D&D (2024) Kobold Press posts 2024 DMG Hit Piece

[zottel]

I'm not looking at my library right now, but off the top of my head I'd say: Worldbuilder's Guidebook (AD&D 2e), Judge's Journal (ACKS II), GMs Survival Guide (Legend of the Five Rings 2e from Fantasy Flight), Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads! (Cyberpunk 2020), Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number, to name a few. I know I have plenty of others.

Thanks, will check them out!

 

[dbolack]

Hopefully playing through and examining the starter materials gives you enough experience and knowledge that you can then move on to the DMG without a substantial hiccup. Hence, no gap.

That's a fair thought, but my optimism is not quite so robust.

 

[Remathilis]

Hopefully playing through and examining the starter materials gives you enough experience and knowledge that you can then move on to the DMG without a substantial hiccup. Hence, no gap.

You are asking a lot of a starter product. Assuming a tabula rasa DM, the starter set needs to teach the basic rules of the game, table management, adventure design, treasure distribution, running monsters, and improvisation when the players go off script. That's a lot. The current starter set design eliminates all the prep work tasks and focuses purely on activity at the table. If you are going to add prep work, you are going to double the amount of material in the book and things the DM has to worry about. More importantly, you're going to either need a second box to teach those intermediate steps OR make the starter set a $50.00 product to fit all the additional materials.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Okay, but seriously what does an experienced DM need in a DMG that's so vital that it's worth roadblocking new DMs and forcing them to buy a whole other product to get started?

Also, how great an idea is it to add another 40 to 60 dollars to the price of admission to D&D?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Thanks, will check them out!

I meant AEG for the GM's Survival Guide, not Fantasy Flight. But they own the IP anyway now, so finding the book would probably be through them.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You are asking a lot of a starter product. Assuming a tabula rasa DM, the starter set needs to teach the basic rules of the game, table management, adventure design, treasure distribution, running monsters, and improvisation when the players go off script. That's a lot. The current starter set design eliminates all the prep work tasks and focuses purely on activity at the table. If you are going to add prep work, you are going to double the amount of material in the book and things the DM has to worry about. More importantly, you're going to either need a second box to teach those intermediate steps OR make the starter set a $50.00 product to fit all the additional materials.

I started with the BECMI Red Box. An amazing starter product! When I moved on to the 1e DMG, I didn't feel a gap. Rather, I saw it as the next level of complexity.

I don't see why modern D&D can't do something similar. Phandelver was the best starter product I've seen from official D&D since the Red Box, for example.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Okay, but seriously what does an experienced DM need in a DMG that's so vital that it's worth roadblocking new DMs and forcing them to buy a whole other product to get started?

Also, how great an idea is it to add another 40 to 60 dollars to the price of admission to D&D?

Ideally, you move on to the DMG only if you want to. The starter provides everything you actually need.

Serious, look at BECMI. That's the blueprint IMO.

 

[mamba]

Serious, look at BECMI. That's the blueprint IMO.

that was a parallel game line…

 

[Micah Sweet]

that was a parallel game line…

Largely compatible, and literally intended to some degree to push one towards the AD&D line.

 

[bedir than]

Someone who already has a dozen or more books about how to DM probably doesn't need a new DMG that tells them how to DM, right?