Tenkar's Tavern: Bundle of Holding - Engine GM Guides (System Neutral)

Monday, November 21, 2022

Bundle of Holding - Engine GM Guides (System Neutral)

I've picked up each of these Engine GM Guides over the years and they are excellent resources, both for game prep and for improv in session. I really can't recommend them enough, and for less than 10 bucks for the six titles, it really is a steal.

Gamemaster! This Engine GM Guides Quick Deal gathers ebooks from Engine Publishing that help improve your skill in running tabletop roleplaying games. Written by the experienced GMs at the widely read gamemastering blog Gnome Stew and by many of the field's leading RPG designers, Engine's system-neutral guides show how to prepare and run a game session, conjure interesting characters and storylines, manage an ongoing campaign, and (ahem) improvise when your players gleefully destroy your sessions, characters, storylines, and campaign.
Odyssey the Complete Gamemaster Guide to Campaign ManagementEach of these terrific guides has appeared in one of five past Bundle of Holding offers, 2013-2020. If you missed any of those, or if you're new to the collected wisdom of the Gnome Stew bloggers, this Quick Deal gives you the complete six-book collection for less than the retail price of one guide. For just US$9.95 you get all six complete gamemastering guides in our Engine Collection (retail value $78) as DRM-free ebooks:
Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Gamemasters (previously in the November 2013 Worldbuilder's Toolkit 1)
Focal Point: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Running Extraordinary Sessions (in Toolkit 4, Nov 2016)
Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game (in Toolkit 1, Nov 2013)
Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep (in Toolkit 3, Dec 2015, and in Bundle 5, Aug 2013)
Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign Management (in Toolkit 2, Nov 2014)
Unframed: The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters (in Toolkit 3, Dec 2015)

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar

No comments:

Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

RPGNow

Monday, November 21, 2022

Bundle of Holding - Engine GM Guides (System Neutral)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blogs of Inspiration & Erudition