Star Trek: The Next Generation Narrator's Toolkit
Published by Simon & Schuster, for Last Unicorn Games
Even though the title says Narrator's Toolkit, the first thing you notice is the game master's screen. Ignore it. It's done well; it's sturdy, but it's really just camouflage. What you bought this product for is the 64 page book inside, written by Kenneth Hite. Within this tome are the most useful instructions on how to run a role playing game that I have ever seen set to paper. And it's also useful to anyone running a Star Trek: The Next Generation RPG session. The book is separated into four chapters: Narrator's Advice, Advanced Storytelling, Hide and Q ( a sample adventure) and Forms.
$15.00
The Narrator's Advice chapter, all 26 pages of it, is brimming with all the how-to necessary to be a Game Master. Hite starts by explaining a general Narrator's principle, then applies it to Star Trek gaming. What makes this explanation of Game Mastering better than countless others I have read is this: He takes the time to explain and example every subject he discusses. He tells you how to do something, explains it in detail, and then backs up his reasoning with examples. Especially insightful is the adventure structure section, which includes a method I plan to use in all my gaming in the future. Also useful are the instructions on implementing troupe play into the ST:TNG RPG.
Not to leave out the already experienced Narrators, the Advanced . . .This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: October 16, 1998
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