The Complete Guide to Creating Epic Campaigns – PDF (First Edition)
This version of the book is no longer for sale, click here for the updated book
“This book is brilliant” Seth Skorkowsky
“If you don’t buy this book you will all perish” The Fat Goblin
English Version
Join Guy, host of the YouTube channel How to be a Great GM, as he takes you step-by-step through the remarkably simple process of creating an Epic Campaign.
Based on his online video tutorials, Guy explores the topics that make-up a great campaign in his own unique way and challenges you to think creatively in each chapter, whilst also revealing how he does it, why he does it, and what happens when it all goes wrong!
For the remastered version: here
Description
“This book is brilliant” Seth Skorkowsky
“If you don’t buy this book you will all perish” The Fat Goblin
CRITICAL: This book is designed to work with ALL systems and genres.
English Version
How do you come up with a good Campaign?
Join Guy, host of the YouTube channel How to be a Great GM, as he takes you step-by-step through the remarkably simple
process of creating an Epic Campaign. Based on his online video tutorials, Guy explores the topics that make-up a great
campaign in his own unique way and challenges you to think creatively in each chapter, whilst also revealing how he does it, why
he does it, and what happens when it all goes wrong!
What is inside?
Packed inside this complete 140 page long guide, are dozens of chapters, each taking you through a specific aspect of creating an Epic
Campaign, such as:
Developing a solid Master Plot – Learn how to create a Master Plot, and see how it guides, shapes and alters
your campaign as it changes!
Choosing a strong Theme – Why is a theme important for a good campaign? What makes a theme so powerful
and how does it let you see into the mind of your players?
Creating Adventures on the Fly – Always something to get the blood racing, learn how to simply and quickly
work with any situation, and turn it into an adventure to remember!
Creating Amazing Villains – Learn the difference between a Blunt Force Nemesis and a Never Present one. What
do all villains want? And why are Henchmen so important?
NPCs – There are two types of NPCs in the world… no seriously. Learn to use your NPCs to enhance your campaign
and bring your world to life.
Tables, Charts, and more – Packed full of easy to use tables, charts and sheets (which are also available online for
download so you never run out!).
Who is this book for?
Specifically designed to cater to all systems, all genre’s, and all settings, this book is for anyone who wants to learn how to design
an Epic Campaign – be it game designers, Role-Players, Story Tellers, or Novelists, the information contained herein will be of
great benefit to understanding the principals of good narrative construction, the ease that having the right tools can bring to the
challenge of being creative, and how to be flexible, adaptive, and why those specific traits will take your Campaign to the whole
next level…
For the remastered version: Pre-order
Reviews (53)
53 reviews for The Complete Guide to Creating Epic Campaigns – PDF (First Edition)
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t_cats (verified owner) –
Fantastic book. I’m creating a new world and this book is helping immensely. The structure is logical and prompts me to ask the right questions about my world, campaign and adventures. It breaks the whole project down in such a way that it never feels like an overwhelming task and instead is a really fun process to go through. As an added bonus, combining this book with watching / listening to the author on his channels gives such an in depth insight into game mastering and role playing that I am finding it easier to come up with ideas and to have confidence in them. Thank you for a great book!
Daniel B. (verified owner) –
This book has been phenomenally helpful in prepping for my upcoming campaign. Big thanks to Guy for this excellent resource.
Paul Rozbroy (verified owner) –
I like it, but it will take time to read it all.
Danilo Narnatonis de Oliveira (verified owner) –
Darin Knotts (verified owner) –
Excellent content. I am still on my first read through, and I am very pleased with the way you are guiding me through the various parts and pieces. I would recommend this to any aspiring or experienced story-telling game master.
The only reasons I *almost* did not give it a 5 were that there are a number of mistakes like wrong /duplicated page numbers, and a few misspellings, and some odd inconsistency of 1 vs 2 column format. The second reason is that there is a nice colored background and I printed this baby out on my B&W laser printer. It makes some text harder to read, and it ate up about $5 of toner. I would have rather given you $2 more, and saved $3 over all.
Putting it all in a .zip with the forms would be a nice value adder as well.
Your price is very low, I think that you could easily do a re-print (I know that is not free for you). Add a little content from the last 2+ years of your productions, and it would sell just as well at $15 or $20. Johnn Four is asking $99 for a similarly marketed product (I do not know what the actual content is). His price is out of reach for a mostly unknown (given what his free content looked like), Your mostly unknown (same given), even at $20 would not be out of reach. This is not even counting your +3 to charisma, with special British humor bonus. (I do like your videos)
I bought your book within a day of seeing that it existed. That purchase was very fast for me. I think you can increase your income bonus by +1 with a slightly higher priced “version 2”, and increase your status by +1 at the same time. Ask for a $2 donation from those of us who bought this version to get the upgrade, and I bet a bunch of people will give you $5. I can’t be a subscribed supporter, but I could throw a few $$ at you for a reprint, especially considering how much I am enjoying the content of this one.
On a personal note, I was particularly amused with your idea of a long dead empress wanting to be resurrected, it happens to work well with my idea of a long dead founder queen who had all kinds of extra abilities, and it answered another question for my plot. My plot diverges from yours there, but that was just the right idea at the right time! Thanks!
Again, I am very happy with the content. I expect to have a lot of fun on my second run through your book, when I start doing the brainstorming stuff.
On that note, I would encourage people to play “mad libs” with your master plot sentence, and some of the other forms. To warm up, create 10 crazy sentences, no limits, just be silly. Then try to think of 5 more sentences that actually might work in the game world. It is an amazing tool. It works even better in groups. I learned this kind of strategy in a “creative thinking” class in grade school. I would encourage you to look into the ideas and do a show or two on them. The secret to success with this strategy is the same as Improv: Always say “Yes and…” Don’t start to pair the ideas down until after the idea creation time is over and you take a break or do something else for a while.
Well, that went long… Cheers!
Thank you,
Darin. I am “Dag Nation” on You tube and on your website.
Robert Curtis (verified owner) –
Tim Ludy (verified owner) –
Fantastic blueprint for building out a complete campaign with tables, fillable sheets and tools to help along the way. Essential reading for any GM looking to tell a more complete and engaging story with their players.
Paige Martinez (verified owner) –
The book was fantastic and has already helped me a lot pin down a plot for my next campaign. As a new-ish DM, this is easy to understand and utilize. I’m sure as I grow, revisiting it will give me just as much.
Mary O’Donnell (verified owner) –
I loved the step by step nature of the book that made world building, and campaign creation less intimidating.
Adam H. (verified owner) –
I’ve been a DM going on 20 years now, and I always stress that I’m still learning, and always will be until the end of my days. I greatly appreciate how much thought was put into this, not just giving a different perspective, but the level of detail put into EXPLAINING the ‘why’ of the process. I love seeing the details of the process. And the tools and charts are really handy and I plan on using them the next game I run. It was really approachable and I would suggest it for new and old DM’s alike.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Randy Belcher (verified owner) –
I bought this book in hopes of it helping me to begin creating campaigns and organizing them. Additionally I love the channel and wanted to support it in a way that I know Guy and the goblins would appreciate. Thanks so much for the content you create. I look forward to one day getting the opportunity to run my own game in my own world!
David Waters (verified owner) –
Lucas Penadés (verified owner) –
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Stéphane (verified owner) –
Creating a campaign is a long process, but with a written reference to Guy’s approche on your desk, your evil plot will tie it all together nicely. Great guide with all the wit you see on the video channel.
Filipe Alexandre Nobre (verified owner) –
The book is very incisive and easy to read and understand. I’m very happy with it.
Adam (verified owner) –
This book has helped me learn (and relearn) writing knowledge that I’ve been seeking ever since I picked D&D back up 6 months ago. I can’t wait to apply what’s in this book to my homebrew. And it’s great to read the book and hear it in GreatGM’s voice!
Stefan (verified owner) –
Some great stuff in there – haven’t made it all the way through yet. I really like the step-by-step methodology of design.
Helen T. (verified owner) –
Already putting it to good use! Glad I had a chance to purchase, I’ve been wanting to since I found the channel last year. 🙂
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Graham Strand (verified owner) –
Not far into it, but already has helped answer important questions about my campaign!
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Stephen M. (verified owner) –
A lot of excellent and insightful information and ideas.
Leon (verified owner) –
Anonymous (verified owner) –
I’m only halfway through the book but I’m already feeling confident to take on designing an epic campaign (I’ve been DMing for only a year and a half). Guy is breaking the process down into small and easy steps, illustrated by examples so they are easy to follow. His witty writing style is entertaining and keeps one’s attention.
Danielle G. (verified owner) –
I came for the information, and stayed for the humour.
Mel Riffe (verified owner) –
This was book was my initial goal for purchase. I was not disappointed by its content. However, I found a few typos in the document. Is there a new edition planned? To whom can I send the typos I saw?
Web Goblin (store manager) –
Hi Mel,
Thank you for your feedback! We are planning a secondary book that will compliment this book, and hope to have details about it soon. You can send any typos you find to me at derrick@greatgamemaster.com
Many thanks
Jörn Ortmann (verified owner) –
It is awesome and already helped me a lot!
Danny (verified owner) –
This book has been very helpful to me. I’m still reading it atm but every chapter that I’ve read improved my game.
If you are a new dm… Or maybe even an experienced one.. Grab this e-book.
Maxwell B. (verified owner) –
Guy Sclanders is a wack in the best way possible. He turns TTRPG on its head and makes you really think about what is going and get the most out of the whole process. It’s crazy but so crazy that it works better than you could imagine! The product was delivered well and with no errors. I could read it easily as an Ebook and I thoroughly enjoyed using it to enhance my current campaign 10 fold. I’ve already got my guys ready to start a new game and I think this will be the compass to guide me from an average game night to an extraordinary game night!
chuck d. (verified owner) –
Taylor S. (verified owner) –
A helpful resource, providing a good structure to help approach storytelling. Quite pleased for the price.
David K. (verified owner) –
Reid (verified owner) –
Great book to get you thinking in the right direction to make your campaigns. Extremely helpful and easy to understand for aspiring dm’s to create their own stories. Great job👍
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Maurizio R. (verified owner) –
Amazing book filled with thorough explanations and extremely helpful tips.this book is just really dang helpful. My campaign would not be as great with out it
Jan S. (verified owner) –
A great book, and great to read along to your videos!
Nathan Clarke (verified owner) –
Jeremiah S. (verified owner) –
I misunderstood and thought there would major and minor world events tracker. I like the in the fly game. I would really appreciate if someone was reading it aloud (I have to drive a lot and reading takes a lot of time commitment for me)
David L. (verified owner) –
A well written guide that is easy to read. This book provides a useful framework to create campaigns and adventures.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Justin (verified owner) –
Nicholas Groen (verified owner) –
Holger Thiemann (verified owner) –
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Abigail (verified owner) –
It was an excellent book, truly useful and well written
Gergo (verified owner) –
This is great! It explains and breaks down the creation of a plot, NPCs villains and guides you through each step with reminding you to the questions to ask yourself and that link back to each part of creation. Then the same for adventures. The book gives help to prepare for the unknown (PCs decisions). I have already read it 4 times (and will do a couple of times) and keep it next to me while creating and running the campaign. The style is just like the channel which I enjoyed very much! Thank you Guy for this excellent book. Best buy this year for me.
Loralynn R. (verified owner) –
Only a few pages in and so far there’s tons of great content!
D R (verified owner) –
All your stuff is good Guy- I am a “new” DM trying to get back into D and D with my son and his friends. Thanks for the resources.
Daniel M. (verified owner) –
John (verified owner) –
Everything I expected and more.