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APG, UM, UC, ARG.
Player options. Yep, they're good for NPC building too; although I'll offer that they don't have the same luster for the GM, who can simply make NPCs happen the way she wants.
The APG and UM are great books, and I'm certain that UC and the ARG will be also. But I can't keep up with all of these new options.
I think the GMs need some love. Books to help them run the game.
To that end, I submit the following as books that I would buy in a heartbeat, even if it meant forgoing beer for a week or so (serious stuff):
Treasure generation sucks. We need a modular system to accommodate new treasure from new books, and to streamline the random generation process to account for how we actually need to place treasure in the game. Of course, the Treasury should compile items from the other books, include new item related rules, and maybe (hope against hope) a retooling of the craft rules.
Lots and lots of tables would be great, but only if they aid the GM. We really need to remove dead-end rolls from the treasure gen system. They're infuriating.
Statblocks. Site maps for prisons, town halls, temples, and other sites where NPCs lurk. Improved and expanded mechanics for social gameplay. A full-fledged contact system.
13th-20th toolbox for GMs. In depth analysis of villain tactics, game changer spells, and adventure design. Optional rules to hack the game without changing the outcome (I always point to Trailblazer's iterative attack hackjob as a perfect example of what I'm looking for here). Of course, a chapter on 21st+ play as a teaser/pilot.
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Any thoughts? Support/opposition to these ideas? Ideas of your own for GM support books?
I'd prefer if we dodge the default conversation about "hating new books" and "boycotting the game" and all that. I'm a customer, and I'm saying what I want, you should too.
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Any thoughts? Support/opposition to these ideas? Ideas of your own for GM support books?I'd prefer if we dodge the default conversation about "hating new books" and "boycotting the game" and all that. I'm a customer, and I'm saying...
13th-20th toolbox for GMs. In depth analysis of villain tactics, game changer spells, and adventure design. Optional rules to hack the game without changing the outcome (I always point to Trailblazer's iterative attack hackjob as a perfect example of what I'm looking for here). Of course, a chapter on 21st+ play as a teaser/pilot.
All three of your proposals sound fantastic, EvilLincoln, and I would snap those up in a heartbeat were they to come out (whereas I am sometimes reluctant to pick up largely player option books).
I would also like to see a . The GMG just brushes the surface of world and campaign building, and I would love to see something that really gets into the nitty gritty about building worlds, from small towns to huge metropolises to dark and scary wildernesses... and of course, the oft requested stronghold building guidelines. Special attention to how FANTASY elements effect world building--how does magic affect politics, espionage, commerce, etc.
I just hope somewhere in one of those (maybe treasury or worldbuilding guide) there are tools in there to help a dm dial up or down wealth, magic, and magic items.
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+1 to all of this, and I will submit another:
A guidebook for creating creatures, templates and encounters. Creature and template building supported by special ability/attack/aspects all tied to a point valuation system. A guide that helps tweak or modify creatures to support boss or solo variants to deal with action economy (vs. telling DMs to just "add more dudes") while still staying within the pathfinder mechanics. Reskinning monsters and encounters on the fly, also a few (very few) advanced or detailed templates (think Green Ronin's AMG) and how to create (score) your own.
And yes on the low magic support.
Wouldn't hurt to also offer up some tools on running classic style games: slower advancement (1st ed w/no treasure xp, or 2nd eds slower advancement), older edition style fights (again, mitigating action economy vs. 3rd ed/PFRPG damage output) and lower magic requirements and expectations. Not a re-write per se, but a sum of alternate rules/parts that can be put together to form a very different style of game.
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Good Stuff...
I would love, love to have a treasure building guide. Its rather time consuming to create treasures for a large dungeon or a high level horde, like a dragon's horde, and these would help quite a bit.
The biggest request I have would be for a list of male and female names for each nationality and race that could be ripped off and used on the fly. Nothing is worse that trying to come up with 4 names quickly for the 3rd time that game session, because the players want to know the names of the guards of a caravan or the like. This is my biggest PITA at the moment, because its hard to come up with some other than Tom, Bill, Dave, Johan, or Sven after the gazillioneth name. My players are always trying to find out the name of every barkeep and roadside traveler, so it removes the immersion somewhat if I have to stop or I come up with a dumb name. Right now, I made a list of very common names, so I fall back on those when in doubt.. for instance, my players are starting to notice there are a lot of Janeen's in the game atm hehe..
I think there is room in the Paizo offerings for a regular GM meta-tool type offering, in other words tools to help a GM be better at their role in the game vs fodder for adventures or stories. Things like expanding on some of the small entries in the GMs guide in more detail, tips on making your NPCs come to life, etc. I know there is 3rd party stuff out there for these, and also some stuff in the GMG, but... more please?
It sounded like the current staff is stretched pretty tight as far as how many quality publications can go out the door per month (based on what I heard from podcasts of seminars at PaizoCon), etc, but even if it were something like a quarterly 32 pager GM toolkit type offering, I would love it and insta-subscribe.
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redcelt32, have you checked out the Random Name Generator at Behind the Name? One of the tricks I use is generate a whole bunch of NPC names ahead of time and keep it in my GM notebook and scratch names off as I go.
Evil Lincoln certianly has some good ideas up there. But I will also admit a really like the player option stuff too.
Evil Lincoln certianly has some good ideas up there. But I will also admit a really like the player option stuff too.
All I ask is that one in six hardcovers be earmarked for non-bestiary GM/Campaign stuff. The GMG was a good start, but it was also necessarily elementary.
Making every system fit into feats and spells does become problematic. I really do wish that some things would just be optional subsystems... you know, GM-country.
Anyway, I promised I wouldn't get caught up debating the merits of GM vs player books. Let me just say that I don't begrudge the player books, but I am feeling a little neglected as a GM is all.
Just pointing out that while PCs do have many books (APG, UM, UC, ARG), GMs currently have just as many: GMG, Beastiary, BII, BIII. That's 4 books for each side of the table.
Also, even though it is much more setting and much less crunch: ISWG.
Are these the same as the books you are asking for? No, they clearly aren't, and I'm not arguing that they are. But it's disingenuous to say GMs are getting no love in terms of books. What you should be arguing is that GMs are getting plenty of love in the "here are some new monsters to throw at them" territory, and you'd like the love to be directed elsewhere.
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Statblocks. Site maps for prisons, town halls, temples, and other sites where NPCs lurk. Improved and expanded mechanics for social gameplay. A full-fledged contact system.
13th-20th toolbox for GMs. In depth analysis of villain tactics, game changer spells, and adventure design. Optional rules to hack the game without changing the outcome (I always point to Trailblazer's iterative attack hackjob as a perfect example of what I'm looking for here). Of course, a chapter on 21st+ play as a teaser/pilot.-
Any thoughts? Support/opposition to these ideas? Ideas of your own for GM support books?
I'd prefer if we dodge the default conversation about "hating new books" and "boycotting the game" and all that. I'm a customer, and I'm saying...
Dears gods please release a NPC book. the other few are fine (and i own them) but i want real in depth npcs with a wide variety of levels and a wide variety of stat blocks! Almost all my prep is taken making stupid npcs and it drives me insane! Not just some flimsy book either! i could easily use a book the size of the apg just full of npcs!
A epic level book would be cool to :)
Yes, yes, and yes, put me down as a certain customer for all three of those books, especially high level play and the NPC book.
All three of your proposals sound fantastic, EvilLincoln, and I would snap those up in a heartbeat were they to come out (whereas I am sometimes reluctant to pick up largely player option books).
I would also like to see a . The GMG just brushes the surface of world and campaign building, and I would love to see something that really gets into the nitty gritty about building worlds, from small towns to huge metropolises to dark and scary wildernesses... and of course, the oft requested stronghold building guidelines. Special attention to how FANTASY elements effect world building--how does magic affect politics, espionage, commerce, etc.
I would love a world builder guide so much, particularly if it presented stuff on dealing with intrigue and politcs in a fantasy world. *nods*
Preferences:
Pathfinder Treasury - I wouldn't buy the physical copy, but I'd definitely pick up a pdf if a section were dedicated to nonmagical treasure. I exclude so many magical items from my games that a book filled with variable magic loot generators wouldn't interest me unless there's an equipment table.
GameMastery Guide to NPCs - Sure. More stat blocks (and generators, of course) would mean less work.
GameMastery Guide to High-level Play - Include some variant systems and I'm game.
New Suggestions:
Urban Campaign Guidebook - Highly detailed city layouts, design aids, random building generators, random encounter chart based on certain themes, etc. Rarely do any of my games spend more than two or three sessions in the wild; this I would buy both print and (if I'm not subscribed to the main line yet) pdf.
Planar/Planet Campaign Guidebook - As above, but focusing on planar and interplanetary adventures. I think both types should be combined into one title to avoid scaring away their traditional-fantasy customer base.
Non-combat Encounter Guidebook - The majority of the core focuses on combat scenarios; skill-based challenges are touched on, but that's all. I think this would be very helpful to burgeoning GMs that want to run something besides Horde-Killin'-Dragon-Slaying-Adventure-of-the-Week, yet have no idea where to begin and feel they must depend on published adventures. I remember Mr. Jacobs (I think, 90% sure) mentioning something about wanting to write How-To guides for romance, horror, and mystery campaigns; any of these would be of great interest to me.
Non-combat Encounter Guidebook - The majority of the core focuses on combat scenarios; skill-based challenges are touched on, but that's all. I think this would be very helpful to burgeoning GMs that want to run something besides Horde-Killin'-Dragon-Slaying-Adventure-of-the-Week, yet have no idea where to begin and feel they must depend on published adventures. I remember Mr. Jacobs (I think, 90% sure) mentioning something about wanting to write How-To guides for romance, horror, and mystery campaigns; any of these would be of great interest to me.
Please soo much this. I would buy this and pre-order it right away if this was to be done. I want more non-combat stuff and this would be helpful to the nth degree.Romance, horror and mystery would be great topics to cover in a gm's guide and I would buy them in heartbeat. yes I said that twice but I do love this product idea.
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redcelt32, have you checked out the Random Name Generator at Behind the Name? One of the tricks I use is generate a whole bunch of NPC names ahead of time and keep it in my GM notebook and scratch names off as I go.
Thank you, thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for. I used to have a couple of dos applications and websites that I used back in 2nd ed days, but those are either lost in the abyss or offline now.
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I think the GMs need some love. Books to help them run the game.
Treasure generation sucks. We need a modular system to accommodate new treasure from new books, and to streamline the random generation process to account for how we actually need to place treasure in the game. Of course, the Treasury should compile items from the other books, include new item related rules, and maybe (hope against hope) a retooling of the craft rules.Lots and lots of tables would be great, but only if they aid the GM. We really need to remove dead-end rolls from the treasure gen system. They're infuriating.
Statblocks. Site maps for prisons, town halls, temples, and other sites where NPCs lurk. Improved and expanded mechanics for social gameplay. A full-fledged contact system.
13th-20th toolbox for GMs. In depth analysis of villain tactics, game changer spells, and adventure design. Optional rules to hack the game without changing the outcome (I always point to Trailblazer's iterative attack hackjob as a perfect example of what I'm looking for here). Of course, a chapter on 21st+ play as a teaser/pilot.Any thoughts? Support/opposition to these ideas? Ideas of your own for GM support books?
From a business point of view, there are typically about four players per GM, so Paizo can sell higher volumes of player oriented material.
- I'm of the opinion that significant items should be chosen for your party, not determined randomly. The advancement rules expect a certain amount of wealth per level, so random distribution means that you're likely to have overgeared and undergeared players. The fix to that is easy access to purchase or craft magic items. Minor items generally end up being sold for the gold value, so you don't want to put too much effort into them.
- There is plenty of this material out there for Paizo and various editions of D&D. There are minor differences in classes/skills, but they generally aren't going to affect non-combat encounters. I can see your point in wanting to see such material - kind of like the plot hooks which have appeared in gaming magazines in the past - but I think this would be better as a Paizo overseen community effort, because I don't think it's worth the time for Paizo to develop it professionally.
- If you accept that player-oriented books will sell better than books aimed at the GM, how well do you expect a book which is aimed at a subset of GM's (those wanting to run high level campaigns) will sell?
The idea of offering campaign customization tools is an interesting one and I would likely buy it and any of these books which Paizo may publish to support Paizo, but I don't think it's the best use of the Paizo developer's time.
I'd like to see Pathfinder Horror and Pathfinder Modern. Horror is a major point in several of the Adventure Paths and new core book to tweak the existing classes/spells for a horror oriented campaign would seem to be an efficient use of Paizo resources to broaden the brand. A Pathfinder Modern setting would move the product into a new market segment and pave the way for Pathfinder Superheroes and Futures games. The basic idea is to leverage the Pathfinder system into a broader system which supports more genres than fantasy gaming.
Well, actually the NPCs are getting attention in form of adventures and books like Rival Guide and Faction Guide, but otherwise I'm all ears and eyes for the books like this...
GameMastery Guide to High-level Play - If you accept that player-oriented books will sell better than books aimed at the GM, how well do you expect a book which is aimed at a subset of GM's (those wanting to run high level campaigns) will sell?
I could see a lot of DMs buying this book to see if it would help them run high level campaigns. Most who shy away from them do so because they become unwieldy to manage. Fix that, and a lot more would be willing to run them.
- yes!
- yes!
All good suggestions. I would stick around another year for these tomes.
The suggested NPC tome deserves a special mention, as Paizo already has published NPC galleries in a couple of books. The NPC Gallery needs to be its own book, an indexed sturdy tome with at least 150 generic npcs.
When I need a generic npc, I need it fast, I cannot flip through 3-6 splats and probably not find the right statblock anyway. ...and I dont mind reprints.
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GameMastery Guide to High-level Play - If you accept that player-oriented books will sell better than books aimed at the GM, how well do you expect a book which is aimed at a subset of GM's (those wanting to run high level campaigns) will sell?I could see a lot of DMs buying this book to see if it would help them run high level campaigns. Most who shy away from them do so because they become unwieldy to manage. Fix that, and a lot more would be willing to run them.
It's certainly possible that a Guide to High Level Play would encourage GM's to run high level games. However, I think Paizo would be better served by putting out a high level Adventure Path, which could incorporate material to help the GM run high level games. That would have the advantage of providing specific examples to build on. It could also offer advice on starting characters above first level.
Note that the top three vote-getters are largely GM-oriented, and of the top 11 books (which I've pasted below), only 4 are largely player-oriented (Ultimate Adventure, APG2, Advanced Companion Guide and Advanced Equipment Guide).
37 21+-level Rulebook36 Gamemastery Guide 2 (levels 12-20, kingdom building, organizations, etc.)
33 Bestiary 4
26 Ultimate Adventure (skill-based adventuring and classes)
21 Ultimate Psionics
14 Advanced Players Guide 2 (classes, prestige classes, and additional material)
15 Pathfinder Alternative/Optional Rules10 Advanced Companion Guide
9 Kingdom Sourcebook (includes war/mass combat)
8 Advanced Equipment Guide (possibly including crafting/materials/classes and magic items)
8 Bestiary 5
It's certainly possible that a Guide to High Level Play would encourage GM's to run high level games. However, I think Paizo would be better served by putting out a high level Adventure Path, which could incorporate material to help the GM run high level games. That would have the advantage of providing specific examples to build on. It could also offer advice on starting characters above first level.GameMastery Guide to High-level Play - If you accept that player-oriented books will sell better than books aimed at the GM, how well do you expect a book which is aimed at a subset of GM's (those wanting to run high level campaigns) will sell?I could see a lot of DMs buying this book to see if it would help them run high level campaigns. Most who shy away from them do so because they become unwieldy to manage. Fix that, and a lot more would be willing to run them.
Why not do both? They could support each other's release.
Raging Swan Press
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Treasure generation sucks. We need a modular system to accommodate new treasure from new books, and to streamline the random generation process to account for how we actually need to place treasure in the game. Of course, the Treasury should compile items from the other books, include new item related rules, and maybe (hope against hope) a retooling of the craft rules.Lots and lots of tables would be great, but only if they aid the GM. We really need to remove dead-end rolls from the treasure gen system. They're infuriating.
Raging Swan is releasing just such a product next week! Snappily titled ""So What's For Sale, Anyway?" it presents 157 lists of what magic items are for sale in any given settlement the PCs might pass through or othrwise visit. You can check out the product's webpage for a couple of free samples or to get a look at the supplement's contents page.
I'd be delighted to get some feedback on how useful people find this supplement. While it doesn't push the design envelope of the game, I think it's a valuable addition to a GM's armoury none-the-less.
I echo all of Evil Lincoln's sentiments.
Sorry Paizo, now he's planted the seed I've decided I NEED this book.
Raise Thread
One down, two to go?
For my part, I think that the Gamemastery Guide to High-Level Play is fast approaching relevance. Maybe it's that my own Pathfinder campaign (the world's slowest-leveling) is now 13th level, and I want some shiney GM book love.
Raise Thread...
Two Down. :)
High level play next, please?
If it's not in the works with a name already, I humbly submit Legends as the title.
We're far enough along that many, many players are likely to have hit the ceiling of practical play. There may be many characters who have been languishing in campaigns that could be revived by such a book.
And I know James Jacobs wants to open the door for fighting demon lords and whatnot.
*crosses fingers*
One man's "practical play" is another's "low level" :)
Here here.
I like the idea of high level play, at present I refuse to run such a game unless forced to at gunpoint.
I'll gladly play though. Too bad no one else wants to do it either.
Oh, people do. I've even been part of a couple 3.5e convention games at 40th level. But typically we save the high-level stuff for the home campaign.
Maybe I'm just a bit behind, but which book is filling the NPC book slot that you wanted? I know about Ultimate Equipment, but I'm blanking on the other.
NPC Codex.
If the third one comes out, I am like freaking Nostradamus.
Pizzow!!