Advanced Gamemaster's Guide
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The
Advanced Gamemaster's Guide is part of Green Ronin's
Advanced Rulebook Series, in this case the book obviously being intended as a companion peice for the the
Dungeon Master's Guide. The book is written by Owen K.C. Stephens, who in addition to works like the
Wheel of Time RPG and
Bastards and Bloodlines, penned a few articles of interest in gaming publications.
A First Look
This review is based on the PDF version. The PDF is 192 pages long, and currently available at RPGnow for $16.00 US.
The cover art is a painting of an undead horde, by William C. Eaken. The peice is moody and nicely done.
Interior artists feature both familiars for d20 works and a few names that are less familiar to me. The artists are Toren "Macbin" Atkinson, Kent Burles, Marcio Fiorito, Pat Loboyko, Terry Pavlet, James Smith III. Joseph Wigfield, and Lisa Wood.
I noticed no blatant formatting or gramatical errors.
A Deeper Look
Note here I am engaging in a slight shift from my historical format. I once was rather thorough about contents. I am moving towards a summary of the contents and then hitting a few highlights in detail.
The
Advanced Gamemasters Guide has two major types of content: GM advice material and new rules and variants, though it tends towards the latter a bit.
In several spots the author entertains rather variant modes of play, including rules that have an impact on balance (the sort of thing that would send some natives here into a frothing fit), but he specifically highlights the potential impact on the game. So if you don't have the werewithal to change your game, some of these options may not be of much use to you. But if you do, there should be few surprises.
One point of contrast of Stephens' take on mechanics in comparison to similar mechanics in other products: by and large, the variants in this book seem simpler to implement than man other similar takes, which makes them more palatable to add to an already complex game.
Some highlights of the material in the book includes:
- Sensitive subjects - Part of the section on GM advice discusses the inclusion of sensitive subjects such as rape and slavery as a playstyle consideration, with much consideration given to the group's sensitivities. The discussion will not be unfamiliar to those who debate such topics on gaming message forums, though you will, of course, find the authors discussion a bit more straightforward, factual, and helpful in pinning down a GMs considerations when deciding on what sorts of material to include.
- Class Dodge Bonus - This is one of the best bits from the material on combat. The idea behind the variant is that all classes get a dodge bonus from level, which progresses rather slower than those defined in
d20 Modern or
Star Wars (or, for that matter,
Unearthed Arcana). The "max dex bonus" for armor becomes "max dodge bonus", to include all dex and dodge bonuses. A great addition to a swashbuckling style game.
- Metamagic points - this is a nice metamagic variant that gives you a limited number of free uses intead of occupying spell slots of higher levels.
- Self-limited spells - a flavorful option with lots of plot potential. Those who take "mystic vows" can create specific limitations to their magic. So you can have things like a ruler who elicits oaths from young wizards.
- Designing and running adventures, campaign design - these sections resemble the content of many threads you might read here, but good guidance for a developing DM that is missing from the DMG.
- Designing antagonists - Some of this material resembles some other GM advice oriented products like
Complete Book of Villains or
DM Design Kit, but it's nice to give the subject a refresh for those without extensive libraries.
- Simplified NPC design - a somewhat more formalized take on faking NPCs, a subject that some ENWorld messageboard participants have discussed in the past.
- Feat Design, Designing Prestige Class - Some experienced and well read GMs already have a pretty good notion of the sorts of design advice offered here. However, some would-be (and actual) d20 designers obviously have not. If you are planning on designing your own game material, really consider picking up the pdf and reading these sections.
- Character design - this is where some of the variant rules get really crazy (but crazy in a good way.) For example, what if at every juncture that you could get a feat or an ability score bonus, you could choose either? Or what if you got a feat every level? Sounds crazy, but appealing in that doubtless many players out there have felt a desire to have a little freeer hand in sculpting their characters.
Another cool variant is magic as a cross class skill (which plays off of the eldritch weaver rules in Green Ronin's
Advanced Player's Manual, one of the few things I liked about the APM).
There are also a variety of variants on generating ability scores. One such variant allows teh player to select a class, and then is granted a varying number of dice according to class, from which the player takes the best 3 for each score. For example, a barbarian receives teh best 3 of 7 dice for strength and 6 for constitution, but only a straight 3 dice roll for intelligence and charisma. This makes it pretty certain that the character fits the role of their class pretty well, but beyond that, it feels very organic. (This technique that might seem familiar from 1e Unearthed Arcana, but is less drastic/munchkin/humanocentric than that book's take)
Character backgrounds are an option that let you add more background related abilities; by choosing one of a variety of packages, the character receives skills, skill bonuses, permanent class skills, and other benefits. I like the concept, but I think the
Second World Sourcebook pulled this one off better.
- Chakra rules - combined with the background rules above, I was almost surprised not to see the
Second World Soucebook in the OGL statement conccering this one. As in the 2WS, AGMG likens the concept of spots on your body where you can take advantage of magic items to the Vedic concept of a "chakra". Stephens extends this concept with ideas like allowing feats for more Chakras, magic items that grant more Chakras, and making Chakras vary by class.
- Innate abilities - another idea is a different way to reward PCs, with innate abilities. Unlike some more sloppy takes on the concept, the author quantifies how to realize such abilities within the framework of the character wealth concept. (No, there is no Craft Innate Ability feat... these are more GM playthings.)
- Levin - this is basically a more thorough set of guidelines on one of my favorite, already existing rules from the DMG: Power Components (components that pay XP costs for spells or items). The neat thing about this take on the rules is that the section on getting Levin is that one variant requires that the target creature be slain in specific circumstances, which sort of minimizes the "butcher shop" mentality which has PCs stuffing every monster corpse into a portable hole.
- Sovereign materials - These are special materials much like those in the core rules, but some of these are astonishingly powerful by current standards. Use with caution.
- Magic items - the biggest issue the author tackles here is distilling many of the weapon/armor properties out of special and unique weapons/armor, and then creates some new unique items from the rules. You want a light weapon like a sunblade or a different weapon that acts like an oathbow, this section will please you. This chapter is a great companion peice for Bastion Press's
Arms & Armor.
Spell lenses - these are essentially similar to the concept of spell keyed items in the
Book of Hallowed might II. Think of it as a universal spell adapter - you put a generic spell in, a specific spell pops out the other end.
If the spell key items in
BoHM II seemed like they were a little too generous to you, you should like these rules a bit better as they are more restrictive.
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Making artifacts - okay, take a second to clean the cola off of your monitor. Done? Good. The premise here is pretty simple, there HAS to be a way to make them, since they are out there, right? The cost is, as it should be, pretty significant. The author mentions that even if you don't allow PCs to use them, the rules could be use as a benchmark for the power of someone who made them. The rules are actually a bit simpler (for the players/GM) than you might expect.
Conclusion
Overall, it's a pretty nifty little reference, especially if you are an intermediate GM who would like to take it too the next level, or if you are interested adding some new spins to your game. The author is very good at working within the boundaries of the rules, whilst pushing those boundaries back, and seems to take extra care to ensure that he doesn't add too much complication to your game.
