First Impressions - Fifth Edition D&D Dungeon Master's Guide

5e Dungeon Master's Guide

Following the Player's Handbook, my next foray into Fifth Edition D&D was the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG hereafter). I can still remember the Christmas when my first edition AD&D copies arrived; the Monster Manual and Player's Handbook's were both glossy covers, but the DMG was matte and mysterious, a hooded character throwing open the doors to forbidden knowledge. The 5th edition cover shows Acererak the Lich summoning an undead army instead. It's a great picture.

My first DMG

The DMG is printed to the same high standards that the Player's Handbook (PHB) was, with excellent, evocative illustrations throughout. I think I saw one typo in the whole book. It clocks in at 320 pages and has a comprehensive index at the end.

The book is split into three main sections; I'd describe them as worldbuilding, treasures and dungeons, and game rules. The DMG refers to them as Master of Worlds, Master of Adventures and Master of Rules. They're all subtly colour keyed at the bottom edge of the page.

Master of Worlds dives in with creating a religious pantheon, establishing maps and settlements, currencies, factions and the basis of magic. There's a discussion on the theme of a campaign with guidance on how to develop it further through ideas and sets of questions. After this, it moves onto the multiverse (I think this was an appendix in the original AD&D DMG), discussing planes of existence, travelling between then, with short descriptions of different planes including the material plane and the established D&D settings. I found this section well written, but boring. The planes section dragged for me, but I don't think I'm the target audience for this book, as I've been gaming for more than 35 years. It is good, solid material that will help a new Dungeon Master.

Master of Adventures sticks in my head mainly because of the treasure section. I reacquainted myself with wonderous artefacts such as the Hand and Eye of Vecna and Vorpal Blades. There are the traditional random tables to generate the loot that you find. The section is much more than this though; it talks through adventure design (including random tables to work from), encounter design and designing combat encounters (linking to challenge ratings or XP thresholds). It gets quite technical in parts. The part on NPCs (non-player character) is useful, including advice on hirelings [1] and loyalty and guidance on how to develop villains to oppose the characters. The chapter on Adventure Environments starts by looking at Dungeons, and then considers Wilderness Adventures, before moving on to environmental hazards and foraging for food and water. Handling adventures at sea and underwater is covered. Traps are discussed in detail. Another chapter discusses downtime activities, covering options for character development between adventures ranging from the spreading of rumours, building a stronghold, running a business, crafting items and more.

Master of Rules starts off by giving advice on the mechanics presenting in the PHB; it covers a huge range of elements from how you play at the table to the details of the application of individual rules such as advantage or inspiration. Exploration and social encounters are briefly covered before an extended discussion on handling combat. Guidance is given on dealing with chases, followed closely by seige engines (!). The chapter rounds out with Experience Points. The Dungeon's Master's Workshop chapter provides a smorgasbord of optional rules to tailor the game. If you want firearms or aliens, you'll find them here. If you fancy plot points, they're included. There are more options for combat. There's detailed guidance on creating monsters and character classes.

The book rounds out with Appendices: the obligatory random dungeon generator [2]; Monster Lists drawn from the Monster Manual by the environment or challenge rating; a random selection of example maps, and - finally - an additional list of inspirational reading. As I mentioned earlier, the index is comprehensive and useful.

In conclusion, the Dungeon Master's Guide is a well written and useful part of the line. If you're experienced and have older editions to hand, it isn't critical as the Player's Handbook presents all the information that you need to play immediately. Like the Player's Handbook, I feel that the presentation of information could be sharpened for quick reference but this shouldn't detract from clarity and quality of the book. Recommended.

[1] This sits alongside the new 'sidekick' rules from the Essentials Kit rather than replacing them.
[2] I've always viewed these as the equivalent of Traveller's world-building and starship construction sub-systems.

15 September 2019

Link: First Impressions - 5e Player's Handbook