Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition

If you despise 4th edition and all that it stands for, then this review obviously isn't for you.


However, if you do like 4th edition, or even if you are like me and not yet sold on its merits, this book is worth considering--it's actually the best DMG ever published.

I know that's a big claim--and nothing will ever match the joy of reading the 1st edition DMG, learning about surprise rounds, experience points, campaign building and the myriad magical items available to me (including intelligent swords and the Hand of Vecna.)

But gaming has evolved over the years, and companies have decided that the core rules should be in a player's guide, and that only the behind-the-scenes tools for running a game should be in the gamemaster's guide.

This means that "gamemaster guides" exist to:
- Teach new gamers how to run a game
- Provide insights for using the game system to tell stories
- Provide the "inside information" into the game.

The risk of this, of course, is that these guides can be (and often are) dry and/or useless. The 4th edition DMG, however, handles all these elements extremely well, and is fun to read.


The rest of this review addresses how the 4th edition DMG handles these points, in detail:

*** Teach new gamers how to run the game:
The new DMG is obviously written to show MMORPG players how to run a pen-and-paper game. At times, this becomes a bit much, such as the "tip" that index cards should be given out that help players keep track of their list of quests. (To their credit, stopped short of suggesting that ?'s and !'s over the heads of NPC's be used to show players who to talk to.)

But that obvious issue aside, the book provides solid insights. There is a section on different player archetypes, how they tend to interact with (and get enjoyment from) the game, and how you can set things up to engage them. There are comments on what makes good adventures, and how to build them from the blocks provided by 4th edition. There are sections that deal with GM fairness, problems that arise, and how best to solve them. These are all invaluable to a new GM, and frankly, a worthy read to veterans.


*** Provide Insights for using the game sytem:
This is where this book absolutely shines, and why any GM considering a 4th edition game should buy and read the book.

There are chapters on creating campaigns, explaining the different ways you can create long or short stories that bring a sense of accomplishment to the table. They explain pros and cons of the multi-year monstrosity, and the short single-purpose campaign, and several other types. They show how campaigns can be lengthened, or shortened by XP mods, with some guides on how long a campaign will take. (They specifically show how to get campaigns to fit in a school year, which was a good touch.)

There is a section on creating adventures: in dungeons, in cities, in the wilderness--and they provide insights in how to make each work, and how to walk the line between keeping the game moving and giving the players free choice.

There are numerous ways it covers the creation of encounters, which were my favorite part of the book. Non combat encounters, building up fair encounters, the use of monster roles, space and terrain, creating new monster types and modifying existing monsters to up/down scale them. These were all exceptionally well done, and have frankly modified my 3rd edition GM style.

*** Provide the "inside information" into the game:
This is a fun, though light, piece of this book. Artifacts and relics are covered, of course--though more as how they operate in 4th edition, rather than long lists of them. There is also coverage of poisons and diseases--which are more interesting than in any previous edition. And there are sections on the economy of D&D, which is more specific that I'd like, but does allow game economies scale from 1st through 30th level without bogging down the players. And of course, there is solid coverage of the planes, including what they represent as game elements, and who they are appropriate for.

Of course, there is the "fluff"...the stuff publishers put into GM guides to fill them out. In this case, even the fluff is well done. The dungeon at the end of the book was clearly fluff, and I almost skipped over it. But then I went back and read it...figuring that at the very least, I couldn't comment on it in my review if I hadn't read it. As it turns out, it really isn't fluff, so much as a recap--pulling everything the book has tried to show you into a 4-encounter case study.


In summary...I repeat: Best DMG ever published, and well worth consideration even if you are a veteran GM.

I was terribly upset with the idea of online play. I always thought that Warcraft had that down. Why not leave it to the pros. I enjoy role playing with my friends; however, let's face it, the people that play this may not be the people I want to hang out with. That's just one of the many quarrels I have with this particular version of the game. Some of the other are too many of the rules that were good about 3.5 have changed. Over all, it's terrible; everything that was good about 3.0 has changed, and I believe that this big, steaming, heaping, nutty brown pile deserves to be flushed. I give it an overrated ONE out of FIVE. But bear in mind I can't give it a zero; unfortunately, Amazon won't let me. .000001/5

P.S. I'm going to play Warcraft.

I'm not gonna delve into the 3.5 vs 4ed debate or anything, but I do want to point out that they finally made the DMG an optional purchase. Previous DMGs have held "behind the scenes" rules that necessitated buying them, but this one really is just a guidebook for DMs. There's very little in here that you can't find in the PHB. It's worth reading for the skill challenge rules, but other than that, only one person in your group really needs this book.

That's kinda refreshing.

4th Edition D&D is a refreshing new edition of the rules.
They have streamlined a lot of the play to make it faster and easier on the DM. Combat seems to flow better and since you're not mired down in the rules it seems more exciting. My only complaint is that it feels like they withheld some options like certain Classes/Skills/Feats/Spells. I'm sure they will release Add-On after Add-On to take care of that though.

As I noted in my review of the PHB, 4e is a worthy successor to 3.5, but it isn't a must have. If you are just starting in D&D, 4e is the way to go, but if you are happy with your 3.5 or earlier campaign, there is no big rush to end it and switch.

This edition of the DMG is focussed on designing and running good encounters, campaings and game. Specifics such as Magic Items have been moved out of the DMG and into the PHB, which is good since in the end players need to access that information. Oh, there is still specifics for less common aspects of combat, but the emphasis is on running a fun game.

For some, the DMG (and 4e in general) may be a bit heavy on defining specific roles, but the roles can be good tools for building a better game. Where the PHB classifies character roles, the DMG talks about player roles - not in terms of what to force your players into, but in terms of classifying how different people play the game so you can make sure you are giving everyone what they play to get. To old hands, these classifications may be obvious and intuitive, but they certainly can help many DMs create a better game for all.

The DMG also defines monster roles and ways of building good encounters by using monsters filling a mix of roles. It also gives structure to non-combat skill challenges.

For me, one of the big successes was in combat encounter building. In 3.0 & 3.5, combining monsters of different challenge ratings (CRs) to a final encounter rating (ER) was difficult. You could do it, but it wasn't straight forward. It was much easier to use a bunch of the same monster. Even then, you had to look up the ER for each different character level involved to determine the XP awarded.

In 4e, each monster has a role and a fixed XP ammount and you just pick monsters to fill the roles you want and have the total XP you want for the encounter, which is divided equally among the player characters. This makes it much easier to use a variety of monsters for a more interesting encounter.