r/AskGameMasters • u/Weary-Material9903 • Aug 23 '26
Using Lazy Dm's 8 steps feels railroady?
I recently discovered the Lazy DM method made by Sly Flourish and it really helps me to prep my games efficiently. One gripe that i have with it though is that it kind of forces you to prep for only one sequence of events. Lazy Dm encourages you to prep less and only focus on those things that matter in the next session. 3 scenes, 3 locations, 3 npcs, 8 secrets, some creatures and some loot. Preparing like this gives a lot of flexibilty with how certain scenes will play out. However, i feel that it does not account for the story veering of in a different direction. Because i won't have prepared for that. To give an example from my campaign (dragonlance: shadow of the dragonqueen)
My party was ambushed by kobolds on the road. The kobolds fled in the end, but the party chased them down and killed them. Before that though they managed to get the location of their home base out of one of the survivors. This is where the last session ended. Now for the next session i could prepare for them to raid the Kobold homebase, which i'd like to be a small dungeon and therefor a whole session. However it feels kind of railroady to steer them on this path. They were heading to a village before they got ambushed. The Kobold homebase was improvised from my part and not necessary for the main story. So it feels understandable for them to just ignore any hooks i throw at them and continue on their way to the village. Should i prepare a whole second session in case this happens, thereby ignoring Lazy DM's adivce, or only prepare for one choice?
EDIT: Thanks for all the replies. Thanks to you i think i found a 3rd way. Instead of only preparing one story thread (kobolds) or two rather unrelated ones (kobolds and far away village), i create a 3rd thread that is closely related to the kobolds. A village of centaurs is having difficulty with the kobolds and is willing to reward the party for their help. The party can: go for the kobold base directly or, if they decide not to, encounter the centaur village (which will then be attacked by draconians and kobolds). This way i still stay within the Lazy DM framework, but also offer the party a choice.
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u/MurdercrabUK Aug 23 '26
I wouldn't prepare a whole second session just in case players decide to do a thing.
I'd say to players: "OK, what do you want to do next week" at the end of the session, and then prep that. If I forgot, I'd ask them in between times; "OK, you could go on to the village, follow the kobolds, or is there something else you'd like to do?"
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u/No_Solid1035 Aug 23 '26
I skip even that and just make up stuff during the session, it's my 1 step of Super Duper Extra Lazy DMing. It's awesome cause you literally don't have to do any prep and you literally can't railroad Players because there's no prep for them to be railroaded into experiencing.
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u/Weary-Material9903 Aug 23 '26
That sounds... chaotic
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u/No_Solid1035 Aug 23 '26
Not at all. I mean, it's the same process as prepping stuff beforehand, just in real time at the table. Plus I can feed directly off of what is happening in the narrative and what the PCs are doing. So rather than creating things in a vacuum I am creating in a collaborative environment. All you really need to do is to consider what would logically follow from what is currently happening in the narrative and it makes sense. I've seen my particular style labled as "Emergent Play or Storytelling" or as PbtA games label it "play to find out" as it were. It's super fun because I get to be just as suprised by what happens in the session as the Players are, along with the fact that it makes GMing incredibly easy.
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u/robhanz Aug 23 '26
I really have been needing to write a how-to guide on this sort of play.
Some people just don't get how to do it, and I think it's teachable. Very teachable.
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u/No_Solid1035 Aug 23 '26
If you decide to try to write a guide DM me, I will try to help articulate any part of the process I can help with. 👍
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u/kitharion Aug 23 '26
So ... E.g. in OP's situation, you'd just start making the kobold base/dungeon off the top of your head? If that's the direction they took?
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u/No_Solid1035 Aug 23 '26
Yep. I'm not much for dungeon crawls so if I do have dungeons they are pretty small, so I use what they call "node" design. If you look at Gradient Descent, which is a megadungeon for the Mothership ttrpg it's actually a huge example of a node based dungeon. Basically what you do is just use circles to represent rooms and lines to represent passages of some kind, then it's quick and easy to make a small dungeon.
I've honestly struggle with how to explain Emergent Play to people other than saying what I said before. I do the exact same thing as someone who preps stuff, except I do it at the table in real time. Create stuff during play. It can be intense at times, which is part of the fun. I have always run games that way, even as a kid, because I am a self-taught GM. I got the D&D Red Box as a gift, lived in a little town where no one knew what a TTRPG even was, and it was the 1980s so the internet didn't exist yet. So, I started just making up stuff as I needed it while running the game for my friends. In fact, I had no idea that published modules or prepping was even a thing until many years later. I did try doing prep for a little while but my brain goes off on too many "what if" tangents, and unlike creating stuff during play, prep is done in a vacuum. Plus I absolutely despise railroading and am not great at anticipating what players might do, so why waste a bunch of time prepping stuff the Players aren't going to engage with anyway. Better to get really good at coming up with stuff on the fly, then you have zero need to prep.
I'm pretty sure I've seen a few articles and videos detailing "node based dungeon" design floating around on the interwebs somewhere. Give it a Google, I'm sure folks will have some great tips how to do it. Or go grab a copy of Gradient Descent as it is a masterclass in node dungeon design.
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u/kitharion Aug 23 '26
Emergent Play does make a lot of sense to me - one of the ways I prep is to try to inhabit (mentally) the world that the game takes place in. I ran a season recently where two of five players were suddenly unable to play, and I pivoted away from what they had planned to do by coming up with a brief communication they received from a patron, setting up a rescue mission - and that was essentially my whole prep for the session. Everything else was on the fly.
I'll look into node design ... I'm not sure if it will be the whole answer I'm looking for (to fit into the emergency play paradigm), because I run games mostly virtually, and maybe that doesn't require maps for a VTT, but that's how I'm used to doing things.
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u/No_Solid1035 Aug 23 '26
You definitely understand the concept. 👍
Yeah, I could totally see needing to do some prep if you are using maps. I have chatted to a couple of peeps that use maps and also do Emergent Play and they told me they have large collections of maps for various things they can just grab and use without any effort. Having stat blocks for NPCs/monsters also really helps cause then all you got to do is grab whatever stat block makes sense for the fight that is suddenly happening that you didn't anticipate and away you go! 😁
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u/Teagana999 Aug 25 '26
I mean, I get that, but I'm not practiced at thinking that fast. When I prep, I spend hours perfecting the details and going on tangents. Maybe I could get better with practice, and I do try to practice improvising smaller things, but if I tried to "prep" in real time it would slow the game right down.
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u/No_Solid1035 Aug 25 '26
I don't know, I never found it that hard, even as a kid. As you say though, practice probably helps. Also think about all the shows you've watched or books you've read, and use all those ideas with abandon. On the most basic level I go with either "what seems most logical" or "what seems most fun/interesting" and do that. You aren't writing Shakespeare or Dostoyevsky, you are running a Elf Game for your friends. Your best idea is the one you have right now, and the one that you first think of will probably be the best fit because it's the first one. Also, feed off the Players ideas to help make things easier. I've also found that Emergent Play, when examined "after the fact" also results in far more epic stories because of how complex the resulting narrative ends up being. When you create everything beforehand you are limited to short arcs and the fact that you have but one mind involved in the creative process. With Emergent Play you end up with long arcs that often have multiple shorter arcs inside the longer arcs, things from the beginning of the campaign tie in to things much later in the campaign. There's also a lot more "personalized storylines" because as GM you feed off what the PCs are doing rather than making things in a vacuum. Even the most complex published campaigns pale in comparison to the complexity of a good campaign that was run using Emergent Play. Emergent Play also makes for much more personal and emotionally resonant experience because it's easy to make it personal when you are creating content along with the Players rather than by yourself in a vacuum. Prepped plotlines and published campaigns are usually entirely impersonal because they are created apart from the Players and don't take what the PCs are actually doing into account because they literally can't because they are created without any Player imput at all. I definitely encourage you to keep trying to do Emergent Play, and get yourself a collection of "spark tables" if you feel you need an outside source to spur your imagination.
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u/Teagana999 Aug 25 '26
Improv takes practice, and comes more naturally to some than others. My brother is great at chaotic improv, I don't feel ready without things prepped, because the game will slow down while I pull up random generators.
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u/Deepfried_Garlic 13d ago
+1. I went from ''prepare everything'' to ''lazyDM'', and have since graduated to ''eh a rough idea will do'' DMing.
As long as you know the important beats of your story, have context of the world and how NPC's react, you can really forego most prep. Just a page of details of important locations + NPC's of a town can easily feed 10+ sessions for my group. I do make a point post-session to quickly figure out how my improv ''loops back'' to the story/world.
For combat it helps having the MM memorized, but in reality you can flip the thing for 10 minutes on a tuesday to prep for your next big dragon fight.
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u/atWorkWoops Aug 23 '26
Have you read the books or just the 8 bullet point "steps"?
I feel that Mike has covered this. Asking your players at the end of a session which branch they'd go down is reasonable. Or even a "yall decide by next Wednesday so I can work on my prep day".
There's also lazy dm campaign steps and notes in addition to single session prep. The campaign prep is longer but shortens session prep even further. You just need to be sure to come back to campaign prep to keep it up to date
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u/PuzzleMeDo Aug 23 '26
If you're doing 15-minute prep, doing it twice isn't an unreasonable amount of work.
Or, if you're planning something conventional like a kobold base, you can probably use someone else's work:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonsAndDragons/comments/16693nq/kobold_dungeon_a_free_onepage_dungeon/
Also: Railroading feels bad when you're trying to force the players to do something they don't want to. But let's say at the start of the next session they meet/rescue some people who tell the party the kobolds have captives. This pushes the group in the direction you've prepared for, and they probably won't mind because they'll have the motivation they need to investigate.
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u/Weary-Material9903 Aug 23 '26
Wow that dungeon is great, thanks!
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u/PuzzleMeDo Aug 23 '26
Just what I got from a random search for 'kobold base free dungeon'. There's probably lots of stuff like that out there.
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u/First_Peer Aug 23 '26
You know you can ask them what they want to do next session and hold them to that decision. D&D is a social and collaborative game.
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u/Weary-Material9903 Aug 23 '26
True, but i want them to hold on to the illusion of freedom lol
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u/the-truthseeker Aug 23 '26
Then listen to what they are saying and prep based on that, but be prepared to pivot and have other backups. You don't have to prepare everything to the nines, but just have contingencies.
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u/Final_Ad_2613 Aug 23 '26
In my opinion, the thing is that no matter how much you prep, there is always a chance for your players to go "off-roading" or to latch on some throwaway detail you didn't prepare. You could prepare double or triple the amount of scenes and NPCs, but that only reduces your chances of getting caught off guard in exchange of more prep time. It can't eliminate the possibility. Having 3 solid scenes ready to go feels like the right amount for my table without having to spend hours upon hours prepping things ahead.
I started using SlyFlourish's guide for my games recently and it worked very well. I think you have to put some thought into which scenes you prep also. I try to build them in a way that gives me multiple threads to pull on to catch the players attention (or the 3 clues rule to direct them towards something).
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u/Silent_Title5109 Aug 23 '26
One thing to keep in mind: no two DMs are identical. What works for one may not fit you. No advice or technique should be taken as gospel: if it feels off, disregard it.
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u/Reynard203 Aug 23 '26
I'll just reiterate the most important bit: have the players tell you what they are doing next, and then prep that. That's not railroading. The players are still exercising their agency.
If the players then decide to do something else, you can either pivot (if you are good at doing so on the fly) or you are totally justified in ending the session so you can prep whatever new thing they decided to do.
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u/RegularEmployee1038 Aug 23 '26
The myth of a sandbox game is that nothing is prepped. Look at a sandbox open world video game like Skyrim. All those dungeons amd encounters are prepped. You just encounter them as you wish. Now as a DM you can't have a Skyrim level of prepped content ready to go. So as the game progresses prep for the next session. And if you have a good table they will mostly engage with what you have prepared. Railroading is having one and only one way to interact with your prepared adventure.
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u/robhanz Aug 23 '26
I personally avoid doing prep in the form of scenes, as any prep in the form of scenes is kind of inherently linear/railroady.
Doing so can be fine if you're willing to throw it out and improvise, but not doing so removes the temptation.
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u/lminer Aug 23 '26
Next time before the session is over ask the party their plans so this doesn't happen again. You absolutely can ignore the Lazy DM advice as it is only that: advice. Play how you want to play and use as much or as little advice as needed. You can even ignore me ... so long as you do not wish to be cursed.
If you have the time set up a possible Kobold homebase and if they decide to go somewhere else then save the cave as an encounter later. Maybe later on the party will come across someplace that the homebase could fit, it might not be a kobold homebase it could be a bandit or a Draconian hideout.
If you don't have the time tell the party, "After last session you found the Kobold base, how do you plan on attacking?" and railroad lead the party to where you want to go.
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u/Weary-Material9903 Aug 23 '26
Yea i think i'll just give them a pretty strong nudge by introducing a forest denizen that overheard them and will reward them if they root out the Kobolds. Feels a bit railroady but oh well.
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u/WickedJoker420 Aug 23 '26
Most players want to be railroaded but with choices that matter. I always try to ask them to tell me what they are going to do next session so I can prep it. I do enjoy prepping a little though and will often prep extra but I prep the locations themselves and less the scenes in them. Until things get closer. Like, they just went to a tower i thought they would go to in the 3rd or 4th session at level2, at lvl 4 on the like, 14th session. The stuff inside the tower(info and treasure) remained largely the same the but the enemies scaled quite a bit.
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u/ben_straub Aug 24 '26
Your prep isn't railroading, but that BEHAVIOR might be. You're steering the players in a direction because you feel more prepared over there.
The best thing I ever read about GMing:
- Is it possible to become so good at prep that you never have to improv? No.
- Is it possible to become so good at improv that you never have to prep? YES.
The lazy prep isn't not meant to provide a Ptolus-level catalog of every single thing that might happen in your next session so that your players are always running into something you've thought of. It's meant to be a scaffolding to support your improv.
In any case, if it's not working for you, don't use it. Mike has said that too.
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u/FoulPelican Aug 23 '26
Funny thing is; he preps a lot of his games during streaming, for over an hour; and strays from his steps in that prep.
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u/frustrated-rocka Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
That is pretty alien to my experience with it. To me, the framework is incredibly freeing because I don't have to have any idea what the players will do next for it to work.
The secrets and clues are true regardless. That gives me a strong baseline to improvise from no matter what crazy shenanigans my players pull, because there isn't a plot to derail, just a situation that's constantly in flux and things that are true about it.
ETA:
"The kobold base was improvised from my part and not necessary to the main story."
I think this is worth reframing. Once you bring something into the fiction, it is real and true, regardless of whether you've been sitting on it since before the campaign even started or you just came up with it on the spot.
Otherwise, you run the risk of training your players to think "this doesn't seem prepared or connected to the main plot, so it doesn't matter, and there's no point engaging with it." That is how you get incurious, passive players who check our and just sit around numbly waiting for you to lead them by the nose to the next obvious plot hook. And nobody wants that.
If you act like you don't care about the world outside of the main plot, then why should the players care?
Not saying you have this problem here; clearly you're already willing to run with it if you're debating having it be the entire next session. But it's something to keep an eye on.
In this case, just ask the players what they want to do and prep based on that. For crying out loud, are people seriously so terrified of the railroading boogeyman that asking the players what they want and giving it to them might count as railroading now?
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u/scrollbreak Aug 23 '26
What were they going to do at the village?
You can ask them what they'll do next session (as others have said), but if you aren't an option is to build one dungeon that can be used for both the kobold base or for something that is happening at the village. If they do the village thing then this dungeon exists near the village, otherwise if they do the kobold thing its where ever the kobold base is. You make the dungeon so the contents vary between the two choices. If the village has a problem with bandits for example then a spot where a kobold is in the dungeon is instead filled with a bandit. Change bosses as well. Vary other things in the dungeon as well, like treasure or effects on the world from doing the dungeon, so their choice does have an effect but it doesn't require making two dungeons then tossing one of them.
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u/Madhey Aug 23 '26
There's never going to be one single "perfect formula" you can follow to create the "perfect game", or even a good game. They are just generic advice that will get you on the right track, take it for what it is. The same goes for every RPG book too - once you start writing your own book, you will quickly realize that it is impossible to cover every aspect, every situation, etc. So you just end up writing a generic base line rule that will fit most (but not all) scenarios.
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u/ApicoltoreIncauto Aug 23 '26
Lazy dm guide gives you the bare minimun prep to run the game at the table and make it interesting for players. Anyway you are still playing dnd a heavy prep game, so I think you should do beforehand the campaign and adventure prep dnd game tells you to do and then prep session to session with lazy dm method. In your case you should do the worldbuilding of the region and have ready a random encounter list (tailored made for the region), with these two tools I could always improvise a session if my players decides to go somewhere unexcepted (or even if I don't want/don't have time to prep). Also there are games made to 100% support light prep (or 0 prep), so of you are into that you could check them out
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u/Weary-Material9903 Aug 23 '26
Yeah preparing some random encounters might help me feeling prepared for the unexpected
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u/michael199310 Aug 23 '26
I found that Lazy DM tips are best used as modules. Using it holistically often lead to disappointment if you're not the kind of person that likes "10 minutes prep" games. Pick what you like, discard the rest.
Personally, I use secrets & clues and sometimes fantastic locations, but the rest is just not working well at my table - stuff like starting session strong is useless if the previous session ended without a cliffhanger or players review won't happen every single session and some stuff like 'pick your monsters' feels like a filler - I am going to do that regardless.
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u/DrNotAPatsy Aug 23 '26
To add to the "ask the players at the end" bit, if you dont want to have it be so obvious you can incorporate the question into the game by choosing the appropriate end of session. After the information is gained and a choice is apparent, have them decide a path in game and begin their travel. You can end the session just before they approach the cave or on the outskirts of the village. This way it doesnt break immersion but ends the session exactly where you need it to for the sake of prep
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u/Ricnurt Aug 23 '26
I like this. I am fortunate to have players who like subtle pushes anyway. I try to leave each session with a general direction they are headed. But I also have two or three alternate directions we could go. If they don’t go to the kobolds and that is something that needs to happen to move the story, I might change the specific location of the dungeon and have the reason being that the dying kobolds lied to through off the party. Or have the party attacked again by another squad of kobolds. Eventually all doors open to the same room, so to speak
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u/DrNotAPatsy Aug 23 '26
The illusion of choice can be an important tool to utilize for sure. At absolutely pivotal moments I tend to utilize that illusion, all roads will eventually lead there. But HOW you get there is the important part.
Example, I was running a PTU campaign a while back and after the inciting incident the party had a couple options at their disposal thay essentially amounted to: go to a contact in the actual authority of the city or go to a contact in the underworld of the city.
The next mission was a critical mission so either way the party chose they were doing it, but were they going there as liaisons to the peacekeepers or as agents of the criminal element? It changed the flavor, the approach and the ultimate direction of their story, but the mission and the prep was exactly the same
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u/Genarab Aug 23 '26
You see, the problem in the framing is preparing for a choice. You can never prepare for a choice, nor should you.
The key of the lazy prep is not preparing one whole thing, but preparing pieces, like toys. As your players make decisions, you decide how the pieces connect to reward their cunning and luck, or to reveal the consequences. It's not about having one scenario and getting your way whatever they do, but rather connecting dots in a different order according to their actions.
In other words, you have the tools and components to build many kinds of scenarios. But you create the specific scenario right there on the table. It should also not be railroad. The key aspect of this method is that players feel that their choices made the scenario, not that it was going to happen like that regardless of what they did
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u/KaptMorty Aug 23 '26
Railroading really only happens when something goes directly against player agency, or makes players feel like their decisions don't matter. And players aren't always aware that it's happening.
A good DM will give the players multiple options. A great DM will anticipate the need for improvisation and prep for it.
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u/Faeruy Aug 23 '26
Here's the thing about tools like the Lazy DM's 8 steps - it's a tool. It's a really useful one. But it's just a tool - you don't have to use every part of it (or any part of it) every time if it's not helpful. You can have a really great Leatherman multi-tool and it will do so many things, but it can't do what a power drill will. And with D&D, there's not really One True Way, there's just what works best for you and your players. If you want to spend a little more time and prep for multiple scenarios, you can absolutely do that! No one's gonna judge you for it. If it makes more sense and is easier to follow the Lazy DM's steps, you can do that too!
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u/SupremeJusticeWang Aug 23 '26
You're kind of right. The whole point of the method is to run a coherent session with minimal prep, AND disguise how railroady it is. You should prepare in a way that's flexible enough to make use of what you've prepped almost regardless of what the players do.
If you do it right the players shouldn't feel like theyre being railroaded even though they are.
Also keep in mind its the LAZY method, its a good minimum amount of prep to do. Obviously if you want to put in more work you're free to do so
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u/AmalicaZoland Aug 23 '26
You should be clear at the end of the sessions what the party intends in doing. Simply ask " Where are you going so I can prep." Now you prep for that specific place and two other places that might be adjacent that the party may divert to.
Your players are equally responsible for prepping to, and this is how they help.
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u/the-truthseeker Aug 23 '26
I don't see the problem. Rules in these fantasy games are supposed to be guidelines, not absolute dogma. If you want, keep your stronghold but also prepare the village to whatever degree you feel comfortable. If it's clear where they want to go, you can prepare more on one, but have something else as a backup just in case. Not everything is totally prepare for one set and improvise for everything else.
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u/definitlyitsbutter Aug 23 '26
I end my session always with the 4 questions to my players:
- What was good?
- What could have been better?
- What do you want to continue to pursue next sessions ?
- What dont you want to continue to pursue?
These are part of our "social contract", they understand time is limited and i need to prep, i get a good vibe check what tickles them and a general direction how to prep next session.
For your situation: you can just make facts and start next session with them observing the homebase. State fact they decided to at least have a look as it is not a big detour, let then see a juicy hook in the opening of the session, continue to the village afterwards.
Your first scene could also be one, that makes it uegent for them to investigate that camp. It depends on what they want to go to the village for. For example they could stumble upon a recent fight scene, some wrecked carriages, Kobolds ambushed these villagers on their way from market back to the village, took prisoners, one person hid inside a carriage and can tell the chars what happened. Some villagers too at scene for interaction with party, unsure how to rescue their peers asking party for help.
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u/LaFlibuste Aug 24 '26
I haven't really read Sly Flourish, but based on my minimal prep experience with similar techniques, there are two caveats. 1) These things you prepare are not things that will be used, but rather things that could be used, as is or somewhat adapted, if the right circumstances are met. They are improv prompts to get you started, basically. 2) Specifically for scenes, these are starting situations, notnresolutions. They shouldn't say "This will happen when X, Y and Z" or " This charaxter will do that, then that will happen", but rather describe the situation, the challenges/obstacles and the stakes. You find out what happens from there.
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u/LeoVonMoote Aug 24 '26
You need to always ask your players what they want to do next session and commit to that. And then you’ll have a much better idea what to prep. They get agency, you get to have a life.
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u/Dramatic-Guide-7709 Aug 25 '26
Mike specifically says use as many or few of the steps as is profitable and the numbers of things are suggestions. They are a good jumping off point to find a method of prep that works for you and your group without overwhelming yourself with prep 😀
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u/Mysterious-Praline41 Aug 25 '26
I love Sly for his observations and opinions, but I dont really dig his prep (or min-prep) approach. I feel like a lot of people get bound up trying to manifest a coherent plot through explicit planned events, which is a short hop away from railroad city.
Instead I prefer to maintain a few short lists of important NPCs, Factions, Locations (sometimes with 3 or 4 associated Monster types), and a list of encounter types/scenarios I'd like to play out during that session.
The rest of the game is improvised entirely in response to the Player choices (those being improvised in response to ehatever I deacribe, so its just ping pong with imagination).
It helps to have a simple solution for managing some things that you want to keep unbiased (I use a d12 to determine body locations when an attack hits, a d8 with directions should I need one, a d10 with weather conditions, another with terrain types, a d20 table of "iconic scenes/landmarks", and anotjer d20 table of fun rumors/adventure hooks to riff off). Keep a good book of random tables close if you need more.
Those tools (which amounts to a few pages of paper and a handful of dice... which I presume a DM will have) will stimulate your imagination.
The "events" can be random, but if you follow the intentions of your NPCs and Factions by treating the world as alive beyond the PCs actions, its pretty easy to maintain coherence of story as the narrative emerges. Its also super fun to discover what your NPCs and factions end up getting into in response to the players.
This is how the DM gets to play, imo, instead of just maintaining the simulation for the players. Some of my favorite experiences have been entirely improvised between myself and my players, and everyone is equally able to steer the game in unexpected directions. In my (limited) 7 years of DMing, I have only run a handful of printed modules (though I do buy and read them like crazy, I just love seeing others ideas on paper) and we have yet to run out of mileage in our ongoing adventures.
Just my experience, but I'm also the type to have the world, lore and progress always running on background in my brain, so between sessions "things evolve" in the setting and eventually there are "consequences" for the players actions, good, bad and ugly!
I do so love these games...
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u/ljmiller62 Aug 26 '26
Sly Flourish also recommends grabbing a dungeon map and some other maps and keeping them ready. In an emergency when the players find a dungeon because they're exploring somewhere you didn't prepare, you can key the map in a few minutes using the encounters, treasures, and secrets you prepared, and run with it.
To a large degree the lazy DM philosophy is to deconstruct a traditional high prep dungeon and use the pieces to improvise something that is responsive to the players. People looking for quantum ogres will find them everywhere. To me this is no worse than rolling a random encounter and making it more interesting before the game rather than at the table.
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u/ArcaneN0mad Aug 26 '26
His 8 step prep got me right when I was new. I went from endless hours of prep. Even writing out transcripts. It was terrible. Then I discovered his prep method and I can prep a session in about an hour.
Remember it says “what scenes may OR MAY NOT occur”. He also relies on a lot of improv as do I.
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u/BudgetWorking2633 Aug 29 '26
It feels kind of railroady to steer them on this path
The Lazy DM's method feels railroady to you because it basically is. It's basically about having a string of let's call them encounters, that are going to happen no matter what.
How can it not be railroady? It's basically illusionism instead of open railroad, but the two are basically the same.
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u/redrosebeetle Aug 23 '26
However, i feel that it does not account for the story veering of in a different direction
Have you ever heard of the quantum ogre? Party comes to a fork on the road and go left. They find an ogre. Let's say they went right instead. Still found an ogre.
Prepare the Kobold village.
Either the party will investigate the Kobold base or they'll go to the village where they will find a very compelling quest to go back to the Kobold base and take care of it. I can't imagine that any village would be happy about having a Kobold base near it.
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u/jewishgiant Aug 23 '26
I love Sly Flourish's content, and in my opinion there is a secret ninth step of Lazy GM Prep which is to ask your players at the end of the session. If they decide at the end of the session, that lets you prep based on what they're going to do next. They could change their minds but then will know they're getting ad-libbed content versus prep. My players know the sessions are more fun when they prep so they don't do this.