D&D 5E "People complain, but don't actually read the DMG!" Which sections specifically?

[overgeeked]

But we're still circling around the big question which parts of the DMG are stuff that GMs really should know to be able to run the game properly.

It depends on how new the DM is to D&D. If the DM is a fresh-faced newb...they should read the entire thing cover to cover. If the DM is a grognard with decades of experience...they should read the entire thing cover to cover. It's the ones in the middle that can honestly get away with reading less of the book.

 

[Charlaquin]

When I sit down with the DMG and the plan to find the parts that have important new information, I still don't want to read the entire tome, which I am assuming is 90% stuff that I already know. Finding sections that look like they are worth reading really isn't easy with this one.

And herein lies the problem. People assume the DMG (of any edition) is 90% stuff that they already know, so they don’t bother to read the whole thing. Maybe they skim it for things that are obviously different from what they’re used to from previous edition(s). So, they end up running the game pretty much the way they ran previous Editions instead of trying to understand the new edition as its own thing and run it on its own terms.

 

[Parmandur]

But we're still circling around the big question which parts of the DMG are stuff that GMs really should know to be able to run the game properly.

Honestly nothing: all a DM needs for a proper game is in the Starter Set booklet. The issue with "that's in the DMG" questions have more to do with people suvconciously importing rules that aren't in 5E and having things get wonky (like Skill rules).

 

[Charlaquin]

But we're still circling around the big question which parts of the DMG are stuff that GMs really should know to be able to run the game properly.

All of it. What other game do you play that you feel like “how much of the rules can I get away with not reading?” is a question it makes sense to ask? If you want to learn to run a game properly, you read the rule book.

 

[Composer99]

The problem with the 5e DMG is that most of it is of no use for the purpose of running a game - table after table of random stuff - while the rest is mostly poor quality, and the layout of the thing as a whole is awful.

I mean, tables of content have their place, but I'd have much preferred more page count dedicated to running game sessions, or at least have the existing content put up front where it ought to have been.

Little wonder IMO it is so often passed over save for magic items.

 

[cbwjm]

I've learned to check the DMG now when I have a question about how to do something. I've found the simple morale system and the social system in there which was handy. I did look up the chase rules but couldn't figure them out at the time (I was in the middle of a session where a chase suddenly happened) and ended up replacing that with a skill challenge based on death saving throws.

I've found the first few chapters to be quite interesting, but since I've been playing DnD for years, I've likely just fallen back into my old ways of creating adventures, worlds, and NPCs, etc. It's definitely a good resource though that people should turn to first when they have an issue and run to forums and reddit second.

 

[Scribe]

Maybe its not the DMG, but people dont even bother to read the MM or the PHB either.

I think the takeaway, is most people just wing it.

 

[overgeeked]

All of it. What other game do you play that you feel like “how much of the rules can I get away with not reading?” is a question it makes sense to ask? If you want to learn to run a game properly, you read the rule book.

I partially agree and partially disagree. There's so much in the DMG that every DM should read, but there's also so much that's left out. Vitally important things that simply are not written about in the three core books. Some are written about but not very well. Something basic like how to improvise. Not a word. The word shows up 8-10 times in the DMG, but there's nothing on how to actually improvise things. You're directed to another book on improvising in the appendix. There's about a dozen books on writing, storytelling, and structure listed in the same appendix...but either not much or literally nothing about writing, storytelling, and structure in the DMG. So much is left up to the invisible rulebooks.

 

[Yora]

I just took up the book again to browse through it, and it took me only 20 minutes.
I guess I am not the target audience for this book. Though I also don't complain that the game "does not have rules for this". (Only that the rules for various things are anemic and every halfway decent GM should know better than the writers.)

The big issue I encounter is that when I read a page, I don't feel like I found any rules. Occasionally there are suggestions for alternative rules that you can use to replace rules in the PHB if you want, but nothing that seems like it's an actual mechanic of the default game.

Someone mentioned the assumptions for XP.
The assumptions stated by the book are that party can easily handle eight medium and hard encounters per day. As nearly everyone keeps saying, nobody seems to play that way. I certainly have no clue how I could cram that much combat into one day without the game turning into one giant bloodbath. And even if you follow that, it takes 13 days of such adventuring to get characters to 8th level. Which is frankly just absurd.
Switching to the rule to make short rests a night and long rest a week, it would turn into something like maybe a fight per day, and reaching 8th level in three or four months. Get in some more days without fights and you could maybe stretch it to a year. That still seems really hard to justify as sensible fiction.

From what I can tell, the rules for giving treasure are literally "whatever you feel like seems rewarding for the players."

 

[Faolyn]

Why aren't these in the PHB? I'm going to take a look at it next time I game in-person, but when it comes to 5e I'm player-only.

Tradition, likely.

I like the Level Up "DMG," which mostly has travel rules (and all the hazards that can be found while traveling), treasure, and mutliverse-type stuff in it. Everything else is in the Adventurer's Guide.