4E DMG...good...bad...ugly

[TerraDave]

So we have had a couple of months to read through, play around, think over…what is your opinion of the fourth edition Dungeon Masters Guide?

 

[Obryn]

I think, for the purpose of teaching a new DM how to run the game, or teaching an old DM some new tricks, this is the best DMG yet. So that's what I picked.

The 3.0 DMG had some awesome, too, and was to date the only one that bothered to give me NPC stats for levels 1-20.

The 3e DMG 2 was very similar to the 4e DMG. Since I thought the DMG 2 was a better DMG than the 3.5 DMG, I was great with this.

And, of course, there's Gary's eccentric masterpiece. It's got some wacky stuff in there, along with some good advice. I love it, I really do. It's just ... well, my love for it far exceeds its utility.

-O

 

[El Mahdi]

Ditto everything Obryn said. There are a lot of very good, commonsense things in the 4E DMG that old and new DM's can use (I'm not even switching to 4E and I really like it). I'm not saying that other DMG's didn't have good, commonsense stuff, it's just that this DMG seems to really have a lot more of this all together in one book.

 

[Victim]

The 4e DMG has some good advice and information, but I'm having trouble with the layout.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

As much as I dislike 4e, I do think the DM is done fairly well. It had troubles reading it until I realized "This book isn't for me. I've already DM'd, and I know about DMing. This is for new DMs." And for new DMs, it's a pretty good book.

 

[Festivus]

I found the 4E DMG to be a very good read, useful for newcomers to the game and a terrible reference book. Everything I need from that book is on the DM Screen (Excellent product that), and I never bring that book to the gaming table.

 

[El Mahdi]

Deleted

 

[Aus_Snow]

Pretty bad, overall, but not one of the worst things out there. Oh no, that's for sure.

 

[JeffB]

By FAR the 4E DMG is the best version for teaching someone to DM effectively, is a fun read and IMO is the strongest of the core 4E books.

The 2E DMG was a complete joke.

3.x versions, while better, were not *that* much better than 2E. I suppose the 3.5 version was better than 3.0 being that it added info from MOTP, ELHB, etc. But it still read like a boring textbook. It certainly didn't encourage me to want to DM the game.

Gary's version I would never want to impy is bad as it's near and dear to my heart-but the fact remains it's a horrible book for teaching someone how to DM. It's a wonderful idea mine though.

 

[Hussar]

Pretty bad, overall, but not one of the worst things out there. Oh no, that's for sure.

For those who think the 4e DMG is very bad, what would you change?

To me, I think this is one of the best DMG's ever. This is what a GUIDE is supposed to do - teach people how to play the game. It's organized very nicely, hits all the best parts. Someone who followed what's in this book would make a pretty decent DM.

Can you really say that about any other DMG?