This is my first time DMing, and I already have the Player's Handbook. I'm wondering which core book I should get next: the Dungeon Master's Guide or the Monster Manual? I am creating a campaign for four players, and I already have some of it done, but I would like to have better sources for the rest of the campaign. Which one is more useful?
[RPG] I have the Player’s Handbook; should I get the Dungeon Master’s Guide or Monster Manual next?
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Related Solutions
Head designer Mike Mearls has tweeted
Lots of Q's about the staggered release: You will not need the MM or DMG to run a campaign. Or the PH or Starter Set to make a character.
To what extent this is true in practice remains to be seen! To me, the last point suggests they might have some basic resources available online for free, which might include a small amount of monsters.
And indeed, they have now announced "Basic D&D". The key quote:
At the launch of the D&D Starter Set, Basic D&D will include the material needed to create characters and advance to 20th level. In August, with the release of the Player’s Handbook, Basic D&D will expand to include the essential monsters, magic items, and DM rules needed to run the game, along with the rules for wilderness, dungeon, and urban adventuring. (The Starter Set already covers the aspects of these rules that you need to run the included campaign.)
They will also update Basic to keep it compatible with released adventures:
As we introduce new storylines like Tyranny of Dragons, we’ll also make available free PDFs that provide all the rules and stats missing from Basic D&D needed to run the adventures tied into the story. The adventures released as part of Tyranny of Dragons are playable without requiring any of the core rulebooks or the Starter Set.
It depends on what you're looking for
You're comparing two entirely different products.
Starter Set: I have no idea what D&D is and want to DM
The Starter Set has everything you need to start playing. It has a bunch of pre-made characters, it has enough of the rules to get going and it has a short campaign to play through. If you simply want to get started with D&D and have some friends who want to play, this is the easiest way to get going.
Dungeon Master's Guide: I know how to play D&D and want to make my own campaign
The Dungeon Master's Guide is just that, the Dungeon Master's Guide. It has no rules for players (those are in the Player's Handbook, almost all basic rules are in there, including character creation, how skills work, how you attack, how spellcasting works, etc.), there are no monsters (those are in the Monster Manual), it only has a lot of rules and advice on creating your own campaigns. It'll do little to teach you how to play the game. I mostly tend to open it to look up magic items or to look for variant rules to try out.
My recommendation:
As somebody who has DMed a lot of D&D, I can safely say that the Dungeon Master's Guide is a great resource, but not for somebody who has no idea what D&D is, at least not by itself, because it'll do nothing to teach you the game. However, if you're already familiar with D&D and want to make your own campaigns, the Dungeon Master's Guide is the better choice of the two, as the Starter Set does not explain how you can balance encounters or what variant rules are solid choices, it just explains the bare details.
In your case, it sounds like you don't even have the Player's Handbook, so the Dungeon Master's Guide would be a terrible first purchase. Go for the Starter Set and play it with some friends to learn the game first, or start by buying the Player's Handbook and playing as a player in some games.
Best Answer
The DMG is much more important.
First, it's worth noting that it's pretty important to have all three books.
That being said, the DMG contains lots of useful information for a new DM. While more experienced DMs might scoff at the advice inside, there are still a lot of useful tables, maps, and suggestions in the DMG that are good for getting off the ground.
Additionally, the DMG contains the list of magic items, as well as guidelines for creating your own monsters and magic items. With the sample monsters in the PHB and the creation guidelines, you could create your own monsters fairly easily.
A lot of Monster Manual is (legally) available online.
The Open Gaming License legally makes a large list of monsters available for free. You can access this list at various places on the internet (here, for example). The list is missing some classic monsters, like the beholder, but for practical purposes it doesn't really matter.
On the other hand, a lot of the DMG advice and creation guidelines are not legally available on the internet (though many magic items are). Thus, buying the DMG gets you a lot more stuff you couldn't get otherwise.