ROLE PLAYING MASTERY and MASTER OF THE GAME

[krusader74]

Two paperback books written by Gary Gygax back in the 80s deserve mention here. Though not specifically about 3LBB D&D, they do provide sound advice to D&D players and DMs:

Cover	Title	Year	Description
	Role-Playing Mastery	1987	Tips, tactics, and strategies for improving your participation in any role-playing game
	Master of the Game	1989	Principles and techniques for becoming an expert roleplaying game master

On pages 36-40 of Role-Playing Mastery, Gary provides a list of tips to help us master role-playing games. Here is an abridged version of the list (in the original text there's a paragraph that explains each bullet point):

STEPS TO ROLE-PLAYING MASTERY

1. Study the rules of your chosen role-playing game.
2. Learn the goal(s) of the game.
3. Discover the spirit of the game, and make it your credo in play.
4. Know the genre in which the game is set, and study it often.
5. Remember that the real you and your game persona are different.
6. Know your team's PCs and those who play them.
7. Know the campaign in which you play.
8. Understand the role of the game master and assist its fulfillment.
9. Role-play your character fully and correctly.
10. Always seek to contribute the most to the team's success.
11. Put forth your personal best during play.
12. Play as frequently as possible.
13. Play various characters as often as possible in as many different circumstances as possible.
14. Play outside your group's campaign frequently.
15. Play in tournaments.
16. Make yourself aware of the gaming community and contribute to it.
17. Continue to learn and grow even after you achieve mastery.

Later, on page 119, Gary writes:

The path to role-playing mastery begins with searching and researching.

On page 117, he gave the following useful outline for researching:

Outline of Study for Mastery

1. Acquisition and perusal of primary source material of the game milieu
2. Acquisition of closely related materials
3. Immersion in the hard core of adventure gaming
   
   1. subscribing to at least one professional magazine
   2. joining a national association of role gamers
   3. attending one or more conventions devoted to the hobby of game playing in general and RPGs in particular
   4. optionally, joining an active local club and/or subscribing to at least one amateur magazine
4. Determination to use leisure-time activities to broaden your base of understanding of RPGs and the particular milieu you have chosen to specialize in
   
   1. use of reading opportunities
   2. acquisition of printed material (fiction, history, maps, etc.)
   3. viewing related television programs
   4. selecting and viewing related films
   5. using any other sources
      
      1. travel
      2. museums
      3. information from experts
5. Development of a research collection
   
   1. collection of printed materials
   2. books and pamphlets
   3. periodicals
   4. maps
   5. games
6. Collection of all manner of other associated materials

[kesher]

You know, these two books deserve their own threads. I bought the first in 1987 and still have my copy; the second is hard to find at a reasonable price, though I did find a PDF of it somewhere.

Role-Playing Mastery on its own is an utterly fascinating document...

[sepulchre]

Kesher, I have to say, I tried reading both and found them deserving of much of the criticism they received; inert and often self-referential. Rather disappointed actually, I thoroughly enjoy Gygax's prose in the AD&D manuals and some of his articles in Dragon.

[Zenopus]

Master of the Game has an Appendix C that is a list of "essential books" for the GM similar to Appendix N from the DMG. It's broader in scope, with a list of non-fiction works as well as literary genres other than fantasy. For posterity I transcribed the list here:

zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2013/06/gary-gygax-masters-library.html

[Finarvyn]

Feb 24, 2016 10:18:14 GMT -6 kesher said:

You know, these two books deserve their own threads.

I split the other thread.