![]() When I first tried DMing (without having read it), I predictably screwed the pooch. The reason I'm giving the DMG a 2 for style, is that while the treasure layout is fine, the most important thing for the rules would have been to have all the tables in one place, and the DM advice was pretty much hidden throughout the text. They're logically laid out, the descriptions are good and clear, striking the balance between brevity and long windedness. The treasure appendices are actually fine. In practice I wouldn't use any rules that weren't conveniently referenced on the character sheet or on the Dungeon Master Screen, and none of the DMs I played with did either. Really, most of the rules can be summed up with the tables, and it bogs down play to have to look everything up. Unlike the PHB, the DMG doesn't have all the tables at the end of the book for quick and easy reference. Some of the rules though are entirely constrained to the tables, with the discussion of them being optional reading. I doubt the page count would even match Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering if it were just distilled to advice.įor rules, the layout is somewhat better, and at least benefits from the index. And for that, it's a lot of wasted effort. The index is sometimes of use for finding it, and I like that the index colour codes for the PHB and DMG, so you're only looking in one place, but it doesn't cover everything, so to find all the good advice you need to read it through cover to cover. All the good advice is usually a paragraph long, sometimes two, inserted randomly into rules discussions. ![]() ![]() The area in which it is most needed, DM advice, it suffers in terms of layout. The art work is actually quite beautiful, I wish more art work would follow suit, but that's not really enough to help the DMG. I guess this is an admirable goal, and would have been more appreciated had the layout of the PHB made more sense. The explicit goal was to have it chapter for chapter match the PHB in content. One and two are mingled together, three sits at the end of the book. It's only roughly laid out in this fashion. First, it could serve as advice for a budding DM (this is presumably what most people would expect), second, it's a collection of additional optional rules, and third it's a tome of magical items and treasure. The AD&D Second Edition Dungeon Master Guide has three uses. The DMG even says as much in the intro, and it's a fairly useless book without the PHB (conversely, the PHB is of some use as a standalone product). This review will assume you're somewhat familiar with the Player's Handbook, not the review of it, but the actual book. ![]()
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