This book is very well layed out and written, concise and to the point. As opposed to other books for GMs I read which are full of idioms and babbling around "to show their improvisation power", each chapter here instead tackles a very precise point with short concrete examples and techniques.
In terms of the content, I really liked the approach of creativity, randomness and lower expectations, while making the characters the center of the story and even tips and strategies for dealing with different kind of players.
Of course, the subject of the book is VERY MUCH oriented to the "Collaborative" style of roleplaying and full improvisation, which may not always be the case (it works really well for FATE system), since sometimes GMs may want to tell a story, rather than building it together with their players. But, regardless of this approach, many of these techniques are helpful anyways because no matter how well and complete preparation is, improvisation is a must and engaging the players so they don't pick up their phones is essential.
I came to read this precisely because I was having an issue of "tunneling" the story and a feeling of me as GM talking and taking as much or even more protagonism than the players have. So I will definitely take the tips provided here (though without allowing players to define what a building looks like). The methods provided are good ideas but definitely the methods depend on each GM to find what method works best.
Really like the quotes of real authors and would have loved more quotes and more citations of how story tellers approach their plotting strategies. It gives a sense of the author knowing the topic very well.
I am amazed to those approach which also avoid the players unhappy or failing on random encounters, and strategies into making everyone engaged, by introducing approaches for riddles, puzzles, plot-making and drama.
There are two things that I didn't really like, but I won't lower the score because of them:
1- There is one specific chapter that adds absolutely nothing, while instead giving a link into a store for buying content (I totally understand we make for a living, but this was too obvious :)
2- The examples are mostly fantasy and horror, although very concrete, it would be great to delve more into different genres and themes, and how to approach them differently. A layout for skippable-but-more examples would have been great to see more into how the author thinks and approaches problem solving situations
PS. I would absolutely love an expanded edition of this book and definitely learn more :)
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