During this Christmas break I stumbled across a new book about playing RPGs by Monte Cook Games called Your Best Game Ever.

There are one or two books out there about being a GM and running a RPG. Some are system specific, others more generic. This book falls into the later.

Your Best Game Ever is written by Monte Cook, with contributions by various people from the RPG world. These contributions appear as side boxes through out the chapters with sage advice from the likes of Matt Mercer or Matthew Colville. Which are the only two names I recognised. The others I’d never heard of.

The book is aimed at both players and GM’s and offers great advice for both sides of the GM screen.

Your Best Game Ever starts off with a couple of chapters talking about what an RPG is. These two chapters describe what an RPG is, general terminology, why you would want to play one, how to find a group, etc. You get the idea. These are the chapters selling the idea to the reader and any one curious about RPGs.

This first section is then followed by five chapters aimed at Being A Great Player. So they are spent talking about how to create a character, role playing that character, and developing the character.

Naturally after the player advice it’s time to focus on Being A Great GM. This was the section most of interest to me. With advice about creating worlds and adventures, and running a session. Even though generic is still very relevant.

The final main section of the book is all about Getting the Most Out of RPGs. This is looking at running a group, organising the session, what do with player absences and other things that might crop up. Followed with some advice on hosting the session, playing online and dealing with issues.

Almost as an appendix is a final chapter with some snack recipes for whoever is hosting the session to use. A person’s mileage out of this chapter may vary depending on gaming group, culinary skills and how fancy you make your sessions.

There is some great advice in this book. I find the style of writing very accessible. One of the recurring themes throughout the book is that an RPG is a collaboration between players and GM. Whether this is in telling the story itself at the table or dealing with any issues.

I like the advice from the guest contributors. The majority are written. But there are some guest arts as well contributing art or comic strips.

Overall this is a well written, accessible book on playing RPGs that will appeal to both players and GMs, whether new or experienced, irrespective of the system you are playing or intend to play.