The D&D5e GM's book

By Norsehound, in Game Masters

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I keep looking at this thing at my FLGS where I work. I don't play D&D but looking at those random number tables make me think, "I wish I had something like this for Edge". Sure I'm creative but I'd like the leg-up in generating NPCs, or defining traits about a random location I'm about to send my Player characters to. It seems like this book has it. If I get it I might make having similar resources for Edge a project.

Does anyone else own a copy? Does too much of it focus on D&D or is there really enough to apply to outside systems? Has anyone adapted outside RPG materials for use in Edge?

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I haven't played the 5th ed yet (we're planning to), but to answer your question - yes, I've adapted ideas, scenarios and NPCs from other games and recommend doing it, since it add variety to gaming. Cthulhu (Trail and Call), Twilight, even some DnD scenarios are good for SW. It helps that SW isn't really sci-fi, but fantasy setting and is actually an amalgam of various genres. So, if you the NPC creation table is a help, especially when you have to create an ad-hoc NPC, why not use it?

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Own it and I've read through most of it, and you're correct in thinking that it focuses primarily on D&D. You could likely adapt it to other similarly-themed settings but I don't know if it would work for EotE unless you're on a primitive world.

Luckily, the internet has your back; here's a little bit of my secret GM sauce for NPCs:

NPC Generator: http://thompsonpeters.com/eote/misc/NPCgen/

Personality quirks: http://nicholasmcrae.com/programs/McRaeCharacterQuirks.swf

Personality Generator: http://rangen.co.uk/chars/pergen.php

Star Wars Name Generator: http://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/name/#star_wars

Noun generator: http://www.wordgenerator.net/noun-generator.php

Adjective Generator: http://www.wordgenerator.net/adjective-generator.php

I don't want to discourage you from trying to adapt one system to another - you can make anything be anything at your table. No sense in reinventing the wheel, though.

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And may I suggest the Triumph and Despair tables .

Edited by Mariner
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I ended up grabbing the book (with a return and employee discount... it didn't cost that much). It's been really helpful so far to grease the gears on defining encounters and NPCs! If I had more time it's enough that I would have looked into real D&D for.

I've created a few supplementary tables to "assist" the ones found in the D&D book, mostly to cover the Star Wars situations (A planet table and Imperial Occupation table). One of these days I plan to work up a full (or semi-full) adaptation for us Edge players to use, completely geared for Star Wars. But it seems a handy resource to have for now :)

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If you're looking for another book that has some good tips for GMing, you might also like to try the Pathfinder GameMastery Guide. That has lots of information about creating NPCs and campaigns; many of which could be transferable to Edge.

Edited by Pac_Man3D
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It is very much geared toward running Dungeons and Dragons. Still, I think it's a very good game design resource whose advice can be adapted to different games and settings with ease.

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I can give you the best advise for free:

http://www.gamemastering.info/media/171/download/Gamemastering.pdf

But i would recommend that you actually support the guy, and buy his book.

http://www.gamemastering.info/

Its system independent and supplies info for fantasy and scifi campaigns.

It doesn’t have tables and such things. I personally never wasn't a fan of random encounters. My encounters should have a meaning. There is a need to know why i fight.

To create ideas, a card game like this one may help:

http://buttonshygames.com/products/storyteller-manual-fantasy-edition

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I found the absolute best book for helping me run a Star Wars game comes from the old WotC Star Wars line - " Galactic Campaign Guide ". Tables for random bothan names, what's in that duraplast crate, and oodles of detail on ways to spice up both setting and scope. Sure, the hazards are going to be off - being the d20 scale damage and all - but they at least give you more ideas.

Price on it tends to fluctuate wildly since it's out of print now for more than a decade. If you can snag an affordable copy of it, or even scans of the tables online, I think it'd be very useful.

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I keep looking at this thing at my FLGS where I work. I don't play D&D but looking at those random number tables make me think, "I wish I had something like this for Edge". Sure I'm creative but I'd like the leg-up in generating NPCs, or defining traits about a random location I'm about to send my Player characters to. It seems like this book has it. If I get it I might make having similar resources for Edge a project.

Does anyone else own a copy? Does too much of it focus on D&D or is there really enough to apply to outside systems? Has anyone adapted outside RPG materials for use in Edge?

I play both. I wouldn't buy the 5E stuff if you aren't going to play 5E. There are plenty of older games like Traveler and such that have tables for doing this stuff that are more specific and less costly. That being said there are some nice things in 5Es rules I like. Some wouldn't be as easy to adapt, like Advantage/Disadvantage, others more so, like passive perception.

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I found the absolute best book for helping me run a Star Wars game comes from the old WotC Star Wars line - " Galactic Campaign Guide ". Tables for random bothan names, what's in that duraplast crate, and oodles of detail on ways to spice up both setting and scope. Sure, the hazards are going to be off - being the d20 scale damage and all - but they at least give you more ideas.

Currently $18.98 with shipping, via the link above. Sold!

Thanks!

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Some self promotion here, but I honestly use this information quite a bit in developing my own Edge of the Empire campaign.

Sam — could you add these to the thread at < http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/85616-compiled-resources-list/ >, so that others have a chance to also use these resources?

Thanks!

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Some self promotion here, but I honestly use this information quite a bit in developing my own Edge of the Empire campaign.

Sam — could you add these to the thread at < http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/85616-compiled-resources-list/ >, so that others have a chance to also use these resources?

Thanks!

Thanks for the suggestion. I replied to that thread with the information.

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I've found the best GM resource for me has been West End Games' 2nd Edition (Revised & Expanded) Star Wars RPG rulebook. It took me years to find a rulebook with the same level of production quality and down-to-earth explanations.

The next best resource has been AngryDM's blog, which has shined a very frank no-nonsense light on how to approach encounter design, deciding when to call for skill checks, and handle the resolution of scenes. Sadly a lot of rulebooks assume you know how to do this, or simply have no insight as to how its own system works and how to use it consistently (D&D has traditionally been a big culprit of this).

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I'm with Bradknowles, I find the Galaxy Guide of inestimable use

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On a side note, that 5E DM Guide is by far the best DM Guide I have ever seen... It is amazing, it is like a giant hack for the system. I think it is briljant.