Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide Pocket Edition

I have been GMing for years before a 22 years lull and I am now back in the fray for my kids' sake.I have seen a number of these "how to" guides, starting with the Dungeon Master Guides from D&D and AD&D back in the 80's and I have to say this one is one of the best out there.I bought it on a whim and I do not regret a cent of it.It starts with the classic how-to sections (preparation, rewards, etc.) and quickly gets into very interesting and rarely seen sections about for instance the types of players you will encounter as a GM (and you DO encounter them) and how to address the group dynamic between the players. This section is absolutely excellent and a must read.Another great section is a collection of predefined NPCs at the end of the book - this saved me a number of times when the PCs take a surprising turn and start down an uncharted path.There are collections of tables to randomly determine the background of NPCs (or PCs), the types of societies and their characteristics, what the party finds on the side of the road, etc. etc. etc.All in all this is a very interesting, well thought-through read.

I've been playing AD&D since 1980. While I love the original, 1979 DMG, it is seriously lacking in advice for new DM's. I learned better than 90% of what this Pathfinder books contains, the hard way, by trial, and plenty of errors. It is nice to read that what I learned over the past 30+ years is true. It is also nice to see that someone has assembled practical advice for persons just starting up as a new GM/DM. There are many pitfalls, and this book will help its readers avoid many of them.For veteran DM's, it has little to offer, but there are still some things worth reading, and possibly being reminded of. The authors take the viewpoint that the rules are guidelines, and as long as you, and your group, are having fun, then keep going. I like, and second, that approach. This book has a very great deal to offer to GM's of any role playing game, or genre. It is worth your time, and money, to buy a copy, and read it. If it only serves to remind you of things you should be doing in your games, then it will have proved itself worthy. It is also a valuable resource to share with beginning GM's who are looking for advice on how to become a good GM, one who will have no trouble retaining excited players, who keep coming back, session after session. Cheers!

This has some good stuff in it if your just starting out, the copie I got was a bit damaged like all the other comments I read, but I got the mini one on sale for a good price so I'm ok with it. The first few chapters where kinda uninteresting and stuff I think if your all ready familiar with the concept of role playing and knew a little bit about story telling you don't really need, same goes for some other chapters but there are some helpful hints and charts inside that I personally liked.

Arrived in a brand new condition and on time for our Pathfinder Session. This book has a more in depth look at being a Game Master, as the title suggests. If you want to run an expanded campaign, this is the book for you. So glad I bought it as it's expanded our abilities in game.

GM guides are sort of hit or miss in my experience, and a lot of the time it comes down to how inexperienced they assume you are. For instance, the 4th Edition D&D DMG was more or less useless because a very good portion of the book was explaining simple things like what GMing is and what RPGs are and other things that may have been useful to a first time GM, but a waste of space for anyone who'd ever done it before. The 5th edition DMG is actually excellent, but that's not what this is about.For me, what makes this book worth getting above everything else is the NPC stat blocks at the end. It is such a time saver to have around 50 pages of archetypal NPCs, from pirates to nobles to bandits to cultists, just to save having to come up with such types of people on the fly. I've had it for about a week and have been very thankful a couple times to have it, as I've been writing adventures for my group.There are some tables for dungeon dressing, landscape, NPC characteristics and flaws, etc. that I think are good, but I wish there were more. For instance, I'm terrible at coming up with descriptors of overland travel, so I liked having a table of "interesting landmarks" as you're traveling. I just wish that there were more, and thematically organized. Like, instead of just random terrain, to have separate tables for "desert" and "prairie" and "underground," etc. just like how they have the monsters split up in the back of the Bestiaries. It's the same with loot. They've got a lot of tables for magical items, potions, and more "high level" dungeon loot, but not just conventional junk. It's fun, to me, to have other things besides "500 gold coins" to add flavor and depth to unexplored places, and it's also hard for me to keep those sorts of things interesting and inspiring. One of the best things about playing prepublished D&D adventures is the loot is always stuff like "a small bronze figure of an eagle, with ruby eyes" or "a silver plate, etched with strange runes." I love that stuff, and I'm terrible at coming up with it. I'd like tables with just stuff like that on them to keep things more interesting, and memorable. To its credit, the 5E DMG DID have tables for "art objects" in it, so I just photocopied those pages and stuffed them into this book.I think where this book really shines though is its advice on creating memorable NPCs. I've had a relatively shy world in my campaign so far just because it's hard for me to come up with varied NPCs with different personalities and motivations, that the players have an interest in, but who don't steal the show. And the NPC generation chapter in this book is excellent. I think that I will benefit from it, and have a more interesting world because of it. Highly recommended.

I bought this thinking it would be the equivalent to AD&D's original Dungeon Master's Guide, but I was mistaken. If you're an experienced DM/GM and you already own the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, you don't NEED this book. It's a Gamemastery book,meaning it's main purpose is to help GM's manage their games better. That being said, there are a number of goodies added to appeal to experienced players (e.g., pre-generated NPCs, expanded treasure tables). It wasn't really the book I was hoping it would be, but it's a decent book just the same.

This book is non-essential for playing the (excellent) new Pathfinder ruleset. It is in essence, years of Games Mastering experience distilled into one volume. If you have been roleplaying for any length of time, most of the stuff in here won't be new to you. At first it seems like teaching Grandma to suck eggs, with advice on whether to have food at the gaming table, and keeping young children out of the room (unless you want a good howling banshee effect). A little further exploration reveals that many of the eggs in here are solid gold.The 'GamesMastery Guide' is great for dipping in and out of. Any long standing GM is probably unaware they have become jaded. Reading this book, I realised how often I ploughed the same furrow with just enough variation to keep things interesting. There are countless ideas here on world building, campaign structure and alternative adventure themes, that even the most experienced GM can use to improve their games. There are also some handy NPC tables for just about any situation. Very useful for when the PC's throw you a curve ball.There isn't necessarily much new in here (It is very similar in content to the D&D4 DMs guide) but it is well packaged and interesting to read. If you are strapped for cash and your games are working, then don't bother buying, but if you are feeling flush, and need a little inspiration the 'GamesMastery Guide' is a worthwhile purchase.

Although this book is not required for being GM of a Pathfinder game, it will certainly be helpful. It contains a lot of useful advice for many topics such as designing your setting or suggestions for improving the roleplay of NPCs. The NPC gallery is really useful and allows you to spend less time in NPCs that are not key for your adventures.This book does not contain any new rules, and therefore it should not be a priority if you are trying to keep your expenses low. If you are a new GM, or are looking for inspiration, I would definitely recommend getting this book.

As a new GM I found this book absolutely brilliant and extremely useful. Most of it is not Pathfinder specific and the other games I've GM'd since purchasing this (most recently the excellent Hollow Earth Expedition) have all benefited from stuff that I've learned from reading this. I've leant it to several friends who GM and they've also commented how useful the advice is.

Great buy. I'm an experienced GM but this has so much useful bumf in it. A chunk duplicates from the core book but its still all in a useful place. New gm's will defintely benefit but even experienced ones will find the tables useful when they hit a wall so a great buy.

fast delivery bought for a present but my dungeon master son seems happy with it.