DMG to include a "starter town".

[The Cardinal]

Threshold would indeed be the Awesome!

 

[Belorin]

Daggerford would indeed be a great sample town as would be Eveningstar, after clearing the 'Haunted Halls' my group used them as a base of operations for many a campaign.

Bel

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Bingo!

You're a brand new player, prolly around 12 years of age and you've been picked to DM. Think about it.

Who would say the old sample dungeons in the 1E DMG or Basic D&D books were a BAD idea? What about the sample wilderness in the Expert set? Were those a bad idea?

Depends on how much space they devote to this town. Saltmarsh occupies a rather large chunk of the DMG2, way more than the sample dungeons in the 1e DMG. Again, I don't have a problem with a sample town being provided, I just would rather it be a separate module that comes with the DMG.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I (as an experienced DM of many, many years) think it is a fantastic idea. Not only do I not begrudge a few pages being used to provide inspirational material for relatively new DMs, I'd be very pleased to have anything that might inspire me too (or even give me a useful baseline-in-a-book whose serial numbers I can file off and reuse whenever I want).

My personal thought is that thumbnail sketches of inhabitants and buildings is much more useful than highly detailed information (too much information to inwardly digest makes it less useful in my experience), it will be interesting to see what they go with.

Cheers

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

This sounds fun. I really liked Saltmarsh in the DMG2.

 

[Roadkill101]

I have no strong opinion either way as to having a starter town being good or bad in the 4e DMG. I guess I'll have to wait and see how it's implemented.
As far as which iconic, the Keep and Hommlet both popped into my mind right off the bat. I skipped the second page of the topic, so I'm not sure if it was mentioned, but Shadowdale comes to mind. The grey FR setting box did a nice job of presenting some population centers IMO.
The biggest and only real problem I have with the inclusion of a starter town, is the implication that it will be a revamp of an iconic location. I'd rather WoTC just present something new and fresh, outlining whatever new (or revamped) way in which a DM goes about creating a town. An iconic is good for striking a chord with veteran gamers, but it's a new edition, why not create something new with it that in turn will be an iconic someday in it's own right instead of re-hashing old material.

 

[hazel monday]

Also, keep in mind, there are more DMGs to come.

Ugh. Don't remind me. I'll probably get to DMG4 before Hasbro decides I'm ready for treasure tables.
I mean, if they're leaving Frost Giants out of the monster manual, it wouldn't surprise me if they left treasure tables out of the DMG.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

As much as I'd love it to be Sigil, I don't see that happening.

So my vote's for Hommlet. Or Threshold.

And I think it's a good idea. I might not (or hey, I might...) use it but it's still good to draw inspiration from.

 

[JDJblatherings]

A "starter town" is a good idea. Morseso if it follows or is followed by a few pages explaining the campaign uses for a town and urban adventures.

 

[Klaus]

People have to learn the game somewhere, folks. And requiring beginners to buy more than longterm fans is, frankly, just stupid business.

The game should hand-hold beginning DMs. It's how they learn to be experienced DMs. And the DMG--the first DMG--is absolutely the book to do it in.

I agree with the Vampire Mickey here (as I do mostly everywhere except Tiamat as a goddess ).

I think it's either:
- Hommlett
- Greyhawk
- Tristram