Writing Your GMs’ Guide

Home stretch, people – this is the last installment in our Write-a-Gazetteer series. This week, we’ll dive into the GMs’ section and Appendices. Next week, we’ll wrap up with a final review of the template and some “best practices” you can use to streamline gazetteer creation.

The GMs’ section is for the GM’s eyes only, but it is not a catch-all for everything else you wanted to fit into the gazetteer but couldn’t find a better place for. Quite the opposite, actually. Remember, The gazetteer is a reference book you should be using at the table, during play. Everything should be located intuitively so you and your players know where to find stuff quickly, avoiding slow downs of the hot dice-on-dice action on your tabletop.

So while there’s GM information spread throughout the gazetteer, this section is really for a discrete collection of GM stuff that isn’t more appropriate to your intro, atlas, or players’ guide. Think of this as your secret vault, the last redoubt of GM privilege.

Adventures

You’ll need some ready-to-run adventures to quickly transition players from character generation to actual play. These missions are best lifted from the rumours in your players’ guide, which provide more granularity than the atlas hex descriptions, and they pay off the commitment you made when you dangled them in front of the players.

I advocate the most abbreviated format you’re comfortable running: For most, this is either the One-Page Dungeon or Johnn Four’s 5-room Dungeon format and could include maps. Use a short-form because (1) this is a reference book, (2) you’re describing your setting in mechanical terms, and (3) you can afford to promote quantity over quality because – ultimately – these are just organised notes. As with hex descriptions, avoid detail; an abbreviated format helps maintain flexibility. By the time you run a given adventure, your game’s direction and the PCs’ actions may have changed your original vision of the setting – at least enough to reconsider the hook, the encounters, the difficulty, the map, the main boss, or the reward. Remember that no setting survives contact with the players. Write your adventures more as thematic challenges than set plot pieces.

Monsters

Any monsters unique or modified to your setting should appear here. This shouldn’t be every monster in the setting – just the ones that aren’t included in, or are different from, those in your game’s rulebook.

For each monster, include a name and stat block; add a description only when the monster’s name doesn’t make it obvious what it is. Everyone knows what an octopus is, and most people can figure out what an octogoblin probably is. But if you go off the reservation with an octomander or octoflayer, you need to include a few words. Regardless, keep it brief – describe your monsters by where they show up in encounter tables and how they behave in adventures.

Pro tip: Make sure the stat block is in a format suitable for cutting and pasting – this helps other GMs plop that monster wherever they need it in their notes.

Loot

This section describes tangible rewards specific to the setting: Certainly currency, but also any rare, enchanted, or unique trinkets, artefacts, or antiquities. Translate setting currency into whatever medium of exchange is described in your game’s rulebooks. Similarly, provide a way to include new items into your system’s random treasure generation, either by expanding the existing tables or noting how and when new stuff shows up. That said, don’t be afraid to individually place specific items or valuables.

Rules

Any house rules derived from your game system goes in this section. More importantly, use this spot to document new rules for situations specific to the setting. For example, if your setting hosts an arctic clime, this is where to talk about the mechanical effects of extreme cold or how to handle frostbite. If your setting features pirates, make sure you add ship-to-ship combat and swashbuckling rules. In either case, make sure your players know about new and modified rules before play begins, though if they impact character generation, they should appear in your Players’ Guide.

Appendices

Appendices are optional, but they’re an excellent place for game aids, templates, or handouts specific to the setting. For example:

• Blank version of the setting map players can fill in as they explore
• Modified version of your system’s character sheet
• Treasure cards
• Full NPC roster
• Printable sheet of paper monster / NPC minis
• Guidelines for converting across select RPG systems

Putting it All Together

Here’s how my GMs’ guide is shaking out (again, using Chimera stats):

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Adventures

Based on the rumours in the players’ guide, I’ll create the following adventures using the Chimera Adventure Format, a modified version of the 5-room Dungeon:

• Apex Predator (search and destroy a predatory monster)
• A Whiff of Sedition (thwart an assassination attempt on Hakim; will lead to further adventures against Aswad’s assassin cult)
• Pirate Parley (rendezvous with pirate captain to negotiate a ship for Hakim)
• The Sinking Tower (explore a minor outpost connected to the Dead City of Sercus in hex #0410)
• Qssim’s Messenger (deliver a message (or escort a package) to Bala Keep (hex #0813) for Qssim, a fixer in the bazaar)
• Oblong Barong (retrieve a Saba spirit mask from Usabir thieves)

Monsters

Goblin, River
Lvl 0; MR 20”; WL 1 (S); DF 1 (+4); AT 1 bite (1d4); AB Athletics, Sneak; SP Night Vision, Pounce
River goblins are primitive, amphibious humanoids common to tropical rain forests, where they dwell in partially submerged nests of wood and mud, similar to beaver dens. Like their cave-dwelling cousins, river goblins respect strength and cruelty, applying it to those weaker than themselves and serving any who can intimidate them with a show of force, but only for as long as that show persists. They have no society beyond the family unit, which self-serving individuals support only while it provides food and relative safety.

Loot

Spirit Mask
A colourful wooden mask depicting a fearsome man, animal, or demon, crafted and worn within the Saba culture. The mask’s wearer may use 1 power per day, from a school based on the mask’s type: human connect with abjuration, animals with enchantment, and demons with illusion. Any power from the school is allowed, but its level cannot exceed that of the wearer, and it requires a Wield roll to invoke. Powers manifest at a Wield rank equal to the wearer’s level.

Appendix

I’ll include a blank hex map of Minocra that shows the island’s shoreline. I’ll also include – with the author’s permission – a short guide to converting Chimera stats to a fellow publisher’s “systemless” ruleset.

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Final Words

The GMs’ Guide a collection of organised notes you will reference and expand upon during play. Perhaps more than in any other section, keep things high-level and flexible – not only will detail here take up precious time, but those details are likely to change by the time you’re ready to use the material.