Dungeon Master's Guide 2 (4e)
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This core rulebook for the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game features advice and rules for Dungeon Masters of all levels of experience¸ with a particular focus on running adventures and campaigns in the paragon tier (levels 11-20). It includes advanced encounter-building tools (including traps and skill challenges)¸ storytelling tips to bring your game to life¸ new monster frameworks to help you craft the perfect villain¸ example campaign arcs¸ a comprehensive look at skill challenges¸ and a detailed 'home base' for paragon-tier adventurers - the interplanar city of Sigil.
A source of inspiration for Dungeon Masters of any level.
This core rulebook for the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game features advice and rules for Dungeon Masters of all levels of experience¸ with a particular focus on running adventures and campaigns in the paragon tier (levels 11-20).
It includes advanced encounter-building tools (including traps and skill challenges)¸ storytelling tips to bring your game to life¸ new monster frameworks to help you craft the perfect villain¸ example campaign arcs¸ a comprehensive look at skill challenges¸ and a detailed "home base" for paragon-tier adventurers-the interplanar city of Sigil.
Product History
Dungeon Master's Guide 2 (2009)¸ by James Wyatt¸ with Bill Slavicsek¸ Mike Mearls¸ and Robin D. Laws¸ is the second core GM's book for D&D 4e. It was released in September 2009.
A History of Dungeon Master's Guides. When AD&D (1977-1979) was released¸ the roleplaying world was a very different place. Most notably¸ many GMs thought that players shouldn't know the rules of the RPGs they were playing. As a result¸ the original Dungeon Masters Guide (1979) was the main repository of rules for the AD&D game. That changed in AD&D 2e (1989)¸ when the Dungeon Master's Guide (1989) gained an apostrophe and lost most of its mechanics. You could still find magic items in the Dungeon Master's Guide¸ but from there on out¸ it increasingly became a book that was about how to run a D&D game - not the specific rules for doing so.
The Dungeon Master's Guide for D&D 4e (2008) took the next step. Though rules for skill challenges found their way into the Guide¸ it was mostly advice and background; even the magic items were gone (other than artifacts). For the most part the Dungeon Master's Guide was now a reference and resource especially intended for less experienced GMs.
Continuing the Core Series. The Dungeon Master's Guide 2 was the final book in the second series of core rulebook releases for D&D 4e. Just as each new Player's Handbook was intended to introduce a new power source¸ each new Dungeon Master's Guide was meant to reveal a new level of play. The original Dungeon Master's Guide had covered heroic adventuring (levels 1-10)¸ so now the Dungeon Master's Guide 2 detailed paragon adventuring (levels 11-20). However¸ there is much more in the book too¸ including storytelling advice¸ skill challenge and monster customization¸ and the return of one of D&D's most beloved settings.
Unfortunately¸ just 15 months after D&D 4e's release¸ Dungeon Master's Guide 2 marked the beginning of the end for the line. Though a Player's Handbook 3 (2010) and Monster Manual 3 (2010) would appear in 2010¸ there would never be a Dungeon Master's Guide 3¸ and so epic adventuring (levels 21-30) in D&D 4e would never get its day in the sun.
Updating D&D. Skill challenges¸ a mechanical system for non-combat encounters¸ was one of the biggest innovations in D&D 4e. Unfortunately¸ the rules had serious issues as presented in the original Dungeon Master's Guide¸ requiring considerable errata that appeared on D&D Insider. The updated skill challenge rules finally appeared in print in the Dungeon Master's Guide 2. It also contained numerous examples for the unfamiliar system¸ most of them reprinted from other sources.
Monsters were also a'changing. This revamp dated back to the Monster Manual 2 (2009)¸ which revised the math for creating elite and solo monsters. The updated rules for creating monsters of these sorts then appeared in Dungeon