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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
Does anyone know if it will have comparable things to the Dungeon Masters guide II for 3.5? I felt alot of that was useful. If this book did the trick I would retire the Dungeon Masters guide II.
Does anyone know if it will have comparable things to the Dungeon Masters guide II for 3.5? I felt alot of that was useful. If this book did the trick I would retire the Dungeon Masters guide II.
There'll be some overlap, but not 100% overlap. Both books will still be helpful.
Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
I'm really looking forward to this book :D
I must say though, I hope that the 'difficult player types' section (or some other section) will go over how to deal with stealthy characters. The stealth rules are kind of vauge and spread out in the player's guide (they weren't so great it 3.5 either) and it seems like different people have completely different ideas of how and when stealth can work.
The book doesn't cover how to deal with stealthy characters. The problem players section is more about how to deal with rules lawyers, inattentive players, newbies, etc.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Matrixryu wrote:
I'm really looking forward to this book :D
I must say though, I hope that the 'difficult player types' section (or some other section) will go over how to deal with stealthy characters. The stealth rules are kind of vauge and spread out in the player's guide (they weren't so great it 3.5 either) and it seems like different people have completely different ideas of how and when stealth can work.
That might be worth starting a thread over in Rules Questions.
The book doesn't cover how to deal with stealthy characters. The problem players section is more about how to deal with rules lawyers, inattentive players, newbies, etc.
Oh thats easy, kill them all and let Lisa sort them out. :)
Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Erik Mona" wrote:
The book doesn't cover how to deal with stealthy characters. The problem players section is more about how to deal with rules lawyers, inattentive players, newbies, etc.
I had a feeling that would be the case. Hah, I'll have to read the rules lawyers section to see if I can get myself to be less of one when I'm a player as opposed to a GM ;)
delabarre wrote:
That might be worth starting a thread over in Rules Questions.
Lol, it seems like there's a dozen threads about various issues and questions about stealth. The one thing they have in common is that they never end with everyone agreeing. At the moment, how good stealth is basically depends on the GM, and that's why I was wondering if it would be in this book. Maybe I will try putting together a giant 'stealth questions' list to see if I can get an offical response though.
Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
Well, how good Stealth is basically depends on the GM. :)
Or Diplomacy.
Or illusions.
Or crafting magic items.
Or bards.
"GM interpretation" doesn't only affect Stealth, in other words. :-P
Exactly :D
I guess it would have been better for me to ask about a 'GM Interpretations' section with recommendations about those sorts of issues rather than a stealth section. I guess I'll just keep on reading the forums though.
How will this book compare to the DMG and DMGII of 3.5? I found the GM section in the core book to be... lacking some useful detail for newbie GM's, so I was just wondering.
How will this book compare to the DMG and DMGII of 3.5? I found the GM section in the core book to be... lacking some useful detail for newbie GM's, so I was just wondering.
I'm going to buy it anyway though :)
If we did our job right, it will be better than the DMG and the DMG II.
How will this book compare to the DMG and DMGII of 3.5? I found the GM section in the core book to be... lacking some useful detail for newbie GM's, so I was just wondering.
I'm going to buy it anyway though :)
If we did our job right, it will be better than the DMG and the DMG II.
Sample NPC statistics? For town guards? You mean, the 2nd "most killed by PCs" creature of all times (#1 being the goblin)? How come no one ever thought about that before? I'm buyin'!
Any hint (other than "June") as to an actual street-date, yet?
If you look at our Product Schedule page, you'll see we currently estimate having it in our warehouse in mid-June, and the retail release date is usually about two weeks after that.
This might be a stupid question, but is there anything in it for players rather than gms, or should we save our money for the books coming out later this summer?
This might be a stupid question, but is there anything in it for players rather than gms, or should we save our money for the books coming out later this summer?
As with the vast majority of our books, there's usually a few things in there that players might enjoy... but the title of the book should lay it out that this book is primarily aimed at Game Masters.
Not that I'm going to complain, but I'm a little curious as to why the cheap entry point on this product?
It sounds like this is nearly completely original content... and it doesn't sound like it is a necessary book for running the game?
It sounds like a ridiculously AWESOME book, though.
My guess is cause it is part of the default 3 book core set, established by DnD over 30 years ago. Players Handbook, Gamemaster Guide and Monster book. So by having cheap PDF's for those three books it is a easy buy in for groups to try Pathfinder. But thats just my guess.
This looks to have the potential to be my favorite book. Notice I didn't say gaming book. I said book. Got time to kill, pull out the GameMastery Guide. On a long trip (where I am NOT the driver, lol), pull out the GameMastery Guide. Doctor's visit, GameMastery Guide.
This book is what I've always wanted from a GM book. I'm going to do whatever I can to get the money for this book, even steal a kidney if I have to (Selling my own would just be crazy).
I love the cover. I can imagine what it says: "Welcome, I am Runelord Karzoug the Claimer, master of Xin-Shalast and scion of Thassilion. My burning glaive rests on my lap, my hand is on the globe of world domination, my pet dragon is languishing behind my throne, there is a glass of frosted orange juice on my table and the question that can't help but to come on my mind is: and you are ?"
Any hint (other than "June") as to an actual street-date, yet?
If you look at our Product Schedule page, you'll see we currently estimate having it in our warehouse in mid-June, and the retail release date is usually about two weeks after that.
Two weeks after mid-June? So that's almost in July! CAN'T... WAIT... ANY LONGER...
I love the cover. I can imagine what it says: "Welcome, I am Runelord Karzoug the Claimer, master of Xin-Shalast and scion of Thassilion. My burning glaive rests on my lap,"
Any hint (other than "June") as to an actual street-date, yet?
If you look at our Product Schedule page, you'll see we currently estimate having it in our warehouse in mid-June, and the retail release date is usually about two weeks after that.
Two weeks after mid-June? So that's almost in July! CAN'T... WAIT... ANY LONGER...
You could always subscribe to the PFRPG line and get it in mid-June.
I know this has been asked before, but I found the replies rather unsatisfactory.
What are this book's main selling points for someone who has both the DMG and DMG2? The product summary covers what seems to be just more of the same, and I don't really care if it has "more" content if "more" content just means that it has some new stuff and the rest is just an updated version of the previous two books' tips and advice. I am also unimpressed by the touted number of tables, as it kinda screams "filler" to me, with the manifold random X generators available out there.
Don't get me wrong: Pathfinder RPG is one of the best things that has happened to this business in a long while, and I really want to support the product. I jumped aboard because it would enable me to make use of my considerable 3.X library without having to buy everything all over again except for the Core Rulebook itself, but this sounds just like the type of overlap I *didn't* want PF to be...
I know this has been asked before, but I found the replies rather unsatisfactory.
What are this book's main selling points for someone who has both the DMG and DMG2? The product summary covers what seems to be just more of the same, and I don't really care if it has "more" content if "more" content just means that it has some new stuff and the rest is just an updated version of the previous two books' tips and advice. I am also unimpressed by the touted number of tables, as it kinda screams "filler" to me, with the manifold random X generators available out there.
Don't get me wrong: Pathfinder RPG is one of the best things that has happened to this business in a long while, and I really want to support the product. I jumped aboard because it would enable me to make use of my considerable 3.X library without having to buy everything all over again except for the Core Rulebook itself, but this sounds just like the type of overlap I *didn't* want PF to be...
Dunno about you, but having tables to randomly generate the things that most often require random generation (Inn names, tavern menus) plus 100+ generic NPC statblocks is enough to sell this book to me.
Also, new city stablocks, chase rules, sanity rules, haunts ... the list goes on.
Also, new city stablocks, chase rules, sanity rules, haunts ... the list goes on.
All of which have already been covered before, some of them twice, *and* in a fashion that's compatible with the current PF ruleset. I'm not saying it can't be done better, but that's the type of stuff one might expect in a rules conversion web enhancement, or the like. I am more than capable of getting my own fluff (not even intended to be a pun), so crunch is what I'm mostly after in a product like this, and thus far it doesn't look like I'll be gaining anything new from it.
I want to be sold on Pathfinder rulebooks, I really do, but from what is presently known, there's nothing in this book that would lead me to preorder it. Guess I'll be waiting to know exactly what "AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!" is...
I'm really curious where you have Pathfinder haunt and city statblock rules "covered before, some of them twice". Because as far as I know, both of those will be introduced in GMG.
I want to be sold on Pathfinder rulebooks, I really do, but from what is presently known, there's nothing in this book that would lead me to preorder it. Guess I'll be waiting to know exactly what "AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!" is...
For that I can only suggest keeping an eye on, and looking though, the Paizo blog as the release of the Gamemastery Guide gets closer. It might just reveal what you are looking for.
I'm really curious where you have Pathfinder haunt and city statblock rules "covered before, some of them twice". Because as far as I know, both of those will be introduced in GMG.
They've been covered "in a fashion that's compatible with the current PF ruleset" (to quote the poster) in previous adventure paths. The new versions might be revamped slightly, of course.
----
This doesn't seem like my kind of book. Philosophy (whether it's "philosophy of gaming" or "philosophy of life") usually falls into two categories for me: obvious truisms (in which case I don't need someone pointing them out to me) or doubtful opinions (in which case I prefer my own, non-doubtful opinions).