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Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master is a book designed to help all of us GMs get more out of our RPGs by preparing less. Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master uses the experiences of thousands of GMs to help us focus on how we prepare our games, how we run our games, and how we think about our games. It includes practical steps for focusing our preparation activities on those things that will bring the biggest impact to our game.
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master builds off of the concepts of the well-received GM's guidebook Lazy Dungeon Master, updating that book with five years of new experiences, new approaches, and new observations of the way people prepare and run RPGs. This new book is a completely self-contained work, which does not require anyone to have previously read The Lazy Dungeon Master.
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master offers a new focused approach for preparing and running our roleplaying games. The book includes an eight-step guide for lightweight game preparation and is focused on how we prepare for our games, how we run our games, and how we think about our games.
Prepare what benefits your game.
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master builds off of the concepts of the well-received GM's guidebook Lazy Dungeon Master, updating that book with five years of new experiences, new approaches, and new observations of the way people prepare and run RPGs. This new book is a completely self-contained work, which does not require anyone to have previously read The Lazy Dungeon Master.
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master offers a new focused approach for preparing and running our roleplaying games. The book includes an eight-step guide for lightweight game preparation and is focused on how we prepare for our games, how we run our games, and how we think about our games.
Prepare what benefits your game.
100 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 5, 2018
656 people are currently reading
911 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 187 reviews
March 2, 2019
I had been hearing the praises of this book sung for a while, and then I had a coupon/discount for a digital copy so I bought it. In reading, I definitely had a couple “AH-HA!” moments that I will be utilizing immediately in my own campaign.
However, this book is overwhelmingly male. I couldn’t quite quantify why all the suggestions and examples felt male, but then there were the illustrations: the female depictions, while fully clothed and appropriately dressed, all had large breasts. And who can get past the list of suggested fantasy titles to “expand” your knowledge and worldbuilding? I counted two female writers out of dozens of male writers/directors/creators. You cite the male directors of the Harry Potter film series, but not the female author who wrote the books? It made the rest of this book’s advice less potent, because it felt like it was from a singular perspective distinctly isolated from mine. (You can see, too, most of the reviews on Goodreads come from readers with typically male display names.)
Overall, an intriguing method that does reiterate some important concepts about the players, the world, and your role as the GM. However, I wish it had been more inclusive and diverse in its presentation.
However, this book is overwhelmingly male. I couldn’t quite quantify why all the suggestions and examples felt male, but then there were the illustrations: the female depictions, while fully clothed and appropriately dressed, all had large breasts. And who can get past the list of suggested fantasy titles to “expand” your knowledge and worldbuilding? I counted two female writers out of dozens of male writers/directors/creators. You cite the male directors of the Harry Potter film series, but not the female author who wrote the books? It made the rest of this book’s advice less potent, because it felt like it was from a singular perspective distinctly isolated from mine. (You can see, too, most of the reviews on Goodreads come from readers with typically male display names.)
Overall, an intriguing method that does reiterate some important concepts about the players, the world, and your role as the GM. However, I wish it had been more inclusive and diverse in its presentation.
May 6, 2019
If you are a DM whether new or experienced, and ESPECIALLY if you are the type who gets bogged down in over preparation and/or too tied down to your own ideas and then thrown for a loop when your players (surprise!) do something completely opposite to what you will expect (this happens at least 75% of the time lets be real) this book will be very helpful. Helped me cut down on my prep time, form a skeleton base of session notes that is modular and adaptable and focus on responding to what the players are actually doing instead of preparing for 3 hours and having almost none of it be used. Highly recommended for any TTRPG player. It's focused on 5th edition D&D but really the tools here could be adapted to any system.
August 11, 2021
Fantastic ressource for me, since the preparation aspect of GMing was the thing I had no clue how to do in an effective manner. Now I feel like I could run a fun game without weeks of work beforehand.
March 1, 2023
Another book on the artistry of Game Master. This books is an updated, revised, and expanded version of the previously published Lazy Dungeon Master by essentially the same team.
This book, as the name implies, advocates minimalist planning. It promises that you can do all the planning necessary for an adventure in as little as 15-30 minutes.
I believe that is a lie.
I do not believe that this method can reasonably be utilized in less than 30 minutes. I believe they chose that time frame because it would look good in advertising but I don't think it works.
The book advocates breaking an adventure down into its barest components and then just compiling lists of features (Characters, locations, items, monsters) that you just kind of pull from at random as your players drunkenly meander around.
Could it work? Certainly. But I think the cost is more than can be born. Arranging an adventure this way kind of sacrifices the barest hope of an even remotely coherent plot structure. I'm not saying you need to railroad your players aggressively, you should not. But the book advocates assembling a list of clues and just dropping them when the players do something. But clues that don't lead anywhere are kind of pointless, aren't they? And how can they lead anywhere if you aren't trying to steer your players to particular places?
Additionally, the book also advocates running mock boss battles to tweak your challenge. Well, that throws the 30 minute time limit out the window. Boss battle encounters can easily run a couple of hours. And if you're re-running this test several times to make sure the combat feels appropriately tense, you've burned days of free time on it. Running mock battles is a good idea in theory but I legitimately don't believe anyone with an actual job can really invest the time to do it. (Update: I have been shown to be incorrect on this point. Shea meant to have your villain run away or otherwise exit early fights so you have some test data by which to gauge the actual boss fight. Which sure sounds a lot like planning ahead if you know your villain won't bite it in the current fight, just sayin')
For campaign management it also advocates thinking about your campaign all the time (What are the villains doing RIGHT NOW) but also not doing any actual world building and just making it up as the players interact with those parts of the world. These two things are incompatible. You cannot do both. You can't picture your villain off doing evil things in another city if that city doesn't exist. Cities won't really make sense if you just make them up on the spot. And maybe your players won't notice but, well, maybe they will.
And the method of creating disparate adventure ideas and just kind of improvising them into an adventure really falls apart for a dungeon crawl. Dungeons have to have a sort of logic to them. And for a contained setting like a dungeon there isn't a really good reason not to assemble your room ideas into a sort of order. In fact, not having a structured dungeon will quickly make it non-functional. Are there guard patrols? How can they patrol if you don't have a layout? Dungeon ecology matters, dammit.
There is some useful material here. The idea of writing down ideas in a brainstorming session. It advocates making more ideas than you need and being prepared to discard them and that's good too. It also tells you to keep those ideas around for future adventures. I really like how it advocates multiple styles of combat (Including grid-and-mini combat as well as theatre of the mind) and I'll be stealing that where necessary.
Other irksome factors: The creators of the book conducted a survey of Dungeon Masters to collect data and they throw these statistics out.. seemingly at random? I'm not sure these why they are here other than to justify having conducted the survey. Additionally, while they generally do give credit to the source, whole pages are paraphrased from other sources and it gives the book the impression that it is cobbled together out of the work of other people. The creator even interviewed Critical Role's Matt Mercer in preparation for this and found that Mercer spends almost a full work day prepping adventures. Which must have shaken the book's author to his very core because most of the tabletop community rides Matt Mercer like he's a draft horse.
Finally the book advocates letting your players do awesome things but the examples given are probably a sign that you have let things go too far off the rails. "Players love it when they kill dragons in one hit!" Well, okay. But if they're running around killing a boss dragon in one hit, there's probably nothing left you can do to challenge them except cheese. You have probably given them too much and everything that happens now is moot. It also advocates doling out magic items like candy which I find amusing because one of the conceits of 5th edition is that magic items are very rare. This was probably done to help DMs contain power creep which has been a huge problem in previous editions.
And while awesome things can be cool, they are often anti-climactic and lack much drama. A closely fought battle feels much more engaging than a one-hit KO.
The art inside is pretty rockin' though and I'm a little surprised at the reasonable price tag on a book with so much good artwork.
This book, as the name implies, advocates minimalist planning. It promises that you can do all the planning necessary for an adventure in as little as 15-30 minutes.
I believe that is a lie.
I do not believe that this method can reasonably be utilized in less than 30 minutes. I believe they chose that time frame because it would look good in advertising but I don't think it works.
The book advocates breaking an adventure down into its barest components and then just compiling lists of features (Characters, locations, items, monsters) that you just kind of pull from at random as your players drunkenly meander around.
Could it work? Certainly. But I think the cost is more than can be born. Arranging an adventure this way kind of sacrifices the barest hope of an even remotely coherent plot structure. I'm not saying you need to railroad your players aggressively, you should not. But the book advocates assembling a list of clues and just dropping them when the players do something. But clues that don't lead anywhere are kind of pointless, aren't they? And how can they lead anywhere if you aren't trying to steer your players to particular places?
Additionally, the book also advocates running mock boss battles to tweak your challenge. Well, that throws the 30 minute time limit out the window. Boss battle encounters can easily run a couple of hours. And if you're re-running this test several times to make sure the combat feels appropriately tense, you've burned days of free time on it. Running mock battles is a good idea in theory but I legitimately don't believe anyone with an actual job can really invest the time to do it. (Update: I have been shown to be incorrect on this point. Shea meant to have your villain run away or otherwise exit early fights so you have some test data by which to gauge the actual boss fight. Which sure sounds a lot like planning ahead if you know your villain won't bite it in the current fight, just sayin')
For campaign management it also advocates thinking about your campaign all the time (What are the villains doing RIGHT NOW) but also not doing any actual world building and just making it up as the players interact with those parts of the world. These two things are incompatible. You cannot do both. You can't picture your villain off doing evil things in another city if that city doesn't exist. Cities won't really make sense if you just make them up on the spot. And maybe your players won't notice but, well, maybe they will.
And the method of creating disparate adventure ideas and just kind of improvising them into an adventure really falls apart for a dungeon crawl. Dungeons have to have a sort of logic to them. And for a contained setting like a dungeon there isn't a really good reason not to assemble your room ideas into a sort of order. In fact, not having a structured dungeon will quickly make it non-functional. Are there guard patrols? How can they patrol if you don't have a layout? Dungeon ecology matters, dammit.
There is some useful material here. The idea of writing down ideas in a brainstorming session. It advocates making more ideas than you need and being prepared to discard them and that's good too. It also tells you to keep those ideas around for future adventures. I really like how it advocates multiple styles of combat (Including grid-and-mini combat as well as theatre of the mind) and I'll be stealing that where necessary.
Other irksome factors: The creators of the book conducted a survey of Dungeon Masters to collect data and they throw these statistics out.. seemingly at random? I'm not sure these why they are here other than to justify having conducted the survey. Additionally, while they generally do give credit to the source, whole pages are paraphrased from other sources and it gives the book the impression that it is cobbled together out of the work of other people. The creator even interviewed Critical Role's Matt Mercer in preparation for this and found that Mercer spends almost a full work day prepping adventures. Which must have shaken the book's author to his very core because most of the tabletop community rides Matt Mercer like he's a draft horse.
Finally the book advocates letting your players do awesome things but the examples given are probably a sign that you have let things go too far off the rails. "Players love it when they kill dragons in one hit!" Well, okay. But if they're running around killing a boss dragon in one hit, there's probably nothing left you can do to challenge them except cheese. You have probably given them too much and everything that happens now is moot. It also advocates doling out magic items like candy which I find amusing because one of the conceits of 5th edition is that magic items are very rare. This was probably done to help DMs contain power creep which has been a huge problem in previous editions.
And while awesome things can be cool, they are often anti-climactic and lack much drama. A closely fought battle feels much more engaging than a one-hit KO.
The art inside is pretty rockin' though and I'm a little surprised at the reasonable price tag on a book with so much good artwork.
June 7, 2021
This book is exactly what it says on the tin. This is not a guide for anyone interested in in-depth, expansive DM style. It's for those who want to get the maximum bang for their buck with dming prep time. As someone with very little free time who runs 2 sessions a week, that's exactly what I'm looking for.
I don't necessarily agree with all of the points listed here, but most are great tips to streamline your preparation. I bought this in the softcover edition, but it really isn't something I feel like I need in a physical format. The book is a glorified (very long) blog post, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way. It's short and to the point, with fun art to spice things up. I'm absolutely happy to have paid for it, but the ebook would have served me just as well, and I don't feel that way normally.
Overall I enjoyed the tips listed within and have used the prep methods in a couple of sessions and have found that they provide a great jumping off point, if not a replacement for my usual prep.
4/5
I don't necessarily agree with all of the points listed here, but most are great tips to streamline your preparation. I bought this in the softcover edition, but it really isn't something I feel like I need in a physical format. The book is a glorified (very long) blog post, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way. It's short and to the point, with fun art to spice things up. I'm absolutely happy to have paid for it, but the ebook would have served me just as well, and I don't feel that way normally.
Overall I enjoyed the tips listed within and have used the prep methods in a couple of sessions and have found that they provide a great jumping off point, if not a replacement for my usual prep.
4/5
October 20, 2018
This is a well-written book summarising advice for storytellers that is building on many sources and even dungeon master surveys (which can be found at the end of the book). Each chapter contains illustrative examples and finishes with a short checklist for fast orientation and application. You also see one adventure throughout the book that is constructed step by step in each chapter and clearly demonstrates how to apply the provided hints and advice. The book covers three aspects - preparation of a session, running the game and thinking about it.
In each chapter, I found something that made me think about the game differently (e.g., look at aspects of locations as opportunities and invitations for player interaction and not just decoration for the background) and thus I would wholeheartedly recommend reading this book if you are a storyteller of any genre (not necessarily just in RPGs).
If you feel that fantasy RPG, the main focus of the book, is not for you, then don't worry and follow the lazy DM's Chapter 15: Reskin!
In each chapter, I found something that made me think about the game differently (e.g., look at aspects of locations as opportunities and invitations for player interaction and not just decoration for the background) and thus I would wholeheartedly recommend reading this book if you are a storyteller of any genre (not necessarily just in RPGs).
If you feel that fantasy RPG, the main focus of the book, is not for you, then don't worry and follow the lazy DM's Chapter 15: Reskin!
January 15, 2024
Highly recommended for RPG players and new DMs trying to build up experience.
July 4, 2025
I’ll be DMing my first campaign soon and this was the most helpful thing I read that made me feel that I can actually do this. Very practical.
October 7, 2019
Completely changed how I prepare and structure my D&D sessions. I love the step-by-step format.
August 9, 2020
I don't generally buy books on GM advice. I've been running games for over 40 years, and I don't often get anything new out of them. I bought this book because it was coming up in my feed often and I thought maybe a could use a little more structure I'm my prep.
The book is well written and a fast read. It has great bullet points at the end of each chapter so a review of the material as you prep your games is easy. The book gives advice and structure for quick game preparation (the lazy GM method), a "lazy" campaign prep method, and advice on running your game with a lot of improv.
I don't believe in reviewing anything rpg related without trying it, so I have used the method as written for my last two prep sessions.
First off, I didn't really find any specific ideas or advice that I wasn't already aware of or already using to some degree. The book says prep should take 15 minutes to a half hour total. I can't even imagine this. My session prep usually takes 2 or 3 hours. Prep for the last two sessions with the book took me about 2 hours. The book gives advice like roughly basing each npc on a fictional character, and writing a list of secrets for use during play, but it still took me the same amount of time to put these thoughts together and on paper. The book gives no advice for cooking all this stuff up faster. I had a nice structure, but I still spent just as much time thinking about these things. This is not entirely the systems fault. The system is built for a much higher level of soft prep and improv than I am comfortable with. I feel more comfortable having more concrete details, and I already know how to shift material I have prepped around during a session.
This book is more suited for a intermediate level GM who is comfortable with a lot of improv and wants to prep very quickly. I found myself rebelling against alot the ideas, as I enjoy consistency, world building, and a bit more info on the page.
This isn't to say that I didn't pick up a few useful tips during my reading, and I may still use of the structure even if I fill it out more.
If you are an intermediate level GM and you are comfortable adding more improv for less prep time, give this book a try.
The book is well written and a fast read. It has great bullet points at the end of each chapter so a review of the material as you prep your games is easy. The book gives advice and structure for quick game preparation (the lazy GM method), a "lazy" campaign prep method, and advice on running your game with a lot of improv.
I don't believe in reviewing anything rpg related without trying it, so I have used the method as written for my last two prep sessions.
First off, I didn't really find any specific ideas or advice that I wasn't already aware of or already using to some degree. The book says prep should take 15 minutes to a half hour total. I can't even imagine this. My session prep usually takes 2 or 3 hours. Prep for the last two sessions with the book took me about 2 hours. The book gives advice like roughly basing each npc on a fictional character, and writing a list of secrets for use during play, but it still took me the same amount of time to put these thoughts together and on paper. The book gives no advice for cooking all this stuff up faster. I had a nice structure, but I still spent just as much time thinking about these things. This is not entirely the systems fault. The system is built for a much higher level of soft prep and improv than I am comfortable with. I feel more comfortable having more concrete details, and I already know how to shift material I have prepped around during a session.
This book is more suited for a intermediate level GM who is comfortable with a lot of improv and wants to prep very quickly. I found myself rebelling against alot the ideas, as I enjoy consistency, world building, and a bit more info on the page.
This isn't to say that I didn't pick up a few useful tips during my reading, and I may still use of the structure even if I fill it out more.
If you are an intermediate level GM and you are comfortable adding more improv for less prep time, give this book a try.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2018
TL;DR: 5/5 this book didn't just improve my DMing, it increased the amount of free time I have in the week and made me an all around happier person.
I've been using the game prep methods laid out in this book ever since Shea released the preview document when the kickstarter went life. The benefit on my actual sessions has been noticeable, but the biggest impact this book had was on my personal life and free time. I run four dnd campaigns (plus the occasional oneshot) and being able to prep a 3 hour session in less than 30 minutes is a god send for my free time.
If the main take away from the original Lazy DM book was that I needed to focus on what most benefited my game sessions, then the main take away from this book is a streamlined process on how to do exactly that. The previous book taught me a new way to run games; this book taught me how to prep for games in that style in under 30 minutes.
I recommend this book to all DMs, both new and experienced. You don't need to read the previous book as this one is completely standalone, though I do recommend you check the other one out as well. If you're not 100% sold on this book by the blurb and my review, check out Shea's website over at http://slyflourish.com and read some of his articles. This guy will change the way you run games, leading to more fun at the table for everyone involved, while at the same time making sure prepping rpg sessions doesn't take up all of your free time.
I've been using the game prep methods laid out in this book ever since Shea released the preview document when the kickstarter went life. The benefit on my actual sessions has been noticeable, but the biggest impact this book had was on my personal life and free time. I run four dnd campaigns (plus the occasional oneshot) and being able to prep a 3 hour session in less than 30 minutes is a god send for my free time.
If the main take away from the original Lazy DM book was that I needed to focus on what most benefited my game sessions, then the main take away from this book is a streamlined process on how to do exactly that. The previous book taught me a new way to run games; this book taught me how to prep for games in that style in under 30 minutes.
I recommend this book to all DMs, both new and experienced. You don't need to read the previous book as this one is completely standalone, though I do recommend you check the other one out as well. If you're not 100% sold on this book by the blurb and my review, check out Shea's website over at http://slyflourish.com and read some of his articles. This guy will change the way you run games, leading to more fun at the table for everyone involved, while at the same time making sure prepping rpg sessions doesn't take up all of your free time.
January 3, 2019
This was a fantastic resource for experienced dungeon masters. I'm a teacher that runs a middle school Dungeons and Dragons club, so keeping my Dungeon Master prep time manageable is important. This book offers a checklist of all the most important things to do when preparing to run an RPG and lays out how to do each step of your prep quickly. There are also some really solid tips for what to do while running the game to keep it fun for everyone. This is probably the best DM resource I've encountered. Now I just wish someone would do the same thing for lesson planning as a teacher.
July 16, 2019
Hacer las cosas difíciles de manera fácil es un arte. Uno del que se aprende con mucha constancia, sacrificio, ensayos y a base de conocerse a uno mismo y saber qué es lo mejor que puede hacer.
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master es un libro ideal para que algo tan "difícil" como preparar una partida de rol se haga de manera fácil. Recurre a trucos clásicos (tener una lista de nombres preparada, reciclar stats) pero también a algunas cosas nuevas, simplifica conceptos y se apoya en encuestas y estadísticas, lo cual siempre es bien a la hora de centrar las acciones. Además propone listas de objetivos a la hora de preparar una partida de forma fácil, con lo que podemos tenerla a mano e ir tachando hitos a medida que avanzamos.
Posiblemente de las mejores obras que se puedan leer ahora en cuanto a cómo preparar una partida de rol.
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master es un libro ideal para que algo tan "difícil" como preparar una partida de rol se haga de manera fácil. Recurre a trucos clásicos (tener una lista de nombres preparada, reciclar stats) pero también a algunas cosas nuevas, simplifica conceptos y se apoya en encuestas y estadísticas, lo cual siempre es bien a la hora de centrar las acciones. Además propone listas de objetivos a la hora de preparar una partida de forma fácil, con lo que podemos tenerla a mano e ir tachando hitos a medida que avanzamos.
Posiblemente de las mejores obras que se puedan leer ahora en cuanto a cómo preparar una partida de rol.
May 9, 2019
A really fantastic resource for DMs - I grabbed the audiobook on a whim and I might pick up the paperback too for reference. I was surprised at how many ideas were presented that I hadn't considered, as well as some common sense tips for cutting down on prep time. I'm looking forward to making use of this info on my next campaign! :)
October 7, 2024
(Started this a while ago and forgot to track it)
This book is SUPER helpful! The process of even thinking about starting my own campaign feels daunting, and this book offers some core concepts, and also boundary lines for what is most important in terms of game prep but also running the game itself. Much more to read but this was a good start!
This book is SUPER helpful! The process of even thinking about starting my own campaign feels daunting, and this book offers some core concepts, and also boundary lines for what is most important in terms of game prep but also running the game itself. Much more to read but this was a good start!
February 10, 2021
Short but valuable read on efficient ways to prepare for a DM session, and to a lesser extent how to prepare for a campaign at large. Totally changed my focus and organization for the better. The improvement was on isolating the nugget of preparation needed so I can drop other preparation to save time and allow more improv. It also had some really nice tips on including players in the creative effort, which I think brings everyone more intensely into the story.
Some of the book felt like filler, but perhaps that filler was more useful for newer players.
Some of the book felt like filler, but perhaps that filler was more useful for newer players.
October 31, 2023
This was a fun read and I found some helpful tips in there. I would recommend this to any of my gaming friends.
February 22, 2025
Very confidence building after being burnt out of GMing for so long. Has me ready to be back in the hotseat.
May 19, 2025
האם הספר הזה שינה לחלוטין את הדרך שבה אני מנחה את המשחק? לא. האם הוא נותן חומר למחשבה וכמה טיפים מועילים? כן. בסך הכל ספר מהנה לקריאה. היה נחמד אם היו מרכזים את כל הטיפים לרשימה אחת גדולה בסוף הספר
January 9, 2022
Must read before each campaign begins
October 7, 2018
I thought this was pretty good. I am really looking forward to the workbook, which isn't out yet. I currently need more preparation than this, but I'm excited for the day when this is all I need :)
July 30, 2023
Gutes Buch für alle die DMen. Denke jede Person kann für sich da was rausziehen selbst wenn sie nicht das komplette Konzept des Buches nutzen wollen.
February 22, 2022
One of the best books I’ve read on ttrpgs so far. Great for aspiring DMs.
March 10, 2023
Practical and useful techniques for organizing and running games.
August 24, 2024
Super helpful book. Great wisdom and tricks of the trade. Will
Return to.
Return to.
December 8, 2018
Phenominally useful book. I am confident this book has something to offer virtually every Game Master of any role-playing game system.
September 14, 2018
Good continuation of the original book, more tips and some new good concepts
June 29, 2024
Wish I'd had this when I first started DMing — this deserves it's reputation as the "real" Dungeon Master's Guide. Concise, full of actionable, practical tips; the definitive cure for overpreparation. Mike Shea is the absolute goat
November 9, 2019
This is better than the older one. It has better advice, some stuff apply to other games and there is more good stuff here.
However this mostly fits DnD style games but it necessarily isn't a bad thing.
There are few things that the book addresses that aren't as good or well explained, such as the principle "yes and..", "be fan of the characters" and "everyone is here to have fun"
- "Yes and.." principle is fine but it needs to be stated that it doesn't literally mean say yes to everything. Sometimes stuff that people barf out aren't good or fitting. Don't however stomp out ideas, sometimes there are good bits in there they need to be just brought out from the bad ones. Also don't mock, just be polite and respectful in the process.
- It is really hard to be fan of a character that you don't find interesting at all. Some characters are just boring and have nothing going on. The characters should be something you want to see succeed and lament their losses. But if the characters are say four jerks that you don't care about. You should talk what you truly want to do. Not put up with something you don't enjoy.
- Everyone is here to have fun.. including you the GM. It is fun to see characters interacting with the stuff you create, they are cool and do cool stuff. This is the reason why I play. I'm not responsible for if the players are are having fun. The GM might be the facilitator, who judges the rules and thinks the situation but they aren't responsible for Fun. Everyone is responsible for their own fun and brings it to the table.
That is my critique. Overall I think this is a good resource for getting ideas for how to prep for games if they are struggling. Fantastic addition to any DnD type game resource collections.
However this mostly fits DnD style games but it necessarily isn't a bad thing.
There are few things that the book addresses that aren't as good or well explained, such as the principle "yes and..", "be fan of the characters" and "everyone is here to have fun"
- "Yes and.." principle is fine but it needs to be stated that it doesn't literally mean say yes to everything. Sometimes stuff that people barf out aren't good or fitting. Don't however stomp out ideas, sometimes there are good bits in there they need to be just brought out from the bad ones. Also don't mock, just be polite and respectful in the process.
- It is really hard to be fan of a character that you don't find interesting at all. Some characters are just boring and have nothing going on. The characters should be something you want to see succeed and lament their losses. But if the characters are say four jerks that you don't care about. You should talk what you truly want to do. Not put up with something you don't enjoy.
- Everyone is here to have fun.. including you the GM. It is fun to see characters interacting with the stuff you create, they are cool and do cool stuff. This is the reason why I play. I'm not responsible for if the players are are having fun. The GM might be the facilitator, who judges the rules and thinks the situation but they aren't responsible for Fun. Everyone is responsible for their own fun and brings it to the table.
That is my critique. Overall I think this is a good resource for getting ideas for how to prep for games if they are struggling. Fantastic addition to any DnD type game resource collections.
November 19, 2021
If you read a lot of books on GM advice, none of the ideas in this book are really new. But as opposed to many other sources, they are bound together into a consistent strategy for running low-prep games. Of course, not all elements of this strategy are equally applicable to all groups, but the general concepts looks sound, and I'm looking forward to trying out a (slightly modified) version of it.
The only thing that I really don't believe is that preparation takes only 15-30 minutes per session using the lazy DM method, as claimed by the author. Sure, jotting down the session prep bullet points themselves will not take longer, but if they are meant to be actual ideas (and not just the same old boring routine stuff), producing these ideas also takes time. In one of the last chapters, the author proposes to spend 30 minutes per day on a walk, thinking about the game. And there you are: If you have walked the walk and thought the thoughts, writing them down is easy. But adding the time for the walks and the write-up yields a lot more than 15-30 minutes...
The only thing that I really don't believe is that preparation takes only 15-30 minutes per session using the lazy DM method, as claimed by the author. Sure, jotting down the session prep bullet points themselves will not take longer, but if they are meant to be actual ideas (and not just the same old boring routine stuff), producing these ideas also takes time. In one of the last chapters, the author proposes to spend 30 minutes per day on a walk, thinking about the game. And there you are: If you have walked the walk and thought the thoughts, writing them down is easy. But adding the time for the walks and the write-up yields a lot more than 15-30 minutes...
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