160,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿 

The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Guide

Advice and Tools to Help You Run Your Best Game Ever!
3.73 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 60 ratings, 9 reviews)
Brief Description
Up your game with everything you need to run your next tabletop roleplay game with expert advice, gameplay guidance, and playable content from RPG expert James D’Amato. How do I make combat more interesting? How do I encourage my players to role-play? How do I avoid... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3500
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Game masters, it’s time to up your game! RPG expert James D’Amato gives new GMs and experienced game leaders everything they need to run their next tabletop roleplay game—expert advice, gameplay guidance, and playable content to keep players rolling!

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Up your game with everything you need to run your next tabletop roleplay game with expert advice, gameplay guidance, and playable content from RPG expert James D’Amato.

How do I make combat more interesting? How do I encourage my players to role-play? How do I avoid my sessions ending in disaster?

Leading an RPG can be a challenge, but The Ultimate RPG Game Master’s Guide is here to help! With advice from RPG expert James D’Amato, you’ll find answers to all these questions and more, along with guidance for bringing your game to life from behind the GM screen. James covers everything you need to know to bring your GM game to the next level including:

  • How to make player decisions meaningful
  • How to add more roleplay to your adventure
  • How to keep combat interesting—and memorable
  • How to make NPCs dynamic, but keep them from stealing the show
  • And so much more!

Add excitement to your game and keep players fully engaged with The Ultimate RPG Game Master’s Guide.

Series: Ultimate Role Playing Game Series

View all
  • The Ultimate RPG Tarot Deck
    Tabletop game meets tarot in this fun, useful tool for divination, making it perfect for daily readings as well as in your next campaign. Welcome to The Ultimate RPG Tarot Deck, where you’ll find 78 unique tarot card designs inspired by the exciting world of fantasy RPGs! Based on the symbolism of the Rider Waite deck, these cards depict traditional...
    Cards
    $4500
    Elsewhere:
    $4899
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book
    Enjoy these 40 expertly crafted micro-RPGs that are fast, fun, easy to learn, and come in a variety of genres—from space exploration to jungle dungeon crawlers—everything you need to pick up and play today. Get gaming fast with The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book, including brand-new micro-RPGs created by experts across the gaming world. From space exploration to jungle dungeon crawlers, this...
    Paperback
    $5000
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Campfire Card Deck
    “A good fit for any downtime moment in any genre.” —Forbes Take your tabletop roleplay to the next level with this first-of-its-kind card deck filled with questions to help you get to know your character and your party! Your adventuring party does a lot together, fighting side by side, and saving the world (or destroying it, depending on your alignment):...
    Cards
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Guide
    Up your game with everything you need to run your next tabletop roleplay game with expert advice, gameplay guidance, and playable content from RPG expert James D’Amato. How do I make combat more interesting? How do I encourage my players to role-play? How do I avoid my sessions ending in disaster? Leading an RPG can be a challenge, but The...
    Paperback
    $3500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Guide Boxed Set
    Level up your campaign with these interactive activities and instructions for maximising your storytelling skills so you can enjoy the ultimate RPG experience. Get your next campaign rolling right with The Ultimate RPG Guide Boxed Set. This collection offers advice and activities for every step of your adventure so you can make the most of your gaming sessions. This collection...
    Other book format
    $10100
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Series Presents: Oh Captain, My Captain!
    Join the crew and sharpen your role-play skills with this all-new card game of open-ended questions to create an unforgettable story in just thirty minutes from popular podcaster and Ultimate RPG series author James D’Amato. Oh Captain, My Captain! is a short form worldbuilding role-playing game (RPG) that explores heroism and the complicated relationships we have with people we admire....
    Cards
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Worldbuilding Deck
    Make worldbuilding as quick as the flip of a card with this fun and easy-to-use game resource deck that includes 75 cards to help you populate your game world with people, factions, destinations, and secrets. Worldbuilding for your RPG adventures can be a challenge, but this deck makes it easy with 75 interactive cards with prompts and ideas to help...
    Cards
    $4000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide
    Ramp up your role-playing game (RPG) and make your character your own with this fun, interactive workbook—an essential addition to any player’s gaming kit. You’ve chosen your class, bought your weapons, and rolled for your stats, and you’re now the proud owner of your own RPG (role-playing game) avatar. But before you begin your adventure, there’s so much more you...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Worldbuilding Guide
    Level up your Game Master skills with these fun, interactive prompts and activities to help your worldbuilding from RPG expert James D’Amato. Make your next campaign truly unique with the help of this interactive guide to worldbuilding! From RPG expert James D’Amato comes a fun new guide that teaches beginner and experienced gamers alike how to build and create their...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Ultimate RPG Gameplay Guide
    Improve your RPG campaign with this comprehensive and interactive guide to making the most out of your gaming experience. Whatever RPG game you play, from D&D to Call of Cthulu to licensed games like Star Wars, every detail is important. From setting the scene to choosing the right music or even adjusting the lighting to create the right atmosphere, every...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition
    Take your skyship pirate, haunted waif, or alien scientist to the next level with this fun, interactive book of exercises to help you build your RPG character’s backstory—made specifically for the genres you love to play. You can now explore new RPG character ideas with this character backstory guide to the most popular RPG genres beyond fantasy, from sci-fi to...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781507221853

Publisher: Adams Media Corporation

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 25 April 2024

Country: United States

Imprint: Adams Media Corporation

Illustration: 2-color

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 214.0mm

Weight: 288g

Pages: 256

About the Author

James D’Amato is the author of The Ultimate RPG Series, cofounder of the One Shot Podcast Network, and host of the One Shot and Campaign: Skyjacks podcasts. He trained at Second City and iO in Chicago in the art of improvisational comedy: he now uses that education to introduce new people to role-playing, and incorporates improvisational storytelling techniques to create compelling and entertaining stories for RPG campaigns and one-shot adventures.

Also by James D’Amato

View all
  • The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book
    Enjoy these 40 expertly crafted micro-RPGs that are fast, fun, easy to learn, and come in a variety of genres—from space exploration to jungle dungeon crawlers—everything you need to pick up and play today. Get gaming fast with The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book, including brand-new micro-RPGs created by experts across the gaming world. From space exploration to jungle dungeon crawlers, this...
    Paperback
    $5000
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Campfire Card Deck
    “A good fit for any downtime moment in any genre.” —Forbes Take your tabletop roleplay to the next level with this first-of-its-kind card deck filled with questions to help you get to know your character and your party! Your adventuring party does a lot together, fighting side by side, and saving the world (or destroying it, depending on your alignment):...
    Cards
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Guide Boxed Set
    Level up your campaign with these interactive activities and instructions for maximising your storytelling skills so you can enjoy the ultimate RPG experience. Get your next campaign rolling right with The Ultimate RPG Guide Boxed Set. This collection offers advice and activities for every step of your adventure so you can make the most of your gaming sessions. This collection...
    Other book format
    $10100
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Series Presents: Oh Captain, My Captain!
    Join the crew and sharpen your role-play skills with this all-new card game of open-ended questions to create an unforgettable story in just thirty minutes from popular podcaster and Ultimate RPG series author James D’Amato. Oh Captain, My Captain! is a short form worldbuilding role-playing game (RPG) that explores heroism and the complicated relationships we have with people we admire....
    Cards
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Worldbuilding Deck
    Make worldbuilding as quick as the flip of a card with this fun and easy-to-use game resource deck that includes 75 cards to help you populate your game world with people, factions, destinations, and secrets. Worldbuilding for your RPG adventures can be a challenge, but this deck makes it easy with 75 interactive cards with prompts and ideas to help...
    Cards
    $4000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide
    Ramp up your role-playing game (RPG) and make your character your own with this fun, interactive workbook—an essential addition to any player’s gaming kit. You’ve chosen your class, bought your weapons, and rolled for your stats, and you’re now the proud owner of your own RPG (role-playing game) avatar. But before you begin your adventure, there’s so much more you...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Worldbuilding Guide
    Level up your Game Master skills with these fun, interactive prompts and activities to help your worldbuilding from RPG expert James D’Amato. Make your next campaign truly unique with the help of this interactive guide to worldbuilding! From RPG expert James D’Amato comes a fun new guide that teaches beginner and experienced gamers alike how to build and create their...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Ultimate RPG Gameplay Guide
    Improve your RPG campaign with this comprehensive and interactive guide to making the most out of your gaming experience. Whatever RPG game you play, from D&D to Call of Cthulu to licensed games like Star Wars, every detail is important. From setting the scene to choosing the right music or even adjusting the lighting to create the right atmosphere, every...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition
    Take your skyship pirate, haunted waif, or alien scientist to the next level with this fun, interactive book of exercises to help you build your RPG character’s backstory—made specifically for the genres you love to play. You can now explore new RPG character ideas with this character backstory guide to the most popular RPG genres beyond fantasy, from sci-fi to...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Board Games

View all
  • Dutch Blitz
    In Dutch Blitz, each player has her own deck of forty cards, with cards 1-10 in four colors; red and blue cards show a Pennsylvania Dutch boy, while yellow and green cards show a Pennsylvania Dutch girl. Each deck has a different symbol on the back to aid with card sorting between rounds. At the start of each round, each...
    2–8 players
    $2999
    Backorder
    Ships mid November
  • Magical Athlete
    Pit a cast of crazy characters against each other in a madcap race to the finish. 2-6 Players  |  30 Mins  |  Ages 6+ Features: Open Drafting, Race, Roll / Spin and Move, Variable Player Powers Theme: Fantasy, Racing, Sports Magical Athlete is a chaotic racing game where anything can happen. Recruit a team of absurd racers—Centaur, Egg, Rocket Scientist—then...
    2–6 players
    $5499
    Elsewhere:
    $5999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Piles!
    Sort matching sets of clothes in this messy free-for-all.  2-8 Players  |  10 Mins  |  Ages 8+ Features: Set collection, speed matching, clothes Description: Piles! is a fast-paced set collecting game designed for kids and families. If you enjoy classic games like Speed and Spoons then you’ll love this easy to learn free-for-all. In Piles! you can play up to...
    2–8 players
    $3799
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Lord of the Rings Fate of the Fellowship - A Pandemic System Game
    As members of The Fellowship, embark on a journey to save—or doom—Middle-earth. 1-5 Players  |  90 Mins  |  Ages 14+ Features: Action Points, Cooperative Game, Dice Rolling, Hand Management, Solo / Solitaire Game, Variable Player Powers Theme: Fantasy, Novel-based The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship is Matt Leacock's most mechanically-rich Pandemic System design to date. Gather heroes...
    1-5 players
    $12499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Poetry For Neanderthals (By Exploding Kittens)
    Poetry for Neanderthals is a family-friendly party game similar to Taboo where players earn points by getting their teammates to guess words and phrases. The catch is that the "Neanderthal Poets" are only allowed to use single syllable words. If they use any words with more than one syllable, the other team gets to bop them with a 2-foot inflatable club. The...
    2+ players
    $4499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Spots
    Roll and place dice to complete adorable dog cards. 1-4 Players  |  30 Mins  |  Ages 10+ Features: Action Drafting, Contracts, Dice Rolling, Push Your Luck, Race, Re-rolling and Locking, Set Collection, Variable Set-up Theme: Animals, Card Game, Dice Description: Dogs have spots. Dice have spots. Fill in your dogs to win! Spots is a game about rolling dice, pushing your...
    1–4 players
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Outfoxed! Whodunitgame
    Outfoxed! Whodunitgame is a cooperative whodunit game where Mrs. Plumpert’s prized pot pie has gone missing. It's a chicken chase to crack the case! Move around the board to gather clues and then use the special evidence scanner to rule out suspects. You’ll have to work together quickly because the guilty fox is high-tailing it towards the exit! Will you halt...
    2–4 players
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Wavelength
    Read your teammates’ minds in this pinpoint party game of infinite possibilities.  2-12 Players  |  30-45 Mins  |  Ages 14+ Features: Race, Targeted Clues, Team-Based Game Theme: Party Description: Wavelength is a social guessing game in which two teams compete to read each other's minds. Teams take turns rotating a dial to where they think a hidden bullseye is located on...
    2+ players
    $7399
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Heat Pedal to the Metal
    Manage your race car's speed to keep from overheating. 1–6 Players  |  30–60 Min  |  Age: 10+ Based on simple and intuitive hand management, Heat: Pedal to the Metal puts players in the driver's seat of intense car races, jockeying for position to cross the finish line first, while managing their car's speed if they don't want to overheat. Selecting the right upgrades for...
    2–6 players
    $12500
    Elsewhere:
    $12999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • CATAN (6th Edition) - The Game
    Welcome to the unexplored island of Catan! 3-4 Players  |  60+ Mins  |  Ages 10+ Features: Chaining, Dice Rolling, Hexagon Grid, Income, Modular Board, Negotiation, Network and Route Building, Race, Random Production, Trading, Variable Set-up Theme: Economic, Negotiation Description: As you and your fellow explorers gaze across the uninhabited landscape of hexagonal tracts of terrain, you quickly realize that this unique land...
    3-4 players
    $7699
    Elsewhere:
    $7999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Harmonies
    Create a miniature world in which animals live in perfect harmony with nature 1-4 Players  |  30 Mins  |  Ages 10+ Features: Token placement, Pattern building Description: In Harmonies, create you personal landscape by placing coloured tokens. Create territories for animals and bring them to settle in your tiny world! Tactically combine your landscapes and animals to earn the most...
    1–4 players
    $6800
    Elsewhere:
    $6999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Terraforming Mars
    In the 2400s, mankind begins to terraform the planet Mars. Giant corporations, sponsored by the World Government on Earth, initiate huge projects to raise the temperature, the oxygen level, and the ocean coverage until the environment is habitable. In Terraforming Mars, you play one of those corporations and work together in the terraforming process, but compete for getting victory points...
    1–4 players
    $12999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 160,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

Board Games lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!