New DM's Kit? Anybody?

[bbjore]

I'd like to second what others have said. Looking over my copy, the manual itself is nice, and well laid out, but there's really nothing new. I do think it is a little short on some of the excellent advice the DMG1&2 had on running adventures and designing them in general. It's a great start for the newbie GM, but nothing a veteran needs at all. The tokens, maps, and screen are nice, but nothing super special, just enough utility without being fancy enough to drive the price point up to much. All in all, I really do think the adventure is the shining point of the whole setup. I hope to see more like it.

On a side note. Was anyone else a little disappointed that the Dungeon Master's book was a slightly different shape, and uses different glossy cover stock than HOTFL and the Rules Compendium? When I saw the new books, I had this image in my head of a beautifully designed, matching collection of books sitting proudly on my shelf, and the difference in covers ruined that.

 

[UHF]

Wizards was clear that no one who's into regular 4e would find the DMs kit of any use.

The screen is handy ish.. and I might run the modules.

Also remember that Essentials is like Basic D&D of yor. No more. Its a simpler game. Or rather, this Happy Meal doesn't have a toy. (unlike the days of yor, Essentials is compatible with full 4e...)

Mostly I got it for my 9 year old son.

 

[Kurtomatic]

On a side note. Was anyone else a little disappointed that the Dungeon Master's book was a slightly different shape, and uses different glossy cover stock than HOTFL and the Rules Compendium? When I saw the new books, I had this image in my head of a beautifully designed, matching collection of books sitting proudly on my shelf, and the difference in covers ruined that.

I noticed the glossier cover right away. The digest format is virtually identical between this book and the other two, however. Aside from minor variations of glue binding in all thee books, the dimensions are the same. The trade dress doesn't wrap around to the back cover of the DM's Book (which is blank), so the spines aren't perfectly matched, but they're darn close.

 

[Kurtomatic]

Directed information. I'm guessing that means the DM Kit will provide a simplified, cookbook-style approach to DM'ing. If you're familiar with the Dreyfus model of learning, you know that this is a good way to teach beginners. To more experienced DM's, though, it could seem dumbed-down, even insulting.

It just occurred to me that while the Essentials DM's Book isn't exactly Head First Dungeons & Dragons, that would be a darn interesting book. Remember B1? Imagine a D&D primer with both rules, guidelines, and 2 or 3 levels worth of half-finished adventure mixed in where the DM has to fill in the blanks (story/encounters) as drill exercises. If the Red Box is a player tutorial, what would a quality DM tutorial look like?

That would devour a dummies book like a dollar menu cheeseburger.

 

[Renshai]

Wizards was clear that no one who's into regular 4e would find the DMs kit of any use.

The screen is handy ish.. and I might run the modules.

Also remember that Essentials is like Basic D&D of yor. No more. Its a simpler game. Or rather, this Happy Meal doesn't have a toy. (unlike the days of yor, Essentials is compatible with full 4e...)

Mostly I got it for my 9 year old son.

I'd say thats about as far from the truth as one could get. You might be running it for your 9 year old son, but its still 4E D&D, just with different classes and powers. I'm running it for a group of 20+ year RPG veterans and no one finds the rules elementary or basic. Essentials is just essential classes and powers with the Rules Compendium (which is the same rule system that core 4E uses).

 

[GreyLord]

Yes, but for those who can think quickly on their feet, they can figure out the DC's from the trap examples/kits and then figure out the damage from the Damage by Level (or use difficulty class for skill checks on the trap) to make a decent improvised trap on the fly.

Nothing new really from the old DMG's...but I'd say for the inventive DM new to the scene it has a lot that one could do (like making improvised monsters on the fly...roll 1d8 per level...add 20 HP, roll 1d10+10 for AC and add 1 AC for every two levels...have it do the damage as per the damage by level table and give XP as per the XP table and you have an instant improvised monster).

But, sadly a new DM probably won't be up to that level of improvisation on the spot.

 

[Zaran]

In fairness, the idea is that a new DM only has to buy the DM's kit and not the RC, so it makes sense for him to have his own version of the core rules. It is a bit disappointing not to see a lot of the "content creation" rules in the DMK, especially given that it's actually SHORTER than the RC and HotFL, but you really can't get mad at them for the "reprinted" segments. Those aren't a bug, they're a feature.

As always: remember to view all Essentials products through the eyes of someone who doesn't already own 4e and know how to play it. While these products have some use for veteran players, we are not the primary audience.

Helping new players was only supposed to be half the reason for Essentials. I was given the impression that Essentials are also supposed to be an updated version of the old rules so they don't have to reprint the core books.

I decided to buy the kit for the tokens though. Can anyone elaborate on those?

 

[Zaran]

So does the DM kit have weapon properties or was that a lie?

Edit: Nevermind. Weapon properties were talked about in the sentence before. Apparently, they were just completely left out of Essentials.

 

[captainspud]

So does the DM kit have weapon properties or was that a lie?

Edit: Nevermind. Weapon properties were talked about in the sentence before. Apparently, they were just completely left out of Essentials.

Sorry, I'm confused. Are you referring to basic properties like Brutal, High Crit, etc, or properties on magic items? Or something else?

 

[Lostdwarf]

The reason they are not ordering reprints of the existing books is that they are not out of print. MM 1-3, PHB 1-3, DMG 1-2, are all available in stock with Barnes and Noble. And as far as I know they are not going away. There was a thing a while ago that WoTC was not ordering a reprint, but that just means they were not ordering a reprint AT THAT MOMENT. Because they had enough of the books on hand that they did not need more. Essentials is a new option. The existing version of the game is not going away. You can choose between the two, or mix and match if desired.