GM Gems A Tome of Inspiration for Fantasy Game Masters

GM Gems Volume 1: A Collection of Game Master Inspiration is a book of tables and bits of lore. These charts are broken up into three chapters; urban experience, getting there is half the fun, and the dungeon. The book is firmly based in the fantasy genre. The charts use D&D terminology when game mechanics are mentioned at all.

The PDF is packed with bookmarks. Interior art is sparse. The book is in black and white. The cover is a full color fantastic piece done by William O’Connor and is a great match for the PC Pearls book. To use the table, find one that fits the situation (or just page through them for inspiration) and roll. For example, if I want something to happen on the dockside, I roll the old d% and get 49, bilge water pumped from a merchant ship contains strange, multi-legged crustaceans.

The bits of lore vary. For example, we get some local folktales and the truth behind the myths. For example, Eating Garlic in a certain fashion protects those who enter the swamp from the curse known as “Nathus’ Doom.” You get a section called Truth and Adventure Hook. The truth in this case is that the curse is a parasite and that the garlic does nothing but the alcohol in the combination, kills the parasite. The adventure hook has a local priest going into the swamp relying on faith alone and talking other people into going with him. Will the players stand by? The only bad thing about the different bits is that there are no maps. A shame because something like the Black Dragon Inn, described under Unique Taverns and Inns, is a hexagonal tower with six levels. Would’ve been nice to see.

I found the bits of lore more useful than the tables. The tables, while useful in quick situations that may require more little details, aren’t really anything I haven’t seen in one form of another in my many years of gaming. For new players and new game masters however, needing a quick NPC frill is a simple roll of the dice where you can discover that with a roll of 83, the NPC has a robe with dried medicinal plants woven into it. Due to their nature, some of the tables will see multiple uses like What’s In Those Pockets or rolling up some Inn names. Find out that at the Tired Troll, the guy you just robbed had dice carved from bone.

Time pressed GMs will find themselves printing out certain pages for use again and again. With it’s PDF price being almost half that of the print version, the PDF is a solid value.