Gnome Stew’s latest book, Phil Vecchione’s Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Session Prep [1], is now available for preorder:
- Preorder now! [2]
If you preorder, you’ll be able to download the PDF version immediately — weeks before the book is available for purchase anywhere else. And of course you’ll receive a print copy as well, shipped to your door as soon as we receive the first print run from our printer.
Preorders will close June 29th, and copies of Never Unprepared will ship out in July. Exactly when they ship depends on how quickly they come back from our printer (and see below regarding GenCon).
Want 20% off?
You can also get 20% off your preorder by bundling Never Unprepared with both of our other books (Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots [3] and Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs [4]). Just scroll down in the store to see the bundle. (If you go this route, no books will ship until Never Unprepared is available.)
Read reviews and check out a 16-page preview
We believe in giving folks what they need to decide if our books are right for them, and that means a preview and reviews. You can download a free 16-page PDF sample [5] from Never Unprepared to check out the table of contents and portions of several sections of the book.
If you want to hear what other GMs think about the book, you can read these early reviews (and many thanks to everyone who reviewed the prerelease version of the book!):
- Stargazer’s World review [6] — “You may think that you already know everything there is to know about prep, but trust me reading someone else’s words on the matter can give you a new perspective on things.“
- Tenkar’s Tavern review [7] — “How are the tools that are presented to you? Excellent. You probably don’t need to use all of the methods presented, and you will certainly be adjusting and tweaking what is presented to conform to your style of creativity and game mastering needs, but the tools and techniques are extremely useful.“
- Stuffer Shack review [8] — “As far as putting the book to the test, I’m confident that it passed. I am fully ready for our next session, and look forward to preparing future sessions. I seriously doubt there will be any more procrastinating or flying by the seat of my pants, because I feel that I now have the tools to prepare correctly, confidently, and to full effect.“
- RoleplayDNA review [9] — “Gnome Stew has hit another home run for the Game Master. Never Unprepared has earned a permanent place in my GM toolbox, right along side the likes of Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering, Hamlet’s Hit Points, Play Dirty, Eureka, and Masks. Highly recommended.“
- Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer review [10] — “Never Unprepared is a definite must-have for any GM. New GMs can learn a lot from this book, picking up the good habits that will serve them well into their latter years of GMing. I would go as far as to put it on the same level as Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering in terms of usefulness to anyone who takes the art (and science) of GMing seriously and is looking to improve his craft.“
In addition to these reviews, there are also a few other places you can hear more about Never Unprepared:
- Roleplaying Tips: Top 5 Soul-Draining Mistakes of Game Prep
- RoleplayDNA Podcast episode 4: Prep School [11]
What about GenCon?
With this being Engine Publishing’s third preorder, I’ve learned that myriad factors go into determining exactly when I receive books from the printer, not all of them within my control. I would say it is highly likely that if you live in the U.S. and choose Priority Mail for shipping, you’ll get your copy before GenCon.
If you choose Media Mail, or live outside the U.S., it’s reasonably likely but certainly not a sure thing. Our fulfillment partner, Studio 2 Publishing, will be selling Never Unprepared at GenCon; if you absolutely have to have it at the con, that’s probably your best bet.
If you have any questions about the book, Phil and I will be happy to answer them in the comments. If not, what are you waiting for? Preorder Never Unprepared now [2]!
19 Comments To "Never Unprepared: The GM’s Guide to Prep is Now Available for Preorder!"
#1 Comment By garden_gm On June 4, 2012 @ 12:18 am
Bought! I’m excited to dig into this. Any chance you could bundle in a Kindle formatted file?
#2 Comment By taxboy4 On June 4, 2012 @ 1:30 am
[12] –
Bugger, I wanted to be first, I guess I am first loser!!
#3 Comment By Kveld Ulf On June 4, 2012 @ 5:32 am
Woot. I’ve been waiting for this. And pre-ordered! I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to a kindle/mobi format either, but I ordered th print version as well.
#4 Comment By Martin Ralya On June 4, 2012 @ 6:07 am
@garden_gm, @Kveld Ulf — Mobi and epub are on the list, and will be added to the download package when they’re ready. Everyone who buys the book will be able to download the updated package that includes them at no additional charge, we just couldn’t get them done in time for today’s launch.
@taxboy4 — You’re not a loser in my book — you’re a GM with excellent taste in books!
#5 Comment By lindevi On June 4, 2012 @ 7:53 am
I really, desperately needed a book like this. Call me impatient, but I really only got the print bundle to get the PDF now. But I’m sure there’s someone in my life (or maybe even me, depending on how the book is arranged) who would enjoy having the softcover. This is how you do pre-orders.
Also, mad props for coming up with a mobi version down the line.
#6 Comment By Kveld Ulf On June 4, 2012 @ 1:19 pm
So, I have been lucky enough to have time to read a lot of the book so far. I am already loving how it has me rethinking my prep work. However, I was hoping for a page showing a filled out template like Phil uses in his games. He has spoken about templates before, and maybe I missed a previous example. I realize that we make the prep work fit us, however, some people, me included, like to actually see the product of anothers conceptualization to give an idea of where to start. I hope this makes some sense.
Thanks for the great book.
#7 Comment By DNAphil On June 4, 2012 @ 5:09 pm
@Kveld Ulf
When creating the book, I was not sure about putting my own game notes into it as examples, so we left them out, in favor of going with the digest sized book.
To show you what the final product looks like, here is a link to a shared pdf to a set of session notes for my previous All For One campaign: [13]
This was a short adventure for first time players. The notes were done in OneNote with a hand drawn map and a picture from Wikipedia. I think they make a pretty good example of a number of the concepts from the book.
Enjoy.
#8 Comment By Kveld Ulf On June 4, 2012 @ 7:22 pm
@DNAPhil
Thank you! This is exactly what I wanted to see as well. It makes a good supplement to the book. I can visualize a few of the steps a bit better now.
#9 Comment By Martin Ralya On June 4, 2012 @ 10:09 pm
As I prepare to call it a night on Preorder Day One, I wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who has preordered Never Unprepared.
(A slightly longer version of that thank you appears on the [14] blog, as I don’t want to beat Gnome Stew readers over the head with NU material today.)
#10 Comment By beldar1215 On June 5, 2012 @ 3:40 pm
Not sure what is happening, but when I click the link for the example, it just redirects me to the google drive main page.
#11 Comment By Martin Ralya On June 5, 2012 @ 8:08 pm
[15] – Assuming you mean Phil’s example, I got nothing — I just tried it, and it worked for me. Maybe a quick cache clear and refresh?
#12 Comment By digiconda On June 6, 2012 @ 4:14 am
I marked this pre-order on my calendar, but there was no PDF only pre-order 🙁 I’ll order when that appears!
#13 Comment By clight101 On June 6, 2012 @ 7:44 am
If you want to hear DNAPhil dish a little about the book you can hear an interview with him here:
[16]
In full disclosure this was before the book was ready for pre-orders.
#14 Comment By Martin Ralya On June 6, 2012 @ 9:19 am
[17] – We always do the print+PDF preorder before opening up the PDF for general sale. It will be available on its own after preorders end, generally within a few days.
#15 Comment By Martin Ralya On June 6, 2012 @ 9:19 am
[18] – Thanks, clight101! I’ll add that link to the book’s product page.
#16 Comment By Connallmac On June 6, 2012 @ 5:51 pm
[17] – Same here, holding out for pdf only. I don’t buy dead tree books anymore.
#17 Comment By Martin Ralya On June 7, 2012 @ 9:55 am
[19] – Hopefully the PDF will be worth your wait. It’s fully bookmarked and hyperlinked, DRM-free, and comes bundled with a plain text version for text-to-speech software.
#18 Comment By beldar1215 On June 11, 2012 @ 1:26 pm
I just finished my first read through of the book. It is outstanding. Phil, you have made me excited about preparing my games. Right now, I run mostly modules. I run mostly Savage Worlds and use the plot point campaigns they have. I can see how I can use the prep ideas even when using the modules. Do you have any advise about preparing to run a module?
#19 Comment By DNAphil On June 11, 2012 @ 8:45 pm
@beldar1215 – so prep for a published adventure. I would actually do things in reverse. Start with Review, and drop the proofreader (they have editors). Review the material and get familiar with it. Should you encounter anything that is not going fit with your group, or you are inspired to do it a bit differently, then slide backwards up the prep phases and brainstorm or conceptualize things, and the document them. When you are done, do a final review.
With a module, since it did not travel through all the phases of prep with you, you need to become comfortable with the material as much as possible, so that you have some of it in your head and the rest printed. So several reviews will help.
Also, you are bringing the knowledge of your players and how you play the game, so if you can add a bit of that flavor to the overall module it will be that much more engaging for your players.