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5E Retrospective: Dissecting the MM and the DMG
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<blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9243372" data-attributes="member: 7035894"><p>The DMG has never been a particularly useful book. My favourite was 1e but that's mostly for nostalgia reasons, as I basically memorized it back in the day. However, D&D has always had a weird kind of internal struggle over whether and how much information to share with players, so instead of being a useful "guide," the DMG is mostly a repository for esoteric optional rules and, of course, magic items. Which should be in the PHB with all the other equipment.</p><p></p><p>I really hope the 2024 version of the DMG is an actually worthwhile book.</p><p></p><p>The MM, on the other hand is my favourite book for 5e. But it's been my favourite book of <em>every</em> edition (I suspect I am not alone in this - what's cooler than a big, illustrated book of weird monsters?). I hear the organization argument but...eh. I have a vast miniatures collection, and I have tried <em>so many</em> times to organize them into the way that makes the most sense, so that I can always intuitively find what I am looking for. And I can't do it. And I'm an audience of one, organizing for myself. So I am convinced that there is no perfect way to organize the MM, and the version we have works better than some and as well as most. It could be improved, I suppose, but I would do it on a case by case basis. Mostly, I like that singular or highly notable creatures are organized by name, and then there are collective entries for things like demons. The one change I would make is to sort it into broad subsections by creature type (e.g. fiends, undead, monstrosities, etc.), but maybe that's just me. That how I currently sort my miniatures. More or less.</p><p></p><p>Other than that, I would do away with setting specific information from the creature descriptions, and just focus on what the creature is and what it can do. But overall, I still think the 5eMM is aces.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Clint_L, post: 9243372, member: 7035894"] The DMG has never been a particularly useful book. My favourite was 1e but that's mostly for nostalgia reasons, as I basically memorized it back in the day. However, D&D has always had a weird kind of internal struggle over whether and how much information to share with players, so instead of being a useful "guide," the DMG is mostly a repository for esoteric optional rules and, of course, magic items. Which should be in the PHB with all the other equipment. I really hope the 2024 version of the DMG is an actually worthwhile book. The MM, on the other hand is my favourite book for 5e. But it's been my favourite book of [I]every[/I] edition (I suspect I am not alone in this - what's cooler than a big, illustrated book of weird monsters?). I hear the organization argument but...eh. I have a vast miniatures collection, and I have tried [I]so many[/I] times to organize them into the way that makes the most sense, so that I can always intuitively find what I am looking for. And I can't do it. And I'm an audience of one, organizing for myself. So I am convinced that there is no perfect way to organize the MM, and the version we have works better than some and as well as most. It could be improved, I suppose, but I would do it on a case by case basis. Mostly, I like that singular or highly notable creatures are organized by name, and then there are collective entries for things like demons. The one change I would make is to sort it into broad subsections by creature type (e.g. fiends, undead, monstrosities, etc.), but maybe that's just me. That how I currently sort my miniatures. More or less. Other than that, I would do away with setting specific information from the creature descriptions, and just focus on what the creature is and what it can do. But overall, I still think the 5eMM is aces. [/QUOTE]
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