Slashdot Mirror
Dungeon Master's Guide II
DMG II is a deeper mirror of the first Dungeon Master's Guide. Each chapter in the first book is reflected in the sequel, providing more explanation and a deeper look at the subject matter showcased in the original. In addition to mechanics, which was the primary focus of the first Guide, the DMG II examines the process of running a Dungeons and Dragons game by breaking it into discrete elements.
The first few chapters of the second Guide are entirely devoted to the experience of the game from the Dungeon Master's side of the screen. Like another good book on the subject, Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering , DMG II goes into the psychology of the rules arbiter by laying out what will likely be required from you in your role as DM. The Guide also goes inside the heads of players to offer up to the reader possible motivations for a player coming to the gaming table.
From the broad scope of running a game, the book focuses in on the campaign and adventure specific levels. An examination of campaigns covers a large amount of terrain, starting with game styles and character creation suggestions, and ending up in a discussion of the medieval-renaissance flavor of the default Dungeons and Dragons setting. Adventures as discrete entities get something of a short shrift in the book, with heavy discussion of iconic adventure settings taking up most of that chapter. If you've ever wanted to run a battle in the sky, this tome has what you need. The adventure chapter does have a few worthwhile tips on incorporating material from outside sources into your own campaigns, making a Dungeon Magazine subscription more tempting than it might otherwise be.
Beyond the basics, the mission of the second DMG seems to be to allow DMs with a limited amount of time maximum flexibility. Where the original title had pre-generated NPC statistics to utilize, the second book has chapters on making NPCs more interesting, ways to integrate your players more fully into the campaign world, and an entire mapped out and catalogued city for you to insert into your game. The character chapter includes a system for allowing players to run their own businesses. It abstracts out a good number of factors, keeping the focus of the game on fun and adventure while allowing players to put down roots and make some money. While more realistic campaigns may not find it worthwhile, the average dungeon-crawl will benefit from a small business run using these rules. Similarly impressive is the canned city, Saltmarsh. Saltmarsh is a good-sized town, with plots aplenty and several interesting adventure opportunities spread throughout the different districts. Like the campaign chapter, the city of Saltmarsh gives a window into the standard setting that a first time DM might not otherwise have available.
For a veteran Dungeon Master, there are a few gems that stand out as making this book worthwhile. The sections on Saltmarsh, the business system, and the various tips on tweaking your gameworld (including suggestions for creating prestige classes) would all be handy to have at your fingertips. Newer Dungeon Masters should not miss the opportunity to take a look at this book. The chapters on pacing, performance, and campaign preparation are very well written and will provide some much needed advice for someone just cutting their teeth. Players need not apply. The information a Player would get from this book is simply not worth the money to pick up, unless you're planning on getting into the DM gig.
Wizards of the Coast has created a worthy successor to the original Dungeon Master's Guide. Providing a deeper examination of the original tome's content and a reflection on the performance art that is DMing, to new DMs the DMG II is definitely worth the price-tag.
You can purchase Dungeon Master's Guide II from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
I'm sorry, but the original DM guide was from 1979.
I DM'd late 1970's to early 1980's.
I quit because, it be came work and was not fun any more. I had to spend hours getting game together, adventures, random monster tables, etc.
I wanted a game where this could all be generated so I could actually "have fun", which is how it used to be when I first started to play.
Now, with the adult restraints on my time, I do occasionally play an MMORPG, I have fun and do not have to "work at it".
Just hope that the people that still play the "table" version have fun doing so!
After each adventure I gave them a new character sheet with their new leveled up character.
Sort of like the Basic Game box but with more characters and real adventures (rescue the kidnapped kid, raid an evil temple and cleanse it, fight a young dragon etc.)
This way worked *really* well, they were up and playing in 10 minutes and everybody had a real blast.
Well,
I explained to my daughter that her character was like a person in a story, and that we'd tell a story together. I told her that we'd roll dice to find out if her character can do things. We went over her character when it was time to do a skill check, and I'd point out her abiliy modifier (You want to push open the stuck door? You'll need to use your Strength), her skill (You want to look for traps first? Here's your Search number) and have her roll the d20 and count up her modifiers. Mostly, however, we did storytelling. (She wnted to go underwater and help the mermaids. She decided she needed to find a wizard to give her a machine so that she could walk around underwater.)
As an aside - an idea might be to use smaller dice , like start with a d6. Use smaller numbers for ACs and DCs, as well. This gets into easy addition and comparison.
Expect a lot of input from the little one about the story. Also expect a shorter game (little one wnts to do something lse in about an hour) and a lot less violence.
She did get her start at an SF convention when I had to run a game for 9-12 year olds and watch her, though, so it was easier for her to see how things worked.
She did come across my Champions books and want to play "superheroes", but so far we've just rolled up characters with the random hero generator in the book. I shudder to think of pre-Hero System.
No Longer a Menace to Society.
Alexandria Morrigan born 2/22/01 l. 20.5in wt. 7 lbs. 5 oz.
Full list
Ok, you didn't hear this from me... [cough]
If you can live without the hardcopy, you can check usenet (alt.binaries.e-book.rpg), or your favorite P2P service for the Core Rules CDs, which had all the core books in electronic (RTF & HTML, IIRC) format.
I was not here. I did not say this.
Have you seen the new WotC ads? It has a some guy sitting infront of a comptuer lit only by light from the monitor and says "If you're going to sit around and pretend to be an elf all night long, you might as well do it with friends."