XDM X-Treme Dungeon Mastery Kindle Edition

An online encyclopedia claims this book was written in about two months, starting roughly August 2008, so that it could be published by August 2009.It shows.The authors attempt to describe a secret society of dungeon masters, of which they lead, and their ideas on what makes a good game, lighting and fog effects, slight-of-hand-tricks, and a chapter devoted to making incendiary devices with key items redacted. Overall, this is a very underwhelming text for game mastery, and questionably useful for other topics covered (I didn't buy the book to learn about contact juggling...)You can find better content elsewhere if you want game mastering tips. I'm not convinced this wasn't intended as a gag.

The only real issue I have with this book (aside from typos) is the xdm stuff. I feel like the author is trying to over sell himself (which I don't get bc if I'm reading the book then I've probably bought it which implies I'm assuming him to be some kind of authority on the topic). Imagine you are trying to start working out for the first time in a long time. You find this huge muscle bound Arnold looking guy to help teach you. During your workouts he is CONSTANTLY telling you how awesome and buff he is and how much you want to be like him. However at the same time he is in fact giving you valuable secrets on how to work out that you find are helping you build muscle and reach your goals. That's what this book is. If you can stand Arnold referring needlessly to how awesome he is (or in this case how badly you should want to be an xdm) this book is packed with all kinds of things that anyone from a novice to someone more advanced can use. Things like pacing, using your voice, how to handle traps, how to handle puzzles are all in here. Some of them are in forms I haven't seen before. So again, if you can stomach the xdm stuff this book provides you with what you want out of it. The art work is fun too.

I loved the Dragonlance books and the Deathgate Cycle series of books. With this book, i hoped for a view of the evolution of gaming from someone that helped develop DND through its most formative years, filled with tips and tricks gleaned from decades of experience. Instead i read a humorless essay that lasted at least two chapters before i had to put it down. Seriously, i get your "humor", and that XDM bla bla bla might have been mildly amusing for a few paragraphs, but to drag it on for pages on end was torture. The first few chapters are pointless drivel, an unfunny reimagining of world history to include DMing. It was painful to read, like watching your dad at a party telling everyone about a dream he had but no one is listening. i am giving the book two stars, one for the positive influence the authors previous works have had on my life, and another because there is a slim chance at some point in the book he said something worthwhile about gaming. i, unfortunately, couldnt make it far enough to find out

I bought this book on a recommendation after reading Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering. I am glad I did. Tracy Hickman and company have let the cat-out-of-the-bag for basic RPG and story design. To keep this short, these are the chapters that especially stood-out to me:Ch. 3 - Player Types & Elements of Game DesignCh. 4 - The Campbellian Monomyth & Random Story GeneratorCh. 5 - Designing for Story (open & closed matrix)Ch. 7 - Preparation & OrganizationCh. 8 - Theatrics & Ethics/consequencesCh. 9 - Rules Lawyers & whining Control Freaks (sort-of)Ch. 14 - How You Play the Game (for players, not the XDM)Ch. 16 - xD20 Advanced Player's Guide (my 2nd favorite Chapter)Ch. 17 - XD20 Dungeon Mastery Handbook (my favorite Chapter!) The above chapter names are mostly paraphrased because the actual chapter names are humorous titles and may be off-putting to some.WARNING: The book is follows a jocular narrative, from the introduction to the back cover. If you are too proud and cannot laugh at yourself, then you should pass on this tome of mirth. Several chapters are comical and are there just to drive home a point to you, gentle reader. (I imagine those offended by this book should never, ever game-master any RPG.) The wisdom gained from XDM X-Treme Dungeon Mastery is priceless. I am confident this has helped me grow in my abilities as an xDM/GM and become a better referee/judge to my players. And as a bonus, the amusing illustrations by Howard Tayler are highly entertaining just by themselves. Hope you enjoy this lighthearted approach to becoming a better Dungeon Master.

I learned about this book from the Dungeon Craft YouTube channel. The Hickmans provide excellent information on how to run games. The book is light-hearted and fun. While the cover was great, the pages’ paper seemed to be a brownish, rougher quality paper than I had expected. Overall, I love the content but would have preferred higher quality paper for the pages. At a time when RPGs too often pile rules on top of already crunchy rules, XDM makes it all simple, fun, and usable.

This book gets to the balls of the hobby, pulls them out, and nails them to the wall for all to see. A worthy resource.

Der Author glaubt, seine Methode, DMing durch Kartentricks, Feuerwerk usw. aufzupeppen sei ein sehr guter Weg zu besserer Spielleitung.Für meinen Geschmack ist das aber eher nicht so. Wenn ich ein Buch über DMing kaufe, dann will ich eher Information dazu, wie ich eine Spielsession organisiere, wie ich mit möglichst einfachen Regeln spannende Geschichten erzähle und wie ich die Spieler motiviere.Auch Ideen dazu, wie ich abwechslungsreiche Begegnungen und Kämpfe konstruiere, können helfen.Mich persönlich interessiert aber weniger, wie ich das "Drumherum" ausschmücke. Das kann man tun (insbesondere wenn man stark in Richtung LARP geht), muss man aber m.E. nicht.Es nervt zudem, wenn alle drei Seiten "witzige" Kommentar eingestreut werden, die mit der Sache nichts zu tun haben.Ich weiß, ich bin heute ungnädig. Es gibt aber wirklich viel bessere Bücher zum Thema, etwa auf DriveThru RPG, tut mir wirklich leid!

I was really excited about reading this book based on other recommendations I had read, but right from the get-go my excitement turned to total annoyance. The authors try to use their senses of humour throughout the book, which fails miserably. For example, they include an entire 6 page chapter on the history of "Xtreme Dungeon Mastery", from ancient Sumeria to the present day. Another chapter is dedicated to using pyrotechnics in your game (but be warned that fire is dangerous!). I realize this is all tongue-and-cheek, but none of it is very funny. This kind of writing occurs throughout the 158 pages. The problem is that I didn't pay $60 to read the authors' terrible jokes. There are a few gems in there (and I mean very few) if you read very carefully and can manage to not toss the book in the garbage in a fit of rage, but finding anything useful in here is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY do NOT recommend wasting your money on this terribly-written drivel...

The first quarter of the book isnt needed. The middle had some helpful ideas. I like the idea of simplifying games. The ending was more of the beginning - jokes that got stale quickly. I wish there were more content and less attempts at levity.

There's about three pages worth of genuine GM advice in this book. The rest is unfunny jokes, self-promotion and waste of space. The real advice is also very superficial, and never goes beyond simple definitions.