Sly Flourish's Dungeon Master Tips

by Michael E. Shea, Jared Von Hindman (Illustrator)

You’re a good dungeon master. You’ve read both Dungeon Master’s guides. You’ve run a few games. You pick up ideas here and there on the net. Or maybe you're an old grizzled vet who has run games for 20 years.

Maybe your game is feeling a little stale. Maybe your encounters didn’t run exactly as you wanted them too. Maybe you feel like you're stuck in a rut. Maybe you feel a bit overwhelmed when you have to come up with an exciting, creative game every week.

You’re not looking for a huge tome on game theory. You don’t need yet another take on world-building. You’re looking for some practical tips you can use today to help you focus your energy in the right places and make some kick-ass D&D games for you and your friends. You want something you can read quick and start using right away.

My friend, here is the book for you.

This book was written to give you solid usable tips to help you build your story, design exciting encounters, and run a great game when you’re at the table. It’s a short book, designed to be read quickly and referenced often.

Oh yeah, and it’s got some awesome original artwork by Jared Von Hindman of Head Injury Theater.

This is a completely original book. Every chapter was written from scratch to help you focus on what’s important and get past some of the roadblocks we all face when designing a D&D game.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Dungeons and Dragons, Nonfiction, Ebooks, Gaming, Reference

69 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 5, 2010

Reviews

[Alan Castree · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a real quick read and some not bad bits of advice. Might be something I flip through again sometime.

It's a little pricy for the contents, IMO

[Naughty Sparkle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was bunch of basic stuff. Good for any who is starting out to read and done to refresh their memory. I think I read this once before today didn't gain much from it because I read the lazy gm books. This goes over the same stuff, but it is a bit dated.
Also, I don't think handouts are that useful. If you wanna do them sure but I feel like they are a bit much on top of prepairing the normal stuff.
Anyway it is a okay read, certainly better than the current DM manual. I think it is fine.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really special. I enjoyed much more the author's Lazy DM Book.

[Susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick and easy read, I liked it, looking forwards to trying out the things that I can use

[Phil Dicemechanic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but perfectly formed, full of great tips

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greasy read with some solid advice for beginner and veteran DMs alike

This was an enjoyable and informative read. Manny of the tips and tools in this book are applicable across end versions and can be used in any tag setting. I found my self highliting a lot of helpful reminder about bad dm habits that are easy to fall into for me.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's okay. It has some good ideas in it. Not sure it has enough to justify the price of the ebook however. Although a lot of tips could be used for any edition, quite a few reference 4th edition (which I don't play).

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

informative. easy to read. practical. short.

[Dave McAlister · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad. Obviously aimed at 4th edition D&D DMs but the core of the advice works with any game. a bit pricey though and lots of whitespace.

[Keith Croteau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stuff.

Nice tips. This was written for 4e but still works for other editions. Give it a try. Worth the money.