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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.
There are ideas about terrain, monster roles, and hazards that help a lot. I had been running a game for about a year when I picked up the 4th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide. Here's why.The book provided the guidance I needed without getting in my way. Almost all of these have been fixed in an errata which is freely downloadable from the website, but it is still annoying to have to consult the errata when something doesn't seem right.
A lot of people have complained about the lack of specific rules for things like craft and trapmaking, but I found I preferred using the general guidelines laid out in the book. There were less rules for me to keep track of, it sped up the game by not having to look up obscure rules all the time, but it was still easy to scale the difficulty as appropriate.The one thing I dislike about the book is the huge number of mechanical mistakes. A lot of advice scattered throughout the book combined to make it a much more interesting encounter than I previously would have done.There are also sections on improvisation and what to do about actions the rules don't cover. The melee fighters ended up trying to chop down the tree he was in, which I didn't expect, but I figured it's a large wooden object and quickly flipped to a page in the DMG that told me about how difficult it should be.
Instead, the authors recognized D&D as a flexible game played by very diverse people, and provided advice to make the game work for everyone.There is a section on the different archetypes of players and what their strengths, needs, and motivations are. They look up in time to see another flaming arrow coming from a single but powerful-looking hobgoblin sniper high in another stand of trees, and the arrow promptly sets one of the party members on fire. I have to say, it improved my game tremendously, and I highly recommend it, especially to relatively new dungeon masters. Last night, an encounter I previously would have done as "3 goblins pop out from behind a tree and whack you with swords" turned into a flaming arrow whizzing past them, setting trees behind them on fire and scaring their horses tied to the trees.
The DMG didn't pass judgment and say my power gamer was bad and how to force him to be more like my storyteller, it gave tips on keeping everyone happy but keeping them from stepping on each other's toes.The encounter design section not only talks about how to make balanced encounters, but also how to make them interesting. No assumptions were made about my DMing style, or the style and motivations of my players. I swear in my group I have one of each, and could never quite figure out how to deal with that.
This new version is not really a new version but an entirely new game with very little of the flavor or magic feeling of the original. If you are an experienced role player I would suggest that you save your money and stick to 3.5 there should be a lot of second hand material for that around and several other good companies are still supporting it like Necromancer Games.
Also look for the games put out by pazzio publishing the company that used to put out the Dragon and Dungeon. I wish those people bought Dungeons and Dragons as they know what D&D should feel like.
I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons since the first boxed set and I have looked forward to each new version and this is no exception. I am not knocking the online games they can be great if that is what you want to play but if you are looking for an intense good old fashioned role playing session with a group of your friends this new version is not for you unless you are under 12.
In short if you are a veteran of the Dungeons and Dragons and enjoyed the old game save your money or better yet spend it elsceware there are a lot of fine games out there unfortunately this company is no longer make such products. Each new version has tried to improve on the core Dungeon and Dragon experience until now.
Now it feels more like a version of WOW or another of the online games.
It's definitely less homogenized than in previous editions.The Core Rules Books of the 4th addition, including this one, are easy to navigate and understand, even for someone who has never played. I realize that there is a WoW (World of Warcraft) game for the tabletop already, but the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons comes closer to the actual game than any other system out there.The classes are more individualized, each one having their own succinct spells, maneuvers, and abilities.
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