D&D 3E/3.5 The DMG: A CRITICAL HIT at 93.5%!

The 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide is still pulling in rave reviews, and is trending at 93.5%. io9 says its "like a Hacker's Manual for D&D", and Geekdad reports that "this 5e ruleset has completely won me back!" There are dissenters, of course - 5 Minute Workday feels its "a whole lot of appetizers but no real main course" - but these are outweighed by reviews from the likes of boingboing who called it "gorgeous, evocative, hefty, organized, and readable".

So, clearly the Dungeon Master's Guide has garnered critical praise. You can look at the list of critical reviews from outlets around the web. The critics have given it an aggregate score of 85%; but fans have shown more support and weigh in with a whopping 93.5%!

Fun with stats: D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide is ranked #3 out of 24 products with 10 or more reviews, placing it in the 92% percentile. It is rated 15.1 points higher than the overall average product rating of 78.4%. With 43 reviews, this is the #3 most reviewed product.

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[Blackwarder]

You're kidding right? 13th Age core (which in my opinion is a much better book altogether than DMG) won the silver ENnie itself here yet it holds only a 85% rating.

If PF Core is bad (and they "enhanced D&D 3e), then D&D 3e will be in the same league and don't forget, D&D 5e "borrowed" from D&D 3e too.

If 13th age won ab ENnie award it's clearly due to ENWorld staff bias toward it, and also, it's clear to anyone who is an experienced player and DM that PF only "enhanced" the worst parts of 3e, everyone with a working brain can see it..

/sarcasm

Warder

 

[Morrus]

There are three review scores on a product page. The first is the fan rating (the aggregate of a 1-5 score, plus the short comment reviews). The second is the critical rating, which is the aggregate of the full reviews by critics from sites such as iO9, boingboing, The Escapist, and other big outlets. The third is EN World's own review by [MENTION=85633]Neuroglyph[/MENTION].

The value you place on each, if any value at all, is a personal choice. My job is to present the data, but I leave it to you to make your minds up. Glance at the ratings, read the comments, click through and read all the long, full reviews - I designed it to present as wide a picture as possible. And your review/rating is as valuable as anybody's.

 

[mouselim]

Yep, I'd call myself experienced. Part of being a good GM is continuing your education and finding other perspectives and opinions on how to do things, rather than just relying on what you've done before yourself.

I will most certainly use their adventure creation section - it won't be the only information on adventure creation I'll use, but I want to include the designers' thoughts on the matter, as I do for every game that offers said advice. How a game plays is as much a matter of the adventure design as it does onthe game design - it is good for them to match up in a well-considered way. I am considering starting a 5e campaign in the coming months, probably building the world from scratch - I think I'll refer to the appropriate sections of the DMG when I do that, too. So, yes, I'll use those sections.

Ok, since you mentioned the adventure creation section. That's chapter 3. There are 17 pages interspaced with pictures and tables. Without referring to the book, what will you consider elements to a great adventure? Suspense? Twists? Surprises? Ups and Downs? Sacrifices? Mystery?

Moving on - how will you structure an adventure? A hook to begin? The gist of the adventure and how to end it?

Ok, what kind of adventures will you do? dungeon? wilderness? urban? mix? sandbox? theme? Will you have an arch villain? What is the plot? What is the villain's goals? Level? Adventure paths?

Is there a trigger? The solar eclipse? The digging of a old ruin? Will there be implications? Moral decisions?

As an experience DM, when you create adventures in the past, did these thoughts cross your mind? Did you get inspirations from Lord of the Rings, Hercules, Dragonlance, Book of the Fallen: Malazan Empire, David Eddings or from Godfather, Sixth Sense, etc?

If your answer is yes, then you'll realise that chapter 3 in the DMG covers it too. Designer thoughts? Nothing specific maybe only a snippet of example to FR. Anything revolutionary? Nope.

What is covered in chapter 3 is nothing new to you as an experienced DM. Now what if this is presented to an inexperienced DM who wants to create an adventure? Right, once upon a time, you and I are also inexperienced DM. Let's take a time machine back through time and then look through the eyes of a pimpled kid (and not an old man as I am) and see if this material is helpful. Thinking...thinking...sorry, but no. I would have thought of it too (and I did).

Although there is one good redeeming factor of this chapter, it structures all these though processes quite well. That's why I remembered I gave it a 2.5/5.

 

[Agamon]

If 13th age won ab ENnie award it's clearly due to ENWorld staff bias toward it, and also, it's clear to anyone who is an experienced player and DM that PF only "enhanced" the worst parts of 3e, everyone with a working brain can see it..

ENnies are fan-voted (after nominations, of course), so no, the only bias is fanboy bias, the reason I just look at nominees all as "winners" (aka stuff I should take a look at) and ignore the actual winners.

That said, 13th Age has "only an 85"? I'm flashing back to high school...

 

[mouselim]

Exactly. If you think a product is "Excellent", you give it a 5.

The system may be nebulous in how one defines "Excellent," but this isn't a scientific survey, it's just a bit of fun.

Actually I also agree with you but when I thought that EN World is a leading authority on RPG stuff and some folks will take the ratings and rankings on this site seriously, I asked Morrus (check out one of the first few earlier posts on this) to have a better way of rating...weighted average and such but I guess the word "dissenter" got in the way and he must be thinking that I am a dissenting trouble-maker

 

[mouselim]

If 13th age won ab ENnie award it's clearly due to ENWorld staff bias toward it, and also, it's clear to anyone who is an experienced player and DM that PF only "enhanced" the worst parts of 3e, everyone with a working brain can see it..

/sarcasm

Warder

Sorry bud but your point of view clearly bang on a lot of folks' brains as dead

 

[wedgeski]

As a reviewer I don't think you should imagine you're standing on a line that runs all the way back in time to when you started reviewing things and all the way forwards in time to when you stop, and try only to score in comparison to everything that has come before and everything that will come in the future. Just rate it, then and there.

Is a three too little but a five too much? Then you know what the score is. Who cares what you rated some other (similar?) product four years ago? How does this one make you feel? You might want different things. As a DM, your players might have changed, your tastes might have changed, or you might have changed. Don't get hung up on it, and give an honest, unencumbered review.

 

[Blackwarder]

Sorry bud but your point of view clearly bang on a lot of folks' brains as dead

OMG! guess what? so is your's!
Phew, that was shorter than what I thought it would be, point is mate, you got your opinion and it's a fine and good opinion, but other folks got their own opinions and going all passive-aggressive implying that your opinion is more valid than other folks opinion just make you look like a rude snob at best, a douchbag at worse...

ENnies are fan-voted (after nominations, of course), so no, the only bias is fanboy bias, the reason I just look at nominees all as "winners" (aka stuff I should take a look at) and ignore the actual winners.

That said, 13th Age has "only an 85"? I'm flashing back to high school...

Seriously? Dude i expected better than you, haven't you seen the /sarcasm line?

Warder

 

[Reynard]

What is covered in chapter 3 is nothing new to you as an experienced DM.

The dirty secret of D&D (and other RPGs) is that once you know how it works, you don't need any rulebooks at all. Ever. Get 5 friends together, grab some pencils and paper and steal the dice from the Monopoly box and we can run a campaign for years. What books do is inspire and alleviate the effort. For some, that means codifying rules and providing lists of things. For others, it means tons of fluff and next to no crunch. The 5E DMG does a good job in the Adventure Design chapter for oen reason: while reading it, I start thinking up cool adventures based on what's in the text. that is all it has to do for me, so I would rate it highly. If one wants adventure design matrices and other systems designed to support a different way to play, they might rate it less highly.

 

[mouselim]

OMG! guess what? so is your's!
Phew, that was shorter than what I thought it would be, point is mate, you got your opinion and it's a fine and good opinion, but other folks got their own opinions and going all passive-aggressive implying that your opinion is more valid than other folks opinion just make you look like a rude snob at best, a douchbag at worse...

Warder

Problem is, my opinion differs from the general populace. How should it stand out then? Stating it and ending it like, "Oh, but of course, the DMG 5e is a 5/5 if everyone else thinks so..." That isn't stating my opinion.

I guess as what Morrus said, I'm one of the dissenters here and anything I said will go out as a rude snob or a douchbag...

You're right - I should keep my peace.

Thanx.