I’m excited to announce Engine Publishing [1]‘s next system-neutral book for GMs, Unframed: The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters!
Unframed is an anthology of essays on improvisation featuring the work of 23 game designers, authors, and experienced GMs — including seven of our own gnomes. Improvisation is a core skill for GMs — and players — no matter what games they run or how they run them, and I hope this book will be useful to you.
Unframed has been written, edited, and proofread, and layout is 98% done. I’ll be indexing it while it gets a second round of proofreading, and then we should be good to go to open preorders in early June.
For now, a teaser: Unframed’s cover, by Christopher Reach [2]. (You can also see a larger version [3].)
I’ll be back in a few days with the next teaser: the author list. Stay tuned!
9 Comments To "Announcing Unframed: The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters"
#1 Comment By Razjah On April 29, 2014 @ 5:19 am
Yay! I can’t wait to preorder this. Also, impatiently waiting for the author list. I have no doubt this will be as good as the other Engine Publishing books.
Martin, are we allowed to know if this will be a full sized book Like Eureka and Masks or digest sized like Never Unprepared and Odyssey?
#2 Comment By Martin Ralya On April 29, 2014 @ 6:49 am
It will be digest-size (9×6), like Never Unprepared and Odyssey. I love this format for books that are designed to be read away from the table rather than referenced during play.
And I’m thrilled that you’re excited about it! It’s been a fun project to work on and I’m equally excited to get it out there.
#3 Comment By Razjah On April 29, 2014 @ 9:36 am
It sounds a bit like the Kobold’s Guide to [THINGS], is the structure going to similar with multiple contributing authors? Or will this be more seamless like the other books?
#4 Comment By Martin Ralya On April 29, 2014 @ 9:42 am
Very much like that. The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding is one of my favorite gaming books, and was part of what got me thinking about doing Unframed.
There are other books out there about improv and gaming (I love Play Unsafe, to name one), but none I’m aware of that tackle the topic — and it’s a big, multifaceted topic — from all angles. I see diverse voices, not a seamless presentation, as a big plus for a book like this.
#5 Comment By RealComicSutra On April 29, 2014 @ 8:06 am
I *LOVE* your books but is Odyssey available yet for sale through FLGS/game distributors? That my preferred way to buy, even though it means I end up waiting, because then (a) my FLGS makes some money off it AND it builds awareness for your books at that store. Inevitably, people see me buying my copy and ask the store to order one for them. The last time I had them check, it still wasn’t available. Thanks!
#6 Comment By Martin Ralya On April 29, 2014 @ 8:50 am
Yes, although your FLGS might not have picked it up. If they’d like to, their usual distributor carries it.
I got a photo of it on the shelf in NYC’s The Compleat Strategist (my gaming store growing up!) a month or so ago.
#7 Comment By RealComicSutra On April 29, 2014 @ 4:17 pm
Yay! I’ll have them check again. It was awhile ago, so they might have looked too soon. I tend to pester as soon as I hear of one of your books. 🙂
#8 Comment By tman On April 29, 2014 @ 2:01 pm
Looks excellent! A great topic which we can always learn more about.
I have seen each of the Gnome Stew books at my FLGS (Dragon’s Lair in Austin TX) when they were released. Even got Kurt’s signature on my copy of Eureka when he came in for an in store event. (Sadly, very poorly promoted and attended.)
#9 Comment By Huy Tran On April 30, 2014 @ 11:48 am
Definitely can’t wait–own all of your guys’ other books and already think that this will be the most useful of them all given the trends in RPGs.