Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design

✍ Scribed by Wolfgang Baur, Ed Greenwood, Monte Cook, Michael A. Stackpole, Willie Walsh, Keith Baker, Colin McComb, Nicolas Logue

• Publisher: Open Design LLC
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 245
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Wolfgang Baur, Monte Cook, Ed Greenwood, Mike Stackpole, and other industry veterans have the answers you asked for...and the advice you need!

You'll learn how to create great new adventures, monsters and magic for your RPG campaign, and maybe even design your own game.

The Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design offers 240 pages of in-depth essays on what makes RPGs tick. Get time-tested advice from the top designers in the industry. This compilation includes all three volumes of the Kobold Guide to Game Design series—now with all-new material by Wolfgang Baur, Mike Stackpole, and others!

From core rules and magic systems to fantasy adventures, monster design, playtesting, and much more, these 40 essays cover every aspect of RPG design in clear, accessible language, to show you what it takes.

The City Book Review called it "highly recommended for gaming nerds everywhere"!

Pick up the Complete KOBOLD Guide to Game Design today, and starting designing your RPG tonight!

Winner, 2012 Gold ENnie Award, Best RPG-Related Accessory

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Table of Contents
Foreword
Section 1: Game Design
1. What is Design?
2. Designing RPGs: Computer and Tabletop (Colin McComb)
3. The Process of Creative Thought
4. Design that Matters
5. Seize the Hook (Rob Heinsoo)
6. The Infinte Onion
7. Fortunate Accidents
8. Basic Combat Systems for Tabletop Games (Colin McComb)
9. More Empty Rooms
10. Fantasy Realism
11. Designing Magic Systems (Michael A. Stackpole)
12. How NOT to Design a Magic Item
13. Location as a Fulcrum for Superior Design
14. Worldbuilding
Section 2: Enhancing Adventures
15. Crafting a Dastardly Plot (Ed Greenwood)
16. Challenge and Response
17. On the Street Where Heroes Live (Ed Greenwood)
18. City Adventures
19. The Underdark
20. Maps, Monsters, and Bottom-Up Design
21. Monster Hordes
22. Hardboiled Adventures (Keith Baker)
23. What Makes a Night Arabian?
24. The Mystery of Mysteries (Nicolas Logue)
25. "The Anvil in the Dwarf's Soup" (Willie Walsh)
26. Using and Abusing Misdirection
27. Stagecraft (Nicolas Logue)
Section 3: Writing, Pitching, Publishing
28. The Three Audiences
29. Shorter, Faster, Harder, Less
30. Buckets in the Sandbox
31. Collaboration and Design
32. Myths and Realities of Game Balance (Monte Cook)
33. Pacing
34. Playtesting
35. Promises, Promises
36. Failure and Recovery
37. Why Writers Get Paid
38. Talent Won't Save You...
39. The Magic Bullet for Publication
40. Creative Mania and Design Despair
Kobold Guide to Board Game Design
Back Cover