Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master has already been mentioned a ton. It’s amazing to give you a framework for session prep to build upon.

So let me add The Monsters Know what they are Doing. It’s about giving enemies more tactics which are tailored to their stats and abilities. The book contains dnd 5e monsters but once you read it, you can apply the idea to any enemy on any game. I noticed I look at stat blocks differently after reading this book.

Lastly Blades in the Dark. Imo every GM should at some point run a short, several session adventure of this system. It’s improv heavy and gives a lot of narrative control to the players. It changed my view on how to run several types of scenarios. And my ideas of what and how to prep. It’s amazing how much I can leave to my players now in other systems too. Plus it’s super fun.

The two I would recommend are both centered around GM prep:

• The Lazy Dungeon Master by Mike Shea (@slyflourish@ttrpg.network , @slyflourish@chirp.enworld.org )
• Never Unprepared by Phil Vecchione (@dnaphil@dice.camp)

I don’t think either of these are perfect, but they both offer really good, actionable advice. The philosophies/systems described in these two don’t naturally mesh, and I think that’s a plus. Every GM needs to figure out for themselves how to prepare to run a game, because the things each GM needs are unique. I think having two books outline pretty drastically different approaches can help you triangulate your own needs and methods

The material in Worlds without Number is really good.

IMO one of the best books every GM should read is Your Best Game Ever. There are a lot of gems there that experienced GMs picked along the way, and even if you’re experienced there is bound to be something interesting. One thing that I always remember from that book are tips on how to make your NPCs more memorable by giving them quirks like stutter or have a manerism when speaking.

Another cool upcoming book is The Weird, it’s still not available even for backers but it’s in the final stages so it should be available soon, but there is a preview available to see what to expect.

People have already mentioned my two suggestions: 4E DMG2 and The Lazy Dungeon Master. This isn’t a specific book recommendation

Anthropology books taught me that humanity is more fantastic than all the fantasy races.

• The Mbuti sang and danced as they walked, to scare away snakes. They had no words for ‘good’, and ‘bad’, so Christian missionaries couldn’t translate their teachings.
• The Azande believed in a predictable universe, and ascribed all misfortune (including death), to magical bad intentions (translated as ‘witchcraft’, but I’m not sure that’s a great translation)
• The Piraha language needed you to say how you learnt something inside the verb, so rumours are grammatically impossible. Their language had four modes, including ‘whistling’.

I’m putting everything in the past tense as my info is about 50 years out of date.

@Apex Urban Shadows and Dungeonworld for campaign structures Storms and Fronts respectively.

The GM section at the end of Electric Bastionland is, for my money, the single best collection of GMing advice you can get a hold of.

Most of it (maybe all?) is also free on Chris McDowell’s blog but having it curated and in print is great.

The Lazy DM series is a game changer, Return of The Lazy Dungeon Master in particular will revolutionise your dming.

You’d have to track them down because they’re a bit old, but the Central Casting trilogy of books I find very useful: Heroes of Legend, Heroes Now, and Heroes for Tomorrow. Basically they’re filled with tables that can be used by any game to generate npcs, very detailed character backgrounds and personalities, random items or places, adventure ideas, just off the top of my head.

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Justin Alexander has a book on GMing coming out this year that I think will be very good. His blog is a wealth of good information