When I did my day one review of the new Pathfinder GM Core and Player Core books, I said that the GM Core deserved its own content. So now it’s time for a deeper dive into this book. Let’s go!
Background
Part of the remaster project for Pathfinder Second Edition wasn’t just making a clean break from D&D OGL content. Another was redesigning the Core Rulebook into separate player and GM facing books. Drawing from the Core Rulebook and several supplements, the two have over 800 pages between them, well over the 640 odd pages in the original core rulebook. The GM Core clocks 338 pages, and is laser focused on its task.
The Difference
To be blunt, this book only has one other thing to compare it to, and that’s D&D’s DMG. Except that the GM Core is what the DMG aspires to be. The entire book is designed to assist a GM running a game of Pathfinder, whether they’re brand new to the game and hobby or a seasoned veteran. And I don’t mean in a hand-waving, figure it out, here’s some stuff you might use way. I mean in a “I’ve never run a game of any sort before.” or “I’ve been doing this for a while, but I want to do some different stuff.” way. It’s completely focused on supporting the GM in their specific tasks in the game and offering subsystems that are situationally appropriate. I know this seems obvious, but this book takes it seriously.
Running the Game
I am a seasoned GM. Palladium, OWoD, Heavy Gear, 3e D&D, 5e D&D, Traveller: The New Era, Cyberpunk 2020 and RED… I’ve been around the block. This is the single best “how to run a game” section I have ever seen. It kicks off with how to make a session welcoming and then dives into safety tools, complete with a baseline of actions considered normal or not for a conventional game of Pathfinder. It then goes into how to run sessions and gets specific about what a GM is generally expected to do and how.
Then it’s into Special Considerations. This section is brilliant. It touches on the usual things like party composition, problem players, guidance on how to adjudicate rules, and things like collaborative story telling. Do you need to use it all? No. But it’s there and ready for if you do. Where this section steps it up though is the section on characters with disabilities. It’s inclusive and gives simple, non-game breaking approaches to having player characters in game who are blind/vision impaired, deaf/hearing impaired, or who are permanently missing limbs. It’s an excellent follow-up to the assistive technology in the Player Core.
The rest of this part of the book covers the spectrum of a game of Pathfinder. Running Encounters, Exploration, Downtime (and a section on setting difficulty classes), and then a Rewards section provide a GM easy to reference information for all those activities. Exploration and Combat are given equal weight, and it’s refreshing to see.
Building Games
The first section of the book is all about sessions. This section takes the GM through the process of designing campaigns, adventures, and all the things in them that will make up the sessions. Structuring a campaign, campaign and adventure themes, planning, how to leverage everything from environment to hazards, and then a big section on building. Looking for curses and afflictions? Hazards by danger posed? This is all here and more. Then there’s sections on how to build your own hazards, items, creatures, and NPCs.
What’s an unexpected win in this section of the book is the Building Worlds section. While slim at eight pages, it’s a form basis for a new GM to start creating their own world. As opposed to just saying “Make it up, go!” in more words, it’s a careful if spartan set of directions to build the bones of your world. Mapping, settlements, civilizations, religion, cosmology… they all show up, complete with options. As someone who does world building and who has seen a lot of guides, this one is good. It’s a solid baseline to kick off from and in a game with a very firm setting, this was great to see.
The Age of Lost Omens
Pathfinder is very rooted in its core setting, Golarion, and this section is the Spark Notes of the Inner Sea Region for a GM. If you have no other books to run with, this section gives a brief overview of the assumed base area of the setting, shows you what the people look like, and catches you up fast on its history, cosmology, and vibes. This is what I call the “imagination fuel” section. Instead of assuming that the GM (or players for that matter) has good knowledge of the setting, it lays it out instead. For a new GM, this sort of thing is key to help get them started from a place of knowledge, which decreases chances of dissonance if they later invest in more books to get more details on the world.
Subsystems
You know all those other events in a game? This is where the info on how to run them is for the GM. These range from mundane things like Research and leap to the high octane with Duels and Chases. There’s Reputation mechanics, a section on Hexploration (hexcrawling), and even a section on Vehicles for land, sea, and air. All these are optional, but they’re there and ready to use. They’re also not in “open beta” and unpolished like some optional subsystems in other games. These are drop in, plug-n-play rules that solve a lot of things that people ask about. Like “How do I track the players’ rep?” or “Are their good chase rules?”
Treasure
This section is self explanatory. Players like treasure. This is the section that guides you through treasure in the remastered edition of Pathfinder Second Edition. What’s great to see here, aside from all the sweet magical items, is the prominent placement of Precious Materials. They can be used for magic items, but can also be used on their own and pass on unique properties to the objects they’re made into. This may not seem like much, but it’s a great way to build story, unique items, and do some lite world building.
Final Thoughts
If you’re a GM or are going to be a GM for Pathfinder, you need to read this book. Not just a flip through for familiarity, but an actual read through. Bookmark pages where there’s info that’s stuff you think you’ll might need. If I had a physical copy of this, it would bristle with colourful tabs and unable to fit in my bookshelf properly. This book sets a benchmark for GM guides. It assumes nothing except that you’re a GM or might be one soon, and offers up guidance and options. Examples are where they need to be, and it’s painfully clear that a lot of effort was made to make sure that the optional rules and subsystems offered could be inserted into the standard ruleset without issue. As an individual book, I am more than comfortable giving this Rank S. For more about this book, check out Paizo’s website!
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