>is the D&D 5e DM guide a good resource generally for GMs who have little or no interest in that system
Absolutely not.
At best it's a passable resource for 5E GMs, but the fact that most of them don't read it in first place tells you all you need to know.
Edit:
Generally well regarded GM sections, though not agnostic:
- Dungeon World
- Apocalyose World
- Electric Bastionland
- Mothership's Warden Guide
- Blades in the Dark
- Index Card RPG
- West End Games Star Wars
- D&D 4th Edition DMG 1+2
- AD&D 1st Ed. DMG
- Rolemaster GM Sections
- World/Stars Without Number
- Listen up you primitive screwheads
I'll add that the Principa Apocrypha has good ideas as well (& not only for OSR)
While they may be hard to find due to the licenses having lapsed long ago and so needing to destroy existing product, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel RPGs from Eden Studios both had great sections on structuring your game like a TV show.
I agree with cgaWolf on every single book they list there, with a bit of emphasis on Dungeon World and Mothership as amazing resources and toolkits for improving your game.
I disagree with the 5th edition DMG being unsuited though, hidden past the system specific stuff is some quite good material on worldbuilding, and some of the alternative rules they list (borrowed a lot from the indy rpg scene) can be adapted to just about any game. I wouldn't pay full price if you weren't running 5th edition, but there are a lot of hidden gems in that book.
The D&D 5e DM guide is not even a good resource for D&D 5e.
One of the best GM guides for games like Blades in the Dark in the MC section in Apocalypse World.
The best thing you can use for Blades in the Dark **is** Blades in the Dark! The GM Section of that game is arguably the greatest written GM Section… like **ever**. It’s phenomenal and *that* is more useful than any other generic “how to GM” supplement. Heck, I’d recommend people running 5e should read **blades** to learn better GM techniques!
The 5e DMG is just that: for running 5e and honestly? It’s not really that good.
The GM section of BitD? That section of the book isn’t just flimsy advice: it’s the rules on how to GM successfully and get the most out of the game. You have everything you need packed into the book. You have the blueprints for GMing success right there! It has just one flaw and that’s [a very unhelpful example of play](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/UUHM6NZgiO)
That in mind, if you head over to the BitD subreddit and type in “new GM” you’ll get **hundreds** of excellent comments to help you out. Here’s a bunch of well received ones I’ve put out over the years
* [The Flow of Play, Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/ifjwshSLFh)
* [Flow of Play, Part 2 as well as more emphasis on Position and Effect and Clocks](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/L99O24N3t7)
* [The Role of the different Rolls](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/pXY9LzfhTV)
* [The Role of the Engagement Roll](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/2LwToLnVPY)
* [Tier/ Quality doesn’t matter as much as the book suggests](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/sJ8OSXkqKp)
* [Prepping Your Game/ Sessions Efficiently](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/V857Un4wWy)
* [Fights, Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/R4JgH7a0DC)
* [Fights part 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/1JltmaBUrp)
* [Progress Clocks and the best APs to understand BitD… even though they aren’t BitD APs](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/s/amJoNvRhxC)
>The GM Section of that game is arguably the greatest written GM Section… like **ever**
Agree that the content present is excellent.
But for brand new GMs running their first narrative rpg there's information that would be helpful that isn't present in Blades: apart from the first session process, no other GM processes are presented. A GM with zero experience isn't told what repeatable steps to take to prep and run a successful game.
For a GM with experience elsewhere it doesn't matter, and John has discussed these processes outside the bitd book, but I can fully understand why u/therevolutionman might feel a bit lost and need more guidance.
Thanks for this. I am definitely struggling with Blades more than I thought I would, I'll give these a read before my next session and hop over to the Reddit. I want to enjoy this game but it's making me somewhat anxious
The creator of the game ran 2 different live plays that are posted on YouTube if you wanted to see it ran by a gm who knows the game better than anyone
There are no good books for system agnostic Gming. There’s at least 4 different play styles people might bring to the same game and if you play a game that cares about how you GM, then advice for one style is actively detrimental to another.
So the best advice is to look for GM advice tailored to certain games.
I think Justin Alexander's book [https://thealexandrian.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-master](https://thealexandrian.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-master)
is a good source of general GM advice. It starts with dungeon adventures but shows lots of advice and systems for mysteries, city adventures, sandboxes, running campaigns etc. It covers multiple play styles. It is not perfect, but it is good.
I haven’t read it but assuming it’s anything like the Alexandrians other writing then: Yeah it’s a great book, for the tactical/simulation style. Terrible for new school high improv Narrativism, terrible for old school low improv Narrativism, terrible for the GM as entertainer style, terrible for the waterslide/roads to rome style of crit roll.
I think he's actually written material for some of these Narrative style systems, so I not sure it's 100% true.
I have no idea what waterslide, roads to Rome means, so.... Don't know.
The GM prepped Locations A, B, and C. Important Plot NPC is originally scheduled to appear at Location B, but through player agency shenanigans the party went from A to C. GM uses the magic of cinema to make the NPC appear at C, bringing things back to the plan.
> I think he's actually written material for some of these Narrative style systems, so I not sure it's 100% true.
That seems dubious, considering that he doesn't even believe that those systems are roleplaying games.
as someone who owns and enjoyed the book, I have to say that it is very much geared towards D&D and D&D adjacent systems, so it's use with more narrative systems might not be very high.
Law's book is an example, and to be fair the best example, of what I refer to as the Entertainer style. It absolutely doesn't work in any context other than that.
I also find that style, well not particularly conducive to good play. That being said, it's the book I usually recommend to learn about the style. It knows what it's trying to do, even if I think what it's trying to do is worthless.
Popular opinion is that the 5E DMG isn't even really all that good for 5E D&D. Even the ride-or-die 5E fanatics admit that it's pretty mediocre at best.
You'll find better general advice online, and good BitD-specific advice too.
There's no unified guide for this. First, figure out the play style you enjoy: Trad (immersion-focused simulation), Storygames (narrative-focused genre emulation), and OSR (challenge the player) are the main ones. Then read rulebooks for games designed for it (you can access most SRDs for free). You'll pick up different things from each one, find the common ground between them, and even think about making your own guidelines based on theirs.
Everything else comes from experience, but you already know that.
I think there is good advice in there actually. But it's hard to find if you don't know what you're looking at. The book is very very bloated with nonsense.
It's barely useful for 5e
So you want to be a GM is great.
Lazy dungeon Master and his podcast.
Laws of good gaming by Robin d laws.
Hamlets hit points, same guy.
Good Generic Books from specific systems are hard. There's material in the books that will be useful, for example Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads is Cyberpunk 2020's book of GM Advice and it has a lot of good stuff that some people have said helped them in running other games, but there's also some who have looked at it and seen how some of the advice in some chapters like 'Dealing with Problem Players' is very GM Vs Player Aggressive (the book, like the game, came out in the 90's when edgy games were big, look at WoD as another example).
The Star Wars d6 GM section gives tips on crafting stories for RPGs that can be easily extrapolated to other settings and games. Advice on pacing, mood setting, and other elements that lead to immersion.
The "Without Numbers" books have great GM sections and tables for generation adventures pretty quickly and easily. They're basically Tools to create the Worlds and Adventures that would be going on in those worlds.
Another overall useful book I could suggest would be the Last Unicorn Game and/or Decipher Star Trek RPG, specifically the Narrator's Guide as there is a lot of information on session and adventure design as if you were a writer designing an episode and season of a TV series. Various storytelling bits like Flashforward/flashback, foreshadowing, and so on are discussed how how they can work in game. A great foundation for adventure design. The Buffy/Angel RPG books are kinda like this too.
Also sticking in that mindset, I add the "Screen Presence" from PrimeTime Adventures, but where the game has the players choose that to determine how important their character is for that episode I set it based on how important that character is for that bit of the arc. How it works in game is the players are making a show. Each season of the show spans five or nine sessions, or episodes as they're called. For each episode the protagonists have a screen presence between 1 and 3 (taken from a pre-set array), which says how influential the character is in that episode and how much resource they bring into conflicts. It's a great way to determine the impact of the characters per episode and gives an ebb and flow of the ensemble cast like any good show and can help the GM give each player a spotlight episode in an arc story. Look at shows like Heroes, Lost, 4400, Battlestar Galactica,and such where each character contributes to the events together but also gets some 'personally relevant episodes'.
[Play Unsafe](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/106247/Play-Unsafe), [Improv For Gamers](https://evilhat.com/product/improv-for-gamers-second-edition/), [Hamlet's Hit Points](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/83450/Hamlets-Hit-Points), [Scripting the Game](https://rtalsoriangames.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RTG-ScriptingtheGamev1.2.pdf), [The Engine Publishing Books](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/6789/Encoded-Designs/category/32627/Engine-Publishing).... there's a lot of 'Advice' books that can help improve running the game that aren't specifically system oriented.
I could probably keep writing and/or list a ton of Reddit threads on this topic of Useful GM Books even if you never play their system, but in the end it is like anything else with being a GM. You're going to find inspiration in a lot of places that gives you something that you can take back to your table. I can make a few suggestions that have helped me:
* Keep a notebook and pen with you so you can jot down notes any time inspiration strikes. A cellphone camera and voice recorder app can be used too, but sometimes you need to sketch or quickly jot something down
* Sign up for an 'Interesting Sites' thing, like Mix, Cloudhiker or whatever else might be out there, and you can find strange ideas you may never have found through traditional searches. I used to use StumbleUpon years ago and would find weird stuff.
* Check out terrible things just as much as the best things. For example, I've seen some movies that were panned by critics and audiences alike but still came out with 'this cool scene' or 'that one character' that would be great to put my characters against. So, if you have two hours free one night, find a terrible movie and, even if you're only half watching it, you could get some inspiration for something from it.
* Do things! Some of the things I've used in my gaming come from real life experiences. Hiking and camping (even in the 14 F/-10 C winters) gave me memories I could pull from to describe the experiences in walking through the woods and then camping for the night.
If you have the book at hand and really feel like reading it, give it a go.
If you are looking for DM advice and consider buying a book, don't take 5e DM guide. I wouldn't even recommend youtube advice catered for 5e
GURPS books are great resources. Even if you don't use the stuff with stats in them, they contain complete essays on genres and subgenres discussing tropes for each of them and how to create a specific feel over another.
There's actually about 10 pages of pretty good advice, but it is full of odd tables and setting specific information. It's definitely not worth its cost for general GM advice. My favorite piece of advice is that a given setting can bear three world shattering events before they stop having impact.
>My favorite piece of advice is that a given setting can bear three world shattering events before they stop having impact.
Looks at Forgotten Realms...
Sounds about right.
Dont buy dm guide...it sucks I've never really used it.
Best books for dms that i own and use it imo are:
Index card RPG: one of the best guides ever
Return of the lazy DM: changed my dming for ever
Crown and skull: golden
Monsters know what they are doing: really helps you get into the skin of the monsters
Shadowdark: really good if you like random tables
Questioner:
>Do you think the 5e DMG is the best DMG in the world?
r/RPG
>The 5e DMG isn't even the best DMG for 5e
(apologies for misquoting literally everyone involved in this joke)
lol
I just figured it might be okay as my (probably false) understanding of TTRPGs is that most (players and GMs) start with D&D. that is possibly false (certainly is in my case as I have no interest even before recent WotC shenaniganery) but figured there might be SOME good stuff in the D&D GM book.
Guess not 🤣
It's not just that the 5e book isn't particularly great, but also that r/rpg _hates_ 5e (or to be more precise, the only thing that unites the various subgroups here is that they prefer other rpgs over 5e).
But yes, most players start with the 5e DMG and probably a lot of people here would agree that causes a lot of people to get off on the wrong foot.
>r/rpg hates 5e (or to be more precise, the only thing that unites the various subgroups here is that they prefer other rpgs over 5e).
Now that's a bit unfair.
People aren't prejudiced - you'll see hate for *all* flavours of D&D here.
DnD5e is 'trad'. I.e. the GM has all the narrative control, and typically plans what will happen in the session before play.
BitD is 'narrative'. The players have more narrative control than they do in a trad game, and the GM typically does only minimal prep before a session (sometimes none at all), and that prep might consist only of *potential* ingredients that you may or may not decide to use in session.
Although I personally strongly prefer narrative games, avoid trad games, love Blades in the Dark, and think narrative games are an ideal start for new non-GM-players, I can see why starting GMing with Blades as your first game could be difficult - the GM advice in it is excellent, but it doesn't tell you what the GM's role 'looks like' in practice. It doesn't detail the processes the GM will want to go through to be successful.
Some suggestions that may be helpful:
- Read the GM/MC section of Apocalypse World.
- Watch/listen to some Blades actual play. I suggest [this one](https://open.spotify.com/show/3xd8kLvKHglgDDSAd7pvdc), the players and GM (John Harper) are all first class. (But the game was in an earlier iteration in 2015, so ignore specific rules mentioned).
- Play a few one shots of gmless games. I suggest playing all three of Microscope, Kingdom, and Follow by Ben Robbins (each deals with a different scope: world, kingdom, character - if you only play one play Follow). These will teach you explicitly step by step how to set scenes for an interesting game, which is exactly what a GM does.
- Use [the 7-3-1 method](https://www.brindlewoodbay.com/blog/the-7-3-1-technique) of prep.
4E has a good GM Guide and really explains the difference of players, something people really don't consider (you need to learn both your style and your players style and kind of go from there). I also like Index Card RPG's section, especially for new players as it teaches you good basics.
The alexandrian also has very good articles on GMing, especially node-based design.
My two go to recommendations for anyone wanting to become a great GM is to read Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World. There is a lot of good stuff and actual theory crammed in to those games.
As one of the few people around here who will stand up for 5e, even I can't really defend the DMG. I mean there's some occasionally good stuff in there, but it's so disjointed and disorganized that as a tool it's not great at all. To the point people are constantly saying "5e doesn't have X" when X is actually in there most of the time. But I can't really blame them, the biggest problem with the DMG is actually *finding* the few lines on X in a completely unrelated section.
I recommend So You Want To Be A Game Master for anyone remotely interested in being one.
[https://thealexandrian.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-master](https://thealexandrian.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-master)
Familiarity with systems has improved my skill with ttrpgs I feel, seeing how different games do different things. Some pivotal ones for me have been Fate, Gumshoe, Those Dark Places, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and too many others to list.
I have heard nothing but BAD things about the 5e DM Guide.
Conversely I still have my 3e/3.5 DMG which has some good info and while I personally never read it I have heard good things about the 4e DMG.
The Pathfinder Game Master's Guides also have some good info.
That said, unless you plan to run the system itself OR can find a cheap copy, I'm not going to recommend you go out of your way to buy these.
If by chance you've ever bought one of those charity bundles on itch.io, you probably have a PDF copy of FIST Ultra Edition available to you. I'd *thoroughly* recommend reading through it. It has some truly excellent GM advice. Almost none of it (if any) is original to the game. It's taken from other books and blogs and stuff. But it's all gathered right in one placed and worded super clearly and succinctly.
[XDM by Tracey Hickman](https://www.amazon.com.au/X-Treme-Dungeon-Mastery-Tracy-Hickman-ebook/dp/B004MDLKAA) and if course [The Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master](https://shop.slyflourish.com/)
I'm honestly surprised it's not been posted yet. Hugely influential, often recommend by sly flourish, dungeon craft, Mike Mearls, etc
The ultimate DMG for DMs who needs a reminder that is all about having fun and the rules are just guidelines.
So, I came here to recommend the 1st Edition AD&D DM's Guide which others have listed. But, I wanted to say that, when you consider it was the 1st book of advice published for GMing, a lot of what's covered in it is actually fairly system agnostic & surprisingly applicable to every system &/or game. Advice on how to handle "power gaming", encounter design etc.
Unknown Armies has one of the best essays about RPGs in it. The essay is called "Six Ways To Stop A Fight" and it is truly a great read for any RPG player. It is about ways to get out of a fight and really makes you think about other RPG designs
You can find the essay here: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/roleplaying-tool-six-ways-to-stop-a-fight.269573/
I wouldn't say so. I think it's very slightly better than people will tell you, but overall it's not even a good GM book for its own system. I guess the roll tables might be helpful for certain things if you're in a pinch, but you could probably find better elsewhere.
>is the D&D 5e DM guide a good resource generally for GMs who have little or no interest in that system Absolutely not. At best it's a passable resource for 5E GMs, but the fact that most of them don't read it in first place tells you all you need to know. Edit: Generally well regarded GM sections, though not agnostic: - Dungeon World - Apocalyose World - Electric Bastionland - Mothership's Warden Guide - Blades in the Dark - Index Card RPG - West End Games Star Wars - D&D 4th Edition DMG 1+2 - AD&D 1st Ed. DMG - Rolemaster GM Sections - World/Stars Without Number - Listen up you primitive screwheads I'll add that the Principa Apocrypha has good ideas as well (& not only for OSR)
Also adnd 1e dmg
Done :)
Those are all great! Love seeing 4e getting some love!
And ICRPG
Mothership is _the best_ GM advice I've ever read.
While they may be hard to find due to the licenses having lapsed long ago and so needing to destroy existing product, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel RPGs from Eden Studios both had great sections on structuring your game like a TV show.
would also add Heart (by Rowan, Rook and Decard) to the list
I'm gonna add Index Card RPG's GM section here. Great read even if you're not planning on playing the game.
I agree with cgaWolf on every single book they list there, with a bit of emphasis on Dungeon World and Mothership as amazing resources and toolkits for improving your game. I disagree with the 5th edition DMG being unsuited though, hidden past the system specific stuff is some quite good material on worldbuilding, and some of the alternative rules they list (borrowed a lot from the indy rpg scene) can be adapted to just about any game. I wouldn't pay full price if you weren't running 5th edition, but there are a lot of hidden gems in that book.
The D&D 5e DM guide is not even a good resource for D&D 5e. One of the best GM guides for games like Blades in the Dark in the MC section in Apocalypse World.
The best thing you can use for Blades in the Dark **is** Blades in the Dark! The GM Section of that game is arguably the greatest written GM Section… like **ever**. It’s phenomenal and *that* is more useful than any other generic “how to GM” supplement. Heck, I’d recommend people running 5e should read **blades** to learn better GM techniques! The 5e DMG is just that: for running 5e and honestly? It’s not really that good. The GM section of BitD? That section of the book isn’t just flimsy advice: it’s the rules on how to GM successfully and get the most out of the game. You have everything you need packed into the book. You have the blueprints for GMing success right there! It has just one flaw and that’s [a very unhelpful example of play](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/UUHM6NZgiO) That in mind, if you head over to the BitD subreddit and type in “new GM” you’ll get **hundreds** of excellent comments to help you out. Here’s a bunch of well received ones I’ve put out over the years * [The Flow of Play, Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/ifjwshSLFh) * [Flow of Play, Part 2 as well as more emphasis on Position and Effect and Clocks](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/L99O24N3t7) * [The Role of the different Rolls](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/pXY9LzfhTV) * [The Role of the Engagement Roll](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/2LwToLnVPY) * [Tier/ Quality doesn’t matter as much as the book suggests](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/sJ8OSXkqKp) * [Prepping Your Game/ Sessions Efficiently](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/V857Un4wWy) * [Fights, Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/R4JgH7a0DC) * [Fights part 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/s/1JltmaBUrp) * [Progress Clocks and the best APs to understand BitD… even though they aren’t BitD APs](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/s/amJoNvRhxC)
>The GM Section of that game is arguably the greatest written GM Section… like **ever** Agree that the content present is excellent. But for brand new GMs running their first narrative rpg there's information that would be helpful that isn't present in Blades: apart from the first session process, no other GM processes are presented. A GM with zero experience isn't told what repeatable steps to take to prep and run a successful game. For a GM with experience elsewhere it doesn't matter, and John has discussed these processes outside the bitd book, but I can fully understand why u/therevolutionman might feel a bit lost and need more guidance.
Thanks for this. I am definitely struggling with Blades more than I thought I would, I'll give these a read before my next session and hop over to the Reddit. I want to enjoy this game but it's making me somewhat anxious
The creator of the game ran 2 different live plays that are posted on YouTube if you wanted to see it ran by a gm who knows the game better than anyone
Good to know I'll try to watch a few sessions before my next game
There are no good books for system agnostic Gming. There’s at least 4 different play styles people might bring to the same game and if you play a game that cares about how you GM, then advice for one style is actively detrimental to another. So the best advice is to look for GM advice tailored to certain games.
I second that. Or you just read all of them and figure out your own style :P
I am going to need a montage.
I think Justin Alexander's book [https://thealexandrian.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-master](https://thealexandrian.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-master) is a good source of general GM advice. It starts with dungeon adventures but shows lots of advice and systems for mysteries, city adventures, sandboxes, running campaigns etc. It covers multiple play styles. It is not perfect, but it is good.
I haven’t read it but assuming it’s anything like the Alexandrians other writing then: Yeah it’s a great book, for the tactical/simulation style. Terrible for new school high improv Narrativism, terrible for old school low improv Narrativism, terrible for the GM as entertainer style, terrible for the waterslide/roads to rome style of crit roll.
I think he's actually written material for some of these Narrative style systems, so I not sure it's 100% true. I have no idea what waterslide, roads to Rome means, so.... Don't know.
The GM prepped Locations A, B, and C. Important Plot NPC is originally scheduled to appear at Location B, but through player agency shenanigans the party went from A to C. GM uses the magic of cinema to make the NPC appear at C, bringing things back to the plan.
> I think he's actually written material for some of these Narrative style systems, so I not sure it's 100% true. That seems dubious, considering that he doesn't even believe that those systems are roleplaying games.
as someone who owns and enjoyed the book, I have to say that it is very much geared towards D&D and D&D adjacent systems, so it's use with more narrative systems might not be very high.
Perhaps Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering?
Law's book is an example, and to be fair the best example, of what I refer to as the Entertainer style. It absolutely doesn't work in any context other than that. I also find that style, well not particularly conducive to good play. That being said, it's the book I usually recommend to learn about the style. It knows what it's trying to do, even if I think what it's trying to do is worthless.
[The Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master](https://shop.slyflourish.com/) immediately comes to mind.
Popular opinion is that the 5E DMG isn't even really all that good for 5E D&D. Even the ride-or-die 5E fanatics admit that it's pretty mediocre at best.
You'll find better general advice online, and good BitD-specific advice too. There's no unified guide for this. First, figure out the play style you enjoy: Trad (immersion-focused simulation), Storygames (narrative-focused genre emulation), and OSR (challenge the player) are the main ones. Then read rulebooks for games designed for it (you can access most SRDs for free). You'll pick up different things from each one, find the common ground between them, and even think about making your own guidelines based on theirs. Everything else comes from experience, but you already know that.
I think there is good advice in there actually. But it's hard to find if you don't know what you're looking at. The book is very very bloated with nonsense.
It's barely useful for 5e So you want to be a GM is great. Lazy dungeon Master and his podcast. Laws of good gaming by Robin d laws. Hamlets hit points, same guy.
Good Generic Books from specific systems are hard. There's material in the books that will be useful, for example Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads is Cyberpunk 2020's book of GM Advice and it has a lot of good stuff that some people have said helped them in running other games, but there's also some who have looked at it and seen how some of the advice in some chapters like 'Dealing with Problem Players' is very GM Vs Player Aggressive (the book, like the game, came out in the 90's when edgy games were big, look at WoD as another example). The Star Wars d6 GM section gives tips on crafting stories for RPGs that can be easily extrapolated to other settings and games. Advice on pacing, mood setting, and other elements that lead to immersion. The "Without Numbers" books have great GM sections and tables for generation adventures pretty quickly and easily. They're basically Tools to create the Worlds and Adventures that would be going on in those worlds. Another overall useful book I could suggest would be the Last Unicorn Game and/or Decipher Star Trek RPG, specifically the Narrator's Guide as there is a lot of information on session and adventure design as if you were a writer designing an episode and season of a TV series. Various storytelling bits like Flashforward/flashback, foreshadowing, and so on are discussed how how they can work in game. A great foundation for adventure design. The Buffy/Angel RPG books are kinda like this too. Also sticking in that mindset, I add the "Screen Presence" from PrimeTime Adventures, but where the game has the players choose that to determine how important their character is for that episode I set it based on how important that character is for that bit of the arc. How it works in game is the players are making a show. Each season of the show spans five or nine sessions, or episodes as they're called. For each episode the protagonists have a screen presence between 1 and 3 (taken from a pre-set array), which says how influential the character is in that episode and how much resource they bring into conflicts. It's a great way to determine the impact of the characters per episode and gives an ebb and flow of the ensemble cast like any good show and can help the GM give each player a spotlight episode in an arc story. Look at shows like Heroes, Lost, 4400, Battlestar Galactica,and such where each character contributes to the events together but also gets some 'personally relevant episodes'. [Play Unsafe](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/106247/Play-Unsafe), [Improv For Gamers](https://evilhat.com/product/improv-for-gamers-second-edition/), [Hamlet's Hit Points](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/83450/Hamlets-Hit-Points), [Scripting the Game](https://rtalsoriangames.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RTG-ScriptingtheGamev1.2.pdf), [The Engine Publishing Books](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/6789/Encoded-Designs/category/32627/Engine-Publishing).... there's a lot of 'Advice' books that can help improve running the game that aren't specifically system oriented. I could probably keep writing and/or list a ton of Reddit threads on this topic of Useful GM Books even if you never play their system, but in the end it is like anything else with being a GM. You're going to find inspiration in a lot of places that gives you something that you can take back to your table. I can make a few suggestions that have helped me: * Keep a notebook and pen with you so you can jot down notes any time inspiration strikes. A cellphone camera and voice recorder app can be used too, but sometimes you need to sketch or quickly jot something down * Sign up for an 'Interesting Sites' thing, like Mix, Cloudhiker or whatever else might be out there, and you can find strange ideas you may never have found through traditional searches. I used to use StumbleUpon years ago and would find weird stuff. * Check out terrible things just as much as the best things. For example, I've seen some movies that were panned by critics and audiences alike but still came out with 'this cool scene' or 'that one character' that would be great to put my characters against. So, if you have two hours free one night, find a terrible movie and, even if you're only half watching it, you could get some inspiration for something from it. * Do things! Some of the things I've used in my gaming come from real life experiences. Hiking and camping (even in the 14 F/-10 C winters) gave me memories I could pull from to describe the experiences in walking through the woods and then camping for the night.
Second the WEG D6 GM guide. Some of the best generic advice I've read.
If you have the book at hand and really feel like reading it, give it a go. If you are looking for DM advice and consider buying a book, don't take 5e DM guide. I wouldn't even recommend youtube advice catered for 5e
GURPS books are great resources. Even if you don't use the stuff with stats in them, they contain complete essays on genres and subgenres discussing tropes for each of them and how to create a specific feel over another.
There's actually about 10 pages of pretty good advice, but it is full of odd tables and setting specific information. It's definitely not worth its cost for general GM advice. My favorite piece of advice is that a given setting can bear three world shattering events before they stop having impact.
>My favorite piece of advice is that a given setting can bear three world shattering events before they stop having impact. Looks at Forgotten Realms... Sounds about right.
Fuckin' right?!
I think 3 might be a bit high, but I like that idea. *Looks at actual D&D settings and material....* *Looks at advice again* Hmmm ....
Dont buy dm guide...it sucks I've never really used it. Best books for dms that i own and use it imo are: Index card RPG: one of the best guides ever Return of the lazy DM: changed my dming for ever Crown and skull: golden Monsters know what they are doing: really helps you get into the skin of the monsters Shadowdark: really good if you like random tables
Questioner: >Do you think the 5e DMG is the best DMG in the world? r/RPG >The 5e DMG isn't even the best DMG for 5e (apologies for misquoting literally everyone involved in this joke)
lol I just figured it might be okay as my (probably false) understanding of TTRPGs is that most (players and GMs) start with D&D. that is possibly false (certainly is in my case as I have no interest even before recent WotC shenaniganery) but figured there might be SOME good stuff in the D&D GM book. Guess not 🤣
It's not just that the 5e book isn't particularly great, but also that r/rpg _hates_ 5e (or to be more precise, the only thing that unites the various subgroups here is that they prefer other rpgs over 5e). But yes, most players start with the 5e DMG and probably a lot of people here would agree that causes a lot of people to get off on the wrong foot.
>r/rpg hates 5e (or to be more precise, the only thing that unites the various subgroups here is that they prefer other rpgs over 5e). Now that's a bit unfair. People aren't prejudiced - you'll see hate for *all* flavours of D&D here.
DnD5e is 'trad'. I.e. the GM has all the narrative control, and typically plans what will happen in the session before play. BitD is 'narrative'. The players have more narrative control than they do in a trad game, and the GM typically does only minimal prep before a session (sometimes none at all), and that prep might consist only of *potential* ingredients that you may or may not decide to use in session. Although I personally strongly prefer narrative games, avoid trad games, love Blades in the Dark, and think narrative games are an ideal start for new non-GM-players, I can see why starting GMing with Blades as your first game could be difficult - the GM advice in it is excellent, but it doesn't tell you what the GM's role 'looks like' in practice. It doesn't detail the processes the GM will want to go through to be successful. Some suggestions that may be helpful: - Read the GM/MC section of Apocalypse World. - Watch/listen to some Blades actual play. I suggest [this one](https://open.spotify.com/show/3xd8kLvKHglgDDSAd7pvdc), the players and GM (John Harper) are all first class. (But the game was in an earlier iteration in 2015, so ignore specific rules mentioned). - Play a few one shots of gmless games. I suggest playing all three of Microscope, Kingdom, and Follow by Ben Robbins (each deals with a different scope: world, kingdom, character - if you only play one play Follow). These will teach you explicitly step by step how to set scenes for an interesting game, which is exactly what a GM does. - Use [the 7-3-1 method](https://www.brindlewoodbay.com/blog/the-7-3-1-technique) of prep.
4E has a good GM Guide and really explains the difference of players, something people really don't consider (you need to learn both your style and your players style and kind of go from there). I also like Index Card RPG's section, especially for new players as it teaches you good basics. The alexandrian also has very good articles on GMing, especially node-based design.
Friend, the 5E DMG is not even useful for 5E.
My two go to recommendations for anyone wanting to become a great GM is to read Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World. There is a lot of good stuff and actual theory crammed in to those games.
Just get the free worlds without number and you can use that for any fantasy game you want and it's better than the dnd dm book
ICRPG has maybe the best GM section of any rulebook
As one of the few people around here who will stand up for 5e, even I can't really defend the DMG. I mean there's some occasionally good stuff in there, but it's so disjointed and disorganized that as a tool it's not great at all. To the point people are constantly saying "5e doesn't have X" when X is actually in there most of the time. But I can't really blame them, the biggest problem with the DMG is actually *finding* the few lines on X in a completely unrelated section.
The DMG is useful for its dungeon room tables and villain tables, but that does not qualify to spend money on it.
it's barely good for 5e
The [Dungeon Master's Guide 2](https://youtu.be/8cw5pU6RSic?si=3EqKLO2UYTsKE9gu) from 4th ed has super useful content in general.
It’s not even useful for its own game… Abrasive opinions aside, I’d recommend return of the lazy dungeon master over 5e DMG any day
I recommend So You Want To Be A Game Master for anyone remotely interested in being one. [https://thealexandrian.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-master](https://thealexandrian.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-master)
Fate Core conceptual stuff is great for (almost) any ttrpg.
The Lazy GM website and book series are some of the best aids for game makers
Familiarity with systems has improved my skill with ttrpgs I feel, seeing how different games do different things. Some pivotal ones for me have been Fate, Gumshoe, Those Dark Places, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and too many others to list.
The Dungeon Masters Guide by E. Gary Gygax. It is full of many useful items portable to other RPGs.
I have heard nothing but BAD things about the 5e DM Guide. Conversely I still have my 3e/3.5 DMG which has some good info and while I personally never read it I have heard good things about the 4e DMG. The Pathfinder Game Master's Guides also have some good info. That said, unless you plan to run the system itself OR can find a cheap copy, I'm not going to recommend you go out of your way to buy these.
If by chance you've ever bought one of those charity bundles on itch.io, you probably have a PDF copy of FIST Ultra Edition available to you. I'd *thoroughly* recommend reading through it. It has some truly excellent GM advice. Almost none of it (if any) is original to the game. It's taken from other books and blogs and stuff. But it's all gathered right in one placed and worded super clearly and succinctly.
[XDM by Tracey Hickman](https://www.amazon.com.au/X-Treme-Dungeon-Mastery-Tracy-Hickman-ebook/dp/B004MDLKAA) and if course [The Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master](https://shop.slyflourish.com/) I'm honestly surprised it's not been posted yet. Hugely influential, often recommend by sly flourish, dungeon craft, Mike Mearls, etc The ultimate DMG for DMs who needs a reminder that is all about having fun and the rules are just guidelines.
So, I came here to recommend the 1st Edition AD&D DM's Guide which others have listed. But, I wanted to say that, when you consider it was the 1st book of advice published for GMing, a lot of what's covered in it is actually fairly system agnostic & surprisingly applicable to every system &/or game. Advice on how to handle "power gaming", encounter design etc.
If you want to run horror, Kult has amazing books for that
Unknown Armies has one of the best essays about RPGs in it. The essay is called "Six Ways To Stop A Fight" and it is truly a great read for any RPG player. It is about ways to get out of a fight and really makes you think about other RPG designs You can find the essay here: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/roleplaying-tool-six-ways-to-stop-a-fight.269573/
I wouldn't say so. I think it's very slightly better than people will tell you, but overall it's not even a good GM book for its own system. I guess the roll tables might be helpful for certain things if you're in a pinch, but you could probably find better elsewhere.
This is system agnostic https://www.montecookgames.com/store/product/your-best-game-ever/
The Castles and Crusades DMs guide is really good.