Dungeon Masters Guide (Dungeons Dragons, 5th Edition) by Mike Mearls

Dungeon Masters Guide (Dungeons Dragons, 5th Edition) Reviews

• 
  Sean Gibson

  The last time I regularly played D&D, Y2K was a thing (kids, ask your parents—we really were worried that our microwaves, alarm clocks, and coffee makers were going to try to kill us at the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1999; it was a simpler, and much stupider, time). In other words, it’s been a while. I have high hopes for dorkifying my kids sufficiently to want to play, but they’re still a few years away from being old enough to be so corrupted (God, my kids are lucky their dad is so awesome).
  
  So, how do I scratch that itch in the interim? Generally, I either use my finger or consult a doctor to obtain a prescription for…oh, wait; I was talking about a metaphorical itch, wasn’t I? An urge to play the greatest game ever invented by the humans. And no, I’m not being hyperbolic here; I’d take D&D over any other game—board game, video game, app, etc.—out there. I can’t think of a game that better combines elements of imagination, chance, complete and total immersion, creativity, cooperation, and dramatic tension. Don’t mock it until you try it (and then feel free to mock freely, as I used to tell women I wanted to date by way of giving them incentive to take me for a test drive).
  
  Right. I was talking about scratching the metaphorical itch. I was primarily a 2nd Edition player, so even though life does not allow ample room for roleplaying time these days, I’ve made it a point to read through the Player’s Handbook and DM’s guide for subsequent editions, just out of curiosity. Neither the 3rd nor 4th Edition incarnations impressed me, but 5th Edition seems to offer the right combination of sensible framework for combat, magic, and other key elements while allowing ample room for customization based on setting and player preferences. This is pure speculation, given that I haven’t actually run through a session using 5th Edition rules, but I think I would very much enjoy this version, and even though I’m nostalgically tied to 2nd Edition (THAC0 forever!), I think this is a better thought-out and constructed incarnation of the game.
  
  Of course, there will probably be at least two more editions released before I actually play again, so I’ll look forward to watching this gather dust on my shelves next to its prior iteration companions.
  
  I shall now proceed to stumble through the day reliving the horror of Y2K paranoia. Thanks, me, for reminding me of that.
• 
  Ray

  I'm an old school gamer who grew up on AD&D, so after reading the new Player's Handbook and Monster Manual I knew fully what to expect from the Dungeon Master's Guide - pages of pages of rules, prestige classes, magic items, special game mastering rules, even more obscure rules, and unique rules that sometimes might trump any other rule in the game. I've played D&D, this is how the game is laid out. PH is all the stuff for players and their characters, MM is the bestiary, and DMG has the hard core behind the scenes rules and charts that makes everything work.
  
  So I was very surprised to NOT find that in this newest version of the DMG. This is not a book of numbers, charts, and exceptions. This is all useful and helpful information and suggestions for the Dungeon Master to help run the game and his or her game world. And it's laid out logically, stuff is not printed out willy-nilly like it was in the original AD&D version (I still have my copy that I had to install colored tabs onto, so I could find stuff like the rules for poisons).
  
  Overall I found this to be possibly the best DMs Guide ever published. It's extremely helpful without getting bogged down in rules, obscure or otherwise. It's extremely well laid out and full of more suggestions than I'll ever use.
  
  The book is broken into 3 sections - Master of Worlds, Master of Adventures, and Master of Rules
  
  Master of Worlds
  
  Chapter 1: A World of Your Own - How to structure your game world. Examples of various levels of magic, some sample gods and belief systems, mapping suggestions, government types, money and trade. Suggestions on how to build your world, from the party's home base on up. Sample campaign events, play styles (ie. low level to high level), and types of fantasy (low, high, dark, etc.)
  
  Chapter 2: Creating a Multiverse - This gets into the planes of existence and mentions some belief systems, such as the Norse World Tree, then gets into planar travel, the Astral and Ethereal, then the inner and outer planes (Inner being the elemental planes, outer the various heavens and hells).
  
  Master of Adventures
  
  Chapter 3: Creating Adventures - Suggestions, some charts to help create your own adventures, or tips on using published modules.
  
  Chapter 4: Creating Nonplayer Characters - Simple charts and lots of suggestions for heroes, kings, merchants, mercenaries, and villains your party will encounter. This also includes the only 2 alternate character classes, the Death Domain Cleric and the Oathbreaker Paladin.
  
  Chapter 5: Adventure Environments - All kinds of helpful hints and charts about dungeons and their inhabitants, plus tips on mapping. This also covers wilderness, settlements the characters may travel or adventure in, unusual settings (underwater and aerial), plus helpful stuff on traps.
  
  Chapter 6: Between Adventures - Here is the stuff I've always had to wing before! How to link adventures together, downtime activities, expenses, some charts and lots of useful suggestions!
  
  Chapter 7: Treasure - Some random treasure charts, then we get into the meat, the magic items. As with all the other books these are wonderfully illustrated and the text is easy to understand. All the classics are here. The only down side I've noticed is that they are all listed alphabetically, while normally this is not a problem I wonder why all the swords aren't listed together - I have to turn to F for Flametongue and V for Vorpal Sword - but this is a very small inconvenience. After the main list is a section on Sentient Items, followed by Artifacts (Hand and Eye of Vecna, Sword of Kas, Wand of Orcus, etc.) This chapter closes with another jewel in a section titled Other Rewards, all the other ways to reward a player without just handing them gold or magic items: supernatural gifts (presented as Blessings [permanent] and Charms [temporary]), marks of prestige (medals, letters of recommendation, titles and land, or special rights, favors, or training), and finally Epic Boons (permanent abilities granted to 20th level characters).
  
  Master of Rules
  
  Chapter 8: Running the Game - These are the core rules for running the game. I should note that this section is only 27 pages long, is well organized, and full of helpful hints and charts. It covers how to run the table and some of the common problems (missing players, table talk), how to handle the dice, travel rules, suggestions on interacting with NPCs and objects, then all the combat stuff (cover, chases, etc.) Then we get to disease, poison, and madness. This chapter closes with Experience Points. Throughout are helpful illustrations, charts, and suggestions for running a variety of different games.
  
  Chapter 9: Dungeon Master's Workshop - Here are a bunch of odd and unusual things that don't fit into every campaign, but are presented here as options. Some ability score options (Proficiency Dice, Skill Variants, Hero Points), Honor and Sanity ability scores, some healing variants, brief rules for firearms and alien technology, some plot options, some combat options; this is followed by very helpful sections on creating monsters, spells, magic items, character races and classes.
  
  Appendix A: Random Dungeons - While basically a bunch of charts to help one roll up a random dungeon, this is a very helpful section in that the text and the charts themselves provide all kinds of suggestions.
  
  Appendix B: Monster Lists - This is a breakdown of monsters by environment (such as Arctic), listed according to challenge rating, thus helping a DM flesh out an area with monsters of appropriate level to the party. There is also a section listing monsters solely by challenge rating.
  
  Appendix C: Maps - There are a few pages of sample maps, very nice!
  
  Appendix D: Dungeon Master Inspiration: As with the Player's Handbook and the traditional list of recommended reading, there is also one included here. This however is concentrated on running the game, writing, and some medieval/primitive history.
• 
  Rhonda

  I mean... are you ever actually finished reading the DMG? I don't think so... but I have read this cover to cover at least once already so I'm going to mark it as 'finished' even though I'll be going back to it again and again for years to come.
• 
  Dannii Elle

  This is essentially a rulebook to aid in playing the infamous game of Dungeons & Dragons. In reality it is so much more! Each page is beautifully illustrated and a wealth of information can be found inside, suited to spark every imagination and begin a multitude of adventures. The completionist in me had to read this from cover to cover, and make many a scribbled note in the process, but this is undoubtedly a book I will return to on multiple occasions.
  
  I also found this a wonderful writing tool, which was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. This forces the reader to consider their creations from multiple angles and to include the smallest and most easily of overlooked details to deliver ultimate authenticity, so this was incredibly helpful to me on two counts.
• 
  Dan Schwent

  It's been about 20 years since I ran a game but I already have the Player's Handbook so I nabbed this for cheap on Shopgoodwill.
  
  Continuing in the simplified vein of the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide is a fairly straightforward resource about running adventures and campaigns. There are also lists of magic items, treasure, stuff about the multiverse, religions, and all sorts of other tidbits a Dungeon Master might need.
  
  I thought it was laid out in a logical fashion. I don't remember much about the reading experience of AD&D 2e and D&D 3.0 Dungeon Master Guides but I feel like this was an easier read.
  
  Shit, I forgot to mention there's a recommended reading section in the back AND the return of the random dungeon generator I remember from the AD&D 1e DMG.
  
  Anyway, I still don't know that I'll ever have time to regularly run a game but I'm planning an adventure for when the SIL and BIL come to town in a few months.
• 
  Jonathan Hicks

  Now, I know this isn’t true for everyone, but to me a Dungeon Master’s Guide is one of those things that I always wonder ‘do I really need it?’ This is primarily because of my long history of gaming and the conceited self-aggrandising notion that I already know what I’m doing and I’m pretty darned good at it. Why would I want to spend a chunk of cash to get a book that tells me things that I quite obviously already know? ‘Pocket that dosh and buy more supplements’, I tell myself. ‘You know what you’re doing’.
  
  I just need to get something out of the way, and this is something I’ve addressed in my previous reviews of the first two D&D 5th Edition books; I still don’t like the cover design. The artwork is great, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think the image suits a D&D rulebook cover and the lettering is still plain and uninspiring. That’s been my gripe about all these books – while the insides have been really well laid out with great illustrations, the covers have all been lacking for me. There’s a cracking picture on page seven that would have made a better cover. Trust me, though, that’s just a personal irk and doesn’t reflect on the quality of the interior.
  
  The book is in three sections:
  
  ‘Master of Worlds’ for world-building, campaign atmosphere and themes, and the general layout of the worlds of D&D.
  
  ‘Master of Adventures’ for adventures, encounters and NPCs. Oh, and magic items. Ooooh, those magic items.
  
  ‘Master of Rules’ for those of you who want to reach into D&D’s engine and tinker, along with words of advice on playing the game and different approaches to it, with guidelines on running adventures that’ll stick in the minds of your players.
  
  And this new DM’s Guide is very much that, a set of guidelines to give you some handy pointers so that you’re comfortable and confident in your DMing role. But it’s also so much more than that; in fact, this is more than a tome that helps you along the path to DM mastery with hints and tips on how to run a game, and how to utilise the rules touched upon by the Player’s Handbook. This book gives you the tools to stick your hands into the guts of the system and flail around like a first-year doctor on a rampage. It doesn’t just give you the ability to use the system to the best of its abilities, it also allows you to mix things up and create your own stuff, quick and easy.
  
  You’re getting the normal gaming advice, running adventure tips and extended rules to give the player’s a few surprises they didn’t see in the Player’s Handbook, but you’re getting a whole lot more besides that. You can make changes to the rules and add/take things away that you think might make the game more fun, which in turn enables differing levels of complexity. Want a more basic D&D game? Strip the rules out and play with what you have left. Want to go the way of the rules god? No problem. Just pile in all those optional rules and let the dice fly.
  
  Not only that, but there’s a lot of advice and guidance on creating your own world. This is fun and a great read and gives you plenty of ideas and inspiration so that if any of the new D&D campaign settings aren’t to your liking then there’s plenty of stuff here to kickstart your own world, and the easy-to-use monsters of the Monster Manual will help you populate it no problem. Old hands at worldbuilding might not find much to fuel their already burning creative flame, but newcomers to the idea will find it a great way to start. There’s also an adventure creation section that helps you with the campaigns that’ll no doubt take place in the world you just created, or the D&D campaign world you’re in.
  
  In the appendices there’s this neat little random dungeon generator, which we had a lot of fun with one evening as the DM created the dungeon on the fly and threw in random monsters and treasure as we went along. This felt a little bit like my first days of Basic D&D when we just had fun and weren’t too sure what we were doing and the DM was either struggling to make sense of it all or just winging it. Although it’s really to help design a dungeon before play, rolling the dice to see where we’d end up next was fun and unpredictable for everyone around the table. For a moment – and dare I say it - I thought the game had captured the giddy feeling of excitement and anticipation I used to have in my first days of tabletop RPG, but it was fleeting. Can’t wait to try it again, though.
  
  The magic in the book has a few magic items to play with. And when I say a few, I mean about a hundred pages. Along with the advice in the book that helps you create your own spells, this is a fantastic section that’s going to have players kicking down every dungeon door they see in the hope that they’ll get their hands on some of the things on show. Just let the players have a brief look at the pages and I guarantee that you’ll not have to worry about impetus, motives or reasons to go on that quest. The simple idea that they may get that random item will be enough to send any player character running out that door and into the greater world.
  
  There’s plenty in here that got me excited and will no doubt prove invaluable when I finally begin to run the two-book Tyranny of Dragons campaign later this year, but it’s certainly not for everyone. At the beginning of this review I said that I sometimes wondered if it was worth buying the DM’s Guide, and to be honest I don’t know how much use I’ll get out of this new book before I go back to my old habits and do things my way. The simple fact, for me, is that there’s plenty in this book to help me along with my 5th Edition games and make them a hell of a lot of fun. Not only that, now that I’m much older and my time is precious, the time it takes to create new things with this book is vastly reduced and that suits me just fine. No longer am I labouring over stats, threat ratings and challenges, I’m just throwing a few things together that might make the game fun.
  
  And that’s the thing about D&D 5th Edition as a whole; the game feels fun again. It’s quick and simple, and the rulebooks don’t feel like detailed stat-filled instruction manuals like they used to, but more like an enjoyable read that kind of sits you down and says ‘hey, take it easy, bro – it’s no big deal, just go with it’, and pretty much the only instruction is to do what you feel is right with the game and have fun with it. It doesn’t feel like it’s trying to set a standard that every gaming group must adhere to. It feels very much like a set of guidelines to help a DM and the gaming group as a whole play the kind of game that they want to play.
  
  That’s been my outlook on tabletop roleplaying games pretty much since day one. This final primary book for the D&D 5th Edition rules really is the cherry on the top of a fabulous RPG pudding, and I have a lot of love for it.
  
  So here it is; I’ve not been truly excited about D&D since 1989, and D&D 5th Edition is my favourite edition, period. I’m not into mathematics and I’ve never cared much for game balance, so I know that these books and I are going to be close friends for a long, long time.
• 
  Mia

  Someday I’ll finally find people who will play D&D with me and it’s gonna be AWESOME.
• 
  Sam

  I picked up this book not necessarily to become a DM, but because it has a lot of tools for worldbuilding, which I find to be incredibly handy as a writer. There are sections on building maps, and settlements, and politics, religion, currency, etc. It is a veritable treasure trove of information that I will be utilizing again and again.
• 
  Taddow

  This is the best Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG) to date. When I read a DMG or Game Master (GM) themed book, I tend to look at them from the perspective of a new GM (does it offer valuable advice/information in running a game) and a veteran GM (does it contain content, such as optional rules, that could be incorporated into a game to enhance the basic experience in a good way) and I think this book benefits both.
  
  The book is divided into three main sections- World building, adventure building and optional rules. Each main section has subsections (such as how to map out a world, developing Non-Player Characters, magical items, how to create new character classes and backgrounds, etc.) that explains in detail the various responsibilities a Dungeon Master (DM) has in running a game. Along with the information presented in the Player’s Handbook, this sets a really good foundation for a new DM in how to run a game, which is something that I did not see in the older versions of the DMG (which were basically books of additional rules).
  
  The information is presented in a well-organized and easy to read fashion. I especially liked the section on treasure/magical items. There are fewer magical items listed than in past editions of the DMG, which made sense since 5th Ed. D&D seems magic light when compared to previous editions. Personally I found this to be a good thing as it makes each magic item seem like a significant thing, especially when you use some of the various tables to roll or select unique minor traits for those items.
  
  Some of the information will be redundant to veteran GMs but when taking into consideration that D&D is the predominant gateway Role-playing Game system, I think that it’s inclusion is important. Overall a great book!
• 
  Max

  This is a pretty good guide to running D&D games, though it does have some flaws. I appreciate the inclusion of ideas like faction influence, but I'm frustrated that some of the coolest stuff doesn't have proper rules support. I feel like they should've spent a bit more time fleshing out all of the optional rules systems, and I wouldn't have minded the extra pages that would be needed. I also found the section on the planes rather underwhelming. I've never much cared for the Great Wheel cosmology, and the presentation of it here didn't do anything to change my opinion. The details on each plane are fairly scant and don't do enough to make them seem cool. I did like the alternate cosmology ideas, and I also appreciated the discussion of different ways of handling religion. I especially liked seeing a behind the scenes look at designing the default 4E pantheon. The advice on adventure design seems relatively good, although I wish the discussion of mystery adventures addressed how to deal with all the spells and abilities that can thwart a mystery. I really wish the rules on encounter creation and monster customization had been in the Monster Manual so I don't have to flip between two books to use them. The downtime stuff is okay, but I think both The One Ring and the Pathfinder book all about downtime do a much better job of it. I found the magic item section to be just okay. I miss the level by level rules that 4E used, and I'm annoyed that we really only get the standard array of magic items in every D&D edition's DMG. Plus, having the bonuses only go from +1 to +3 isn't enough granularity for me, and I miss 4E's idea of artifacts having a score for how well they and their wielder get along. I do like the new idea of atunement, though. I also appreciate the chapter of rules options, even if it's rather thin, and I'm glad to see the return of the random dungeon generator. Plus, a section of suggested reading for Dungeon Masters is pretty cool. All in all, this isn't really a bad DMG, especially for people who come into D&D with this edition, but for me it's a bit underwhelming. I think most of my enthusiasm for this edition was in the Player's Handbook, though I'll certainly have to see how things look once I actually play this, rather than just reading it.
• 
  Douglas Cosby

  Unlike the 1st edition where the Dungeon Master's Guide had all the tables, charts, and odds, and was really THE core volume of AD&D, the 5th edition book is almost unnecessary except for magic item descriptions and help on creating your own adventures. I guess you should buy it, but even as a DM, you will definitely use the Player's Handbook 10x as much as you use this book.
  
  I would like to add one big caveat: While I previously was a big fan of creating my own dungeons, I now only use pre-built adventures, granted with small some small customizations and augmentations. So, this book may come in handy for those of you that have the time and creativity to build your own worlds, I am just not sure.
• 
  Diz

  Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition is doing everything right, and the Dungeon Master's Guide is no exception. It has everything a dungeon master needs to create exciting stories, and I appreciate that the book encourages the reader to create their own worlds and stories rather than run games in the established campaigns. While Dungeons and Dragons sells other books for those established campaigns, it doesn't feel like they giving a sales pitch in this book. Additionally, the art is amazing. It's a big improvement on the cartoony look of 4th Edition. If you're going to be running games, this is a must have.
• 
  Rowie

  Have looked through this a couple of times since dm'ing my first session around 4 years ago. But for some reason it doesn't feel as accesible as the dm part of Xanathar's guide. I often find myself using the player's handbook, monsters guide and maybe some slivers of an already written adventure when I prepare a session for our homebrew game. But now that I have pushed myself to study it some more and browse through it again I must say it has some interesting charts and guidelines.
• 
  Sam Sciarrotta

  I AM choosing to log this, mind your business!!! It's really a perfect guide, though.
• 
  Kinan Diraneyya

  While I know many of the differences between the editions of DnD, I actually only started playing one year ago, and I only played the 5th edition. My gaming experience has been great, although it sounds really weird that a group of adults would gather to play a game of make believe, this game has been around for ~40 years, it has really matured that everything is streamlined and really well thought out.
  
  About the book itself:
  You probably know that this book is mainly for the player running the game (the dungeon master), most of the other players won't need to read any of it, although it gives better understanding of the world (specifically the forgotten realms, one of many available published setups to play through).
  
  1. The first part of the book "Master of Worlds" goes about explaining the universe, this part is heavily influenced by the "Forgotten Realms" setup, and the second chapter is specifically pretty useless if you are using any other setup. However, it teaches the basics of choosing/creating the gods, factions, organizations and the maps of your campaign, as well as some play styles and themes.
  
  2. The second part "Master of Adventures" is the most important part of the book, it is also the longest (although that is not the reason), this is the part where you learn how to write a story, you are literally learning how to write, like seriously you can write a book using what you learn here. It is fantastic, how this part teaches you to create living characters that your players can connect with, and adventures as good as a cinematic film. It also goes into details about mapping the environment and accounting for every possible direction your players can take. Then lastly, it presents you 100 pages (half of part 2, third of the whole book) of magical items, treasures and artifacts that you can include in your game. You might think that this is boring, but this is the part I enjoyed the most, I think I went through it 3 times, the imagination and creativity in those items is sick, every single one of them has a picture, and their art is fascinating.
  
  3. The third and last part "Master of Rules" is where you learn the actual game play as a DM, although you won't fully comprehend it until you run your first game. Its second half is pretty short, but I really don't see it as something essential to this book, it teaches you how to create new monsters, items and spells. Cool, but the amount of published content for this game makes it really unnecessary. Perhaps other publishers could use these rules to create their own content to sell, but for regular players (like us) it seemed like something that we would never use.
  
  Going through the chapters one by one in details:
  
  1. Chapter one "A World of Your Own" gives the essential rules for building your own multiverse, the core assumptions, the gods, what people believe in and so on, then it goes on about mapping the world, up from the big map and down to how a house looks from inside, going through the governments, commerce, factions and organizations. Next, it discusses the background of this universe, what events are happening and how are they involving your players, is it the rise of a new ruler? is it the fall of a great kingdom? Finally if give a very educational tour in the types of Fantasy stories, I really like that last part.
  This is an essential chapter, especially for new DM's who haven't yet decided their preferred themes and play styles. You should read it at least once, but I prefer going through it before starting any new campaign, .
  
  2. Chapter two "Creating A Multiverse" is all about the other planes. In the forgotten Realms setup there are many worlds other than the "Material Plane", there are elemental planes, ethereal planes and pack of other strange realms taken from different mythologies and cultures.
  This is one of the worst chapters in the book, one reason is because this chapter is (almost) only useful if you are running your game specifically in the Forgotten Realms. And the other reason is because the information it gives about each plane are so limited (due to how many planes there are) that it beats its purpose, the point of having a pre-made setup is to spare you the effort of creating the material yourself, isn't it? but when all you get about a plane is one paragraph, you certainly won't be able to make a campaign in it without creating your own world almost from scratch.
  
  
  3. Chapter three "Creating Adventures" gives the elements of good adventures, the stages an adventure goes through, a huge number of tables to help generating ideas. It moves on to the types of adventures, the types of villains, the possible complications and twists in the story. And finally how to create encounters.
  This chapter is the heart of the book, even if you suck at writing, you will learn to write an adventure, wither you want it or not. You can totally use the information and the random tables provided here to write a novel, and I am pretty sure it would be a great novel!
  
  4. Chapter four "Creating Nonplayer Characters" is kind of a follow up for the previous chapter. It is all about writing deep and convincing NPS's, and again stocked with countless tables to aid you in generating ideas. It includes optional rules for NPC party members and extra classes for villains.
  Consider this chapter a second part of chapter three, at least its first half about creating deep NPC's. So against, this chapter is very important
  
  5. Chapter five "Adventure Environments" is basically a pile of dungeon generating tables. This is where you go for your classic dungeon crawling DnD, you can pretty much create a whole session in the classic DnD atmosphere by reading only this chapter, all you need is a couple of traps and monsters, a couple of dungeon maps, and a lame story. But seriously the only reason I am saying this is because my party isn't into classic dungeon crawling, the chapter is good, its second half goes about mapping the wilderness, mostly in a similar fashion to dungeons. And finally mapping urban encounters. There is a small part where it goes about traveling through the wilderness, this particular part is very important, including the rules for extreme cold, heat and pressure as well as some wilderness hazards.
  This chapter mostly teaches you where to place your traps and monsters, it is not very useful in campaigns were the encounters are placed according to the story, but the parts about travel are a must read.
  
  6. Chapter six "Between Adventures" is about what your players can do when they are not on an adventure, but I feel like I need to explain that it isn't about what you do between sessions, in other words this is something that you have to roleplay with the DM and everyone else present. Examples being maintaining businesses, building keeps, reputation, family relations, crafting magical items and training.
  This chapter is rarely useful, maybe due to my party's preferences, but I doubt that, because in the earlier version of DnD those aspects had a lot more attention, one version had a supplementary rule book of 100 pages teaching the players how to build a stronghold. I don't think the current game audience needs those tools, but they are here in case you like them
  
  7. Chapter seven "Treasure" is a 100 pages of very well done magical items, artifacts and treasures. For a good dungeon master, this chapter is the supermarket at which he shops to reward his players, some items are coursed, some items can talk, some items are just expensive gems. There are bags that can fit entire rooms, and a drawing of a black circle that becomes a hole when you stick it on the wall. Some endless wonders, go check them yourself! In the end there are other kinds of rewards, like medals, recommendation letters and supernatural gifts. Those, too, come in handy when rewarding your players for their good work.
  This is the chapter I enjoyed the most, because this is where the imagination and creativity of the writers shines best, I felt like I was shopping and everything was free, and my players really enjoyed the items which they earned.
  
  8. Chapter eight "Running the Game" tells you about how free you are in modifying the rules. Through the process, it gives useful tips about how strict you should be, when to hide your dice rolls from you players and when not to, and how to account for missing players and table talk. What follows is the actual game play (or game running) for the DM, using ability score, deciding rules, improvising armor class, handling social interactions and running combats and chases. Then there are some information about certain things that you might like to include in your campaign.
  I don't view this chapter as the heart of the book due to that fact that you only have to read it once, this is a place that you seldom go back to, and if you began your career as a DM before reading it (which I wouldn't recommend, because you would suck DMing you first game), then you probably would never have to read it.
  
  9. Chapter nine "Dungeon Master's Workshop" gives you the rules for creating your own... rules, as well as monsters, spells, backgrounds and items.
  This is the half I described far far above as something that the regular player doesn't need. The game has an enormous amount of published content, the guidelines in this chapter can be used by other companies to create and sell their own content, but I don't see normal players using them.
  
  Thank you for reading this review, I hope it was a useful read!
• 
  Larry McCloskey

  The author(s) must have been paid by the word on this book. Don't get me wrong, there's good content and a lot of the DM's Workshop (or whatever that chapter was called) is good, for creating homebrew adventures. But 5th edition continues to gloss over a fair amount of the rules in their source books, in favor of tips on how to create your own worlds. For a new Dungeon Master, a lot of this would probably be helpful, if the goal was to create unique campaigns from scratch - which I wouldn't recommend for a new DM anyhow. There's also a lot of repetition. For example, in the section on creating new monsters, each subsection begins and ends the same, making one of the main reasons I wanted this version look like a lazy series of copies and pastes. A lot of the middle sections of the book are tables and examples of everything from things you might see in a village, to types of weather - making for a boring slog that I think must have been written for people who never had an imagination and want to play an immersive role playing game without having to find one.
  
  The sections on the planes is well done and, again, there's some helpful information on adapting monsters and creating new monsters, spells, and magic items. But this book runs way longer than it needed to. I've been playing D&D for as long as I can remember, and reading more of the books than I'd like to admit to buying (I probably could have retired by now), and they've done better.
• 
  Paul

  Contrary to the Player's Guide which I found five stars all the way, I found this the least important of the three core books. Save the nice extensive magic items list and a few other interesting details, it is of more benefit for the newcomer to D&D who will be able to learn on the advice and tables and predetermined info this guide provides. If I were just starting I might give this guide 5 stars. In my opinion, it is not required reading for the seasoned player.
• 
  Jasmine

  I didn't expect this to be so good and fun. But it was. I need my own copy. (It is in the mail THANK YOU UNEXPECTED HST REBATE.) I absorbed a bunch of the stuff about worldbuilding. Now I just have to reabsorb all the stuff about encounter building. Ah-hah.
• 
  Esteban Ruquet

  Extraordinariamente útil, bien editado, y razonado. Tal vez el libro de D&D mejor armado de la historia.
• 
  Michael

  This title has a long tradition. With each new edition of “Dungeons & Dragons,” the world’s best-known (and generally best-selling) tabletop roleplaying game, there have been “core rulebooks” provided: generally a “Players Handbook” for all participants, a “Monster Manual” listing all of the beasts to be (usually) fought, (sometimes) negotiated with, or (rarely) befriended, and a “Dungeon Master’s Guide” to be used by the referee in arbitrating the process. The DMG is in some ways the one that has changed the most since the first edition of “Advanced” D&D that I played back in the early eighties. At that time, you couldn’t even arbitrate combat without it – most of the core rules for playing the game were within its pages crowded with tiny print. You can (and in fact I have) run the current Fifth Edition for years without this book, however, so long as you have the Player’s Handbook you have the core rules.
  
  So why bother? Well, even granting that it no longer seems as “core” as in previous years, this book has a lot of materials that Dungeon Masters (or DMs) will appreciate. The largest section is actually the same as the largest section of that long-ago Gygax volume: detailed descriptions of all the magic items that are included in a standard game. Conforming to the new approach, these descriptions have been standardized so that they can be arbitrated easily with common sense when players (inevitably) want to try to do something unusual with them. Much of the rest of the book presents variants, optional rules, and more general tips on worldbuilding, creating adventures, and running the table. Many DMs will find this material interesting, even if few will actually apply more than a small part of it. For me, one of the most interesting sections covered the “multiverse” in far more detail than was the case in the first edition, with brief descriptions of the many “planes” of existence in the game, which can be used for creating new adventuring locales or just to inform one’s understanding of the strange denizens of those planes when they show up in the “prime material” where most adventuring takes place.
  
  Art has always been a big part of the imagination-stimulating experience of D&D (even that cramped Gygax edition found space for some lovely illustrations by the likes of Dave Trampier, Dave Sullivan, Tom Wham, Darlene, and others). This one has page after page of professional, full-color fantasy art that will thrill young fans today and please some old codgers like myself. Some of it has been used in other D&D books, but there are nice depictions, for example, of each of those Planes of Existence and many (not quite all) of the magic items. The credits at the front list seventeen lines of artists (at least three per line, yielding well over fifty artists without taking a count), but the styles are remarkably integrated, making for a package that is attractive and consistent. Unfortunately, few of these seem to be signed, making it harder for new fans to follow their favorites.
  
  In short, this book may not be necessary in the way I would expect a “core rulebook” to be, but it is useful and appealing, and probably worth seeking out by serious Dungeon Masters.
• 
  Becky

  TBH, I am not convinced DMs need this one.
  Or, to put it another way, I have DMed many campaigns over past few years and I almost never use this book. I don't even own a copy. I have borrowed my roommate's copy for loot tables, but at this point I tend to just go online for that stuff.
  Possibly if you are DMing for the first time and you haven't been a player very often, you might find this book super helpful. I played for a couple of years before I tried DMing, and the few times I have picked this book up for inspiration or help, I didn't find what I was looking for. The PHB and the Monster Manuel are both far more important than the DMG.
• 
  K.V. Wilson

  I recommend this book not only to D&D players but also to people who love storytelling in general. I got some great ideas for campaigns as well as inspiration for a future work-in-progress while reading about fantastical places and characters. Looking forward to playing games and writing more often.
• 
  Mirto Oikonomopoulou

  A Dungeon Master's guide. How to run a D&D game.
• 
  bookthump

  My cousin introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons nearly thirty years ago. He was several years older than me and was part of a regular game group. I recall listening intently as he recounted his group's adventures the previous night and I wanted so badly to be a part of it. I read the Red Box rulebooks cover to cover multiple times, laying on the floor of my bedroom, a set of cheap dice and a character written down on a piece of notebook paper. I spent too many hours playing Dungeons & Dragons by myself.
  
  In high school, I was invited to join a Dungeons & Dragons game and I was introduced to the joy of gaming with others. I have remained friends with that group to this day, twenty-plus years later, and we still try to get together once a month to roll the dice and play the roles. We started with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons during our early '90s high school days and switched to Third Edition and 3.5 as they were released. We found ourselves in a series of difficult life sequences that prevented us from gaming together during the Fourth Edition era so we skipped it.
  
  When Fifth Edition was revealed, we cautiously craned our necks from our darkened caverns, yellow eyes blinking away the painful sunlight. A year later, I am happy to report that we have enjoyed the new rules and as the group's new Dungeon Master, I have had a great time with the Dungeon Master's Guide. It provides the tools I need to design an adventure, providing enough of a framework to keep things balanced, but offering enough flexibility that I feel like I have free reign to be creative. That is what this game is all about anyway, isn't it? Creativity and fun, not rules. There is a reason this tome is called "Guide". It is the Morpheus to my Neo, helping me uncover my hidden potential. I favor the Forgotten Realms setting, but if I wanted to create my own world setting, I could do so comfortably with the information provided in this Guide. Designing adventures, villains, cities, dungeons are all fun thanks to the Guide.
  
  Some of the new rules in Fifth Edition go a long way toward speeding up play and giving players greater flexibility. Inspiration (which I keep forgetting to award... sorry fellas!), Advantage/Disadvantage, Short and Long Rests, new Healing options all are designed to enable an adventuring party to fight longer, delve deeper, and perform amazing heroic feats.
  
  The only gripes I have with this book are with the construction and printing. Half of my group's books are already falling apart after a year and we take good care of our materials. My copy of the Dungeon Master's Guide has several pages where the ink smudged, usually when a page of text faces a full-page art piece, making the entire text page difficult to read. Speaking of art though, the artwork in these books is beautiful, capturing the classic swords and sorcery imagery we grew up loving but with a modern sensibility to the design.
  
  We look forward to many more years of D&D joy with these excellent Fifth Edition books. And I promise my players I will do a better job of awarding Inspiration.
• 
  Travis

  Robust, basic guide to running D&D in the specific and fantasy TTRPGs in general. Arguably less versatile than the PHB but as a nuts and bolts "this is how ya do it" toolkit, it's probably unsurpassed. Points off for not supplying an introductory adventure or some kind of rudimentary campaign setting, though.
• 
  Britt O'Duffy

  A helpful reference text for world-building. It offers guidance around developing the setting, plot, and characters - offering prompts and fantastical springboards for writers and DMs alike.
  
  I didn't read it cover-to-cover as that's not how this book is meant to be consumed. That said, I'm marking it as "read" as I did consume significant chunks while trying to prep for my first attempt at DMing.
  
  While it didn't prepare me for the volume of ongoing mathematical calculations, it aided my ability to navigate moments of choose-your-own-adventure chaos generated by certain chaotic neutral characters (*cough* Priti Boneseeker & her quasit Sit *cough*).
  
  I think I may try my hand at DMing again, not least because all of my players developed super compelling characters with phenomenal backstories and I want to watch them continue to interact.
• 
  David

  Not really a book you really ‘read’ just once, but refer to time and time again, I figured it would be a good idea to read it in its entirety after reading it piecemeal and extremely fast before DM’ing my first session. It is certainly a good starting place, though I think it was just as invaluable watching Dungeon Master’s ‘do their thing’ for many years in running my inaugural session. Crafting encounters is still very difficult, as well as planning for contingencies. It will clearly be a process.
• 
  Jayden

  It's ultimately unnecessary in the modern day and age. You can get better advice for free or much cheaper from many very talented people on YouTube or Curiosity Stream. It's a fine companion, but to anyone looking to learn how to dm, I'd suggest just going and learning from others' experiences.
• 
  Scott wachter

  almost good. almost.