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Quantum Ogres and the Eight Steps – Sly Flourish Patreon Podcast (Patreon)

Published:
2026-05-07 22:09:09
Imported:
2026-05
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Here's our latest episode of Readings and Reflections with Sly Flourish in which we discuss the article "Quantum Ogres and the Eight Steps".

You can listen to it here, on your own exclusive Sly Flourish podcast feed on your favorite podcast app, or listen to this exclusive podcast on Spotify by connecting your Spotify account to Patreon.

Keep rolling those 20s!

Comments

Frederic Schmitt

And of cours the ogre can move .. he has feet after all. We can encounter him in a good mood in the forest or later in the day in a bad mood in the swamp where he has to visit his mother in law. Who knows 😁

Derventius

This quantum ogre idea is something I find harder to think about from a GM perspective than as a player. As a GM, I've definitely done both things — 1. stuck fastidiously to a published adventure, even when my player characters died slogging through side-passages, learned nothing important and missed the most important encounters, and 2. moved bits around in the moment, and during play to reshape the content to (what I judged) better fit the emerging story, my players enjoyment and their characters achieving goals: dialling up peril, removing some slog, and shifting the clues, so they can actually find the main thrust of the plot. As GM, it's easy to feel too close to the thing to see all of it clearly. Especially when I've had players enjoy both styles of me running the adventure — and adventures run in both styles have gone wrong, and sometimes fallen flat. Having played in games ranging from high to zero GM adjustments, as a player, I know I absolutely prefer it when my GM is moving dials and helping us not to miss the ogre (by quantum-nifying[?!] its room and all its juicy adventure stuff behind the next door), and is paying attention to (by facilitating achievement, or dastardly thwarting of) my character's goals. Our characters might all still die by either method, but I really like to see all of us have agency and fun — including the GM! I've never played with a GM who's enjoyed simply being an automated functionary revealing prewritten content as though they're a solo gamebook. I guess that's where the new, non-creative, A.I. 'GM' might float some people's boats better than real human interaction, but that's not my best idea of fun. I've friends who say they prefer RAW without any dial-tweaking or quantum ogre(ry), but that's probably more because they don't want to know (or not notice!) Personally, I like your take on it being about maximising fun for everyone spending their precious hours around a table together. And (even though you say you've not got a firm grasp yet), for my current mindset, I think you've got this subject nailed. Cheers for the podcast.

Peter W

Goal is to maximize fun. Sometimes this may come from putting a situation in front of your players and sometimes it could come from developing a situation more organically, with player decisions helping to guide things. And sometimes it comes from trying one option and switching to another one when you fail to move the needle on the fun meter.

Ryan B

At least in my experience the only people arguing against Quantum Ogres spend more time arguing on Reddit than actually running a game each week. We're all humans with limited prep time due to family, work, school, pets, etc. Give your DM a bit of compassion if they choose to run an encounter they're exited about.

Cédrick Lemay

I remember my first module, a player told me they would play in it if, and only if, i wouldnt railroad the campaign, with an exemple similar to the Quantum Ogre. Already, it's a module, so of course there's going to be some railroading. But back then of course i told them that of course not i wouldn't. Looking back on it, now that i know and use the 8 steps, they couldn't accuse me of that, with scenes being almost locationless. How can i use a Quantum Ogre if it was never in a specific spot to start with?