Expand Your D&D Library With The Game Master Series!

By: Mithrandiel

I realize it might be a tad late, what with Christmas in the rearview mirror and all, but I wanted to take a few minutes to share some awesome books I enjoy from my personal D&D library.

As you can see, I have a bit of a problem, but that’s neither here nor there at the moment.

Namely - I wanted to spotlight the Game Master series of books, which includes:

The Game Master’s Book of Non-Player Characters

The Game Master’s Book of Traps, Puzzles, and Dungeons

and the more recent

The Game Master’s Book of Legendary Dragons

Not pictured is The Game Master’s Book of Random Encounters, since I don’t own it (yet!) as well as the forthcoming Game Master’s Book of Astonishing Random Tables.

While Wizards of the Coast has been hard at work putting out new sourcebooks (usually 2-3 a year), sometimes it can be valuable to have some resources handy: whether it be some interesting traps to make your latest dungeon-crawl more thrilling, or a terrifying dragon to serve as the antagonist to your campaign.

Or maybe you just really need to get a name and a backstory for your barkeep in a hurry.

Thankfully, the Game Master series helps to scratch all of these itches, and then some!

Non-Player Characters

This guide provides names, backgrounds and motivations for over 500 NPCs, broken out into broader categories of where these NPCs reside: whether they’re situated in a hovel in a huge metropolitan city, or happen to be the Noble leader of an outpost.

There’s plenty of bad guys to utilize within these pages as well, with stat blocks and motivations to boot.

This is fantastic if you’re looking to provide a bit more than just a name-generator response when players are asking about characters in your world. With the accompanying stat blocks, you can even have them be functional supports for side quests and secondary adventures!

There are also random NPC generators and quest-creation tools in this book as well, which further adds to its value for any Dungeon Master.

Traps, Puzzles & Dungeons

Sure, you got your players to navigate into the dark, unknown crypts. In fact, you may even have a trick or two up your sleeve! Then one of your players rolls a natural 20 on their investigation check and you’re keen to have them discover a riddle…which may lead to some extra loot, of course. This book is here to help!

Chock-full of painful, debilitating traps, unique puzzle-room setups and more, this is a great answer for players in your group that are looking for a bit more than just bashing monsters’ heads in.

Not only are there ciphers, gateway puzzles and other cerebral challenges, but a good portion of the book details 50 different rooms that you can work into your dungeon, comprised of environmental challenges designed to spell doom for any ill-prepared or slow-thinking adventurers.

Legendary Dragons

The most recent release of the Game Master series, this book is a fantastic resource for a handful of reasons.

For example, maybe you’re interested in a compelling antagonist (or even patron?) in your current campaign.

Or you may be wanting to spin up a level 17-20 one-shot where your friends can go dragon-hunting and can take their pick of a handful of deadly foes.

With over 2 dozen dragons, complete with rich backstories and motivations to help you guide your narrative and make the encounter a bit more than “Evil dragon bad, heroic adventurers good!”

The book also offers some unique twists on dragon components and how they can enhance various spells, as well as a unique race that you could incorporate in your home games.

Each of the dragons comes with a complete stat block as well, with some unique skills dependent on the build.

I was a bit bummed that some of the dragons didn’t have more specialized abilities, but some minor tweaking can help scratch that itch.

Ultimately it’s a fantastic library of the titular monster that is a great resource for any dungeon master.

Closing Thoughts

I love being a DM. Creating exciting encounters for my friends and walking them through adventures, whether I homebrewed them or am pulling from one of the many sourcebooks I’m privileged to have in my collection, is wonderful. With that in mind, any tools that I can use to help streamline that process to save me some time while simultaneously enhancing the experience - well, that’s going to be a winner in my book.

The Game Master series is just that: a fantastic selection of tools for dungeon masters. If you know someone who’s a DM, definitely seek these out as a pleasant surprise at your next session!

Or, if you’re like me and just buy yourself what you want, check out the links below and happy shopping!