Procedures

Preorder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster! Eric F., a fine Patron of Sly Flourish asked about procedural play from games like OD&D, BX, and Dungeon World and asked whether they're helpful, where they're helpful, and how we might use them in different parts of our RPGs. I think procedures are definitely helpful and I offer three pieces of advice for using them in your games: Understand the procedures your particular RPG has built in. Modify existing procedures or add your own procedures to make the game more fun for you and your group. Discard procedures when they no longer serve you, your players, or your game. What is a Procedure? For the sake of this article, an RPG procedure is a series of steps we take to prepare or run a particular type of scene in an RPG. Common procedures include how you run combat, how you manage overland travel, the common procedures for running a dungeon crawl, or the process for taking downtime in settlements. Rolling a Charisma (Persuasion) check isn't a…