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The Lazy DM's Forge of Foes
We all love monsters. We love them because they exist outside of our world and yet feel real to us. We love how strange they can be. We love the sense of danger that arises when we talk about them. We love how they live in our imaginations.
And when monsters come to life in our imaginations, we love to face and defeat them. We battle dragons and demons and undead—and conquer them in tales we’ll remember our whole lives.
Within the Forge of Foes, we’ll build these monsters. Here in the forge, we’ll modify creatures, giving them new attacks and strange new abilities. We’ll harden their scales and sharpen their claws. We’ll create entirely new creatures from our endless collective imagination, then watch them crawl into the stories of high adventure we share with our friends.
And when monsters come to life in our imaginations, we love to face and defeat them. We battle dragons and demons and undead—and conquer them in tales we’ll remember our whole lives.
Within the Forge of Foes, we’ll build these monsters. Here in the forge, we’ll modify creatures, giving them new attacks and strange new abilities. We’ll harden their scales and sharpen their claws. We’ll create entirely new creatures from our endless collective imagination, then watch them crawl into the stories of high adventure we share with our friends.
128 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2023
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June 4, 2026
Learning to be a Dungeon Master (DM), a.k.a. the person who runs Table Top Role Playing Games (TTRPGs), is challenging for a lot of reasons, and some of those reasons aren't always obvious.
Because DMing requires such a wide range of skills, abilities, and knowledge, many people find themselves searching for advice on how to "be a better DM." The good news is that there are countless resources available, and new ones appear every day. The bad news is that not all of them are equally useful.
There can be an amorphous quality to explaining how to run a game. Your imagination is the only limit, but when "anything goes," it can be difficult to narrow things down, especially when you're brand new to the role.
The biggest pitfall for DMs is spending too much time on prep. Many people want to be DMs but never get past the idea that they need to write reams of lore and worldbuilding before they can run a game. As a result, they never actually start.
Even for those of us who do run games, it's easy to spend hours getting things "just so," only to have the players head in the opposite direction. At best, it's funny. At worst, it can create frustration and resentment.
Resources that spark creativity or suggest new ways to play are always welcome, but sometimes there's still a need for more concrete tools - ones that help you conserve time and think on the fly.
This is where the Lazy DM series enters and hits it out of the park every time. I think the title "Lazy DM" is reassuring to some people, but to others it might seem a bit off-putting. If you aren't sold on the concept, let me reassure you that these books are the number one resource I'd recommend to anyone looking to expand their DM toolkit.
The Forge of Foes is their answer to a bestiary, but in typical Lazy DM fashion it explains ways to cut corners and reduce prep time in ways that actually enhance everyone's experience at the table. It's a remarkable book, and I think it will continue to be a resource for me for a long time.
There are literal charts and definitions you can use to quickly create your own monsters in a balanced way, but there's also a large section called "Monster Discussion and Philosophy" with topics like "Anticolonial Play," "Romancing Monsters," and "On Morale and Running Away."
I can't say enough about how useful this book is, along with the rest of the Lazy DM series.
Because DMing requires such a wide range of skills, abilities, and knowledge, many people find themselves searching for advice on how to "be a better DM." The good news is that there are countless resources available, and new ones appear every day. The bad news is that not all of them are equally useful.
There can be an amorphous quality to explaining how to run a game. Your imagination is the only limit, but when "anything goes," it can be difficult to narrow things down, especially when you're brand new to the role.
The biggest pitfall for DMs is spending too much time on prep. Many people want to be DMs but never get past the idea that they need to write reams of lore and worldbuilding before they can run a game. As a result, they never actually start.
Even for those of us who do run games, it's easy to spend hours getting things "just so," only to have the players head in the opposite direction. At best, it's funny. At worst, it can create frustration and resentment.
Resources that spark creativity or suggest new ways to play are always welcome, but sometimes there's still a need for more concrete tools - ones that help you conserve time and think on the fly.
This is where the Lazy DM series enters and hits it out of the park every time. I think the title "Lazy DM" is reassuring to some people, but to others it might seem a bit off-putting. If you aren't sold on the concept, let me reassure you that these books are the number one resource I'd recommend to anyone looking to expand their DM toolkit.
The Forge of Foes is their answer to a bestiary, but in typical Lazy DM fashion it explains ways to cut corners and reduce prep time in ways that actually enhance everyone's experience at the table. It's a remarkable book, and I think it will continue to be a resource for me for a long time.
There are literal charts and definitions you can use to quickly create your own monsters in a balanced way, but there's also a large section called "Monster Discussion and Philosophy" with topics like "Anticolonial Play," "Romancing Monsters," and "On Morale and Running Away."
I can't say enough about how useful this book is, along with the rest of the Lazy DM series.
Displaying 1 of 1 review