Wizards of the Coast has revised the Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition DM's Guide in the July 2003 release of V. 3.5. Come take a look at the Dungeon Master's Guide Core Rulebook II.

I'm afraid I have a confession to make. I did not own a copy of DD3 Dungeon Master's Guide. When the revision put all the relevant player rules into the player's handbook, I didn't think I needed it (especially since cash was tight at the time). Sure I looked up magic items from other people's books at conventions, but I never really took a look at it. I didn't see the need.

So, when it came time for me to review the new version, it was interesting for me to see how much is actually put into DMG V. 3.5. Although nothing in here is required to play the game, there are many hints as to how to run a game, how to construct and keep an adventure running, and how to work with characters.

The DMG is very well organized in terms of the questions that a DM might ask herself as she gets started. It starts by defining a game and dungeon master in chapter 1, goes through some basic handling of the rules in chapter 2, and then advances into the material that should really be in a Dungeon Master's Handbook: How to design an adventure, how to flush out NPCs, and how to establish a consistent campaign. All of this includes examples of how to use Dungeons and Dragons, but more than half of it could be applied to any game or campaign.

The book continues with material completely specific to Dungeons and Dragons explaining how to modify races and classes and how to use prestige classes (introduced in versio 3.0 as advanced characters and expanded on herein) and then follows with what I ever really used the DMs guide for when I wasn't running: treasure and magic items.

The listing of items has itself been revamped to include new consistent values for the items and to indicate what spells and levels would be needed to create such items. Abilities of any items is clearly delineated and descriptions are easy to understand.

The book ends with a glossary that defines many D&D specific terms and indicates how characters can interact with creatures that have differing abilities (defined within glossary). The glossary is followed by a set of pages designed to be used with a dungeon grid showing the radius effects of various spells, space and reach for different-sized creatures, and finally, photo copyable dungeon tiles to present your players with an overhead visual of the scene within which they find themselves.

Overall, I am impressed by the sheer amount of information found within the DMs guide. It's a significant improvement over my last copy (version 2) and according to Wizard's of the Coast, there have been a number of improvements from version 3. I would recommend the Dungeon Master's Guide to anybody running a campaign, and I would suggest that a gaming group should have at least one copy for public use at their sessions.