Editing Dungeon Master's Guide (section)

==''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons''==
The original AD&D ''Dungeon Masters Guide'' (sic) was published by [[TSR (company)|TSR]] in 1979.<ref name="HW"/><ref name="history">{{cite web| url=http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDArchives_History.asp| title=The History of TSR| publisher=[[Wizards of the Coast]]| access-date=2005-08-20| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924195557/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDArchives_History.asp| archive-date=2008-09-24| url-status=dead}}</ref> It was written by [[Gary Gygax]] and published as a 232-page hardcover with a cover by [[David C. Sutherland III]].<ref name="HW">{{cite book|last=Schick |first=Lawrence|title=Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games|publisher=Prometheus Books |year=1991|isbn=0-87975-653-5 |page=85}}</ref> The book was intended to provide [[Dungeon Master]]s all the information and rules necessary to run a campaign for the ''D&D'' game.<ref name="D&Dfaq"/> The 1983 printing featured a new cover by [[Jeff Easley]].<ref name="HW"/>

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 (game designer)|Mike Carr]], who also wrote the foreword. The original cover art was by [[David C. Sutherland III]], and interior illustrations were provided by Sutherland, [[David A. Trampier|D. A. Trampier]], [[Darlene Pekul]], [[Will McLean (artist)|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 character]]s and [[non-player character]]s, directing combat, and handling adventures and [[Campaign (role-playing games)|campaigns]] that last multiple sessions.<ref name="HW"/> The book also included game statistics for [[Magic item (Dungeons & Dragons)|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.<ref name="HW"/> 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 (role-playing games)|adventure]]; later editions of that screen, and screens produced for later editions, have instead included [[character sheet]]s and general reference [[book]]lets.

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 [[passage (architecture)|passageways]], [[room (architecture)|rooms]], [[treasure]], monsters, and other [[Random encounter|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''.

In 1999, a [[paperback]] reprint of the first edition was released.<ref name="Fogens">{{cite magazine|title=Classic ''AD&D'' books are back|last=Fogens|first=M.|issue=52|magazine=[[InQuest Gamer]]|page=20|publisher=[[Wizard Entertainment]]|date=August 1999}}</ref>

The first edition ''Dungeon Masters Guide'' was reproduced as a premium reprint on July 17, 2012.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/02390000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122120442/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/02390000 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 22, 2012 |title=Dungeon Master's Guide |publisher=Wizards of the Coast |access-date=June 24, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.blackgate.com/2012/08/28/art-of-the-genre-the-old-school-renaissance/ | title=Art of the Genre: The Old School Renaissance – Black Gate | date=28 August 2012 }}</ref>

===Reception===
The original ''Dungeon Masters Guide'' was reviewed by [[Don Turnbull (game designer)|Don Turnbull]] in issue #16 of the magazine ''[[White Dwarf (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."<ref name="WD16">{{cite journal |last =Turnbull |first =Don |title =Open Box |type=review |journal =[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]] |issue=16 |pages =15 |publisher =[[Games Workshop]] |date=December 1979 – January 1980 }}</ref>

Scott Taylor for ''[[Black Gate (magazine)|Black Gate]]'' in 2014 listed both the 1st edition ''AD&D'' ''DMG'' re-cover and the 2nd Edition ''AD&D'' ''DMG'' both by [[Jeff Easley]] as #10 in The Top 10 TSR Cover Paintings of All Time.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.blackgate.com/2014/09/17/art-of-the-genre-the-top-10-tsr-cover-paintings-of-all-time/ | title=Art of the Genre: The Top 10 TSR Cover Paintings of All Time – Black Gate | date=17 September 2014 }}</ref>

Scott Taylor of ''[[Black Gate (magazine)|Black Gate]]'' listed the ''Dungeon Master's Guide'' as #2 on the list of "Top 10 'Orange Spine' ''AD&D'' Hardcovers By Jeff Easley, saying "Not taking anything away from EVERYTHING THAT THE DM IS and how well Jeff represents it here, but I still believe when many folks think about an 'orange spine', they are going to remember #1 first, because at the end of the day, this [is] a re-cover, and half the folks out there are going to be about the Sutherland III edition."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.blackgate.com/2016/09/14/art-of-the-genre-top-10-orange-spine-add-hardcovers-by-jeff-easley/ | title=Art of the Genre: Top 10 'Orange Spine' AD&D Hardcovers by Jeff Easley – Black Gate | date=14 September 2016 }}</ref>

In his 2023 book ''Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground'', RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "The ''Dungeon Master's Guide'' is strange and deeply idiosyncratic. Without a doubt, I believe it's also a masterpiece. Gygax expresses in it a singular vision that feels ''true'' in a way few other RPG books can ever hope to equal — it is an accidental portrait of the man's brain circa 1978."<ref name=mahg>{{cite book| last = Horvath| first = Stu| title = Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground| publisher = MIT Press| date = 2023| location = Cambridge, Massachusetts| pages = 58 | isbn =9780262048224 }}</ref>