How to Run

by Alexis D. Smolensk

In forty years, the role-playing community has sorely lacked a savvy investigation of the art of DMing, targeted exclusively for the long-standing enthusiast. For the first time, we have a book that presumes the reader knows what a role-playing game is, and how it is played, wasting no time covering old ground. Instead, How to Run exhaustively examines how to present the setting, handle players, draw forth emotion, cope with information overload and make a world from the ground up, step-by-step and point-by-point. Alexis Smolensk hasn’t written a dry, academic treatise of the game, he’s written an empowering field guide for grognards seeking illumination. No serious campaigner should venture forth without this book in their backpack!

Genres: Role Playing Games, Personal Growth, Nonfiction

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 13, 2014

Reviews

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read "How to Run" to help me DM my first game which was an hour long demo game at Fighting Fantasy Fest. It was invaluable in giving me tips on how to make my game smoother and also give me things to think about that I would never have thought about before. Thanks to this book, the game went very well and I now have a taste for DMing some more.

If you want to DM or have been "volunteered" into DMing for a group (which can happen), then this book will give you lots of useful hints and tips to running a game and making it an excellent experience for all involved. And if you haven't had enough, you should look at Alexis's blog where he is providing this excellent material of a regular and frequent basis. I would love for Alexis to write more on the topic and I would eagerly buy anything else he does write.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally someone has put together a book that goes beyond the Idiot’s Guide. As a rather egotistical Dungeon Master, I wondered what this tome could teach me. After all, my group of players seems pretty satisfied with the game I run. But with only a few chapters I realized that there could be so much more. The game that I want fosters a growing relationship between me and my players – and between themselves; it is immersive. My mature players could explore areas within themselves they never thought they would go to in a game. The group would become tight-knit, but with no one player or DM running all aspects of the show like a dictator.

What Mr. Smolensk offers are ways to get your perhaps childhood favorite game and improve it for the person you are today. He asks us DM’s to grow out of our stagnant, store-bought games and to improve upon them, to step up and out of any small-minded arrogance that we hold.

Additionally, we should develop our own worlds and continue to tweek them taking research and player feedback into consideration. We are looking, hopefully, for the best possible experience. Mr. Smolensk only points out that the best possible experience requires work.

If I had a complaint about the book it would be that it’s not an easy read. I constantly found myself figuring out how to implement what I was reading into my game. The problem with that for me is that I stopped reading to give myself time to ponder. So it took me a while to read, but it’s worth it.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book, though the writing style is a little hard to get into initially. It's not a casual read by any means, and I felt is best suited for games masters who have some experience, or at least the real desire to try and improve their games.

For me, the moment I realized I was doing much the same things the author was employing, and just, maybe, needed to "tweek" my perspective and tighten up a few loose ends in my planning and follow-up work, was probably the best advice I've had in years. The last few chapters were utterly golden, and the "Appendix" was priceless.

Overall a good book that actually is written to have value outside the games table and follows some very serious though-lines about management, work ethic and just how to be a better person overall. Worth a look with an open mind.

[Jes · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest I am really overwhelmed by trying to write a review for this book. There is so much to it, and it is so much more than its jacket description. If you want to be a better DM/GM for ANY role-playing game. This is for you. If you want to work on communication skills, yep: that is here too. If you want to work on yourself as a leader, anywhere, this is for you. It helps to have a passing familiarity with RPGs. If you just love thinking about the world of RPGs this is for you! Even if you don't play tabletop RPGs (which this is directed towards) it will also be valuable for game designers working on sandbox RPGs or MMORPGs.

I have to read this again before I can do a more complete review. And I will read this again. It will easily become a much used reference.