Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep - Engine Publishing


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2013 Origins Award nominee for Best Game-Related Publication!

"Gnome Stew has hit another home run for the Game Master. Never Unprepared has earned a permanent place in my GM toolbox, right along side the likes of Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering, Hamlet’s Hit Points, Play Dirty, Eureka, and Masks. Highly recommended." -- RoleplayDNA review

Whether you’re new to game mastering or have been running the same campaign since 1974, Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Session Prep will help you prepare for games faster, avoid common pitfalls, and have more fun in the process. To our knowledge, this is the first book entirely devoted to the process of prepping for tabletop RPGs.

Never Unprepared breaks game prep down into its component phases—Brainstorming, Selection, Conceptualization, Documentation, and Review—and provides the tools you need to make the most of each phase. If you hate prep, you’ll find ways to make it more enjoyable. If you already have a great system for doing your prep, you’ll learn how to make it even better.

Ten years in the making, Never Unprepared is award-winning author Phil Vecchione’s epic rock ballad to game prep. A project manager and veteran game master, he draws on extensive experience to present flexible systems for developing or optimizing your own unique approach to game prep. Phil’s work has previously appeared on GnomeStew.com (silver ENnie Award winner for Best Blog, 2010 and 2011) and in Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters and Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game.

Within Never Unprepared you’ll find prep techniques, utilities, and tips that are applicable to any RPG:

An in-depth look at each phase of session prep, from brainstorming to review
Templates for sessions, scenes, NPCs, and combats that you can modify to fit your gaming style
Practical advice on selecting prep tools, putting them to good use, and scheduling enough time to prepare for every session
How to identify your strengths and weaknesses, as well as tips for preparing when you’re short on time—and what to do if everything goes horribly wrong
A comprehensive index to make it easy to find what you need

Want to try before you buy? You can download a free 16-page preview of Never Unprepared and read reviews on the Engine Publishing website.

Our two other system-neutral books for GMs, Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game and Eureka: 501 Plots to Inspire Game Masters, both complement Never Unprepared well.

Ultimate GM Toolkit: 501 Plots, 1000 NPCs, Prep Guide [BUNDLE]

$43.85

$34.95

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Alex N.

March 6th, 2013

One of the reasons this is so successful as a MUST HAVE is the price point. There are a lot of "must have" books or collections that aren't really must-have because of their cost and sadly a lot of people don't purchase them. Never Unprepared is the per [...]

Benjamin B.

October 24th, 2012

[Originally posted at http://secondleft.blogspot.ca/2012/10/review-never-unprepared-complete-game.html] I've recently finished reading through Phil Vecchione's, Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep, and now that I'm finish [...]

Michael H.

September 29th, 2012

Often times game masters (GM) spend as much time preparing for games as they do running them. Every GM has their own methods which are usually developed through trial and error because quite frankly, for everything written about game mastering there is ve [...]

Alexander L. [Featured Reviewer]

August 15th, 2012

Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2012/08/15/tabletop-review-never-unprepared-the-complete-game-masters-guide-to-session-prep/ Never Unprepared is a book that offers Game Masters (GMs) of all levels, from the brand new to the grizzled, ad [...]

jordan r.

August 4th, 2012

I'll say it right off the bat : "Never Unprepared" is not the book you are looking for if you want to actually get better at preparing your games. Even if there are some useful things buried in it, it's mostly hollow talk and useless advice. This comes as [...]