#8: Buried Treasure

[RPGnet Columns]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/nextlevel/nextlevel8.phtml

Summary:

Games with great GMing advice.

Go to the column (http://www.rpg.net/columns/nextlevel/nextlevel8.phtml) for more information.

[smascrns]

It's nice to see where you find great GM advice. Of course, there are plenty of advice in older books as well but I suppose you focuzed on those that are easier to find.

Anyway, I was a little down by the column. Yes, it's nice to see where one can find advice, but what type of advice? About what? I would have loved to see briefly described what each one of those books has to offer the reader.

[Praetorian]

Anyway, I was a little down by the column. Yes, it's nice to see where one can find advice, but what type of advice? About what? I would have loved to see briefly described what each one of those books has to offer the reader.

I tried to give a rough idea of what each book has to bring to the table so that a GM could look the article over and see what type of advice they could expect in each book. Could I have gone into more depth? Surely, but that would have made the art. about 5x longer. So, I called it even with a summary of each.

[mattiasostklint]

I just finished reading the Burning Wheel. While the designers notes were useful, they were only about how the GM interacts with the RULES. Maybe I'm different, but I never had much problem with that. I do, however, have some real problems with how to interact with the players, the npc:s, the gaming world and the story. Total pagecount for that kind of advice in BW: 3 (or was it 4? I forget). I would not recommend BW as a good source of GM advice.

On the other hand, Over the Edge and (especially) Unknown Armies have several long chapter on this, with lots of really, really high-carat advice on these issues. I would recommend either as good sources of GM advice.

Haven't read the rest of the games mentioned.

[Praetorian]

I just finished reading the Burning Wheel. While the designers notes were useful, they were only about how the GM interacts with the RULES.

That alone makes it extermely useful.

Insight into how to interact with the rules of a game is oft overlooked as a GM skill. BW, as you point out, does a great job in showing what a GM can and should do witht he rules... the best part is that much of the insight into manipulating the BW rules apply to GMing in general.

I wouldn't write off the usefulness of BW just yet.