We are unbelievably excited for the launch of the second book in the Game Master's Handbook series, and follow-up to the Proactive Roleplaying book: The Game Master's Handbook of Collaborative Campaign Design! This book walks GMs through planning and executing full campaigns, from a full Session -1 system to kick things off to finishing every arc in a satisfying conclusion. We are so, so, so proud and grateful to share this with you, and we can't wait to hear what folks think! You can find it on Amazon (link below) or with all major book retailers, so check what's available near you! We can't wait for you to read it! We'll have more news for you soon, so keep an eye out! Thank you all again for being a part of the journey, and we'll be chatting with you a ton in the coming days. There's an invitation to this lab in the book this time, so we're expecting a few new friends in the coming weeks. We can't possibly convey to you all how grateful we are for the welcoming, helpful, and kindhearted people here, and we trust that vibe will continue as we meet new folks. Talk to you soon! Tristan https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Handbook-Collaborative-Campaign-Design/dp/1964487048

Big news everyone! Jonah and I have been hard at work, and it's finally time: the next book in the Game Master's Handbook series is almost here! You can take a look here. The Game Master's Handbook of Collaborative Campaign Design is the follow up to our Proactive Roleplaying Book, with lots of the same core philosophies but covering new challenges and topics. We're super proud of this one, and we think we've taken all the lessons we learned from the Proactive Handbook and made something really special for this one. If the first book was about creating player-driven narratives, this is about creating collaborative campaigns: how to discover a story with your friends together, not tell them one you've already written yourself. We've worked super hard to make this concept as approachable as possible, even for GMs that don't enjoy using improvisation at the table, and I'm pretty confident we've succeeded. While I'm very proud of our first book, it was definitely a learning experience, and I think those lessons were put to good use---I genuinely believe every single chapter in this book has something useful for a GM's table (and you don't need to have read the Proactive book to enjoy this one---they cover different topics!) The incomparable Jeff Ashworth, creator of the original "Game Master's Book of ____" series, of which our handbooks are cousins, continued to consult with us on this entry, providing invaluable feedback along with Phil Sexton and Tim Baker. Will Earl (of DnD Shorts fame) is writing the foreward, and Luke Eidenschink returns with his fantastic illustrations. We could probably write about this book for a very, very long time, so we're going to try to spare all of you from that by hosting a *live Q&A here in the lab Tuesday, April 8th, at 8:30 PM EST.* We'll post more details soon, and for those who can't make it, we'll be collecting some questions beforehand and recording the session to post in the lab, so don't worry!

Every time I go to Target/B&N/Jo-Ann I take a quick spin through their book section to see if they have the latest from the Fishel boys... and I have been looking for months haha. I finally caught one today and was excited to see our name on the cover in tiny font. This one is a collaboration with a few other GMs and was a lot of fun to work on. There are a few new locations in here that we came up with together, but a few of them are also well-worn and well-loved locations from our home games. If you have ever played a TTRPG at our table, you might find a familiar town or city inside.

Hey folks, see below for a quick poll about a potential Game Jam! We're very excited about hosting one here in the Lab, but we want to make sure there's enough interest to get a few games circulating around. Since this space is all about learning from one another, we'll probably have lots of times and spaces leading up to the games where GMs can ask one another for advice, swap ideas, and test concepts for their game. For those with no experience in game design, this can be a great shot to try something (simple or complex) and get some feedback from experienced Game Masters! There'd be discussions, time to test out the games, and prizes! Check out the poll to gauge interest here; if it's a little low, we'll revisit the idea once the lab has grown some more.

Tonight at 8:30 PM EST, we'll be answering questions, discussing TTRPGs, and just hanging out! We'll see you there!