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.

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.

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.

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.

Amazing book that shows a deep understanding of the game.

Excellent Points, and solid advice! My son started bringing this into his own games as well. It's very relevant to so many things in life!

Should be titled Return of the New Dungeon Master, although granted that wouldn't make much sense. Before you read further I must admit that after about 50 pages of reading my brain started shutting down and I started skimming the rest of the book.

Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master is a verbose book that details what every DM who has at least 1 years worth of experience knows to do and is most likely already doing.

Start your game night "In medias res!" like all good GM's should. Game night needs to start the blood pumping, players don't belly up to the table to be put to sleep, get their attention at the onset and they are hooked all night! This is advice that is 40 years old and anyone who has read a single RPG forum more than once has probably been told this ad nauseam.

Review your characters! Of course, you should do this as a GM before session zero even begins. Ask your players for any hooks you can tie into your campaigns, look for any possible campaign problems "Hey friends this is more of a strong intrigue campaign so the 7 intelligence barbarian may not fit." Fairly obvious and known information.

Outline potential scenes, sure because that should be your goal as a GM, without scenes are your players just going to look at you, while you look at them, like some high noon duel in the wild west waiting for someone to flinch? Of course not! You need something for the players to do/want.

I commend the good basic advise but basic common sense advise doesn't help you be a lazy dungeon master, it helps you do whatever you have been doing all along.

I applaud the writer for pulling together all the new GM advice into one place but lets call a spade a spade, this isn't going to do a damn thing for the DM on time constrained schedule, this is going to help the brand new DM who has never bellied up to the table before.

I'll save you beleagured, over worked, time starved GM's $10. If you want to be a lazy gm heres how you do it: Pick a final bad guy and decide what the heck they want to accomplish. Figure out what said bad guy needs to accomplish these goals. "The evil lich wants to build a nether gate!" Fine he needs metals, forced labor, a location, and some generals to enforce his will while he is "Busy doing his evil mustache twirls in the mirror" Write some loose encounters around this. Goblin raids on mining town to take it over. Undead attacking towns to kidnap people. Rumors of a famous blacksmith who mysteriously disappeared could start the whole campaign. Create 5 generic villages, just a map, 5 unique locations in the town, each with a unique NPC. Create 10 generic but unique taverns. Create 5 generic but unique smith shops. Create 3 generic but unique apothecaries/temples/places of healing. Do all that and you are ready for just about anything the PC's throw your way for the next 8-12 months.

Oh, and I just saved you $10.

I'm not sure what else to add to this review that others haven't said as well. It is a wonderfuly useful book. I always reccomend it to new DMs and it never hurts to re-read every once in a while when I get too caught up on my own DM shortcomings. A+, great book for everyone.

I had DM'd a couple of times for fourth and fifth edition D&D, but was always turned away from continuing or starting new games by session anxiety. This tome gives a real, actionable and succinct check list that allows me to quell that anxiety. And for that it gets a 5/5 from me.

Sly Flourish is the man! It's not very often I buy printed versions of gaming resources these days, but Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master was a must have for me.

I backed his latest Kickstarter as well because I'm going to use all three of his books (as of this review) to design a new campaign for my players. I love the content, the perspective, and the ease with which it allows me to put together a game.

Good work, Mike!

Completely changed my approach to not just running games but thinking about what I needed for games. It is a wonderful simple system, a great layout of information with some useful thought starters in the back.

Worth not just picking up this book but joining the Sly Flourish community for more great advice and ideas.