New GM / Must have books

[zackesch]

Hello all. I have started a group this past Friday. It was a character building day for the new players and a general get to know each other. The 27th will be Black Fangs Dungeon. All at the table except for one is completely new to RPG. Myself, I have played with a weekly D&D 5e group the past month and a half. I started the hobby with the intent to GM. And maybe later in the future become a DM for PFS.

The current books I own are as follows; Core Rulebook,Advanced Players Guide, Bestiary 1, Game Master Guide, and Saturday I picked up the Strategy Guide as a table copy. I also have the contents of the latest humble bundle upto the 15 dollar tier. I also down the Beginner Box.

There are other books I have in mind such as the Inner Sea Guide and the Ultimate books. I know I do not need them at the moment, but will add as time goes on, "I like my options." Are there any other books you yourself have found useful?

[GoblinDog]

I have found the NPC Codex and Villain Codex to be really useful when I don't have time to make my own villains/NPCs. NPC Codex has pre-made characters for all core classes levels 1-20. NPC classes, Prestige classes, and pre-generated PCs but the levels aren't 1-20. The Villain Codex has lots of other useful information for you to use.

Lastly, Ultimate Campaign has been really useful for me. It compiles all different types of traits, Kingdom building rules, and a system for using downtime. Great book if you plan on bringing any of that stuff into your game.

[zackesch]

I do have a copy of Ultimate Campaign, the pdf version thanks to the humble bundle. I haven't had the chance to read through it yet.

[CrystalSeas]

zackesch wrote:

I do have a copy of Ultimate Campaign, the pdf version thanks to the humble bundle. I haven't had the chance to read through it yet.

Remember that Pathfinder rules are free-to-read right here on the Paizo site.

In the left column, look for "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game".
Click "Rules Archive (PRD).

There you can find all of the following books in electronic (but not PDF) form:

It's called "Rules Archive (PRD)"
Rules Archive

Core Rule Book
Advanced Class Guide
Advanced Player's Guide
Advanced Race Guide
Bestiaries (all)
Game Mastery Guide
Monster Codex
Mythic Adventures
NPC Codex
Pathfinder Unchained
Occult Adventures
Ultimate Campaign
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Equipment
Ultimate Magic
Technology Guide

So you can look through everything and see which ones you need first, and which ones you don't use often enough to make a 'right-away' priority

[Rennaivx]

I'd focus on setting-specific material that pertains to you and your group - as CrystalSeas pointed out, much of the rules information is available for free online. As far as rules texts go, as CrystalSeas suggests, find the books that have the material you're most interested in, then use online resources for the rest.

The big one if you're interested in the Inner Sea setting is the Inner Sea World Guide - it's a one-book compilation of basic information about the entire setting, and it's enough material to work with for a good long while. And it's good material; I've read through the book a couple of times just for amusement. Inner Sea Gods is another very good hardcover if your group is into religiously-inclined characters, and it helps to flesh out a lot of day-to-day life in the setting.

[zackesch]

Good point on the SRD. I have d20PFSRD bookmarked, but I haven't look through Paizo's official one yet. I am also of the mindset that I don't mind spending a few bucks on the PDF to support Paizo, and if its useful at the table, buy a paper copy. Also, with me entertaining the thought of GMing PFS, I need watermarked PDF's or paper copies.

I do agree with your line of thinking using the online sources until a purchased copy is warranted. Thanks for the tip, my wallet thanks you too.

[Mark Carlson 255]

If you have the income I would get some electronic PC gen support to speed up PC/NPC and monster creation as that can be an intensive task.

MDC

[Ascalaphus]

Well you've got many of the essential books already. In fact I'd consider only the Core Rulebook and Bestiary 1 to be essential. Most of the hardcovers are nice to have though.

I'd recommend putting the Inner Sea World Guide on the top of your wishlist. It's the heart of the setting, very attractive laid out and includes a neat big map as well. The sections on each part of the Inner Sea are really written to spark ideas for adventuring in all kinds of different places and ways.

After that, I like the Advanced Class Guide (these classes tend to strike a better balance between in- and out- of combat participation) and Pathfinder Unchained (rogue and monk).

I think Inner Sea Gods is probably the prettiest book Paizo's published. It's got really spectacular artwork. If you're not completely distracted by that, the deity articles are also very setting-enriching.

[bitter lily]

As a new GM, I'm reading this thread with interest. Inner Sea Gods has now made my wishlist -- thanks for the convincing pitch.

I can tell the OP that I've found the Inner Sea World Guide very helpful. And that I'm really impressed with the Advanced Class Guide's classes, and have had several recommended for newbie players. (Bloodrager & Slayer, specifically.)

Mark, what electronic gen support do you recommend?

[Mark Carlson 255]

I do not recommend any as I tend to do things the old fashion way by hand or just estimate it on the fly. I also do not do a lot of Path Finder stuff but I am advising a two GM's right now running PF games.
Why? Well I often do strange things with the PC creation rules and they can be quite tough to implement with various software packages and so if i do not use it for PC's then I generally just end up winging it for the monsters also.

But I know quite a few people that love Hero Lab and have dropped a small fortune for quite a few of their products across various game lines.
I also know quite a few PF GM's that say some form of e-support makes a huge difference in the amount of time they have to spend prep'ing for their game.
Note: You do not have to print the files on paper, you can just print the files to a file and pull it up on an e-device and make notes on paper from there. But having said that quite a few of the GM's just print out the info and suck up the paper and ink costs as the price of doing business (gaming that is).

So try the free ones out and see if they meet your needs and if they do not then look into the pay to play e-support options out there. See if some have a free test period to see if you like the things it does and find out what it does not do before you buy as I know in the past I have bought stuff that I thought was going to be a big help to later find out it was not that useful or it simply required so much "learning" on my part that the 100+ hours of learning the program was not a big time saver for me.

MDC

[Mark Carlson 255]

I should also say if you are running a module check out if others have run it for you and see if they have done some of the work for you and will share what they have done.

For Example:
I think the Order Of the Amber Die who is running the Strange Eon's AP right now might have suggestions on where they had trouble as GM and players and how they might/would/did adapt monsters to their liking as well as errata they found and just plain good advice.

MDC