No, I won't make any jokes about this...

There's others in that series, too.

Or this

D&D for Dummies, at least, has been around awhile.

Next!

I actually own the "Dungeon Mastering for Dummies" book. It's really not that bad. Some decent tips, even though there's quite a lot of fillers ("Best Adventures Ever!" -- all published by WotC/TSR). I've seen the "D&D for Dummies" which was too much about munchkinizing. You'd get better mileage for this out of Wizard's atrocious "Character Optimization" board.

But D&D has a really big demography, so I see why some players might buy this book. But Vampire? I mean, pubescent goths running around with yellow books? What next, "Cutting for Dummies"? "

Quote from: SosthenesI actually own the "Dungeon Mastering for Dummies" book. It's really not that bad.

How useful might it be to the non-D&D GM?

Quote from: SosthenesBut D&D has a really big demography, so I see why some players might buy this book. But Vampire? I mean, pubescent goths running around with yellow books? What next, "Cutting for Dummies"? "

A nice generalization you have there... I've been running WW games on and off ever since the early half of the nineties, and during all those years only two of the players have been goths, and none teenagers.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!How useful might it be to the non-D&D GM?

It depends. There's not much in there that you wouldn't find in some GM guides (though it covers some stuff missing from the collection of prestige classes and magic items WotC calls the DMG). All the stuff it does cover, gets explained in some details and with lots of bulleted lists.

Some of the stuff is pretty generic (play styles, ground rules etc.), while some clearly is oriented towards a D&D-style play, i.e. dungeons, wilderness, (planned) encounters. If you're playing a sci-fi game, half the book would be of no use to you.
It doesn't reference the rules too much, apart from some tips on avoiding common problems with D&D and the sample scenarios.

I bought it for some light reading where I could gain the occasional snippet of advice, knowing that I already read a lot of the stuff they introduced and common sense dictates a high percentage of the rest. And then there's the novelty value of a DM having a book with that title. Created some amusement at the table...

For a beginning GM playing D&D or a similar fantasy game, this can prove to be rather useful.

Quote from: GrimGentA nice generalization you have there... I've been running WW games on and off ever since the early half of the nineties, and during all those years only two of the players have been goths, and none teenagers.

While my prejudices against WW players are without limit, the pubescent part comes from the "for Dummies" books. They have a rather young and/or inexperienced demographic...

But to prevent this from sounding apologetic: A lot of WW players would _wish_ to be goths, if they could even muster that amount of style

Quote from: SosthenesWhile my prejudices against WW players are without limit, the pubescent part comes from the "for Dummies" books. They have a rather young and/or inexperienced demographic...

Well, the inexperience of the target audience is the point of the books...

Quote from: GrimGentWell, the inexperience of the target audience is the point of the books...

They usually over-simplify a bit. I've seen some of the books with more technical aspects, and most of the time you'd be better of with a title less condescending. They generally don't get very good writers and they seem to pay them by the word, so they pad it out quite a lot. While it's good to explain something in some detail so that you don't get overwhelmed, some of the stuff I've read in the "for Dummies" books apparently assumes that the readers are borderline retarded...

WotC/Hasbro generally won't say no to anything that makes them money ("CLUE: D&D" anyone?), but I thought that White Wolf -- while at least as money-grabbing -- had some kind of up-scale marketing. Optimizing books for V:TR certainly are of use to some players, but that they'd actually admit that surprised me...

If we'll ever see "DotV for Dummies", I'll promise to streak through the next park I can find.

Quote from: SosthenesOptimizing books for V:TR certainly are of use to some players, but that they'd actually admit that surprised me...

It would have made slightly more sense for Masquerade, though, considering that the new system doesn't allow for min-maxing in the same way since the Flaws work differently now.

336 pages?!??!?!

Quote from: Hastur T. Fannon336 pages?!??!?!

Small pages, huge margins, relatively big font, filler wherever you look. Probably some reference sections plus some really bad cartoons. This ain't exactly the 1st ed. AD&D DMG...

"So You Want to be a Vampire Player..."

1. Slit your wrists.


Huh? No sorry, you misunderstood, this isn't a guide to how to become a Vampire player; I'm just saying that if you want to be a Vampire player you should slit your wrists.  It would be better for yourself and humanity in the long run.

RPGPundit