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The first chapter, Playing the Game, explains a little D&D history, sets out the core mechanic, the role of players and the role of DMs. It also covers some social rules that some new players may not have thought about including dining and delving. It’s good information even for veteran RPGers. For the unfamiliar, the core mechanic of 4th edition is to roll d20 and add modifiers then compare to a target number and equal or exceed it to succeed.
The second chapter discusses the specific setting and its towns, cities and settlements as one of ‘points of light in a widespread darkness’. The general framework of the world, magic’s rarity, pantheon, planes of existence and alignments are discussed with brief, yet very useful information. The Nentir Vale is introduced as a local area filled with places for adventurers to explore and wrongs to be righted. The town of Fallcrest is introduced in some detail with 29 separate entries about locations, businesses and activities within the small ville. Enough information is provided for the Vale and Fallcrest so that an overworked DM can read through and grab stuff to be used whole cloth or easily adapted to just about any D&D campaign. They also provide excellent examples of details a starting DM might want to consider covering for any homespun games.
Chapter 3 discusses the nuts and bolts of running the game that don’t encompass combat. Exploration versus combat is discussed with examination of everything from checking for hidden doors to breaking down doors. The chapter also explains about making skill and ability checks.
Combat in 4th edition is grid centered and is designed around placing some sort of tokens (minis or counters usually) to represent relative positions of heroes and villains during a fight. Chapter 4 covers how combat works including initiative, surprise rounds and actions available to the players and NPCs. In general, a character can take one move action, one standard action (usu. attack) and a minor action on their turn. This chapter does a good job of breaking down the various options and explaining their effects and implementation.
Designing your own world is one of the major draws to taking on the DM’s mantle. Chapter 5 covers the major points a DM will want to cover in world and adventure design. Again, the book does a very good job of laying out things as simple as explaining a story arc and considerations as to the ‘why’ this or that character acts a certain way or an event would unfold. Example roles for NPCs, monsters and even the settings and their challenges to include traps are provided. Even ‘old hand’ DMs can learn a thing or two from reading this chapter----even if it reminds you to do things you usually cover but sometimes forget.
The final chapter handles what happens after the dust settles. Experience point awards to magic items are discussed. A number of treasures from gold, to weapons and armor to magic doo-dads are examined with a fairly large number of examples for DMs to use or pattern from as they choose. Standard but needed fare since 'taking their stuff' is roughly half of the adventurers' battle cry.
The DM’s screen is a four-paneled jobbie and is very well done. The players’ side has some really cool artwork including drow, a drider, a dragon, umber hulk, illithiad, beholder, roper and several other monster types in an underdark type terrain. The DM’s side covers XP, suggested DCs (Difficulty Class) for monster knowledge, arcane, for breaking things like doors and for several commonly used skills. It also covers common actions and what they mean in game terms, cover, the various conditions (e.g., slowed, blinded, stunned, etc.), and also summarizes healing and dying.
Three sheets of sturdy cardstock tokens are provided. One sheet is PCs and provides a good spread of racial and gender options with nearly 40 different options. Dwarves, elves, eladrin, drow, half orcs, humans, tieflings, dragonborn and halflings are represented. The other two sheets primarily represent traps, horses, and monsters/important NPCs presented in the included in the two booklet adventures. The tokens for multiple monsters (e.g., human thug soldiers) are numbered so you can easily track them during combat. Also both monsters and PC tokens are double-sided with a red ring on the reverse to reflect ‘bloodied’ status. The tokens have iconic artwork and are a pleasant alternative to miniatures.
The Iron Circle is the two-part adventure provided in the game. It’s designed to take 2nd level characters up to 4th by the end of the second part. Characters are quasi-expected to have made 2nd level via the adventure provided in the new ‘red box’ starter set but can just as easily have either leveled in another adventure or be generated as 2nd level from the start.
Set in Harkenwold, a barony in the Nentir Vale (a region well covered in the DM’s book), the Iron Circle brings the adventurers ala the Magnificent Seven in to help locals in a struggle against some baddies bent on taking over the local scene. The adventure is presented in two separate 32-page booklets each containing encounters that advance the story and that help involve the characters in the local drama. The double-sided maps provided with the DM’s kit cover a majority of the scenarios and can be improvised (along with maps in the red box) to cover them all. Iron Circle presents a nice character driven story to interact with if the DM and players so choose.
On the whole, the DM’s Kit is an outstanding product. A group wanting to play 4th edition could easily pick this up plus one of the character generation books (Heroes of the Fallen Lands or Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms) and play pretty much indefinitely. The kit has high production values and provides a lot of useful materials for your gaming dollar. If you want to DM 4th edition, this well-made kit was specifically made for you.
