D&D 5E What are people expecting to be in the DMG that is "needed to play the game"

[Plaguescarred]

May be not needed, but a quite useful to have;

Traps
Poisons
Curses
Magic Items

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Mearls and Co. have been extremely closed-lipped regarding possible products. However, there are these two tweets from Mearls:





That first one in particular suggests to me that the DMG will be completely optional. It will be the book that holds the various campaign level modules for really changing up the core game. That's why it will assume you are an expert DM. It's going to assume you've played before, you have a sense of what you want D&D to do for you, and you'll be ready to try the various modules and dials in the DMG.

Interesting. This makes me think that perhaps they are going to fold most of the traditional DMG into the PHB, and make the DMG more of the new "Unearthed Arcana." I'm not sure I care for that, simply because I loved the idea of a PHB with traditional PHB material only that was large enough to be worth $50.

 

[Li Shenron]

That first one in particular suggests to me that the DMG will be completely optional. It will be the book that holds the various campaign level modules for really changing up the core game. That's why it will assume you are an expert DM. It's going to assume you've played before, you have a sense of what you want D&D to do for you, and you'll be ready to try the various modules and dials in the DMG.

If the latter stuff (magic items, traps, etc) is in that $50 PHB, then the DMG becomes a useful but unneeded book. I'm fine with that; Pathfinder works just fine holding the SRD's worth of classes, spells, magic items, rules, and even prestige classes. Their Gamemastery Guide is full of good supplemental rules; NPCs, optional rules, advice, etc. I bring the Core book to game for reference, the GMG I read at home when creating adventures.

Interesting. This makes me think that perhaps they are going to fold most of the traditional DMG into the PHB, and make the DMG more of the new "Unearthed Arcana."

You are making it starts to sound like...

"Starter Set" = Basic
PHB = Standard
DMG = Advanced

Which doesn't sound bad at all to me... If someone is a beginner, they buy the Starter Set, for now. If someone is an expert, but interested only in the Standard game, they skips the Starter Set and goes straight to PHB. The interested in the Advanced game buy both PHB and DMG.

This actually makes it quite feasible to take time between the release of PHB and DMG, with not much need to release the DMG quickly since most groups will be playing Standard for quite a while.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Mearls and Co. have been extremely closed-lipped regarding possible products. However, there are these two tweets from Mearls:

Now hold on a moment, Mr. Mearls ...

Not everyone playing D&D is going to be an experienced D&D player or DM. At least you'd hope not, right -- you want to expand the brand. So if you're not putting advice for Dungeon Masters on how to play the game in the Dungeon Master's Guide, where will you put it? The Player's Handbook? The Monster Manual? Way to confuse your new customers, guys.

Some game-running info will be in the starter box, sure ... but I have a hard time seeing that containing sufficient campaign building advice to support a fledgling DM. And what if my introduction to the game is as a player, and I have the PHB, and then want to become a DM ... isn't the logical place to send me to the DMG?

(Obviously, if there's a different model than the core 3 books, all bets are off ... but the current consensus seems to indicate three books especially if the first release is in fact a "Player's Handbook".)