Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Some of the best advice for running RPGs can be found in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master (written by Michael Shea).

This is a sequel to The Lazy Dungeon Master, which argues that we do too much preparation as GMs, and the preparation we do is on the wrong things.

Lately I’ve been running published adventures, and I find there’s a lot of prep needed for those as I’m trying to run them as written. Certainly, I found the easiest game to prepare each week was my mini-campaign for The Dee Sanction (I explained what I did in a series of posts, starting here).

And because I play so much online, much of my prep is in getting the online tools ready (which I enjoy).

But I agree wholeheartedly with The Lazy Dungeon Master’s premise that we often prepare too much. 

The Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master takes this premise and explains the eight areas where you need to prepare:

1. Review the characters
2. Create a strong start
3. Outline potential scenes
4. Define secrets and clues
5. Develop fantastic locations
6. Outline important NPCs
7. Choose relevant monsters
8. Select magic item rewards

And given this is aimed at fantasy RPGs, and I rarely run those, I can ignore the last two.

And of the remaining six, given the speed I normally run a game, NPCs, clues and locations will usually last several sessions. 

However, having compared this to my run of The Dee Sanction, I think The Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master omits the most important step of all: 

1. At the end of each session, ask the players what they want to do next.

They’ll tell you where you need to plan next. There, even less prep—but I probably couldn’t get a book out of it.

(There’s more to The Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, including excellent advice on campaigns, NPCs, different styles of combat and more. I haven’t regretted buying it. Here's the website.)