Fortunately for GMs, the Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide is here to back you up. Packed with invaluable hints and information, this book contains everything you need to take your game to the next level, from advice on the nuts and bolts of running a session to the greater mysteries of crafting engaging worlds and storylines. Whether you've run one game or a thousand, this book has page after page of secrets to make you sharper, faster, and more creative, while always staying one step ahead of your players.The 320-page Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.The Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide includes:- Tips and tricks for preparing and running a better game, suitable for beginning GMs and battle-hardened veterans.- Step-by-step walkthroughs for creating campaign worlds, cities, cosmologies, feudal systems, and alternate dimensions.- Difficult player types, and how to handle them gracefully.- New rules for subsystems like hauntings, chase scenes, fortune-telling, gambling games, mysteries, and insanity.- Charts to help you generate everything from interesting NPCs and fantastic treasures to instant encounters in any terrain.- Advanced topics such as PC death, game-breaking rules, overpowered parties, solo campaigns, and derailed storylines.- Sample NPC statistics for dozens of common adventuring situations, such as cultists, guardsmen, barmaids, and pirates.... and much, much more!Cover art by Wayne Reynolds

    Bushido’s staunch and unyielding code of conduct binds samurai to duty, strengthening their character and defining their choices. While some samurai serve the greater good, others use the strictures of Bushido to manipulate the lower ranks and advance their own power.Eight Great Clans form the heart of Rokugan’s culture. Each is defined by its own principles, values, and agendas. Each sees the Code of Bushido in its own way. Each seeks to serve the Emperor with its own unique talents. Take up the soul of your ancestors — the samurai’s daisho — and fight for the glory and honor of your family and Clan. Now is the time for heroes, in a world where Honor is a force more powerful than Steel.The Fourth Edition of L5R is the ultimate edition of the award-winning role-playing game. Inside this tome, you will find:• A game unlike any you’ve played elsewhere. Honor and service are valued more than magic swords taken from wandering ogres. Prepare for the glorious life of the samurai!• A unique Character Sheet. Legend of the Five Rings rules have never been more easy to learn and to play. No more need to flip through pages of rules while fighting your enemies!• A toolbox approach to role-playing in Rokugan. Fourth Edition encourages gamemasters of Legend of the Five Rings to customize their game, adding or removing from their campaigns as they see fit, customizing the game to fit their story lines and players.• A broad history of the Emerald Empire and the beliefs of all the Great Clans, with play options not only the major clans but also for outlying groups such as Imperials, Minor Clans, and the infamous Spider Clan.Draw your blade and join the fight for Rokugan.

    This will be the perfect, easy-to-use replacement for the bulkier compendiums of the past. Illustrations, some in color.

    Raise armies! Research spells! Spy on your enemies! More than just a set of rules and charts, this book also describes a style of play that assumes your character becomes more interested in influencing the world around them. You’ll still adventure and fight monsters, but this supplement gives you tons of fun things to do during your downtime. It only takes one character building a stronghold to radically change the nature of a campaign and introduce new narrative opportunities for GM and players alike! Huge new story opportunities arise! This book includes tons of examples for GMs to inspire them.

    Each revision integrates user feedback received since the original product release so as to address the specific wants and needs of the player and Dungeon Master audiences. The overall rules system remains intact, with changes targeted specifically at elements of game play that were considered under-powered or incomplete. These revised editions also contain bonus content, such as new feats, that are exclusive to these editions. In addition, the new and revised content instructs players on how to take full advantage of the tie-in D&D miniatures line planned to release in Fall 2003 from Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Overall changes to all the titles include making complex combat easier to understand and provide more information on interacting with and summoning monsters. Specific changes include the following: the Player's Handbook received revisions to character classes to make them more balanced, and there are revisions and additions to spell lists. Amazon.com ReviewThe Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition Player's Handbook contains all the rules you need to create characters and begin adventuring with the world's most popular role-playing game. Newcomers to the game will appreciate this book's clear explanations, effective examples, pleasing layout, elegant rules, and brilliant art. It's never been easier to create and role-play a heroic human ranger, cunning elf wizard, or any other fantasy character from the game's 7 races and 11 classes.Old-school players will likewise be pleased, as the outdated AD&D rules system has been given a thorough overhaul. Gone are almost all the old restrictions on race and alignment. Halfling sorcerers, half-orc paladins, dwarf barbarians, and gnome monks are now possible. THACO, negative armor class, funky saving throws, inflated ability scores, heat-based infravision, and just about every other needlessly complex rule has been reworked into a faster, more consistent, and more fun system. Players can choose unique special abilities for their characters as they gain levels, which means that even two fighters of the same race and class can have very different abilities. The end result of all these changes is a dynamic game with more customized characters.Almost every page has some form of new artwork, and the art almost always serves to explain a concept or illustrate a point. The book is filled with example montages that help to show the difference between human, half-elf, and elf, or relative size differences between creatures, or what the various levels of cover and concealment look like. These illustrations make the rules much more clear. The style of the artwork is consistent throughout the book and is a definite departure from older editions of AD&D. Instead of the classic medieval artwork of Larry Elmore, the new book has the spiky, leathery, Mad Max-meets-Renaissance look of the Magic: The Gathering card game.We would have preferred less radical artistic changes, but we love everything else that Wizards of the Coast has done with Dungeons & Dragons. The rules are fast and clear, and the characters--including the new sorcerer class and the return of the monk, barbarian, and half-orc--are fabulous. If you're new to the D&D game, then this rule book is the perfect introduction. And if you're an old-school gamer who played D&D back in the day, then welcome to the new era of D&D.

    Will you delve for lost artifacts in the ruins of alien temples? Strap on rune-enhanced armor and a laser rifle to battle undead empires in fleets of bone ships, or defend colonists from a swarm of ravenous monsters? Maybe you'll hack into the mainframe of a god-run corporation, or search the stars for clues to the secret history of the universe or brand new planets to explore. Whether you're making first contact with new cultures on uncharted worlds or fighting to survive in the neon-lit back alleys of Absalom Station, you and your team will need all your wits, combat skill, and magic to make it through. But most of all, you'll need each other.This massive 528-page hardcover rulebook is the essential centerpiece of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, with rules for character creation, magic, gear, and more—everything you need to play Starfinder as either a player or Game Master! The next great adventure in science-fantasy roleplaying takes off here, and the Starfinder Core Rulebook is your ticket to a lifetime of adventure amid the stars!Inside this book, you'll find:- All of the rules you need to play or run a game of Starfinder.- Seven character classes, from the elite soldier and stealthy operative to the physics-hacking technomancer and mind-bending mystic.- Character races both new and classic, from androids, insectile shirrens, ratlike ysoki, and reptilian vesk to the dwarves and elves of the distant future.- An in-depth exploration of the Starfinder setting, including its planets, gods, factions, and threats.- Hundreds of weapons, spells, technological gadgets, magic items, and other options to outfit any character.- Complete rules for starships, including customization and starship combat.- Rules and tips on using Pathfinder RPG content with Starfinder.Cover art by Remko Troost

    Edited by Eric HolmesThis version of Basic Dungeons and Dragons (the cover reflects the 2nd printing of the "Holmes version" is the followup to the Orignial D&D sets.

    This campaign guide offers both players and Gamemasters a wide array of new options that can be used to craft a unique roleplaying game experience. As the galaxy plunges into one war after another, the forces of the Republic, along with their Jedi allies, struggle to protect themselves from hordes of invading Mandalorians, tyrannical Sith lords, and traitorous allies on every front. Featuring new game material drawn from a variety of sources, and including characters, weapons, vehicles, and droids, this book presents an entire campaign during the violent days of the Old Republic. This book also contains new Force powers, Force techniques, and Force secrets for Jedi and Sith characters, as well as new options for characters of all classes. Players can take advantage of new talents, feats, and other options to play a Mandalorian neo-crusader, a Republic soldier battling against the forces of Darth Revan and Darth Malak, or a Jedi in exile on the run from the Sith.

    You know how to take advantage of every situation, and you don’t mind getting your hands dirty. Take the gloves off? Ha! You never put them on. You infuriate your foes and amaze your allies with your ingenuity, resourcefulness, and style. For you, every new predicament is an opportunity in disguise, and with each sweet victory your notoriety grows. That is how legends are made.This D&D supplement gives you everything you need to get the drop on your foes and escape sticky situations. In addition to new feats, spells, items, and prestige classes, Complete Scoundrel presents new mechanics that put luck on your side and a special system of skill tricks that allow any character to play the part of a scoundrel. Tricky tactics aren’t just for rogues anymore.

    This 128-page accessory expands the living world of the druid in the AD&D 2nd Edition game, bringing new homes, character kits, personalities, spells, magical items, herbal lore, and a hundred details on druidic society, sacred groves, and high-level aspirations. This book has it all—don't leave the woods without it!

    The priestesses of Lloth, the Spider Queen, demand (and receive) complete respect from the citizens of this mighty city. But what of the common folk - the drow of non-noble birth, the humans, and others? What is their lot in life, in this magnificent den of intrigue?Three books in this boxed set explain the ways of Menzoberranzan in detail. Book One: The City gives the reader a tour of the streets and districts, a wealth of information on various practices and customs, and an overview of daily life for each class of citizen (and non-citizen). Book Two: The Houses presents all eighteen major and minor Houses of the city, including the Matron Mothers and their immediate families, as well as any important advisers and associates. Book Three: The Adventure gives players a chance to take their characters into the web of deceit and intrigue woven by the denizens of this famed city.Additionally, this boxed set includes:Four connecting poster-sized maps of the city proper;one poster map of the House Baenre compound;a poster showing the rivalries and alliances among all eighteen major and minor houses; a 16-page House Do'Urden retrospective and the collected essays of Drizzt; twelve cardsheets containing in-depth statistics on main characters from Houses Nurbonnis and Millithor, and small maps for use in the adventure; and a full-color poster of the stunning box cover art by Jeff Easley.

    

    "Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells" is a supplement designed to be the definitive resource for information about devils and the Nine Hells of the D&D world. Like its predecessor "Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss," this game material is completely compatible with the D&D core rulebooks and is intended for both D&D players and Dungeon Masters. AUTHOR INFORMATIONRobin Laws is a freelance writer who has designed dozens of roleplaying game products, including most recently "Dungeon Master's Guide II." Robert J. Schwalb is a freelance developer and editor who primarily works on game products for Green Ronin Publishing.

    The Complete Bard's Handbook gives you everything you need to create a bard the world will never forget!

    This is the essential volume for the well-equipped Dungeons and Dragons character.