Literary RPG Structure: Last Minute GM

by MD Coorlim

In this booklet we’ll be approaching role-playing games like an exercise in collaborative storytelling. The GM and players are authors in more-or-less equal measure, though the GM bears perhaps a little more responsibility than the others in terms of keeping everything organized. These tips are based on the author’s career experience as a screenwriter and author of genre fiction.

This is the first title in a series of system-agnostic RPG-theory and pre-written campaign materials from Last Minute GM. It is designed to be used with any roleplaying game system.

52 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 31, 2015

Reviews

[Leon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Offers clear, concise, and actionable advice on roleplaying campaign design and planning.

I'm on the fence between 4 and 5 starts for this one. On the plus side, it's a quick read. But one if the cons is that it might be too quick of a read. Probably, more examples could be provided (the one we got is about space cadets traveling from planet to planet dealing with the fallout of the collapse of the "Federation".

But it does discuss that important thing for campaigns: the overall theme. And then presents a way to follow through with topdown design to plan the arc, then how to apply that to each adventure, and finally to each scene.

At the end of the day, this is a quick, useful book, if only to remind already-GMs, or guide those who are aspiring, about how to apply proven literary techniques to our awesome hobby.

[Robert Waite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and concise!