Dungeon Master's Guide II 409
| Dungeon Master's Guide II | |
| author | Jesse Decker, David Noonan, Chris Thomasson, James Jacobs, Robin D. Laws |
| pages | 288 |
| publisher | Wizards of the Coast |
| rating | 8 |
| reviewer | Zonk |
| ISBN | 0786936878 |
| summary | A worthy successor to the D&D core book with advice for the starting DM. |
DMG II is a deeper mirror of the first Dungeon Master's Guide. Each chapter in the first book is reflected in the sequel, providing more explanation and a deeper look at the subject matter showcased in the original. In addition to mechanics, which was the primary focus of the first Guide, the DMG II examines the process of running a Dungeons and Dragons game by breaking it into discrete elements.
The first few chapters of the second Guide are entirely devoted to the experience of the game from the Dungeon Master's side of the screen. Like another good book on the subject, Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering , DMG II goes into the psychology of the rules arbiter by laying out what will likely be required from you in your role as DM. The Guide also goes inside the heads of players to offer up to the reader possible motivations for a player coming to the gaming table.
From the broad scope of running a game, the book focuses in on the campaign and adventure specific levels. An examination of campaigns covers a large amount of terrain, starting with game styles and character creation suggestions, and ending up in a discussion of the medieval-renaissance flavor of the default Dungeons and Dragons setting. Adventures as discrete entities get something of a short shrift in the book, with heavy discussion of iconic adventure settings taking up most of that chapter. If you've ever wanted to run a battle in the sky, this tome has what you need. The adventure chapter does have a few worthwhile tips on incorporating material from outside sources into your own campaigns, making a Dungeon Magazine subscription more tempting than it might otherwise be.
Beyond the basics, the mission of the second DMG seems to be to allow DMs with a limited amount of time maximum flexibility. Where the original title had pre-generated NPC statistics to utilize, the second book has chapters on making NPCs more interesting, ways to integrate your players more fully into the campaign world, and an entire mapped out and catalogued city for you to insert into your game. The character chapter includes a system for allowing players to run their own businesses. It abstracts out a good number of factors, keeping the focus of the game on fun and adventure while allowing players to put down roots and make some money. While more realistic campaigns may not find it worthwhile, the average dungeon-crawl will benefit from a small business run using these rules. Similarly impressive is the canned city, Saltmarsh. Saltmarsh is a good-sized town, with plots aplenty and several interesting adventure opportunities spread throughout the different districts. Like the campaign chapter, the city of Saltmarsh gives a window into the standard setting that a first time DM might not otherwise have available.
For a veteran Dungeon Master, there are a few gems that stand out as making this book worthwhile. The sections on Saltmarsh, the business system, and the various tips on tweaking your gameworld (including suggestions for creating prestige classes) would all be handy to have at your fingertips. Newer Dungeon Masters should not miss the opportunity to take a look at this book. The chapters on pacing, performance, and campaign preparation are very well written and will provide some much needed advice for someone just cutting their teeth. Players need not apply. The information a Player would get from this book is simply not worth the money to pick up, unless you're planning on getting into the DM gig.
Wizards of the Coast has created a worthy successor to the original Dungeon Master's Guide. Providing a deeper examination of the original tome's content and a reflection on the performance art that is DMing, to new DMs the DMG II is definitely worth the price-tag.
You can purchase Dungeon Master's Guide II from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Nethack (Score:5, Funny)
"You fall into a pit! You land on a set of sharp iron spikes!--more--
The spikes were poisoned! The poison was deadly...--more--
Do you want your possessions identified?"
Laptop D&D (Score:5, Funny)
Let's listen in for a couple of minutes while the DM runs the game using Nethack for his source:
"Blue screen of death? I make a saving throw!"
"What do you mean, I am attacked by a Bonzi Buddy?" "Donno. It just appeared on the screen."
"This is interesting. Did you know that if you give this guy in Nigeria 13,000 gold pieces, he will pay you back 30,000,000 gold pieces and bump you up to a tenth-level character?"
"What do you mean, my sword's damage was not increased +20? I used C1ALiS on it!"
Re:Nethack (Score:2, Insightful)
Much cleaner and more to the point is the classic, Hunt the Wumpus:
I feel a draft!
Bats nearby!
You are in room 11
Tunnels lead to 10 12 19
Shoot, Move or Quit (S-M-Q)?
Now that is gaming.
Re:Nethack (Score:5, Interesting)
* The god sends down a bolt of lightning at you. Normally, you can only evade the lightning by having reflection or shock resistance (caused by several possible means); otherwise you're dead. However, if you were engulfed by a monster trying to eat you, the lightning strikes the monster instead, and if it's not resistance, the game kills it and gives you the experience (since it really takes guts to get your god to kill a monster for you
* The god is undeterred if you survive. It zaps you with a wide-angle disintigration ray. Again, your god can kill something that is trying to eat you with the ray, or you can use an intrinsic disintigration resistance to survive (prompting your god, shocked by your basking in the black glow, to exclaim "I believe it not!"
* The God gives up trying to kill you themself. If you're near ascention, he gives one last ditch effort, and summons three powerful creatures to kill you (which, if you've survived all of this, you probably have plenty of tricks left to take care of them)
Gotta love a game in which you not only can outsmart a deity's instadeath attack, but can get experience for doing so.
Re:Nethack (Score:5, Interesting)
364 |
365 | * wearing a bathrobe all the time. When asked why, since no man can see them,
366 | * they reply 'Oh, but you forget the good God'. Apparently they conceive of
367 | * the Deity as a Peeping Tom, whose omnipotence enables Him to see through
368 | * bathroom walls, but who is foiled by bathrobes." --Bertrand Russell, 1943
369 | * Divine wrath, dungeon walls, and armor follow the same principle.
370 | */
Favorite bumper sticker: (Score:5, Funny)
But really, the best rules were the totally incoherent 2nd edition rules for AD&D. Yes, I loved that it was a pain in ass and led to so many arguments. That was part of the game! Now everything is too sterile.
But the 2nd edition rules also pushed me and my friends into different game systems. Anybody remember "Fantasy Hero"? or "Danger International"? Probably not. We were some of the few that actually played that system on a regular basis. It was fun.
But nothing topped "Call of Cthulhu". Going back to AD&D after that was painful...so we rarely did.
Re:Favorite bumper sticker: (Score:5, Funny)
Jesus is not immune to piercing damage, however.
Rejuvenated Social Life (Score:5, Funny)
How's your social life? (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile, let's ignore the fact that a table top rpg requires you to socialize face to face with other people normally.
A significant portion of these "other people" are gamer, geek females. A subculture of geeks that 90% of you would cream yourself to just meet...and I hang out with 3 of them, all single, on a weekly basis. The last 10 girlfriends I've had over numerous years, including the most recent, my current wife, have all been gamers.
News flash, bashing rpg's for being too geeky went out of style in the late 1980's..when something more geeky came along, the PC.
Re:How's your social life? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Socializing normally????? (Score:5, Funny)
Is that the unholy offspring of a codebase merger between KDE and Gnome?
Re:How's your social life? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Rejuvenated Social Life (Score:5, Funny)
Masturbating to anime porn?
Wow, they've got guides for everything these days...
ummmm (Score:5, Funny)
also so does every reply in this forum decrease one's chances of ever having sex?
Re:ummmm (Score:3, Funny)
It would, except odds can never have a negative value.
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Funny)
And there goes mine...
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Funny)
That could be a bit messy and uncomfortable for all parties involved...
Re:ummmm (Score:2)
Re:ummmm (Score:2)
Re:ummmm (Score:2)
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Funny)
21: Badly Programmed Illusion
44: Charm Friends
84: Deny Reality
99: Differentiate Without Error
109: Drawmij's Instant Coffee (components: hot water and cup)
153: Get Life
178: Impress Plants
187: Irritate Self
205: Lightning Blot
220: Magic Missal
260: Nystul's Undetectible Aura
279: Power Word, Pun
292: Protection From Weevil
304: Remove Hand (yours)
326: Speak With Boring Monsters
348: Teleport With Lots Of Errors
I've seen a page with lots more... like "Summon Insect Swarm (range: 3"), but I can't find it offhand. I always thought it might be amusing to play a game with the voluntary restriction of only having access to the "unpopular" spells.
Here's a link to the full list (Score:5, Informative)
Re:ummmm (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds useful to me....
Re:ummmm (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:ummmm (Score:2, Interesting)
seriously one time a friend of mine's fiance went to a magic the gathering tournament with him and she referred to the attendees as "a bunch of little boys who would never have sex" Had to laugh at that one...saying her future husband was one of the refs.
Also (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:ummmm (Score:2, Funny)
also so does every reply in this forum decrease one's chances of ever having sex?
For me, as I'm a girl, I think it seriously increases my chances.Now, are they chances I actually want to take....
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Funny)
It's a case that the goods are odd.
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Insightful)
I could respond that not only am I a happily married uber-RPG geek (The "writes his own RPGs" type), or that not a single one of my players, past or present, remains a virgin, or that a suprising number of women play RPGs and, thus, make them actually a way to be MORE likely to get laid.
But, instead, I'll simply point out that Wizards of the Coast is famous for Magic and buying TSR, and INfamous for the swining orgies and wife-swapping that were rampant in the company in years gone by.
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Funny)
Look, I was drafted into a few DnD games recently. Yes, there were girls there. However, they were all grotesque and scary looking. So um, count me out.
Interpersonal communications??? (Score:5, Funny)
I want the REAL POWER (Score:2)
geek-o-meter... melting...
honestly though, it's a misconception to summarily categorize all people who enjoy playing DnD with their friends as lacking in interpersonal skills. it is really just a game, afterall. Right? RIGHT???? [chick.com]
Re:I want the REAL POWER (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Interpersonal communications??? (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean I just find that unless there's some planned activity, all gatherings sputter out in about an hour - after you've either ran out of small talk with people you don't know well, or ran out of updtates for friends. Then what? Hope you're drunk by then? (A lot of this outlook may have to do with where I grew up and the fact I just graduated college - maybe in big cities outside the college lifestyle things are very different)
Aside from that there are a few reasons I prefer RPGs to say computer games. One is how limited computer games feel - it always seems to come down to one way (or if you are really lucky 2 ways) to solve that puzzle. That might be OK if it's the way to activate the gods scepter, but if it's how to get past a guard - in most situations - it's ludicrous. I mean, why can't I try climing to the roof and crawling by him? Why can't I hang off the cliffedge and see if he walks by me? etc...
Anyway - my main point is that there are lots of things you can do at a party - but one of them is play an RPG. You could also play poker, but to me it seems like after one or two games, it would get pretty repetitive.
Re:Interpersonal communications??? (Score:4, Insightful)
I really fail to see why it's "normal" to sit around a table playing poker, maybe losing or winning money - but somehow childish to sit around the same table playing an RPG...
As nice as this may be (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:As nice as this may be (Score:4, Insightful)
However, between the job and the family, anything that cuts down on my prep time is good. Particularly if I wind up running an iconic 3.5 campaign with the Eberron setting, which seems to be where player demand is going.
I also wouldn't mind suggestions on simplifying D&D further, as my 4-year old now has an interest in playing. Looks like I'll have to write most of "pre-D&D" myself, though. (Maybe basing this on Basic D&D would work better.)
I think I'll wait and see if this shows up as a birthday present before I decide whether or not to buy it. And yeah, I miss the old school too.
Re:As nice as this may be (Score:2)
Once you've done that, you'll basically have reinvented the old Basic D&D rules. Well actually, you would if you started with AD&D. If you started with the 3.5 rules, I'm not sure where you'd end up, since the structure is very different.
Actually, I've considered starting a new D&D campaign based on the old Basic/Expert rules, as I find that the reduction in
re: as nice as this may be (Score:2, Insightful)
taking all the creatvity out of everything down to the smallest thing? do you not remember the hordes of the complete [noun] books?
look, while i'm glad you're a gamer and more importantly, playing the game that you want and having fun doing it, if you're going to criticize ne
Optional literature? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Optional literature? (Score:2)
Re:Optional literature? (Score:4, Funny)
Why, when I was young we used to game sitting the swamp water up to our waists. If we needed to leave something to chance one of us would stand up, and we would count the leeches hanging off their legs. Less than 4 and you had made your saving throw.
Dice. Geez....
This should be titled... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This should be titled... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This should be titled... (Score:2)
Next thing you know, we'll find out that not only he didn't get laid, but he ALSO missed the good times of a good RPG!
Re:This should be titled... (Score:3, Insightful)
Every woman I dated for any length of time prefered me gaming one night a week, every week. Than going out drinking with the guys every so often. Any woman who won't date you because you are a gamer is more trouble than she's worth.
Re:This should be titled... (Score:4, Funny)
(even if they are true)
not really, though. many nerds grow up to at least have sex with other nerds. some even get lucky and have sex with very attractive people
(and not have to pay for it... nice try, dude.)
Re:This should be titled... (Score:3, Funny)
(snort) Whats Armor Class have to do with that?
D&D (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:D&D (Score:2)
I have the DMG II, and I agree that it's not like that at all. It's about how to make good stories, characters, and settings, not rules-correct dungeon crawls.
Re:D&D (Score:2)
I remember playing gam
Re:D&D (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a whole spectrum between 'strict system games' and 'system-less' games (where all decisions about the game world are determined soley by the GM with no reference to any other source of structure.
The closer you get to systemless the more arbeitrary the game becomes. Some players perceive this as good, they trust the GM to not bias outcomes against them without good reason, but this can also lead to a sense of betrayal among the players if things go against them and they do not accept/understand the GMs reasoning (greater good, narrative reasons)
Some players prefer strict rules based systems, where the world may be inherently inconsistent in some ways, the issues are transparent and in the hands of the fates, GM biases do not direct the final outcome.
The reality of tabletop gaming is that most games sit somewhere between the two extremes, GMs choose when to force a roll - or not. They may decide to conceal rolls and change the result. They may do some sections of the game as a cinematic, and others as miniatures and probability math.
The trick is to find a gaming group where you are all happy with the degree of strict vs. arbeitrary
The First rule of RPGs (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The First rule of RPGs (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The First rule of RPGs (Score:5, Insightful)
I want to *be* the story.
And rules can be a nice way to put structure that make it feel that way. It depends on your GM really, some can be objective that it feels like you're running around in a universe.
But some GM's have trouble evaluating the actions of their players in the absence of rules. While the GM should have some input in how decisions go, his personal biases, likes and dislikes of certain kind of actions shouldn't completely rule the day. When they do, the players become largely irrelevant and that's no fun for anyone but the GM.
harder than DM'ing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:harder than DM'ing (Score:2)
Least, that's how my four-year-old is learning.
Re:harder than DM'ing (Score:2)
Dammit.
Re:harder than DM'ing (Score:3, Informative)
I explained to my daughter that her character was like a person in a story, and that we'd tell a story together. I told her that we'd roll dice to find out if her character can do things. We went over her character when it was time to do a skill check, and I'd point out her abiliy modifier (You want to push open the stuck door? You'll need to use your Strength), her skill (You want to look for traps first? Here's your Search number) and have her roll the d20 and count up her modifiers. Mostly, however
Re:harder than DM'ing (Score:2)
Re:harder than DM'ing (Score:5, Informative)
After each adventure I gave them a new character sheet with their new leveled up character.
Sort of like the Basic Game box but with more characters and real adventures (rescue the kidnapped kid, raid an evil temple and cleanse it, fight a young dragon etc.)
This way worked *really* well, they were up and playing in 10 minutes and everybody had a real blast.
How come the bonus book wasn't reviewed? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How come the bonus book wasn't reviewed? (Score:5, Funny)
O! The skill required to play D&D! (Score:5, Funny)
OK, I cheated. That last one was professional acting rather than something from a D&D game.
Re:O! The skill required to play D&D! (Score:3, Interesting)
I promptly un-invited him.
Its not that he doesn't want to play, its that he can't pay attention to one thing for longer than a few minutes unless its attached to a video screen, and, really, it seems that this is epidemic among potential players, and I'm having a ver
creating atmosphere (Score:5, Interesting)
Ideas like these are applicable to almost any Role Playing Game, not just horror games. Creating tension and atmosphere makes role playing much more enjoyable. Personally, I find this kind of advice much more valuable than pregenerated NPC tables.
Re:creating atmosphere (Score:2)
Do this and my players would never get around to opening the door.
Re:creating atmosphere (Score:2)
Re:creating atmosphere (Score:2)
Re:creating atmosphere (Score:3, Interesting)
This wo
pen and paper (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the many drawbacks of D&D is that it trivializes day to day activities and only focuses on the "fun" stuff. Fun here is a relative term and left to the definition of the players and DM of any game. Because of this one of the most common complaints by players is a lack of realism. If this book can help me/them establish realism for players who want realism while maintaining the fantasy element for the escapists in all gamers then I'm all for it.
Many of WotC recent books have been virtually useless to me and many gamers I know, simply because the deluge of material is not anything I will be able to incorporate into my worlds soon. But at least it is there for those who want it.
D&D was the first MMORG (oops MMRG).
Well, this review was of some use to someone! (Score:2)
It seems that this is a little less mechanistic and a bit more process oriented. That's a good thing, for many folks.
And I have to admit, I loved the original Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (Module U1) as a starter adventure. My current 15-16 year old campaign ran the series U1 to U3
This is talking about the original? (Score:3, Informative)
Too much fargin' work! (Score:2, Informative)
I DM'd late 1970's to early 1980's.
I quit because, it be came work and was not fun any more. I had to spend hours getting game together, adventures, random monster tables, etc.
I wanted a game where this could all be generated so I could actually "have fun", which is how it used to be when I first started to play.
Now, with the adult restraints on my time, I do occasionally play an MMORPG, I have fun and do not have to "work at it".
Just hope that the people that still play the "table" version have
If Zonk himself writes the article... (Score:2)
RPGs have missed the point (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:RPGs have missed the point (Score:3, Interesting)
I think what pfafrich was tring to say is that computer RPG's are severely lacking (if not missing entirely) in one crucial aspect: the ability of the player to interact naturally with the other inhabitants of the game, ie, not the other players. Few NPC's in computer games have very limited AI, and most have a pathetically small conversational ability, the upper limit of useful bits of information gained is about 10.
Then there's the absurd ratio of players to NPC's, which inevitably leads to an economy
Good ole D'n'D Advanced (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm glad to see that people are still playing them and that they're still alive. My friends and I put in a lot of hours to D'n'D and similar, creating and playing our worlds and characters. And this was back in the late 1980s/early 1990s when video games still rawked!
Oddly, i feel the same way about a lot of video games as i do about tabeltop games.... Strange predicament- I feel "too old" to get interested in them, but rationally I can't figure out why my age would matter at all.
-hopeless....
The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (Score:2)
Paying to avoid thinking... (Score:5, Insightful)
I can name a dozen RPGs that have rules so simple you can learn them in five minutes. The only thing they have in common is that they are usually superior in imagination and quality to the popular games, as well as unknown and ignored by the majority of roleplayers, as you can see simply by glancing at the games being run at conventions like GenCon. Page after page, and nothing but D20 and derivatives.
The rules aren't optional for the players. For this new breed of gamer, if it's written, it's the law. They've paid their thirty dollars for Tips and Tricks of Thievery Volume 7 Version 5 and by god, that book is the final word. How many games have you been in where one of the players tries to use these rules to push the GM around, and gets angry if they are denied?
Watching two rules lawyers at odds is like watching some perverse mental fencing match, and for fifteen minutes nothing gets done while the sacred rules of the game are read from dusty tomes in voices of hused awe and righteous fury. I used to laugh at it, but now it's just getting old.
D20 strikes me as one of the worst things to ever happen to the industry, and I mean that very sincerely. The unique, creative rules for each individual game used to be part of that game's atmosphere. Learning the new rules and seeing the new ways of doing things was part of the fun of playing a new game. It was not work. I can still remember how pleased I was when I first picked up Deadlands (a wild west RPG) and found the designers had worked in poker chips and playing cards as part of the system.
Now everything new just slaps D20 on because it's easy instead of getting creative, or because if they don't they'll be ignored by gamers who can't be bothered to learn a different paradigm for a change. D20 became the mindshare monopoly that GURPS always wanted to become.
If you like your D20, that's fine, but don't laugh when I tell you that you simply don't know what you're missing. There are games where the game is about what happens in the game, not about the rules defining the way the game works.
I can take one of these simple games, walk into a convention, pick up a half dozen gamers, and usually give them a session better than anything they've had in the last couple of years, all on a game they didn't even know how to play ten minutes ago. I am not that good at GMing, either. I much prefer to play. The reason they enjoy it is because it is unknown. They don't know the setting, they don't know all the rules or all the details, they can't predict every nuance of the game in their heads, and they know there's no arguing with the GM... things are just too simple. All that's left is story and roleplaying. That's where most of the fun is.
Sorry for the rant, but I was laughing at the idea of needing another revised expanded edition of the Dungeon Master's Guide. A stack of all of WoTC's D20 books over the last couple of years could probably build a bridge over the Mississippi river.
Chaosium had it right (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem I have with d20 is not that it creates standardized rules. In theory a standardized set of core rules could lead to more creative individual game suppliments and worlds. But that's only if the game system itself is open-ended and flexible enough to allow for wide variety without necessitating endless reams of additional world-specific rules.
One of the worst things about D&D and the d20 system is its emphasis on classes. Sure, characters can multiclass, but that only adds to the confusion. I find it much more interesting when characters are not identifiable as being of a certain class. Classes are essentially templates, and even when you modify them by creating many options within the class, you're still creating an artificial and needlessly confusing system.
I heartily concur with you that story and roleplaying are at the heart of truly satisfying roleplaying. Rules facilitate great games, but too many rules bury the game in the overhead of excessive die rolls and rules consultations.
I'm part of group of friends who have known each other since high school, when we spent a lot of time gaming. We are now all approaching our 40s, and for many years we have only been able to get together infrequently at best for gaming sessions. But when we do get together, usually I GM a game. Recently we have experimented with games in which the players don't even have standard character sheets.
They know their relative strengths and weaknesses, and have a list of what things they're good at and to what relative degree. The game mechanics are invisible to the players. I let them know when they have to make a good roll, and what it is for, but other than that, the certainty of numbers is removed from the equation altogether.
When your character is hit and bleeding, feeling woozy and impaired in his ability to fight; but you as a player don't know how many hit points the character has left (or even how many he had when healthy), it puts the uncertainty back into the game and forces a player to think like a character.
This approach doesn't work all the time, and I don't recommend it as the be all, end all of pencil and paper gaming, but to me it's a reminder that roleplaying games are about letting your imagination take charge.
Re:Paying to avoid thinking... (Score:3, Interesting)
1) Runequest
2) HarnMaster
3) GURPS
4) FUDGE
5) FATE
6) HARP
7) Paranoia
8) Stormbringer
9) Call of Cthulhu
10) James Bond 007
11) BESM
12) MERP
Note that these rules aren't necessarily simplistic. Some may have complicated character creation rules, complicated combat rules, etc., but they all share one thing in common, and that's a cohesiveness in the rules. With any of the above games you can certainly get away handing out
Re:even too geeky for /. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:even too geeky for /. (Score:4, Funny)
DM: A critical failure, you fumbled.
DM: "You dropped your linux mug full of coffee on yourself."
Me: Can I roll for a saving throw.
DM: No, coffee stains are irresistable, your charisma is 4 until 6pm.
So where do I get the official slashdot d20?
Re:even too geeky for /. (Score:3, Funny)
Where the heck is my mug!
Re:even too geeky for /. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:even too geeky for /. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:even too geeky for /. (Score:2)
Hijacked! (Score:3, Interesting)
What kind of system you use should depend on how much system-detail you want in your game, and what kind of feel you would like the game to have. There possibly isn't any system which is perfect for what you want to do, but you could just nick the mechanic from somewhere and ignore the rest, since you seem to want to use the setting from the sourcebook you have.
Have you ever looked at the Unknown Armies system? It has nice, simple mechanics and some good ideas which I think can be used in any setting.
Re:even too geeky for /. (Score:5, Funny)
Your wife? (Score:2)
Re:Girlfriend? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Funny. (Score:2)
I see that you 'Freaked' me after I 'insulted your wife and family' by joking about the notion that men stop having sex after getting married. I was considering adding a winking smiley, but that kind of dampens the effect now, doesn't it?
I'd like to see how you react to genuine insults...
Re:Funny. (Score:2)
and while you're at it... (Score:2)
- the 80's
Re:Worst. Moneygrab. Ever. (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to role-play, back 20 years go, during the days of 1st Ed. Then I fell out of it. Now, a friend and I play again, using 3.5e rules. He's massively more experienced than I am. He's great at presenting material to me smoothly, and as a player, I quite like 3.5e ("we" started with 3.0) However, when I try to spin the table around and run a campaign trying to challenge and engage him, an experienced player, it's really not an easy task. The original DMG helps in terms of providing quick & dirty sample NPCs and tables, but the DMG2 covers more important matters: when and how to use those things. It's not so much a rulebook as a style book. And having read the thing, I found myself repeatedly saying "hey, I do that" or "hey, I SHOULD do that". DMG2 provides content that is valuable to me, the newbie DM. And I, surprisingly, am the target market. Go figure.
As an aside, on the topic of a moneygrab, I think you're missing the point. Those people who own 3.0e manuals don't HAVE to purchase 3.5e materials. There's enough similarity that adventures and other supplemental materials make complete sense to someone using 3.0e core rules. To people who don't already have 3.0e manuals, given that 3.5e offers more content at the same price-point, how can this possibly be construed as a moneygrab?
My point: if you, an experienced RPG player feel the compulsion to buy manuals you don't like or feel give you value, you've got a sickness, just like the guy who has to pick up the copy of Dark Side of the Moon with "new" cover-art, just because it exists.
Re:Worst. Moneygrab. Ever. (Score:2)
Also, consider that you can get all the basic d20 system information for free online [d20srd.org], I think it's hard to accuse them of abusing their customers... That includes the player's handbook, the monster manual, and the DMG.
-If
Re:For the lame and lazy (Score:2)
Re:DMG II (Score:3, Interesting)
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