The Inside Scoop on Gaming

On September 11^th, gamers everywhere will descend upon their stores hoping to get their hands on the 3^rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide before the last copy flies off the shelf.

I've got mine now.

BWAH-HA-HA-HA.

(You should try maniacal laughter. It's good for what ails you. Pikachu – er, chicken, that's right, Chicken Soup for the Madman's Soul.)

At any rate, Wizards of the Coast was giving away a few copies each day at GenCon, and though I had to publicly humiliate myself for the thing, I was one of the lucky winners. So I've been reading through this book for the past couple of weeks (I even ran a game using just the PHB and the DMG to test its usefulness), and I feel it's my duty to report back to the community before the Dungeon Master's Guide hits the shelves of game stores across the country. That said:

This is a great book.

I've heard people complain that the DMG seems to "shrink" with each new edition. Well, this volume may be slimmer than the 2^nd Edition version, but it says a lot more than the last DMG did.

Chapter One is essentially an overview of the DM's responsibilities. It provides basic guidelines and handy tips. Good stuff, but experienced Dungeon Masters can probably skip over most of it.

Chapter Two is where the book gets interesting. Over 38 pages, this chapter describes alternate ability score generation methods, modifying and creating PC races, altering and creating character classes (with a special emphasis on spellcasters, which is rather nice), and so on. The widely anticipated prestige classes are in this chapter, and I must say they generally live up to the hype. I expect they'll add a lot to the game. There are also some NPC classes (which I really think could be used as PC classes, despite the book's statements to the contrary), advice on creating characters above first level, instant NPC statistics and race-based adjustments, and more. I think this is one of my favorite chapters in the book.

The third chapter deals with "running the game". Most of it seems to relate primarily to combat. Still, there is a good deal of solid information here.

Chapter 4 contains advice on adventure design, and Chapter 5 deals with running campaigns. Both are useful. The fourth chapter, for example, contains instant traps (magical and mundane), encounter tables, a pregenerated dungeon map, advice on building towns and much, much more. Chapter 5 discusses character evolution and other things that come up in long-term campaigns. Like I said – both are useful, in their way.

Chapter 6 discusses world-building. Here we have advice on establishing economics, geography, politics and religion, among other things. There are even brief examples of cultures that don't generally fit D&D's "heroic fantasy" mold – Asian cultures, modern ones, futuristic ones. There are even statistics for some of the equipment found in these cultures. Unfortunately, by "some of the equipment," I mean weapons – and only weapons.

Sigh.

Chapter 7 deals with rewards for PCs – experience and treasure, mainly. I think the new XP system is far better than the 2^nd Edition one. Instead of a statuc XP value, monsters now have "Challenge Ratings" which – combined with the PCs' level – determines their value.

But you don't just get experience for killing things! You can get XP for simply overcoming monsters. You can get experience for defeating traps. And you can get it as a "story award" – though this last, sadly, isn't very well defined.

And finally, we come to Chapter 8: Magic Items. This is an excellent chapter. Some changes have been made – for example, "wands" are now defined as items that cast a single spell (though they can cast that spell multiple times), "rods" have unique powers, and "staffs" cast multiple spells. These distinctions make a little more sense to me. Cursed items get their own section now, and there are other sections describing major and minor artifacts. "Miscellaneous items" are now "wondrous items". Each entry describes the prerequisites and cost involved in making that particular item, as well as the item's market value. Later on in the chapter there are more rules for creating magic items. This is another of my favorite chapters.

I do have one major problem with the new Dungeon Master's Guide: WotC still tries to "DM the DM" at times. The main rule of D&D is (or should be) "the DM ultimately makes the rules." Each time WotC tells DMs to do this or avoid doing that, they take a little away from that spirit. That's just not right. Oh, sure, experienced DMs will know when to ignore the book, but new Dungeon Masters might not.

Still, in the end, the new DMG is worth just about every penny of its price. A vast improvement over the 2^nd Edition version in most if not all respects. I'm beginning to believe WotC when they say that most gamers won't want to go back to AD&D 2 after trying 3^rd Edition.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide, 3rd Edition
Author: Monte Cook, et al Category: game Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Line: D&D Cost: $19.95 Page count: 255 ISBN: 0-7869-1551-X SKU: TSR11551 Playtest Review by Spencer M. Lease on 08/31/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	On September 11^th, gamers everywhere will descend upon their stores hoping to get their hands on the 3^rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide before the last copy flies off the shelf. I've got mine now. BWAH-HA-HA-HA. (You should try maniacal laughter. It's good for what ails you. Pikachu – er, chicken, that's right, Chicken Soup for the Madman's Soul.) At any rate, Wizards of the Coast was giving away a few copies each day at GenCon, and though I had to publicly humiliate myself for the thing, I was one of the lucky winners. So I've been reading through this book for the past couple of weeks (I even ran a game using just the PHB and the DMG to test its usefulness), and I feel it's my duty to report back to the community before the Dungeon Master's Guide hits the shelves of game stores across the country. That said: This is a great book. I've heard people complain that the DMG seems to "shrink" with each new edition. Well, this volume may be slimmer than the 2^nd Edition version, but it says a lot more than the last DMG did. Chapter One is essentially an overview of the DM's responsibilities. It provides basic guidelines and handy tips. Good stuff, but experienced Dungeon Masters can probably skip over most of it. Chapter Two is where the book gets interesting. Over 38 pages, this chapter describes alternate ability score generation methods, modifying and creating PC races, altering and creating character classes (with a special emphasis on spellcasters, which is rather nice), and so on. The widely anticipated prestige classes are in this chapter, and I must say they generally live up to the hype. I expect they'll add a lot to the game. There are also some NPC classes (which I really think could be used as PC classes, despite the book's statements to the contrary), advice on creating characters above first level, instant NPC statistics and race-based adjustments, and more. I think this is one of my favorite chapters in the book. The third chapter deals with "running the game". Most of it seems to relate primarily to combat. Still, there is a good deal of solid information here. Chapter 4 contains advice on adventure design, and Chapter 5 deals with running campaigns. Both are useful. The fourth chapter, for example, contains instant traps (magical and mundane), encounter tables, a pregenerated dungeon map, advice on building towns and much, much more. Chapter 5 discusses character evolution and other things that come up in long-term campaigns. Like I said – both are useful, in their way. Chapter 6 discusses world-building. Here we have advice on establishing economics, geography, politics and religion, among other things. There are even brief examples of cultures that don't generally fit D&D's "heroic fantasy" mold – Asian cultures, modern ones, futuristic ones. There are even statistics for some of the equipment found in these cultures. Unfortunately, by "some of the equipment," I mean weapons – and only weapons. Sigh. Chapter 7 deals with rewards for PCs – experience and treasure, mainly. I think the new XP system is far better than the 2^nd Edition one. Instead of a statuc XP value, monsters now have "Challenge Ratings" which – combined with the PCs' level – determines their value. But you don't just get experience for killing things! You can get XP for simply overcoming monsters. You can get experience for defeating traps. And you can get it as a "story award" – though this last, sadly, isn't very well defined. And finally, we come to Chapter 8: Magic Items. This is an excellent chapter. Some changes have been made – for example, "wands" are now defined as items that cast a single spell (though they can cast that spell multiple times), "rods" have unique powers, and "staffs" cast multiple spells. These distinctions make a little more sense to me. Cursed items get their own section now, and there are other sections describing major and minor artifacts. "Miscellaneous items" are now "wondrous items". Each entry describes the prerequisites and cost involved in making that particular item, as well as the item's market value. Later on in the chapter there are more rules for creating magic items. This is another of my favorite chapters. I do have one major problem with the new Dungeon Master's Guide: WotC still tries to "DM the DM" at times. The main rule of D&D is (or should be) "the DM ultimately makes the rules." Each time WotC tells DMs to do this or avoid doing that, they take a little away from that spirit. That's just not right. Oh, sure, experienced DMs will know when to ignore the book, but new Dungeon Masters might not. Still, in the end, the new DMG is worth just about every penny of its price. A vast improvement over the 2^nd Edition version in most if not all respects. I'm beginning to believe WotC when they say that most gamers won't want to go back to AD&D 2 after trying 3^rd Edition. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide, 3rd Edition