This primer will teach you how to build living, breathing worlds for your players to explore; how to host game and manage game sessions; and how to create powerful experiences of adventure that your players will talk about for years to come. Learn the secret to becoming a judge, an adversary, a worldbuilder, and a storyteller and become an arbiter of worlds! “Every Macris campaign starts with a rich, open world; the edge of a massive map; and the ability to find adventure in any direction. After playing in a dozen of his campaigns, I can assure you that Macris is the best prepared, most thorough GM on the prime material plane. He balances “deadly adversary” and “the party’s greatest supporter” perfectly. I’ve been lucky to contribute to some renowned video game worlds, and to discus world design with some of the most accomplished writers alive. And I’m honestly not sure there’s been someone more thorough at and passionate for world building than Macris since ... maybe Tolkien? (Okay, maybe G.R.R. Martin, but he’s not as organized or efficient.) It takes organization, creativity, and careful technique to build a massive world efficiently and deliver it effectively, and Macris can show you how he does it.” - Dr. Michael Capps, award-winning videogame executive, writer, designer (*Gears of War*, *Fortnite*, *Unreal Tournament, Unreal Championship*) “Armed with decades of experience as both a player and a designer, Macris cuts to the marrow with razor sharp insights in an unapologetic and often painfully insightful analysis of every imaginable facet of being a Game Master. From implication of play inherent in a game’s design, to world building, to the often delicate nature of unspoken social contracts inherent in the hobby, the guidance found in Arbiter of Worlds is a much-needed breath of fresh air to veterans of the hobby and a forged-in-the-fire bootcamp for those taking their first steps behind the screen.” - James M. Spahn, Ennie and Origins Award Winning RPG designer “A superb read. He makes his points the way you would expect a Harvard-trained lawyer to do. If you read this book, you are going to come out knowing real things you did not know before that will help you run games at the table…” - Courtney Campbell, Hack & Slash

    Detailed in this 192-page core supplement are the most prominent religions and deities of the Realms. Each divine power is covered in depth by an entry that includes information about the deity's appearance, personality, worshipers, portfolio, aliases, domain name, superior, allies, foes, symbol, worshipers' alignments, avatar, manifestations, church and specialty priests. The information on each religion includes its core dogma, day-to-day activities of priests, holy days and important ceremonies, major centers of worship, affiliated orders, and the priestly vestments and adventuring garb of members of the clergy. Finally, each entry contains spells specific to each of the religions - some new, some long unavailable or hard to find and some updated to conform with the current AD&D game rules. Faiths & Avatars includes: • All the greater, intermediate and lesser deities of the Faerûnian pantheon • The honored dead, including Bane, Bhaal, Moander, Myrkul and Leira, among others • Expanded and clarified specialty priest classes and specific spells for all religions with priesthoods • Color illustrations of priests from every faith in ceremonial dress • Four additional general priest classes now official to the Forgotten Realms campaign setting: crusaders, monks, mystics and shamans.

    Enraged, the King of Keoland orders an aging warrior to lead a band of adventurers on a retaliatory strike. As they prepare to enter the heart of the monsters' lair, each knows only the bravest will survive. Against the odds. Against the giants.

    An attack by crazed goblins reveals the shadows of a forgotten past returning to threaten the town—and perhaps all of Varisia. The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path begins with this goblin raid and takes players on an epic journey through the land of Varisia as they track a cult of serial killers, fight backwoods ogres, stop an advancing army of stone giants, delve into ancient dungeons, and finally face off against a wizard-king in his ancient mountaintop city. This hardcover compilation updates the fan-favorite campaign to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules with revised and new content in more than 400 pages packed with mayhem, excitement, and adventure!Celebrating both the fifth anniversary of the Pathfinder Adventure Path and the tenth anniversary of Paizo Publishing, this new edition expands the original campaign with new options and refined encounters throughout, incorporating 5 years of community feedback.The Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition contains:- All six chapters of the original Adventure Path, expanded and updated for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.- Articles on the major locations of Rise of the Runelords: sleepy Sandpoint, the ancient Thassilonian city of Xin-Shalast, and others.- Revelations on the sinister magic of Thassilon, with updated spells, magic items, and details on tracking sin points throughout the campaign.- A bestiary featuring eight monsters updated from the original Adventure Path, plus an all-new terror.- Dozens of new illustrations, never-before-seen characters, location maps, and more!Cover art by Wayne Reynolds

    The psionicist is a completely new character class for AD&D games, both for player characters and NPCs. Explore inner space! Now you can really put mind over matter with The Complete Psionics Handbook.

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

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

    Will you cut your way through monster-filled ruins and cities rife with political intrigue to emerge as a famous hero laden with fabulous treasure, or will you fall victim to treacherous traps and fiendish monsters in a forgotten dungeon? Your fate is yours to decide with this giant Core Rulebook that provides everything a player needs to set out on a life of adventure and excitement!This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an open playtest involving 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 Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook includes:- All player and Game Master rules in a single volume.- Complete rules for fantastic player races like elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and half-orcs.- Exciting new options for character classes like fighters, wizards, rogues, clerics, and more.- Streamlined and updated rules for feats and skills that increase options for your hero.- A simple combat system with easy rules for grapples, bull rushes, and other special attacks.- Spellcaster options for magic domains, familiars, bonded items, specialty schools, and more.- Hundreds of revised, new, and updated spells and magical treasures.- Quick-generation guidelines for nonplayer characters.- Expanded rules for curses, diseases, and poisons.- A completely overhauled experience system with options for slow, medium, and fast advancement.... and much, much more!Cover art by Wayne Reynolds

    Description of every kind of elf abound. Rounding out this information are 11 new kits; new optional rules and suggestions for running elven campaigns; and special elven equipment, spells, and magical items. Forget what you thought you knew about elves - The Complete Book of Elves sheds new light on this mysterious race!

    Give somebody a floorplan and theyll GM for a day show them how to make 30 floorplans in 30 seconds and theyll GM forever. Need to know how to get from here to there even if neither here nor there are listed on a map? Even if there is no map? Need a random encounter? Need instant stats for that random encounter? Need to know why there was a random encounter? This book was designed to help you make a city happen now. In addition to details on Vornheim, adventure locations, and player commentary from the I Hit It With My Axe girls, every single surface below this jacket including the back of the jacket, the book covers underneath, and the inside covers has been crammed full of tools to help you build and run a city no matter what edition game you play.

    Replacing the original Outer Planes Appendix, this new and enlarged compendium includes full-color illustrations, reintroducing many of the best mulitplanar monsters from a wide variety of out-of-print sources.

    This exciting world is complete with soaring cities, viscious wars, and a gritty mean-streets style that harkens back to the traditions of film noir.The Eberron campaign setting is updated into the 4th edition D&D family with the Eberron Campaign Guide. Featuring all of the character elements from the core rulebooks, this updated version of the Eberron world is a must for any gamer that likes the magic-as-technology, film noir, high-adventure campaign setting that was chosen from over 15,000 game submissions.

    Player's Option Rulebooks present an alternative approach to AD&D characters. Custom-craft your next PC, selecting the profession, skills, and abilities you want! Characters can even have additional ability scores such as Stamina, Muscle, Balance, and others. New proficiencies, talents, and updated psionics round out the Player's Option character. Be ready for anything with Skills & Powers!

    Even if you’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, you probably know someone who has: The game has had a profound influence on our culture. Released in 1974—decades before the Internet and social media—Dungeons & Dragons is one of the original ultimate nerd subcultures, and is still revered by more than thirty million fans. Now, the authoritative history and magic of the game is revealed by an award-winning journalist and life-long dungeon master.From its origins on the battlefields of ancient Europe, through the hysteria that linked it to satanic rituals and teen suicides, and to its apotheosis as father of the modern video game industry, Of Dice and Men recounts the development of a game played by some of the most fascinating people in the world. Chronicling the surprising history of D&D’s origins (one largely unknown even to hardcore players) while examining the game’s profound impact, Ewalt weaves laser-sharp subculture analysis with his own present-day gaming experiences. An enticing blend of history, journalism, narrative, and memoir, Of Dice and Men sheds light on America’s most popular (and widely misunderstood) form of collaborative entertainment.

    Join adventures renowned as they trek across Toril in the detailed, beautifully illustrated atlas. Ride with the Ffolk in the magical Moonshae Isles. Brave the brutal elements of Icewind Dale. Follow the gods as they wreak destruction from the Dales to Waterdeep. Watch as empires of East and West collide. Karen Wynn Fonstad, author of "The Atlas of the Dragonlance World", "The Atlas of Middle Earth", "The Atlas of Pern, and "The Atlas of the Land", now brings you the spectacular and dynamic settings of the Forgotten Realms.