Well I got my copy of the 5th edition Dungeon Master Guide. This review is not only to inform you of its content and what I think of it. But as a review for myself. I been roleplaying for a long time and more often than not I will skim through a new book and read only selected portions in detail. But for various reason this time I want to be familiar with most of the details that are in the book. I find it helps me learn the book better when I do this.

First I will start off with my assessment. It is a pretty good Dungeon Master Guide. I find myself liking it a lot. The biggest reason is probably because of its brevity in most sections. One of my favorite monster guides is the Monster Book for Swords and Wizardry. It one my favorite because each entry is short and too the point with not a lot of embellishment. The 5e DMG is much the same way particularly when it comes to mechanics. Because of its brevity it covers a lot of topics in its 320 pages. Finally it brevity doesn't mean every section is written tersely. Some, particularly the description of the outer planes, are written with a lot of flavor and tidbits of information.

However the DMG's brevity will likely be a source of criticism. It just doesn't go into great detail about any particular subject as you will see. So people expecting a complete psionic subsystem will be disappointed. When things like villainous classes are mentioned the book only gives a few worked examples.

In the past I would say that this is a hook for splat books. But after reading much of the books, my impression is that they took some hard in selecting and writing the topics that did get included. That the rest is intended for specific advantages and campaigns later down the line instead of a series of PHB IIs or DMG IIs. We will see how this works out when the Elemental Evil products come out this spring.

Given the lighter mechanics of 5e to date, the 5e DMG acts a springboard for creating your own material with a few essential sections that are fully detailed like treasure distribution.

Now onto the review

First grab a copy of the table of content

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VBCSk-uv7H4/VHiUFeRWmUI/AAAAAAAALLA/bXTgZ7BvyiI/s1600/dmg_toc.jpg

The Introduction
This part is pretty standard and those of us playing for a while have seen many variations of this. One nice thing is that it has a How to use this book section. The DMG is separated into three main parts.

Master of Worlds
Master of Adventures
Master of Rules.

The first part is about inventing your own worlds. The second part is about writing adventures for that world, and the third part is about rules and options that could be used to adjudicate the actions of characters while adventuring. Seems to be a pretty good setup to me.

The Introduction wraps up with  Know your Players. It practices several categories of actitives that players like to do. They are Acting, Exploring, Instigating, Fighting, Optimizing, Problem Solving, and Storytelling.

At first I thought it was just somebody's idea of categorizing players. Something that I found useless because players change over time in what they are interested in. But on a second read I notice it not categories of players types but rather categories of thing players like to do. Something that more useful in my opinion. It is terse so some people may miss this point.

Next is Part 1 Master of Worlds

With Part 1 Master of World we get a full page illustration. Most of the illustration are good but nothing that grabs like the old Trampier or Elmore illustration I grew up with. However what is outstanding that many of the illustration are useful in of themselves. I will comment on this when get to those sections.

Master of Worlds starts off with a World Of Your Own. First off they make it clear they designed the specifics of the 5e rules to certain assumptions. However that these assumptions are meant to be altered and twisted to make the world that the referee wants his players to adventure in. This and other comment throughout the DMG reinforces the 5e mantra of DnD your way that Wizards been using since the announcement of 5th edition.

The assumptions they are using for the rules are
Gods Oversee the World
Much of the World is Untamed
The World Is Ancient
Conflict Shapes the World's History
The World is Magical

The next section is titled It's Your World and goes on to explain various options and alternatives to the above assumption. There are references to examples from published D&D settings scattered throughout. Again the tone is that you can make the setting you want but if you don't you can use what been published.

Gods of your World is the next section and goes into the ins and outs of creating deities for your world. The default is something they call a Loose Pantheon which reflects how the deities of Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and several other settings are setup. Then they get into alternatives like Tight Pantheons Mystery Cults, Monotheism, Dualism, Animism, and Forces and Philosophies. Then they write about Humanoids and the Gods.

I feel they did a bang up job with this section. It not GURPS Religion, however for the amount pages they devoted to the subject is a very good summary. I have one criticism, they should have put in a paragraph explicitly explaining as to why you would put any work into this area. The unstated assumption is that you are doing this to create interesting elements to use in your adventures but I feel they should made that more explicit.

Mapping your campaign is next section. It is pretty straightforward advice on how to use maps of different scales. They recommend 5 hexes per inch, with three different maps. Province Scale of 1 mile per hex, Kingdom Scale of 6 miles per hex, and Continent Scale of 60 miles per hex. And this leds up to the first aid I will present as part of my review. I created three hex maps in PDF, JPEG and SVG file format. Original to my version is a system of subdividing Continent Scale maps into Kingdom Scale, and Kingdom Scale maps into Province Scale. The PDF are layered so you can turn off the master hexes and sub grids.

The 5e Mapping System.


Next is a section on Settlements with comments on the settlements purpose, size, its atmosphere, government, Commerce, and Currency. Here we get our first random tables for government type and a table of sample titles. The Currency section is quite long and goes into how to make your own. One nice addition is the option of having trade bars for high value transactions. There is a 2 lb silver bar worth 10 gp, a 5 lb silver bar worth 25 gp, and a 5 lb gold bar with 250 gp.

Those of you who follow what I do with the Majestic Wilderlands know that I use a silver penny and a gold crown worth 320 silver. It good to see this option. Also this section has a illustration of different coin shapes and types. This is the first of the useful illustrations I was talking about earlier. You could photocopy this and use this a illustration in your own games.

Next Master of Worlds get into briefly different languages and Dialects followed by a longer section on Factions and Organizations. Those of you with the Lost Mine of Phandelver know that the Harpers, Order of the Gauntle, Emerald Enclave, Lords' Alliance, and Zhentarim are an important background element. Here the reason for having factions part of the background is expanded and explained.

As part of the faction system we get our first rules option, a renown system. Basically you do things and get renown points. The more renown points you have the better attitude you get from the organization, as well as rank and perks. There are no specifics other than a table of sample ranks so you will have to make up your own. One interesting part of this system is a section on reskinning it as piety and using it to track your favor with a particular deity or religion.

Magic in your world is the next section and talks about the various things you can have or not have as part of running a world with magic. It covers Restrictions on Magic, Schools of Magic, Teleportation Circles, Bringing back the Dead. One interesting wrinkle is that they explicitly state that a person can't be raised if his soul does not want to return.

The next major section is Creating a Campaign. It talks about Starting Small, Setting the Stage, Involving the Characters, and Creating a Background. I particularly like the part about setting the stage.  It is my experience is that many campaigns fail because their players don't have any idea of what to do at first or that it start out with a uninteresting premise.

Campaign Events is the next section. Many of us who talk about sandbox campaigns call this World of Motion. The things you do to make it seem that the setting has an ongoing life. Starting with Putting Events in Motion, along with When Not to Shake Things Up. They get an A+ from me for that. Sometimes it is important to know when NOT to do something as it when to do something. Next they get into World Shaking Events along with a random table, and text discussing the options for each result. Many of these have subtables for your use. Good stuff here.

Next thing they talk about is Tracking Time with a focus on calenders and holidays for the setting. Then wraps up with options on ending a campaign.

Play Styles follows after Creating a Campaign. The section is OK, I think it is weak because the discussion focus on a binary scale. Hack and Slash versus Immersive Storytelling. To their credit there is a equally long discussion of a Something in Between.

Master of the World continues with Character Names. After that is the authors write about Continuing Episodic Campaigns, always something worth mentioning in my opinion. Then it talks briefly about Campaign Themes.

Then we get into Tiers of Play. Wizards divides the D&D 5e experience into four tiers.

Levels 1 to 4: Local Heroes
Levels 5 to 10: Heroes of the Realm
Levels 11 to 16: Masters of the Realm
Levels 17 to 20: Masters of the Worlds.

Each has two or three paragraph outlining the possibilities of adventure at each level. Next is the most useful part of this section, Starting at Higher Levels. They group it into the four tiers with three categories of campaigns; Low Magic, Standard, and High Magic.  Each list the amount of gold the character has plus any magic items. It not meant to be simulation of the wealth to be expected at each tier. They clearly state it is a guide to help players get a character outfitted when joining in at a higher level.  

The first chapter of Masters of the World concludes with a discussion of the different types of fantasy; Heroic Fantasy, Swords and Sorcery, Epic Fantasy, Mythic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Intrigue, Mystery, Swashbuckling, War, Wuxia, and finally mixing and matching in Crossing the Streams (nice Ghostbuster reference).

After Chapter 1 is Chapter 2 Creating a Multiverse. This section is more specific than Chapter 1. It more about describing 5e take on the traditional DnD cosmology than how to make your own multiverse. Because so much of it is a setting description I am not going to detail every subsection.

The chapter starts out explaining what are planes and why they are interesting for adventures.

They recommend that every DnD campaign have the following

A plane of origin of fiends
A plane of origin for celestials
A plane of origin for elementals
A place for deities
The place where mortal spirits go after death.
The way you get from one plane to another.
The way for spells and monsters to use the Astral and Ethereal planes.


Then touches on some of the possibilities like the Great Wheel, The World Tree, the World Axis, and other alternatives.

Then they get into the nuts and bolts of Planar Travel. Giving a lot of details on Planar Portals and briefly talking about spells.

After this is pretty much a description of the DnD cosmology for 22 pages. This includes the Astral Plane, Ethereal Plane, Feywild, Shadowfell, Inner Planes, and The Outer Planes. Each places like the Plane of Air or Mount Celestia has a few paragraphs highlighting points of interests and specifics.

Overall this section is pretty solid and I think a better presentation than ADnD 1st. You are not getting the Planescape boxed set here but it is more than just a list of planes with a sentence or two. This part of the book is 22 pages of adventure seeds and ideas you can use in your campaigns. I think lot of people, particularly novices, will get a lot of use out of this.

This wraps up Part 1 Master of Worlds. The Next post is on Master of Adventures.

The next major section of the 5e DMG is Part 2 Master of Adventures. It opens with two full page illustrations. The first is one of a Tarrasque rampaging through a city. The second a bunch of adventures facing off Baba Yaga's Hut in the middle of a field of skull with glowing eyes. Both pretty evocative and well done.

After explaining that this section is about creating adventures the authors list out the Elements of a Great Adventure.

• Familiar Tropes with Clever Twists
• A Clear Focus on the Present
• Hereos who Matter
• Something for All Player Types
• Surprises
• Useful Maps

The section is filled with useful advice although I think it is a tad too oriented towards heroic adventures stereotypical of classic D&D with clear heroes and villains. But then the sophistication of D&D 5e will ultimately depend on its support products so this section is fine especially for referees starting out.

Next is a brief on published adventures. Kudos for emphasizing that a referee is expected to adapt or alter the adventure to make it fit his campaign. That they can't account for everything that goes on.

Unfortunately the next section Adventure Structure is not quite as good. In it the author state that adventure are stories and like every story they have a beginning, middle and end.

Sigh

As a industry and a hobby we really need to get off this roleplaying equal storytelling kick we been on ever since Vampire the Masquarde and Dragonlance. Tabletop RPGs are a very poor and hassle filled method of creating stories. What tabletop roleplaying is great at is creating experiences. With a human referee, tabletop RPGs have tremendous flexibility and the initial experience can quickly and easily turned into another type of experience. THe ability for tabletop RPGs to be pen & paper virtual reality is a unique strength and needs to be exploited at every opportunity.

Luckily this section is only part of page 72 so while I feel they really miss the point it doesn't impact the overall utility of the DMG.

The next section on Adventure Types is much better and far longer. It breaks down adventures into two types; location based, and event based.

For Location baded adventures, the authors talk about how to Identify the Party Goals with tables for dungeons goals, wilderness goals, and other goals. Next is to Identify Important NPCs with tables for who is the adventure's villans, their allies, and patrons. Next is fleshing out the location details which the authors reserve for a later chapter. After this is Find the Ideal Introduction with a table. Next is Consider the Ideal Climax with another table. Finally they end up location based adventures with Plan Encounters, like location details this is reserved for a later section.

For event based adventures they explain that the difference is more on what the heroes and villains do rather than the location itself. I like this phrasing and it clarified in my mind what made my own adventures different.

So what do the author think ought to go into event based adventures? First off is start with a villian. Next is determine the villain's actions with a table. Each action on the table gets a small paragraph of advice. Next is to determine the party goals also with a table. Following this is to Identify Important NPCs. Then you need to Anticipate the Villain's Reactions. After this Detail Key Locations with the provision that they will not likely need to be as detailed as a location based adventure. Next is to Choose a Introduction and a Climax. This section advises to reuse the intro and climax tables from location based adventures. Finally like location adventures you need to plan the encounters.

I think it great that the authors make the distinction between location and event based adventures. I think they could have been event based section a lot stronger by emphasizing that the referee's prep will be altered in light of what the PCs do or not do. And there is still much talk of story.

But they punch it up by going on to give advice about two specific types of event based adventures; mysteries and intrique. Both offer solid advice. The Intrique section even talks about when there is no villain involved as well as multiple villains.

After this is useful table called Framing Events. A table of events that you can base an adventure around. After this is a table for Complications including Moral Quandry, Twists, and Side Quests, each with a table. Quandaries have an short paragraph each possible result.

As promised earlier in this chapter the author start talking about Creating Encounters. Starting with Character Objects including some samples with an accompanying paragraph. Some of these are Make Peace, Protect a NPC or Object, Retrieve an Object, Run a Gauntlet, Sneak In, Stop a Ritual, Take Out a Single Target.

Then a biggies Creating a Combat Encounter. Combat Encounters are rated by difficulty East, Medium, Hard, and Deadly along with Character Level. Each table entries gives a XP Total for that Character. Add the XP Totals of all the characters can you use that number to compared to the total XP of all the monster to gage the difficulty of the encounter. If the encounter has a lot of monsters you multiply their total by a factor based on their numbers to get their true difficulty.

This system debuted early with the Basic DM Guide and it has worked well for the most part. I strongly recommend looking over the notes on Party Size later in the section. These numbers are for parties of 3 to 5 characters. Larger parties are not just a little more effective at handling monster they are a lot more party. Something that became obvious to me when I tried to beef up Phandelver for the 10 man group at the Game store as opposed to the 5 man Monday Night group. Ultimately I had to go with four times the number of monster to give the 10 man Game store group a similar challenge.

Another section that interesting is the Adventuring Day. At first glance it looks like a chart that tells you how many XP a party is expected to get per each in-game day. It actually tells you how many XP worth of monster a typical party is expected to handle until needing a long rest. Although some confusing wording make it understandable why many think it the latter. The section ends up with advice from the authors on Modifying Encounter Difficulty and Fun Combat Encounters.

The next major section is Random Encounters. The authors explain why you use them, give advice to their effective use, and how to create them. The recommended setup is the return of one of favorite elements from AD&D 2nd edition rolling a d12+d8 to generate a number from 2 to 20. This produces a bell curve with the most common encounters places near 10 and 11. The only thing disappointing with this section is the lack of more encounter tables. We only get one example here, Sylvan Forest, and a few more later in the book.

This wraps up Chapter 3 and the next chapter is on Creating Non Player Characters.

The chapter starts out with Designing NPCs with an overview of Quick NPCs versus Detailed NPCs. For Detailed NPCs you are given several tables for Appearance, Abilities, Talent, Mannerism, Interactions with Others, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws/Secrets. The authors then talk about MOnsters as NPCs as well as a short section on setting up NPC statistics.

Next is a page worth of advice and rules on NPC Party Members. Hirelings and Henchmen return!. There is a section on a optional Loyalty rules. Loyalty is a number from 0 to 20. It starts at half of the highest Charisma score in the party. It maximum score is the highest charisma score in the party. Depending on events and the treatment of the NPC his score can go up or down by 1d4. If the NPCs loyalty hits zero they will find someway to leave. If it is ten or higher they will risk life and limb for the party. The section continues with notes on Contacts, Partons, Hirelings, and Extras.

Then the authors talk about Villains. First are a set of three extensive tales to generation the villain's scheme, his methods, and his weakness. The chapter on NPCs ends up with talking about Villainous Class Options. The Clerical Death Domain and the Paladin, Oathbreaker are the two examples that are provided.

Next we will continue with Master of Adventures with Chapter 5 Adventure Environment.

As promised in Chapter 3, Adventure Environments is packed full of advice for creating and fleshing out places to set adventures in.

First off the author leap into creating and detailing Dungeons. They have advice and tables for Dungeon Location, Who created the Dungeon, The purpose of the Dungeon, and a table for Key Events in the Dungeon's history. THe authors go on to talk about the inhabitants of the dungeons, factions, and ecology. They have some interesting advice on encounter difficulty, suggesting that the referee should mix it up rather than slavishly follow the idea of deeper levels are more dangerous.

Then the authors get into Mapping a Dungeon. Features like Walls, Doors, Secret Doors, Concealed Doors, Portcullises, Darkness, Light, Air Quality and Sounds. Whew while it only one or two paragraph of advice per items it pretty comprehensive. There is a nice sample of a basic Dungeon Map on page 103. The dungeon section ends up with Dungeon Hazards which include Brown Mold, Green Slime, Webs, Yellow and Mold,

The next major section is Wilderness. The author outline two broad approaches to Wilderness travel, Travel-Montage Approach, and Hour-by-Hour Approach. They give the pros and cons of each and advice on how to do either way well. I think it is a great section and really shows off how the DMG is trying to be omnibus of a variety of play styles rather than presenting the one true way.

Mapping the Wilderness is the next section. The authors talk about Movement on the Map along with various Wilderness features. These features include Monster Lair, Monuments, Settlements, Strongholds, and Weird Locales. There are tables for Monuments and Weird Locales.

Next the authors discuss what is perhaps my friends favorite sections the Harn Wea... errr Wilderness Survival. Of course it starts off with the weather. Has tables for temperature, wind , and precipitation. Interestingly the authors do something different with temperature. You roll and get a number that plus or minus from the seasonal average. I think it is a good idea especially for those referee who don't want to go into great deal about the weather.

The authors go on to talks about how to handle Extreme Cold, Extreme Heat, Strong Winds, and Heavy Precipitation. The mechanics revolving around making saving throws or suffer levels of exhaustion which can be found on page 291 of the PHB. There also a short section on High Altitude. Its main mechanic is that you can only go half as far before gaining exhaustion. Simple and straight forward. Various Wilderness Hazards are then described like Desecrated Ground, Frigid Water, Quicksand, Raazorvine, Slippery Ice, and Thin Ice.

Next is a section on Forage for Food and Water. You roll Survival twice versus a DC depending on the terrain. If you succeed you find 1d6 + wisdom bonus lbs of food or gallons of waters. A little different than usable but like the other mechanics it is short, simple, and too the point. I am glad they didn't come up with something abstract and opted for lbs and gallons, Finally winds up with Becoming Lost. Again it is a Wisdom Survival check versus a DC 15 or head off in the wrong direction.

The authors then start talking about Settlement. It is mostly a bunch of random table. Interestingly they state you need now the size of the settlement and its government. I think that that the way to go as it is near impossible to come up with a Traveller style system of populating a overland map with settlements. The tables that are included are Race Relations, Ruler's Status, Notable Traits, What the settlement is known for, and Current Calamity.

After this section comes a part on generating random building. It not for making a settlement on the fly. Rather it for those times when a PC is chasing somebody, or need to evade a pursuer, or just pops into a random building for no particular reason. The tables helps the referee figure out what the building is and what it contains. There are tables for Building Type and sub tables for Residences, Religious Building, Taverns (and Tavern Names), Warehouse, and Shops. Next is some advice on Mapping a Settlement.

On Page 115 is full page overhead shot of a wall town, one of the many useful illustrations that a referee can scan and make use of. Just prior to this picture is a section on Urban Encounters including a sample table using the d12+d8 system introduced earlier. It then talke briefly aobut each result from the table giving ideas and suggestions.

After the authors go on to describe Unusual Environments like Underwater, and The Sea. Both have random encounter tables to use. Underwater has notes on swimming and visibility. The Sea has notes on Navigation, Weather, Visibility and Owning a Ship. It pretty basic but there is just enough details to use a foundation for a sea faring campaign. Stats are given for cost, speed, crew, passengers, Cargo (in tons), AC, Hit Points, and Damage Threshold. There also a airship on the table. This section wraps with notes on traveling through the sky.

Next is a section full of advice on everybody favorite type of hazard, traps. There is advice on triggering a trap, detecting/disabling a trap, trap effects with tables, and complex traps. Traps are rated to whether they cause a setback, dangerous, or deadly. From that you get the Save DC, Attack Bonus for the trap. The damage is also cross indexed with the character level. Where this section shines is in the sample tables. Seven traps described in detail. These include Collapsing Roof, Falling Net, Fire-Breathing Statue, Pits (Locking and spiked variety as well), Poison Darts, Poison Needle, Rolling Sphere (cue Indiana Jones Themes) and last everybody favorite from the Tomb of Horrors the Sphere of Annihilation including a variant where a charm is on the trap to compel creatures to crawl in. And that wraps it up for Chapter 5.

Chapter 6 is about what happens between Adventures. The authors feel is not only important to have adventures but to fill up the time in between the adventures to give the campaign a natural ebb and flow.

The authors start off talking about Linking Adventures with advice on Using an Overarching Story, Planting Adventure Seeds, and Foreshadowing. Next advice is given on Campaign Tracking and the different ways you can keep track of the details including a Planner, Notes, Handouts, Calendar and Adventure Logs.

The next two section are probably the one that many will look at in this section. First is recurring expenses. It builds on the Lifestyle expenses found on page 157 of the PHB by presenting more options for the PCs to spend their hard won gold on. This is in form of a table detailing Maintenance Costs. Each type of item has the Total Cost per day, the number of skilled hirelings and untrained hirelings you will need to pay for using the service table on page 159 of the PHB. Items include things like Abbey, Farm, Guildhall, Inn rural, Inn town, Keep, Hunting Lodge, Noble Estate, Outpost, Palace, Shop, different sizes of temples, Tower, and Trading Post. The section goes on to note that some of these include soldiers or guards as part of the skilled hireling totals. Like the section on ships this is not overly detailed. While some may find it simplistic most will be happy with this level of detail.

The next section details Downtime Activities. You can do things other just spend your gold. Well some of the activities still involve spending gold but in a interesting way. First up is Building a Stronghold. The able list the construction cost and construction time of the items on the Maintenance Cost table. Next is Carousing! Really want nothing to show for your gold than a good time. Then use the Carousing table. The result range from being jailed to winning even more gold from gambling.

A section inspiring debates since the release of OD&D is crafting magic items. Yup the 5e DMG has rules for making your own magic item. Like the other systems presents thus far it is pretty simple. A magic items is common, uncommon, rare, very rare, or legendary. Each level has a escalating creation cost (from 100 gp to 500,000 gp) and a minimum levels (common is 3rd, legendary is 17th). The time to make these bad boys is 25 gp per day per character. So if you want to make a legendary class MI yourself we are talking 20,000 days or 55 years. A common items will take four days to make yourself.

Next you can use your downtime to gain renown in your organization, perform sacred rites, run a business and, gasp!, sell your magic items. Other actitives include Sowing Rumors and something from all the way back from ADnD 1st edition training to gain levels.

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Gaining Renown is about how many days you have to spend in doing mundane activities for your organization. If you spend at least 10 days performing sacred rites you gain inspiration for 2d6 game days. Running a Business involves rolling a d100 adding the number of days you spent at the business (max 30) and looking up the result. You could pay 1 1/2 times the maintenance cost or make a profit of up to 50 gp per 30 days.

Selling a magic items involves looking up the item's rarity and finding not only the base prices but how many days it takes to find a buyer. The item's rarity also acts as a modifier on the selling chart which determines how much you get offered for it. The more rare the item the less likely somebody can pay full price.

Sowing a Rumor gives advice on why this may be useful and a table to use to see how long it takes to get a rumor going. The larger the settlement the longer it takes. Training to gain levels starts with 10 days and 20 gp at 1st to 4th level to 40 days and 80 gp at 17th to 20th level. Finally this section ends up with a section on creating your own downtime activities.

This section is pretty darn good on multiple levels. First all of this stuff can be ignored. But if used doesn't require looking up tons of modifiers and mechanics. Last it easily expandable into something more detailed for the few who want that type of thing in their campaign. I can see people coming up with alternative tables or tables for specific businesses.

Master of Adventures winds up with Chapter 7 in what is perhaps the longest section of the book, Magic Items and their details.

Now for some specifics. Treasure in this section is categorized as Coin, Gemstones, Art Objects, and Magic Items. THere are random treasure tables categorized by challenge level. Gemstones have a series of tables sorted by value that allow you to generate a specific type of gem. The same goes for art objects. The author give advice on the buying and selling of magic items, the default being MIs are too rare to have much of a market. There is a section on identifying a magic items. Basically take a short rest and you can figure it out. If you need to know right now use a identify spell. If you want to be more old school and make identification difficult they give you advice on that.

Some magic items need attunement. You have to meet the items prerequisite, and spend a short rest bonding with the item. You can't have more than three items attuned to you at one time. Cursed items are discussed including the fact the unfortunate bearer can be attuned to the cursed item. The different categories of magic items are discussed, Armor, Potions, RIngs, Rods, Scrolls, Staffs. Wands, Weapons, and Wondrous Items. Wearing and Wield a magic items is discussed and the operative rule is use your common sense for times like a character tries to wear two helms. Ways of activating magic items is talked about including command word, consumables, spells, and charges. Advice is given on the resilience of magic items. Most magic items, other than potions and scrolls, have resistance to damage over their mundane counterpart.

THe next section is a really good addition to DnD. It called Special Features and it is a series of table you can use to make a bog standard magic item distinct. These tables include

• Who created the item?
• What is a detail from its history?
• What minor property does it have?
• What quirk does it have?

After a series of random magic items charts that works in conjunction with the random treasure table is 64 pages of magic items. The magic items are described evocatively with the prose kept short. Many of the old favorites are back. The cap is generally +3 on bonuses and often lower. The pages are littered with the best illustrations of magic items of any edition and beg to be put on cards to be used at the table.

Following this is a section where the author give rules and advice on creating Sentient Magic Items. Their abilities, how they communicate, what senses they have,their alignment, it is suggested to the NPC personality tables, and what special purpose the sentient items has. Next is advice and rules on what happens when the item's personality comes into conflict with the wielder. Which basically involves an opposed Charisma check. Mmmmm I think one of my characters is in trouble with this. And for the win, this section concludes with a write up of the classic trio from White Plume Mountain, Wave, Whelm, and Blackrazor, along with an item I am not familiar with Moonblades.

Next is the one of the sections that people drool over. There are not as many as ADnD 1st edition but the author do a really good job with the one they include. This section also see the return on random artifact properties; Minor Beneficial, Major Beneficial, Minor Detrimental, Major Detrimental. There is also a section on destroying artifacts. The artifacts that made the cut for 5e are: Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, Eye and Hand of Vecna (no head sorry), Orb of Dragonkind, Sword of Kas, and the Wand of Orcus. Again this section is really well done.

And the chapter does not end at this point. It has a surprise in that new types of rewards are listed. In Other Rewards, the authors talked about Supernatural Gifts. Marks Prestige, and Epic Boons.

Supernatural Gifts include blessings and charams. Basically minor magical abilities gain as result of service to a god or somebody discovering special esoteric knowledge. These are things like your constitution score goes up by 2 to a max of 22. Or a sword in your possession acts as a dragon slayer for the next 9 days.

Marks of Prestige are the mundane world counterpart to blessings and charms. They include things like Letters of Recommendation, Medals, Parcels of Land, Special Favors, Special Rights, Strongholds, Titles, and Training. The section is filled with good idea on rewards that doesn't involve more gold pieces, or more items.

Epic Boons is likely going to a topic of discussion as it serves as 5e method of post 20th level progression. The basic mechanic is that for every 30,000 xp after 20th level (350,000 xp) you gain a epic boon. For example a Boon of Skill Proficiency, you gain proficiency in all skills. If you think this makes your campaign too epic then there is toned down alternative where character can earn ability score improvement up to 30 or keep on taking feats.

So this ends Masters of Adventures, next up is Chapter 8 and Masters of Rules.

As someone eagerly awaiting "my" copy of the DMG-- a friend ordered it and is going to let me borrow it while running a game-- this review has really whet my appetite for it. Thanks!

Master of Rules opens with Chapter 8 Running the Game. The author talk about the nuts and bolts of running a tabletop RPG session. Like the other chapters this section has options but unlike the next chapter what presented here is expected to be a normal party of most 5e campaigns. And just like the other chapter, the tone is drenched in the attitude of DnD your way.

Right off they talk about Table Rules namely Foster Respect, Avoid distractions, and Have Snacks. Next is Table Talk a short section on advice on how to deal with in-game and out of game conversations during the session. Following this are advice on Dice rolling conventions and a short note on if you roll attack dice and damage dice things go quicker. After this the author goes on to talk about Rules Discussions during the game, Metagame thinking, Missing Players, Small Groups, and New Players.

The next major section is on the Role of Dice why, when and how to use dice as a means of adjudication. It starts with Rolling with it, commentary on why you roll dice. Then goes onto Ignoring the Dice, and The Middle Path.

The authors then talk about Using ability scores. Talking about Ability Check including when multiple ability checks are used. The general position on repeated checks is that if you are willing to spend ten times the amount of time on the task you automatically succeed. There is a chart with each ability and what they are commonly used for when used as a check. And wraps with Contents. There is also a box explaining in detail the difference between a Intelligence Check and a Wisdom check. Wisdom allows you to notice things that are there, Intelligence allows you to figure out what it actually means.

The rules continued with Attack Rolls, Saving Throws and what ability is used for what. A saving throw is considered an instant response to a danger. Next is Difficulty Class and how to set them. Moderate is 15 Nearly Impossible is the highest at 30. There is a variant you can use for automatic success. You compare the relevant ability score (not bonus) to the DC if it five or more the task automatically succeeds. For example if you need a DC 10 to break down a door a character with a 15 strength can do it automatically. Then the section goes on to Proficiency, talking about Skill, Tools, Saving Throws, and Attack Rolls. It reminds you that proficient skills and tools can be used with different ability depending on the task. After proficiency comes the advice on setting Advantage and Disadvantage.

After this the author has a fairly long discussion of Inspiration. How to award it for Roleplaying, Heroism, a Rewards for Heroism, along with using Inspiration for rewarding Genre Emulation, and talks about how players can award another player with their inspiration. The section goes on to talk about When do you award Inspiration, Tracking Inspiration, and when to ignore inspiration. It also present a variant where only player award inspiration along with the variant's pros and cons.

Finally the Dice Roll section ends up with a discussion by the authors on Resolution and Consquence of the dice roll. It recommends that if a players fails by 1 or 2 that player is successful but at a cost. Along with Degrees of Failure and Critical Success or Failure.

Then authors move onto rules for Exploration starting with how to use a map. There is a chart that tells you the distance and the number of square or hexes at various maps scales and travel speed. For example A City has 100 ft square and if you are rushing through at a Fast Pace you cover 4 squares or 400 ft a minute. Following this is advice for when a special travel pace is being used like a carpet of flying. Next is a short section on Visibility Outdoors, followed by Noticing other Creatures. Then the authors get into Tracking with a table of DCs to use to adjudicate tracking a creature.

After this is Social Interactions. It starts with Resolving Interactions. Talking about

• Starting Attitude
• The Conservation
• The Charisma Check
• Then Repeat?  advice on what happens afterwards.

After this the authors talk about Roleplaying, taking a page out of my advice book and stressing that the key is to imagine if you are really there as the character. Along with advising Show not tell.  It talks about Being the NPC, using your voice including when you are not interested or can't do the funny voices. It talks about using your face and arms, along with tips on engaging the players. This includes Appeal to Player preferences and Target specific characters.

After this is all about Objects namely the applicaitons and use of brute force and ignorance on the valued possession of the setting's inhabitants. Objects have an Armor Class, and of course hit points. They give advice for huge object. Either say it takes a certain amount of time or deal with it section by section. Finally some comments on effect of damage types on objects and the fact some objects have Damage Threshold.

The next major section is Combat.  Which include various methods of tracking initiative; Hidden List, Visible List, or Index Cards. Tracking Monster Hit points is discussed including some example. I personally recommend saying away from Mur the ogre who smells like poo. Next is talks about Monsters and Critical Hits. This party is about how to handle Critical Hits when you use average damage. After this is a section on Improvising Damage when you have to make it up. It ranges from 1d10 for being burned by coals to 24d10 from tumbling into a vortex of fire on the Elemental Plane of FIre. There is another charts cross indexing character level and whether the damage is a Setback, Dangerous or Deadly.  At the top of the page is a chart for hexes and squarss for different sizes of creatures on a grid.

People who do Theater of the Mind style adjudication are going to love the next section. It is about Adjudicating Area of Effect when you are not using a grid or miniatures. There is a chart where you look up the type of area of effect and then divide the area by a number. That gives the average number of enemies effected. As an option you can roll a 1d3 and add or subtract it to the number. For example a Fireball has a 20 foot radius. The charts say divide the radius by 5. So on average 4 opponents will be effected.

Next is a equally useful section on how to handle mobs. When you have dozens of opponents attacking at once. It gives a formula and a chart that you can use to quickly determine the number of attackers need to score a hit. For example a horde of zombies is trying to hit your AC 15 fighter with a +3 attack. Subtract 3 from 15 to get 12. Look on the table you will see that for 2 zombies one will score a hit.

Miniatures get support as well in the next section. There are diagrams on how to trace cover and calculate flanking on squares and hexes. There is advice on Tactical Maps, How the size of the creatures relates to the number of hexes or squares they cover. Area of Effect, Line or Sigh, and Cover are discussed. There is an optional rule for Flanking which grants advantage to attackers on opposing sides of an opponent. There an optional rule for diagonals which is more realistic given the geometry of squares. Finally there is an optional rule on Facing including it effect on Shields, where a character can attack, and the effect of a rear attack, (It grants advantage). There is short section on the timing of reaction in regards to the action that triggered them.

Next is something I didn't expect, rules and advice on resolving chases. These include Beginning a Chase, Running the Chase, Ending the Chase, Chase Complications (with tables), Splitting Up, Mapping the Chase, and what to do about Role Reversal. THe basic chase mechanics is that you only get a limited amount of dashes (3 + constitution modifier) before exhaustion sets in. If you make a DC 10 con save you can stave off exhaustion for a round. The chase end when one side catches up or stops. There is a chance that if the side makes a opposed Stealth vs Perception check they can evade their pursuers. Chase complications rise on every turn and use a chart to see what happens. There is one for Urban chases and one for Wilderness charges.

Overall I like this section and may use it over the Paizo Chase Cards I been using. The complications are less fantastic then some of the Paizo chase cards.

What DMG is complete without Siege Weapons! You get stats and rules for Ballista, Cannon, Boiling Cauldrons. Mangonel, Rams, Siege Tower, and Trebuchet. After is the ever favorite Diseases including Cackle Fever, and Sewer Plague. Bascially you need to make various save at different times or bad things happend to the character. After this is another old standby Poisons The 5e DMG give 17 different types ranging from Assassin's Blood, Purple Worm poison, and Truth Serum. There is also advice and rules for Purchasing Poisons and Crafting/Harvesting Poisons.

For fans of James Raggi's modules and Call of Cthulu there is a section on Madness including Going Mad (failing a Wisdom or Charisma save), Madness Effects, Short term effects, long term madness, and indefinite madness. Finally ends up with Cure Madness. There is mention of a Sanity system that will be in Chapter 9.

Next is all about Experience Points, what they are, what to do about absent characters, and how to deal with non combat challenges. They present a milestone system where player are rewarded XP for completing a campaign or personal goal. They even talk about Level Advancement without XP including session based advancement, and story based advancement.

Next time the one that will get tongues wagging the options found in the Dungeon Master Workshop

Quote from: FaerieGodfather;801832As someone eagerly awaiting "my" copy of the DMG-- a friend ordered it and is going to let me borrow it while running a game-- this review has really whet my appetite for it. Thanks!

Glad to be of service.

Interestingly this section starts off with a full page illustration of a epic battle between forces of darkness and forces of light. A metaphor for the edition wars this section will cause? Let see if it warrants such a prophecy.

In the intro the author stress that the dungeon master isn't limited by the rules in the PHB, the guidelines in the DMG, or the monsters in the MM. They stress that when you add something new you should consider.

• Will the Rule improve my Game?
• Will my players it?

Good Advice in my opinion.

After this the chapter starts off with Ability Options.

Proficiency Dice is the first one. Instead of a fixed bonus per level you can roll a proficiency dice. The average will be slightly higher than the bonus (2.5 for 1d4 at 1st level). But there also a lot less certainty what proficiency will actually give you.

Next is Skill Variants

Instead of Skill Proficiencies you have ability check proficiencies. Each character is proficient in one ability because of his class and proficient in another because of his class.

The next skill variant is Background Proficiency. There are no skill or tool proficiency instead you gain your proficiency bonus to any check that is reasonable tied to your background. For example if you are a noble you can get proficiency bonus to a Persuasion check when talking to courtier but not when you are talking to a street thug.

The next skill variant is Personality Trait Proficiency. Here you gain your proficiency bonus to any ability check related to the character's personality.

I doubt I will use any of these variant but it is nice that 5e is flexible enough to accommodate three wildly varying intrepetations of skills and ability checks. It will undoubtly be useful for referee trying to come up with sub systems or mini-games within the 5e rules.

The next option is Hero Points. You get so many hero points when you level (including starting out). When you spend one you get to roll a d6 and add it to your d20 roll. Only 1 point per roll. When you level you lose any unspent point and reset at a slightly higher hero point total.

Honor and Sanity are presented as two new attributes. The authors discuss how to integrate them into point buy and when to use Honor and Sanity Check. They are not tied together so one or the other can be added.  The Sanity Attributes uses the Madness rules from the previous chapter.

Moving from Ability Options we get into Adventuring Options.

First is a section on options for Fear and Horror. The the consequences of fear mechanics revolve around whether the character gains the frightened condition. Horror in contrast involves gaining madness as detailed in the previous chapter. For those who need a refresher frightened mean you have disadvantage on ability checks, and you can't move closer to the source of fear.

Next are options for healing, options to make the game more heroic and option to make the game more gritter.

The first one is Healer's Kit dependency, you can't spend Hit dice during a short rest until somebody expends one use of a healer's kit on your wounds. Next one is a heroic option, you can use your hit dice in a manner similar to 4th edition's healing surges. Finally there is slow natural healing where you don't get all your hit point back with a long rest, instead you have to spend hit dice. Remember you regain half of your hit dice during a long rest. I can see this options being used in varying way by fans of classic D&D and 4e to tweak 5th edition to be more of they like.

Now we get into Rest variants where options are presented on how long Short Rest and Long rest are. Epic Heroism shortens the rest to allow combat to occur more often during a game day. While Gritty Realism lengthens rest times.

Firearms are presented next with information on proficiency, properties, Explosives, bombs, gunpowder, dynamite, and grenades. The section winds up with a selection of weapons drawn from the renaissance, modern era, and the future. After Firearms is a section on ALien technology, holy Barriar Peaks Zelligar!. This option includes mechanics on figure out high tech or alien devices.

THe next section is on Plot Points. Basically players have a plot point that they can use to make up something during the game. When every player has spent their plot point everybody get another point. There are there option on how to use this during a session. They are labeled What a Twist!, The Plot Thickens, and The Gods must be Crazy. They differ in how involved the players are in the running of plot with The Gods must be Crazy a DMless variant.

After adventuring options are combat options.

We have three initiative variants, a fixed initiative score, rolling once for each side of a combat, and using Speed Factors. Note that Speed Factor involves the player declaring their action before initiative. This declaration is what determines their bonus (or minus) to initiative.

Next are the Action Options. These include Climb onto a bigger creature, Disarm, Mark, Overrun, Shove Aside, and Tumble. Mark is no where near as gamey as its 4e counterpart. Instead it is a way to gain advantage on oppourtunity attacks against a single target. I see alot people adopting overrun and shove aside as they both make sense when trying to go through a occupied space. Not sure why they are not in the main rules. The next combat options are, Hitting Cover, and Cleaving through Creatures/

After this is and option on lingering injuries. THis is a table where various bad things can happen to a character like Lose a Foot or a horrible scar. The author give some suggestions for the condition under which a linger injury can occur, critical hit, hitting zero hit points, or failing a death save by 5. I might use this with a failed death save by 5 being the only thing to force a roll on this table. After this is a massive damage option with a table with various detriment effect that can occur if the target takes more than half of their maximum hit points in damage. After this is Morale, if certain conditions are met then the opposing side needs to make DC 10 Wisdom save or run away!

And this ends the rules options.

Next the authors get into Creating a Monster. It is a lengthy section. The first thing you need to understand that it is not an exact process. But it is more than "Make something up that looks good." The heart of the process is the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating. You stat out your monster the way you want and use this table to figure out its challenge rating. There is another table to help you judge the effect of special abilities on the Challenge Ratings. The author present a quick method and a detailed method of creating monsters.

After monsters are NPC Stat Blocks, advice on how to use the NPC stat block from the back of the Monster Manual. There are suggestions for when you make NPCs from Scratch and finally what to do when you want to have Monsters with Class. This section has a table listing all the races including some monster races and the stats you need to use them with the NPC templates.

After this is advice on Creating a Spell. It is not as detailed as the Monster section but give some guidelines for figuring out the level of a new spell. Then the authors get into creating a magic item, focusing on how to figure out the rarity of a new magic item. After this is a section on creating a race or subrace. It gets into Cosmetic Alterations, Cultural Alterations, Creating a New Subrace, and Creating a New Race. It give Eladrin as an example of a new subrace and Assimar as an example of a new Race.

After this the author talk about Modifying a Class including Changing proficiencies, changing spell lists, restricting class access, substituting class features, and creating new class options. This section also presents spell points as a variant. The authors then get into the creation of new backgrounds. They recommend the following

• Root it in your world
• Suggest Personal characteristics
• Assign proficiencies or languages
• Include starting equipment
• Settle on a background feature

And that wraps up Chapter 9 and the DMG proper.

After this are four appendices.

The first is Appendix A Random Dungeon. It is a updated cleaned up version of the original AD&D 1st random dungeon generator. Probably the best use of this section is in the secondary tables like dungeon dressing and randomg traps. Helpful when you are trying to figure what goes into the last dozen or so rooms of the level you created.

Appendix B are various monster lists. The first set are Monsters by Environment, monster for various types of terrain are listed and sorted by CR. After this is Monster by Challenger Rating that many felt was missing from the Monster Manual.

New to D&D editions is Appendix C Maps. Six pages of beautifully drawn and useful maps. In order they are

• A Windmill cutaway
• A two story building
• A updated map of the original sample dungeon found in 1st edition ADnD.
• Another dungeon map with both dungeon and cavern sections.
• A seaside town next to a estuary and a large bridge.
• A town built in and around a river delta. The delta is not marshy but comprised of a series of rocky pinnacles. Much of the town is built on the sides of the pinnacles.
• A small cavern
• The upper and lower deck of a large sailing ship
• A dungeons built alongside a crevasse.

Finally there is Appendix D; Dungeon Master Inspiration a list of works that can be read to inspire your refereeing of a fantasy campaign.

Finally there is a index in very small print like the PHB.

Next are concluding thoughts

Thanks for that; I just picked up my copy but haven't had a chance to really dig into it, so your review provided a helpful guide to the road ahead. I'm generally impressed with what I've seen and you've written about; my one disappointment and worry about the future of the line has to do with the discussion of the purposes and structures of adventures. It really feels like a codification of the most damage trend in table top roleplaying games: the notion that an adventure is something players effectively observe - something that is served up to them and presents them with incentives and amusements and rewards. That is just a bunch of 20 dollar words for describing what happens when the DM railroads a bunch of lazy, semi-involved players. Fuck that noise! Unfortunately, I think the line developers really mean it. If the 'dragons' modules are an indication, they are pretty much committed to a style of play that is opposite the sandbox approach I think is the foundation of all good D&D campaigns.

Quote from: Larsdangly;802278Thanks for that; I just picked up my copy but haven't had a chance to really dig into it, so your review provided a helpful guide to the road ahead. I'm generally impressed with what I've seen and you've written about; my one disappointment and worry about the future of the line has to do with the discussion of the purposes and structures of adventures. It really feels like a codification of the most damage trend in table top roleplaying games: the notion that an adventure is something players effectively observe - something that is served up to them and presents them with incentives and amusements and rewards. That is just a bunch of 20 dollar words for describing what happens when the DM railroads a bunch of lazy, semi-involved players. Fuck that noise! Unfortunately, I think the line developers really mean it. If the 'dragons' modules are an indication, they are pretty much committed to a style of play that is opposite the sandbox approach I think is the foundation of all good D&D campaigns.

I think you will find that while there is story gaming stuff in the DMG 5e it is just one of many many options. The most dominant theme is D&D your way.

The authors of 5E are clearly well intentioned and have done a remarkable job at creating a playable, fun, flexible game. So, good job all around. But I've now read the chapter on designing adventures, and I think they fucked up this piece in a pretty significant way. You could read this whole game cover to cover and never get the idea that players might be able to control how a session of play unfolds. Or that an adventure might happen without a plan or a scripted crescendo. It is written as if the first 5-10 years of the hobby didn't happen and sandbox campaigns didn't exist. I am more surprised and disappointed than pissed - I mean, I know how to play a sandbox campaign, so I hardly need them to tell me what to do. But it is sad to see the DMG of the in-print edition so completely corrupted by the storygame disease. I feel sorry for all those people who learn what a D&D game can be from this. A well played, player-empowered, free-form campaign is arguably the essence of the whole experience! It is clearly more important than any amount of die rolling mechanics or stats or whatever.

To be fair, right next to the section on writing and running discrete, linear adventures is a whole section on designing and managing a world. I think in the long run DMs inclined towards linear storytelling will lean more on the Master of Adventures sections and sandboxy sorts will lean more on Master of Worlds. Which is as it should be: if this is going to be the Big Tent edition of D&D, it needs to give support to people who just want to run/play some exciting linear story just as much as it needs to support sandboxers.

Having read through the whole book I would rate it 9 out of 10. It is a very good DMG and definitely worthy enough to stand alongside the First Edition DMG by Gygax. I would not say it is better than 1st edition. Sections of the 5e DMG are way better in terms of organization and clarity but still nothing beats the 1st edition DMG in terms of being packed with awesomeness.

Another great thing is that the authors deliver on the promise of Dungeons and Dragons your way. Every chapter is packed with alternatives.

So why would I rate it a 9 out of 10?

Because in Master of Adventures they failed to talk about Sandbox Campaigns in a meaningful way.

First off I realize I am biased on this matter having promoted and published a variety of projects for sandbox campaigns and sandbox adventures. However the idea of adventures and campaigns that are driven by the characters actions as opposed to plot or story is no longer an obscure idea. Also while hexcrawl format is still not a common choice for setting, I would think it is now well known enough to warrant a mention as well.

Before I go on, I think much of my criticism on this point is mitigated by the advice on mapping with hexes in Master of Worlds along with the extensive discussion of Event based adventures in Master of Adventures.

There is just too much reference to story and too much borrowing of concepts from writing and scripting. The strength of tabletop roleplaying is in its ability to be a pen and paper virtual reality, its ability to place the players within a experience rather than to be observers of an experience. No other form of entertainments is as easy as a tabletop roleplaying game in creating experiences to participate in. None are as flexible in accommodating all the crazy things a player could come up with. If tabletop roleplaying is to survive in the 21st century this flexibility is what RPGs must emphasize. Especially in the face of the alternatives, like CRPGs or MMORPGs, that are easier for a player to become involved in.

In past years there been controversy over the ideas of Ron Edwards, GNS theory, and Story games where the focus is on the narrative. In my opinion this is NOT where Wizards is going with their advice on the story of an adventure. Instead it is aimed at catering to fans of Paizo's adventure paths. Having run LARPS event and experienced the demands of RPG publishing, when you do something like a adventure path, you need to have a plot or story that the adventures revolve around. It what makes the project possible.

Paizo has great success with their adventure paths. Certainly more success than people like myself had with sandbox products. So it is understandable why the author choose to put advice about story into the 5e DMG.

Understand this problem with the 5e DMG warrants only knocking 1 point off out of 10. So while it is a problem, it is a minor one compared to how useful and well organized the book is. And the idea of fixing it brings up a another good point about possible third party products.

The 5e DMG is drenched with the idea of Dungeons and Dragons your way. Like I said easier nearly every piece of advice is presented with altenatives. The rules themselves presents just enough to be useful and are obviously setup as a foundation for the referee to expand on.

The 3.X books and the D20 SRD also offered a foundation to expand on. However it was a foundation more in the spirit of GURPS and Hero System. The D20 system was a framework and toolkit that was designed to be through so the subsequent add-ons play nice with existing elements of the d20 system.

Ultimately this simultaneously worked and didn't work. It never delivered on the promise of add-ons becoming part of a balanced and coherent system.  Even if you stuck with only Wizards products there are certain supplements when combined that offered chains of abilities that broke the game. The formal structure meant that products that attempted to do something truly different relegated to a niche in the marketplace.

However in my opinion the 5e DMG is written with the spirit of the OSR, simple rules that can be combined in a variety of ways to make the campaigns work the way the referee and his players want it to work. Rules that be expanded on to make more detailed subsystem or a game within the game for those who want more detail in that area. For example ACKS in their domain mechanics.

The nice thing about Wizards taking this approach is that if they allow for a broad third party license I think it will lead to a diverse third party market. Some will focus on adding a lot of details and mechanics on top of 5e in spirit of the d20 system, with many others taking a lighter mechanical approach similar to that of the OSR. The expectation that it supposed to all just work together will be greatly diminished in favor of Dungeons and Dragon your way.

So that wraps up my review of the 5e DMG. For now I am going to enjoy playing and refereeing it. Of course I will share as much as I can on the stuff  If Wizards comes out with a decent third party license I do plan on taking advantage of that as well as continuing with my OSR work. I hope you enjoyed this review and that it was informative.

Now I gotta go, I have a City-State to map and along with putting the labels on the seven remaining Wilderlands of High Fantasy maps.

Good review, I tend to agree.

For my part, I think that the care and feeding of a sandbox campaign is a big enough topic that it almost demands its own book. (Depending on what the third party support arrangement is for 5E, I'd almost suggest you have a stab at writing it.) At the very least, there just doesn't seem to be space in the DMG to give more than a passing introduction to the concept, so like you I can't hold its absence against the book too greatly.

If anything, I suspect that the "Creating Adventures" chapter will be the first one that neophyte DMs stop referring to as they get used to the process. If they don't already know that planning adventures with pre-planned climaxes which don't take the PCs' actions into account is a fool's errand, at-the-table experience will quickly teach 'em.