What can we expect from DMG2

[Lord Zardoz]

The 4th edition DMG was a pretty good book. It gave us the rules for setting the DC's for skill challenges (though the DC's were flawed), encounter construction guidelines, and guidelines for raising or lowering the level of a monster.

So what will they put in DMG 2, and what do you want to see? Here are some things I would like to see.

1) Outlines for typical skill challenges: There will be many skill challenges that are unique to a particular game. But there are others that will come up fairly often, like the following.
- Running away / foot chases
- Traveling overland across wilderness
- As above while avoiding in place patrols
- As above while tracking someone trying to keep away from you
- Finding a specific place in an unknown city

Some suggestions on which skills would come into play in typical situations would be very useful.

2) Creating monsters and / or powers from scratch
- Most of what you need can be figured out by looking at existing monsters. But having some idea of the impact or effect of certain powers as it relates to XP would be very useful. Is a d6 vs Fort attack worth more than a d8 attack vs AC? How much extra cost is an ability that recharges on 5 / 6 then one that triggers when bloodied?

3) Creating NPC's
- You can create NPC's as monsters, by just giving them what you want them to have rather then building as a PC. I like this approach well enough, but again, you run into the problem of figuring out what is XP cost is. On top of that, Dm's like to have NPC's which are designed to survive more than one direct encounter with the players, and you want your NPC's to have Healing Surges and 2nd Wind, and Action points. A selection of monster / NPC abilities designed around escaping combat alive would be very useful.

Well, that is what I want. What about the rest of you? And what is currently known about DMG 2?

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[webrunner]

1) Creating minions
2) Creating traps
3) More pre-made traps
4) creating equipment

 

[TerraDave]

1) artifacts
2) skill challenges
3) traps
4) npcs
5) making your own stuff, especially the above
6) world building
7) running truly different kinds of campaigns.
8) overall, more advanced

 

[Quickleaf]

I'll second all of the above, and add that I really want guidelines for creating my own stuff. It seems like homebrewing could be the strength of this edition of D&D if Wizards goes that way.

 

[Hawke]

I would like a lot of sample traps/hazards and maybe a sample NPC from each class for each tier (3 for each classes). I know there's rules for creating your own, but it'd be nice to have something quick to look at and to see some ideas for how to do some of the class features in monster-form.

In addition, instructions for creating NPCs of the Primal classes.

I know the instructions for creating things are crucial... but sometimes you just want to flip to a page and grab something mid-game... or in the case... digitally search for them on Compendium :-D

Some extra rules for running some crazy type of encounter... similar to swimming?

 

[Wormwood]

I want plenty of elements that I can easily cut/paste into my game.

1. Encounter zones (remember those?)
2. Traps
3. More skill challenge templates
3a. Perhaps an expansion of the SC system, is in order as well.


Basically, I am less interested in 'how to" than I am in "ready-made".

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Well, so far we have a bunch of things we would like to see. Has there been any pre-release samples / excerpts for it at all? PHB 2 things had started showing up long before that was released. And I think I recall seeing one or two monsters meant for MM2.

Has anyone seen anything even close to concrete about DMG 2?

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[Roger]

I'm already confused about what this thread is about.

Is it about what we can expect from DMG2?

Is it about what we want to see in DMG2?

Something else?



Cheers,
Roger

 

[grimslade]

A few wishes

The Social Combat system that was bandied about leading up to the launch of 4E.
More traps, encounter zones and artifacts.
More city, town, kingdom building advice and crunch to help it out.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

I'm already confused about what this thread is about.

Is it about what we can expect from DMG2?

Is it about what we want to see in DMG2?

Something else?

Cheers,
Roger

Both. I am basically trying to figure out what might be in it, and at the same time find out how far off the mark the real product will likely be. I am also just curious in general about it. As i said, it has not exactly been promoted at all, and considering the kind of content it needs, its note as easy for WotC to write as a new MM (just add monsters) or PHB (just add races / classes). We even know more right now about Adventurers Vault 2 (yet more magic items) that we do about what we might find in the DMG 2.

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