Some Random Thoughts & Praise Tonight For the The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide By Gary Gygax & Mike Carr

The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide By Gary Gygax & Mike Carr has some very iconic parts to it but the book itself is a classic. The book is a snap shot in time when Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruled the table.  But what makes the The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide stand out even today to me is the utility of the book. Everything for the AD&D dungeon master is here from how to host a good game to how to do house rules fast as well as on the fly.





The wiki entry has a small thumb nail review of the AD&D DMG; "The original Dungeon Masters Guide was reviewed by Don Turnbull in issue #16 of the magazine White Dwarf (December 1979/January 1980). Turnbull commented mostly on the size of the book, "I would say that only the most severe critic could point at a minor omission, let alone a serious one."  What I love about the original AD&D Dungeon master's Guide is the random dungeon generator; "A feature of the first edition Dungeon Masters Guide was the random dungeon generator. The generator allowed the Dungeon Master, by the rolling of dice, to generate a dungeon adventure "on the fly". A dungeon complete with passageways, rooms, treasure, monsters, and other encounters could easily and randomly be constructed as the player progressed. It could be used with several people or a single player. The generator was not included in subsequent editions of the Dungeon Master's Guide but made a re-appearance in the fifth edition Dungeon Master's Guide." 
I'm trying to think about how many campaign nights I've used this book with?! I've used the DMG with Boot Hill & Gamma World even when running OSR games such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
Because of the conversion guidelines from the Dungeon Master's Guide I has successful Gamma World games. Boot Hill it was the same thing especially using the Random Strumpet table as a stand in for those Western Brothels.


The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master Guide book saved my behind more then once when I had players due in fifteen minutes. Some folks see the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide as," The only TRUE version of Advanced Dungeons & Dragon!". I'm nor really that sort of a DM. But I'm more then paying attention this because what it mean in the  20 or thirty minutes of combat,  that you can see coming. The AD&D DMG is also usable because of the tons of random table generators." figuring damage and resolving encounters in a typical adventure, tables and rules for creating characters, and lists of the various abilities of the different classes of characters." This is the heart & soul of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons experience & while I'm waxing on nostalgically. There actually is a point to this blog post & that point is that the triumphant work of the Dungeon Master's Guide.

The DM David Blog has a very good series that goes over the history, background, & complete breakdown of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons experience & books: Part 1: The time Dungeons & Dragons split into two games
Part 2: Dungeons & Dragons’ new audience versus its original rules
Part 3: Dungeon & Dragons goes two directions
Part 4: Dave Arneson takes a job at TSR
Part 5: Was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons a different game?
Part 6: Why Gary Gygax claimed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was a different game

All in all thumbing through the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide isn't simple nostalgia but rather the measure of a general looking over his troops & then getting advice from beyond the grave from the Dungeon Master himself.