It's good stuff. While this book has a little bit of rpg philosphy in it, the majority of the content is practical advice and inspirational random tables. Not all of the random tables suit my taste, but there are enough pieces I like that it's worth my time to take what I want for my own tables. The "Viridian" fantasy language section is something I was initially skeptical about but now appreciate as a convenient time-saver. Thinking of new words can be hard; this makes it easier. The art is overall high quality and varied in style. A previous reviewer claims that there are "naked boobs in every picture or so", but that isn't exactly true. I did a quick count- including the cover I think there are 30 artistic illustrations (perhaps representing the author's 30 years experience?) and three bonus maps. Of these 30 there are five illustrations with titties but four of those depict a female in an obvious position of power. The attitute of the art is imo feminist rather than sexist. One thing that would add value to this product for me would be if it came with an additional pdf of the book in a single-column big-text format for easier reading on a cell phone, but there's nothing wrong with it as-is. I could make the same request of practically every publisher here.

There are some good ideas, but the overall content is so, so sexist. Naked boobs in every picture or so, girls just want "girlish" things, "Im sexist? Oh, well, who cares..." Well, I do. And I deeply regret my purchase.

This is probably the only Game Master advice book I have read(and I've read a lot) that went out of its way to say be confident in yourself above all and the game will come together. That advice really stuck with me, and then he covers almost all the basics from improv to encounters. I cannot recommend this book enough to old and new Game Masters alike.

Since it's your birthday, I'll add a comment to my long-standing five-star view.

This is by far your best product (I've read). Well worth every sultani I paid. It's clear, insightful, and concise.

Could I find the same information elsewhere? Sure I could, but I could also drive around town in a Renault Twizy or a Pagani Huayra. When they cost about the same, I choose the Huayra.

I like the cut of your jib.

Every once in a while, a non-game-company book on how to game-master will appear, and it is useful for game-masters to take stock of what they are doing and see if they can learn new tricks. But be warned: this book has mature black-and-white artwork that extends beyond that of the original AD&D First-Edition art, and also Venger Satanis is presenting his own personal ideas on game-mastering, and "Venger will be Venger".

The book is about 2/3rds game-mastering tips, and you will find many pieces of useful advice. There are things even another GM has not thought of before, such as meditating on your campaign for half an hour in-between games. Meditating? Yes! This is in the sense of sitting and concentrating only on your campaign and how it is going, to the exclusion of mundane real-world concerns. That way, you can think more clearly on how it is going and how to steer it better. He also warns not to lose sight of balancing an encounter so it is meaningful: it must have a reason to entice the players into it, a risk, and a reward. If any of these weaken, the players will not bite or lose interest. He made a tip about drawing up a diagram of the names of your players, if you are doing a demo for example and have not met them before. I would have expanded on this tip and said you should take a full-size sheet of paper and draw an outline of the table you are using, write on the outside of the table each player's name in relation to where you are sitting, PLUS on the inside write the name of their character and important stats or information about them, to make an invaluable memory-aid. Unlike social situations, in RPGs we have TWO names to track for people we meet instead of one.

The remaining 1/3 of the book is a grab-bag of random and sometimes whimsical generation tables to add spice and ideas for your game, plus an imaginary language of his own creation, Viridian, with Viridian-English and English-Viridian mini-dictionaries. Want to come up with the name of a Cult quickly, how they look, and what their motivation is? Venger has a table for you!

But his tips were not organized in any thematic way. I would have liked to see chapters classified in chronological order based on the steps of the campaign: world-design, adventure-creation (he actually now sells another book entitled Adventure Writing Something Something Swear-Word Something), character generation and introducing a campaign (often called Session Zero), running the game, presenting the game in an effective way, the age-old discussion of risk-level and character death (in his games with many players, he says he averages a character death every 3 sessions), and he had a tip on concluding a campaign with a satisfying close, whether it's merely the end of a "TV season" or meant to be the finale episode as the group moves on to some other game. The book could have greatly benefited by classifying tips into some such chronological or thematic scheme. Sometimes there will be tips that don't fit in any particular phase of a campaign (like the tip about dressing neatly and being well-groomed as a salesperson would, as if you are presenting something worthwhile and important, which you should definitely consider your campaign to be!)

So I think it's a great book of fresh tips AND tips that bear restating, broadcast on the inimitable frequency of Venger Satanis's persona.

Perhaps I’m the sort of lifelong roleplaying junkie who enjoys books on the topic of mastering the infinite expanse of creating fictitious realms governed by dice and delusions. Maybe I have a fondness for those old High Gygaxian tomes where the bearded sage expounded for pages upon what crafts disbelief suspension (Ok, well, yeah - I still covet the 1e DMG). But, in all honesty, many of those musty pages are just filled with regurgitated editorials from hoary denizens of pulp infused pulpits. Am I saying that I didn’t learn anything from the “Kobold’s Guide to…” or Broodmother Skyfortress’ pages of blog reprints? No, there was some legitimate quirk and charm - and I’m not Rients, Gygax, Monte Cook (thankfully) or <insert famous game designer here>.



Venger Satanis writes in a conversational tone, and despite his media image being crafted from indulgences disapproved of by the Satanic Panic era, he genuinely seems to care very much for the craft of running RPGs and your success behind the screen. He doesn’t dip too far into the navel gazing, self congratulating, name dropping excesses of many of these guides - though, honestly, he does pimp himself pretty hard everywhere he writes. What he does, that many other writers don’t, is build your self confidence with reasonable advice and reassurances.

He isn’t asking you to detail a Harn or Tekumel level campaign from the top down. There is a certain understanding of available time that many professional, full time game designers have forgotten about. Whereas there are a number of tables towards the back, he isn’t spamming random generation as a solution to detailed hex crawling and running pre-published adventures. He stresses the importance of informed improvisation, reworking a percentage of written adventures to personalize them, and having self confidence and dedication to your art. It isn’t pompous, it isn’t just for the gonzo - it’s sound advice, some of which might already be in your stylistic grab bag, but it’s thoughtfully (dare I say, kindly?) delivered and I think all but the most self-absorbed and egocentric can gain some different and useful insights. 



The last couple of years at my gaming table have been difficult, mostly due to real life trials and tribulations. It’s been several years since my work life has allowed me to run a long term adult oriented campaign (I’ve managed to keep my kids’ group limping along). I’ve found myself with a growing lack of self confidence behind the screen and the work on my impending campaign has suffered from this.

Mind you, I’ve been roleplaying for over 30 years, most of them spent as a Gamemaster. As my career took a few negative turns, eroding professional confidence and enthusiasm, so did my appearance behind the screen. A lot of my RPG reading as of late has been trying to muster that chutzpah back, maybe gain a bit of higher ground. This book, in one night, did more for me than the dozens of other attempts at refreshing my outlook. 



My one fault with this book is that Venger does occasionally come across as a ‘house organ’ - and this is really only present within the tables towards the back. Though I share a good amount of overlap with Mr. Satanis in his love of weird pulp dark fantasy and Lovecraftian Gothicism, I am not really into “gonzo” campaigns. I prefer to keep an environment of the mundane around the fantastic so that my Weird retains it’s mystic ‘what the fuckery?’ In his defense, this book was initially created for himself - so it is natural that he would have tables for his Purple campaign series.

I also may be more of a dick than the high priest of Cthulhu at the table, as I am that ‘Raggi style’ gamemaster that starves PCs for silver and runs low magic campaigns - making them earn and relish what crumbs I give (I do run traditional higher fantasy for kids, I’m not a complete asshole). This is simply a stylistic difference, and doesn’t invalidate any of his advice. In fact, this book made me reevaluate my approach even there - something I haven’t done in a very, very, very long time. Maybe I will let them gain that first level a bit quicker and let them have a few trinkets a little earlier. 



The layout is pleasant, the art is good (and less risqué than I expected), and - again - the conversational tone is a pleasant departure from most ‘analytical game’ works. I honestly wish I had found this book before others on world building or campaign design. It’s nice to feel like you're not being condescended to, but just having a conversation with another enthusiast who gives a damn about gaming seriously (but not TOO seriously). I look forward to reading more of his work.

I bought this book in spite of the off-putting title, mostly because of the good reviews on this site. This book is poorly written. It's written at a 6th grade reading level, which is not a good thing. It's filled with poor anecdotes (a reference to Metallica in 1983? Seriously?) that don't motivate or inspire.
The "lessons" in this book are either mundane, uninspired, or both. As a new DM, I found what little useful information here to be things that are very obvious; the rest of the suggestions are simply bad or are something I'd consider "house rules". The tables in the back are good, but they simply cannot carry the first 70 pages of this document. I can't recommend this to anyone in good conscience. I ordered the PDF + print version, and I now regret doing so. The print version is going straight into the trash when it arrives.

No, the title and artwork aren't family friendly. Once you get past that, it's all good stuff. I've been a game master a little over 25 years and I wish I could have given a copy of this to Much Younger Me.

I bought this for myself and introduced it to my wife when she was interested in running her first game. Having read the book cover to cover she GMed a game that even veteran GMs would be jealous about.

The information in this book is insightful and is excellent food for thought for everyong wanting to run any kind of game.

How to Game Master like Captain Obvious - review in Polish

How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss to wyjątkowy almanach. Są podręczniki lepsze i gorsze, pisane oficjalnie albo na luzie, napakowane poradami, sztuczkami czy technikami lub pomysłami na przygody. Ten poradnik jest absolutnie unikalny. Dowiesz się z niego, że warto się czysto ubierać. Że nie warto dać sobą pomiatać. Że wulkany są zajebiste. Wulkany i dinozaury. Że fajnie jest dawać bohaterom niezależnym cechy szczególne. Że warto wprowadzać do przygód jednorożce, wróżki, pegazy i inne “dziewczyńskie rzeczy”, jeśli drużyna nie składa się z samych facetów. Tak, Venger Satanis, autor podręcznika, na serio radzi obdarować graczkę magicznym zestawem do makijażu albo pomadkę +1.

Czuję się oszukany.

Nie kupiłem tego e-booka dlatego, że potrzebuję prowadzić like a fucking boss. Almanachy nie zmienią przeciętnego MG w geniusza. Do tej pory, w każdym znajdowałem przynajmniej tuzin fajnych sztuczek, na które sam bym w życiu nie wpadł. W wielu było tego znacznie więcej. W HtGMlaFB nie ma nic. Ten podręcznik powinien się nazywać Game Mastering for Dummies.

Kuleje tu wszystko oprócz czcionki i składu.

Treść nie jest podzielona na rozdziały. Venger skacze z tematu na temat, pisze co mu ślina na klawiaturę przyniesie. Nie sili się na uniwersalność – przykłady ociekają Dungeons & Dragons i Lovecraftem. Te przykłady nie są zresztą specjalnie odkrywcze, nie pokazują jak radzić sobie z problemami albo jak sprawić, że graczom opadną szczęki. Tutaj nie ma sztuczek. W HtGMlaFB porady polegają na tekstach w stylu “Wprowadź do kampanii wulkany! Wulkany są świetne, to jedna z niewielu rzeczy, o których chciało mi się uczyć w szkole!”.

Autor wychodzi jednak o krok dalej. Chcesz być ekstra MG? Nie mów o sobie MG. Mów “Mistrz Gry”, z wielkich liter, bo to w końcu nie byle co. Chcesz dobrze rzucać kostkami? Kup sobie drewniane pudełko, powypalaj na nim jakieś symbole i rzucaj tylko do niego. Chcesz, by BN był niezapomniany? Przynieś jego ilustrację.

Venger zakłada chyba, że tym, co trapi wielu prowadzących jest brak tabel losowych, dlatego marnuje kilkadziesiąt stron na różne generatory. Dorzuca jeszcze mini-słowniczek w mrocznym języku, na wypadek gdyby ktoś jeszcze miał wątpliwości czy przypadkiem nie wyrzucił pieniędzy w błoto.

Wisienką na torcie są sporadycznie używane bluzgi. Pozostaje dla mnie tajemnicą czym różni się potwór od pierdolonego potwora, ale dla Vengera słowo “fuck” urasta do rangi zaklęcia.

Dobre strony? W zasadzie dwie. Po pierwsze, podręcznik zawiera porady, które mogą się spodobać totalnym początkującym. Co prawda lepiej by zrobili gdyby przeczytali coś innego (np. 3k10 notek blogowych), ale jeśli kupią HtGMlaFB, to niech będzie. Po drugie, e-book nie kosztuje nie wiadomo ile.

How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss oczywiście zbiera u mnie słabe 1/6.

This is the best advanced-level book on GMing that I have ever read. While other books cover the fundamentals and help you orient to the principles of running games, this book forces you to look at how you prep, how you run, and how you think about your game. It's written from an old-school perspective by a master of the old-school game, but the advice is useful for almost any game type. It's written in a highly entertaining, blog-style that holds your interest from start to finish. I have read this book cover-to-cover at least three times since purchasing, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to transition from intermediate- to fucking boss-level game mastering.

Everything I know about Dungeon Mastering, I have learned from Venger Satanis.

I'm a new Dungeon Master, literally session #3 into my first campaign kind of new Dungeon Master (and read the book to know why I don't use "DM"). So, maybe this isn't saying much, but I have followed Fantasy RPGs about 26 years and have read mountains of RPG material, just have never Dungeon Mastered. Everything in this book is consistent with anything else I've read over that time period.

So what sets this book apart? It's the style. This guy is just plain cool. Makes you want to be as good as he tells you that you can be. I am so incredibly inspired and motivated now. Other goals in life have now been accomplished: multiple degrees (3 BS's, Phd, MD), Ironman triathlons, successful business, multiple awards in the military... pfft all a cakewalk when I look back at them... Now I have a new a new goal in life: to be the best Dungeon Master I can be!

Buy this book. Read this book. Study this book. You won't regret it.

I was going to write a long review discussing Venger's philosphy in detail, but I realized that nobody cares what I think. Buy the book, keep it under your pillow at night, and never let its advice be far from your mind. Your players may never forgive you, but they'll also be there every session, because you can offer them something more exciting and satisfying than any of the countless distractions the modern age has to offer.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This book clocks in at a total of 124 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial, 1 page (very detailed) index, 1 page back cover, leaving us with a pretty massive 119 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This book was moved on my review-list due to receiving a print-copy for the purpose of writing a critical, unbiased review.

So, this is pretty much a GM's advice and trick book. I don't review this type of book too often, and that has a reason: This may sound arrogant, when it certainly isn't intended to be - I'm a pretty kickass GM. Almost all of my players have GM'd at least 1 campaign and thus, I do believe that their praise and continued attendance has some merit. It has another reason - I read a lot of roleplaying books due to my continuous reviewing. In the end, reading yet another book that tells me how I should run my game, in most cases, leaves me annoyed and bored - most of the time, both. I've read quite a few advice columns and books on the topic that elicited a reaction from me that could be summed up as "That's an advice that engenders sloppy GMing."

Let me elaborate - as you may have surmised from my reviews, I very much am passionate about the internal consistency of a given world. One might say that I tend towards an obsessive stance regarding these components. To give you an example - when I create a settlement the PCs will not just pass by, I name the streets, establish the infrastructure etc. My current campaign-info-books are filled to the brim with names, hooks and investigations. The central narrative of my current main-campaign's storyline hinges on actually deciphering a particularly nasty arcane language...one I created myself. With grammar and all. Yes, I may have gone a bit over board there...but my players love it. What this should tell you about me is left to your own judgment, but the point I try to make is simple: I consider immersion of tantamount importance and this book observes a similar stance. One of the central tenets of this book would be the assertion that we play the game for immersion.

While I maintain that this is not true for everyone, I do believe that it's true for a lot of people, me and my players included. You see, the argument runs like this: There are simply easier ways to derive joy from something - if joy in itself is the task, then RPGs are not the best way to generate the maximum amount. While this does sound sensible, it fails to acknowledge the general assumption of the homo ludens, which (see Johan Huizinga for more on the concept and his intellectual heirs for more...) assumes the act of playing in some way as a cornerstone to culture and a sense of collective identity we exhibit - playing is a central and non-optional component of the conditio humana.

So, while personally, this component does not ring true, the actual voicing of said hypothesis made me contemplate the very hobby itself, which is something I value the book for. If all of my above ramblings seemed like dry ramblings of an academic to you, then probably because they are. However, I should not be remiss to note that the tone of this book is very the opposite. This book is a fun read. No, seriously. I actually completed it in quite a brief period and then starting summing up the claims and tricks, evaluating them and summing them up. It's the latter components that took me long to get done, not the reading of this book.

Before you go on, here's a little warning: If you are offended by drawn nudity in the vein of classic pencil drawings (coupled with e.g. an overabundance of tentacles), if you have particularly fragile sensibilities, then this book may not be for you. Or it may actually be for you. What do I mean by this? Well, the phenomenon of the anti-D&D-craze (which, to my German sensibilities, seems like absurdist real satire) and this witch-hunt's insane movies have resulted in a kind of self-censure among roleplaying games. Granted, this has been mostly revoked as I'm writing this - we may once again call "Devils" devils and "Demons" demons...but still, the rawness is gone. A similar phenomenon can be observed when e.g. watching the superb, original "Wicker Man"-movie and the current iteration of "Not the bees!"-fame back to back - the new one may be more polished and funnier (Nic Cage ftw.!), but the original was downright FRIGHTENING. A lot of the horror of this movie derived from the conflict of a sexually-repressive main-character as focal point for the audience, witnessing a foreign type of culture with the pagan inhabitant's of Summer's Isle. One central component the remake did NOT understand was that the intriguing thing, the feminist message of the original movie, did not lie in an inversion of gendered power-structures - it lay in their dissolution.

The pagan rites depicted in the original Wicker Man portrayed female sexuality as something natural to be cherished - and while the end-game of the movie remains grisly, it is so due to being steeped in Christian sensibilities. The death by fire of the protagonist generates horror because of his unwillingness, because the movie ultimately is subject to the collective of values it produced and thus reinforces them. Still, the disturbing sentiment one is left with, is that of a more egalitarian (paradox, seeing the feudal structure) society - a haven of innocence not in our sense of the word, but in that isle's culture, if you will. This book's aesthetics hearken back in a similar way to a time where self-censure was not a component necessarily assumed as the status quo. Not all pictures herein sport bared breasts - but e.g. the woman, in terror, looking up at tentacle-faced cultists about to sacrifice her? Yeah. Breasts. This does not, at least to me, make the book's aesthetics exploitative - in fact, it may be read as an empowering depiction, as it does not ostracize the depiction of the like. And this extends beyond this topic - it probably is not a coincidence that the author's depiction in one of the artworks above ancient menhirs and a dungeon's entrance sports tentacles and eyes...and is reminiscent of some of the most famous depictions of Aleister Crowley. "Do what thou wilt," on another note, constitutes one of the most grossly misrepresented statements in the history of ethics and theological discourse - but this elaboration has already strayed too far from the topic at hand.

Another way to describe this book that may be closer to those among you less interested in the particulars of intellectual ravings, would be to consider this book as informed by the sensibilities of the less cheesy components of metal and goth subcultures. This book does not shirk highlighting points with Metallica-analogues and the like - which, to me, greatly enhanced the sections in which such were employed. And yes, you will not miss out if you have no love for the like - the explanation provided makes the point clear. More importantly, this book actually is pretty much one of the most sensible approaches to several subjects that often are taboo in gaming - it puts sexuality as a motivation in a context and provides valid and reasonable advice for establishing a consensus on handling this theme in your games without offending your players - essentially, an emphasis on communication is provided and similar advice extends to violence. Quite a LOT of discussions on various boards between offended people could have easily been avoided by simply adhering to this advice...or basic human sense, but the existence of these posts makes it pretty clear to me that such cannot be assumed. So that would be leitmotifs provided herein - but the pieces of advice range further and run a vast gamut of topics: How you can keep the game moving, unobtrusive stalling tactics for the players while you come up with new material or need a break, smart villains, regular breaks from gaming -there are quite a few pieces of advice herein, some of which actually were known to me implicitly, but not explicitly - reading them in black and white on the paper reestablished a consciousness of the respective issue and/or trick. Oh, and here and there, the material manages to be actually hilarious and fun. What I'm trying to say is that this book does not chicken out - and it is not tasteless.

I called this an opinionated book and it certainly is - however, at the same time, it is NOT a prescriptive book - this book does NOT tell you that it represents the one true key to game mastering - it seeks to act, in a way, as a do-it-yourself toolkit-sephiroth to becoming a better game master. Making sure that everyone has a good time, looking snide and comfortable while GMing - all these and infinitely more are covered in here, in ways that generally make them feel very much valid and fun to read.

Now if you're like me, you very much prefer your campaigns on the slightly darker side and spiced in with oddness - whether it's alien technology, unspeakable horrors, etc. - and indeed, beyond campaign and story-themes, the author's own preferences do shine through and advice for such themes and their integration (including time travel) are provided. The latter, btw., is one of the few sections in the book I positively hated - time travel is a very complicated matter and I'm more the "Primer"-school and less the "it'll fix itself"-school regarding its implications and execution. That being said, for the majority of groups, the sentiment expressed herein may be more gainful.

Another section that spoke right from the depths of my convictions would be one that handles failure - both if you, the GM, botch...and if your players fail. You see, quite a few current systems, many of which I love, have this design-concept of failing forward. The plot must go on, if you will. I generally applaud this sentiment from a design-perspective, because it makes investigations less linear and prone to premature failure. There is a downside to this, though - the sentiment results in a misconceived sense of player-entitlement, something that can be seen in inexperienced GUMSHOE groups, for example. The players think they ought to always be able to progress, the GM feels obliged to comply. The result ultimately takes the achievement out of winning a module, uncovering a plot, besting the BBEG's masterplan. This is, contrary to the claims of said groups, NOT the respective system's failure - it is the failure of the group. You see, as a GM, you have the responsibility to, at least at times, not have the PCs fail forward. Have them just fail. Without such hard spots where the players discuss the ramifications of what they uncovered, the achievement is cheapened. I maintain that, from a design-point, the elimination of bottlenecks per se is a more than great innovation in the way adventures are structured - but making the call between the types of failure is what makes a compelling game. So yes, the call to dare to let them fail is something I very much subscribe to - it is my firm belief that, no matter the system, the result will enhance the game in the same way failing forward did - once again, we have a return to basics that were abandoned.

Now, it honestly makes no sense for me to go through the pieces of advice one by one, so instead, I will go on and introduce you to the second part - there are tables upon tables herein - from minor idea-generators to monster-dressing, there is a lot of awesome material here. Now granted - it's not cuddly stuff. The tables themselves represent very much Kort'thalis Publishing's dark fantasy sensibilities, spliced in with horror...and a healthy dose of gonzo and scifi-like elements. While some of the dark secrets(backgrounds sported herein may e.g. have mechanical repercussions, not all of them do - so yes, this book has a lot of cool tables for your convenience. Character motivations for (N)PCs and the like, a quick and dirty means of handling exposure to cosmic horror -there is a LOT to like and love here, particularly if you're looking for a means of making an anti-hero or someone with a dark past. Cheery high-fantasy with unicorns and rainbows may not be a perfect fit, though. The book also contains 3 sample dungeon maps, all blank and sans keys, for your own use...and my favorite component, one I never thought I'd see in such a book - a language's glossary. Yes, this book actually sports a delightfully guttural sample language, with numerous relevant words you can use for your own games - the incantations of those diabolists? They may actually have a sense the PLAYERS can deduce. I absolutely, positively love this one, particularly since the linguist in me considers the morpheme-combinations to be pretty sensible. While I would have loved grammar to accompany the vast array of words, I quite frankly started beaming with glee while reading this! I am aware that I may be the minority here - but seeing this actually in print was thoroughly fulfilling for me.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good - while I noticed some hiccups, for a book of this size, the formal criteria are good enough. The book comes with copious amounts of absolutely awesome b/w-artworks, many of which are inspiring 1-page spreads and the book's layout adheres to a printer-friendly two-column b/w-standard.

This will be a controversial book, of that I have no doubt - author Venger As'Nas Satanis did not set out to make a book for everyone - this book is very much a GM's book for the rebels, the rockers, the metal-heads, for the non-public-correctness-crowd that does not slavishly adhere to self-censure, while still being enlightened enough to not discriminate - as mentioned above, this is very much a mature and inclusive book, at least in my interpretation. It constitutes a love-letter, a call to dare to allow roleplaying games to be "evil" (in quotation marks, since this book explicitly warns against persona-playing and shows way out of this experience...) to touch upon such subjects and themes without being exploitative. Personally, I applaud it for that.

This is very much a book I will use a lot - as mentioned above, the language itself constitutes an awesome selling point to me and the dark secrets and motivations tables with the trademark gonzo elements thrown in render this pretty much a joy to use. It also, unlike most GM-advice books, is quite frankly fun to read.

That being said, a massive issue for this book is that you should absolutely get this in print - the pdf has no bookmarks, which makes navigation of the hefty book a colossal pain and not something I'd advise - the electronic version should be considered to have 2 stars less, since, particularly in such a book that thrives upon quick access of tables and advice, their lack is keenly felt. My print copy, however, is a book I absolutely enjoy and can be considered one of the better GM advice books out there, especially if you're looking for some tables to supplement the darker components of your campaign - have I mentioned the table that lets you determine how the cult leader got his/her position? As such, the print version receives a final verdict of 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

Anyway, I picked up +Venger Satanis' latest book, How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss, not because I think I need help running my games (I have been running games for 35+ years now) but because I Was very, very curious about what he had to say. Besides, I am sure there had to be some tips worth reading. In any case, I am certain it was going to be a fun read. I also wanted to read this because I was curious about his "O5R" philosophy. I have been doing something similar in my games with my kids, and I wanted to see his views.

To begin VS talks about what Role-Playing and Game-Mastering is. Ok, I expect this. He made a point about how he used to run games to where he is now. • Do I have all my stuff (books, notes, dice, etc.)? • Do I have a general idea of what’s going to happen? • Am I ready to crank this bitch up to 11? I understand this. I have a game I am running at a convention in 24 hours or so. Right now the only thing I would add to that list is "Do I have my Pre-gens?"

The book itself is largely divided up into various short essays that talk about what to do in any broadly defined situation. A lot of it is common sense, but there are few gems in there as well. I like the bits on handling NPCs and especially the NPC villains. In truth, his "Seinfeld" advice was about the last thing I expected to read here but I enjoyed it.
Other treats include the "Who to Blame" random table. Most of the tables are pretty fun and many are very useful. I loved the whole section of tables about Cults.
There is a section on the magical language he created for his games that add a nice bit of flavor, but I am wondering if would not have been better in The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence book.

It ends with three sample maps and an afterward.

While I certainly thought of this as a fun read I am not sure I got that much out of it. Granted I also don't think I am the target audience. I will certainly use the tables and his magical words are kind of neat. I think what I really need to do is give this one to my son and have him read it. He is a longtime player, but has only run a few games. He certainly has anxiety about running (as well all did the first few times) and I know there are some things in here that would help him out.

I think I will certainly use his cult tables to see what I can come up with.