Why yes Dr, I do own a copy of the DMG!

While browsing through the DMing Blogosphere I came upon an older post by Dr.Rotwang that talked about the place that the 1st edition A D & D Dungeon Master Guide occupies in a DM’s library. Instead of posting a comment on an article dated November 2006 I decided to ponder about it here.

A copy of this book, does indeed occupy a place in my rather smallish bookcase of RPG manuals. It’s sitting beside my DMing spot at the head of our gaming table in my Basement Den.

It’s the 1st roleplaying book I owned. Its not the original copy I had, I gave mine a long tome ago. My long time RPG player Math (21 years dude!) gave me his copy a few years ago. Like all other copies, the 2 central pages of combat charts are yellowed and much more used than the rest. I spent many many many hours generating random dungeons and playing whole campaigns out of nothing more than the Greyhawk map and the Wilderness Encounter Charts (I was 12 in 1985).

The manual is in my bookcase out of respect. More there to play the role of the Cranky Grandfather at the Thanksgiving dinner table than as an actual reference. While I respect what it represents and where it comes from, it also reminds me why I quit AD&D. I’m a mechanics driven person, a Crunch Junky. I left AD&D as 2nd edition came out because I was dissatisfied with the rules. At the time I was not big on houseruling, being an extreme stickler to rules. So I started shopping for a new rules set.

I found Gurps and played it until 2001. For a whole decade I loved having second-by-second combats, called shots to the brain, Superheroes Sunday and Horror Fridays. But boy did I miss the sheer flavor of AD&D. (Gurps Fantasy Monsters always gave me the impression of being nothing more than rubber suited humans)*

Then I got the 3.0 Player’s Handbook for my 2001 birthday. One read through and I was sold. Modern open rules design, unified system complete with broken holdovers! I scrapped my Gurps-turned-BESM Campaign and had everybody roll new characters. I’m sold body and soul to the current interpretation of the rules (and recent rules design in general) and I will jump on the 4e wagon when it arrives.

But Grandaddy Gygax’ tome shall remain in my bookcase. A reminder of what it was: a seemingly hopelessly disorganized** manual of subsystems, opinions and thoughts on a how to run this legendary game whose flavor I always loved but whose mechanics I don’t care to remember.

*I can’t help to see the irony as 3.0 actually made monsters according to the same mechanics as for characters. But it doesn’t feel the same… maybe I’m just an Hypocrite.

**I now know that the organization of the 1st edition DMG mirrored that of the Player’s Handbook and both were meant to be read side by side for a complete more structured picture. But I learned that this year while reading Lev Lafayette’s review on RPGnet, whose take on the book I totally agree with.