Post by Gilvan Blight on Jun 10, 2009 20:36:50 GMT -5
Quickly: somewhat conflicted book that definitely sets 4th edition up as a new game and not your old D&D.
Summary: I think anyone reading this knows what a Dungeon Master's Guide is so I won't spend much time on a summary. Basically it's the book that tells you how to DM a game of 4th edition D&D.
What's surprising is that it's very rules light. Chapters include How to Be a DM, Running The Game, Combat Encounters, Building Encounters, Non-Combat Encounters, Adventures, Rewards, Campaigns, The World, The DM's Toolbox and Fallcrest. The back of the book also has some Initiative cards and a two page battle grid.
Hot to Be a DM goes over The Gaming Group, types of Players, the role of the DM and some ideas on Table Rules. Running the game covers prep work and getting started, different game modes, narration and pacing, props, giving out information, improvising, ending a game, troubleshooting and a short section on teaching the game. Combat Encounters goes over the fundamentals then has some additional rules for mounted combat, 3D combat, underwater combat, disease and poison. Building encounters goes over monster roles, parts of encounters with templates and settings for encounters. Non-combat encounters go over Skill Challenges, puzzles, Traps and Hazards. Adventures covers published modules, fixing in game problems, building your own adventures, quests, mixing up encounters, settings and casts of characters. Rewards covers Quests, XP, Action Points and Treasure. Campaigns talks about published campaign settings, themes, super adventures, story, running and ending a campaign. The World introduces the generic D&D world, civilizations in it, the wilderness in between, the planes, the gods, artifacts and languages. The DM toolbox gives rules on customizing and creating monsters and NPCs, writing house rules and generating random dungeons and encounters. Amusingly it also has rules for playing with no DM. The final chapter gives a sample starting city and region with a short 5 encounter adventure.
The Good: As you can probably tell by the chapter headings alone this isn't any old edition DM's guide. Way more text and pages are devoted to being a good DM then to rules. I've never before seen an RPG that breaks down different players into types and gives suggestions on what to add into your games to make the game fun and interesting for all players. Similarly I've never seen an RPG that has a chapter on how to best spend your prep time including telling you what you should prep if you have one hour to prep, or if you have two, etc. In all this book has the best ideas and suggestions for DMing I have ever read. I would actually suggest any DM of any game read through all the non-crunch sections of this book.
Regarding the book itself it's laid out rather well with each chapter progressing in a logical manner. One page chapter introductions are nice for finding exactly the rule you need. The index is also very appreciated. Interior art is top notch and better then the PHB.
The encounter creation section of this book is probably it's most valuable part rules wise. The new method of generating encounters for 4th edition games is much more GM friendly and I think actually makes more interesting encounters then any previous edition. Challenge Ratings are now out the window and you return to the days of picking monsters by XP. There's a 4th edition twist on this though where you balance the encounter and make it interesting by choosing different monster roles. Gone are the days of fighting 6 identical kobalds. In are the days of facing a wall of Kobald Minions, supported by a pair of skirmishers and a Wormpriest and his Two Dragonshield guards. This section combined with the DM toolbox at the back of the book, which allows for the creation of Elite and Solo Monsters as well as templates that can be added to any monster, basically means that no two encounters ever need to be the same and all of them will be quick and easy to make.
The Bad: I personally would have liked a bit more Crunch. I can't tell you exactly what is missing but it just felt like there was something missing. Rules for creating your own Races and Classes would have been a nice start (though that's not something I usually do). Some repetition from the PHB would have been nice as well, though I do appreciate the cost savings. Especially in the section that gives additional rules for combat, there are a lot of references to the PHB. I think I would have preferred just having two copies of the movement rules for example instead of having to reference them while reading about flying. The random dungeon also confused me as half of each page shows a layout of Dungeon Tiles but no where in the text are they referenced. This was also true about a section on buying magic items in a low magic campaign. It noted to make the items cost more then the usual 10-40% more then list price. I don't recall ever reading that magic items cost 10-40% more then list price when bought from vendors and not created with the Enchant Item Ritual.
The Ugly: you hear a lot now a days about the 'next generation' being raised with a sense of entitlement. Well this game is written with that demographic in mind. This is a touchy feely D&D where players and characters get what they want because they are entitled to have fun at the table and have get treasure that they want. DM's are encouraged to say yes to anything a player tries (not so ugly are the great rules for coming up with damages and difficulties on the fly to support this). It's suggested that the DM get a list of Magic Items that the player's actually want from them and then when designing the encounters put these items in. It's strongly suggested that even players who aren't present for a game get full xp and that the encounters are weakened so that the challenge isn't too high so that everyone is kept at the same level and everything is fair. This isn't all of it, there's lots of suggestions like this. Now maybe to you this sounds great and is something that has been missing from the game for years. To me though it's just not very D&D like. If the random magic item found in the dragon's horde isn't for the party, too bad. If someone can't make it for a game (unless it's like a death in the family) then they don't get XP. To me it just feels like you are handing everything to the players and that the sense of accomplishment when they actually earn something they wanted instead of having the DM hand it to them (by level 5 all characters in the party should have 4 magic items). Now of course there is a really quick fix for all of this, and that's just to ignore it all and run the game how you want. Personally I'm trying my first campaign in 4th edition using their modules and running things the '4th edition way'. Maybe after a few sessions I will decide I like it, if not then my next game will be run more like the old style players vs. the module. Lastly, a pet peeve of mine, two references to page XX. Come on people, you couldn't hit Ctrl-F and typed in XX and hit find?!?
Overall: this is a great book for teaching you how to DM. Covering everything from how to prep for a game to what types of players you can expect to play with to what kind of challenges to face those players against. The book was well produced and well written. Personally I guess I'm a little old-school for the style of play described in the book, but I'm willing to give it a chance and see how it works. I strongly suggest any DM or prospective DM read the tips and suggestions in this book though, there is some great stuff in there. Regarding the sense of entitlement: I'll let you make your own call on that one.
Summary: I think anyone reading this knows what a Dungeon Master's Guide is so I won't spend much time on a summary. Basically it's the book that tells you how to DM a game of 4th edition D&D.
What's surprising is that it's very rules light. Chapters include How to Be a DM, Running The Game, Combat Encounters, Building Encounters, Non-Combat Encounters, Adventures, Rewards, Campaigns, The World, The DM's Toolbox and Fallcrest. The back of the book also has some Initiative cards and a two page battle grid.
Hot to Be a DM goes over The Gaming Group, types of Players, the role of the DM and some ideas on Table Rules. Running the game covers prep work and getting started, different game modes, narration and pacing, props, giving out information, improvising, ending a game, troubleshooting and a short section on teaching the game. Combat Encounters goes over the fundamentals then has some additional rules for mounted combat, 3D combat, underwater combat, disease and poison. Building encounters goes over monster roles, parts of encounters with templates and settings for encounters. Non-combat encounters go over Skill Challenges, puzzles, Traps and Hazards. Adventures covers published modules, fixing in game problems, building your own adventures, quests, mixing up encounters, settings and casts of characters. Rewards covers Quests, XP, Action Points and Treasure. Campaigns talks about published campaign settings, themes, super adventures, story, running and ending a campaign. The World introduces the generic D&D world, civilizations in it, the wilderness in between, the planes, the gods, artifacts and languages. The DM toolbox gives rules on customizing and creating monsters and NPCs, writing house rules and generating random dungeons and encounters. Amusingly it also has rules for playing with no DM. The final chapter gives a sample starting city and region with a short 5 encounter adventure.
The Good: As you can probably tell by the chapter headings alone this isn't any old edition DM's guide. Way more text and pages are devoted to being a good DM then to rules. I've never before seen an RPG that breaks down different players into types and gives suggestions on what to add into your games to make the game fun and interesting for all players. Similarly I've never seen an RPG that has a chapter on how to best spend your prep time including telling you what you should prep if you have one hour to prep, or if you have two, etc. In all this book has the best ideas and suggestions for DMing I have ever read. I would actually suggest any DM of any game read through all the non-crunch sections of this book.
Regarding the book itself it's laid out rather well with each chapter progressing in a logical manner. One page chapter introductions are nice for finding exactly the rule you need. The index is also very appreciated. Interior art is top notch and better then the PHB.
The encounter creation section of this book is probably it's most valuable part rules wise. The new method of generating encounters for 4th edition games is much more GM friendly and I think actually makes more interesting encounters then any previous edition. Challenge Ratings are now out the window and you return to the days of picking monsters by XP. There's a 4th edition twist on this though where you balance the encounter and make it interesting by choosing different monster roles. Gone are the days of fighting 6 identical kobalds. In are the days of facing a wall of Kobald Minions, supported by a pair of skirmishers and a Wormpriest and his Two Dragonshield guards. This section combined with the DM toolbox at the back of the book, which allows for the creation of Elite and Solo Monsters as well as templates that can be added to any monster, basically means that no two encounters ever need to be the same and all of them will be quick and easy to make.
The Bad: I personally would have liked a bit more Crunch. I can't tell you exactly what is missing but it just felt like there was something missing. Rules for creating your own Races and Classes would have been a nice start (though that's not something I usually do). Some repetition from the PHB would have been nice as well, though I do appreciate the cost savings. Especially in the section that gives additional rules for combat, there are a lot of references to the PHB. I think I would have preferred just having two copies of the movement rules for example instead of having to reference them while reading about flying. The random dungeon also confused me as half of each page shows a layout of Dungeon Tiles but no where in the text are they referenced. This was also true about a section on buying magic items in a low magic campaign. It noted to make the items cost more then the usual 10-40% more then list price. I don't recall ever reading that magic items cost 10-40% more then list price when bought from vendors and not created with the Enchant Item Ritual.
The Ugly: you hear a lot now a days about the 'next generation' being raised with a sense of entitlement. Well this game is written with that demographic in mind. This is a touchy feely D&D where players and characters get what they want because they are entitled to have fun at the table and have get treasure that they want. DM's are encouraged to say yes to anything a player tries (not so ugly are the great rules for coming up with damages and difficulties on the fly to support this). It's suggested that the DM get a list of Magic Items that the player's actually want from them and then when designing the encounters put these items in. It's strongly suggested that even players who aren't present for a game get full xp and that the encounters are weakened so that the challenge isn't too high so that everyone is kept at the same level and everything is fair. This isn't all of it, there's lots of suggestions like this. Now maybe to you this sounds great and is something that has been missing from the game for years. To me though it's just not very D&D like. If the random magic item found in the dragon's horde isn't for the party, too bad. If someone can't make it for a game (unless it's like a death in the family) then they don't get XP. To me it just feels like you are handing everything to the players and that the sense of accomplishment when they actually earn something they wanted instead of having the DM hand it to them (by level 5 all characters in the party should have 4 magic items). Now of course there is a really quick fix for all of this, and that's just to ignore it all and run the game how you want. Personally I'm trying my first campaign in 4th edition using their modules and running things the '4th edition way'. Maybe after a few sessions I will decide I like it, if not then my next game will be run more like the old style players vs. the module. Lastly, a pet peeve of mine, two references to page XX. Come on people, you couldn't hit Ctrl-F and typed in XX and hit find?!?
Overall: this is a great book for teaching you how to DM. Covering everything from how to prep for a game to what types of players you can expect to play with to what kind of challenges to face those players against. The book was well produced and well written. Personally I guess I'm a little old-school for the style of play described in the book, but I'm willing to give it a chance and see how it works. I strongly suggest any DM or prospective DM read the tips and suggestions in this book though, there is some great stuff in there. Regarding the sense of entitlement: I'll let you make your own call on that one.