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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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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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Asgetrion wrote:
Urizen wrote:
Coincidentally, Mr. Fishy's balls cast its shadow today and thus proclaimed six more weeks of winter. Brrr.
Are you sure it was Mr. Fishy?

Would I lie to a Chelaxian dwarf who dances in the nude with only his beard as cover?

Uh...scratch that. ;)
Dark Archive
Urizen wrote:
Asgetrion wrote:
Urizen wrote:
Coincidentally, Mr. Fishy's balls cast its shadow today and thus proclaimed six more weeks of winter. Brrr.
Are you sure it was Mr. Fishy?

Would I lie to a Chelaxian dwarf who dances in the nude with only his beard as cover?

Uh...scratch that. ;)

Who said that my beard covers anything? Maybe I like twirling it around as I dance, hey? ;)

Asgetrion wrote:
Who said that my beard covers anything? Maybe I like twirling it around as I dance, hey? ;)

Like a feathered boa or a whip? :P

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Ok, while I'm as much a fan of threadjacking as anyone, can we keep this off the product page for the next huge PFRPG release?
Owner - House of Books and Games LLC
yoda8myhead wrote:
Ok, while I'm as much a fan of threadjacking as anyone, can we keep this off the product page for the next huge PFRPG release?

And the beauty is, the look your avatar is giving is PERFECT for that statement :)

Sovereign Court
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I am very interested to know when the files for this book are going to be finalized and sent off to the printer...
Dark Archive
Oliver von Spreckelsen wrote:
I am very interested to know when the files for this book are going to be finalized and sent off to the printer...

Me too! And hopefully we'll be seeing some previews soon. :)

The Exchange
yoda8myhead wrote:
Ok, while I'm as much a fan of threadjacking as anyone, can we keep this off the product page for the next huge PFRPG release?

Well anyway...

Asgetrion wrote:
And hopefully we'll be seeing some previews soon. :)

Yes, some previews would be nice! Maybe some artwork? Please?

And our wish is granted.
Dark Archive
Majuba wrote:
And our wish is granted.

Ah, my prayers to Asmodeus have been heard... and it probably helped that Wes traded his twisted, withered soul for an Erinyes secretary some years ago! ;)

The Exchange
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Majuba wrote:
And our wish is granted.

How bad is it that I knew which spell they were using before I read the filename of the image?

Majuba wrote:
And our wish is granted.

Paizo is great! Paizo is great! Paizo is great!

You mentioned "tables" in the blog post, made me think:

What are the chances that the missing SRD tables will make it into the GMG? Specifically I mean the tables for rolling basic weapon and armor types as treasure, but I think there are one or two other tables that got left out.
The Exchange
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Evil Lincoln wrote:
What are the chances that the missing SRD tables will make it into the GMG? Specifically I mean the tables for rolling basic weapon and armor types as treasure, but I think there are one or two other tables that got left out.

Our understanding is that the GMG will have the random treasure tables that didn't make it into the Core Rulebook. (This is the MOST important thing in this book for me, at least.)

delabarre wrote:
How bad is it that I knew which spell they were using before I read the filename of the image?

I'll say it is not very bad at all. Especially if you say the same about my recognizing it. My son thought "Noooo, that's too obvious. They're casting Lightning Bolt metamagicked with the Fire Substitution feat."

I gave him points for creativity.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Evil Lincoln wrote:

You mentioned "tables" in the blog post, made me think:

What are the chances that the missing SRD tables will make it into the GMG? Specifically I mean the tables for rolling basic weapon and armor types as treasure, but I think there are one or two other tables that got left out.

The GMG will have all the missing tables so you'll be able to roll up all sorts of random treasure! YAY!!!!

James Jacobs wrote:
The GMG will have all the missing tables so you'll be able to roll up all sorts of random treasure! YAY!!!!

I detect a hint of sarcasm. :)

You know what is strange? I offer this as game design fodder:

I don't roll random treasure, but the absence of the fundamental equipment tables bothered me immensely. So much space was taken up in the CRB by tables for generating treasure randomly, including power types for weapons.

It's never really been a tool that I reached for, but the one time I reached for it (to populate my shops according to PRPG's new availability rule) I found it was an incomplete system. Since I would have been perfectly okay with no randomization of treasure at all, my next thought was: why is this taking up space in the book if I can't generate random treasure with it?

The tables are in the GMG, so I consider the offense to be entirely redressed. Now that it's a process that I can use from start to finish — even though I will probably NEVER do so — the presence of those other tables in the CRB is now justified. The heavens have aligned and all is right with the world!

Now, if I am really bored and I want to roll to generate every item for sale in Magnimar, I CAN! I won't. But it's nice to have the option.

I know this is kind of silly, but I figure there might be some value in it for future design consideration. (the end)
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Evil Lincoln wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
The GMG will have all the missing tables so you'll be able to roll up all sorts of random treasure! YAY!!!!
I detect a hint of sarcasm. :)

What you're detecting is my own dissatisfaction and frustration with the fact that the tables were missing from the core rulebook in the first place. They SHOULD have been in there. Putting them in the GMG fixes the problem, but it's still frustrating.

James Jacobs wrote:
What you're detecting is my own dissatisfaction and frustration with the fact that the tables were missing from the core rulebook in the first place. They SHOULD have been in there. Putting them in the GMG fixes the problem, but it's still frustrating.

Oh. In that case, I applaud your honesty — last time I raised the topic the response seemed like "Eh you didn't need those tables anyway." And that's sort of true, I didn't.

It was a pretty minute oversight in a 500 page masterpiece, don't dwell on it too much.
Verdant Wheel

This book is more like Dungeon Master Guide I or more like Dungeon Master Guide II ? Because i liked a lot of the later.

Or it will be all new ?

Not sure if its already been said or not, but if we order via Paizo, will we also get a PDF version?

Thanks for your time.
The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

If you subscribe to the RPG line you get free pdfs. Actually, you get free pdfs for all the lines you subscribe to (all the lines that have pdf versions). You also receive the Pathfinder Advantage: 15% off of suggested retail price of all products on paizo.com (with the exception of non-Paizo PDFs). This 15% discount even applies to other Paizo subscriptions that aren't normally discounted!

If you just order the book you do not get a free pdf.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
carborundum wrote:

If you subscribe to the RPG line you get free pdfs. Actually, you get free pdfs for all the lines you subscribe to (all the lines that have pdf versions). You also receive the Pathfinder Advantage: 15% off of suggested retail price of all products on paizo.com (with the exception of non-Paizo PDFs). This 15% discount even applies to other Paizo subscriptions that aren't normally discounted!

If you just order the book you do not get a free pdf.

Mostly right... but the Pathfinder Advantage is a benefit for Adventure Path subscribers only.

Sovereign Court

YUp it was advantage and the free pdf's that finally convinced me to go all out on subs..in the end even with postage it works out a lot cheaper than buying the dead tree retail in the UK and then buying the pdf's as well.

Plus I got fed up with the delays imposed on my FLGS by Esdevium..
The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

Oops - thanks for fixing that Vic! My own version was a bit rambling so I copied it from the subscriber page. The Adventure Path subscriber page, I guess :)
Shadow Lodge
Wellard wrote:

YUp it was advantage and the free pdf's that finally convinced me to go all out on subs..in the end even with postage it works out a lot cheaper than buying the dead tree retail in the UK and then buying the pdf's as well.

Plus I got fed up with the delays imposed on my FLGS by Esdevium..

Same for me. Things seem to take FOREVER to ship to APO addresses, so the PDF versions are great.

Shadow Lodge

In fact, I just today recieved a book (Shackled City AP Hardcover) that was originally shipped out on January 19.

I think this will be the part I'm most looking forward to: "Tips for creating memorable Non-Player Characters, guidelines for followers, cohorts, sages, and hirelings, and more than 100 stat blocks for common NPCs such as guardsmen, knights, bandits, pirates, villagers, and nobles."

L

OK, just two more months to wait.
When will we see some previews of the content?
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Stupid question. Why did this get pushed up till July 2010? Thanks.
Paizo Employee CEO
MRblahface wrote:
Stupid question. Why did this get pushed up till July 2010? Thanks.

Because we refuse to publish a book that isn't the best that it can possibly be. Sometimes that bites us in the rear end when it comes to hitting deadlines, but I would rather have that happen than publish a book that we aren't 100% happy with just to hit a deadline.

-Lisa
The Exchange
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Lisa Stevens wrote:
Because we refuse to publish a book that isn't the best that it can possibly be. Sometimes that bites us in the rear end when it comes to hitting deadlines, but I would rather have that happen than publish a book that we aren't 100% happy with just to hit a deadline.

<insert frustrated gnashing of teeth>

Would it be feasible to get a preview PDF of the random treasure tables to tide us over?
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Lisa Stevens wrote:
MRblahface wrote:
Stupid question. Why did this get pushed up till July 2010? Thanks.

Because we refuse to publish a book that isn't the best that it can possibly be. Sometimes that bites us in the rear end when it comes to hitting deadlines, but I would rather have that happen than publish a book that we aren't 100% happy with just to hit a deadline.

-Lisa

Lisa,

I am happy with that response. I just gotta say that I love PFRPG, my friends love PFRPG and I got some one into PFRPG, who loves PFRPG! It is always better to push something back to polish it and give it a little more love then release it prematurely. Thank you for the response and like I said It was a stupid question.

-MRblahface
Paizo Employee CEO
MRblahface wrote:

Lisa,

I am happy with that response. I just gotta say that I love PFRPG, my friends love PFRPG and I got some one into PFRPG, who loves PFRPG! It is always better to push something back to polish it and give it a little more love then release it prematurely. Thank you for the response and like I said It was a stupid question.

-MRblahface

Trust me, nobody is more frustrated when something slips a deadline date here than me and the rest of the staff. It is like a purple worm, gnawing at your insides. But I would rather have that purple worm gnawing than release a bad product. Now I wish we could have had a slam dunk, killer book on schedule, and that is something that we will learn from this book and hopefully make strides towards for the next ones.

-Lisa
Paizo Employee Creative Director
delabarre wrote:
Lisa Stevens wrote:
Because we refuse to publish a book that isn't the best that it can possibly be. Sometimes that bites us in the rear end when it comes to hitting deadlines, but I would rather have that happen than publish a book that we aren't 100% happy with just to hit a deadline.

<insert frustrated gnashing of teeth>

Would it be feasible to get a preview PDF of the random treasure tables to tide us over?

Stripping out the tables and then relaying them out as a separate PDF is, unfortunately, exactly the type of side-project that makes books late. It might only make the book a few days or a week late (table layout is probably the most DIFFICULT part of layout for a book like this, because it's tough making the tables look good AND do what they need to do), but it's kind of like the death of a thousand cuts. I'd rather keep it to the death of 995 cuts (or less) when it comes to such a fate.

So... we'll see what we can do regarding previews and stuff, but something extensive is relatively unlikely.

Hey No problem with it coming out later as long as its a great book like all Paizo books have been
The Exchange
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:

Stripping out the tables and then relaying them out as a separate PDF is, unfortunately, exactly the type of side-project that makes books late. It might only make the book a few days or a week late (table layout is probably the most DIFFICULT part of layout for a book like this, because it's tough making the tables look good AND do what they need to do), but it's kind of like the death of a thousand cuts. I'd rather keep it to the death of 995 cuts (or less) when it comes to such a fate.

So... we'll see what we can do regarding previews and stuff, but something extensive is relatively unlikely.

Okay. I appreciate that you guys are moving at 125% of Safe Cruising Speed, and there's not a lot you can do if the balrog illustration comes back from the artist at the eleventh hour...with fairy wings...except bite the bullet and slip a few weeks.

Dark Archive
Lisa Stevens wrote:
MRblahface wrote:

Lisa,

I am happy with that response. I just gotta say that I love PFRPG, my friends love PFRPG and I got some one into PFRPG, who loves PFRPG! It is always better to push something back to polish it and give it a little more love then release it prematurely. Thank you for the response and like I said It was a stupid question.

-MRblahface

Trust me, nobody is more frustrated when something slips a deadline date here than me and the rest of the staff. It is like a purple worm, gnawing at your insides. But I would rather have that purple worm gnawing than release a bad product. Now I wish we could have had a slam dunk, killer book on schedule, and that is something that we will learn from this book and hopefully make strides towards for the next ones.

-Lisa

You know, i was just wondering this myself, and I can say i could not be any more happy to hear this. If a product is delayed due to shipping errors i get frustrated, but if a product is delayed so that it can be finished correctly, then by all means do so. In a year or 2, people wont remember the PFGMG was delayed a few months, but they will remember if it was poorly edited, written, art'ed (?), etc. So thank you for the taking the extra time (no really).

Actually glad its being slightly delayed as May was looking to be a big month anyway subs wise..and we don't want the warehouse staff having hernias do we

We all know that's Karzoug, but is that Kazavon from CotCT hanging out with him?
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Ice Titan wrote:
We all know that's Karzoug, but is that Kazavon from CotCT hanging out with him?

Nope. Kazavon is a LOT bigger. That's just some mook dragon Karzoug subdued.

Can you guys please put this on pdf? This would be amazing and I have no time for looking through a book.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
bathayer wrote:
Can you guys please put this on pdf? This would be amazing and I have no time for looking through a book.

We do PDF versions of all of our books. So... yup! We will!

James Jacobs wrote:
Ice Titan wrote:
We all know that's Karzoug, but is that Kazavon from CotCT hanging out with him?
Nope. Kazavon is a LOT bigger. That's just some mook dragon Karzoug subdued.

I figured it was Ghlorofaex...

Sovereign Court
KnightErrantJR wrote:
This is exactly the type of thing I was hoping for when it came to the "other" hardcovers for the PFRPG game. Something that is going to be a good toolbox for a GM.

Couldn't agree more. My only sadness is that I'm going to have to wait till July 2010 to get my grubby hands on it. Bah! Looking forward to all the new Pathfinder books in the future.

Sovereign Court
Lisa Stevens wrote:


Because we refuse to publish a book that isn't the best that it can possibly be. Sometimes that bites us in the rear end when it comes to hitting deadlines, but I would rather have that happen than publish a book that we aren't 100% happy with just to hit a deadline.

-Lisa

A decision that does Paizo credit IMHO. I hate buying RPG books and then finding typos and bad cut/paste jobs ruining the overall grammar. As we say in software development. Cut and Paste is an invention of the Devil. You wouldn't believe how much source code I messed up by careless cutting and pasting, unless I'm very thorough and careful -which is not as easy as it seems.

Hope you have good copy-editors at Paizo. I can't begin to tell you how many books I purchase by well-known authors from "respected" publishers only to find unacceptable numbers of typos. OK the odd typo is easy to ignore. Spell checkers are your friend, but spell checkers only correct words spelled incorrectly. Grammar checker software is for the most part pretty primitive and relying on these products is perilous. Nothing can replace careful reading by the copy editor. Kind regards and good luck with Paizo and its product lines

Just curious - why is it already "pending" in "my subscriptions"?
Pathfinder Adventure Subscriber

I'm ready to hear about the ...and much, much more bullet point in the product description ;).
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

I've updated the product description and cover image to reflect the finished product.

(The only change in the cover is that the "M" is now correctly capitalized.)
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