemy
6 January 2020: This article is one of a series of articles covering the hardback D&D adventure book, Ghosts of Saltmarsh. You can read all of these articles here: Ghosts of Saltmarsh Session Zero Running Ghosts of ...
Building Legendary D&D Monsters in your Head
30 December 2019: Here at Sly Flourish I believe firmly in helping DMs develop the tools change up our game without having to spend a lot of time or carry around a lot of extra books. This means learning how to do a lo ...
Balancing D&D Combat for One-on-One Play
23 December 2019: The D&D Essentials Kit includes the first-ever official rules for running D&D with just one player and one DM. This is a whole new style of playing D&D, although some, such as the fine folks behind D& ...
Playing D&D Can Save Your Life
16 December 2019: "Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Loneliness kills." The above quote is from Dr. Robert Waldinger, the caretaker for the Harvard Study of Adult Development, an 80 year study that fo ...
Timing and Pacing Adventures
9 December 2019: Many times when we're running our Dungeons & Dragons adventures, we aren't too worried about time. Sure, our friends need to go home sometime but we can generally stop where we are and start off where ...
Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 5, Isle of the Abbey
2 December 2019: This article is one of a series of articles covering the hardback D&D adventure book, Ghosts of Saltmarsh. You can read all of these articles here: Ghosts of Saltmarsh Session Zero Running Ghosts of ...
The Flow of Trap Detection
25 November 2019: Noticing, studying, and disarming traps is a common activity in Dungeons & Dragons and yet it can be difficult to understand exactly how it works. Likewise, depending on the situation, it can be diffi ...
Running Dragon of Icespire Peak from the D&D Essentials Kit
18 November 2019: This is an evolving article offering tips for running the D&D Essentials Kit adventure Dragon of Icespire Peak. I'll be updating this article as I run the adventures in the book and gain first-hand kn ...
Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 4: Salvage Operation
11 November 2019: This article is one of a series of articles covering the hardback D&D adventure book, Ghosts of Saltmarsh. You can read all of these articles here: Ghosts of Saltmarsh Session Zero Running Ghosts of ...
Kitbashing Dungeons
4 November 2019: While some are quite happy designing their own maps from scratch to run in their D&D games, us lazy dungeon masters are much happier stealing maps wherever we can. The maps in Lazy DM's Workbook are d ...
