What's Your Favorite Published Book of GM Advice ?

[Ezri's Toy]

Aside from actually playing role-playing games, one of my favorite things to do is to read various articles and sourcebooks with useful game-mastering advice. I'm always looking for more advice from different sources; So, what's your favorite piece of published GM advice ?

The first of mine is a little gem of a weekly e-zine called Role Playing Tips Weekly. This 'zine is dedicated to the fine art of game-mastering and is full of useful advice each issue. And the fact that its free makes it even better. Even Gary Gygax is a subscriber. I'd recommend also buying their CD of back issues (helps support the web site and e-zine) but I'd wait until their disc is updated to include all 200 issues.

Another book I've found extremely useful is Robin's Laws Of Good GameMastering by (who else ?) Robin Laws (Designer of Feng Shui; Hero Wars.)

Target your player types; Analyze your RPGs and choose a rules set that suits them best; Tailor a campaign to their playing styles. And, above all, learn how to stream-line your GMing when behind the screen.

At first, it may seem expensive ($9.95 for 32 pages); But, its all text except for a few charts and is some of the best GMing advice available. It was an Origins Award nominee for Best Game Aid or Accessory of 2002. If you read it, you'll know why. Well worth the money.

Anyway, what's your favorite piece of GMing advice ?

[Dan Stack]

I'd go with the Star Trek (Classic) Narrator's toolkit put out by LUG - had some nifty ideas about actually running games which turned out to be rather useful for my game (like what to do when the players insist on following a red herring, how to embrace cliches, etc.)

[RaconteurX]

Grey Ghost Games' Gamemastering Secrets, Second Edition won an Origins Award and contains advice from a wide selection of industry veterans. While I personally did not find it as useful overall as Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, it is still an excellent and informative work.

[krijger]

I also like the advice from Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void:
http://www.burningvoid.com/

[Polanski]

Wizard's Dragon and Dungeon magazines have a useful tips on some ocassions. Worth checking out...

[woodelf]

Originally posted by Polanski
Wizard's Dragon and Dungeon magazines have a useful tips on some ocassions. Worth checking out...

And Dragon used to have tons of really good articles, before it went all crunch, all the time. If you can find a copy, it'd probably be worth getting the Dragon CD-ROM (only reason i didn't is that I already owned most of the issues on it).

Anyway, for GMing advice:
Amber Diceless Roleplay. I had never heard of the books before the RPG came out, don't have any interest in reading them from what i've since found out, and don't particularly care for the system it uses (despite liking diceless RPGs). Nonetheless, i bought it for the GMing advice, and found it invaluable, and eye-opening. Not surprising, since i first heard of Wujcik [the author] due to his seminars on GMing, where i heard the best GMing advice i've ever heard, period--yes, even better than anything i've heard or seen from Robin D. Laws or Jonathon Tweet.

Over the Edge has great advice, especially for dealing with problem players, unexpected plot twists (by both the players and the GM--we all make mistakes), and balance/spotlight issues.

Gamemastering Secrets would be really excellent for a fairly new [probably < 3 years] GM--i wish it'd existed a decade or 2 ago, so that i could've read it instead of figuring all those things out on my own. I enjoyed reading it, but only found a few of the essays particularly helpful, since i'd figured out the rest of them already. YMMV

Any of the Sorcerer products (Sorcerer, Sword and Sorcerer, The Sorcerer's Soul, and Sex and Sorcery). All of them talk about stuff that most RPGs don't even touch, like giving actual meaning [for the players] to your games, and dealing with the balance of in-character and OOC interactions, and comfort levels, and things like that.

I vaguely recall the ST: DS9 RPG Narrator's Guide being pretty good, but i haven't read it in years.

Oh, and i'll second the recommendation of Robin's Laws of Good GMing--concise, to the point, and relevant. Not as in-depth as Amber DRP or the various Sorcerer books, but also cheaper, easier to find, and a quicker read.

That's just sticking to general GMing advice. For specific things, there're tons of good books: Dynasties & Demagogues for political play, Nightmares of Mine for horror, Feng Shui for action, etc.

[Alex Pryde]

Steve Jackson's Games...

Muchkin's Guide to Powergaming.

[D.S.McBride]

John Ross' LUG TOS Narrator's Toolkit was one of the most insightful, best-organized and straight-forward pieces of gamemaster prep work I've ever seen. The TNG and DS9 Toolkits were definitely first-rate as well.

[Dave]

John Ross's Toolkit was great. By the way, does anyone have any scans of LUG cover art?

[JonA]

I will be honest - R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2020 has helped me and my friends go from good GMs to excellent GMs. This book has helped our games become fresh and original everytime. Which after 13 years on gaming is getting harder to do.

Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads

Okay so it does lean towards the Cyberpunk style of game BUT it does have some excellent advice on how to deal with different types of disruptive players (and not just the typical power PC either), game structure, establishing a PC group without relying on "you all meet in bar." It also has some incredibly funny annecdotes from seasoned writers and players and a whole chapter by the Godfather of RPG Mike Pondsmith.

It is well worth picking up as a great RPG book for any modern setting - not just Cyberpunk.

And the cover image is just so cool.

[Warduke]

No, I can't say any one favorite.

But Creative Campaigning from TSR, for its AD&D 2nd ed game is really really good, wit a focus on how to use rules and imaginative adventures, and in the same series Campaign and Catacombs Guide had advoice on the organization of things from troublesome players to courtesy regarding the one providing space to play and such.

White Wolfs World of Darkness games has good advice on most of the above aspects as well, Vampire and Mage being the ones I'm most familiar with.