Kobold Guide to Game Design

by Janna Silverstein (Editor), Keith Baker, Wolfgang Baur

The first edition of the COMPLETE KOBOLD GUIDE TO GAME DESIGN laid out concepts, techniques and advice for designing roleplaying games and enhancing adventures. This second edition brings together essays from the original volume by Wolfgang Baur, Monte Cook, Keith Baker, Ed Greenwood, and others, many updated to reflect the changing game design landscape. In addition, this new edition includes brand-new essays by veteran designers Jeff Grubb (Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Guild Wars), Kelly Pawlik (Midgard Sagas, Empire of the Ghouls), Amber Scott (Dungeons & Dragons, Eberron) and Ray Vallese (The Kobold Guide to Magic).

Between these covers, you’ll find practical, thought-provoking essays on worldbuilding, creating magic systems, conflict, and compelling stories, what to expect when you work as a design professional, and much more. Conceptual chapters examine what game design is and how good design can create the best games. Concrete examples provide models to help you create well-rounded designs and exciting adventures.

In his essay, “Seize the Hook,” designer Rob Heinsoo says, “Design a game you want to play but can’t because no one else has designed it yet.” THE COMPLETE KOBOLD GUIDE TO GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION will help you do that, and your games and campaigns will never be the same.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Nonfiction, Games

252 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2019

Reviews

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covered a lot of ground, and though it was kind of an "anthology" style with a bunch of authors, Wofgang Baur wrote about 75% of the essays. So if you're looking to write an rpg accessory, create a board game or even just write a short article for some online zine, there's definitely a bunch of instruction here that could help. I like how honest he is about it being tough and not always fun and he warms people up to the idea of their writing being changed before publication. I remember when that happened to me and it was a huge deal to me, I felt personally slighted. I also enjoyed the "peek behind the scenes" type of stuff as to how the industry works for different types of companies.

[Nikolas Totiev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, it's a pretty underwhelming read. Maybe it is fine for someone who is an extreme beginner but for anyone else with somewhat of an experience, I think this book has too little to teach you.

There are a couple of very interesting chapter but in its entirety it wasn't really worth my time. There is a writer that is heavily featured in the book and keeps referencing adventures they have written as if the reader has read them as well. But I hadn't, and I kept missing the references I needed to pick up the lesson.

I didn't find an industry secret in here that seemed reall worthwile, there was an excellent chapter however on making a whole rpg system from the start which I really appreciated.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really know why I decided to pick up the _Kobold_ Guide to Game Design. I thought it'd be interesting. The book walks you through creating a tabletop RPG game, but mainly Dungeons & Dragons. While there's a bit about peer tabletops like Call of Cthulhu, the book is primarily around writing and selling campaigns. The latter part of the book is around games publishing as a job and things around that.

As someone who enjoys D&D and has sometimes written custom one-shot and small campaigns for my friends, I found part of the book to have useful advice but more generally am not their intended audience.

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, I am designing an RPG.

This is a nice collection of articles and I expect to be able to apply many of them.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of articles on the subject. could use some updating, but a lot of the advice is timeless.

[Daniel Hernandez Forero · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is great, and you can read only what you need as is a collection of articles by different authors who talk about game design from their own experience.
The downside of it is that many of them are mainly focused on designing adventures, modules and rules for D&D, as it's most of their experience. Don't get me wrong, the book is really good, and a lot of intelligence, creative, highly experienced people wrote on it, but I just find the focus on D&D to be too severe.
Still, a must read if you're into game design.

[Michael Huntone · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of essays; some more useful than others. What you get out of this will probably depend on your aims in reading. Reading this as a DM looking for tips to make more engaging adventures, there was lots of good stuff, but some of the parts related to overall game design and the publishing industry were beyond what I was really looking for. That being said, it presents a wide range of info, so lots of lots of different types of readers to get out of this. In the least I will say the book game me wider perspectives on TTRPGs beyond just the D&D 5E system that I play in.