Our latest system-neutral GMing book, Unframed: The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters, is now available for preorder in the Engine Publishing online store! When you preorder Unframed, you’ll immediately receive the digital edition, weeks before it’s available anywhere else.
Preorders for Unframed will run through June 27, 2014.

What’s Unframed all about?
An anthology of 23 essays by a diverse group of award-winning authors, designers, and experienced game masters, Unframed gives you the tools and inspiration to improvise better, “wing it” without hesitation, and get killer results.
Inside Unframed you’ll find advice on improvising dialogue scenes by Robin D. Laws (Hillfolk, Ashen Stars), a look at “Just In Time” improvisation from Jennell Jaquays (Caverns of Thracia, Dark Tower), advice on listening to your players by Jason Morningstar (Fiasco, Durance), tricks for handling curveballs from Jess Hartley (Changeling: The Lost, Geist: The Sin-Eaters), tips on improv in horror games from Kenneth Hite (Trail of Cthulhu, GURPS Horror), insightful essays by the authors of Gnome Stew, and many more.
Try before you buy
We’re big believers in “try before you buy,” so (as with all of our books) we’ve put together a free 10-page PDF preview that you can download. It includes the front and back covers, introduction, table of contents, and samples from Robin D. Laws’ and D. Vincent Baker’s essays.
Check out reviews of Unframed
We sent out prerelease copies of Unframed to reviewers in May, and here’s what they had to say about the book:
- The Game’s the Thing review — “All in all, I think Unframed is a home run. It certainly provided me with new knowledge that will help me with my improv game, and it also managed to remind of GM techniques I’ve let move to the back burner, that definitely need to come back to the front.“
- Windsor Gaming Resource review — “It does something that I think every good RPG advice book should do: makes you think. I couldn’t help but think about my own games and my own gaming style as I read through each of the 23 short essays.“
- Tenkar’s Tavern review — “I’ve always thought of myself as a decently skilled improviser as a DM, and yet I’ve added at least a dozen tricks to my repertoire and I’ve opened my eyes up to some techniques that will may the gaming sessions I run better.“
- Smiling Jack’s Bar and Grill podcast review (also presented in an episode of the RoleplayDNA podcast, with the same audio) — “…while you might think, opening this book, it’s ‘how to make everything up on the fly,’ a lot of this is how to plan for improvisation. […] I will only end with ‘buy it.’“
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed or helped spread the word about Unframed!
Some notes about this preorder
The digital edition you’ll receive as soon as you preorder includes the bookmarked, hyperlinked, DRM-free PDF as well as bonus epub, mobi, Amazon native, and text versions of the book. This is the full retail digital edition, not a draft version or a preview.
The book is already at the printer. We’ll ship you the print version of Unframed as soon as preorders end and we receive books from our printer, which should happen in early July.
Engine Publishing has run four previous preorders, one for each of our other GMing books. We’ve sold more than 15,000 books worldwide since 2010, and shipped over 1,100 direct orders through our web store. We pack books securely with bubble wrap and quality packaging, don’t add handling or other fees, and charge only the listed USPS rate.
(Please note our shipping and store policies, and please be aware that if you order other books at the same time as your preorder, they’ll all ship when Unframed ships.)
Thank you for preordering!
I’ve taken a pretty big financial gamble on this book, and despite having been at this for five years now I never take a single preorder or purchase for granted — many, many thanks to everyone who preorders Unframed!
If you’ve made it this far and you’re ready to preorder, here’s the link one more time: preorder Unframed now!
If you have questions about the book that the preview PDF and Unframed’s product page don’t answer, I’d love to answer them for you in the comments below — fire away!
2 questions, please:
1) When will we be able to purchase the PDF-only?
2) Will there be bundle packages made available that include Unframed? If so, when might those become available?
Thank you!
1. After preorders close, likely in early July.
2. I thought about whether there was a logical bundle to include it in, and couldn’t settle on one. Putting it in the all-books package starts to push the price of that one into a higher level of commitment, and I didn’t see a pairing with our other books that made sense for a smaller bundle.
I’m open to suggestions if there’s a bundle you’d like to propose.
It would work well with Odyssey, giving you 2 books that cover everything from mechanics of GM planning to the more esoteric how of running.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve asked for other folks to chime in on G+, and I’ll give it some thought.
If I do bundle them, I’d need to find a good way to let folks retroactively switch to the bundle.
Martin, I haven’t purchased any of the books, but I’m likely to do so soon. I’ve been eyeing all of them for a while now! Unless I’m mistaken, it looks like all the bundles are 20% off. Would it make sense or even be possible to have a “Build-a-Bundle” option that provides the 20% discount? The customer could use this option when purchasing multiple books at once. When new books become available, this might also simplify the way to offer bundles.
Thanks again!
I looked into this and encountered two issues. The approaches I’ve tried in my system so far haven’t worked, but I might be able to find one that does.
But I’m contractually obligated to price-match with DTRPG (if I sell for X, it has to be X there as well), and I don’t know of a solution for creating discounted bundles on the fly on their site.
For those reasons, I have to do bundles the way I’m doing them now. If I can find a solution that lets me make them flexible down the line, I’ll definitely consider it. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hi Martin,
this looks excellent and I’d be keen to get a printed copy but are there any cheaper options for postage to the UK, as it is currently almost as much as the book itself? Are there any UK outlets who are likely to stock this?
Thanks
Eugene
We charge only the listed rate, without a markup or handling (etc.), so short of reducing the amount of packaging I use (not a great option!) I don’t know how to make it cheaper. International shipping is nuts.
Our fulfillment partner works with all major distributors, including overseas distributors. Your local shop should be able to get Unframed, but it will likely be a while: Usually when we release a book around this time it’s October-December before it’s in stores.
thanks Martin
I thought that was the case because of the extortionate USPS costs but I had to ask.
I guess I’ll have to wait for the electronic version instead, I presume the pdf version does include it in other ebook formats as well?
cheers
eugene
Yep! Our digital edition is the same whether it comes as part of a print purchase or not.