Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D


David Kushner - 2017
    Like the game itself, the narrative casts the reader into the adventure from a first person point of view, taking on the roles of the different characters in the story. Gygax was the son of immigrants who grew up in Lake Geneva, WI, in the 1950s. An imaginative misfit, he escaped into a virtual world based on science fiction novels, military history and strategic games like chess. In the mid-1970s, he co-created the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons game. Starting out in the basement of his home, he was soon struggling to keep up with the demand. Gygax was a purist, in the sense that he was adamant that players use their imaginations and that the rules of the game remain flexible. A creative mind with no real knowledge of business, he made some strategic errors and had a falling out with the game's co-creator, his close friend and partner, David Arneson. By the late 1970s the game had become so popular among kids that parents started to worry -- so much so that a mom's group was formed to alert parents to the dangers of role play and fantasy. The backlash only fueled the fires of the young fans who continued to play the game, escaping into imaginary worlds. Before long, D&D conventions were set up around the country and the game inspired everything from movies to the first video games. With D&D, Gygax created the kind of role playing fantasy that would fuel the multibillion dollar video game industry, and become a foundation of contemporary geek culture.

Adventurer's Vault


Logan Bonner - 2008
    Whether you're a player looking for a new piece of equipment or a Dungeon Master stocking a dragon's hoard, this book has exactly what you need.The book features a mix of classic items updated to the 4th Edition rules and brand-new items never before seen in D&D.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft


Wizards RPG Team - 2021
    No one knows this better than monster scholar Rudolph Van Richten. To arm a new generation against the creatures of the night, Van Richten has compiled his correspondence and case files into this tome of eerie tales and chilling truths.Discover the mysteries of Ravenloft, mist-shrouded lands where infamous Darklords lurk among ageless vampires, zombie hordes, cosmic terrors, and worse. Then make your choice. Will you create your own Domains of Dread, settings to host endless terrifying adventures? Or will you join the ranks of haunted heroes who embrace macabre lineages, dual-edged Dark Gifts, haunted subclasses, and other forbidden powers?Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft contains everything you need to craft a horror-themed campaign for Dungeons & Dragons. Unleash a treasure trove of new story hooks, character options, and campaign customization to bring one of the most exciting Dungeons & Dragons settings to life!

Shadowrun


FanPro - 2005
    The world is not only Awakened -- it's wired. Cyber and bioware implants make your meat body better-than-flesh, while the wireless Matrix enhances your perceptions with hyper-real senses. Deals are made in steel and lead more often than gold or nuyen; success and failure live only a razor's edge apart. Creatures of myth and legend walk the streets, while the arcane skills of spellslingers are in high demand. Above it all, monolithic megacorps bleed the world dry, sabotaging each other in covert cutthroat competition as they go to war over the bottom line You're a shadowrunner, a street operative, scratching out a living on the mean sprawl streets. You may be human, elf, dwarf, ork or troll. From lethal street samurai to well-connected info brokers, spell-slinging mages or code-cracking hackers. No matter what, you're a -- professional corporate pawn or "deniable asset," -- you get the job done. Shadowrun, Fourth Edition offers a completely new rules system that is simple, integrated and accessible. The state-of-the-art has also been advanced, introducing a new level of augmented reality, new gear, new magical discoveries, and more. This hardcover rulebook contains all the rules gamemasters and players need to create characters and ongoing adventures set in the popular Shadowrun universe. Note that the Shadowrun, Fourth Edition will replace the Shadowrun, Third Edition rules set. Source material from previous editions will still be compatible.

The Complete Book of Humanoids


Bill Slavicsek - 1993
    Following on the success of the handbooks dealing with elves, gnomes, and dwarves, it provides all the information necessary to play intelligent humanoid creatures as PC's. Illustrations, many in color.

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG


Joseph Goodman - 2012
    You're an adventurer: a reaver, a cutpurse, a heathen-slayer, a tight-lipped warlock guarding long-dead secrets. You seek gold and glory, winning it with sword and spell, caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark, the demons, and the vanquished. There are treasures to be won deep underneath, and you shall have them.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide


Cam BanksKenneth Hite - 2010
    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

Shadow of the Demon Lord (SDL1000)


Robert J. Schwalb - 2015
    But in the desperation of these last days, the world will take all those it can get: heroes, blackguards, madmen, and whoever else is willing to stand against the coming darkness. Will you fight the demons - or will you burn it all down and dance among the ashes? Who will you become when the world dies? Shadow of the Demon Lord opens a door to an imaginary world held in the grip of a cosmic destroyer. Enter a land steeped in the chaos and madness unleashed by the end times, with whole realms overrun by howling herds of beastmen, warped spirits freed from the Underworld, and unspeakable horrors stirred awaken by the Demon Lords imminent arrival.

Complete Mage


Ari Marmell - 2006
    In addition to providing the definitive treatise on arcane magic, it expands the character options available to users of arcane magic, including bards, sorcerers, wizards, assassins, warlocks, and wu jen. Herein you’ll find never-before-seen prestige classes, spells and invocations, magic items, alchemical items, heritage feats, and reserve feats (a new type of feat that grants special abilities to those who remain charged with magical power). Alternative class features give other character classes—from the barbarian to the rogue—a little taste of what it’s like to be an arcanist without sacrificing their core identities.

Player's Handbook II


David Noonan - 2006
    This is the first direct follow up to the best-selling and most used D&D rulebook. It is specifically designed to expand the options available for players by both providing new material and increasing the uses for existing rules. Included are chapters on character race, background, classes, feats, spells, character creation, and character advancement. New rules include racial affiliations that make race matter as a character advances in level, new character classes and alternate class features for existing classes, new feats, tools for rapid character creation, and additional organization and teamwork benefits -- an option first introduced in Dungeon Master's Guide II and Heroes of Battle.

Clanbook: Lasombra


Richard Dansky - 1996
    Unseen even by mirrors, these lords of darkness glide through the night they rule, orchestrating the rise and fall of Kindred and kine alike. From the Sahara Desert to the Spanish Main, from the monasteries of Seville to the mean streets of New York City, no other clan so embodies what it means to be a vampire.Clanbook: Lasombra includes:* The History of the clan and the foul diablerie of its progenitor;* Details on the clan's sinister rites and depraved games;* New Merits, Flaws and Obtenebration powers.