In November 2022 our Engine GM Guides Quick Deal gathered six gamemastering guides from Engine Publishing that help improve your skill in running any RPG. Written by the experienced GMs at the widely read gamemastering blog Gnome Stew and by many of the field’s leading RPG designers, Engine’s system-neutral guides show how to prepare and run a game session, conjure interesting characters and storylines, manage an ongoing campaign, and (ahem) improvise when your players gleefully destroy your sessions, characters, storylines, and campaign.
Martin Ralya, Head Gnome of Gnome Stew, founded Engine Publishing in 2009 to publish the first of these guides, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters. The Gnomes compiled five more guides in the next six years, each a standout success. In 2016 Martin left Gnome Stew, and in 2019 he handed off Engine Publishing to fellow Gnome alumnus Phil Vecchione at Encoded Designs. Encoded still sells these GM guides under the Engine imprint.
This Engine GM Guides Bundle was the first Bundle of Holding that consists entirely of titles drawn from previous offers – in this case, the first four Worldbuilder’s Toolkits, 2013-2016. If you missed any of those, or if you’re new to the collected wisdom of the Gnome Stew bloggers, this Quick Deal gave you the complete six-book collection (retail value $78) for less than the retail price of one guide:
- Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Gamemasters (previously in the November 2013 Worldbuilder’s Toolkit 1)
- Focal Point: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Running Extraordinary Sessions (in Toolkit 4, Nov 2016)
- Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game (in Toolkit 1, Nov 2013)
- Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Session Prep (in Toolkit 3, Dec 2015, and in Bundle 5, Aug 2013)
- Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management (in Toolkit 2, Nov 2014)
- Unframed: The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters (in Toolkit 3, Dec 2015)
Check the free .PDF previews of all six books at the Engine website.
