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DM/GM Advice Books
- Thread starter Falstaff
- Start date
how about a thread? See http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?47525-DMing-Advice-(Links-fixed-July-20-2008!)
SunGold
First Post
The Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide is old but edition-neutral and still full of great advice.
Merlin the Tuna
First Post
Best GM advice I've ever seen has been the GM rules for Dungeon World. I'm madly in love with the system as a whole, but even if it doesn't ultimately scratch your personal RPG itch, the rules-light-ness of it makes it easy to port the principles to other systems.
Wicht
Hero
Its hard to know what to advise without knowing what you have or what sort of advice you are wanting.
One of my favorites is the Villain Design Handbook from Kenzer and Company. The Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide has some good stuff in it, and I've heard some good things about the 4e DM's book. The AD&D DM's Guide by Gygax is an old staple still worth reading, and then for a slightly different take, you can read some of the old World of Darkness books on a more story-telling approach to running a game.
Also, Green Ronin's Advanced Gamemaster's manual has some interesting stuff in it.
The best thing a DM can do though is simply run games and practice trying different things to get a feel for what works for you. Nothing beats actual experience.
One of my favorites is the Villain Design Handbook from Kenzer and Company. The Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide has some good stuff in it, and I've heard some good things about the 4e DM's book. The AD&D DM's Guide by Gygax is an old staple still worth reading, and then for a slightly different take, you can read some of the old World of Darkness books on a more story-telling approach to running a game.
Also, Green Ronin's Advanced Gamemaster's manual has some interesting stuff in it.
The best thing a DM can do though is simply run games and practice trying different things to get a feel for what works for you. Nothing beats actual experience.
Campbell
Relaxed Intensity
It's hard to say without knowing what games or at least which sort of games you plan to run. GMing isn't necessarily a transferable skill. The set of techniques it takes to run one game can often be different than another. Whatever game you plan to run I recommend Game Storming. It's a collection of cool little games which help people to communicate and collaborate. Opening a game session with one can really get things going in gear and everyone primed to play. The one constant between different games is that you need to have the ability to effectively lead the group - not to tell your players what to do, but to facilitate play. Learning a bit about different styles of leadership is a highly transferable skill that a GM should possess. The 5 Levels of Leadership is a good place to start learning about leading people effectively.
