Just a quick heads-up that Guy Sclanders’ book, “The Practical Guide To Becoming A Great GM” landed last night and I’ve begun reading it. The headline is that it’s much better than I expected.

It was always a book I was going to back on Kickstarter and want to read because I am a sucker for GM guidebooks. My expectations were low – based largely on the YouTube videos I had seen – but this is a serious read and worth a decent look.

The reason I say this is because it’s a bit deeper than I expected. It’s more thoughtful and provocative of reflection (in a good way). Once I got over the style (he writes as he speaks), I found the ideas engaging. I’m about 80 pages in to the 360-odd page book, so I will hold back on a full review, but so far I’m interested.

Perhaps the most useful thing is the highly cheesy but actually thought-provoking “Encounters” – little challenges to do as you read through the book – which earn you XP as you read. Maybe the gamification of the book is feeding my reading, I dunno. Cynicism aside, there’s good advice to be mined from Sclanders’ book and mine it I shall.

Game on!