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Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering (Paperback)

~ Robin Laws (Author), Steve Jackson (Contributor)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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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.com Sales Rank: #1,465,393 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
18 of 19 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
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.

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10 of 10 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
(REAL NAME)   
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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 ;-).

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Robin Lays Down the Law, August 7, 2003
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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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not THAT good.
This book shows you how to look at your game through the eyes of different types of players. Yeah, that's a valuable thing in and of itself, but problem is, that's all the book... Read more
Published on November 27, 2006 by Eltopo

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for good GM's who want to be great!
I was ashamed of myself for not being a better Dungeon Master after reading this book. The helpfull hints in this book really spell out the reasons for running and playing RPG's... Read more
Published on July 19, 2004 by Jeff Hatch

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome - informative, concise, useful, and the right length
I really didn't think that I would give this 5 stars when I initially learned about it. I figured it would be another really simple little book from someone else in the industry... Read more
Published on June 29, 2003 by R. Luzetski

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