Dungeon Master's Guide

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Dungeon Master's Guide 3.5
Cover of the v3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide
Author	Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Publisher	Wizards of the Coast
Publication date	July 2003
Media type	print (hardback)
Pages	320
ISBN	0-7869-2889-1

The Dungeon Master's Guide ("DMG"^[1] or "DM's Guide"; in earlier editions, the Dungeon Masters Guide or Dungeon Master Guide) is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The Dungeon Master's Guide contains rules concerning the arbitration and administration of a game, and is intended for use primarily or only by the game's Dungeon Master.^[2] The original Dungeon Master's Guide was published in 1979,^[3] and gave Dungeon Masters everything they needed to run a D&D game campaign.^[1]

It is intended as a companion book to the Player's Handbook, which contains all of the basic rules of gameplay, and the Monster Manual, which is a reference book giving statistics and characteristics to various animals and monsters. The Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual are collectively referred to as the "core rules" of the Dungeons & Dragons game.^[4] Both the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Player's Handbook give advice, tips and suggestions for various styles of play.^[5]

While all players, including the Dungeon Master, are expected to have at their disposal a copy of the Player's Handbook, only the Dungeon Master is expected to refer to the Dungeon Master's Guide or Monster Manual during gameplay.^[6]

[edit] Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Original Dungeon Masters Guide (TSR, 1979); Cover art by David C. Sutherland III

Like other volumes of Dungeons & Dragons handbooks, the Dungeon Master's Guide has gone through several versions through the years. The original edition was written by Gary Gygax and edited by Mike Carr, who also wrote the Foreword. The original cover art was by D. A. Trampier, and interior illustrations were provided by David C. Sutherland III, Trampier, Darlene Pekul, Will McLean, David S. LaForce, and Erol Otus.

The Dungeon Master's Guide contains scores of tables and charts for figuring damage and resolving encounters in a typical adventure, tables and rules for creating characters, and lists of the various abilities of the different classes of characters.

For many players, the three core rulebooks were referred to so often that some dungeon masters wore out one or more copies of each book over the years.^{[verification needed]} This led to the development of the Dungeon Master's Screen: two heavy-duty boards with the most oft-used tables printed on them for easy reference. The screen could be stood on-end to shield notes, rolls and other adventure bookkeeping from players' eyes. The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition screen came packaged with a brief adventure; later editions of that screen, and screens produced for later editions, have instead included character sheets and general reference booklets.

A useful feature of the first two versions of the Guide was the Random Dungeon Generator (RDG). The generator allowed, by the rolling of dice, to generate a dungeon adventure "on the fly." A dungeon complete with passageways, rooms, treasure, monsters and other encounters could easily and randomly be constructed as the player progressed. It could be used with several people or a single player. This was a useful tool to play the game when others weren't available to play or to have an adventure without preparing a campaign beforehand. The RDG was not included in the subsequent versions of the Dungeon Master's Guide past the second.

[edit] Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition

AD&D 2.5 Edition

The second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide, released in 1989,^[3] was designed by David "Zeb" Cook. Original cover art is by Jeff Easley, with interior illustrations by Easley, Clyde Caldwell, John & Laura Lakey, David Dorman, Douglas Chaffee, and Jean E. Martin. A new version of the Dungeon Master's Guide was released in 1995, as part of TSR's 25th anniversary.^[3]

[edit] Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (January 2009)

The third edition Dungeon Master's Guide was published in 2000.

[edit] Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition

4th edition

The 4th edition Dungeon Master's Guide was released on June 6, 2008 at the same time as its companion volumes. It is a 224-page hardcover written by James Wyatt. In addition to a comprehensive look at how to DM a 4th Edition campaign or adventure, it contains information on building encounters, aquatic and mounted combat, skill challenges, traps and hazards, rewards, NPC creation, artifacts, monster creation, and template, along with a sample town and short adventure so that DMs can start running their first 4th Edition adventure right away. It is the first Dungeon Master's Guide not to contain standard magic items, which were moved into the Player's Handbook for 4th Edition.

[edit] References

[edit] Additional reading

• "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Combat Tables", White Dwarf #13.
• "Clerics Turning Undead", Footprints #7.
• "Expanded Secondary Skills", Footprints #8.
• "Master Encumbrance Guide: Lessening the Burden of Encumbrance", Footprints #7.
• "Sneak Preview: AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide", The Dragon #22.
• "The Complete Attack and Saving Throw Table", Footprints #10.

[edit] External links

• Full list of contents for the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide
• Errata
• http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12836.phtml

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