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Please suggest me some books about DM advices
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<blockquote data-quote="Ondath" data-source="post: 8919561" data-attributes="member: 7031770"><p>Seconding Guy's book! He seems like swell fellow and I really enjoy his Youtube channel.</p><p></p><p>A less likeable fellow who still gives excellent advice is <strong>The Angry GM</strong>. His whole "writing like a pretentious a!@#*?$ who still uses grawlix like a PG comic" gets tiring incredibly quickly, and his blog has dropped in quality as he pivoted away from his strong suit of giving intuitive advice and tried to make robust systems (which he struggles with). His general attitude and some of his expressed political views also give me pause in supporting him. That said, his book <strong>Game Angry: How to RPG the Angry Way </strong>is genuinely filled with good advice, and the follow-up adventure book <strong>Fall of Silverpine Watch</strong> has an excellent layout and offers a really good tutorial module for teaching new players how to play and teaching new GMs how to GM.</p><p></p><p><s><strong>Sly Flourish</strong>'s book <strong>The Lazy DM</strong> also has some useful advice, though I don't like the particular "by-the-seat-of-your-pants" style GMing that he proposes. I believe there were several follow up books, so if his style meshes with yours, you can check those out as well. </s>I noticed you already mention The Lazy DM only after posting this! Oh well...</p><p></p><p>Other than that, I'd suggest not looking specifically for GM advice books, but simply exploring more game systems to expand your horizons. While different systems might not give advice specific for running D&D, learning a new system and checking out the GMing advice they give is fairly useful. It's like becoming fluent in another language: It expands your linguistic horizons so you can do more in your mother tongue as well.</p><p></p><p>Specifically, here's the systems I'd suggest you check out:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you'd like to see more simulationist suggestions on how to DM, read <strong>D&D 3.5's Dungeon Master's Guide</strong>. It contains subsystems and suggestions on making a living, breathing campaign world that follows the game's own rules (which don't entirely correspond to 5E, granted), and 5E's DMG is incredibly shallow compared to what 3.5 offers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you want to discover more old-school play of simulating the world or making dungeon delving a logistics challenge, check out the <strong>Old School Renaissance (OSR) subculture.</strong> There are dozens and dozens of retroclones of older D&D editions that have a completely different philosophy than modern D&D, and even if it's not your cup of tea, understanding where some rules come from can help you better use them in your modern games. Some games to look out for are <strong>Old School Essentials</strong>, <strong>Worlds Without Number</strong> (it has excellent GMing tools!) and <strong>Electric Bastionland</strong> (the way this game conceptualises map design is nothing short of game changing!). I'd also strongly suggest reading Matthew J. Finch's <a href="https://friendorfoe.com/d/Old%20School%20Primer.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming</strong></a>, which is like a 13-page manifesto that summarises the core tenets of the OSR gaming style.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I never grasped it myself, but a lot of people say <strong>Dungeon World</strong> really helped improve the way they DM. It's a narrativist game (so the rules are less concerned about simulating the world and more about distributing power between the GM and the players to help them create interesting stories in the moment), so it's different from D&D's usual style. That said, its GM advice on Fronts (basically abstract ways of imagining the forces opposing the PCs) as well as Moves (specific tools the GM can use to advance the story) can be quite useful. I haven't grokked its rule system yet so I can't say I'm a big fan of it, but it's definitely worth checking out. Also one disclaimer: one of the co-creators of the game (Adam Koebel) has been pretty much exiled from the gaming community for some unacceptable behaviour, but the other creator seems like a good dude.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ondath, post: 8919561, member: 7031770"] Seconding Guy's book! He seems like swell fellow and I really enjoy his Youtube channel. A less likeable fellow who still gives excellent advice is [B]The Angry GM[/B]. His whole "writing like a pretentious a!@#*?$ who still uses grawlix like a PG comic" gets tiring incredibly quickly, and his blog has dropped in quality as he pivoted away from his strong suit of giving intuitive advice and tried to make robust systems (which he struggles with). His general attitude and some of his expressed political views also give me pause in supporting him. That said, his book [B]Game Angry: How to RPG the Angry Way [/B]is genuinely filled with good advice, and the follow-up adventure book [B]Fall of Silverpine Watch[/B] has an excellent layout and offers a really good tutorial module for teaching new players how to play and teaching new GMs how to GM. [S][B]Sly Flourish[/B]'s book [B]The Lazy DM[/B] also has some useful advice, though I don't like the particular "by-the-seat-of-your-pants" style GMing that he proposes. I believe there were several follow up books, so if his style meshes with yours, you can check those out as well. [/S]I noticed you already mention The Lazy DM only after posting this! Oh well...[S][/S] Other than that, I'd suggest not looking specifically for GM advice books, but simply exploring more game systems to expand your horizons. While different systems might not give advice specific for running D&D, learning a new system and checking out the GMing advice they give is fairly useful. It's like becoming fluent in another language: It expands your linguistic horizons so you can do more in your mother tongue as well. Specifically, here's the systems I'd suggest you check out: [LIST] [*]If you'd like to see more simulationist suggestions on how to DM, read [B]D&D 3.5's Dungeon Master's Guide[/B]. It contains subsystems and suggestions on making a living, breathing campaign world that follows the game's own rules (which don't entirely correspond to 5E, granted), and 5E's DMG is incredibly shallow compared to what 3.5 offers. [*]If you want to discover more old-school play of simulating the world or making dungeon delving a logistics challenge, check out the [B]Old School Renaissance (OSR) subculture.[/B] There are dozens and dozens of retroclones of older D&D editions that have a completely different philosophy than modern D&D, and even if it's not your cup of tea, understanding where some rules come from can help you better use them in your modern games. Some games to look out for are [B]Old School Essentials[/B], [B]Worlds Without Number[/B] (it has excellent GMing tools!) and [B]Electric Bastionland[/B] (the way this game conceptualises map design is nothing short of game changing!). I'd also strongly suggest reading Matthew J. Finch's [URL='https://friendorfoe.com/d/Old%20School%20Primer.pdf'][B]A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming[/B][/URL], which is like a 13-page manifesto that summarises the core tenets of the OSR gaming style. [*]I never grasped it myself, but a lot of people say [B]Dungeon World[/B] really helped improve the way they DM. It's a narrativist game (so the rules are less concerned about simulating the world and more about distributing power between the GM and the players to help them create interesting stories in the moment), so it's different from D&D's usual style. That said, its GM advice on Fronts (basically abstract ways of imagining the forces opposing the PCs) as well as Moves (specific tools the GM can use to advance the story) can be quite useful. I haven't grokked its rule system yet so I can't say I'm a big fan of it, but it's definitely worth checking out. Also one disclaimer: one of the co-creators of the game (Adam Koebel) has been pretty much exiled from the gaming community for some unacceptable behaviour, but the other creator seems like a good dude. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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