What makes a fantasy fantastic? Magic, of course! Whether it’s unearthly beasts, scheming sorcerers, legendary swords or locales that defy logic and physics, a compelling fantasy story needs magical elements. The tricky part is that in order for the story to work, you have to get your reader or player to believe the unbelievable.
The Kobold Guide to Magic takes you behind the scenes to learn the secrets of designing and writing about magic from 20 top fantasy authors and game designers. Find out how to create more compelling, more interesting, and more playable magic at your table or in your stories—with the word from some of the most talented creators working today.
Ruins of the Grendleroot is a book of ten short adventures for the fifth edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Designed for characters of 1st to 5th level, these adventures take place in the caverns, chambers, tunnels, and ruins of the mountain known as Blackclaw, within which lurks the Grendleroot—a strange and otherworldly sentience.
Ruins of the Grendleroot reinforces the sense of mystery and wonder that comes from exploring ancient ruins. The central hub of these adventures, Deepdelver’s Enclave, is a frontier outpost overlooking the ruined city of Shadowreach, set deep within the mountain. In Deepdelver’s Enclave, adventurers and explorers recount tales of their explorations, trade treasure and artifacts, and enjoy their shared love of uncovering the mysteries of the mountain.
Five years ago, The Lazy Dungeon Master offered a simplifed approach for preparing fantasy RPGs with one clear directive: prepare only what most benefits our games. This focus on lightweight preparation and improvisational preparation resonated with many GMs.
With the release of the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, the world of fantasy roleplaying has changed and expanded. Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master builds off of the concepts of The Lazy Dungeon Master, updating that book with five years of new experiences, new approaches, and new observations of the way people prepare and run RPGs.
Has your game got the blahs? Are your players spending more time thumbing through your book collection than hunting down clues, more energy heckling one another than in crushing their cruel foes?
Never fear, o beleaguered Game Masters, for Robin D. Laws, noted game designer (Feng Shui, Hero Wars, Dying Earth, Rune) and columnist for Dragon magazine is here to help.
Know your players! Analyze your system! Build your campaign! Design adventures! Prepare to be spontaneous, and improvise like a fiend!
Whether you're a beginner or an experienced roller of the polyhedrals, the insights in this book will improve your Game Mastering faster than you can say, "Roll for initiative!
Designers & Dragons: The ’70s is a comprehensive picture of the beginnings of the RPG industry. This second edition expands the original single book into a series of four, and we’ve added over 50,000 new words to this volume alone. Learn about the colorful history of TSR and the wave of D&D inspired games (and gaming companies) to follow, and dip your toes into wargaming trivia. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline’s meticulously researched history won’t disappoint.
Six of the best, and most opinionated Cyberpunk referee's gather together with creator Mike Pondsmith to bring their best advice on how to make your tabletop Dark Future game epic.
How to Start a Campaign, How to Handle Problem Players, and How to Use Character Background to Generate Story and much, much more!
So, grab your mirrorshades and your netrunner's deck, choomba, 'cause things are about to get real!
What if it turned out you could spend less time and less energy and have a better game as a result? It's time to unleash The Lazy Dungeon Master.
The Lazy Dungeon Master shows a new approach to game preparation, one that takes less time and gives your game the freedom to grow at the table. This book will help a dungeon master prepare awesome games for any version of D&D.
Based on the real-world experiences of hundreds of dungeon masters and dozens of professional game designers, The Lazy Dungeon Master includes interviews with veteran D&D DMs and a complete toolkit to help you improvise an entire game. Whether you play 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, Pathfinder, or the D&D Next playtest, The Lazy Dungeon Master has tips, techniques, and advice to make preparation easier and help you run a flexible and entertaining game.
Everything you've wanted to know about the origins of roleplaying games. Designers & Dragons: The 80's is a comprehensive picture of the growth of the RPG industry. Take an in-depth look at 80's style gaming courtesy of companies like Steve Jackson Games and West End Games, plus an intro to the small (but mighty!) presses of the decade. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline's meticulously researched history won't disappoint. Meet the characters behind the characters and the gamers behind the games in Designers & Dragons: the 80's!
Often, we treat games like work. We buy shelves of thick books. We plan detailed adventures. We memorize rules.
In Play Unsafe, Graham Walmsley explores what happens when you throw the serious stuff away: when you stop working, stop planning and start playing.
This book explains how to make roleplaying less like work and more like play; stop killing other players' ideas and build on them instead, and put stories at the heart of your game.
Designers & Dragons: The ‘90s is a comprehensive picture of the heyday of the RPG industry. This 2nd edition expands the original and we’ve added over 10,000 new words to this volume alone. In this volume, we profile an RPG titan—Wizards of the Coast—and cover the rise of storytelling RPG settings like White Wolf’s World of Darkness. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline’s meticulously researched history won’t disappoint.
Meet the characters behind the characters and the gamers behind the games in Designers & Dragons: The ‘90s!
The Secret Art of Game Mastery has over 100 years of accumulated experience, distilled into an easy-to-use reference guide. The perfect book of game master advice, knowledge, and wisdom to elevate your role-playing game!
Topics include:
Streamlining your preparation
Mastering your session notes
Having more fun in less time!
You can get better at running any game, in any system, and any genre! Whether you're a new game master or a veteran, the Secret Art of Game Mastery has all the tools game masters need to level up.
Whether you're new to game mastering or have been running the same campaign since 1974, Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master s Guide to Session Prep will help you prepare for games faster, avoid common pitfalls, and have more fun in the process. Never Unprepared breaks game prep down into its component phases Brainstorming, Selection, Conceptualization, Documentation, and Review and provides the tools you need to make the most of each phase. If you hate prep, you'll find ways to make it more enjoyable. If you already have a great system for doing your prep, you ll learn how to make it even better. Ten years in the making Never Unprepared is award-winning author Phil Vecchione s epic rock ballad to game prep. A project manager and veteran game master, he draws on extensive experience to present flexible systems for developing or optimizing your own unique approach to game prep.
Everything you’ve wanted to know about the origins of roleplaying games…
Designers & Dragons: The ‘00s is a comprehensive picture of the new resurgence of the RPG industry. Take an inside look at d20 companies, watch the growth of new titans like Paizo Publishing, and learn about the growth of indie presses like Evil Hat Productions.
In this volume, you’ll find:
A foreword by Lisa Stevens, founder of Paizo Publishing
Profiles for 25 2000s gaming companies including Paizo Publishing, Green Ronin, Mongoose Publishing, and yes—Evil Hat
The inside scoop behind games like Pathfinder, Freeport, and Gumshoe
Ten things you might not know about roleplaying in the ‘00s
An extensive bibliography and index
Meet the characters behind the characters and the gamers behind the games in Designers & Dragons: The ‘00s!
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