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Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign ManagementClick to magnify

Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign Management

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If you’re planning on running a campaign, you’ll want this book.” — Critical Hits review

2014 ENnie Award nominee for Best Aid/Accessory - 2013 Golden Geek Award nominee for Best Supplement

Do you ever wish you had a guide to help make running ongoing campaigns easier and more fun? Then you need Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign Management—to our knowledge, the first system-neutral book solely dedicated to the art of managing campaigns.

Written by award-winning authors—and veteran game masters—Phil Vecchione and Walt Ciechanowski, Odyssey is jam-packed with in-depth advice on starting, managing, and ending campaigns. Whether you're an old hand or are new to game mastering, you'll find a wealth of tips and techniques you can put to immediate use in Odyssey.

Odyssey's authors bring unique perspectives to the topic of campaign management. Phil is a project manager and wrote Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep. Walt is an improvisational game master with years of experience in the tabletop RPG industry. Both write for the award-winning game mastering blog Gnome Stew, and they collaborated on Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game and Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters.

Odyssey is full of practical guidance on campaign management for almost any RPG:

  • A guide to starting a new campaign, from coming up with the initial concept to running a smooth first session
  • Tips on structuring stories, handling problem players, and making your campaign thrive
  • Advice on actively managing every element of your campaign—stories, characters, players, risk, and change—while avoiding common pitfalls
  • Examples of how every aspect of campaign management looks when handled well and badly
  • How to end campaigns on a high note, including what to avoid

Like all Engine Publishing titles, Odyssey includes four versions of the book: DRM-free, bookmarked, hyperlinked PDF plus EPUB, MOBI, and plain text.

Want to try before you buy? You can download a free 19-page PDF preview of Odyssey and read more reviews on the Engine Publishing website.

Like our other system-neutral books for GMs, you don’t need any other supplements to get the most out of Odyssey, but it’s designed to complement Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep—with both, you have over 300 pages of system-neutral advice on prep and campaign management. Buy them together for just $17.95.

In my opinion Odyssey is a must-have for all newbie and veteran GMs out there who are interested in managing their campaigns better.” — Stargazer’s World review

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Reviews (6)
Discussions (4)
Customer avatar
Geoff H October 13, 2022 7:15 pm UTC
Will this be available in print format again at any point? I'm a bit set in my ways and like a physical book :)
Reply
Customer avatar
Philip V October 13, 2022 11:56 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
The book is available in print at both Amazon.com and our Distributor, Studio 2 (https://studio2publishing.com/).
Customer avatar
Yann E July 04, 2022 3:05 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello

At which moment of the campaign creation process the session zero happens, I've made a search on the PDF and did not find it.

Regards.
Reply
Customer avatar
Philip V July 07, 2022 12:17 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Hello!

Session Zero comes after the Campaign Framework, when you have an idea what you want the game to be, and either right before or during Campaign Creation. I run my Session Zeros before character generation, so that the table has a chance to discuss what the game is about, tone, etc, before they start making characters.

I hope that helps.
Reply
Customer avatar
Yann E July 07, 2022 5:41 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hello Philip!

That helps!

Thanks you
Customer avatar
Yann E January 27, 2020 5:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
A friend showed me the product and I liked it. My only question is where the session 0 fit in the campaign process ? Campaign concept phase ? Concept Framework Phase ?
Customer avatar
Hamilton R September 07, 2014 8:03 am UTC
PURCHASER
If there is no sample PDF, I won't buy it.
Reply
Customer avatar
Martin R September 07, 2014 1:25 pm UTC
It's a zip file, so unfortunately there's no way to offer a sample PDF here. The link to download the sample PDF directly from the Engine Publishing website is in the third-to-last paragraph.

(The same goes for all of our books: We offer a substantial sample PDF but have to provide it via an external link, because our books all include PDF, epub, mobi, and text versions and therefore have to be sold as a zip file.)
Reply
Customer avatar
Jonathan K November 01, 2015 11:43 pm UTC
Which is funny, because it's probably got one of the best sample pdfs I've come across. As Martin said, check the external link. I know for Never Unprepared, the sample was extremely representative of the final product. Hope that helps.

Cheers! :)
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Product Information
Mithral seller
Pages
212
ISBN
978-0-9836133-3-6
Publisher Stock #
EGP42004
File Size:
14.16 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

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File Last Updated:
July 07, 2013
This title was added to our catalog on July 07, 2013.