In November 2016 we presented two installments in our popular series of gamemastering texts and play aids, the Worldbuilder’s Toolkits. The all-new Worldbuilder’s Toolkit +4, our fourth annual collection, was joined by the resurrected November 2014 Worldbuilder’s Toolkit +2, which longtime customers may remember as “the one with Hamlet’s Hit Points.”
1. Worldbuilder’s Toolkit +4 [all-new]
This new bargain-priced Toolkit +4 offer included two Kobold Guides, Engine Publishing’s Focal Point, deluxe papercraft print-and-assemble dice towers from Fat Dragon Games, and many more ways to enhance your tabletop fun. There were seven titles in this offer’s Starter Collection (retail value $53) presented as DRM-free .PDFs:
- Kobold Guide to Combat (Kobold Press, retail price $10): Nearly 20 master designers give tips for creating great conflicts.
- Design for Writers and Roleplayers (Dancing Lights Press, retail $7 each, total retail $35): Five full-length treatises by Berin Kinsman on NPCs, alignment, setting design, story structure, and group dynamics — Building Characters, Group Dynamics, Setting Design, Story Structure, and Understanding Alignment.
- Fat Dragon Ultimate Dice Tower (retail $8): Print, cut, fold, and assemble this full-color papercraft tower from Fat Dragon Games.
Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got this offer’s entire Bonus Collection with eight more titles (retail value $74):
- Kobold Guide to Magic (Kobold Press, retail $15): Another star-studded collection of essays that make magic mysterious once more.
- Focal Point (Engine Publishing, retail $12): The seasoned gamemasters from Gnome Stew detail ways to make your gaming sessions extraordinary.
- Fat Dragon Ultimate GM Screen 2 (retail $12): An impressive full-color print-and-assemble papercraft gamemaster screen with dice towers, shelves for miniatures, and other features.
- How to Run Fast & Exciting Combats (Roleplaying Tips Publishing, retail $20): Johnn Four shows you, in detail, exactly how to GM fights in half the time with double the excitement. Includes three bonus titles: The Legendary Combat Swipes Book, 3 Easy Ways to Add More Story to Combat, and Top 10 Reasons Why Your Combats Are Slow.
- Four gamemastering journals from Fat Goblin Games (total retail $15) that each present a host of different forms on a particular topic: worldbuilding, adventure planning, nonplayer characters, and monsters.
2. Worldbuilder’s Toolkit +2 [revived from Nov 2014]
The Worldbuilder’s Toolkit +2 was assembled to help you create your roleplaying campaign world, populate it with memorable nonplayer characters, and design hundreds of adventures. This authoritative collection covered every aspect of your campaign, from ancient history to the creatures guarding Treasure Room B-27. With a tablet full of these ebooks, a printout of beat charts, and a stack of tracing paper, you’d have everything you need to improve your campaign world and develop compelling stories.
There were five titles in this offer’s Starter Collection (retail value $37):
- How to Host a Dungeon (Tony Dowler, retail $5): In this solo game of dungeon creation, you throw dice onto tracing paper and draw underground chambers where they land. Lay more sheets to create a many-layered (literally!) history through successive Ages. When you’re done, your dungeon map is ready for play.
- A Magical Society: Beast Builder (Expeditious Retreat Press, retail $10): A colorful monster-building system.
- The Bones: Us and Our Dice (Gameplaywright, retail $8): A collection of essays about polyhedral relationships.
- The Lazy Dungeon Master (Sly Flourish, retail $6): Mike Shea’s influential treatise on improving your D&D campaign the easy way.
- Sly Flourish’s DM Tips (Sly Flourish, retail $8): Mike Shea returns with solid, proven steps that can immediately improve your game.
Those who paid more than the threshold price also got this offer’s complete Bonus Collection with four more ebooks (retail value $48):
- Hamlet’s Hit Points (Gameplaywright, retail $8): Robin D. Laws (Feng Shui, GUMSHOE) teaches you to analyze nine types of story “beats” to improve your campaign’s storytelling. A landmark study, Hamlet’s Hit Points directly inspired Robin’s Hillfolk RPG. (READ: During this offer’s original November 2014 run, Evan Jeshka posted here about Hamlet’s Hit Points.)
- Odyssey (Engine Publishing, retail $12): A complete, system-neutral guide to campaign management from Engine Publishing (Unframed, Eureka, Focal Point).
- City Builder: A Guide to Designing Communities (Skirmisher Publishing, retail $20): Bring ancient, medieval, and fantasy cities alive with dozens of hook-filled places, plus a random guild generator.
- The Dungeon Dozen (Jason Sholtis, retail price $8): Over 200 brilliantly imaginative system-independent tables by Jason (Operation Unfathomable) Sholtis.
Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) went to these offers’ designated charity, Doctors Without Borders.
