Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide (OGL)

4.30/5 (based on 44 ratings)
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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Errata
Last Updated - 1/22/2014

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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Average product rating:

4.30/5 (based on 44 ratings)

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An excellent book for those who want to be better a GM.

5/5

The GameMastery Guide is a wonderful tool for those who wish to truly master the difficult task of being a competent GM. The guide may, at times, seem redundant or basic to advanced GMs, but by expressing the simplest game-mastering concepts, the guide helps to establish the essential nature of the fundamentals of any RPG as well as emphasizing their importance in the hearts and minds of all talented GMs. Can someone be a GM without The GameMastery Guide? Yes. Will that person be a better GM if they own and use this guide? Absolutely.

Also... the world building section is pure creative genius, not just for GM, but writers as well.


Excellent Source Material

5/5

I've been a gamer for nearly 30 years, and I've seen lots of products designed to assist Game Masters in designing their campaign worlds... My campaign world started as some simple notes on loose-leaf paper with some hand-drawn maps, and gradually became a living, breathing world...

This book contains lots of information I wished my fellows and I had had long ago. Now that I have revived my world and began building it back into a playable world, this book has certainly been helpful. Furthermore, most of my campaign was run in 1st Edition, then converted to 2nd Edition, then partially converted to 3rd Edition...

I love this book...


GM Guide > Sliced Bread

5/5

I am constantly trying to improve my own skills as a DM and a book like this may come across to some as a ploy for Paizo to just milk more money out of you for stuff you already know, but it is definitely not.

To say the least, it is packed full of practical, insightful, and constructive information that will really help you along the way. It is a delight read and no matter how long you've been gaming, this book really does have something for everyone.

Also, any book that has a Drugs and Addiction section is evidence that they sat down and thought EVERYTHING out to help their players. Plus, some of my PCs need help...


Game Mastery Guide Review

5/5

This is the book on how to design and build not only adventures, but the world. What an amazing resource for any GM or player. The info in here is pertinent to just about any genre and game system.


Thirty Five Years Later, and It Still Gets My Creativity Flowing.


This is hands down the best tool a Dungeon Master could have. I have seen them all, and Paizo does it right...finally! Check out my full review Game Mastery Guide


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Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Mike Godwin Was Right.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Stay on target, folks. I don't want to have to remove posts here.

The Exchange

Loving that list of additional rules for likes like sanity and such. Big Ravenloft fan so very interested in seeing things like Fear/Horror/Madness rules for Pathfinder. And this comes out right around my birthday, so thats good timing for me!


Since I cleaned them out of the other thread, I'll clean them out of this one. Please keep (polite) religious discussions to the Off Topic forums. Please do not append your posts with religious-themed quotes that are only going to spark such discussions (whether you intended them to or not). We're all gamers here and we have a vastly different set of political and religious backgrounds between us and the last thing product discussion threads need are arguments on the subject of theism.


Thank you Mr. Frost.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16

Just wondering since there is also an NPC book in the chronicles line, are there still going to be alot of them in this book? I know the description say over 100 stat blocks, but I was wondering if that might be out of date?

The Exchange

Kevin Mack wrote:
Ah well time to sell a kidney.

Seriously... I am really considering it.

Dark Archive

Joshua Gillette wrote:
Kevin Mack wrote:
Ah well time to sell a kidney.
Seriously... I am really considering it.

Why not, it does not have to be your kidney, does it?

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16

Richard Pett and I just sent in our chunk of this book. We had a lot of fun writing it, hopefully you guys will get some use out of it.

I can tell you first hand that all the rumors about Mr. P.** are true.

** I'm still not sure why he insisted that I refer to him as "Mr. P.", or why he chose to call me "Cupcake" but perhaps for someone with his Olympian intellect it all made perfect sense.

Contributor

Enough cupcake, back to your cellar, your work for the time being is done and you have done well.

I am pleased.

Go now and enjoy your feast in the dark, but do not rest too easily, I may need you again soon...

MrP

Liberty's Edge

Probably too late in the development cycle to add my requests but I would like to throw in my 2 cents.

What I need in a Piazo RPG.

A down and dirty adventure / Creature toolkit that I can use to run my adventures. Stats for Guards/ Man at Arms/ Soldiers to throw at my party

Some kind of GM tool kit with common locations with maps. Eg Tavern (Small, Medium and Large) Church. Mannor house.

Environmental Hazards to add to the game and finally a guide to campaign design that breaks it down step by step.

Eg Starting a campaign section. A mid campaign section (How to take what you have built and tie it together into a stronger whole and finally a wrap up thread. Using the information that you gathered in the last step to tie it up so the players feel like they got there money's worth.)

How to customize published adventures (and not just to obligatory one paragraph description of how you can use pre published adventures.)

I would like a guide that takes you through how to take the adventure and make it your own, and also how to take an adventure that was sub par and give it a lift.

In short I want something that after many hours of digesting my players are going to really benefit from my having read this material.

So I may have touched a few things already in progress and if that is the case then I will be happy. I am wishing for the ultimate GM Book that gets so much use that it falls apart. Haven't found the book that hits that beat for me yet

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16

Richard Pett wrote:

Enough cupcake, back to your cellar, your work for the time being is done and you have done well.

I am pleased.

Go now and enjoy your feast in the dark, but do not rest too easily, I may need you again soon...

MrP

Yessir MrP. We've already talked about the codpiece so I understand your feelings on that.

But what about the red satin cape? Do I still need to wear that too?


This book sounds awesome. Im new to PF (just got my PFRPG core rulebook 2 days ago), but im fast becoming a fan.

For my part, I'd love to see haunts covered, magic item shops, constructions, and world building.

Keep up the fantastic work!


Aldoth wrote:

Probably too late in the development cycle to add my requests but I would like to throw in my 2 cents.

What I need in a Piazo RPG.

A down and dirty adventure / Creature toolkit that I can use to run my adventures. Stats for Guards/ Man at Arms/ Soldiers to throw at my party

Some kind of GM tool kit with common locations with maps. Eg Tavern (Small, Medium and Large) Church. Mannor house.

Environmental Hazards to add to the game and finally a guide to campaign design that breaks it down step by step.

Eg Starting a campaign section. A mid campaign section (How to take what you have built and tie it together into a stronger whole and finally a wrap up thread. Using the information that you gathered in the last step to tie it up so the players feel like they got there money's worth.)

How to customize published adventures (and not just to obligatory one paragraph description of how you can use pre published adventures.)

I would like a guide that takes you through how to take the adventure and make it your own, and also how to take an adventure that was sub par and give it a lift.

In short I want something that after many hours of digesting my players are going to really benefit from my having read this material.

So I may have touched a few things already in progress and if that is the case then I will be happy. I am wishing for the ultimate GM Book that gets so much use that it falls apart. Haven't found the book that hits that beat for me yet

Well, for generic Men At Arms and such, there's always TONS of 3.0/3.5 stuff out there. The 3.5 DMG had a lot of generic NPCs available that can be run pretty much as written in 3.75. That's the beauty of Pathfinder, almost all of the 3.5 stuff applies.

If you go to the Gamemastery section of this site, there are tons of maps available already for generic maps and locations and that sort of thing. And DrivethruRPG.com has even more.

(Though a compilation of the Maps of Mystery from Dungeon would be nice...)

Environmantal Hazards are, for the most part, already covered in most of the books (what else do you need, exactly). As for how to bring a campaign together, there are lots of resources for that,m though it sounds like this book will cover a lot of that.

Anything else, ask us here. There are lots of experienced GMs to rely on.

Contributor

Hal Maclean wrote:
Richard Pett wrote:

Enough cupcake, back to your cellar, your work for the time being is done and you have done well.

I am pleased.

Go now and enjoy your feast in the dark, but do not rest too easily, I may need you again soon...

MrP

Yessir MrP. We've already talked about the codpiece so I understand your feelings on that.

But what about the red satin cape? Do I still need to wear that too?

NO!

No capes!

The tiara - bring me my tiara!

Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games

Rusty Ironpants wrote:
Just wondering since there is also an NPC book in the chronicles line, are there still going to be alot of them in this book? I know the description say over 100 stat blocks, but I was wondering if that might be out of date?

The final number was actually 112.

112 punishing statblocks, from Village Idiot to Archmage and all points in between.

So.

Many.

Statblocks.

But they're done! Woohoo!

The Exchange

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Jason Nelson wrote:

The final number was actually 112.

112 punishing statblocks, from Village Idiot to Archmage and all points in between.

So.

Many.

Statblocks.

But they're done! Woohoo!

You have done a man's work, sir. <applause>


You Paizo people are just trying to make us fans go bankrupt, aren't you?

*walks off muttering as he puts another title on the 'gotta get it' list*

Liberty's Edge

Erik Mona wrote:

I dunno about whore tables. I think to be more inclusive we'd have to include things like charming catamite and desperate addict. And I think it would piss off as many people as it would impress. Not sure.

Oddly enough, the first edition DM's guide had such a table! It also had a table for tyes of torture implements in a torture chamber. Wel it pretty much had a table for everything!

Liberty's Edge

Okay back on topic:
1) Add my vote for Mass Combat and Naval Combat (Heck, including Aerial Combat in a fantasy setting would be super cool!).

2) I would also like to add my vote for trade rules as well. Quick Link Interactive's Traveller 20 had great rules for that! I am sure that could be used as a base.

3) Furthermore, I have to agree with others who talked about handling Ye Olde Magik Shoppe and what not.


This is the type of book i always wanted.
MINE ALL MINE


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Where is picture of cover?

I had to go to Amazon to see it!

Kizan


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Kizan wrote:

Where is picture of cover?

Right here.


I can't see the image, it won't load for me.

Dark Archive

The image link is broken.

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

Interesting, I've been able to see the link since I first logged on this morning ... ::shrug::

Silver Crusade

That is one hell of a cover.

thank you for having WAR do the covers on the 3 core Pf rulebooks!!

RM


And I'm pretty sure he's doing the APG, I'll need to have them all for that alone!

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

Glad to see an old foe reappear. That is a beautiful cover. Can't wait for this book - you can always find something in a book like this, even after 24 years of playing and DMing.


Hahaha :)
yepp looks awsome, and will get one asap !!

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
vagrant-poet wrote:
And I'm pretty sure he's doing the APG, I'll need to have them all for that alone!

I second that!

I just find myself saying "Wow!" to everything he's done for Pathfinder.

The Exchange

Wow that is an awesome cover. amongst all the detail and paraphenalia of an archmage tyrant, I find myself liking one small detail above all the others. By his left hand on a little stand is a tall frosted glass with a straw sticking out of it! I just love that amongst all his power and secrets that his matery of Greed has brought him, he has this small concession to a more basic need/comfort. Really nice touch.

Liberty's Edge

I like!

Sweet cover.

Sean

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Brakkart wrote:
Wow that is an awesome cover. amongst all the detail and paraphenalia of an archmage tyrant, I find myself liking one small detail above all the others. By his left hand on a little stand is a tall frosted glass with a straw sticking out of it! I just love that amongst all his power and secrets that his matery of Greed has brought him, he has this small concession to a more basic need/comfort. Really nice touch.

But it also shows that he'll only go so far in that direction, as he didn't opt for a bendy straw.

Dark Archive

All i got too say is WHY ISNT IT OUT NOW!!!!!!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Dreadnok wrote:
All i got too say is WHY ISNT IT OUT NOW!!!!!!

You mean apart from the fact that's it's still being written?

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Vic Wertz wrote:
Dreadnok wrote:
All i got too say is WHY ISNT IT OUT NOW!!!!!!
You mean apart from the fact that's it's still being written?

Always ready with an excuse, aren't you, Vic?


I absolutely cannot wait for this book! So far I'm loving all the optional rules it's going to include for chases, insanity and world building. I'd like to second the motion to take a look at some sort of (Dawn of Worlds style) player cooperative dungeon/world-building rules...and I don't know if this would be better suited for a future "Playermastery Guide" but a plot/personality mechanic like Spiritual Attributes that PC's can use to buff their characters when the story calls for it would be a nice option that would help to facilitate good role-playing.


Yeah XD
mmmhhhh how will i explain this to the wife O.o


*sigh* Ordering now....

Scarab Sages

This looks like another PDF for me...


When to 'cheat'. That's certainly a matter of opinion, since my idea usual opinion is 'don't'. Even as a GM.


Wow! This alone would make the book worth it!

*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

Liberty's Edge

Bummer moved to May from Feb. Oh well means they are guaranteeing a quality product.

Sean

Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games

thenorthman wrote:

Bummer moved to May from Feb. Oh well means they are guaranteeing a quality product.

Sean

And guaranteeing those eventual paychecks will be coming a little later than hoped (since they come AFTER publication). Alas... :(

Liberty's Edge

Is this gonna be the final artwork for the cover? I hope so, Lookin forward to this one!


I am very happy to see that they are going to cover the subject of solo campaigns!

Paizo Employee CEO

Attic whisperer wrote:
Is this gonna be the final artwork for the cover? I hope so, Lookin forward to this one!

Yep, final art!

-Lisa


I love you Paizo!!! and my God everyone is right! You are so good at what you do you ARE gonna leave us all broke! but atleast you won't be releasing the books for a while, so I can save up my money, and soak all this great stuff you've already given!

((Suck up, I know :-P ))

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