[.ca] Dungeon Master's Guide 3.0: Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebook (ISBN 078691551X)

From Amazon.com:
The 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide focuses on how to create and run a fun Dungeons & Dragons game. Like previous editions, the 3rd Edition DMG further explains the rules introduced in the Player's Handbook. But this book goes beyond rules and offers valuable tips on pacing, story creation, conflict, villains, motivation, and player rewards. Novice DMs will benefit from the sections on creating individual adventures and describing action, while even experienced DMs will appreciate the notes on extended campaigns, detailed world creation, and high-level play. We loved the "Behind the Curtain" blurbs, which explain the reasoning behind the changes made in 3rd Edition. Well-considered optional rules are offered to daring DMs, including rules for monsters as PC races (troll paladin, anyone?), high technology, and guidelines for creating custom races and classes. The nuts and (lightning) bolts of DMing are also covered in great detail. The book teaches DMs how to gauge Challenge Ratings for players and monsters in order to create balanced encounters. These encounters are easier to run thanks to 3rd Edition's standardized monster abilities, each of which are covered in depth. Rewarding players for successful encounters is also easier, now that the cumbersome treasure tables of 2nd Edition have been replaced. Particular attention is paid to magic items: how to award them, how players create them, how to adjudicate them, and how to take them away. The new magic item enhancement rules (similar to the magic items in the computer game Diablo) are also detailed. One dramatic departure from D & D as we knew it could have used a bit more attention. The DMG introduces the concept of prestige classes, and includes rules for six sample prestige classes: arcane archer, assassin, blackguard, dwarven defender, loremaster, and shadowdancer. Characters can't take these classes at first level but must instead work toward them by choosing specific classes, skills, and feats. For example, before taking a level in arcane archer a character needs to be an elf or half-elf and have a high attack bonus, specific archery feats, and the ability to cast at least one arcane spell. Unsure how these classes will affect your game? Want tips on how to properly create and balance these classes? Sorry, the DMG does not provide adequate answers. But aside from this complaint the DMG stands out as an honestly useful guide book to the incredible new Dungeons & Dragons game. The rules and tips are well organized and easy to find, thanks to a detailed table of contents and full index. Artwork, examples, and diagrams are liberally placed throughout the book. All this attention to detail makes the DMG an easy and effective read. We wouldn't want to DM without it. --Mike Fehlauer

So much less than it seems...:
The Third Edition DMG is not the book it should have been. It is a disjointed collection of rules that really don't fit together very well. The most important flaw is the experience and rewards systems. It's designed to rocket the characters to 20th level without ever placing them in any real danger. Please, since when is one lone 4th level NPC a challenge for four 4th level characters? Any why are 1st and 3rd level characters treated the same on the experience chart? A 3rd level party is going to have more than triple the resources that a 1st level party has available. Combined with a reward chart that puts a truckloads of magical items into the characters hands, this book puts Third Edition D & D solidly into the munchkin world (For the RPG terminology impaired, that's like a Monty Haul campaign but without any danger of loosing). Other irregularities include the fact that there are rules on drowning and being crushed to death by water pressure (deep under the sea), but no rules for actually moving in water or fighting under water. There are rules for generating towns and cities. Those rules do not function in a reasonable manner, unless the DM manually saturates the cities with specifically placed characters. Even something as simple as using the tables to determine what the levels of the high priests of the religions present in a city breaks down unless there are less than four seperate religions present in the city. The section on magic items is poorly laid our and difficult to use for anything other than random magic item rolls. Some of the magic items are undervalued, overly powerful, or both. A lot of space is devoted to incomplete tutorials on how to be a game master. Ironically, that's not matieral that should actually be in the Dungeon Master's Guide. This is supposed to be a reference book for running a campaign, not "The Dummies Guide to Dungeon Masterery". The rules for gunpowder weapons and lasers are useless filler that takes up space that could have been devoted to environments that average game master would actually like to see his characters in, like say astral combat rules and underwater combat rules. Who cares how much damage a laser might do if it were in the hands of a barbarian. Anyone who actually wants to use laser weapons is just going to use a d20 modern or futuristic sourcebook anyways. The D & D economy is so disfunctional that no wizard or sorceror who can create any magic items (including scrolls) should ever be allowed to die. It's always worth a cleric's while to bring the chump back from the dead and make him work off the investment. Also it becomes blatantly clear that NPCs are supposed to give special respect to the PCs simply because they are PCs, otherwise how can you explain the fact that a character can earn a wage of 15 gps a week as a stablehand but only needs to pay his stablehands 1 gp per week. The section on special abilities is redundant because most of it is repeated in the Monster Manual and the encounter tables are useless without the Monster Manual. Since they were also rendered useless by the first expansion printed for the Monster Manual, it is very obvious that they should have been printed in the Monster Manual itself. Half of an entire chapter is dedicated to charts of stats for average characters of each of the classes at each level. This space is completely wasted. Overall, the DMG is first book produced for Third Edition that was simply bad. No attempt was made to turn a collection of notes and rules into a good refence book for Third Edition D & D. Instead it seems to have been thrown together with a nice binding and cover and some artwork and rushed out the door. Not all of the material is bad, but all you have to do is try to use the book to realize how useless it really is. I would only recommend this book to someone who is being forced to run Third Edition D & D.

This and the 3rd Edition player's handbook are near perfect:
This book is excellent. It give the Dungeon Master exactly the information he needs on how to run a campaign and it does it in a very flexible yet comprehensive way. Out of all the editions of this game, this Dungeon Master Guide is probably the best due to sheer amount of good advice it gives. Artwork is also excellent as it is in all the three core 3rd edition rulebooks. I was initially against the 3rd Edition of the game because it's produced players who are overly concerned with getting the highest modifier for their characters and powering up, leveling up, etc... but this book (and the player's handbook) are so well designed that I was won over (at least in the short term). Anyway, this is a great book. Buy it now.

The How and Why of D & D3e:
The 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide is exactly what it should be - a description of the how and why of 3rd Edition rules. It is so much more than a collection of tables and charts. Sure, those are there as a short cut, an easy reference. What the book really brings to the table, though, is a system for knowing how to modify the system and add things to the game without throwing the power balance all out of whack. An example of the is the "Most important thing for a DM to know:" a quick and easy rule for modifying a situation. If it's easy, give a +2 bonus. Difficult? -2. REALLY difficult? -4. After the session is over, look up the actual 'rule' on the situation, and most times you'll find that you were right. Most importantly, though, is that the book does this without cramming a default campaign setting down your throat. Many DMs out there, myself included, want to play in our own worlds that we've created, and the DMG lets you do exactly that. This book is better laid-out than the Player's Handbook, which is why I gave it 5 stars. If half stars were available, I would have given it 4.5, since the book isn't perfect. Sure, there are some problems, but they're so much more minor than 2ed, with so many more possibilities for expanding the system that they're easily overlooked. 3rd Edition is what brougth my circle of gamers back to the table. It's so much easier to play that I can't imagine how we ever dealt with other systems. Much more time to roleplay, and less time taken looking up rules!

Simply Great:
The PHB was awesome, and the DMG is doulbly so. Prestige classes are a great tool. What's more are the very useful NPC classes. Finally there are rules for making magic items. I don't know why 2nd edition rules assumed that only NPCs can make these things. Now I have something for my players to strive for!

DM'ing Made Simple:
Let's face it. All my fellow DM's know Dungeon Mastering is hard. You need to be in tune with the entire game enviornment, and every NPC and every monster and...I could go on, but I'm not going to bore you. Anyway, I think 3rd Edition rules are pretty darn good, but this Dungeon Masters Guide is useless for experienced DM's. There are many useful tables throughout the book based on almost everything imaginable. They are quite useful for in-game reference. The classes included are quite interesting. My personal favorite is the "Paladin Gone Bad." It's real name is the Fallen Blackguard, and he is very bad-arse. They have other interesting ones, like the Arcane Archer, and Loremaster. There are tips in the first chapter of the book for beginners, that could come in handy. The problem is this book is geared for neophyte DMs. Experienced ones can rip out Chapters 1,4, and 5, because they just give you pointers on what adventures and campaigns are and how to control them. Trust me, If you've DMed for a fair amount of time, don't even bother buying this, and stick with your 2E Dungeon Master's Guide for reference. iF you are new to DMing, this is the perfect review for you.