


The emphasis throughout the document is on sparking creativity and encouraging customization. The first section eschews rules almost entirely and spends nearly 70 pages on world-building, covering topics like religion, topography, politics and the planar multiverse. In order to do that the DMG is broken into three parts. "The focus throughout the book is inspiring DMs to make the game their own." "The DMG has a lot of material," wrote Crawford.

It is by far the densest of the rulebooks yet released, but shares the same cover price - $50 in the US. The DMG then is the big payoff, the reward for player's investment in the material so far. We supplemented that set with the free Basic Rules online, with the intention of making it as easy as possible for people to join a D&D group."

We also wanted everyone to be able to dive into the game and play right away, so we led with the Starter Set, which provides five levels of play. "We opted for staggering the books’ releases, which would give people time to absorb each book on its own. "We could either stagger their releases, or we could sit on the books until all three were finished. "Our small team couldn’t finish the books at the same time and also ensure their high quality," Crawford wrote. Crawford told Polygon that this was a necessary compromise to get people playing as soon as possible. It's strange to see it released so late in the process, to have players sent out into the wild without the game's most comprehensive document to guide them. It's the one book to rule them all, the most comprehensive and powerful set of resources needed to run a game of D&D. Its release marks the culmination of a months-long rollout that began in July with the release of the D&D Starter Set, followed closely by the Player's Handbook in August and the Monster Manual in September.Īfter reading through the new release, Polygon traded emails with Jeremy Crawford, part of the research and development team behind this 5th edition of D&D, to find out more about what went into the publication of the DMG.įor the uninitiated, the DMG is a dungeon master's best friend. The Dungeon Master's Guide, the last of the core rulebooks in the 5th edition of the classic tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons, will hit the street tomorrow.
