First impressions of the book were surprising. I don’t know what got into my head, but the book is actually novel sized when I was expecting something much larger along the lines of 8.5’ by 11’. But that’s okay I figure, after all, it’s not good to judge a book by its cover. A cover which I didn’t like mind you, it’s scrawled with words and a horribly cliché picture of a dragon being ridden past a tower on a high cliff with the sun rising behind it. I guess I should disclose my bias here against fantasy art and role-playing in general. But yes, what was I saying about not judging books by covers? Moving inside, the book consists of an introduction, ten chapters and five appendices over the course of 176 pages. Presentation is on the plain side, it looks more like a novel or self help book than the role-playing supplement that it isn’t. There is no artwork or any form of decoration beyond a fancy lion border for chapter headings.
Sitting down to read it, the introduction titled ‘What is Mastery’ was slightly off-putting almost immediately. Something about what the author believed to be role-playing mastery, which cannot be obtained through many hundreds of hours of play. Yet, clearly the author believed himself to be a master, it is not stated in as many words, but so clearly and off-puttingly implicit throughout his writing. Another thing I found I disliked immediately was the use of the personal pronoun, or rather the manner in which the author seemed to make such great pretence at being dispassionately analytical, and yet using the personal pronoun. This continues throughout the book. I have no issue with the opinions of Gary Gygax being presented to me as the opinions of Gary Gygax. But I do have a problem with Gary Gygax presenting the ideas of Gary Gygax as if they were gospel, absolute universal truth. Moving right along…
Chapter One consists of what seems like an almost obligatory, ‘What is Role-playing’ dialogue. Alright, no issues here, mostly a definition and distinction between other forms of entertainment. The author makes an interesting distinction here between role assumption and role-playing, interesting but still adding little to the discussion in my opinion. The author then goes on to talk about the origins of role-playing from historical and fantasy war-gaming, which is slightly off topic, but very interesting to myself, a fairly recent (2000) convert to role-playing.
The author continues in this section talking about why people role-play, that is having fun. Interestingly he still classes role-playing games as contests, and continues to do so for the remainder of the book when he gets to discussing the RPGA. He also makes warding gestures towards the religious hounds that were condemning role-playing at the time as the next tool of the devil. Fair enough, but I still feel that the author has insecurity issues; mostly with the way he presents his arguments and the apparent need for contest. Insecurity issues the author tries to gloss over by attempting to be overanxiously authoritative and by avoiding self-analysis. We might talk more about that later.
Chapter two is the beginning of the real meat of the book titled ‘The Master Player”. The first step to mastery according to the author is about knowing the rules, something most of us could probably accept quite readily. However, the author goes on to make justifications for rules, about having to define something that does not exist, something that is peripherally and anecdotally interesting perhaps, but again digressing from the topic at hand. The author, after his rather long digression, does make the excellent point about a games rules encompassing more than the rules as written, but also the spirit in which the game is written. Unfortunately he once more digresses unnecessarily into the ethos of AD&D, it probably had a place in the section, but sometimes he really waffles. This is something of a continuing problem in my esteemed opinion.
Okay, next up we have a section describing the player’s character. Here the author does make some good points about playing a diversity of characters to broaden the understanding of the way a game works. This is an excellent idea, from a mechanical perspective and to improve your understanding of other viewpoints perhaps, but really does fall somewhat short when you tell that to a method actor. The author also makes a mockery of people who are afraid to role-play for fear of what it would reveal of their own character, a rather funny point, but a serious one when it comes to recruiting new players for your campaign. Herein seems to lie another fundamental problem with the author’s opinion, that despite his statement that there are multiple ways to mastery, he then goes on to dismiss it and say, ‘my way or the highway’. The section continues with another overly long description from AD&D, which I suppose is the target audience, but these examples really don’t fit his assertion that this is ‘for any role-playing game’.
The example is followed by a list of concepts that I consider quite a gem, such as taking hints from the GM and establishing your PC’s relationship to the other party members and making sure they have a niche to fill. The author also speaks about the player choosing a character that they are capable of portraying accurately and consistently. The bubble bursts rapidly as we get ‘treated’ to more AD&D examples, this despite the author acknowledging earlier on that ‘there are now a diversity of games in different genres’. Another small gem follows about understanding character creation being a great facilitator to understanding a game’s mechanics and ethos. I couldn’t agree more. The chapter finishes, as with most others, with a summary of its contents. This was a really good step for helping people remember the contents, fortunately these are in much more generic terms and can be more useful if you don’t play/understand D&D. Unfortunately it summarises the good with the bad, and sometimes adds to the contents of the chapter. On the negative side this chapter’s summary adds an admonishment to play regularly in ‘tournaments’ so that you can compare your penis siz… errr role-playing ability against others. As a corollary, the author points out truthfully that the penis siz… errr power of your character does not reflect a player’s ‘endowment’ in terms of role-playing ability. Better advice includes understanding a GM’s role and working with them, playing in other people’s campaigns to see how they do things, making yourself part of the gaming community and continuing to grow. (I’ll try and stop digressing into mentions on endowment except when I disparage the author)
Chapter three now shifts to the other side of the screen with ‘The Master GM”. This chapter describes a GM as ‘the creator, organizer and arbiter of all’, which seems a fair enough description. This makes the excellent point that the GM is not the enemy, and points out that many immature GMs take this position, which should not be the case. This is a much better chapter than the previous one, talking about the work involved in researching and fleshing out a milieu, which makes me start wondering if I should look at some of the recent ‘world builder’ guidebooks the author has been putting out. He seems to know about researching worlds with respect to inserting them into a role-playing game. There also follows the first non AD&D example, and runs through scenario creation. This might be quite useful advise for the novice GM, detailing a short scenario and what information is needed to run it. Its really too bad an novice would have had to wade through a lot of rubbish before getting here. The scenario is followed by a potential campaign following from the initial scenario. I quite like the author’s approach in this area, and he looks to be capable of setting up an engaging campaign. (I know, I know, he is THE Gary Gygax)
The author makes some other excellent points that suggest he spends as much time behind the screen as me. These being the GM’s role in feeding sensory information to the PC’s, his role in preserving them short of stupidity and his role in continuing the campaign where players can have fun. He also points out that a GM should have experience as a player to understand the perspective of his players, something that I have personally come to appreciate myself.
The section on increasing the excitement of play is an interesting one about how a GM should introduce new challenges, but should not bow to the player’s whim. While I appreciate the advice, I feel it is marred by the following two examples from AD&D once more. This is further marred because the author feels the need to defend both his decisions, seeming to demonstrate a lack of confidence on his decisions. Interestingly he makes an example of Kobolds with Uzi submachine guns being in appropriate for AD&D. I wonder what he thinks of the D20 Modern game…
The chapter concludes with the obligatory summary. This one pretty much summarises the chapter very well and should almost be a must read for any new GM.
Chapter four, entitled ‘The Group, More than its Parts’ goes on to describe group operation. I found this the most enlightening chapter, especially since I have personally suffered some group problems. Mostly related to people finding more important things to do in their lives than play pretend with me. (sob) At any rate, the author describes how some people may not grasp role-playing games despite many years play, while other may instantly grasp it, leading to conflicts within groups as old-timers come into conflict with these ‘young rebels’. This seems particularly apt, though it remains doubtful in my mind whether somebody who was limited enough to be unable to grasp a game, would be able to grasp their inability to grasp the game… Stepping onto my own high horse, I wonder if the author is adequately enlightened to see that his own perspective may indeed be also flawed. But I digress…
The author describes several types of groups, based on the experience of participants and the level of devotion they have to the hobby. He describes how these groups need to ‘improve themselves’ since it is only through the interaction of an entirely masterful group that the true potential of a role-playing game may be appreciated. While I believe the author’s words, I have yet to experience this bliss, this nirvana and wonder if it is indeed possible. This classification was the most helpful for me, but the author then goes on about how to bring this group to role-playing orgasm if you will.
I found a lot of this material to be rather self evident, but perhaps that may not be the case for those not as enlightened as myself. (There I am back on my high horse) The author describes steps that somebody interested in facilitating good game play might take should various forms of problem arise. While this was mostly sensible to my mind, perhaps the average geek gamer of the late 80’s needed this sort of advice on social interaction and facilitation. I don’t know. The only good point I got out of this was that this is really the GM’s role, in which authority for the game should be vested anyway. He points out that if the GM is not assertive enough, our fictitious ‘master player’ should work to correct the problem and attempt to empower the GM. I thought this was self evident, at any rate it was too much social theory on group interaction that should have been in some sociology textbook.
A good point, going back to role-playing is that a ‘master player’ would select a character type unrepresented in the group to complete the group and round it out. The author points out that from a selfish standpoint this makes sense too, since it would allow the player’s character to shine. This finishes with how a ‘master player’ should be an example, and mentor… Far out, I just want to game with my mates, not socialise them so that they become adept human beings capable of dealing with the world. Their parents jobs are obviously incomplete if they need me to work on their social skills and abilities, but again I too digress…
The chapter continues by characterising problem players, many of which the author again seems to believe are problems from childhood. He pretentiously suggests that these are all the results of some form of insecurity derived from childhood, which must be and only can be because the player suffered ‘this’ specific form of social neglect as a child. But taking the author’s example and using his own work, I would suggest that the author is an adviser, somebody who can’t help himself but open his mouth when he knows (or thinks he knows) something. Apparently such a person is a form of bully who feels the need to exert their will on others… Well, I suppose he knows himself best, and probably came to that conclusion from a careful self-analysis. (But I can sympathise, I might be one of them myself…)
Coming up next is the problem GM and speaks of problems with GMs who consider the players to be puppets, or their characters puppets. This is the sort of material you see all the time on message boards, GMs who suck because they treat me like crap, they’re unfair, they railroad, etc. Interesting variations are the killer GM, and as the author himself points out the more insidious easy GM. This is the GM that bows to player demands and levels them up after 4 hours of play, gives them nuclear missiles as beginning characters and so on. (Okay, so maybe those were slight exaggerations, but you get the point.) He points out quite correctly that for the character that has it all, there is little reason to continue campaigning. After all, if you own a planet, have a huge sprawling mansion on it, thousands of servants and hundreds of nymphomaniac concubines, what would send you out to risk life and limb for a few measly bucks…
SO the author concludes the chapter by telling us that mastery is group success. Okay, I think we got the picture. He rather obnoxiously points out that all can’t achieve the same level of success, and true as this might be, I think we all know that. We are all gifted in different ways, and while the author might have had the ability to write the most popular role-playing game around, obviously he wasn’t as gifted with diplomatic ability. (Or to be snide, with financial ability either, after all, where is TSR?) Anyway, apparently we are successful as a group when we have stories to tell about our role-playing exploits and even more so if one of our group members achieves acclaim in the RPG industry. So pat your back if you have a good role-playing story, and if you are known in the community go and reward yourself or something like that. I’m sure the author is masturbating because he sees his book has been reviewed again…
Chapter five goes into ‘Rules: Construction and Reconstruction’. This chapter basically goes into the mechanics required of a role-playing game, and is really all about designing a game. Apparently mastery is all about designing and or modifying games too, so the author is undoubtedly patting himself on the back in a self congratulatory manner because he’s jumped through all his self defined hoops to mastery. I don’t doubt that knowing how games work and being able to design one is great as far as knowledge of a game goes, but still it seems out of place in a tome like this. Crazy bastards who have nothing better to do than play with their nerd pastimes will inevitably spend countless hours tinkering with it. (After all, this wacko found it fit to spend several hours reviewing a book about the theories of his nerd pastime.)
Nonetheless, there are a few gems of information in here. Mostly about the flavour of a role-playing game, which characterises it somewhat. Apart from the rather obvious statement that role-playing games must have the ability to role-play characters as a central portion of them, the author suggests that these games must have six elements to some degree or other, these being: Wonder and Fear; Adventure and Heroism; Problem solving; Combat, conflict and battle; Group operation; and, Enlightenment and Education. While I can agree with most of them, I find the last a little pretentious. According to the author, all role-playing games should provide the ability for continued learning in them. I don’t know that I agree with this as a requirement of a role-playing game, while it may happen anyway, I don’t know that it is necessary. After all, there are perfectly good games that are specifically designed to mock pretentious role-playing games of the sort designed by the author…
The next section deals with defining parameters of play, which seems perfectly legitimate. Too bad the author had to then get up on his soapbox and tell people how right he was to have limited AD&D to certain barriers. I suppose it’s not really the author’s justification of himself that bothers me, just the smug, ‘I told you so’ tone he takes whenever he does it. I find myself bothered, even if I don’t give a damn whether he was or wasn’t right regarding a particular topic. It just grates…
The author then goes into tinkering with rules, and advises people that it is okay to tinker. While this may have been news 16 years ago, I think this is firmly in vogue now, so I won’t comment on that. He does however advise people that they should beware of what they tinker with, and that they should attempt to remain in the mainstream of the hobby without making up their own system that is so esoteric they lose touch with the rest of the hobby. The author also makes the assumption that some of these people may want to publish their game systems, and gives a little advice along those lines. This advice is mostly be careful, there are wolves out there advice. Hehe, I think he’s just trying to scare the potential competition.
Chapter six is about ‘Searching and Researching’, the first part mostly being a description of what genres of role-playing games are available and how to find one that you like. This might have been a problem in the day this book was published, but with the Internet this is hardly a problem any longer. He advises subscribing to a role-playing magazine to keep in touch, but I suppose this doesn’t exactly apply either in the current day and age. Here he once again gets on his high horse about how knowledge of the entire industry is necessary to be an expert… Yeah, whatever…
The latter part is much more interesting, with a brief piece of advice to GMs to know their world. What is even better is advice to players to research their world and gain an understanding of the background and milieu of the world. He advises players that they should become familiar with materials provided for their game of choice, and well as the influences behind it. He argues that only through such a study can one become familiar with he game world and the conventions of it. I wholeheartedly agree, and sometimes wish my players would just spend a little more time finding out about my campaign world which I craft for their benefit. Though as a player, I understand when people are overwhelmed with information and don’t have the time to read it all. Good advice, just not sure its completely realistic… This would have be one of those gems.
Chapter seven on ‘Tactical Mastery’ is another gem that I might get my players to read. It’s all about analysing a session or campaign’s objectives and heading towards them. How many times have your players been sidetracked by that piece of superfluous information you provided as a piece of flavour? This is actually suitable for a military or detective manual, and it’s all about deciding what it is that you really need to do, and then how you’re going about it. It also goes into a few meta-game perspectives unique to role-playing games. In short, the chapter could be summarised as: Know the Mission; Know the Goal; Define Objectives, Make a plan and follow it, Keep on going along the plan; Work together; Use common sense; Use your character’s senses; Record information; Find out as much as you can about the enemy; Be Consistent; Avoid unnecessary encounters; and if all else fails, Improvise when you’re caught short. This is a brilliant piece of advice, and I sometimes wish I had it so much earlier. My players love getting sidetracked… This is followed by three lengthy examples that I felt added little other than detail out the above in response to a specific situation. The final advice to have fun and look after your character however is worthy of a mention.
Chapter eight is all about ‘Designing your own Game’. This is very much a follow on of chapter five about tinkering with games, and as such I felt should have been placed together with it. Chapters five, six and seven should have been reversed and the two major sections of chapter six also reversed to make it flow better. Nonetheless, I won’t dwell too long on this section. It speaks about establishing conventions for your game world, what is and isn’t possible. A section follows this on what rules to use, speaking of linear probabilities and bell curves achieved with single dice or dice pools, and why you should select each. The next section goes into details on movement, skills, combat, character creation, NPC creation, rewards and specifics such as magic or technology. It describes the advantages and disadvantages of various methods of detailing these, as well as giving very general guidelines on what these things should be able to achieve. For instance, the author points out that NPC creation should be a short and fairly simple process that still allows NPCs with enough variance that they are not carbon copies of each other. The chapter again ends on a warning not to change too much if modifying an existing game.
Chapter nine on ‘Mastery on a Grad Scale’ may as well be advertising for the RPGA and its tournaments. The author is very keen for people to be actively involved in the hobby beyond their group, an presses this frequently, advising GMs that they are not masters unless they have contributed something to a public forum. (Hah, take that Gygax. This is my contribution) He also advises players to watch other play and themselves play in RPGA tournaments. After all, it’s always better to know that others think you’re better endowed than the next player. I mean, if you don’t take it out and compare it around, how will you know you’re good? Apparently these excellent players are the ones that wear down GMs because if their innovative ideas. I guess I can swallow that… The chapter ends on a not of ‘encouragement’ about striving as hard as possible to see where you get… Yep, whatever.
Chapter ten is really just a summary of the game, and provides to analogies about how a master player/GM will have ever widening influence on the hobby itself. While I can see this, it seems fairly self evident, but maybe people back then needed to hear it.
The book is followed by five appendices, the first three being all but useless now in this day and age. They detail role-playing associations, role-playing conventions and role-playing magazines, but while I recognise some of them, I’d wager the contact details are so old as to be useless. The fourth appendix details available role-playing games alphabetically and has a label of what genre they are in. I suppose this might have been useful back then when the Internet wasn’t around, but its very out of date as you imagine. Then again, if you’re into collecting historic games, there’s a list for you. The fifth appendix is arguably the most useful to a current player, and details role-playing specific terms, but most of us probably know of them already. Also, the book admits that its audience base is experienced role-players, so I wonder at its necessity…
In conclusion, I think this book is a nifty little tome filled with lots of little gems of information that would be valuable to any role-playing enthusiast. Unfortunately these gems are hidden in a large amount of rubbish that needs to be ploughed through before you get to the good stuff. This is not helped by the author’s inability to perceive that his perception may not be the only valid one, and his apparent belief that he is a master because he has gone through all the hoops. The worst expert to my mind is a self-appointed one, and this work seems to suffer greatly in that regard. Perhaps this review will help the author get a realistic view of himself, either that or I will unknowingly let my own head expand until it explodes.
I rate this book a two for style, because it was fairly clear, even if I didn’t agree with the ideas presented. The lack of art and formatting were quite poor however. For substance, I’m going to give it a three, because while there were diamonds in the rough, I’m not sure that it warrants much more than that. At any rate, hope you liked the review.
Bubbalin
