This is such a great resource. In full disclosure, I am the David Prothero mentioned in the product description, but I created the Github site because I love this resource. I have been using the Lazy GM Eight Steps for a number of years now, and it's been a big help to helping me prepare the right amount for my games. I use all the random tables found in here as well, and most of the various tips and tricks provided.

I encourage you to check this resource out and, then, if you dig it, you can check out SlyFlourish's other products that will give you a deeper dive on these topics.

In early 2023, I saw a mention on Youtube that "This is the 'real' Dungeon Master's Guide!" I was very interested in the book, even though I do not speak English, and bought it. This book was an "enlightening" experience for me because it verbalized the process of achieving maximum effectiveness with minimum preparation, something I had been doing subconsciously in my experience as a Dungeon Master. Since what happens at the table is not entirely predictable, I found myself asking, "What is the beginning of this session? ' and 'Where are we going in this session?' 'What monsters will appear in this session, and who are the NPCs? What magic items will we be rewarded with? This method takes no more than a couple of hours and can be done even by inexperienced players. I think the more this book gets out there, the more the DM population will grow. I used the help of DeepL to read this work, and I was not confused by the machine translation output, probably because the original is written in an easy-to-read and plain language. I am very grateful for this.

This is the big one, the one that started it all. If you’re even reading this review, you’ve probably heard something about this book before. If you’re like me and had never heard of Sly Flourish, Mike Shae, the Lazy DM, or anything like that before buying this book: Welcome! This book gets you thinking before and after you start your TTRPG session. It gives you the steps you need to prep and get ready to run your sessions. It then teaches you to run those sessions with less prep and fewer steps. It talks about some of the realties that you’ll face as a Game Master, the truths you’ll embrace at the table. If you spend too much time prepping your sessions, you can learn to cut back and focus on what you actually need that session. If you underprepare, you can learn to work on the bare minimum and how to improve your improvisational skills. And most importantly, you can learn how to work at the table. While not every bit of advice will land with every GM, there are lessons you can learn, and I, myself, like to revisit this book once in a while to remind myself of what I could do to improve. You can always grow. And there’s plenty of advice that you can obtain from here. I highly recommend this book for GMs new and old, Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder 1e and 2e, Old School Revival, Call of Cthulhu, or whatever TTRPG you play. You will find use in this book somewhere, even if you look through it and realize you do things perfectly for your group as-is.

An AMAZING product for any GM. Full of tables, names, lairs, guidelines and suggestions for your (mostly) fifth edition fantasy games, this book is an amazing resource for GMs new and old. While the contents of this book (out of Mike Shea’s big three) is aimed mostly towards fifth edition, most of the materials can be used in any TTRPG system. The inside is beautiful to look at as well. Not just the lairs, but the art and layout are easy on the eyes. It uses a nice big font size for my poor old eyes! If you’re new to RPG scene, this book will help you improvise at the table when you really need it. There will be some random dwarf you need a name for. Or your party will be traveling through the war-torn wastes of Kal’ikza and you want them to stumble onto something but you’re not quite sure. Or maybe you just need random tables to inspire your next session after a long workweek. This book is the perfect tool to help you at the table during the session.

worth the purchase for sure. the tables can be arranged any way youwant

It has been said many times before in various places but I'll repeat it anyway: It is so much better than the offical DM's Guide put out by WotC. It is more readible, the information is much more quickly obtainable, and it can be readily understandable by new DMs. From novice to veteran GMs/DMs it is well worth the money.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. Anytime someone expresses anxiety about GM/DMing a game for the first time, I hand them this book and "it's easy, just read this"

Sly Flourish has distilled the process of prepping for a game down to only the shit that will actually make the game more fun. Half of the garbage in the 5E DMG has been stripped out, AND you can use this process for any other system as well.

I recommend getting the physical copy so you can lend it to friends.

I played D&D back in the 80s and have started to play again. I can say that this is perhaps the best adventure campaign that I have ever encountered. It does an amazing job of evoking a sense of wonder. The setting is amazing. The adventures are very well-constructed and easy to use. They are also built perfectly to fit an adventure into an evening. We completed most in the 3 hour range, which is helpful if you have limited time (unlike college days). You get in, have a good time, and have a sense of completion at the end of the evening. I wish the WOTC adventures were structured like this. Highly recommended!

A quarter of the preptime & more fun for everyone involved. This is an absolute must read for every DM veteran & newbie alike. Thanks so much.

Lazy DM has become an essential tool that I use during my game prep. I love running games where I have just enough written down to get things moving, but not so much prepared that I get lost in my own notes.

Thanks for being awesome! Perkins

This is an infinitely more valuable resource for new DMs than the Dungeon Master's Guide. Experienced DMs will also find many gems in here that make it worth the low asking price.

The author’s approach is such an amazing solution to a (for me) highly complex problem. When you get this book, follow through it. I know some people may approach it using specific sections, but during a few sessions try to apply it in full. You’ll be absorbing more than you know and saving lots of time down the road. Complement or preview this with Sly Flourish’s YouTube videos and you may find it replacing some previously heavy sections of your own DMing style to a great benefit.

This is a phenomenal resource for anyone looking to run a game, any game. I could not recommend it more. I know I'm not the first to say that and I won't be the last. Everything is so well put together. The artwork, the layout, and the advice. A definite pick.

I have invested in all Sly Flourish’s books. Ruins is both an excellent sourcebook, whether you use parts of it or run it as a campaign. There really is a huge amount of material here in a really flavorful setting. And from a GM’s perspective it is a very accessible and usable product, easy to read and navigate.

Right now this is on sale! For $4 this is a must-have addition to your library.

I absolutely loved Fantastic LAIRS, because I could easily drop them right into my campaign with very little prep or even advanced notice, and hoped that this offering would work similarly. It doesn't. The absence of maps means that I have to create battlemaps, since that's what my players expect. Each location comes with one image. Some are evocative and thus useful for setting the scene. Others, though, come with inexact cross-sections of the location, which are extra frustrating, because they aren't necessarily something that you want to show the players and also suggest a more complicated layout for me to map. The artistic style is also more cartonish than I would like. Despite these irritations, the descriptions of the locations really are special. In part it's that very uniqueness that makes drawing the maps extra challenging.

In short, these locations are NOT "ready to use," but if you're using theater of the mind, then they're a lot closer than if you're using minis and battlemaps. In either case, it will be up to you to decide on the monsters, quests, etc. That allows tons of flexibility, so that they really could be used in any campaign at any level. The strength of this product is its ability to inspire the DM to create a memorable campaign in a worthy location, but in an age when so much gaming is happening on virtual tabletops or with minis, adding even just one battlemap per location would have elevated this product to an elite level.