Chapter 1: Gamemastery Basics

Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide (Second Edition), page 7

The role of a GM can be complex, challenging, and sometimes difficult, but ultimately rewarding. Luckily, you’re not on your own! Not only will the other players at your game table help you tell collaborative stories, but you can use the advice here to make your games run more smoothly and feel more exciting.

The information presented here provides helpful guidance on how to be a dynamic and engaging GM, and supplements the GM advice found in Chapter 10 of the Core Rulebook. Some sections either refer back to that chapter or repeat some of that information for convenience. This chapter begins with general advice, then covers the following topics.

Running Encounters (page 10) is the first of three • sections that explains the three modes of play in more detail. You’ll find help on tracking initiative, improving the speed of play, running special battles, and more.

Running Exploration (page 17) gives details on making exploration activities more interesting, creating an evocative environment, lost PCs, and more.
Running Downtime (page 22) covers ways the PCs can set goals, explains how to make good downtime events, provides sample downtime tasks, and more.
Adjudicating Rules (page 28) offers guidance on how to make effective rules calls and create house rules.

Resolving Problems (page 30) presents advice on total • party kills, problem players, and power imbalances.

Narrative Collaboration (page 32) includes tools for players to control the story more directly.
Special Circumstances (page 33) discusses organized play, odd-sized groups, and players with different needs.
Rarity in Your Game (page 35) details how rarity can enrich the theme and story of your game.
Campaign Structure (page 36) clarifies what makes a good campaign and describes how to determine its scope and make enemies and treasure more compelling.
Adventure Design (page 40) includes tools for building your own adventures.
Encounter Design (page 46) explains how to build entertaining encounters and navigate the challenges that can arise when designing complex encounters.
Drawing Maps (page 52) describes useful steps for making maps and commonly used map symbols.

In this section

General Advice This section covers topics related to running the game. If you want to know how to build specific types of new content, this information can be found throughout Chapter 2 in sections such as Building Creatures (page…
Running Encounters Running engaging encounters can require you to track a lot of different information. Knowing what details to prioritize can make encounters easier to run and more fun to play.
Running Exploration Exploration covers a wide variety of situations, letting the group’s creativity and storytelling shine.
Running Downtime There’s more to life than fighting monsters and looting treasure. What happens when a PC wins a deed to a tavern in a game of cards, crafts a magical item, builds a home, or pursues a relationship?
Adjudicating Rules As Game Master, it falls on you to adjudicate the rules. This means you’re making judgments and decisions about the rules, especially when their application is unclear.
Resolving Problems Being a Game Master and running a game can be a tremendously rewarding and fulfilling experience: you get to sit down with friends old and new, roll some dice, tell stories, and have fun.
Narrative Collaboration The relationship between you, your players, and the story is what makes roleplaying games successful and memorable.
Special Circumstances No two Pathfinder groups are exactly the same. At each gaming table, the GM and players work together to find their own style for the game and to tell their own stories.
Rarity in Your Game The rarity system is a powerful tool that helps you and your group customize your story, your characters, and your world to better match your game’s themes and setting.
Campaign Structure Each adventure presents one contained story, but your campaign tells a more expansive one. Think of each adventure like an episode or arc and the campaign as a whole series.
Adventure Design When making your own adventure, you get to choose the themes, play style, and NPCs that most appeal to you and your group.
Encounter Design Creating a compelling encounter goes beyond just following the guidelines for selecting monsters of a given level.
Drawing Maps Once you have an idea of the scope and the challenges in your adventure, the next step is to map out your adventure location, whether it’s an underground dungeon, a desert ruin, or an undersea coral forest.