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The Lazy 5e Cheat Sheet
by Mike on 7 February 2022
James W. a Patreon of Sly Flourish asks: "I feel like a natural progression for you would to create a DMs screen. Have you thought about this before and what do you think you’d put on it?"
The Lazy DM's Workbook contains all of the material I'd want to put on a DM screen. I've often considered the Workbook to be the book sitting at your side when you run your game. I've never been a fan of the DM screen. It gets in my way and it puts up a literal wall between me and my players. I want to be sitting at the same table they're at in the same way. We're all in it together.
That said, I love simplicity and I have another DM-screen-like accessory: the Lazy D&D Cheat Sheet.
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This single-page PDF includes:
- Improvised statistics for objects, traps, and hazards
- Skills and associated abilities
- Difficulty class descriptions
- The deadly encounter benchmark
- Number of Creatures in Areas of Effect for Theater of the Mind combat
- Monster Horde Guidelines
- Random names
- Condition descriptions
Note: this is a recently updated cheat sheet based on new material from The Lazy DM's Companion including updated horde guidelines, new random names, updated areas of effect, and the updated deadly encounter benchmark. You can download the old sheet here
Laminating the Lazy D&D Cheat Sheet
The cheat sheet is designed so you can clip off the top edge and the right edge to make it smaller than a sheet of paper. You can then laminate it and turn it into an excellent protected dry-erasable card. The front contains all of your cheat sheet information and the back can be used as a small white board for maps, drawings, diagrams, symbols, and anything else you want to show the players. You can print it on fancy paper to make it look cool and rustic.
This Lazy D&D Cheat Sheet is a perfect accessory for your Lazy DM Toolbox.
A Partner of the Campaign Worksheets
This sheet works hand-in-hand with the Lazy DM's Workbook Campaign Worksheets. The Lazy D&D Cheat Sheet gives you handy mechanics to help you improvise your game while the worksheets help you focus on the characters of your campaign and the world around them.
Simple Tools To Share Fantastic Stories
Like all of the tools and philosophies captured in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the Lazy DM's Workbook, and the Lazy DM's Companion; the Lazy D&D Cheat Sheet intends to help you improvise during your game and get out of the way while you share fantastic stories with your friends. Enjoy!
Related Articles
- Tools of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- The Lazy Dungeon Master Cheat Sheet
- Tips for Paper Character Sheets
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This work includes material taken from SlyFlourish.com by Michael E. Shea available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.
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