D&D 5E In Search Of: The 5e Dungeon Master's Guide

[FrozenNorth]

You are exceptional in my eyes because most people I have gamed with, are not reading through nearly 900 pages of material to play a game... Much of D&D's marketing material, intros, advice, etc. make it point to stress you don't need to read all of that to play because they know it would kill the game.

How exceptional? I also read the DMG from cover-to-cover before playing. I think there are a lot of people who do.

 

[Imaro]

Well aw shucks. Admittedly, skipping those specific aspects cuts a lot of the page count in many texts, especially 5E, and it's not like 5E isn't on the bloated side of most other games.

Admittedly, what I find confusing is the idea that people would prefer and seek out third party overviews and explanations over primary text. I'm not going to say they can't be better, but I'd never expect them to be. There's an absolute embarrassment of bad resources out there. Especially for something that is trumpeted to be as mutable and personal as 5E/ttrpgs are. Not even to mention how much longer it takes to watch videos than read.

Well I can honestly say I prefer videos because I can both hear/read the explanation/rule/etc. but there is usually a real time example/animation/etc that explains it. With reading it I may think I understand it and then in practice realize i was unclear about some detail that didn't arise until I tried to apply what I read (not to say this can't happen with a video, just IME it happens less often).

 

[Imaro]

How exceptional? I also read the DMG from cover-to-cover before playing. I think there are a lot of people who do.

Define alot compared to the number of people who play D&D... also take into consideration we are people posting about D&D (and often arguing about it) during our non-D&D free time... I think we're a little more hardcore than the majority of 5e players.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Your reply hinges on a single word that I could have easily not have used.

Feel free to clarify, but I don’t think you misspoke.

When I started with the Rules Cyclopedia in ‘90, saying “I managed” is a pretty good description of the stumbling around I did trying to deliver an interesting game to my friends. A lot of the DM horror stories I hear aren’t people who are actively malicious, but people who would have benefitted from better guidance early on.

 

[Lidgar]

In Search Of has sent a team of scientists, occult researchers, trained martial artists, and three fishmongers into the DMG

Never underestimate the power of the Fishmonger's Guild!

 

[Maxperson]

We only accept top-notch researchers to ensure the highest-quality work.

I've got some for you.

 

[el-remmen]

You don't even need to own any D&D books to play or run D&D!

 

[pointofyou]

You don't even need to own any D&D books to play or run D&D!

But it probably helps.

 

[Maxperson]

Yes... you've DM'd. You at least have the context, rules structure, an example and experience being a DM at this point as opposed to knowing nothing about it. Are you an expert? No. But you have the context to understand what is laid out in the DMG and put it together to try your hand at creating and running.

People act as if learning by doing and learning curves aren't a thing. After you've DM'd a few times, you get a good feel for the game. At that point it's fine tuning what you want, making some mistakes and correcting them along the way, and never stopping either thing. 39 years later I'm still tweaking, learning and making new mistakes.

 

[Maxperson]

At some point into 3.5 I foolishly sold almost all my older D&D books. Kept the 1e DMG and 2e MM, because I'm not (entirely) a monster.

One of my players still has his error 1e DMG that about 3/4 of the way through has X-Z of the MM printed upside down. Most of those copies were recalled and destroyed.