Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 23, 2009 18:48:48 GMT -5
Quickly: some great stuff in here for any DM, not just a D&D one.
Summary:
The DMG II expands on concepts introduced in the original DMG. There is a lot more theory and expert advice on running a better game then crunchy rule bits.
The first chapter gets into group storytelling. This has some great advice for any DM for any game on how to tell a better story, from structure to branching. It gets into Cooperative storytelling and gives suggestions on how your players can't help create the world they play in. There is information on Hooks, vignettes and XP rewards for roleplaying. Some crunch at the end gives rules for companion characters and adjusting character levels so a low level player can join a high level group or the other way around.
The Second chapter is a lot more D&D specific and looks at designing good encounters. There’s info in here for a non-D&D DM as well, especially sections on setting up encounters based on your player motivations and playing styles. The section on creating combat movement and how to push players onward when they want to stop for an extended rest were particularly interesting and 4e in flavour. Crunch here includes new terrain rules, rules for making your own traps, some new traps and an example encounter.
Chapter three is all about Skill Challenges. This chapter basically replaces the original chapter in the DMG. It showcases the most significant changes to the 4e system. This chapter really takes everything that everyone has learned about skill challenges and how to use them to make your game better (as learned from various play tests, the RPGA and online forums) and puts it all together. Significant rules changes here and a really different look at what was considered a 'broken' part of the original rules set. Not much here for non D&D DM's unfortunately.
Chapter 4 is all about Themes. Encounter and Monster Themes as well as customizing monsters. This a crunch heavy chapter that has some really interesting ideas on how to tie separate encounters together and on modifying monsters to fit your story.
A chapter on Adventures is next. This contains a mix of crunch and advice. The first section on Alternative rewards will be a great read for anyone who wants to run a non-traditional D&D game that isn't all about killing things and Item grabs. It talks about non-magic item rewards for players that still keep the game in balance. Item components talks about an interesting way to tie an item into your main story and Artefacts introduces a slew of new artefacts for all three tiers. Sections on Organizations and Campaign arcs close out the chapter. Organizations bring up a bunch of old favourites from the “Complete Books” and really get into running a more political campaign. Campaign Arcs give concrete examples on what the new Tiered levelling system is all about.
The final chapter takes a long look at the Paragon Tier of play. You can tell that WotC expects most groups who picked up their new game to be hitting the 10th or so level about now. This chapter looks at what it means to play in levels 11-20 in the new version of D&D. Here the old Planescape setting is revived with the re-introduction of Sigil as a base of operations. Sigil gets the same type of treatment as Fallcrest in the original DMG and the chapter even finishes with a level 11 plane hopping adventure.
The Good:
What a great book on how to run a better game! Amazingly not just a better D&D game, but a better roleplaying game, with any rule set. Sure there is crunch in this book, but I would say it's only about 25% D&D specific. Sections on cooperative world building, vignettes, movement in combat and encounter themes I found particularly interesting and contained ideas I hadn't even considered before. The crunchy bits weren't bad either. The section on monster themes was particularly interesting as well as the new traps and terrain features. The artefacts were rather nice as well though I'm not sure they will see play at my table any time soon.
The Bad:
The most disappointing part of this book to me was that Paragon Tier section. They really messed with Planescape. Sigil's a shadow of what it used to be. They eliminated the factions! How can you have Sigil without the Bloodwar? Personally I suggest that if you want to use Sigil in your games, go on eBay and pick up a copy of the Planescape boxed set for about $10. The organizations chapter I found pretty dull as well, and didn't really contain anything I wanted to put in my game. All of the organizations were just too specific. I would have preferred more generic organizations like The Seekers, The Harpers or the Daggerspell Mages from previous editions.
The Ugly:
My biggest disappointment was in the 11th level adventure in the back of the book. Not with the adventure itself though but with the encounter maps. The first encounter takes place on a typical series of dungeon tiles. Not so bad, I have lots of those. But then the next three encounters take place in huge areas that are given a ton of detail. They look amazing. There's this giant portal with 6 crystals around it, then there's the Night Market in Sigil, a great map of a night time alley scene with three levels of buildings and razorvine growing in all the corners. Next is a somewhat boring map of a cave complex near filled with purple mushrooms. Lastly there's a warehouse complete with huge towering stacks of crates, a sea of razorvine and 4 huge magic circles! The problem with these great looking battlefields: they only exist a couple inches big in the book! They are screaming to be made into poster maps. No DM could draw these out on their battle grid, and these aren't the kinds of maps you can make with dungeon tiles. Plus they are right here in front of me I can see all the works already done. Why oh why were the two double sided poster maps these should have been on not included with my book?
Overall:
I am extremely impressed by this book. It really takes all the complaints about the 'lack of roleplaying' in 4th edition and challenges them outright with suggestions and actual rules that let you make a 4e game into anything you want. Chapters on storytelling, plotting, themes and encounter building to match your players are a near must read for any DM, let alone a D&D one. If you run D&D there's no question that you should pick this up. Even if you don't I suggest borrowing a friends copy and giving some of the non-crunchy sections a read through.
Summary:
The DMG II expands on concepts introduced in the original DMG. There is a lot more theory and expert advice on running a better game then crunchy rule bits.
The first chapter gets into group storytelling. This has some great advice for any DM for any game on how to tell a better story, from structure to branching. It gets into Cooperative storytelling and gives suggestions on how your players can't help create the world they play in. There is information on Hooks, vignettes and XP rewards for roleplaying. Some crunch at the end gives rules for companion characters and adjusting character levels so a low level player can join a high level group or the other way around.
The Second chapter is a lot more D&D specific and looks at designing good encounters. There’s info in here for a non-D&D DM as well, especially sections on setting up encounters based on your player motivations and playing styles. The section on creating combat movement and how to push players onward when they want to stop for an extended rest were particularly interesting and 4e in flavour. Crunch here includes new terrain rules, rules for making your own traps, some new traps and an example encounter.
Chapter three is all about Skill Challenges. This chapter basically replaces the original chapter in the DMG. It showcases the most significant changes to the 4e system. This chapter really takes everything that everyone has learned about skill challenges and how to use them to make your game better (as learned from various play tests, the RPGA and online forums) and puts it all together. Significant rules changes here and a really different look at what was considered a 'broken' part of the original rules set. Not much here for non D&D DM's unfortunately.
Chapter 4 is all about Themes. Encounter and Monster Themes as well as customizing monsters. This a crunch heavy chapter that has some really interesting ideas on how to tie separate encounters together and on modifying monsters to fit your story.
A chapter on Adventures is next. This contains a mix of crunch and advice. The first section on Alternative rewards will be a great read for anyone who wants to run a non-traditional D&D game that isn't all about killing things and Item grabs. It talks about non-magic item rewards for players that still keep the game in balance. Item components talks about an interesting way to tie an item into your main story and Artefacts introduces a slew of new artefacts for all three tiers. Sections on Organizations and Campaign arcs close out the chapter. Organizations bring up a bunch of old favourites from the “Complete Books” and really get into running a more political campaign. Campaign Arcs give concrete examples on what the new Tiered levelling system is all about.
The final chapter takes a long look at the Paragon Tier of play. You can tell that WotC expects most groups who picked up their new game to be hitting the 10th or so level about now. This chapter looks at what it means to play in levels 11-20 in the new version of D&D. Here the old Planescape setting is revived with the re-introduction of Sigil as a base of operations. Sigil gets the same type of treatment as Fallcrest in the original DMG and the chapter even finishes with a level 11 plane hopping adventure.
The Good:
What a great book on how to run a better game! Amazingly not just a better D&D game, but a better roleplaying game, with any rule set. Sure there is crunch in this book, but I would say it's only about 25% D&D specific. Sections on cooperative world building, vignettes, movement in combat and encounter themes I found particularly interesting and contained ideas I hadn't even considered before. The crunchy bits weren't bad either. The section on monster themes was particularly interesting as well as the new traps and terrain features. The artefacts were rather nice as well though I'm not sure they will see play at my table any time soon.
The Bad:
The most disappointing part of this book to me was that Paragon Tier section. They really messed with Planescape. Sigil's a shadow of what it used to be. They eliminated the factions! How can you have Sigil without the Bloodwar? Personally I suggest that if you want to use Sigil in your games, go on eBay and pick up a copy of the Planescape boxed set for about $10. The organizations chapter I found pretty dull as well, and didn't really contain anything I wanted to put in my game. All of the organizations were just too specific. I would have preferred more generic organizations like The Seekers, The Harpers or the Daggerspell Mages from previous editions.
The Ugly:
My biggest disappointment was in the 11th level adventure in the back of the book. Not with the adventure itself though but with the encounter maps. The first encounter takes place on a typical series of dungeon tiles. Not so bad, I have lots of those. But then the next three encounters take place in huge areas that are given a ton of detail. They look amazing. There's this giant portal with 6 crystals around it, then there's the Night Market in Sigil, a great map of a night time alley scene with three levels of buildings and razorvine growing in all the corners. Next is a somewhat boring map of a cave complex near filled with purple mushrooms. Lastly there's a warehouse complete with huge towering stacks of crates, a sea of razorvine and 4 huge magic circles! The problem with these great looking battlefields: they only exist a couple inches big in the book! They are screaming to be made into poster maps. No DM could draw these out on their battle grid, and these aren't the kinds of maps you can make with dungeon tiles. Plus they are right here in front of me I can see all the works already done. Why oh why were the two double sided poster maps these should have been on not included with my book?
Overall:
I am extremely impressed by this book. It really takes all the complaints about the 'lack of roleplaying' in 4th edition and challenges them outright with suggestions and actual rules that let you make a 4e game into anything you want. Chapters on storytelling, plotting, themes and encounter building to match your players are a near must read for any DM, let alone a D&D one. If you run D&D there's no question that you should pick this up. Even if you don't I suggest borrowing a friends copy and giving some of the non-crunchy sections a read through.