So You Want to Be a Game Master

Everything You Need to Start Your Tabletop Adventure for Dungeon's and Dragons, Pathfinder, and Other Systems

By: Justin Alexander

Narrated by: Shawn Compton

Become the Ultimate Game Master

Thanks to tabletop roleplay, millions of fans are creating unforgettable collaborative stories. No matter what roleplaying game you want to play, this book is the key to unlocking endless adventure!

Award-winning game designer Justin Alexander has created an incredible compendium of advice, perfect for any aspiring Game Master. This book is packed with the strategies you need to create amazing dungeons, battles, roleplay encounters, and more. Full of practical, hands-on advice, just hearing the first chapter of this book will have you ready to run a game in less than an hour. From there, Justin teaches you all the skills and techniques you need to explore dungeons, solve mysteries, steal priceless artifacts, unravel strange conspiracies, and venture forth on epic journeys!

No matter what game you're playing, this book is the key to unlocking the limitless realms of your imagination.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Justin Alexander (P)2023 Tantor

Easy to follow examples

The advice is quick and to the point. Examples make the process easy to follow. There are occasional microphone pops but is otherwise a brilliant help book.

Perfect advice for game Masters of all experience levels

As other reviews have said, there is certain material that the e book or physical copy has that is not included in this version (tables, lists, and various sheets for aiding play). For some of that the text is clear enough that you could conceivably create those items through careful listening, but don’t worry, those aren’t the real gold of this book. The real gold is the text itself, clear and well written, explaining the processes and procedures of good game mastering: how to make a ruling, how to run a room, and how to string rulings and rooms and situations together both at the table and before you get there to creat amazing table top role playing game sessions. Treat the audio book as if it’s a recorded collection of essays on game mastering, and you’ll find it satisfies almost all of your needs. Highly recommended

Must read for any Game Master

This is chock full of information and I recommend you get the print version of this book for reference!

Matt Collville lovers, listen to this

Content: No-nonsense templates and advice. If Matt Collville is a college professor, The Alexandrian is producing content to get you into Matt's class and know 99% of the answers with experience.
Narration: the pace and dialect is similar to The Alexandrian YouTube channel. This is his YouTube channel with an extra coat of polish.

Good information for GMs whether new or not

Overall a good listen. You can tell the reader was not a gamer due to some of the terms that they got wrong. There’s a lot of great information in the book, but a lot of times it reference the e-book or written book. This made it difficult. The other thing was the reader would read the tables, and it was really bizarre to have a table read to me. I think the information provides is great, reminded me of some things that I haven’t done in a while. It also taught me some things that I have not heard before.

best book I've listened to for a beginner like me

I've listened to robins laws, and sly flourish, and a few other "beginner books" I won't mention, but this one gave me more help than all the others combined. probably because I'm new.

Excellent

Great overview for beginners and in-depth tips for old hands about how to run table top role playing games. Audiobook refers to the ebook, but author has materials available on his website to look at while listening.

Needs a PDF

amazing info but your betterodff getting a visual copy, the convenience of an audiobook is undermined immensely because of this.

Great Resource

I have been a long time fan of Justin Alexander, reading tips and advice from his website the Alexandrian. This book is a wonderful compilation of that great resource. While many of his examples are from DnD the lessons can be applied to any game system. I think this is probably one of the best purchases or gifts for anyone that takes being a game master seriously.

Get started quickly

This book seems to get the beginner gm on their feet quickly rounding out strategies for a different types of play as well as tips and tricks on non-dungeon centric scenarios. I haven’t gm’ed a game nor played in many years but this book impressed upon me how the gm can manage play with less stress and more fun for the players. I listened to the audiobook and needed to visualize the illustrations although they are available via the Audible app. I plan on a second read with whisper speak enabled by purchasing the Kindle.