Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide (OGL)

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide (OGL)
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Rule Your World!

Players may be the heroes of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but whole worlds rest on the Game Master's shoulders. Fortunately for GMs, the Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide is here to back you up. Packed with invaluable hints and information, this book contains everything you need to take your game to the next level, from advice on the nuts and bolts of running a session to the greater mysteries of crafting engaging worlds and storylines. Whether you've run one game or a thousand, this book has page after page of secrets to make you sharper, faster, and more creative, while always staying one step ahead of your players.

The 320-page Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.

The Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide includes:

  • Tips and tricks for preparing and running a better game, suitable for beginning GMs and battle-hardened veterans.
  • Step-by-step walkthroughs for creating campaign worlds, cities, cosmologies, feudal systems, and alternate dimensions.
  • Difficult player types, and how to handle them gracefully.
  • New rules for subsystems like hauntings, chase scenes, fortune-telling, gambling games, mysteries, and insanity.
  • Charts to help you generate everything from interesting NPCs and fantastic treasures to instant encounters in any terrain.
  • Advanced topics such as PC death, game-breaking rules, overpowered parties, solo campaigns, and derailed storylines.
  • Sample NPC statistics for dozens of common adventuring situations, such as cultists, guardsmen, barmaids, and pirates.
  • ... and much, much more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-217-3

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Last Updated - 1/22/2014

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PZO1114


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Essential for New GMs, Handy for Veterans

5/5

Published back in 2009, the GameMastery Guide was one of the early hardcover books released for Pathfinder. I think it's an overlooked gem, as I crack it open before and during sessions as often as any book other than the Core Rulebook. Weighing in at a hefty 320 pages, the GameMastery Guide has advice on the usual topics that new GMs need help with, but it also contains so much more, like little new rules subsystems, a gallery of pre-made NPCs, all sorts of random tables, tracking sheets, etc. It's a very handy compilation of material specifically designed for Pathfinder, and I'd recommend it as an early purchase for any GM getting into the game.

We have to start with a shout-out to that awesome cover, featuring Runelord Karzoug seated on his throne. I'm partial, since I'm running a certain AP at the moment, but artist Wayne Reynolds knocked it out of the park there. There's no way the interior artwork could be as good, and it's true that many of the interstitial drawings are recycled from other products or are forgettable placeholders. However, the artwork accompanying the NPC gallery is solid and fits the feel of Golarion. If I were using letter ratings, the cover art would get an A+ and the interior art and layout would get a C+.

The book is divided into 9 chapters, with multiple appendices and indices.

Chapter 1, "Getting Started", is stuff that experienced GMs will have seen a thousand times before, but that new GMs will appreciate. It covers stuff like a gaming glossary, how to deal with sensitive topics, how to find players and set aside a place to play, developing house rules, etc. It's standard advice, and if I had to quibble with anything it's that the section is so focussed on catering to players' desires that it leaves out a crucial consideration: the GM needs to have fun too! I did like the idea of creating a custom player's guide before each new campaign, and that's something I'll probably do in the future.

Chapter 2, "Running the Game", talks about preparation, presentation (music, handouts, lighting, etc.), building encounters and adventures, and how to handle in-game problems (PCs missing a clue, getting too much treasure, etc.). Again, it's all solid advice (though I don't agree with customising encounters for PC abilities, as that holds the risk of undermining the very advantages they've worked to gain). I think the best bit in the chapter is the "Game Changers" section, with talks about how to handle problems specific to Pathfinder: spells involving invisibility, teleportation, lie/evil detection, flying, auguries, and more. These spells can dramatically change the game and wreck certain types of plots if a GM isn't careful. The section ends with some good tables: fifty different adventure plots, twenty plot twists, and a bunch of macguffins. Good material if you're creating your own adventures and get stuck in the brainstorming.

Chapter 3, "Player Characters," talks about handling metagaming, introducing new players into the game, handling treasure and character death, whether to allow evil PCs, and different types of common players like the "One-Trick Pony" and the "Rules Lawyer". It's a good and useful discussion, as experienced GMs will encounter these various player types sooner or later and knowing what to look out for and handle them is important if groups are going to persist in the long-run. I think what the chapter is missing is the frank advice that some players just aren't right for some groups, some groups are dysfunctional and need to disband, and that the GM (unfortunately) often has to make the hard calls. It's a responsibility that goes beyond preparing and running adventures, since real people, real relationships, and real emotions can be involved. I'd rank the chapter as average.

Chapter 4, "Nonplayer Characters," goes into the basics of giving NPCs personalities and roles in the game. I especially liked the section on traps a GM needs to avoid when running NPCs (such as making them too intrusive, too decisive, too good at combat, etc.). The section introduces a new concept of "NPC Boons," which are special little plot or mechanical advantages that NPCs of different types can give to PCs. We'll see this concept more in the NPC Gallery at the end of the book, but the idea would be that, for example, befriending a local tracker would give the PCs a +2 on Survival checks in the area for one month, or that buying a drink for a down-on-his-luck nobleman could result in a primer on local politics and a +2 bonus on Knowledge (nobility) in the city. Etc. It's a nice way to quantify and reward PCs for good role-playing and encourage those players who are only in it for the bottom line to have more patience with what may at first seem like irrelevant asides. After some fairly mundane advice on villains, the chapter concludes with a great collection of tables: NPC backgrounds, goals, physical characteristics, personality characteristics (some of these are hilarious and memorable, and I wish players were as creative!), occupations, secrets and rewards, and even the surely-delightful "Random Adventuring Party Name Generator". If you want to be cool, join the "Reputable Pearly Kraken Monster-Slayers in the Shadow of Angels"!

Chapter 5, "Rewards," contains an insightful discussion of why rewards manner and the different ways they can be conceptualised and allocated. It goes through the difference between steady small rewards versus occasional big ones, intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards, and how different players value different things (e.g., is it all about the gold, or is getting on a first-name basis with the barmaid better?). It even gets into little details, such as exactly when XP can be awarded (I forget that some groups do it after every single encounter, while others only do it during true in-game downtime). There's some good advice on how to handle spell research and magic item crafting that makes it clear the whole process needs to be treated more as an art than a mechanical formula. This chapter has a *lot* of random item and random magic item tables, which is really useful when you need to see what a little shop in a small town happens to have in stock, or what that NPC wizard you weren't expecting the PCs to rob from has in his satchel.

Chapter 6, "Creating a World," is for GMs who do something I've never really done in Pathfinder (though I have in science fiction settings): create a brand new campaign setting. It has a nice process of answering a set list of questions to gradually firm up the details of the new world and to simplify (to some degree) the difficulty of conceptualising everything all at once. The geography advice is probably over-ambitious, but the concepts are explained really well. The chapter goes through different types of societies and different technological levels. It's not a chapter I'll use, but it's very good for homebrew GMs.

Chapter 7, "Adventures," has tips for running stories in different environments (dungeons, the wilderness, etc.). It has particularly good advice on dungeons, with a useful key to map symbols that I should use more often. Again, there's a ton of great tables to stimulate creativity, including random tables on where dungeons can be found, what type they are, what's in different rooms, and several random monster encounter tables (which I wouldn't actually roll on, as they have the common problem of spreading CRs from as low as 1 to as high as 13 in the same table!). The chapter has a section on planes and planar traits, which is an important reference for later products that make specific use of the mechanics presented here. Similarly, it has a section on stat blocks for settlements (used in most Pathfinder products) that is quite important in determining what's for sale in a community, the highest-level of spellcaster available, etc. I use the settlement rules a lot, and although I think they're sometimes a bit cumbersome in play, they're important in making sure that a hamlet "acts" differently than a metropolis. This chapter is packed with a lot of other material, including a two-page rules-set for ship combat (it seems worth trying), lots of random tables for ships and sailors, and, one of my favourite things, random tables for tavern names and unique traits. There's a lot here that I'm going to photocopy and keep with my GM screen to help me quickly come up with more flavourful interludes when I'm running games.

Chapter 8, "Advanced Topics," introduces several new little rules sub-systems: chases (elegant, but not completely satisfying), natural disasters, drugs and addiction (happens too quickly and needs a slower progression of effects), fortune-telling (too general), gambling (done well), haunts (one of the best innovations of Pathfinder, great for story-telling), hazards (mostly supernatural ones, but very clever), and sanity/madness (too simplistic, but not bad for just 2 pages). Some of these sub-systems, like chases and haunts, are seen in a lot of other Paizo products, so having the rules on how to run them is really useful. Other topics touched on in this chapter have been developed in far more detail elsewhere, and may be of more limited usefulness. Still, there's enough of enduring value to make the material here worth reading.

Chapter 9, "NPC Gallery", is one of those things every Pathfinder GM needs: full stats (and even pictures and descriptions) for NPCs encountered on short notice: bandits to spice up overland travel, city guards for when the "Chaotic Stupid" PC gets too obnoxious, the bard intended purely as tavern-dressing that the PCs are surprisingly interested in, the shopkeep they want to try to bluff for a discount, etc. There are dozens and dozens of great NPCs here, both low-level "townsfolk" and high-level threats, and all are fully fleshed out with gear and boons (from Chapter 4). In addition, there's really good advice on how to swap out a feat here or a weapon there to create different variations on the stock NPC. I've used this chapter a lot (as have many PFS scenarios). The later publication of the NPC Codex and Villain Codex makes this section slightly less crucial, but I still get a lot of use out of it.

Apart from indices and an appendix (on recommend reading and films), the book ends with a miscellany of tracking sheets--a Campaign Sheet, a Settlement Sheet (something I should actually use, now that I think of it), an NPC Sheet, and a Basic Rules Cheat Sheet (that I'm going to start handing out to new players to ease their transition into the game).

From the chapter summaries above, you can tell the book is just chock-full of useful advice and resources for running the game. Although essential for new GMs, even experienced ones will still find a lot here to make the book worth buying and reading.


Right Next To The Core Rulebook On My Shelf!

5/5

This product was amazing. I was blown away by the advice given to create a world and how to deal with several issues that have come up in recent gaming sessions. The crunchy side of the book was OK, but I really haven't had any need to pull out those rules and use them in my games. I overall really enjoyed this product, and can't wait to see what comes next!


The Essential Tome of GM'ing

5/5

This pearl of GM manuals should be found from every already practising or aspiring-to-be GM's collection. Yes, it's that great, even for folks who don't run Pathfinder. Well written, easy to understand, beautiful to look at... not to mention a well of inspiration it also achieves to be. It's a near perfect package of knowledge how to run smooth, richer, better RPG campaign. Sure, there are chunks of system specific stuff inside, but the most important bits of knowledge of how to run your game are universal and will fit in any system and game table. For juniors, it is essential. For the vets, well, if you're already good at what you're doing, you can always be better, and perhaps you're not perfect and can learn at least one useful new trick out of it.


Great addition

4/5

Read the book cover to cover. Although most of it is repetition for old-time gm's I like the style, flavour and content of the book. It's pure inspiration and also a few goodies that are easily put to work: chases, hazards, haunts - now tried out with success in my current campaign.

A bit to many references to the Core Rulebook annoys a bit.


As a veteran GM thus book left me pining for alot more

3/5

Honestly this book is not at all needed if you have any GM experience at all. Has some good world creation tips but otherwise feels overly simplistic. My opinion would change greatly on this book if I was new to gaming however.


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Aaron Bitman wrote:
In the GameMastery Guide, page 264, the pickpocket has a +1 armor bonus and a +3 Dex bonus, which I think should give him a touch AC of 13 and a flat-footed AC of 11. Yet the book says "touch 12, flat-footed 12". Am I missing something?

Never mind. I've just discovered the correction in the errata thread. It also pointed out the business of adding trapfinding to Disable Device.

Digital Products Assistant

1 person marked this as a favorite.

You can now find the worksheets found in this book on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Resources page.


Very cool, thanks! One thing, when I try to click on the Basic Rules Cheat Sheet I get directed to a page that says:
"Sorry
The requested URL was not found on this server, or you do not have permission to access this area. "
Everything else works great.

Digital Products Assistant

This should be fixed now.


It works for me now, thanks.

Liberty's Edge

This got listed as back-ordered. Are we expecting a new printing?


Brutal Ben wrote:
This got listed as back-ordered. Are we expecting a new printing?

I hope so! I ordered one form amazon to replace my first printing, then I realised that it was backordered, so now I'm hopefully getting the third printing ^^

Digital Products Assistant

2 people marked this as a favorite.

The PDF for this product has been updated to include errata from the third printing.

Paizo Employee

PDF doesn't download for me, both single file & lite versions. It goes to "personalizing" but clicking after waiting 10 seconds doesn't download & stays as "personalizing". I was able to download both versions of Ultimate Combat without any problems, plus a few other pdf's.

Webstore Gninja Minion

Elvis Aron Manypockets wrote:
PDF doesn't download for me, both single file & lite versions. It goes to "personalizing" but clicking after waiting 10 seconds doesn't download & stays as "personalizing". I was able to download both versions of Ultimate Combat without any problems, plus a few other pdf's.

Elvis (and anybody else having problems with downloading PDFs), please post your information here.


I've noticed some mistranslation in german on page 54. If the order of the column was supposed to be the English equivalent (The Column above), it's not correct. The English doesn't have the word emperor in it yet you have the word for emperor in Dutch, German, French, and Spanish. I can help you with the correct translation if you are interested in revising this book for future printings.


I just got this, and was reading the sample puzzles. I noticed something, and didn't see anywhere that anyone else had. (Unless my search-fu is bad.)

On the I never lie puzzle, (correct me if I'm wrong) the suggested solution question won't work.

Here's the set-up. Two doors, one leads to danger, one to safety; two guards, one always lies, one always tells the truth.

The question that's suggested is: If I asked you if the door you're guarding leads to safety, would you say yes?

The problem is (and again, correct me if I'm wrong) they'd both reply yes.

Other than this, great book.


Should a settlement's economy modifier from the Gamemastery Guide be applied to the PC's skilled work rolls to generate income using the downtime rules in Ultimate Campaign, assuming that the roll made is craft, perform or profession? Thanks!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Shaun wrote:
Should a settlement's economy modifier from the Gamemastery Guide be applied to the PC's skilled work rolls to generate income using the downtime rules in Ultimate Campaign, assuming that the roll made is craft, perform or profession? Thanks!

Ask in the Rules Questions forum.


Geistlinger wrote:

I just got this, and was reading the sample puzzles. I noticed something, and didn't see anywhere that anyone else had. (Unless my search-fu is bad.)

On the I never lie puzzle, (correct me if I'm wrong) the suggested solution question won't work.

Here's the set-up. Two doors, one leads to danger, one to safety; two guards, one always lies, one always tells the truth.

The question that's suggested is: If I asked you if the door you're guarding leads to safety, would you say yes?

The problem is (and again, correct me if I'm wrong) they'd both reply yes.

Other than this, great book.

I just started reading the guide (second printing November 2010) and came across the same problem with the "I Never Lie" puzzle on page 249. The answer provided in the book doesn't work, i.e. it is not a question that is blatantly true. An example of a question that would work would be to ask, "If I asked which pathway leads to safety, which pathway would the other guard point to?" Regardless of whether the guard lies or tells the truth, they will both show the way to the dangerous pathway.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

That question is subtly different from the question "Does the door you're guarding lead to safety?" in a way that affects the lying guard's answer. What you are actually doing is asking the guard how he would answer that question. The truth telling guard would answer truthfully -- but the lying guard would lie about his lie, thus effectively telling the truth in regard to the simpler question.

Of course, asking what the other guard would say is a better and more obvious solution.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

I have a question about the Basic Rules Chat Sheet. Actually, it's more of a concern. It's got some bad information in it.

For reference, here's the link: http://paizo.com/download/pathfinder/PZO1114-BasicRulesCheatSheet.zip

One of my players found this and showed it to me. I think it's a wonderful resource, and I want to print them out for every new player. But there's a problem in the wording about "Flanking."

Cheat Sheet wrote:
Flanking: When a character or enemy is in battle with foes directly on opposite sides of him (directly in front and behind for example), he is considered “flanked.” Those who attack a flanked foe gain a +2 bonus on melee attack rolls against that foe.

Unless I've been playing wrong my WHOLE career, the only folks who get the benefit of flanking are those doing the flanking. This is an official Paizo document that says otherwise. I can see a pretty severe rules debate cropping up.

Is it possible to get that fixed?

Thanks!


Old to D&D, but new to Pathfinder. I have the Core Rulebook and Bestiary 1 and, after reading through the PDL, figured out that we are expected to use the Settlement Rules in the Game Mastery Guide to create lairs for some humanoids (Goblins, Hobgoblins) and all demi-humans (dwarves, elves).

Reading over the PDL for Settlements, there are some gaps. Some of these might perhaps be in the book (but not the PDL), but even that would be good info for me to know. (i.e., ultimate would be that all my questions are answered in the book and I just need to buy it).

1. Leaders/NPCs. Those in the Bestiary at least have details on ratio and level of leaders to "grunts"; no such info exists for Dwarves and Elves.

2. Guards. Humanoids have their percentage of warrior-to-noncombatant, but we have no such data for the good races. What percentage of a settlement's population would be expected to be Guard, and what percentage Militia (those who could be called up to fight in an emergency)? How much is this influenced by Settlement characteristics such as Danger?

3. Guard Gear. Again, the humanoids have 'typical' gear in the bestiary, but we lack this for good races. I assume too that guard gear would be influenced by the Economy of the Settlement?

Thanks - Andy

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

These sorts of questions are better posed in the Rules Questions forum.

Media Specialist, SmiteWorks USA (Fantasy Grounds)

Hello, all! So you know, this is now available for purchase from Fantasy Grounds or on Steam. Sync your account first to get it a discount equivalent to the PDF Price ($9.99)

Pathfinder RPG - GameMastery Guide
Publisher: Paizo Inc.
System: Pathfinder RPG and D&D 3.5/ OGL
Type: Accessory
Get it on Steam


Any chance to see reprints for this book?


If you're looking for a print copy, you might want to look at the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide (OGL) Pocket Edition.

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