High Value D&D Prep - Lazy DM Tip

Mike offers suggestions for high value prep for our D&D and 5e games.
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Video Contents
00:00 Show Start
01:21 Better Games Through Less Prep
02:42 Open Prep is Scary
03:50 Focus on Your Characters and Players
05:38 Prep Hooks
07:37 Build Situations
08:50 Where's the Adventure Going Next?
10:26 Secrets and Clues

[@TheAlexandrian]

"Look, I'm not saying it's Keith. I'm just saying it was someone who looks exactly like Keith and also wrote Keith's books. Also, it's Keith." 😆 Great video, Mike.

[@TopazRage]

So, I just bought three books by three authors, and here we have one of them kidding a second for not quite naming the third :) I was like, "4 books? probably Keith Amman," then, "about monster tactics? yeah, that's him" By the way, they're all great; I highly recommend you buy books by Messrs. Alexander, Amman, and Shea

[@nathandsomegames]

I just made a video walking through the eight steps with Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. Really appreciate all of the details your videos provide for anyone wanting to continue to get more insights on the eight steps. 😃

[@kickbackkid8866]

I tried your "secrets and clues" during my session earlier today, for the first time. I was skeptical... Now I'm not. Consider me sold!! I'll be pointing people your way this is some high quality advice! Thank you very much sir!

[@missmeaghanj2482]

Hey Mike! I wanted to let you know that I ran the Rhodar von Glaur statblock for Strahd against four level 12 characters in the final battle of my Curse of Strahd campaign. It was a nail biter, but the players managed to overcome. Excellent stat block, thank you so much :)

[@SlyFlourish]

Awesome!! Thanks for the feedback!

[@sqoody7invegas625]

For me I've gotten pretty good at imputing things (monsters ) on the fly and being flexible. For me the thing that saves me most time is a good map that gives me various choices and options, (AND IF you use foundry, that the walls are already drawn). Alot of other things can be done during session or just before. Narrowing down the map and it being ready in VTT puts you on a course and then you make choices once you start moving in a specific direction by using that map. Also, taking into account what was done in previous session and what is party's current task. If last sessions task and map match up with new map it really helps save time.

[@burtonmiller]

Insightful advice. You touched a couple of times on how linear planning can trip you up. For many years I have planned out key scenes, and placed them where they need to go. Each scene/encounter is fairly detailed, but exactly WHERE it happens or WHEN can change depending on the character's actions. I think of the scenes like ingredients that all needed to bake the cake of the Adventure's culmination.

[@ken418]

Second Horizon is a great idea!

[@anathema1828]

Excellent content!

[@samsampier7147]

I love the player advice at 5:01. I want to know the theme of the game. My pet peeve is when DM presents zero information at the start. In older editions of the game I don’t want to pick swimming skills when I’m in a landlocked desert.

[@matthewmcguigan4293]

That Barbarian example is on you, as the player. Gambling implies tables, Barbarian implies taking risks (and not being smart enough to know not to take risks) and Barbarian implies flipping tables when said risks don't work out. Sounds like fun to me! Edit to add: I enjoy playing characters that don't "fit the theme" and are not optimized.

[@garion046]

Perhaps, but there is an issue with flipping the tables. If you do it early in the scene, the other players don't get to do their cool sneaky card counting or sleight of hand or insight, because combat just kicked off 2 tables over. Or... you wait until they do those things, at which point the scene is basically done and you either flip the table or move onto some new scene the barb would've been in anyway. In this scenario, you still spend a bunch of time leaning on the wall. I do agree there's things a barb could do though. Playing badly for one, it's funny and would distract attention from the party member swindling the table.