After Square Enix introduced their first jazz album, Square Enix Jazz -Final Fantasy-, the team decided that their second album would not focus on any particular game or franchise. This is the only album in the six-part series to do this. It is the unceremoniously named Square Enix Jazz Vol.2.

(As an aside, the album’s name reminds me of an old John Mulaney bit about split math classes in elementary school where the superior math students were “The Blue Angels,” and the second group named themselves “Group Two.”)

Despite the forgettable name, Vol.2 is actually a great album. Arguably my favorite of the bunch. Why? Because, by allowing arrangers Eijiro Nakagawa and Ryu Kawamura full access to the Square Enix music catalog, things get awesome, fast. It’s not just Final Fantasy, no. We get SaGa, Mana, Chrono Trigger, even NieR! And given the first volume (all FF series) skipped out on Final Fantasy XII and XV, their inclusion on this album makes things extra sweet.

This album opens with a sweet, gentle piano lick and a statement of the melody for “The Legend Begins” (SaGa 2 aka Final Fantasy Legend II). The evolving arrangement takes us into a heavy groove with drum and bass holding things together and guitar trading melody with the horn section. What impresses me most about this arrangement is that the tempo never really changes, but the energy and the added syncopation from the bass make it feel like a wholly new experience. Great intro track, great elaboration of a classic SaGa melody.

Next up? An absolute monster of an arrangement for Final Fantasy VI‘s iconic boss theme “Dancing Mad.” Granted, this is only an arrangement of the song’s final portion, for the actual encounter with Kefka. The arrangement still runs a solid five minutes’ length even with the high tempo, thanks to some fantastic improv sections. (Jazz flute? Yes, please!) The stated melody up-front is already wild enough, with drummer Ken Higeshiro bringing that legendary floor tom, big band sound (think Benny Goodman) to the music, except now we’re playing in 15/8 instead of 4/4. The whole ensemble does great work on this one, moving from moments of real terror to other moments of playful mischief. Of course, you know they couldn’t do it without pulling in the classic Kefka-laugh sound effect at the end!

Two tracks in, and this album is top-shelf material already. Can it hold that status? Maybe not. It’s very rare to come across a perfect album. And this might get me in trouble, but I’m a little disappointed in this album’s arrangement of a classic NieR piece, “Song of the Ancients.” Frankly, I found the use of a swing syncopation unappealing here, and I also think the horns are a poor substitute for Emi Evans’ vocals. Granted, nothing can substitute for those iconic vocals, but maybe use piano and flute instead of sax and trombone to carry the dual melody? One thing I can put in this track’s favor is that Ryu Kawamura makes some fun reharmonization choices in the second half of the arrangement. It worked far better than I would have guessed.

I’m going to hop around a bit in the tracklist order from here. I want to take a close look at the Final Fantasy games that weren’t represented on the first jazz album. For Final Fantasy XII, we have Hitoshi Sakimoto’s Williams-esque brisk orchestral battle theme, “Flash of Steel.” Except, with the help of arranger Eijiro Nakagawa, it sounds more like something from Final Fantasy X-2. (Speaking of, what a shame that X-2 isn’t found on this album!). The intricate guitar work draws the listener in during the first minute, then the horn section goes from the fun filler to the dominant carrier of the melody. This switch-up feels so good. I also have to praise Ken Higeshiro’s drumming on this track!

Later in the album, Nakagawa offers his take on the intense theme “Apocalypsis Noctis,” music used during the dramatic semi-scripted battles with the game’s Astrals (summons). In its original form, this was a monstrously large orchestra-plus-choir piece from the venerable Yoko Shimomura, making impeccable use of a 3/4 and 6/8 mix. Nakagawa’s jazz version starts soft and brooding, with bass and piano carrying the energy and basic musical motion, now in a common tempo (4/4) swing. In this version, the star of the show is definitely Ryoji Ihara on flute, though Takana Miyamoto shows off some complex reharmonizing throughout and later trades solos with flute in the improv section. This whole track is more like a fun dance than a grand display, but I gotta say: it works!

Perhaps the most avant-garde track on this album, Ryu Kawamura’s arrangement of “Swivel” from Seiken Densetsu 3 (Trials of Mana) attempts to maintain the folksy feel of the original with the whirling 12/8 tempo and Yu Manabe’s fiddle-esque violin work. Kawamura’s choice to let the ending build to cacophony before collapsing fits the spirit of this musical theme well. I also liked the use of vibraphone, though I think technically this was just synth keyboard from Takana Miyamoto, since no vibraphone or other mallet work was listed in the album credits.

Those individual tracks I haven’t touched on? They range in quality between the highs of “Dancing Mad” and the lows of “Song of the Ancients.” Generally, though, these are all great tracks, and they demonstrate the power of the Nakagawa/Kawamura arranging duo.

After this album’s release, Square Enix went on to publish individual jazz albums for Final Fantasy VII, the SaGa series, and Chrono Trigger. While I’ve enjoyed all of these albums plenty, I can’t deny my continued devotion to the buffet-style selection of Square Enix Jazz Vol.2. If you’re going to collect music from the Square Enix Jazz series, I dare say this is the best place to start!

The original Brigandine on the PlayStation stood out from the rest of the tactical titles populating the burgeoning SRPG subgenre on the platform by offering a macro-level strategy layer. The game’s focus on conquering territories across a large map and incorporating detailed preparation before tactical battles aligned more with PC strategy titles of the era than with Final Fantasy Tactics or Vandal Hearts. This combination of free-form map-conquering and hex-grid turn-based battles was undoubtedly niche, but memorable to those who took the chance on it. 20 years later, publisher Happinet surprised diehard fans when they released a long-overdue follow-up, Brigandine Legend of Runersia, on Switch and PS4.

Thankfully, the wait for a new entry in the surprisingly enduring franchise was much shorter this time around, as Happinet and new developer Adglobe (known for Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia) return with Brigandine Abyss. Brigandine Abyss maintains the core grand strategy and tactical battle fusion that made the previous titles cult classics, yet falters in its presentation and heightened storytelling ambitions compared to its predecessors, delivering an experience that sacrifices some mechanical and narrative depth in its attempt to streamline a hardcore franchise for a broader audience.

Brigandine Abyss takes place on the continent of Meltitea, suddenly embroiled in war after the Kingdom of Solginat is taken over by the king’s scheming advisor, corrupted by the dark force known as Abyss. This newly formed Abyssloa Empire begins its conquest of the continent, and you can choose between one of six factions to play as, each with its own starting position, cast of characters, and unique motivations for fighting back against Abyssloa. I chose to play as the Scarlet Will, a mercenary group loyal to the king, forced on the run with the nation’s princess in tow. A familiar narrative foundation for any Fire Emblem fan, though some of the other factions are less conventional, such as a mad scientist and his band of human experiments in Pandemyuon, or Gran Dragnica’s young dragon tamers outraged at Abyssloa’s mistreatment of their kin.

Your faction choice determines your starting position on the continental map, and your initial rivals. Every nation will eventually confront the Abyssloa Empire as you conquer more regions of the map, but each has its own narrative justifications for the conflict. The Scarlet Will’s storyline revolves around a rival mercenary band, called the Ebony Fang, that betrayed their home kingdom in favor of Abyssloa. Each faction has its own Event Battles that advance the story, and Scarlet Will clashes with the Ebony Fang multiple times across their journey to unite the continent against Abyssloa.

Brigandine Abyss differs from most SRPGs in its structure. Rather than a linear series of battles interspersed with story scenes, Abyss takes place over many Seasons, with each Season divided into three phases: the Organization Phase, the Attack Phase, and the Invasion Phase. The Organization Phase is where you will spend most of your time, preparing your units for combat, taking on quests to earn materials, and purchasing items from the Niffrom Market. The Attack Phase is the shortest: each region under your control declares attacks against neighboring regions held by another faction, as you observe which factions may attack your holdings. The Invasion Phase is the final phase; this is where the turn-based tactical battles actually take place as you invade enemy territory or fend off an invasion from a rival.

This long-term campaign structure bears more resemblance to Grand Strategy titles like Koei’s Nobunaga’s Ambition or 2K’s Sid Meier’s Civilization series than a traditional SRPG. As you invade and gain control over more territories throughout the campaign, you’ll acquire more units to manage, locations to upgrade and defend, and quests to complete. The NPC factions make their own moves during each phase, and a significant portion of each season is spent watching the NPC moves play out across the map as rival kingdoms conquer & fall. The vast majority of the game’s strategic depth lies within the Organization Phase: assigning monster retinues to your human leaders, planning your troop movements to defend an ever-growing number of locations as you expand your territory, and developing conquered (or newly hired) soldiers added to your ranks. I found Brigandine Abyss‘ Grand Strategy component incredibly compelling, requiring me to pay close attention to the map and how rival nations progressed to shore up my defenses. During each season, I would carefully expand my holdings to claim territory for valuable resources and bring rival nations under my banner. The downside, compared to a pure strategy title, is that everything revolves around conflict; there are no options for diplomacy, alliances, or trade, leaving war the only means of interacting with other factions.

Unfortunately, this open-ended, season-based structure also undermines Brigandine Abyss‘ narrative ambitions. Most story content takes place during Event Battles, which are essentially this game’s version of story missions. Because the overall campaign is so open-ended, these Event Battles occur after an arbitrary number of seasons have passed (typically between 10 and 20), and they don’t account for the state of the map. It doesn’t matter if you’ve spent the last 20 seasons invading and expanding your holdings or kept to yourself; the Event Battles play out the same regardless. Furthermore, even a single season can last an hour or more of playtime depending on how many regions you need to manage and how many invasions you embark on or fend off. This completely undermines the narrative stakes: by the time the Ebony Fang were nipping at my heels, I had already captured half the map and amassed an enormous army; meanwhile, the story still treated the Scarlet Will as a ragtag band of green mercenaries.

Brigandine Abyss attempts to heighten the drama with a handful of cutscenes, but they are so few and far between (and cheaply animated, barely more than motion stills) that they did little to invest me in the narrative. The other faction storylines may be more compelling, but I picked the Scarlet Will because I figured their close relationship to the Abyssloa Empire would give them the strongest narrative connection to the game’s core conflict. My complaints with the presentation don’t end there, as I found the character artwork to be a significant step down from Legend of Runersia‘s evocative fantasy designs (done by Raita Kazama), with Abyss‘ character portraits and monster designs coming across as a hodgepodge of generic modern fantasy anime clichés rather than giving the game a unique visual identity. Most of the leader characters don’t get their own character models on the battlefield to match their character portraits, instead inhabiting generic, class-based models. Only the leaders of each faction have a unique on-field model, which is a huge missed opportunity given the diversity in character portraits. One presentational bright spot is the music, composed by Rei Kondoh of Fire Emblem: Three Houses fame, creating a suitably epic and bombastic soundscape befitting the continent-spanning conflict.

The core combat mechanics are serviceable but lack the depth of the game’s organizational phase and suffer from similar pacing problems. Combat takes place on large maps consisting of many hexagonal grids. Each side may deploy three leader units (human commanders) accompanied by up to six monster companions. Each leader has a command score, and each monster costs a specific number of command points to deploy. In the early game, most leaders can only control two or three weak monsters, but as your leaders level up, their command score rises, as does their potential monstrous retinue. This system works well, and tinkering with each leader and their retinue of monsters is quite addicting. Each monster and leader class fills a different role, and there are upwards of 20 distinct classes with unique abilities. Leaders can Rally a single monster to their side, removing them from the field in exchange for powerful passive bonuses (such as increased movement range, stronger counterattacks, etc). This ensures that even weaker monsters have a role to play on the battlefield if they confer useful bonuses on a leader. I found myself tailoring each platoon of monsters to their chosen leader’s strengths and weaknesses, and upgrading both leaders and monsters across the campaign proved immensely satisfying.

The core issue with Brigandine Abyss‘ combat lies within the game’s structure: success in your campaign across the continent requires fighting battle after repetitive, monotonous battle during Invasion Phases, especially when you’ve captured a lot of territory. During each Invasion Phase, you can choose to invade any neighboring region from an adjacent region you control, while simultaneously fending off invasions from other nations. This means that during a single season, you can end up fighting four or five battles in quick succession, all of which have the same victory condition (either defeating all enemies if you are invading, or defending for 12 turns if you are invaded). Battles are not quick affairs, mostly because the battle maps are large and relatively empty. A handful of memorable maps have unique gimmicks, such as raising and lowering walls to block troop advances or reinforced positions with defensive fortifications, but most maps lack interesting mechanics and take multiple turns to traverse to even reach the enemy force.

Battles are also incredibly easy due to the leader and monster deployment mechanics. Defeating a leader causes their entire monster retinue to flee the map, so the most efficient strategy in every battle is to target the leaders first and ignore the monster units. The game smartly deploys a concept called Zone of Control, which prevents any unit from passing through a hex on the grid if it’s adjacent to an opponent’s unit. This means you can effectively wall off your own leaders from the enemy by using your monster units as human shields. However, the enemy AI rarely utilizes this tactic, eagerly sending their leaders out in front of their monster companions just to get surrounded and slaughtered. The Event Battles rectify this somewhat, employing alternative win conditions such as escaping a map within a certain number of turns or defending friendly NPC units. However, because these Event Battles are so few and far between, you will likely fight as many as 50 extremely repetitive battles during the Invasion Phases before the next mildly interesting Event Battle.

The best strategy RPGs demand consistent mental engagement from the player during each battle, but I found that the vast majority of battles in Brigandine Abyss had me going through the motions. Prior games allowed you to revive fallen units, but made the consumable resurrection items incredibly rare, ensuring every decision in battle carried significant weight. Brigandine Abyss completely neuters the consequences of your tactical decisions by offering plentiful revival items in the shop, such that I never worried about a monster or leader falling in battle.

Thankfully, Brigandine Abyss offers a saving grace for players who want a more demanding experience: Mission Mode. Mission Mode allows you to play any of the 24 factions of Meltitea instead of restricting you to the core six factions found in Story Mode. Each faction has a unique win condition in Mission Mode, with some being fairly conventional: conquering the entire map before 99 seasons pass or completing a series of Event Battles much like in Story Mode. However, some factions have surprisingly esoteric goals, such as amassing a small fortune to pay off a debt, gathering up a specimen from every monster species, restricting you to only a handful of class types or characters, or imposing very strict season limits. Mission Mode gets extremely creative with the core mechanics, forcing you to use bespoke strategies or engage with the core systems in ways that feel fresh and completely unlike the monotony present in Story Mode. If you’re the type of person who fires up a new game of Civilization or Romance of the Three Kingdoms with a series of self-imposed restrictions when you’re bored, then Mission Mode offers hours of remixed content that will strain your strategic muscles.

In attempting to bridge the gap between diehard fans of the cult franchise and newcomers unused to the Grand Strategy setup, Brigandine Abyss ends up watering down the elements that made it unique in the first place. There is still a compelling strategic experience here, particularly in Mission Mode, but the Story Mode becomes so beset by repetition and monotony in its mechanics and cliché pablum in its storytelling that I have no desire to invest another 20 hours to see any of the five remaining story paths. Mission Mode provides the steep, engaging challenge I crave, but it lacks the narrative justification and measured progression loop that makes SRPGs my favorite subgenre of RPG. As a Grand Strategy sandbox with a heavy focus on combat, there is a lot here to enjoy, but Brigandine Abyss ultimately fails to marry these gameplay styles into a satisfying hybrid experience.

It’s summer, the favorite time of year for kids, teachers, and vacationers. While it’s not my favorite season (autumn gets the gold from me), summer is a source of many childhood memories. I grew up in the Houston area, but my extended family resided in West Texas. This meant at least one week every summer where we would load up our minivan, I’d plop fresh batteries in my Game Boy Color, and we’d trek 9-10 hours across the second-largest state in the Union. 

My grandparents on both sides lived only a few miles from each other. While we would often bunk at my maternal grandmother’s house, we’d spend afternoons with my dad’s side of the family. As a young boy obsessed with video games, this was heaven; my paternal grandfather was an absolute wizard on the NES.

My grandpa had suffered from severe arthritis in both hands, limiting the things he could do when he got older. After he’d retired, grandpa picked up the newfangled “Nintendo” all his grandkids kept raving about. As fate would have it, an NES controller fit perfectly in his hands, so he’d often fill his time playing the must-have games of the era. Titles like The Legend of Zelda, Contra, and Super Mario Bros. 3 would light up the small TV in his den, and during the days we’d visit him, his grandchildren would cover the floor of that room, gaping in awe at his prowess. 

Grandpa was incredible. He was the only person I knew who could beat Contra without putting in the Konami Code for 30 lives. (One time, he managed to hit the credits without dying once.) He could beat The Legend of Zelda in less than an hour. He knew where all the secrets in Super Mario Bros. 3 were located. But most impressive of all, he absolutely dominated Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. 

Zelda II gets a bad rap. Compared to the rest of the franchise, it’s a misfit. It opts for experience points. It’s a sidescroller. And it’s hard. Really, really hard. It is most notorious for its difficult combat, esoteric puzzles, and confusing dungeons (known as “palaces” in this title).

But Grandpa made it look easy. 

He could breeze through the entire game without getting a game over. He knew where all the hidden 1-Ups were (yes, this entry has lives), he could get all the heart containers, and he had the palaces memorized, even the ever-intimidating Great Palace at the end of the game. The grandkids joked that Nintendo Power would call Grandpa to help them with Zelda II. It was truly amazing to watch him make child’s play of a game that would kick our kiesters three ways from Sunday. 

One summer stands out to me more than any other. The summer before I turned 8 years old, while we were saying our goodbyes to the West Texas family, Grandpa pulled me aside. He handed me something small and rectangular, about the size of a piece of bread. It caught a glint of light as it passed from his hands to mine: a golden Nintendo cartridge. He asked me if I’d like to borrow his copy of Zelda II for the summer. I was ecstatic. I enthusiastically thanked him, looking forward to the difficult but rewarding digital adventure July and August held for me. 

I looked at that cartridge hundreds of times on the long, full-day ride, racking my brain to remember all the secrets, palace layouts, and tricks Grandpa had shown me. When I got back home that evening, I ran up my stairs, plopped in the cartridge, fired up the NES, started a new file… and promptly died. And died. And died again. The silhouette of Ganon laughed at me over and over, mocking my mediocre gaming skills. 

But I kept at it. I got better bit by bit. And I had a secret weapon. 

Grandpa wrote me a letter every week after I got home, asking how I was doing, how my school break was going, and (most importantly to me) coaching me through Zelda II. We exchanged letters the rest of the summer: I would update him on where I was in the game and ask him questions, and he would offer tips, short walkthroughs, and advice on what to do next. He even hand-drew maps of the palaces (from memory, I might add) to guide me through. 

It was an incredible summer. With Grandpa’s help and the unbreakable will of a seven-year-old, I eventually defeated Dark Link and saw the credits. I remember asking my parents to borrow their film camera (the type that printed the picture immediately) to take a picture of the ending screen. That photo went in the mail that afternoon, and my grandpa wrote back a few days later congratulating me on the accomplishment.

Unfortunately, that summer would be the last I spent playing games with Grandpa. He passed away at the beginning of the next summer after a brief battle with lung cancer. I kept the letters and hand-drawn maps for years and years until time sadly took its toll on them and they fell to pieces. However, I still have those memories of that unforgettable summer traversing through Hyrule, trying my best to save the cursed princess with Grandpa’s wisdom guiding me. 

I play through Zelda II at least once a year. It’s not a great game, and there are objectively better games I could be playing. However, the nostalgia of that summer keeps me hooked and coming back for more. Now that I have kids of my own, I understand why Grandpa kept coming back to it as well. Whenever they boot up our Wii and I see that pixelated sword against a starry night and hear the digitized harp plucking out the opening arpeggio, I’m filled with the warmth of that summer of adventure, challenge, and victory. I see that same gleam in my children’s eyes, and I feel connected to Grandpa in a new way. 

The mystical land of Oz has captured the imagination of many and is heralded as one of the earliest portal fantasy series ever penned. Over Requiemz is a decidedly different take on the tale, blending familiar concepts and ideas within a darker fantasy setting to create a choice-heavy VN otome narrative. For the most part, it stands on its own merits as a compelling game about finding purpose, while the narrative explores the development of love and unexpected danger along the way.

Over Requiemz begins with protagonist Yuhiru, after getting caught up in a fierce storm, waking up in a fantastical kingdom dotted with yellow brick roads and strewn with “ancient” and overgrown ruins straight from her homeland of Japan. Because of her black hair and eyes, a rare occurrence in Oz that is said to bring about misfortune, she’s labeled a criminal called a “Bedeviled” and put into a monster-slaying expedition alongside other death row convicts. With no one believing her to be innocent, Yuhiru can only hope to survive the trials that lie ahead, secure a pardon, and find a way to return to Japan. Both frightening and heartwarming new experiences await, so what path will she ultimately take?

Over Requiemz is a dark fantasy otome VN with a strong focus on flavoring the story to the player’s preferences. This focus is illustrated by the numerous dialogue choices spliced throughout. These help both shape and flesh out Yuhiru’s responses, allowing players to put themselves firmly in her shoes while still making her a believable, well-rounded character in her own right.

There are no “right or wrong” decisions during these choice segments, so players don’t feel quite as pigeonholed into choosing one response over the other in fear of missing out on a potential scene or ending. As a result, I found those moments of decision rather refreshing. There’s also a detailed flowchart for replayability purposes, and you can jump right to decision points, though it’s probably best to keep a save right before the prologue ends to choose your next route more quickly. None of the routes are gate-locked, helping them all feel equal in the grand scheme.

At certain narrative junctures, Yuhiru faces a clear binary choice that’ll have a notable impact on the plot from that point on. There’s the “Fact” story route, which arguably has more positive/romantic endings as eventual outcomes, and then there’s the “Dark” story route where you’ll see bleaker or more disturbing route endings. While these choices are few and far between, they’re quite important for setting Over Requiemz’s more mature tone.

Again, they’re not really presented as wrong or right: they’re just tailored more to the player’s narrative preference. I give Over Requiemz credit for being choice-heavy without being so rigidly so, given the variety of decisions you can make throughout. There are even some decisions that potentially unlock bonus voice scenes in the game’s extras section.

The story itself is quite interesting, given its references and shades of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Over Requiemz’s five love interests are clearly unique interpretations of characters inspired by Oz lore, with interesting personalities and mysterious backstories the game carefully delves into as you progress through their routes. What you learn in one character route ties into another, often shedding light on why a character might act a certain way in a particular scene without stealing focus from the given route’s main plot.

Over Requiemz‘s romances, particularly if leaning towards the more hopeful Fact endings, are quite well written and developed, too. Yuhiru herself starts as a more docile, naive heroine who truly grows into her own as the tale progresses. She isn’t an isekai power fantasy type of character, but a realistically flawed human who simply comes to grips with her current situation while growing as a result. She relies on others when needed, but can also stand on her own when someone else needs her assistance. I was invested in the dynamic she has with the other characters and how their group of travelers starts to actually bond over the course of the routes despite their various emotional baggage.

Over Requiemz features a lush, vibrant visual landscape with plenty of gorgeous backgrounds, character art, and CG illustrations to behold. The game’s UI is quite fitting for its aesthetics too. My biggest complaint from a visual standpoint is probably that many secondary characters go without artwork, and that flashbacks are usually left with dark or white screen views and dialogue instead of illustrations. The script’s localization is superb, with nary an error to be seen.

The soundtrack is also lovely, with several memorable BGM tracks and an opening that fits the game’s fantasy setting perfectly. The voice acting is superb throughout, especially when later story reveals have characters breaking down into powerful, emotional performances. Sound effects are used to great effect, though sometimes I wish they weren’t, since some of the squelchier ones could be a tad nauseating. Still, they certainly set the atmosphere certain scenes were going for!

Over Requiemz is a refreshingly creative take on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, giving the story a fresh spin by adding some memorable romance to a beloved classic. I greatly enjoyed my time playing this VN and appreciated that it actually avoids attempting to pigeonhole players into playing in certain ways simply to see a “true” ending. Over Requiemz is one portal fantasy I certainly wouldn’t mind getting lost in again.

After playing the Steam Next Fest demo for Entropy back in June, the dark fantasy RPG from Dread Delusion developer Lovely Hellplace shot up in my most anticipated list. Between the gothic, grimy, low-poly PlayStation-inspired visuals and the bizarre, off-kilter atmosphere of the Gloaming Isles, I was struck with a thirst that the hour-long demo couldn’t slake. Thankfully, the wait isn’t long, as Entropy releases in Early Access on August 18th, with the entirety of Act I available to play through. After spending six hours exploring every nook and cranny (in a single sitting, no less) of the Gloaming Isles, I left fully immersed in the game’s world and desperate for the next content update to drop.

Entropy begins identically to the previous demo, casting the player as an actor in a theater troupe performing in Draenog Town. After choosing your protagonist’s gender (male, female, or the third gender Aemen) and coming up with a handful of improvised lines on stage (a diegetic quiz that sets your initial stats and equipment), your performance is rudely interrupted by an invading force of demons. The town watch captain enlists your help in fighting back the invading demon hordes… which ends abruptly in death for the town watch, your theater troupe, and you. That is, until a mysterious spirit from beyond the grave resurrects you. Awoken amidst the burning wreckage of Draenog, you must gather what survivors you can and escape the ruins to pass along news of the attack and impending danger to nearby Cuvas (which also happens to be your hometown). 

Although I was already familiar with this introduction from the demo, I opted for novel choices and was pleasantly surprised to find significantly different outcomes. In the demo, I chose a melee warrior, and my first companion was Tozeur, a fledgling spellcaster (called a Shaper) suffering from a lack of self-confidence. Since I chose to be a spellcasting Aemen this time around, I instead stumbled upon a middle-aged squire named Shidd, whose knight expired in the demon invasion after the cowardly warrior fled in terror. Eager to regain his honor (and clearly too frightened to escape the town alone), Shidd served as my frontline bulwark as my player character cast spells from the back row. 

Furthermore, Draenog had a handful of new alleyways and thoroughfares added since the demo, one of which contained another survivor named Drako, a rogue well-versed in both melee & magical aptitude. That so much has changed even in the starting location between the demo and this Early Access version speaks to Lovely Hellplace’s ability to update the game quickly and incorporate player choices into clever deviations, ensuring that no two players’ introductions to the Gloaming Isles are the same. 

After defeating the remaining demons and departing from Draenog, I made my way to the Blind Bat Inn to resupply and fill out my party with mercenaries. The crop of sellswords on offer was distinct from the group from the demo, offering a wide array of specializations (and flaws) to choose from. The Strigoi hunter Selgair was still waiting for me in front of the inn, but the rest of my starting party diverged from my prior group, opening up new strategies and tactical considerations. I wasn’t exactly flush with coin after running for my life, so I had to make do with Kirkha, a ranged attacker missing an eye. Her vision impairment severely reduced her accuracy with ranged weapons, so I stuck her in the back row and had her perform utility functions like using items to heal or support the rest of the party. Once I had leveled up my characters enough to earn perks, I gave Kirkha the Light Fingers perk, allowing her to either use an item or reposition herself in the formation after completing her turn. Now she could use healing items twice in one turn, freeing up my other characters to attack or cast spells. Entropy’s progression loop of assigning stat points on level up and acquiring perks every three levels provides an excellent incentive to engage in combat, opening up impactful new strategies as your characters develop. 

Each recruitable mercenary has unique aptitudes, equipment, and drawbacks that the player must account for when assembling their troupe, establishing Entropy’s potential for diverse approaches. As I progressed through the haunted Cnothag Forest, I came across a Channeler’s anchor, which I promptly equipped to Drako so he could buff allies and hinder foes with Channeling magic, separate from the protagonist’s Shaping magic, for direct damage or healing. I discovered later from an accomplished magician that Shaper magic, guided by an arcane codex, manipulates the very fabric of matter, twisting the world by the Shaper’s will. Channeling magic, on the other hand, opens a line of communication to the Otherworld, offering prayers to spirits in exchange for their power to manipulate living beings. Lovely Hellplace utilizes these mechanical explanations to great effect, distinguishing the Gloaming Isles from other fantasy settings, and these details immersed me in the world beyond mere options in a combat menu or numbers on a stat sheet.

Additionally, Entropy’s injury system forced me to adapt my party composition on the fly. A particularly difficult battle at the end of Act I wiped out my party; thankfully, all my party members survived the ordeal (your mercenaries can die permanently, except the protagonist). However, everyone was sporting one form of serious, debilitating injury or another. A trip to Cuvas’s doctor cleared the minor injuries (concussions, broken bones), but Drako and Kirkha lost limbs in the fight. These permanent disfigurements forced me to rearrange my formation and reassign their roles, sticking formerly frontline fighter Drako in the back row to focus on Channeling buffs and debuffs, and placing Kirkha up front with heavier armor and a pistol since she could no longer wield the two-handed crossbows or muskets on the back line. As the battles become more challenging in later Acts, I anticipate these alterations will become even more frequent, adding a layer of unpredictability to combat that keeps things engaging throughout the journey.

Upon emerging from Cnathog Forest (the endpoint from the demo), I finally made it home to Cuvas, where the worldbuilding and narrative took center stage. I met with the city’s leader, the Peacekeeper, to deliver word of Draenog’s ruin. They abruptly took my troupe ledger (the game’s menu system diegetically represented as a book of accounts and performance schedule) and removed a hidden message from a secret compartment. 

It turns out the previous troupe leader was working as a spy for the Peacekeeper, utilizing the troupe as cover to travel between different lands and keep an eye on their leaders (called Warbringers) in the interest of Cuvas’s continued security. Since the entire troupe was wiped out, it falls to the protagonist to continue the espionage work, keeping the other, more militaristic lands at bay while also investigating the source of the demonic incursions. This setup provides the narrative justification for the protagonist’s journey and a compelling foundation that I’m eager to see the developers build upon as Entropy receives further updates. The dark, oppressive world of Entropy appears at first like a rotting corpse: fetid, revolting, and tumorous in its aesthetic presentation. Yet, peel back the layers of tattered clothing and decaying skin, and the pearly, skeletal structure of thoughtful, engrossing lore awaits.

In Cuvas’s town square, a bard plays a somber tune to a sparse crowd. After striking up a conversation with her, she reveals that Cuvas was once the cultural titan in the Gloaming Isles. Utilizing an ancient technology powered by magic mushrooms, the founders of Cuvas developed a vast network of antennae and a transmitter at the city’s center. Towns the world over could connect to this network using delusion discs (similar to a television) to watch shows and music performed by Cuvas’s best and brightest artists. Unfortunately, the cultural exchange was cut short when a rogue spirit hijacked the network and displayed an unfathomable knowledge too terrible for human minds to comprehend, leaving anyone who witnessed the supernatural transmission a drooling husk. The Peacekeeper ordered the transmitter permanently shut down to prevent further harm to the populace, with the tragedy becoming known as the Sudden Silence. 

After speaking with Cuvas’s resident technomycologist, the Peacekeeper tasks the player with hunting down the source of this interference in the hopes of restoring Cuvas’s transmissions, or at least preventing further catastrophe. Upon locating the source of the disturbance (another Spirit Gardner named Aeslyn), the player is faced with a choice: repair the transmitter to full capacity with Aeslyn’s fungus and risk another tragedy, use an altered form of fungus provided by the technomycologist that will allow transmission of the vast Cuvas archives but prevent new transmissions, or blow up the transmitter entirely to ensure it may never be misused again. 

Each option has its merits and provides food for thought. Is it worth the risk to expand the world’s horizons through Aeslyn’s supernatural transmissions, even if doing so could lead to disaster? Is it enough to resume transmission of the archives, salvaging Cuvas’s glorious past by foreclosing on their artistic future? Or is it best to eliminate the transmission system, exchanging guaranteed security for any hope of future artistic expression? Ultimately, I chose the compromise option, but each outcome carries significant weight and forced me to ponder how much I value preserving the media of the past, arrayed against the inherent hunger for novelty and future creative freedom. This quest sets a high watermark for Entropy’s following acts, but the worldbuilding and storytelling on display in Act I instills confidence that has me eager to witness what moral conundrums await in future updates.

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Preoder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

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Some tips, tricks, or tools we use when prepping or running our RPGs provide multiple benefits for minimal effort, giving us super lazy GM powerhouse tricks. These high-value tricks take little time, money, or effort and yet give us several benefits in our games. What are your own high value lazy GM tricks?

Here are some examples.

One-Year Later Montages

At the end of a campaign, I like to have the players describe where their characters end up one year after the final events of the game. These one year later montages offer multiple benefits:

• Players get the ending they want.
• I don't have to come up with unique endings for each character.
• All the players enjoy hearing the stories of each character.
• The GM gets to relax and listen to our players’ fantastic stories.
• It ties a nice bow on the end of the campaign.

The "one year later" montage gives us a high-value low-drag technique for creating fantastic conclusions to long-running campaigns.

Campfire Tales

Similarly, occasionally asking players to describe what their characters are thinking or feeling when camping out is an easy tool with multiple benefits:

• You get to hear what the players are thinking about the game.
• You help players get into the heads of their characters.
• It builds bonds between characters and players.
• It shows you what players remember about past events or look forward to in the future.
• It stays in the world so it has the benefits of a meta-conversation but without having to break character.

Player Summaries of Previous Sessions

Some GMs like to summarize previous sessions themselves but I always like to ask the following question when our game begins:

"Who would like to describe what happened in last session's game?"

Asking players to summarize the previous session has multiple benefits:

• It defines the beginning of the game and gets everyone on board to play.
• It rewards players who take notes during the game.
• It shows you what players remember from the last session.
• It helps you correct or reinforce important things that shouldn't be missed.
• It's an easy question to ask that doesn't require any prep.

Read more on these sorts of ideas in Empowering Player-Driven Storytelling.

Handouts

Preparing handouts isn’t exactly lazy but they offer a lot of value for the effort. An example handout might be the physical note found on a dead minion of a boss. Read Making Great Handouts for tips and tricks to make great handouts. Such handouts can be physical or digital if you're playing online. Here are some of the benefits physical handouts offer:

• Handouts help you focus your prep around the ideas articulated in the handout.
• Handouts help players focus their attention on the important story elements described in the handout.
• Handouts give your players something they can physically touch, pass around, and read later.
• Handouts draw your players further into the world with an object that feels like it's from that world.
• Handouts help you think through the eyes of your villains – assuming they're the one who wrote the handout.

Monuments

I love using fantastic monuments as the focal point or backdrop to a scene – whether in a city, during travel, or found in dungeons deep. The core adventure generators from the Lazy GM's Resource Document includes tables you can use to generate and flavor monuments with origins, conditions, and effects. Monuments are easy to roll up or improvise and offer a lot of advantages.

• Monuments are fantastic vehicles for secrets and clues.
• With faction lists you can tie monuments to the factions in your world.
• Monuments anchor scenes. They act like the backdrop of a play.
• Monuments can give the characters something to interact with.
• Monuments with interesting effects can add variables to combat encounters.

Player-Defined Monster Descriptions

Instead of identifying monsters as “troll 1” through “troll 4”, ask your players to identify an interesting physical characteristic of a particular troll after they damage it. Read more about this trick in A Troll Named Handbag. Identifying monsters using physical characteristics trick has several advantages.

• They draw players into the fiction of the world instead of just mechanics.
• They give you a more interesting way to identify monsters than a letter or number.
• They let you identify monsters in theater of the mind combat.
• They make each monster unique.

Player Roles

Player roles give players particular jobs to help our games run even more smoothly. When our games begin, we can ask players to take on specific activities during our game such as:

• Cartographer (drawing maps).
• Initiative manager (handling initiative).
• Scribe (taking notes to share with the group).
• Quartermaster (tracking loot).
• Caller (arbitrating decisions among the group).

These player roles have several advantages:

• They take a burden off of the GM for these activities.
• They keep players engaged in the game outside of their turns.
• They create artifacts for the game you can review between games or years later.
• They bring the GM and players on the same level – you're all just playing the game together.

Index Cards

Index cards are an incredibly flexible tool for RPGs. I wrote more about them in Ten Ways to Use Index Cards. Here are some ways index cards provide a lot of value:

• Using as Initiative Tents
• Tracking damage done to monsters
• Writing secret notes to players
• Recording quests
• Writing down magic item descriptions
• Taking game notes

Throw some index cards in your GM kit and you won’t be sorry.

Blank Battle Mats

I've been a sucker for blank battle mats for decades. I love both the Pathfinder Basic Flip Mat and the Chessex Battle Mat. These blank battle mats have several advantages:

• You can draw side-views of locations.
• You can write down character names oriented around the table to keep track of the spotlight.
• You can draw small maps of regions or dungeons.
• You can draw larger maps of combat encounter locations.
• You can draw strange symbols the characters find in their journeys.

Just a Taste

This list is just a taste of useful tips, tricks, and tools that offer several advantages for a low amount of effort in our RPGs. What are your favorite tricks and what multiple advantages do they offer you as you prep and run your games?

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

• Other Stuff in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster, Types of Lightning Rods
• All SF Products now in Markdown
• New 13th Age Products Coming
• ENNIE 2026 Winners Announced
• How Long Have People Played D&D?
• Poll on Gencon D&D Products
• More Thoughts on Gencon 2026 D&D Announcements.
• Two Goldilockses and Six Beds

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

• Prep Between Sessions for Larger Campaigns

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

• The Rest of the Stuff in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Types of Lightning Rods for D&D and 5e
• Appearance on Boards and Swords
• Lazy GM's Resource Document
• New 13th Age stuff
• 2026 ENNIE Winners
• EN World ENNIES thread
• Years Playing D&D Poll from Insight Check
• D&D Channel Poll on Favorite Announcements
• Ranking your interest in D&D's new lineup — EN World
• “D&D Icons” line wins an award before making anything
• Mike Mearls talks more about Death Saves.

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on Lazy Campaign Prep Part 2 and The Aberrant Sewers — Dragon Empire Prep Session 76.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Offer meaningful choices in each scene you run.
• Bait dangerous situations with a hint at loot.
• Mix minions, standard monsters, big brutes, and dangerous bosses in big multi-wave battles.
• Players always target bosses first. Are you ready?
• Don’t make your battle arenas too small. Use distance to complicate large encounter areas.
• Treat magical monuments as monsters. Let characters destroy them with physical or magical attacks or inflict damage with skill checks.
• Draw circles for every ten hit points a monster has. Put a slash through it when it takes five damage or an X for ten. Round to the nearest five. It dies when all the circles are Xed.

Related Articles

• Lazy RPG Prep With Handouts
• The Lazy GM's Toolbox in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Assign Player Roles

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Buy Sly Flourish's Books

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• Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
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Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

A bizarre-looking RPG, a reboot of a legendary visual novel, a Souls-like and a Hades-like walk into a bar, and… find themselves in the land of Oz? Look, this week’s games wouldn’t be frequenting the same bars, but that’s okay. The games in this edition of RPGs Coming This Week cover a lot of genres and tastes. We already have a review of one of them up, but hopefully the others live up to their potential as well. Let’s jump in!

Intro by Mike Salbato

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Falcom and GungHo Online Entertainment have released a new trailer to promote Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter, their upcoming RPG remake. The footage showcases a stylish sizzle reel of what players can expect from Estelle and Joshua Bright’s continuing journey, highlighting cinematic battles, geopolitical strife, and more. Check it out below!

Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Promotional Trailer

As seen above, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter acts as the second entry in the Liberl Arc and overall Trails series, where players will continue and conclude the story of Estelle and Joshua Bright. Players will aid Estelle as she embarks on a new journey rife with geopolitical intrigue and the machinations of secret societies, threaded together with the disappearance of Joshua, her adopted brother. For more of what players might expect, check out an official synopsis below:

■ CONTINUE YOUR 1ST CHAPTER JOURNEY

By carrying over your clear data from 1st Chapter, you can obtain exciting bonus items that will let you progress through the story more smoothly.

■ MORE COMBAT OPTIONS THAN EVER BEFORE

Overpower your enemies with new Crafts and S-Crafts! Link your characters’ attacks during Quick Battles with the new Brave Rush, and make full use of the orbment system for access to Arts.

■ AN UNFORGETTABLE STORY

Dive into an intricately woven narrative to uncover the conspiracies threatening the Kingdom of Liberl.

■ EXPANSIVE SIDE CONTENT

Enjoy a variety of new content in the sequel, including minigames like fishing and poker, cooking with your companions, and fan-favorite characters joining as playable party members.

Experience the expansive combat system, richly realized world, and stirring story of the 2nd chapter of the Trails series!

Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Screenshots

For RPGFan’s thoughts on Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, check out Sean Cabot’s review. If the Trails series piques your heart in embarking on its story, but you’re unsure where to start, don’t miss our extensive series primer!

As someone who firmly knows he’ll get to this juggernaut JRPG series in his retirement years, I think it’s great to see its earlier entries remade with such attention, care, and detail. It provides fans, new and old, with stepping stones to experience a series that many in the genre consider beloved.

Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter will launch on September 17th for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, and PC via Steam. For more information on the game, check out its official website!

Stay tuned to RPGFan for all news RPG!

Source: Gematsu

11 bit studios and developer Digital Sun have announced that their shopkeeping RPG sequel Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault will launch its 1.0 version on September 2nd for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch 2, and Windows via Steam. The game launched into Steam Early Access last October. A short trailer accompanied the announcement, showcasing stylish animated visuals paralleled against its mercantile gameplay. Check it out below!

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Date Reveal Trailer

11 bit studios has also confirmed that a physical edition for Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault will release for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC on November 13th via a partnership with Silver Lining Interactive. The physical editions come in both a Standard Edition and a Collector’s Edition. For further details on what each provides, please check out below, alongside a short trailer:

Standard Edition

• A copy of the base game

Collector’s Edition

• A copy of the base game 
• A Collector’s box
• A digital artbook
• 3 x patches 
• Holo sticker
• Diorama sticker sheets 
• A poster 
• 4 x postcards

As mentioned above, the full 1.0 release of Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault brings a host of new content for players to peruse, with one of the most notable additions being the seventh and final Endless Vault challenge and a final ending to its story. Beyond completion, four Endless weapon variants, armour, cosmetics, gadgets and more will be added to aid in dungeon-running.

Will’s shop will gain access to its fifth and final level, giving players an additional Bobbet slot and cosmetic placement slot. This upgrade allows players to both bring more companions into dungeons as well as further customise the aesthetic of their shop.

The Bomb Path will also be added as an entirely new perk pathway that allows players to mark enemies with explosives. After taking enough hits, marked enemies explode and deal area-of-effect damage to nearby enemies and themselves.

Endgame progression will also be added in a new Hardcore difficulty, beyond the post-campaign repeatable dungeon gauntlet of The Endless Vaults. If players are defeated in a dungeon run with Hardcore active, they will lose all of their relics and progress.

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault puts players in the role of series protagonist Will, a young man transported to the dilapidated town of Tresna. With hallmark ingenuity, Will once again puts on the mantle of shopkeeping by day and dungeon-running by night.

As in 2018’s Moonlighter, players aid Will by engaging with two halves of gameplay. During the night, Will embarks on isometric roguelike dungeon runs where he fights foes in real-time combat. After vanquishing any foe, players potentially gain relics and upgradeable materials that can be taken out of the dungeon. During the day, Will puts out the relics and materials gained to sell in his shop to the townsfolk of Tresna. Players then set wise prices, shrewdly uncover the preferences of certain townsfolk for a tidy profit, and customise their storefront to their aesthetic preferences. In this duality, players help Will uplift the town of Tresna, its inhabitants, and beyond.

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Screenshots

With a deep personal fondness for 2018’s Moonlighter, I’m excited to see its sequel completing its long journey to launch. Shopkeeping RPGs are a niche for which I’m thankful for every entry that abounds!

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault will launch on September 2nd for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store. It will also be available via Game Pass. A demo is available now for all announced platforms.

Stay tuned to RPGFan for all news Moonlighter and RPG!

Signy & Mino: Against All Gods is a turn-based RPG by AN Productions- the studio behind the Soda Dungeon mobile games. Signy is a girl who lost her parents in a tragic fire when she was a child. Mino is a dog who found Signy when he was a lost puppy and sensed that she needed him as much as he needed her. The girl and her dog became inseparable companions over the years, and their unbreakable bond drives Signy & Mino’s story and gameplay.

AN Productions says Signy & Mino is about seven to nine hours long, and I finished it in about eight. As such, the story is not the deepest out there. Signy is a good-hearted, if stubborn, young lady who’s been raised in her grandmother’s forest cottage with her loyal, if lazy, dog Mino. Life goes on until a combination of machines and angry gods threatens the forest villagers and the game’s world at large. Thus, a simple errand leads Signy and Mino on a quest bigger than they could have ever imagined.

The story tries to be philosophical at times, but those moments can feel long-winded. Conversely, some plot threads and worldbuilding questions remain unanswered. Signy and Mino are decent protagonists, but don’t develop much beyond their surface level. The energetic ending looks really cool, though.   

Graphics consist mostly of slick-looking sprites atop hi-res, low-poly backgrounds that look like higher-resolution versions of PlayStation One game environments. The visuals look nice and feature vivid colors, but the detailed sprites, with their fluid animations and multitude of facial expressions, feel mismatched atop the blander, simpler polygon backgrounds.

In motion, the Paper Mario-esque side-scrolling looks fine when the characters move left and right. However, when moving “up” (away from the player) or “down” (toward the player), Signy’s sprite is still turned sideways. She doesn’t face away from me when moving up or toward me when moving down. With so much effort put into sprites’ animations and facial details, I’m surprised this specific detail wasn’t addressed.

Speaking of animations, the spritework noticeably shines in Signy & Mino’s battles. Combat actions play out similarly to combo attacks in fighting games, and they look flashy and play out smoothly. No hiccups or jerky motions here, especially during higher-level attacks that have a lot going on. There are also a few animated cutscenes that look appropriately cinematic.

Sonically speaking, compositions sound nice and encompass a variety of music styles. My favorite was the piece in an abandoned mine that had a prominent pickstyle bassline. As a bass player myself, I always appreciate cool bass. Voice acting is limited to battle cries, with Signy’s voice actress as the most prominent. She’s quite convincing as Signy, but I would have liked to hear more voice acting, particularly during the cinematic cutscenes.

Signy & Mino follows a linear path, albeit with a few sudden difficulty spikes. There is only one difficulty level, and though I was fine with it, more advanced players might find it too simple. Environments aren’t huge, but the game encourages exploration with treasures to find in the nooks and crannies. That said, when Signy was behind walls or obstacles, I couldn’t see her behind them. Jumping is a little floaty, but the platforming is still forgiving enough that I did not get frustrated (as I’m not the best at platforming). The most twiddly section of Signy & Mino was this one puzzle dungeon where some of the mechanics were not obvious; the hint was difficult to find and was cryptic to boot.

Enemies are visible on the field and aren’t too numerous, though they do respawn. This is great because battles, while fun, are often lengthy affairs. The battle system is combo-based: Signy and Mino take turns chaining skills together using timed button presses to create multi-hit attacks reminiscent of fighting games. Button press timing for attacking, dodging, and parrying is quite forgiving. I’m usually terrible at dodging/parrying, but I got into a good groove here and can overlook Signy & Mino’s lack of auto-parry or attack-assist options to take timed button presses out of the equation.

Battles are enjoyable at first, but their lengthy and repetitive nature makes them drag during Signy & Mino’s second half. You engage enemies one at a time, so battles against multiple enemies run long. Some enemies also have defenses that need to be breached via certain combos before they even take damage. To add another wrinkle, I maxed out Signy’s level and skill trees about two-thirds into the game, so I had little reason to fight late-game regular battles since I didn’t need to gain EXP. This is where I badly wanted some kind of auto-battle or battle-skip option to ease the late-game tedium.

A few other design elements also left me scratching my head. Firstly, the only consumable HP recovery item does not restore much HP. Why aren’t there stronger recovery items available? To make things worse, you can’t use recovery items outside of battle. This makes no sense to me. Only being able to use recovery items in battle puts me at a disadvantage. If I have low HP and the enemy gets the jump on me out in the field while also getting the first turn in battle, I get knocked out and have to go back to a prior save. Saving only occurs at save points and, more often than not, my manual save was more recent than the autosave, which didn’t kick in frequently enough.

The long and short of my review is that Signy & Mino: Against All Gods is the RPG equivalent of a sweet little empty-calorie snack. It’s nice, but not substantial. Its short playtime slotted nicely into my busy schedule and was a decent little romp. However, several design choices nagged at me, including no way to pet the dog. Signy & Mino: Against All Gods is not a bad game, but could have been so much more.

Disney has announced that a retrospective panel for the Kingdom Hearts series will be hosted at D23 today, August 15th, their biennial fan convention. Titled “A Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts,” the panel will also be livestreamed at 4:30 PM PT/7:30 PM ET via the series’ official YouTube channel. Notably, interested fans will want to watch the livestream as it airs, as Disney has confirmed that there will be no VOD (video on demand) afterwards.

DEEP DIVE Into KINGDOM HEARTS D23 Stream

The panel will showcase a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the games with panel members Nana Gadd (Disney and Pixar Games), Tai Yasue (developer at Square Enix Games), Haley Joel Osment (the voice of Sora), David Gallagher (the voice of Riku), and Renée Johnson (creative director of Disney Character Voices).

This panel and event coincides with the 25th anniversary of the series, ranging across thirteen released games from Kingdom Hearts (2002) to Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory (2020). It is unknown whether any new information on Kingdom Hearts IV will be revealed beyond its surprise trailer earlier this year, but it seems like a good time for it.

Kingdom Hearts IV Screenshots

Beyond being a billion-dollar franchise, the regard for Kingdom Hearts remains strong at Square Enix and Disney alongside its fans both old and new. As someone who has been an avid fan for the last seventeen years, I’m deeply curious to see where its story continues beyond this anniversary and the latter half of this decade.

Kingdom Hearts IV will release for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and Microsoft Store. No release date has been confirmed.

Stay tuned to RPGFan for all news Kingdom Hearts and RPG!

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Preoder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

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Lightning Rods are monsters selected to showcase specific character abilities in our D&D and 5e games. You can learn more about this concept in my article, Lightning Rods – Showcase Powerful Character Abilities, and in the book Forge of Foes by myself, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, and Teos Abadia.

For an easy cheat-sheet, there are two types of monsters that work well as lightning rods:

• One or two big brutes
• Hordes of weaker enemies

Big brutes with poor dexterity, wisdom, and charisma are great lighting rods for spells like banishment, hypnotic pattern, charm monster, dominate monster, and other single-target control-type spells. When we know characters lean heavily on such powerful monster-removal spells (often called “save or suck” spells), we might include big brutes in our battles specifically so characters can control them as part of our encounter design. "Tank" style characters like fighters, paladins, and barbarians also love locking down and controlling brutes so they can't smush wizards, bards, and other characters with lower defensive capabilities.

Hordes of weaker enemies are great lightning rods for spells and abilities that hit a group of creatures. Players love to hit big piles of monsters with fireball, cone of cold, sleep, hypnotic pattern, spirit guardians, Turn Undead, and similar spells and abilities.

Those two types of monsters and groups of monsters are an easy shorthand when you want to include monster types into an encounter that shows off character abilities.

Mostly Valuable At 5th Level and Above

It isn't until 5th level in our 5e games that characters really start to define themselves. Thus, you likely don't need to worry about setting up lightning rods until 5th level or above. These levels are when we start to see spells like fireball, multiple attacks from melee attackers, and other new abilities begin to shine. This power growth continues from 5th level and onward – when the use of lightning rods really showcases new character abilities.

Lightning rods aren’t as vital in lower level play as they can be in higher levels.

Let's break down some specific monster types and situations ideal for each of the twelve character classes in D&D and other 5e games. The bullets under each class describe what type of monster works well to showcase that class’s abilities.

Barbarian

• Big brutes dealing damage the barbarian can resist.
• Low AC, high hit point monsters barbarians can hammer with lots of damage.

Bard

• Monsters they can charm.
• Monsters susceptible to the spells they typically cast.

Cleric

• Undead.
• Creatures vulnerable to radiant damage.
• Outsiders able to be banished.

Druid

• Big monsters to tank if often shapeshifting into big beasts using Circle of the Moon.
• Monsters susceptible to the spells the druid uses.

Fighter

• Big monsters with low AC and high hit points.
• Several monsters able to be dropped in a single hit for multiattack.
• Monsters that provoke opportunity attacks.
• Monsters that promote the use of a battle master's maneuvers.

Monk

• Monsters with low constitution saving throws for stunning strike.
• Monsters far away that the monk can reach with their increased speed.
• Monsters that fire arrows at the monk.

Paladin

• Monsters vulnerable to radiant damage.
• Undead or other monsters that trigger the paladin's higher damage modifier for divine smite.
• Monsters that force characters to make saving throws when the paladin can boost those saves within an aura.

Ranger

• Monsters at longer ranges to shoot with a bow.
• Monsters able to be entangled.
• Monsters that run away or hide that the ranger can track with hunter's mark.

Rogue

• Monsters able to be easily hit with sneak attack.
• Lots of opportunity for cover in the encounter (not a monster specifically but it matters a lot for a rogue).
• Opportunities to pick a monster's pocket in or out of combat.

Sorcerer

• Lots of little monsters to hit with area attack spells.
• Multiple targets for twin spells.
• Counterspell opportunities for subtle spell use.

Warlock

• Ranged monsters able to be blasted with eldritch blast, particularly ones susceptible to the warlock's improved invocations for eldritch blast.
• Monsters susceptible to the spells the warlock chose.

Wizard

• Lots of little monsters to hit with area attack spells.
• Lots of monsters to be controlled with any control spells the wizard selected.
• Battlefields to be sliced up with walls of fire, stone, or force.
• Enemy spellcasters the wizard can counterspell.

Talk To Your Players

Every level or so, ask your players what spells and abilities they have that they enjoy using or want to use more. Write their comments down. Take note of the spells and abilities each of the characters has. If you can, look at their character sheets to see what abilities they have that don't get a lot of use. Experiment with different kinds of monsters in different situations to see how the characters (and their players) react.

Give the characters their opportunities to shine.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Final Days — Articles and Appearances
• Plate Mail Games Audio Tracks for your RPG
• Big Gencon News
• World of Warcraft and D&D
• Dark Sun
• Greyhawk Crown of the Witch Queen
• Star Wars D&D
• Universes Beyond is a Burned Brand
• Partnerships for FR, Ravenloft, and Eberron
• D&D Icons is Weird
• Death Saves is Weird Too
• Search, New App, and other D&D Beyond Stuff
• Free League Unbound, New One Ring, Dungeon World 2, Keith Baker Daggerheart Setting, New Vampire Masquerade
• The Other Stuff in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

• Handling Missing Players
• Should Exploration and Roleplaying Have Stronger Procedures?
• Do the Eight Steps Work with All RPGs?

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter!
• The Lazy GM's Toolbox in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• The Rest of the Stuff in Rise
• Geeknative Interview with Mike Shea by Egg Embry
• Mike on One Hit Point Podcast (YouTube)
• Mike on One Hit Point Podcast (Spotify)
• Mike on Gnome Stew’s Gnomecast
• Mystic Arts on Eight Steps and Rise
• Shadomain — Tales From the Tavern Q&A With Mike Shea
• Plate Mail games RPG audio files Kickstarter
• D&D Announcements
• World of Warcraft
• Dark Sun
• Greyhawk Adventure
• Star Wars
• Universes Beyond
• Ghostfire does Ravenloft; Kobold Press does Forgotten Realms; Visionary Productions does Eberron
• D&D Icons
• Death Saves
• D&D Beyond LFG
• Gencon interviews by Crit Hit the Giant
• Free League Unbound
• New One Ring backerkit campaign coming
• Dungeon World 2 Beta
• New Daggerheart setting by Keith Baker
• New Vampire the Masquerade

Last week I also posted a YouTube video on Ruins of Numera — Dragon Empire Prep Session 75.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Reiterate quest goals at the beginning of a session to get your players back on track.
• Show characters what happened before at locations they visit along a journey.
• Show how enemy factions inter-relate to one another.
• Use a mix of hand drawn maps, printed maps, terrain, tokens, and miniatures. You don’t have to use just one style.
• When bringing in alternate players, try to make sessions more episodic so they enjoy their temporary visit.
• Limit magic item construction or training to a number of downtime sessions. Building a magic sword might take three downtime sessions.
• When running a lot of monsters, pool damage done in a single tally and remove the last monster hit whenever the tally crosses the hit points of one monster.

Related Articles

• Lightning Rods – Showcase Powerful Character Abilities
• D&D's Nastier Specials
• The Rest of the Stuff in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster

Get More from Sly Flourish

• Articles
• Newsletter
• Bookstore
• Patreon
• Podcast
• YouTube

Buy Sly Flourish's Books

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• City of Arches
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Forge of Foes
• Fantastic Lairs
• Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures
• Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

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Preoder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

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Only a few days remain for the Kickstarter for Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster! If you haven't checked it out or grabbed the free preview, please do and share the link with your friends!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/rise-of-the-lazy-game-master?ref=87oswx

Over the past few weeks I've dived into the four major sections of the book:

• Expanding Each of the Eight Steps
• Prepping and Running Lazy Campaigns
• Adventure Types in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• The Lazy GM's Toolbox

Today we're going to talk about a bunch of the other stuff you'll find in this book.

Getting Started. The beginning of Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster focuses on how to get the most out of this book. You can find examples of these introductory chapters in the 36 page free preview on the Kickstarter page. It includes How to Read This Book, Top Tips for Lazy GMs, and Getting Started Running RPGs for brand new GMs. We intend for Rise to serve both veteran and new GMs so we wanted to be sure to give our best advice for getting started up front.

Quest Models. After adventure types, we have a couple of chapters covering quest models in Rise including the simplest quest model, the three of five keys quest model, and the 3-2-1 quest model. These tried and tested models give the characters agency to choose their course and enough structure for you to build a solid campaign. We also have a chapter on brittle quest models that seem like good ideas but tend to fall apart in play.

Example Adventure Scenarios. Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster definitely focuses on a "show, don't tell" approach with examples all throughout the book. In particular, we have nine adventure scenarios built using the eight steps of lazy GM prep — each focused on the adventure types highlighted in the book. You can use these example scenarios to get an understanding of what the eight steps of lazy GM prep look like, use them to inspire your own single-session games or longer campaigns, or use them directly as a mini-campaign. They're all set in the City of Arches setting but you can easily move them to your own homebrew or published campaign setting.

Tables. All throughout Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster we have tons of random tables. Some of these tables are embedded right in particular chapters, others you'll find in a huge appendix in the back of the book. These tables serve multiple purposes. They give concrete examples of the topics presented in the book, like 20 strong starts or 20 ways to reveal secrets and clues. They also serve to inspire GMs to come up with their own ideas. GMs can also roll directly on these tables to help shake themselves out of a creative rut. We intend to release a PDF of all of the tables in a printable format so you can drop them into your custom GM screen or into your own GM's notebook. We'll include this table-focused PDF in the ebook package for the book — every backer of the book will get it.

Maps. We dug deep into Dyson Logos's collection of commercially licensable maps to find twenty maps that fit the most common map-focused situations that come up in our RPGs. Dyson updated two of these maps from his earlier collection specifically to support this book! Because of the success of this Kickstarter, we donated money directly to Dyson for all of the fantastic support he gives to the RPG hobby.

Our goal is to make Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster the most comprehensive lazy GM book available, with a big focus on practical table-usable, tips, and tools to help you run your games. Hopefully, from the above and our previous descriptions of the book, you agree!

Please support the Kickstarter campaign and share it with your friends!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/rise-of-the-lazy-game-master?ref=87oswx

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter Continues
• Adventure Types and the Lazy GM Toolkit
• Signed SF Books at Inkwell Ideas at Gencon Booth 150 and Rock and Roar samples
• Rise of the Lazy GM Interview and Mentions
• Ship of the Dead with Bob, Grace, and Ginny Di
• Free Core20 Adventure and Playtest Rules
• Doom—Dust of the Disintegrator
• Gencon next week and D&D World of Warcraft
• Archives of Nethys Deal with Paizo
• Lazy GM Toolkit in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• The Variables in Combat Complexity

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

• D&D Monster Manual Versus A5E Monstrous Menagerie
• Handling Big Battles Off Screen
• Why PDFs When They Suck?

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter!
• Adventure Types in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• The Lazy GM's Toolbox in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Rock and Roar in print with free samples
• TTRPG Insider Interview
• JP Coovert video
• Ship of the Dead with Bob, Grace, and Ginny
• Torment Temple by Scott Fitzgerald Gray
• World of Warcraft for D&D
• Doom-Dust of the Disintegrator: Deluxe Edition
• Paizo and Archives of Nethys figure things out

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on High Value GM Tricks and Nezari Stormclaw — Dragon Empire Prep Session 74.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Lots of monsters bring a bigger threat than a few bigger monsters.
• Find the system that best matches what you want and what your players want.
• Have a standing explicit house rule that if a power or mechanic or ability makes the game less fun for you or your players, that you can address it and change it together.
• Flavor your game with unique gods and factions but be careful exposing too many of them at once.
• Consider potential downtime activities, customized for the characters in your game, when a downtime session is coming up.
• Keep a list of your system's skills in front of you so you know what kind of checks to ask for.
• Strong starts don’t need to derail your existing story. Let them propel it forward.

Related Articles

• Announcing Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!
• The Lazy GM's Toolbox in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Expanding Each of the Eight Steps

Get More from Sly Flourish

• Articles
• Newsletter
• Bookstore
• Patreon
• Podcast
• YouTube

Buy Sly Flourish's Books

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• City of Arches
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Forge of Foes
• Fantastic Lairs
• Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures
• Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

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Preoder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

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The Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter marches on thanks to all of you who supported the project, shared it with your favorite GMs, and posted it on your favorite online haunts!

If you haven't, please visit the project, check out the free preview, and pass along the following link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/rise-of-the-lazy-game-master?ref=bm1dia

In previous articles we've talked about the following big focuses of the book:

• Expanding Each of the Eight Steps
• Prepping and Running Lazy Campaigns
• Adventure Types in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster

In a future article I'll cover Adventure Scenarios and other stuff.

Today we're going to talk about the Lazy GM's Toolkit.

Your Personal Toolbox of Proven GM Tips

The Lazy GM's Toolkit is a huge chapter in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster with over sixty tips, tricks, and tools I've gathered over the past eighteen years writing for Sly Flourish and my previous books. Some GM tools are little tricks you can keep in your mind. Others are actual physical tools to help you run games.

Each tool is described in a succinct paragraph that goes right into how the tool works and what value it brings to your game.

The 36 page preview includes a full list of all 60 (there's actually 61 now — I added one after the preview went live) so you can see what they all are. I thought I'd talk about a few examples and why they work well in the book.

Example Lazy GM Tools

Alarms and Timers. Not to be confused with "clocks" — alarms and timers are actually physical alarms and timers to help you keep track of the timing and pacing of your game. It's easy to lose track of time when you're in the flow of the game. Setting physical timers helps you ensure you're getting done what you want to get done and keeps you on track to run your game in the time you have.

Book Tabs. I think many GMs fail to see the value in using physical books. Small adhesive tabs are a great tool to help us get more value out of our physical books. Even if you play online, having a reference book on hand with good tabs to your most-used sections can be faster than trying to dork around with a half-ass online search tool.

Describing Killing Blows. A fantastic way to add some excitement to our games, "describe your killing blow" gets your players into the fiction of the game — breaking out of the mechanics of our games and into the world we all share.

Dice Averages. Who really wants to roll 24d6 for a dragon breath? Who has that kind of time? Likewise, what if you find yourself with a static damage number but want to convert it to its dice equivalent? This table in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster helps you convert any static number to any dice equivalent and vice versa.

Domain List. When running in a homebrew campaign setting or in a published campaign setting that doesn't quite fill out the details of the world's pantheon as much as you like, we have a generic set of twenty theological domains — both good and evil — to help you fill in the world. A solid list of domains helps you flavor NPCs, quests, locations, monuments, and items.

Escalation Die. The escalation die is a tool from 13th Age that works just as well in most d20 games. On the second round of combat, you put out a D6 on the 1 and add +1 to attacks (or damage or both). At the beginning of the next round, you move the D6 to the next highest number. This incremental bonus speeds up play and adds interesting tension. You can give the bonus to just characters or both characters and monsters. You can also let the die trigger other interesting effects in the battle similar to a clock (another tool in the toolbox).

Flashbacks. From Blades in the Dark, flashbacks give players the opportunity, sometimes at a cost, to "flash back" to an earlier scene that might not have happened yet during the game. Perhaps they had bribed the guards or left a useful tool in just the right place. You might call for a check to see if they succeed or might use up some other form of in-game currency to determine if the flashback succeeds.

Handouts. Handouts are a high-value activity that helps draw your players into the game, helps GMs focus on what's important, and brings a fun tactile feature to a game that otherwise occurs in dialog. The tool description discusses some fast and effective ways to make great handouts.

Initiative Systems. Lots of different systems exist for managing initiative. Some methods are particular to one type of game but others can be used in several different RPG systems. This tool description talks about some of the fastest and easiest ways to manage turns in and out of combat.

Mashing Up Random Encounters. One of my favorite tricks for getting more out of random encounter tables is to mix them up — either with different tables or by rolling twice and mashing up the results. This tool description digs into this concept.

Player Roles. Some new and old games alike include roles not just for the characters in our games but for our players as well. This section describes roles like the cartographer, scribe, and the caller who helps coordinate the rest of the players around the decisions they want to make.

Build Your Own Personal Toolbox

The above tools are just a sample of the tools you'll find in the lazy GM's toolbox in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster. With them, you can pick and choose the tools that fit best into your own personal toolbox, adding them alongside some of your own favorite tricks for running your own games.

Michelle and I really hope you'll check out Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster. We're really excited to bring it into your hands and help GMs all over the world run great games for their friends. Check out the Kickstarter here and please share it with your friends!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/rise-of-the-lazy-game-master?ref=bm1dia

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

• Rise of the Lazy Game Master Articles
• Reading Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Chapters Aloud
• Mike on Lots of Podcasts and Videos
• Throne and Bones Bundle of Holding
• Nimble Action Tracker
• Limithron's Pirate Map Collection for Pirate Borg
• Fingertip Isles by Jeff Stevens
• Attack the Light — Avenge the White Mare
• Perkins, Stephens, Thompson on Star Wars Saga Edition History
• Adventure Types in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• The Value of Relics

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

• Components of a Campaign Frame

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Prepping and Running Lazy Campaigns
• Adventure Types in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Mike on Morrus's Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
• Mike on Kobold Press's YouTube Talk Show
• Mike on Tabletop Journeys (YouTube)
• Mike on Tabletop Journeys (Podcast)
• Mike on PAGE's Friday Night Talk Show
• Nimble action tracker
• Thrones and Bones Bundle of Holding
• Limithron’s Pirate Map Collection
• Fingertip Isles by Jeff Stevens
• Attack the Light — Avenge the White Mare
• Reading D&D Aloud Podcast on Star Wars Saga Editon

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on Hunting Lashmaraq – Dragon Empire Prep Session 73 and On Puzzles.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Mix simple and straightforward combat encounters with complex encounters with alternate goals.
• Use round-based countdown timers to ratchet up the tension in big encounters.
• Use several terrain features to add depth to big combat encounters.
• Run some battles in big areas where it takes effort to get from one side to another.
• Protect your bosses.
• Give each monster an interesting mechanical effect beyond just damage.
• Seek the tools and info you need to improvise monsters and encounters to go where the story takes you.

Related Articles

• The Rest of the Stuff in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Announcing Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!
• Expanding Each of the Eight Steps

Get More from Sly Flourish

• Articles
• Newsletter
• Bookstore
• Patreon
• Podcast
• YouTube

Buy Sly Flourish's Books

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• City of Arches
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Forge of Foes
• Fantastic Lairs
• Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures
• Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

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Preoder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

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Our Kickstarter for Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster continues to march on! If you haven't, please check out the campaign, enjoy the free 36 page PDF preview, and, if you dig it, support the project. Backing this Kickstarter is one of the best ways to support the work we do here at Sly Flourish. If you're already backing the project, please, share it with your friends!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/rise-of-the-lazy-game-master?ref=2pmml2

Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster can be loosely broken up into four big sections:

• The eight steps of Lazy GM prep, each expanded with eight years of new experiences and feedback.
• Prepping and building lazy campaigns.
• Ten common adventure types.
• The Lazy GM's toolbox.

We've covered what's new with the eight steps for lazy GM prep and the chapters covering prepping and running lazy campaigns. Today we're going to talk about adventure types. Next week we'll talk all about the Lazy GM Toolkit.

Common Adventure Types

I've been pondering adventure types ever since reading Robin Laws's Adventure Crucible. I wrote a series of articles on Sly Flourish covering adventure types but these articles aren't the same as what we cover in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster. When considering adventure types, I had to consider what the most common adventure types were. When we're sitting down to prep and run our games, what common models do our games often fall into? I ended up with ten common models.

For each of these models, I wanted to understand what made each model different from one another and how we can use the models to help us prepare and run our games. Here's the common approach we take for discussing each model in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster:

• How do you prep for this adventure type?
• How do you customize the eight steps for this adventure type?
• What common procedures do you follow when running this adventure type?
• What are some common pitfalls when running this adventure type? How can they go wrong?
• What can you do to mitigate these pitfalls?

Each adventure type includes lots of examples, including rollable tables, to show what an actual adventure looks like that follows this type and help you get into the weeds for preparing your adventures.

The Ten Adventure Types

Here's a list of the ten adventure types we cover in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster. The list is loosely prioritized by the most to least common adventure types with some exceptions like "Mashups and the Undefined".

Scene-based Adventures. The most common adventure type in which the characters follow through a series of scenes and situations. You can think of this as the "default" adventure type.

Dungeon Crawls. A common adventure type in which the characters travel through a hostile location where each room might contain a unique danger. We included this adventure type in the free 36 page sample of Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster so you can see what these adventure types look like.

Infiltrations and Heists. Adventures in which the characters infiltrate a fortress, stronghold, manor, or other location. There they must navigate neutral or hostile forces while achieving a goal. Infiltrations and heists often require planning ahead of time and subterfuge and stealth while engaging in the heist.

Investigations and Mysteries. Adventures in which the characters investigate situations — often traveling from one location to another while gathering clues, talking to NPCs, and maybe fighting some hostile forces, but mostly they’re focused on learning the truth of a situation.

Downtime. Adventures in which time spreads out and characters go on individual quests or conduct personal activities such as researching magic, meeting with old friends or comrades, learning important lore, building magic items, or engaging in other longer-term activities.

Overland Exploration and Travel. Adventures in which the characters travel from one location to another. While this chapter talks about both hex-crawls and point-crawls, the lazy approach for exploration and travel is to set up an interesting situation between two locations.

Roleplay and Intrigue. Sometimes our adventures focus on the conversations the characters have with the NPCs in the world — convincing them of a course of action, discovering clues, uncovering secrets, or otherwise changing the course of the campaign.

Combat. Sometimes our adventures focus on combat. The characters get into a scrape with several groups of enemies, fighting waves of enemies, or facing dastardly bosses.

Defense. In defense adventures, the characters must defend a location from a larger force. Defensive adventures focus on preparing the defense, engaging in reconnaissance, and facing off against the oncoming force.

Mashups and the Undefined. Few adventures or sessions actually focus exclusively on one single adventure type. Instead, they're often a combination of several different adventure types or follow a model all on their own. This chapter talks about how to use the structures for prep and play from other adventure types and put them together to run your own particular adventure.

Example Scenarios

Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster also includes specific adventure scenarios for each adventure type. These adventure scenarios follow the eight steps — more filled out than you'd typically have for your own notes since I'm communicating the adventure type to you. Each of them follows along a campaign arc and can be used in several ways:

• They act as good examples of what game prep looks like when following the eight steps.
• They show how your prep might be different from one adventure type to another.
• They can inspire your own adventures.
• You can run them as one-shot adventures with some modifications for your own desires, your own world, and your own characters.
• You can run them as a full campaign arc if you dig the whole story.

Bringing The Eight Steps To Your Own Adventures

The adventure types described in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster are designed to help bring further practicality to the eight steps of lazy GM prep. The steps themselves offer a solid framework for getting your hands around the prep for your game. When mixed with these adventure types, you know what you can focus on to support the style of play you and your players will enjoy in the next game you run.

I hope you'll check out the Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter. We're really proud of it and overjoyed that so many folks are excited for the book. If you're already supporting it, thank you so much and please share it with your friends!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/rise-of-the-lazy-game-master?ref=2pmml2

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

• Rise Kickstarter, Expanding Eight Steps, Lazy Campaigns
• Reddit AMA for Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Mike on Mastering Dungeons, Tome Show, and Polygon
• ENNIE Voting Underway
• Exalted Funeral ENNIE Award Titles Backerkit Campaign
• En5ider Magazine Annual Hardcover from EN World Publishing
• Massive D&D Convention Building at Gencon
• Arcana Unleashed Deadfall for 11th to 20th level
• D&D Death Saves Black Label Campaign Setting
• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Campaign Prep and Play
• Lazy Dungeon Prep

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

• What Is the Mourning?
• Spiral Development in Big Cities

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter!
• Expanding Each of the Eight Steps
• Prepping and Running Lazy Campaigns
• Reddit AMA
• Mike on Mastering Dungeons Video
• Mike on Mastering Dungeons Podcast
• The Tome Show Spotlight on Mike Shea
• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Article on Polygon
• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Article on Techraptor
• Burn After Reading — The Lazy Loremaster
• ENNIE Voting Now Open
• Exalted Funeral ENNIE Nomination Backerkit Campaign
• EN5ider Magazine Annual by EN World Publishing Kickstarter
• Huge D&D Presence at Gencon
• Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall 11-20th campaign
• Death Saves — Dungeons & Dragons “Black Label” setting

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on Modifying Published Adventures and Hunting Lashmaraq – Dragon Empire Prep Session 72.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Keep charts handy to be able to improvise monsters during the game.
• Give improvised monsters a single notable feature to make them unique and set them apart.
• Track damage with /s and Xs for five or ten points of damage inflicted. Round to the nearest five.
• Give adversaries unique weapons and armor in your descriptions.
• Know your group's tolerance and desire for descriptions of violence and gore. Ask them.
• Use clocks for countdowns or stages of success. Represent them with a die you spin up or down as things progress.
• Print maps. Write quick one or two word evocative labels.

Related Articles

• The Rest of the Stuff in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Announcing Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!
• Running Adventures – Mashups and the Undefined

Get More from Sly Flourish

• Articles
• Newsletter
• Bookstore
• Patreon
• Podcast
• YouTube

Buy Sly Flourish's Books

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• City of Arches
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Forge of Foes
• Fantastic Lairs
• Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures
• Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

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Preoder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

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The Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter campaign is going strong! We had the strongest first days of any campaign we've ever run and we can't wait to get this book into your hands.

Please check out the campaign, support our work, and share it with your friends!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/rise-of-the-lazy-game-master?ref=dvqil8

Last week we talked about Expanding Each of the Eight Steps in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster. Today we're going to talk about what the book has to offer for prepping and running lazy campaigns. In the next two weeks I’ll talk about adventure types and the lazy GM toolbox.

Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster offers a process for preparing and running your campaigns spanning several chapters. Here's a list of those chapters and what you can find within them:

Find and Maintain a Great Group. Advice for the hardest part of running RPGs — getting your friends together regularly to enjoy your game sessions. The chapter includes advice for finding new players, ensuring those players are right for your group, maintaining a consistent schedule, and keeping games running even when players move on. It includes a list of questions to help ensure the players you bring to your table for your style of GMing, suitable for in-person and online games.

Run Single-Session Games. Though not strictly about running longer campaigns, this chapter covers how to prep and run "one-shot" games. It talks about running a mini-session zero, ensuring you keep track of time, running timed adventures, and expanding single-session games into short-run multi-session games.

Build and Run a Lazy Campaign. This main chapter, available in the preview PDF on the Kickstarter page, describes the high level process for preparing and running a lazy campaign. It discusses choosing what world to set your games in, defining your campaign's hook, detailing the campaign's "truths", developing patrons or factions, considering questions for player-focused world-building, and preparing a starting adventure.

Write a Short Campaign Guide covers your creation of a guide you can give to your players before your session zero. It outlines the campaign’s hook, the truths, the characters' role and a group bond for the campaign, potential connections to patrons or factions, a description of house rules, and describes your chosen safety tools. The chapter also includes an example campaign guide for the City of Arches setting.

Run a Session Zero discusses how to get your campaign off on the right foot by going over the campaign guide with your players, discussing your safety tools, building characters together and connecting them to one another, choosing a patron or faction, asking world-building questions, and finally running a short adventure to get campaign started.

Fill Out Your Lazy Campaign talks about how to build out your campaign from the results of your first session with "spiral campaign development" — building from the characters outward. It offers guidance for building a starting location based on common places characters want to visit, adding adventure locations and quests, outlining three potential villains, and further developing factions.

Run Lazy Campaign Adventures takes you beyond your first session and on to the next . It discusses quests and hooks, the value of offering quests at the end of a session, thinking two horizons out, having a world that reacts to the characters actions, thinking through the eyes of your villain, keeping your hands on the pacing of the game, and focusing on your next session.

Lazy World Building steps back from your individual sessions to help you build a useful and practical world for your campaign. It discusses the creation of a practical history, pantheon, geography, magic system, and economy. This chapter mostly focuses on building what you need to run your sessions, quests, and adventures.

Running Games Online talks about how to run games with online tools by building your own online toolbox, using a resilient software stack, using and allowing for physical dice and books even when playing online, how to find players online, and tricks to manage player turns when running online.

Ending Campaigns discusses how to build a final boss battle for your game, the importance of giving players what they want instead of attempting a rug-pull final plot shift (I'm looking at you, Game of Thrones), and using "one year later" montages to let the players define the final outcome of their characters.

You can see from the above that we're taking a big comprehensive look at the full scope of campaign prep and play in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster. This comprehensive focus is the sort of detailed approach you'll find throughout the whole book.

If you haven't yet checked it out, please support the Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter and if you already have, please share it with your friends!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/rise-of-the-lazy-game-master?ref=dvqil8

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

• Five Scenes, Expanding the Eight Steps
• Mike on What Would the Smart Party Do Podcast
• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter Is Live
• 2026 ENNIES Nominations
• Ereb Altor
• Expanding Each of the Eight Steps
• Timing Your Sessions

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

• Building Worlds for Spelljammer
• Adding Cool Effects to Monuments

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter
• Five Scenes
• Expanding Each of the Eight Steps
• What Would the Smart Party Do
• 2026 ENNIE Nominations
• Ereb Altor Kickstarter

Last week I also posted a YouTube video on Two Million Gold – Dragon Empire Prep Session 71.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Write a short rollable list of potential encounters for your dungeon delving game.
• Include non-combat encounters in your dungeon encounter list.
• Let the characters face, maybe even fight, the aspects of major villains early.
• Wrap the physical objects of your world in the markings of your worlds gods, factions, and historical figures.
• Review your notes and materials an hour or two before your game.
• Print notes and maps for easy reference during your game.
• Aim for one page of notes per session.

Related Articles

• The Rest of the Stuff in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Expanding Each of the Eight Steps
• Announcing Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

Get More from Sly Flourish

• Articles
• Newsletter
• Bookstore
• Patreon
• Podcast
• YouTube

Buy Sly Flourish's Books

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• City of Arches
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Forge of Foes
• Fantastic Lairs
• Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures
• Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

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Preoder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

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The Kickstarter for Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster has begun! I hope you'll check out the Kickstarter, download the preview, and support our new book. Please pass it along to other GMs you think might enjoy it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/rise-of-the-lazy-game-master?ref=603clt

Over the next few weeks I'll be diving into the big chunks that make up this book:

• The Eight Steps – Expanded (today's article!)
• Building and Running Lazy Campaigns
• Adventure Types
• The Lazy GM's Toolbox

The Same Eight Steps – Expanded

First, good news — the eight steps of Lazy GM Prep haven't changed. They still include:

• Review the Characters
• Create a Strong Start
• Outline Potential Scenes
• Define Secrets and Clues
• Develop Fantastic Locations
• Outline Important NPCs
• Choose Relevant Monsters
• Select Rewards

Only one of these steps has a slight name change — "Select Magic Item Rewards" to just "Select Rewards". This change is an example of what we've done with the eight steps throughout Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster. They're still the same eight steps but we've learned a lot from running and playing games. We received a lot of feedback on the steps over the past eight years. Many new games have come out since then and the eight steps still hold up but we can expand them further.

Each of the chapters on the eight steps in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster dive deep into the step — recognizing how these steps change depending on you, your group, where you are in your campaign, what sort of campaign you've built, and what system you're running.

Review the Characters now includes discussions on character motivations, campfire tales, stars and wishes, character-based secrets, noting character mechanics, and wish lists.

Creating a Strong Start includes lists of twenty strong starts and twenty hooks to draw your characters into the game. You'll find these inspirational tables of twenty options throughout the whole book. Just about every chapter has one or more lists. You can read them, consider them as examples, roll on them, or hack them into your own game. A sidebar in this chapter also talks about mashing the strong start into your "scenes" list to help consolidate your notes — a trick I've been doing myself now for a year or so.

Outlining Potential Scenes talks about the vast array of scenes you might pack into this step — sequential scenes, potential parallel options, future quest hooks, and more. Scenes became the junk drawer of the eight steps (in a good way) — letting you jam in all sorts of things to help you get your head around your next session.

Defining Secrets and Clues offers lists of both what sort of secrets you might consider and how your characters might find them — two very common requests as GMs get their head around this idea. It also talks about using secrets and clues with mysteries (also further covered in the Investigations and Mysteries adventure type) and talking about the advantage of moving past secrets forward when it makes sense.

Developing Fantastic Locations expands beyond large set-piece locations that typically focus on an evocative name and three "aspects". Now it also includes filling out large maps with just a one or two word name to define a place or writing down a list of potential rooms when you're not sure what path the characters might take. This chapter has six tables of twenty options covering monuments, origins, factions, effects, dungeon rooms, and dungeon types.

Outlining Important NPCs notes several potential character traits and using the technique of thinking through the eyes of your NPC to figure out how they'd act and react in any given situation. It also discusses when to act and when to roll.

Choosing Relevant Monsters discusses how to choose relevant monsters for the situation, understanding encounter balance for whatever system you play, the importance of monsters, situations, and pacing, and which battles need more planning and which can be shaped by the situation in the world and the dice you roll.

Selecting Rewards talks about managing random treasure and player wish lists, the different kinds of rewards different systems offer, with examples of common magic items for various fantasy RPGs, integrating intelligent magic items, and keeping an eye out for items that can make your game more difficult to run.

Independent and Complementary

When writing Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster it was important for me to hit several goals. I had a lot more to say about the eight steps and wanted to focus on those steps as the cornerstone of my definition and path for Lazy GMing. I wanted to ensure this book stood on its own for those new to gamemastering but also stood alongside all my previous books like Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, The Lazy DM's Companion, and The Lazy DM's Workbook. You'll see from the above descriptions that the steps remain the same as those found in Return but expand each of them with all new tips and experiences to help you run awesome games.

I hope you'll support the Kickstarter for Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster and join us for this new journey

Pass it along!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/rise-of-the-lazy-game-master?ref=603clt

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster in One Week
• Make Monsters Unique, Five Scenes
• Blood of the Primordials
• New Dyson Maps Available
• D&D Has Been Incomplete for 52 Years and That's Good Actually
• Clocks Versus Skill Challenges
• Adventure Types in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

• Running Short Games
• Feeling Nervous Before a Game

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Make Monsters Unique
• Five Scenes
• Dyson Maps Updated
• Dyson Commercial Maps
• Support Dyson's Patreon
• EN World Thread on Tools We Love

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on Prepping RPG Campaigns Part 1 and Jabir al Seki – Dragon Empire Prep Session 70.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Keep things simple for campaign conclusions. Give them what they want.
• Have extra time for prep? Expand the world, enrich factions, and design cool locations.
• Drop in one interesting scene as the characters travel from one place to another.
• Anchor scenes with a notable physical monument like a statue, megalith, cenotaph, well, or ruin.
• Prep situations with multiple potential approaches and outcomes.
• Make a list of the gods, factions, and historical figures. Use it to flavor monuments, dungeons, and items.
• Build a local archive of maps you can use in a pinch.

Related Articles

• The Rest of the Stuff in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• Announcing Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!
• The Lazy GM's Toolbox in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster

Get More from Sly Flourish

• Articles
• Newsletter
• Bookstore
• Patreon
• Podcast
• YouTube

Buy Sly Flourish's Books

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• City of Arches
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Forge of Foes
• Fantastic Lairs
• Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures
• Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

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Preoder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

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Five scenes is all you're likely to get through in a four-hour RPG session. Narrow your prep down to the five scenes you might run to help you focus and avoid getting lost in the vast and overwhelming possibilities of the worlds you create.

What are the five potential scenes in your next game?

Overprep is a common problem among gamemasters. We often feel like we need to prepare more than we actually do and, the more we prep, the more we might force the game into one particular direction instead of letting the game flow from the actions of the characters and the reactions of the world. The vastness of the worlds we create out of the depths of our imaginations and expand with the imaginations of our friends around the table can be paralyzing.

Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master offers a framework to help us focus our prep while swimming in the vast seas and unknown depths of our games. Step 2 of these eight steps is "Outline Potential Scenes".

What if we focused our prep around that single step? What are the five potential scenes we'll run in our next session?

Why five? As a loose estimation, we can assume any given scene takes up about 45 minutes of game time. Some scenes take longer (like big battles in 5e games) and some are shorter. Your chosen system or the number of players you have also change this math. But, I'd say typically, five scenes can fill a four-hour game with a break in the middle.

Which Scenes?

Sometimes we don't know which scenes will take place in the next session. The characters have options. There are forks in their path. That's why we include the word "might" in our scene-development prompt:

What five scenes might take place in the next session?

We know our game can take different turns. That's why we abstract other elements of our prep like NPCs, monsters, locations, secrets, and so on. With those things prepped in their own little compartments, we can build scenes on the fly depending on the path the characters choose and how the world reacts.

Other times we have a pretty clear idea what scenes might take place. We can include NPCs, monsters, and locations in our scenes step. Our first scene is almost certainly our strong start.

Here's an example strong start that includes other steps mashed into it:

In the Mausoleum of Astaria, the characters learn from the ghost of Astaria of the coming of the Nameless King and the location of the King's three soul vessels before five shrouded ice devils attack!

The above description includes a strong start, a scene, monsters, an NPC, and a location all in one.

We can fill out the remaining four scenes with these short descriptions:

• The characters gain access to Astaria's armory and find the Blade of Irixthius.
• The characters choose the fate of the Dread Necropolis.
• Council meeting with Garland Willowmane and Roselyn Zeshe at Roselyn's secret council room discussing the soul vessels of the Nameless King.
• The Nameless King attacks the City of Arches!

Is That It?

Do we need anything else? Probably. I'd almost certainly still do my ten secrets and clues. Obviously, there are things missing from the scenes above (what's in Astaria's armory?) Prep what you need to run your next session and skip the rest.

Focus on Five Scenes

If you feel overwhelmed by the game looming ahead of you, ask yourself a simple question: what five scenes might you run in your next game?

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

• Rise Kickstarter, Single Target Number, Make Monsters Unique, Blood of the Primordials
• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Sample Walkthrough
• Nimble RPG First Thoughts
• What Is a Lazy Gamemaster?

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

• Handling Persuasion Checks
• Light-weight OSR versus Crunchier new RPGs for Campaigns
• Running City of Arches After Heroes of the Borderlands

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!
• A Single Target Number
• Make Monsters Unique
• Nimblenomicon

Last week I also posted a Daggerheart Review.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Read your monster stat blocks twice over. Make sure you understand them.
• Keep the spotlight moving between players or groups during downtime. Watch your pacing.
• Build city locations based on those the characters might want to visit.
• Follow your players’ interests.
• Relax.
• Keep the characters’ names in front of you.
• Flavor treasure with factions and history.

Related Articles

• Mashing Up the Eight Steps
• Expanding Each of the Eight Steps
• Scenes – The Catch-all Step of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Get More from Sly Flourish

• Articles
• Newsletter
• Bookstore
• Patreon
• Podcast
• YouTube

Buy Sly Flourish's Books

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• City of Arches
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Forge of Foes
• Fantastic Lairs
• Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures
• Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

---

Preoder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

---

Describe monsters instead of labelling them so every encounter with a monster is a unique and fresh experience.

Ogres are scary. Even if a player watched previous characters battle ogres twenty times before, the first time they face an ogre with a new character, that character would be right to be terrified. We lose this terror if we simply call it an "ogre" and jump to rolling the dice.

Instead, use flavorful and distinctive descriptions to bring back the terror of facing such a foe. Ogres are big. Ogres are powerful. They might have gory scars or terrifying tattoos or chipped tusks. Their weapon may be a runed femur with a spiked skull on the end. They might have filed their teeth into points or shaped their mohawk out of the dried blood of their enemies.

With the right description, every creature in our RPGs can be unique among all others. Every monster can be scary again, even if our players faced them dozens of times before. We don't have to make such monsters unique with mechanics. We can use our words to make monsters unique.

The fantastic book Monster Overhaul by Skerples has seven tables worth of customization for ogres (just one of hundreds of monsters covered in Monster Overhaul). If you find yourself having trouble coming up with unique descriptions, you can go far with some random tables. Write some tables up yourself to help shore up the areas you have trouble with. Here's a quick one of unique appearances:

1. Scarred
2. Tattooed
3. Painted
4. Pierced
5. Furred
6. Mohawk
7. Glyphed
8. Glowing eyes
9. Fanged
10. Spiked
11. Artificial limb
12. Blinded in one eye
13. Hooded
14. Bladed
15. Fiend-touched
16. Oozing
17. Diseased
18. Burned
19. Hairy
20. Rotten

Write your own table to suit your game or use one of the many appearance generators out there to spawn some ideas. Connect monsters to factions or gods unique to your world through symbology on equipment or body art.

These characteristics can also help you identify monsters in combat and you can work with your player-driven monster characteristics to make monsters even more unique.

RPGs are a blend of fiction and mechanics. Sometimes we lean too heavily on the mechanics side and forget that it's the fiction that makes our games unique from one session to the next.

Every ogre can be scary if you describe it in an interesting way.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

• Single Target Number, Top Tips Chapter Read Aloud, Trying Lots of New Systems
• Dungeonomicon Bundle of Holding
• Machines of Bone and Blood Kickstarter
• Layoffs at Paizo
• Rise of the Lazy Game Master FAQ
• RPG Publishers Who Are Killing It
• Go Around the Table

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

• Prepping for Daggerheart
• Static Damage for Shadowdark

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

• A Single Target Number
• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Coming Soon!
• Dungeonomicon Bundle of Holding
• Machines of Bone and Blood
• Paizo Layoffs

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on Running Great Campaign endings and Mindsplinter – Dragon Empire Prep Session 69.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Spread the threat of monsters to all characters.
• Use turn order out of combat to ensure everyone gets their time in the spotlight.
• Have each player vote on two of three possible future quests. Their top vote counts as 2 and their second as 1. Add up all votes to see which one comes up on top.
• Write down your combat encounter benchmark so you can easily improvise combat encounters and know the rough difficulty of the encounters they face.
• Reward relics tied to themes and factions with a single use of a powerful spell effect.
• Introduce several factions and let the players forge alliances with the ones they choose.
• Ask players to describe their new abilities when they level up so you and the other players know what they’re excited about.

Related Articles

• A Single Target Number
• Roll to Target
• The Lazy GM's Toolbox in Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster

Get More from Sly Flourish

• Articles
• Newsletter
• Bookstore
• Patreon
• Podcast
• YouTube

Buy Sly Flourish's Books

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• City of Arches
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Forge of Foes
• Fantastic Lairs
• Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures
• Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.

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Preoder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster!

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The Index Card RPG has a neat idea we can try in many of our tabletop RPGs – using a single target number for an entire scene. Pirate Borg has the same idea.

Here's how it works.

Instead of worrying about different saving throws, ability checks, or armor classes for various components in a scene – we declare a single target number for the scene. You can, for example, pick a target number of 15 for a mid-range encounter in your 5e game or 20 for a higher-power higher-level game.

Whatever checks the characters have to make, they make against that target number. You declare this target number to your players, writing it really big on an index card or putting it as a note on your virtual tabletop so all your players can see it.

Doing so simplifies our games in a few ways:

• It reduces the total number of back-and-forth transactions between players and GMs.
• It reduces the mental overhead on players when they're rolling checks. They always know what numbers they need to roll.
• It reduces your mental overhead when running the game – you don't need to look up every individual DC for any given check.

Of course, it comes at some costs:

• It removes any concept of something being "easy" or "hard" (though ICRPG has a way around this issue which we'll get to).
• It removes some of the resolution and granularity of crunchier RPGs like 5e.
• For some players, it can seem arbitrary and abstract. Things mean less in the game when everything's just aiming for a target number. It isn't like you're hitting the dragon, you're just focusing on rolling dice and hitting the target number.

Not For You? That's Fine!

You have to decide if using a single target number resonates with you or not. For me, I always seem to be aiming to get back to Numenera and the Cypher System by Monte Cook Games. I loved it when, as a GM, all I needed was a single number between 1 and 10 to determine the difficulty of anything in the game from a small rat (level 1) to a giant world-ending planetoid (level 10). For me, as a GM, I have enough going on weaving the story together at the table. I don't need a lot of mechanical crunchiness.

So this trick might not be for you. That's cool. If it's something you're interested in, though, you might try it with your group. Like lots of good Lazy GM tricks, using a single target number isn't all or nothing. You don't have to switch your whole game over to this idea all at once and forever. Instead, try it for a single scene. Maybe a less consequential scene where the resolution of different target numbers doesn't matter too much.

Varying Difficulty

Maybe you want more variance in the difficulty. Sure, a single target number can work but some things are still easier or harder. ICRPG has a trick of adding or subtracting three from your difficulty for easy or harder things. That added variance can work. You can put all three target numbers up if you want and declare something being easy, normal, or hard.

We can steal one of the best ideas to have come from 5e here too – advantage and disadvantage. If something is easy, you have advantage on the check. If it's hard, you have disadvantage. Using advantage and disadvantage for easy or hard checks means less negotiated math and more dice rolling.

A single target number, even with these options for difficulty variance, won't work in situations where you have an armored death knight (AC 20) and a bunch of zombie hulks (AC 8), of course. For some games and some situations, it might be easier to just stick to several difficulty classes across a scene.

Another Simple Tool in the Toolbox

Declaring a single target number for a scene is another great trick to drop into your toolbox. Experiment with it. Talk to your players about it and see how they feel. Try it for an encounter or two and see how it actually plays out. If it works, drop it into your kit and use it to help you run awesome games for your friends.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

• Defending Out of the Fun, Rolling for Targets, 1d4 Con, Finished Dragonbane, Started Nimble
• Order now Before New EU Taxes
• Big RPG Humble Bundle
• Free League Humble Bundle
• Dyson Logos Bundle of Holding
• Book of Unnumbered Worlds by Kevin Crawford
• Merry Mushman Knock Sale with US Shipping
• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Coming Soon to Kickstarter!
• D&D Community Advisory Group
• Ravenloft Horrors Within Quick Thoughts

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

• How Fast for a Level 1 to 20 Campaign
• Improv With VTTs
• Hard Drive Crashed, Using Analog Tools for Prep

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

• Defending Out of the Fun
• Roll to Target
• Big RPG Humble Bundle
• Free League Humble Bundle
• Dyson Presents 2026 Bundle of Holding
• Book of Unnumbered Worlds
• Merry Mushman Sale
• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• D&D Community Advisory Group Announcement
• EN World Ravenloft Horrors Within Spotlight
• Alphastream's Ravenloft Horrors Within – The Good
• Alphastream's Ravenloft Horrors Within – The Bad

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on Pre-Game Rituals and The Risen of Mot – Dragon Empire Prep Session 68.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

• Mix easy and hard combat encounters with non-combat roleplaying in dungeon exploration adventures.
• Spend time considering what treasure and magic items the characters might acquire. Choose some randomly and tailor others for the characters.
• Keep generic monster tokens on hand, physically or virtually, to improvise encounters as they occur in the fiction.
• Work with your players to hash out rules you might not understand.
• Keep a loose list of monsters for a location. Build encounters as they make sense during the game.
• Spend extra time preparing big boss fights.
• Establish and clarify clear procedures for overland travel, dungeon crawls, downtime, and other common RPG activities.

Related Articles

• Five Scenes
• Roll to Target
• Make Monsters Unique

Get More from Sly Flourish

• Articles
• Newsletter
• Bookstore
• Patreon
• Podcast
• YouTube

Buy Sly Flourish's Books

• Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster
• City of Arches
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Companion
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Forge of Foes
• Fantastic Lairs
• Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures
• Fantastic Locations

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.