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Thanks Hasbro, I've still got tons of 3.5 material to use and Pathfinder comes out with tons of great stuff. In these hard economic times Hasbro has saved me a lot of money buy making a D&D's that I have no interest in buying.
The DMs guide is very good but everyone will have a few questions about how a rule works etcSeriously after reading the rulebooks I was confused about things and thought of just skipping this edition but after stumbling on the errata and then the question and answer forum 4ed suddenly made a lot more sense and I am glad I picked these books up. It has helped me out a great deal just by browsing through the questions. Just make sure you read the rules before you read the updates because the updates wont make any sense out of context.2) There is a forum at TSR/WoTC/D&D website in the 4e forums titled "Ask a quick question get a quick answer." If you have questions about the rules or are confused about something that's the place to go and ask a rules question.
products and even more opinions about whether people like or hate D&D 4th ed. should know.1) After the dungeon masters guide, players handbook, monster manual and DM screen were released there were some changes in the rules, some errors were discovered, some things that confused readers were corrected etc. Look there are lots of reviews for 4th ed.
Make sure after you buy your books you go to the TSR/WoTC website and get the updates for these books[.].I was confused after reading the rulebooks but after I stumbled on the updates it cleared up a lot of the confusion I was having about some of the rules. I will let people make up their own minds and not get on a soapbox and preach one way or the other.All I can say is I have had fun with 4ed.
so far but I had fun with all the editions in their time.I just want to point out a couple helpful things that those wanting to play 4th ed.
all I can say is that flows smooth when played, is fast and easy to develop and understand (even for my 6 year old son) forget the hundreds of tables and modifiers of 3.5, D&D4 is far better than that edition. I love the 4th ed.
The final chapters focus on the rules minutae of creating monsters, dealing with environmental hazards and construction of entire worlds. The book's most easily stated purpose can be found in the title of the first chapter: How To Be A DM. With the exception of some seemingly forgotten items like constructing Minions, this book otherwise fulfills it's purpose completely and admirably. I am guilty of this myself to some degree, but I try to always remember that I am there to make the game fun for my players. This theme is echoed throughout the book as it goes on to provide reams of inspiration for any DM looking to craft a memorable play experience. Similar to the 3.5 DMG, the 4E DMG is mostly devoted to teaching GMs the black art of creating the adventure and running a game. Truth be told, there are exceedingly few "good" DMs out there and newbie DMs can be advised that if you follow the guidelines in this book then you can't go wrong. Seasoned D&D DMs are, in my humble experience, usually very thickheaded.
The middling chapters provide guidelines for constructing the actual content of a game: Encounters, Adventures and Campaigns. This is NOT a review of 4th Edition D&D Rules.The new Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) is a very useful reference for new and seasoned DMs alike. What these folks are missing is that the rules aren't as important as having fun at the table).The bulk of the rules type stuff is contained in the last half of the book. These chapters contain rules on rewarding players, various environmental factors, artifacts, world-forging, monster-making and random dungeons/encounters. Every DM has his "way" that he follows like a religion and is very closed off to change or feedback.
They have ONE way they like to run their game and they actively ignore any ideas to the contrary. Very cool indeed.This book's stated purpose is to teach someone how to be a good DM. The 4E DMG stands as an awesome reminder of what D&D is all about: having fun. Another interesting thing I personally noticed about the monster creation sections is how easy it would be to "fake" a monster on the fly if the DM needs it. It also presents a completely developed town and area to start your players out in if you so choose. For those thickheaded DMs, this is mostly the stuff you will pay for as it constitutes the bulk of what you will need to make 4E adventures. This may come naturally to seasoned and as such the book is of somewhat less value to those folks.
I think some DMs miss these points and these are the type of folks that won't like most of this book.(FYI, these are most of the people giving this book 1 Star reviews, as they clearly have no grasp of the purpose of this book and are just using Amazon to vent their frustrations with what they perceive the rules are lacking. It's a great refresher for any DM - especially those who think they know it all. The first three chapters are devoted almost entirely to those folks who are DMing for their first time and want to put their best foot forward. You can also use this area as a useful example when designing your own worlds.Naturally, however, even experienced DMs would be wise to take a look over this book as it contains numerous useful nuggets of information and guidelines on structuring well paced 4E adventures.
It has a lot of good points to consider when running a 4.0 game, however its more of a book of systems to keep a game on track rather than a cool guide for bringing your world to life. This DMG is a decent read and somewhat interesting. I have allot respect for James Wyatt however find this edition to be pretty much a snore.
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