Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009006" data-attributes="member: 18387">You can find this and all my other reviews at http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/darkcitadel/roleplay/rants.htmlIntroduction: This is where 3rd Edition began to loose its luster.  After the brilliant triumph of The Player's Handbook in extoling the virtues of the D20 system, the Dungeon Master's Guide would greatly temper the excitement I would feel for the upcoming gaming revolution. Cover: The blue leather appearance, with the intricate locking mechanism is symbolic that this is "off limits" to players, and contains secrets to the game that are for the eyes of the Dungeon Master only.  Oooooo.  Actually, I thought it was pretty cool when I first saw it, and it definitely made an impression.  It was quite enticing, in fact, and after The Player's Handbook I was furiously eager to open it and tear through it like a wolverine on crack. Writing Style: As with the Player's Handbook, this book was extremely well-written, and largely easy to understand.  Although Spell Resistance took a moment or so to catch the drift of, there was no ambiguity.  The book was written down to new Dungeon Masters (which is understandable), and not experienced Dungeon Masters who are converting over. Actually, this surprised me, but, as mentioned before, I came to understand why they did this: because they are seeking more than just converts to 3rd Edition but looking to appeal to a wider range of people, to get more into gaming.  They had whole chapters on how to run a campaign, world building, and other bits of advice, which is a far leap from the cold, mechanical formats of most previous Dungeon Master's Guides (especially the 1st edition one). Artwork:  The artwork was lackluster in comparison with the Player's Handbook.  The book simply had an unfinished feel to it, almost as if they rushed to get it finished because of production demands.  This sort of thing always irritates me, because I am always willing to wait a few extra months so that I can spend years using a top-notch product instead of one that is just below.  Still, every here-and-there, you see great examples of artwork that will just blow your mind.  Also, the sketchwork pictures are very good, as well.  But most of the color illustrations leave something to be desired when compared with the Player's Handbook. Mechanics:  The first thing they introduce is prestige classes.  A great idea!  More than that, it is an incredible idea!  It creates something for the characters to strive for, goals they can attain and work towards, and gifts that can be bestowed upon them by gods, kings, or organizations.  However, they chose borderline crap for some of the featured classes.  The assassin should have been a character class (hearkening back to 1st edition), alongside the (unbalanced) monk, the (equally unbalanced but unincluded) cavalier, and the barbarian.  The arcane archer, dwarven defender, and shadowdancer were okay.  The loremaster seemed honestly not really all that playable to me, though.  The blackguard was an okay adversary, but the depiction of the blackguard in the book was pretty sad (hence, lackluster artwork), as well as way to cliche. The Challenge Rating system is actually a great idea too.  The fact that they leveled the playing field for all of the classes is great, especially if the monsters are leveled out as well.  It makes calculating combat experience pretty efficient.  But that is the problem with experience: it is all combat related.  I miss the old system from 2nd Edition, the Optional Experience awards, because it made perfect sense.  Although they advocate awarding arbitrary experience for accomplishments, it isn't quite the same.  Thus, I have imported yet another mechanic from 2nd Edition into my 3rd Edition games. My last gripe is that they killed too many magical items.  Where are all the Elixirs of Health that were standard 2nd Edition AD&D fare?  Just as the spells were cleaned out, so, it seems, were the magical items.  Sadly, this seems to be the case with 3rd Edition D&D.  They can add stuff, and they can cut stuff, but the worst thing they always do is cut off too much. Overall: Honestly, if this was a book you could do without, I'd say do without it.  Photocopy a few pages from a friend's copy of the book and use that.  If you are an experienced Dungeon Master, you really need very little of what is in the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide.  Many of us have been building our worlds since 2nd Edition got its start, we really don't need 3rd Edition advice.  It is good if you are totally new to roleplaying, but if you have experience, borrow it from a friend, scan the prestige classes, the challenge rating systems, and only some of the magical items tables (because the 2nd Edition DMG is actually better for those).</blockquote>

Verification