DMG news from Rich Baker blog

[Aloïsius]

If we're going with 4e is brand new and needs a small town for the new gms, then it also needs random tables for those SAME new gms no?

I don't like random tables... Even when I was a new GM. They can give a few sample treasure/encounters/NPC, but random tables are so often non-sensical...

 

[Brown Jenkin]

New system new rules.

1. NPC rules. We've heard that the NPCs are not going to be the same as the PC's.

2. Monster Construction Rules. I'm hoping that 4e can get this one MAJOR part of the system down to something more than a handwave and a science.

3. Planes.

4. Non-standard magic items. (I thought I heard regular magic items will be in the PHB). This would be things like artifacts and relics.

5. Advice on world building. (I'm really hoping that they'll keep the sell down and leave it in the various Dummies books as opposed to jamming it hardcore into the book.)

6. Recommended Reading List. I'd love it if this wasn't a listing of various WoTC books and actually had a few different eras of reading.

7. Chapter on Using the Internet: I'd love for some 'standard' sites to get the thumbs up when talking about role playing such as Roleplayintips.com, and of course En World.

8. Sample pregenerated NPCs of various levels.

9. Discussions on alternative rules and how to implement them.

10. Alternative technologies by era (I'm assuming that guns will not be in the PHB so I'd like to see an option for them in the DMG.)

There's all sorts of things that can be put into a DMG.

I'm not saying there arn't things to put in there, but for experienced DMs it is not really neccesary. Most of the stuff you list is stuff for beginers. The real interesting bits would be NPC and monster construction rules and we shall see how detailed that is.

 

[Rechan]

I'm not saying there arn't things to put in there, but for experienced DMs it is not really neccesary. Most of the stuff you list is stuff for beginers. The real interesting bits would be NPC and monster construction rules and we shall see how detailed that is.

And the DMG is not meant to cater to just experienced DMs.

I'm pretty sure we'll see "How to structure an adventure" and all the stuff that was in the 2e, 3e and 3.5 dmg.

We'll see the Quest system, for instance.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I don't like random tables... Even when I was a new GM. They can give a few sample treasure/encounters/NPC, but random tables are so often non-sensical...

And I hate small hommlets, nulbs, villages, towns, and other hick communities that rely on the goodwill of strangers and monsters to help them out.

 

[jdrakeh]

If we're going with 4e is brand new and needs a small town for the new gms, then it also needs random tables for those SAME new gms no?

I think we just have a fundamental divide concerning the perceived usefullness of random details and default settings.

I think that default settings are very useful to newcomers (mainly because they allow play to commence right out of the box) whereas you think that they're of limited utility for unstated reasons.

Conversely, I think that random tables are of limited utility (mainly because they're a dime a dozen and nothing that an unskilled DM couldn't cobble together on their own), whereas you think they're a fundamental part of the game system.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree where opinions on what a total newb might find useful are concerned

 

[Novem5er]

I hate the 3.x DMs guide.

At first, I loved it because it had all sorts of "Behind the Curtain" tips, charts for rolling up cities, random treasure, pre-generated NPCs, etc, etc.

But then I started designing and running adventures. You know, what DMs are supposed to do. I grew to loath the DMs Guide. Why?

Everything you NEED is scattered across 200 pages and hidden in little charts. ECL? Character Wealth? Challenge Ratings and Treasure... Gah! Now somebody's poisoned... you have to be kidding me, where is all this stuff?

I even got pissed looking through the 3.5 MM recently. I was looking at the Derro entry... spell like abilities AND poison, with no stats listed. Great, now I have to spread 3 books across my living room couch so I can understand exactly what these monsters do. Derros are a CR 3 monster... great, if my party runs across 1 lonesome Derro... but how many would be a challenge against a level 5 group?

Of course, there are easy answers to all of these complaints, but you have to flip through multiple books and multiple places within those books to get a complete picture of what's going on.

I can't WAIT to see what the new DMG has and I'm praying that it's put together more logically.

 

[Rechan]

STUFF

YEAH.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Organization and utility will indeed be key components of ANY RPG book. The PHB isn't the most logical book either.

 

[Hussar]

What I truly hope to see in the DMG is a table, similar to the character creation list in the 3e PHB, detailing a basic checklist for adventure design. It doesn't have to be extremely specific. In fact, I hope that it isn't. But, what I'd love to see is a point form checklist starting from concept to finished product for how to create an adventure.

Add to that a number of sidebar discussions on how to get various results from that checklist and you've got something that EVERY DM could use.

What I'd love to see is something like Wolfgang Baur's Adventure Building article updated for 4e and whacked straight onto the first page of the adventure building section of the DMG.

 

[Mercule]

Everything you NEED is scattered across 200 pages and hidden in little charts. ECL? Character Wealth? Challenge Ratings and Treasure... Gah! Now somebody's poisoned... you have to be kidding me, where is all this stuff?

It ain't just poor organization. The 3.5 DMG never seemed to finish a thought. It was like it was written, train of thought, by an over-caffeinated ferret. "Ooooh! Shiny ideas!"

Take the random encounters stuff, which has always bugged me (in execution, not concept) -- there is a pretty significant page count taken up for this. They present the idea that you could have random encounter tables and all that goes with that. Then, they give not just one example, but eight or ten. Complete with quite a bit of text. But, the charts aren't put together well enough to make them truly useful. Nor are there charts for some common situations -- IIRC, there isn't a forest chart (though I could be misremembering and it's something else).

I won't say that the 1E DMG couldn't be improved on for charts and tables (or organization -- hoo, boy). Having made use of it, though, I found the 3E DMG to be a serious disappointment, in terms of quality. It had some usefulness, but certainly not as much as it could have had.