The Advanced RPG Beginners Guide to Becoming a Dungeon Master: An Easy-to-Digest Collection of Knowledge for New Game Masters by Eric Heim and Alexander Cosic
A Book Review
One day I was cruising through my Facebook feed instead of reading or writing like a good little Jimbo. Facebook, of course, curates your feed to give you stuff that they can sell you because that’s how they make their money. So I get lots and lots of book ads. MILLIONS of ‘em. And this ad pops up looking for reviewer for a book called The Advanced RPG Beginners Guide to Becoming a Dungeon Master: An Easy-to-Digest Collection of Knowledge for New Game Masters by Eric Heim and Alexander Cosic. I’ve done some DM’ing, not a lot but some, but I figured I’d check it out anyway because
A.) I don’t claim to know everything about the hobby and I’ve noticed that sometimes the simple stuff is the knowledge that people who have never had any formal training in any given area are missing. (Seriously, my ex-wife’s mother could outcook pretty much anybody I knew for the most part but she couldn’t temp a steak and had no clue how to chop parsley. This from a woman who made everything she cooked from scratch and made it taste awesome. It sounds weird but it happens.) So I figured I find out about that one totally awesome and obvious thing that I had no clue about.
B.) It sounded like a good time outside of what I’m normally reading. Don’t get me wrong. I love to read Speculative Fiction in all of its permutations, but a bit of light non-fiction sounded good to someone who can’t keep all of these characters straight half the time.
and
C.) I love that cover. Don’t you love that cover? It looks like the cover on a Dungeons and Dragons manual and that was cool. I like cool covers.
So I replied and they sent me a copy. I’m glad they did. I had a good time with the Guide. It was well written and easy to follow. My only concern going into the book was that sometimes people who write this type of thing tend to be a bit self important and/or condescending. That is not the case here. Heim and Cosic clearly know their stuff but they impart their knowledge in a way this is both fun and respectful. It’s like reading a book by that one good teacher you had in high school that taught you so much because they knew their subject and they knew how to communicate it well. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book.
And there is a lot of really good stuff here. I honestly wish I had gotten hold of this book before I GM’ed my first Robotech campaign back in uhh…
Nevermind what year it was. Let’s just go with “It was at least a week ago, but probably more” and leave it at that.
There is stuff in here about creating a game world, about different campaign styles and how to handle things like game mechanics and that’s all important. A lot of what went into the Guide is stuff that you don’t think about before you sit in the big DM’s chair and that, to me, is the most important part of the book.
Being a DM/GM is really all about dealing not just with what you know is coming, but with the unexpected. That one annoying player will always come up with a strategy that throws your whole adventure into chaos, often by eliminating the chaos. I once watched my whacky, slapsticky adventure get turned into a fairly simple and painless affair by clever use of the Hold Animal spell. I was kind of bitter about it. But then I had to come up with filler because my three hour adventure was in danger of being over inside of twenty minutes. I honestly had a blast trying to find a way to divert my players from doing what I had initially planned for them to do and I had a blast doing it. DMs are nearly always the most creative people in a room full of who are basically improv actors with dice. We love trying to stay ahead of the players. Sometimes it even works.
Had I not been prepared to do something I wasn’t prepared to do I would have been screwed. I’d have had to end things early. I would have looked and felt like a goon. Dudes wouldn’t have shared their Cheetos and Slim Jims with me. HOW IS A DECENT DM SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITH NO FREE CHEETOS AND SLIM JIMS? I had to eat somehow. So probably the most important part of the book was all about being prepared for things to go off the rails and, and listen up because this part is important, how to fix things if things don’t go the way the DM thinks they will.
Heim and Cosic also like to use a bit of humor. But not like my humor. Their jokes are actually funny. I like that about the Guide. A DM guide is a the type of thing that could go dry, toneless and boring in no time flat. There is a lot of factual information involved and it would be very easy to turn into Professor Binns from Harry Potter and for the author to fall asleep halfway through is own lecture. That’s not what happens here. Cosic and Heim keep things fresh, keep them fun, keep them moving. I’ve read scholarly history folks, and this ain’t it. Thankfully.
They did forget to mention the importance of caffeine and chocolate while writing an adventure. I can forgive them for that even though that’s clearly an everybody thing and not just a me thing. Probably.
Heim and Cosis have a few other guides and I think I’ll be checking them out pretty soon. I was impressed with this one and there’s always more to learn. I’m sure they have more to teach me and I make a decent student as long as you’re not that one physics professor who taught a class the semester the heater in my car was broken and I couldn’t make it to school to take his class because my breath kept freezing onto the windows on the inside of my car and I couldn’t see to drive. (True story) I think I could probably use my amazing student skills to learn some skills from them. Then I can find another campaign to run because that’s always a good time.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Nat 20s
The Advanced RPG Beginners Guide to Becoming a Dungeon Master: An Easy-to-Digest Collection of Knowledge for New Game Masters
Eric Heim and Alexander Cosic
Advance RPGs, 2024
The Advanced RPG Beginners Guide to Becoming a Dungeon Master: An Easy-to-Digest Collection of Knowledge for New Game Masters is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.