Gamemastery Guide

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game

by Jason Bulmahn, Cam Banks, Wolfgang Baur

Rule Your World!

Players may be the heroes of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but whole worlds rest on the Game Master's shoulders. Fortunately for GMs, the Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide is here to back you up. Packed with invaluable hints and information, this book contains everything you need to take your game to the next level, from advice on the nuts and bolts of running a session to the greater mysteries of crafting engaging worlds and storylines. Whether you've run one game or a thousand, this book has page after page of secrets to make you sharper, faster, and more creative, while always staying one step ahead of your players.

The 320-page Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.

The Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide includes:

- Tips and tricks for preparing and running a better game, suitable for beginning GMs and battle-hardened veterans.
- Step-by-step walkthroughs for creating campaign worlds, cities, cosmologies, feudal systems, and alternate dimensions.
- Difficult player types, and how to handle them gracefully.
- New rules for subsystems like hauntings, chase scenes, fortune-telling, gambling games, mysteries, and insanity.
- Charts to help you generate everything from interesting NPCs and fantastic treasures to instant encounters in any terrain.
- Advanced topics such as PC death, game-breaking rules, overpowered parties, solo campaigns, and derailed storylines.
- Sample NPC statistics for dozens of common adventuring situations, such as cultists, guardsmen, barmaids, and pirates.

... and much, much more!

Cover art by Wayne Reynolds

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming, Fantasy, Reference, Dungeons and Dragons, Games, Fiction

319 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

Lead Designer of Paizo Inc and Minotaur Games, creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Reviews

[Seth Kenlon · Rating 5 out of 5]

My reviews have moved to http://mixedsignals.ml

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a big let down. If you have never GM'ed before it would be of use, but most of it can be found searching the internet. It is not a rule book for the game but more of a how to GM better resource. Search for Johnn Four and read his stuff on Game Mastering.

[Jeremy Blum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I play D&D 5e instead of Pathfinder (though I am very interested in trying out Pathfinder 2e once it releases), but I got a PDF copy of this thanks to a Humble Bundle sale. Obviously, this book will be immeasurably useful to Pathfinder 1e GMs, but there's enough crossover between the two systems that much of the stuff in here can be retooled for D&D, and a lot of it is generic advice on how to run the game and brainstorm aspects of a homebrew world, which is always appreciated. I especially liked the straightforward advice at the beginning of the book on how to handle the social aspect of GMing - AKA scheduling your players, dealing with conflicts at the table, interacting with the various types of personas (Rules Lawyers, Flakes, Divas) that come up in RPGs, etc. This is the sort of thing that I think a lot of Game Master guides skimp on in favor of heavy world-building chapters, but the truth of the matter is that most GMs are going to want advice on handling problem players before they want advice on how to construct an intricate cosmology. The D&D 5e Dungeon Master's Guide could definitely use this kind of thing, and I imagine if it had it, we'd see a few less "HOW DO I HANDLE THIS RULES LAWYER DOUCHEBAG" threads on Reddit. Last but not least, the more advanced rule sets in here for handling stuff like drugs, in-game natural disasters and especially CHASES are great stuff. Worth at least a skim-through for all GMs!

[Eric Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must read for new Game Masters. If you are thinking of running an RPG and not just a fantasy one there are some wonderful ideas and sections in this book that would be very useful reading. For those of us like myself who have been running games for quite a long time alot of the beginning is familiar territory but there are some ideas on PC interaction and world building that are worth reading. The many tables for various purposes and also the NPC gallery are very useful additions to have on hand in certain circumstances. Plus the rules for things such as Haunts, Hazards, Addiction and Madness are very useful for certain campaigns.
I would say that this is an essential read for aspiring and starting GM's, a worthwhile read for more experienced GM's and not necessary for dedicated players.

[Craig Little · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of general advice and ideas for running different RPGs, the first 6 chapters benefit from Paizo's embrace of the Open Gaming License, as much of the advice therein can be applied to multiple games, though obviously the text concentrates on how it would apply to Pathfinder gaming sessions.

The final three chapters are much more Pathfinder specific, featuring stat blocks, subsystems for unusual events and more. The collection of generic NPCs and settlements are a great resource for new GMs as well as more experienced ones, and there's enough tables throughout the book to spark creativity and create adventure hooks to sustain a campaign or adventure path.

[John Teske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic compilation of many many good bits of DMing advice.

Better than many other books in this field, actually, I think it is the best one I have read advising how to run a game, with much advice in many sections applicable to any RPG system.

I am very glad to ahve read this work, inspirational, enlightening, and full of words that encourage DMs to let their players have some fun when they show some "out of the box" thinking.

[James Bowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource for gamemasters running not just Pathfinder, but any fantasy RPG. There's tons of material in here for improving your adventures and worldbuilding, plus a number of optional rulesets and a selection of useful pre-built NPCs. Also, lots of inspirational random tables! Definitely recommended. (A-)

[Chris Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filled with interesting and useful information, the stat blocks at the end will be very helpful when trying to create communities for home-brew campaigns, or to flesh out preexisting places when players ask about them on the fly.

This also helps with magical item creation and creating homebrew campaigns from towns to whole continents or worlds.

[Ron Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best GM/DM guides on the market. I love all the advice and content. I definitely will be referring back to it on a regular basis.

[Eric Winter · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like guidelines than rules.

[jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Packed with invaluable hints and information”, as written on the back of this book, the Pathfinder GameMastery Guide is meant to be the go-to book of your resident game master, providing them with tips, tricks, hints, guidelines, and ideas. It calmly walks you through how to set up, prep, and run a game, before diving into the meat of the game – player characters, non-player characters, rewards, how to create worlds and adventures, some advanced topics that include customizing your game and how to manage certain game aspects, and wraps up with an NPC gallery and appendix.

This guide is an incredibly useful resource for a beginning game master, as it dives into all of the roles that the game master plays; from host and arbiter to storyteller and number-cruncher. I ordered it before running my first campaign, and though the book started off with guidelines I found fairly obvious – how to be a good game master host and how to deal with cheating, for example – it eventually dove into the deeper stuff and gave me (1) a better idea on what to expect from the game as a game master, and (2) how to be prepared for what might actually happen.

It’s not, I think, meant for more experienced or advanced game masters – some of things that fall under the ‘advanced topics’ category could be useful, as well as the NPC gallery, but that’s already two-thirds into the book. This leaves the start and middle of the guide filled with fairly obvious knowledge that you’d already have accumulated as an experienced GM, or things you could easily look up online. The NPC gallery with its flavor texts and stat blocks is super useful for anyone though, as well as some of the other random generator tables, I’ll give them that!

It’s a great way to start building your theoretical knowledge as a beginning game master, and I had a lot of fun reading it and preparing for my first campaign by doing so. It also includes some really nice art. Is it a necessary guide to buy and read through before your first adventure? No, but it’s a super useful and fun one.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've never GMed before this is a handy read. It doesn't really detail the creating of a campaign, but more goes over what you need to do as a GM to mediate a good time for everyone.

The NPC templates in the back are fantastic and would make this book worth buying even if you were a seasoned GM just coming into the pathfinder system, if you've been around with Pathfinder though, you probably already have plenty of NPC block templates and would receive little use from them other then enjoying the flavor text.

One thing I wish was contained was perhaps a few chapters in the back that guided the new GM in creating the basic essentials of a small module or quest line. Sure everyone's would be stock and pretty much the same, but the new GM would be doing everything by hand and one of the best ways to learn is to go through the motions. Kind of a missed opportunity, but a small grievance when the book has more valuable info about how to heard around a group of free thinking individuals in a "completely open" world, while making sure they have fun and feel like they actually had real choices, while giving you tips on how to really sell your story and make the experience better than average.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthy addition to the long line of Dungeon Master/Game Master Guides for Dungeons & Dragons/Pathfinder, with some use as a guide to running any roleplaying game.

With the Core Rules covering everything needed to run the game, the GMG has fewer crunchy bits than most of its predecessors. The bulk of the book is dedicated to preparing for and running a game. This includes advice on world building, adventure creation, and creating NPCs, as well as how to organize a game and deal with problem players.

There are a few crunchy bits in the last third of the book, with discussions of several general terrain types accompanied by charts, like water and urban. Also some specific topics with some rules, like chases, gambling, and mysteries. Finally, there's a large selection of fully statted NPCs. All of this can provide quite a bit of inspiration for a GM trying to come up with adventure ideas.

Overall, it's worth reading if you run Pathfinder, and probably worth at least taking a look at if you run other RPGs, particularly if they use a fantasy setting.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has been GM'ing on and off for more than 20 years I was somewhat skeptical about picking this up. It was worth every penny however and is for the most part system neutral. The advice and tips presented in this book apply to any RPG. As for the Pathfinder specific crunch, this book is worth the price of purchase for the extremely helpful NPC stat blocks alone. Need quick stats for a city guard or a street urchin? You'll find them here and dozens more. Also are many charts and tables for treasure, room features, etc. Reminiscent of the glory days of AD&D.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic Premise: Tools for becoming a better gamemaster.

Running TTRPGs is hard. Running TTRPGs well is *REALLY* hard. No matter if you are a newbie or a veteran, sometimes you just need some help. This book is really useful if you want to up your game. There's some basic crunch rules for chases and making encounters, but this book shines in the "fluff" areas. Some of the hardest things a GM has to do have nothing to do with rules and crunch. After all, it's the stories that we re-tell over and over again, not the die rolls.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have liked this a whole lot better if it was not chock full of what is, to me, fairly 101-level game mastery advice. The real value of this book are the various random tables for helping to kickstart ideas. The NPC stats at the end also are helpful, but they also underscore that the Pathfinder character generation system is fairly daunting to crank out NPCs, which makes me think the whole thing kind of staggers under the weight of its own detail.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent supplement for Game Masters running the Pathfinder RPG. Unlike other, similar games, this book is not a required core rulebook - everything you *really* need is in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, and I would recommend the Bestiary - but this book has tons of *nifty* stuff, including sample NPCs, rules for things like hauntings and insanity, and other great aids to the GM.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will always be a resource for me. It's starting out as an introduction into what it takes to be a GM, and has a lot of information. It may not be necessary for everyone, especially experienced gamers, but I like it.

I'll continue to use it for extra ideas and tips as I become more experienced. It's always great to have a physical copy around.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had heard some extraordinary praise of this work, but it failed to deliver. There is a smattering of helpful advice and some useful mechanics (a stats system for towns and rules for hauntings, addictions, mental illness and more), but to a seasoned game master there is little here that is new.

I would recommend it to a new GM, though Jameson's "Gamemastering" is much better.

[Junn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro es una lectura recomendada a cualquiera que empiece como máster en RPGs de fantasía (e incluso tiene consejos que valen para todos los géneros). No os quedéis con el hecho de que es de Pathfinder: vale para todo.

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the best guides to game mastering I've read.

[Pablo Raphael · Rating 5 out of 5]

O melhor dos módulos básicos do Pathfinder e um dos melhores suplementos para GMs que eu já li.

[Michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think this book is meant to be read cover-to-cover... but that's how I did.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous layout, artwork, and rules clarity.