"From the acclaimed author of the "must-have" (R.A. Salvatore, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Monsters Know What They're Doing series, an indispensable and easy-to-follow new handbook for creating original enemies in tabletop role-playing games.
In The Monsters Know What They're Doing, the essential tactics guide for Dungeon Masters, and its sequel, MOAR! Monsters Know What They're Doing, Keith Ammann reverse-engineered hundreds of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons monsters to help DMs prepare battle plans for combat encounters before their game sessions.
Now, in Making Enemies, he explores everything that goes into creating monsters from the ground up: size, number, and level of challenge; monster habitats; monster motivations; monsters as metaphors; monsters and magic; the monstrous anatomy possessed by real-world organisms; and how to customize monsters for your own tabletop roleplaying game adventuring party to confront. No longer limited to one game system, Making Enemies shows you how to build out your creations not just for D&D 5E but also for Pathfinder 2E, Shadowdark, the Cypher System, and Call of Cthulhu 7E. Including interviews with some of the most brilliant names in RPG and creature design, Making Enemies gives you the tools to surprise and delight your players—and terrify their characters—again and again."
"Dungeons Are Half the Game.
You can’t control what players are going to do. That’s half the fun. But you can control where they do it. That’s a whole other half!
The Kobold Guide to Dungeons gives both new and experienced Game Masters over 100 pages of insight and ideas into making dungeons great. In-depth essays from industry luminaries teach you to think outside your own boxes, and into a larger realm of challenge, discovery, and good old monster bashing.
Practical essays gives you insider tips and tricks to:
-Design non-linear dungeons to explore-Think in 3D to make amazing spaces-Make every room count, even when there’s no monster-Create solutions in addition to combat-Dole out treasure—without blowing the bank
The Kobold Guide to Dungeons features essays from classic voices of the RPG canon such as David “Zeb” Cook, Frank Mentzer, and Lawrence Schick. It also includes newer voices including Dominique Dickey, Sadie Lowry, and Erin Roberts.
Open this book and level up your half of the game!"
"Defend yourself and protect your assets in a lair that feels as real and alive as your monsters with advice from Keith Ammann, author of The Monsters Know What They’re Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters.
The world is a dangerous place—especially when you’re up to no good. Whether you’re a rampaging monster, a calculating mastermind, or the current possessor of the Golden MacGuffin, someone’s going to come at you. Probably more than one someone. You can’t know when, but you can choose where. You need to be ready.
You need a lair.
In How to Defend Your Lair, gamemaster Keith Ammann pulls back the curtain on an underrated but crucial part of any tabletop roleplaying game: the theater of battle. Say goodbye to encounters in randomly generated dungeons and hello to a game in which where the fight takes place is just as important as who is doing the fighting.
This book teaches you how to use real-world principles of building security and area defense to create strongholds infused with flavor, informed by narrative, and complex enough to force your players to think strategically. You’ll look at the strengths and weaknesses of both defenders and potential attackers, creating spaces that are strong enough to keep out ordinary intruders...and to provide thrilling challenges to extraordinary ones.
Including more than a dozen fleshed-out sample strongholds, How to Defend Your Lair is a crucial resource for any RPG gamemaster who wants to push players to think about how to solve problems before running at them head-on."
"From the author of The Monsters Know What They're Doing comes a follow-up strategy guide with MOAR! monster tactics for Dungeon Masters playing fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons.
Keith Ammann's first book based on his popular blog, The Monsters Know What They're Doing, unpacks strategies, tactics, and motivations for creatures found in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Now, in MOAR! Monsters Know What They're Doing, he analyzes the likely combat behaviors of more than 100 new enemies found in Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. Your campaign will never be the same!"
