TSR AD&D 1st Ed Dungeon Master’s Guide (2nd Ed, 1st) Dashing DM Dungeon Design

The Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG[1] or DM’s Guide; in some printings, the Dungeon Masters Guide or Dungeon Master Guide) is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The Dungeon Master’s Guide contains rules concerning the arbitration and administration of a game, and is intended for use by the game’s Dungeon Master.

The Dungeon Master’s Guide is a companion book to the Player’s Handbook, which contains all of the basic rules of gameplay, and the Monster Manual, which is a reference book of statistics for various animals and monsters. The Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual are collectively referred to as the “core rules” of the Dungeons & Dragons game.[3] Both the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Player’s Handbook give advice, tips, and suggestions for various styles of play.

While all players, including the Dungeon Master, are expected to have at their disposal a copy of the Player’s Handbook, only the Dungeon Master is expected to refer to the Dungeon Master’s Guide or Monster Manual during gameplay.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
The original AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (sic) was published by TSR in 1979.[6][7] It was written by Gary Gygax and published as a 232-page hardcover with a cover by David C. Sutherland III.[6] The book was intended to give Dungeon Masters all the information and rules necessary to run a D&D game campaign.[1] The 1983 printing featured a new cover by Jeff Easley.

Like other volumes of Dungeons & Dragons handbooks, the Dungeon Masters Guide has gone through several versions through the years. The original edition was written by Gary Gygax and edited by Mike Carr, who also wrote the foreword. The original cover art was by David C. Sutherland III, and interior illustrations were provided by Sutherland, D. A. Trampier, Darlene Pekul, Will McLean, David S. LaForce, and Erol Otus.

The first edition Dungeon Masters Guide covered the essential game rules for the Dungeon Master: creating and managing both player characters and non-player characters, directing combat, and handling adventures and campaigns that last multiple sessions.[6] The book also included game statistics for magic items and treasure, details how to use random monster encounters, and provides statistics for some of the basic monsters and creatures of the game.[6] New magic items were introduced.

The Dungeon Masters Guide contains scores of tables and charts for 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.

One supplement to the Guide was the Dungeon Masters Screen: two heavy-duty tri-fold boards with the most frequently used tables printed on them for easy reference. The 1979 second edition of the screen describes its purpose as “useful for shielding maps and other game materials from the players when placed upright, and also provide[s] instant reference to the charts and tables most commonly used during play.” The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition screen came packaged with a brief adventure; later editions of that screen, and screens produced for later editions, have instead included character sheets and general reference booklets.

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.

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.”

In 1999, a paperback reprint of the first edition was released.

The first edition Dungeon Masters Guide was reproduced as a premium reprint on July 17, 2012.[9]

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