Steve Winter's article about second edition AD&D in Dragon #126 (October 1987) confirmed that there would be an appendix of 'useful tables', but it turns out to be all treasures and magic items. The original Dungeon Masters Guide was filled with well-loved appendices, including many wacky encounter tables and the famous list of inspirational reading. Though assassins are usually included in lists of the bowdlerized elements in AD&D 2e, their slight inclusion here supports Cook's later statement that he removed them only because they were bad for party unity. Most of the rules changes for AD&D 2e had already appeared in the Player's Handbook, but there was one surprising take back: assassins reappear, not as a character class, but as a 'reprehensible mind-set'. Second edition would correct its artifact deficiency several years later with the Book of Artifacts (1993), also by Cook. The scant three artifacts of 2e can be considered a list of D&D's most interesting: the Hand of Vecna, the Rod of Seven Parts, and (somewhat more mysteriously) Heward's Mystical Organ. Artifacts can also be found, though with the lowest count ever. Magic items are the one truly core mechanic found in the Dungeon Master's Guide - a division that D&D has maintained through every edition of D&D except 4e (2008). These toolkit rules aren't the sort of thing found in more recent Dungeon Master's Guides, but they show off one of Zeb Cook's major goals for 2e: that the new rules be guidelines that players could adjust for themselves. It's filled with basic GMing advice and additional background on the various topics it also contains yet more optional rules, including rules for creating new races and classes. Thus the Dungeon Master's Guide instead acts as a commentary and addendum to the Player's Handbook. However, one of Steve Winter's major goals for the 2e releases was that there be no repeat of material between the books. Like the first edition Dungeon Masters Guide, this new book's structure parallels the organization of its Player's Handbook: character abilities are followed by races, then classes, then alignment, just like in the Player's Handbook. So, for the first time ever, TSR had to ask itself: what should really go in a book for the Dungeon Master? But now, the Player's Handbook had become the core rulebook for the second edition game. The original Dungeon Masters Guide (1979) was the core rulebook for AD&D first edition. The new Dungeon Master's Guide following the exact same pattern of production as the new Player's Handbook: it saw more than 10 printings over its first several years, then was revised as part of AD&D 2.5e (1995), and more recently was published yet again by Wizards of the Coast (2013) in a premium edition.Ī Different Sort of Dungeon Master's Guide. The Dungeon Master's Guide didn't appear until three months later, in May, but this was no great hardship for 2e players because most of the rules had already appeared in the Player's Handbook The Player's Handbook (1989) premiered in February and after that AD&D 2e game modules began to proliferate - including edition-changing adventures like WG8: Fate of Istus (1989) and the Avatar trilogy (1989). The second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was the product of two and a half years of work from editor Steve Winter and author David Cook. However, it was once more a Guide by the time it was published. An article that Steve Winter wrote for Dragon magazine suggests that at one time this book was called the 'Dungeon Master's Handbook', which would have created a parallel between the two core rulebook names.

It appears that the name of the Dungeon Master's Guide almost changed with the new release too. The punctuation has been a part of D&D titles ever since … except that the Dungeon Master's Guide temporarily became the Dungeon Master Guide in 1995, losing both its apostrophe and its 's'!. Like the new Player's Handbook (1989) before it, the new Dungeon Master's Guide reclaimed its apostrophe. It was published in May 1989.Ībout the Title. This fresh, new format is your guidebook to the challenging world of the AD&D Dungeon Master.ĭungeon Master's Guide (1989), by David 'Zeb' Cook with Steve Winter and Jon Pickens after Gary Gygax, is the second core rulebook for the AD&D 2e game. Learn all there is to know about magical spells, hundreds of magical devices and treasures, battles, travel, experience awards, and more. Here is the essential manual for the AD&D game Dungeon Master.Īll the information you need to create and run thrilling, swords-and-sorcery adventures is clearly laid out in the Dungeon Master Guide.

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