Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering [Paperback]

Robin Laws (Author), Steve Jackson (Contributor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Steve Jackson Games (February 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556346298
• ISBN-13: 978-1556346293
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.1 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,056,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Guide For Both Starting and Experienced GMs, May 30, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering (Paperback)

I've been GMing for 20+ years and I still found this book to be very useful. It starts by first analyzing the different types of players and what they want out of a game. I was able to easily fit my players into the different categories and change the focus of my adventures to try to please them. He also talks about various structures for adventures and what to do when the players get stuck. There's also some advise about improvising that's pretty useful.

Robin Laws (the author) also writes a column on playing for Dragon Magazine that's frequently helpful. He also designed The Dying Earth roleplaying game, which is pretty cool, and a bunch of other games I haven't played and so can't comment on.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but short... or is that good and short?, December 18, 2003

By 

Larry Marvin Wall (Redmond, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering (Paperback)

This book is a collection of related 'articles' on how to be a good GM that could be a chapter in the GMs guide for any RPG. It is completely system agnostic but the author demonstrates an understanding of most popular systems. It contains a lot of good common sense about being a GM all compressed into 32 pages - really good tips on assessing your players and training yourself to improvise in particular. I also liked that the author doesn't take sides between role-playing and roll-playing but rather advises the GM to focus on what makes the players happy. I cautiously recommend this book as follows:

If you are new to GMing or are thinking about being a GM this book both contains useful information and will build your confidence. You just need to decide if you are willing to pay this much for a 32 page 'pamphlet'. You could probably find all of this information somewhere on the web but it would take a lot of looking and it probably wouldn't be as well written. It certainly wouldn't be as well organized. For the new GM I would say that you probably are better off spending your money on this book than on another game supplement or adventure because you will use what you learn here in every game session.

If you are an experienced GM intent on 'mastering your craft' then you have to buy this book just to know that there hasn't been anything written about GMing that you haven't read.

If you are a competent GM (as indicated by the fact that you have a group of satisfied players) then take the author's own advice and spend your money on something else. We'll actually he says that if your players are happy then ignore everything that he has to say but he would probably want you to buy his book anyway ;-).

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Robin Lays Down the Law, August 7, 2003

By 

Robert Hamilton IV "aiptasia" (Canton, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering (Paperback)

Robin Laws states early on in the book that roleplaying games are supposed to be as fun and entertaining as possible for all participants. He continues by expanding on two main themes: (1)knowing the players and what they define as "fun" and (2)knowing the adventure and what its objectives are. This sounds deceptively simple, but Robin points out that different players want different types of adventures, so consider the group of players and suitablity of the adventure to their desires. He has many humorous examples of do's and dont's. I could see many of the examples have happened during adventures that I gamemastered over the years.

The book is mainly geared towards gamemasters, but does have an interesting section on different player types. I discovered as a player I am a "Method Actor." What type are you?

I strongly recommend this smallish, simple-looking book. It made me think of things about a gaming session that I had only given a passing glance to prior to reading this book.

Robin lays down the law, and I like the rules.