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If the random magic item found in the dragon's horde isn't for the party, too bad. Building encounters goes over monster roles, parts of encounters with templates and settings for encounters. This isn't all of it, there's lots of suggestions like this. 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. I strongly suggest any DM or prospective DM read the tips and suggestions in this book though, there is some great stuff in there. 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.
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). 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. The book was well produced and well written. Some repetition from the PHB would have been nice as well, though I do appreciate the cost savings. 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. Interior art is top notch and better then the PHB. 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. 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.
If someone can't make it for a game (unless it's like a death in the family) then they don't get XP. 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. I would actually suggest any DM of any game read through all the non-crunch sections of this book. There's a 4th edition twist on this though where you balance the encounter and make it interesting by choosing different monster roles.
The encounter creation section of this book is probably it's most valuable part rules wise. It noted to make the items cost more then the usual 10-40% more then list price. 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 index is also very appreciated. 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. Combat Encounters goes over the fundamentals then has some additional rules for mounted combat, 3D combat, underwater combat, disease and poison. 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. Regarding the sense of entitlement: I'll let you make your own call on that one.
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. Campaigns talks about published campaign settings, themes, super adventures, story, running and ending a campaign. Amusingly it also has rules for playing with no DM. Adventures covers published modules, fixing in game problems, building your own adventures, quests, mixing up encounters, settings and casts of characters. Well this game is written with that demographic in mind.
Way more text and pages are devoted to being a good DM then to rules. I can't tell you exactly what is missing but it just felt like there was something missing. The DM toolbox gives rules on customizing and creating monsters and NPCs, writing house rules and generating random dungeons and encounters. 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 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. Lastly, a pet peeve of mine, two references to page XX. 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. 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. Challenge Ratings are now out the window and you return to the days of picking monsters by XP. Personally I'm trying my first campaign in 4th edition using their modules and running things the '4th edition way'. 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. 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.
Rewards covers Quests, XP, Action Points and Treasure. Gone are the days of fighting 6 identical kobalds. the module. 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.
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. Now maybe to you this sounds great and is something that has been missing from the game for years. The World introduces the generic D&D world, civilizations in it, the wilderness in between, the planes, the gods, artifacts and languages. This was also true about a section on buying magic items in a low magic campaign. One page chapter introductions are nice for finding exactly the rule you need.
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. Especially in the section that gives additional rules for combat, there are a lot of references to the PHB. Non-combat encounters go over Skill Challenges, puzzles, Traps and Hazards.
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. Rules for creating your own Races and Classes would have been a nice start (though that's not something I usually do). To me though it's just not very D&D like.
Regarding the book itself it's laid out rather well with each chapter progressing in a logical manner. 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. In all this book has the best ideas and suggestions for DMing I have ever read.
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).
Looks like they're getting rid of most things supenatural aside from evil deities like Asmodeus and Tiamat, plus Bahamut for a good deity. It's subsidized so it's based on what you can afford.
Go for it. And a dragon might usually polymorph into a fly or mosquito.
For example, I'm not going to shell out 75 bucks for a deluxe edition; these are the lowly ones found on the shelves of bookstores before they order you an expensive edition. I prefer LARP to pen and paper.
This is the updated D& D with 4th edition rules. Included are some sample monsters like a death knight and lich.
Overall, a satisfying purchase, but I am no good DM.
Mages/wizards can now cast spells whenever they please (only being able to cast magic missile once per day/rest cycle is a real bummer to a little girl who wants to play a magic casting bad-arse as her character)., and all of the powers quickly and easily divided up into "at will," "once per encounter," and, "daily" powers. I am fairly certain you will enjoy running a game for those people using 4E rules. Either because nobody was playing a cleric, or there weren't enough healing potions to go around. ;-)Enjoy.
But, if you are like me, and are trying to get new people into D&D, give 4E a try. They simplified and streamlined a lot of the nit-picky stuff (which, granted, some people love), and made it easier to just jump into the game.What this means is that I can start an impromptu game with my little sisters, and actually keep and HOLD their attention all the way through an entire gaming session of about 2 hours. I am switching over entirely to 4E for all new games I will be running hereafter. What they DIDN'T like, was dying (or being knocked unconscious), limited spell use, confusing power rules, and almost no low level party members being able to to HEAL.With 4E, EVERYONE can heal with the new "healing surge" abilities. They made it easy, and fun, for NEW PLAYERS to get into the game. That is AMAZING. I don't know about anyone else, but my parties generally ALWAYS suffered from healing problems in their lower levels. Given the almost unlimited choices available in 3E and 3.5E, they would get confused, overwhelmed, and stop wanting to play.
I will be hanging on to my 3E and 3.5E books, but those will be used for campaigns for D&D veterans. You know what is great about the 4E rules for D&D. They have always liked the game, and the fun of the dice rolls, etc. Most little girls do not want to sit down and do homework to "play."I am a 3E and 3.5E rule set owning DM, and I am here to say that 4E is not for everyone.
The imagination was the limit, at the risk of sounding corny. Some rules have been streamlined and the daily, encounter and at-will powers are smart changes but overall the game has become even more complex, not less. So after some 25 years of playing we have decided as a group to abandon WotC and to move on to Paizo's Pathfinder which promises to build on the d20, 3.5 D&D rules. I've stayed true to the original D&D, never straying to other game developers, never wanting to. What we did not ask for is a completely new game focused on miniture, board-gaming with generic, cookie-cutter, super hero characters (let alone emo-races and Puff the magic dragons running around). WotC no doubt tried to get some of those lucrative World of War Craft kids on board - heavy on the fighting, light on the role play, but while they will never be able to become a true substitute for online gaming, they've managed to lose their core constituents, the role players. We LIKED the game but want SIMPLIFICATIONS to make it MORE PLAYABLE. In creating 4th ed.
And honestly, for mindless hack and slay robots, a PC or Xbox game beats D&D anytime. Every battle, no matter how trivial lasts hours.where is the room to role play. This is lost in 4th. Not to speak of DM-fatigue with the poor guy struggling through pages of combat stats for each individual monster. This is a game no one wanted, at least not in my crowd. WotC has achieved the impossible, with 4th ed.
Its irrelevant if a fighter attacks with a sword, an ax, or a chicken drumstick - all that matters is the funky power he unleashes.Double-Boarhead-Super-Doublefisted-Power-Strike anyone. You certainly proved that you can do the first. MY group and I spent hours each game debating each damn square moved like some crazy lawyers debating constitutional law. Its amazing how a company can so misunderstand its core customers.
I dont need to get together with my friends for that. To WotC I can only say, good job -losing faithful cutomers is as difficult as gaining them. I hope Paizo will know how to streamline 3.5 without giving up the essence of a great game. The powers are as ridiculous as some of the advanced feats in 3rd ed. they have lost yet another loyal player. I wont go into detail about what I hate about the new game because many on this page already do this quite well. except now thats ALL anyone concentrates on.thats the core of combat.
Its strength was the flexibility, not being confined to a board or a PC software. We all hoped that WotC had listened to player's feedback about 3.5. I played D&D through every edition since the beginning: basic, expert, AD&D, 2nd, 3.0, 3.5, and now 4th. Let me just say that I and 6 of my fellow gamers went into 4th with an open mind. What we have always enjoyed about D&D was that it was a revival of the old tradition of storytelling.
To me, it does smack of appealing to a younger crowd with overly muscled men wielding ridiculously over-sized weapons. Fortunately, 4.0's DMG tends to view interesting encounters in the same way that I do, and the mechanics make it easy to create an encounter on the fly.As a disclaimer, I would have rated this 4 Stars, but I found myself in the unfortunate position of seeing too many 1 Star reviews slamming this book not for its content, but for the 4.0 rule-set itself. Since it's so thin, I think newer DMs could have benefited from a few standard adventure ideas without having to buy additional larger modules just yet. I like the fact that they have put most of the core rules in the Player's Handbook, and left the Dungeon Master's Guide to discuss how to actually write adventures and generally run the game. Yes, I understand that experienced DMs are free to do things as they want, but the default system should at least work to some extent instead of almost forcing you to deviate from it. Unfortunately, it was a somewhat unwieldy system that made it more difficult to calculate XP and had some wonky side effects- If two players who were one level apart but only a few hundred or a thousand xp apart from each other, going through a long adventure could result in the lower-level one having more XP at the end of the adventure, unless you rewarded XP after each encounter and allowed players to level up on the spot.4.0 has reverted back to the older system of having flat XP values, and it's up to the DM to ensure players are facing properly challenging opponents at least part of the time. I often founding myself having to just chuck the clunky system out the window and making an ad hoc ruling on the actual Encounter Level or even going even further and just creating the treasure myself. 3.0 and 3.5 also broke from previous editions by introducing the idea of declining XP values for monsters, to reward players for taking on harder opponents and discouraging them from trying to attack larger numbers of weak creatures.
Page 95 is an example of what I don't like, and the more photo-realistic 77 is an example of what I do.4. So, if they charged less, they would probably sell a whole lot more. Way too Gears of War or Final Fantasy for me. I'm not sure of the actual variable cost of the book and distribution itself, but even selling the books at $20-$25 would probably result in a doubling of sales, in my opinion.2. Like the other 4.0 books, the quality of the book itself is not very good, with cheaper magazine-quality paper in the books. Also, and this is good for their business as well, they actually designed the book to instruct *new* DMs how to run adventures even never having played the game.
Like all 4.0 books, the price is just too high. all in one place would have been great. If these books were in the $15-20 range, I'd be buying at least twice as many of them. I found myself only looking at the DMG for the XP charts and treasure generation, and the occasional glance at random story-ideas for inspiration when I was running a game on short notice.
The book could have used more examples of some adventure ideas, but that's just a personal gripe. For example, having the list of sample names per race, tiny architecture details, adventuring concepts, etc. Also, an entire chapter or two devoted to having basic ideas for starting adventures or sprucing up adventures you're writing would have been really helpful. Of course, those who slam the book because they don't like its specific content have completely legitimate opinions. Now, it might actually be a little more feasible for a group of completely new players to pick up these books and start gaming, rather than getting drawn in by experienced friends or family members which, IMHO, has been the de facto experience for the past 20-30 years.The 3.5 DMG was absolutely horrible, possessing way too many charts, tables and material best suited for players like Prestige classes. On a tangent, 3.X's rules for building fighting encounters tended to lean heavily on having homogenous challenge levels of opponents together. So, here are things I *didn't* like:1.
I really don't like a lot of the art direction of these books either. Although you *could* build encounters like this in 3.X, it would be hard to establish the numerical Encounter Level which would then lead to appropriate treasure generation. First off, not a review of the 4.0 rules as a whole, which contain elements I mostly like, but a few I don't.However, the DMG is the best one that I've read so far, starting back since 2nd Edition. I've always favored the Big Bad, flanked by a bodyguard or two, one or two weaker spellcasters and a large group of weaker minions. Don't handle the books when sweaty, and definitely don't spill anything on them.3.
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