Dungeons & Dragonsadventures have changed a lot over the years, and based on everything I’ve learned about the 2024Dungeon Master’s Guide, there might be a couple more tweaks coming very soon. EarlyD&Dadventures mostly appeared as relatively short published modules, published in a format that more closely resembled pamphlets or magazines. Today,hardcover campaign books that span several hundred pages are the norm, and that shift in length and presentation has been accompanied by streamlining in some respects and elaboration in many others.
I tend to run more homebrew content than anything else, but I’ve still spent a good amount of time withD&D5e’s published adventures. While they have their ups and downs, there’s a lot to appreciate about thebestD&D5e campaigns, fromCurse of Strahd’s rich atmosphere toIcewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden’s focus on frostbitten survival. Across these diverse experiences, though, it doesn’t take long to start noticing some minor points of repetition, and it turns out thathaving to cover certain bases in every adventure has been bothering the teambehind the books.
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide Takes Care Of Doors
A Key Component Of Adventures
I’ve had my hands on a digital copy of the 2024Dungeon Master’s Guidefor a while now, andone relatively minor thing that I like about it is the inclusion of a page on doors. There’s nothing groundbreaking in this section, but it lays out all the basics of how a party might deal with a door as an obstacle. From stats that determine the viability of breaking a door down by force to the DCs for picking locks, having a standardized set of information provides a consistent way to adjudicate something that parties are constantly encountering.
When I had an opportunity tointerviewD&D’s Chris Perkins and James Wyattabout the 2024Dungeon Master’s Guide, I had to ask about the doors, a prompt that generated an enthusiastic response from Perkins.Having to explain doors in every published adventure has apparently been irking himfor the past decade, which is mostly funny to imagine from an outside perspective. In his words, though, addressing something adventurers encounter so often seemed “super, super important”, and I generally agree with the principle.
Boxed Text Explanations Might Also Be Missing In Future D&D Adventures
D&D’s Most Familiar Format
The obvious implication is that future published adventures can leave the door explanations behind, but that’s not the only thing they might be abandoning.James Wyatt has his own “stupid little thing” that’s been irking him — having to explain what boxed text isin every adventure. Anyone experienced with the format should be aware that boxed text is meant to be read aloud to players while running an adventure, but someone new to the system might not pick it up immediately, so the typical “Running the Adventure” section sticks an explanation inside an example of the box in question.
“This Is Actually Bad Advice”: How DMs Like Matt Mercer Shaped D&D’s 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide
Material in D&D’s 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide went through a lot of hands before it was finalized, and the book changed a lot as a result.
D&D’s 2024Dungeon Master’s Guide, however, gets to boxed text just as quickly, explaining how it works on page 9 under a section telling DMs how to describe situations. Per Wyatt’s preference,this explanation might serve as blanket coverage for future adventures, although he’s not completely confident that the change will happen. It’s something that has to be hashed out with the editing team first, so whether boxed text explanations continue to appear in every adventure may depend on an ultimate judgment regarding the trade-off between repetition and clarity.
I do imagine the section on doors will end up impacting future books. Adventures may drop the explanations of doors outright, but even if they don’t,having one standardized set of rules will likely lead to a more streamlined and consistent approachfrom here on out. As for boxed text, Wyatt may very well get his wish, but it takes up so little space as is that the editing team might not be willing to toss the explanation away quite as easily.
D&D Is Integrating The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide
A Book That’s Actually Central
In any scenario,the fact that these changes are possibilities points to a big change in position for the 2024Dungeon Master’s Guide.Reading through the 2014 book definitely helped with running adventures, but owning a copy of the book wasn’t quite as critical as having thePlayer’s HandbookandMonster Manualon hand. Potentially removing material from the text of adventures due to the fact that the 2024Dungeon Master’s Guidecovers it indicates a new emphasis on the book as a critical foundation.
D&D’s 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide Fixes My Least Favorite Thing About The Player’s Handbook
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide makes some similar advancements to the 2014 Player’s Handbook while also avoiding one compromise that frustrated me.
The Bastion system, a larger new inclusion in the 2024Dungeon Master’s Guide, also supports this idea. Wyatt has previously mentioned the possibility ofincorporating Bastions in future campaigns, which would also necessitate the use of theDungeon Master’s Guideas a supplemental text.There’s no way to say for sure if the team will stick to their gunson these concepts until more campaign books start coming out, but considering the potential to also push Bastions through the upcoming virtual tabletop Project Sigil, it wouldn’t surprise me if that one gets a big emphasis.
Bastions serve as a way to give parties their own home bases that can be expanded to provide useful features in long-term campaigns.
What makes all these shifts work, at least in theory, is thatthe 2024Dungeon Master’s Guideis actually an easy book to use as reference material. There’s plenty of content that returns from the 2014DMG, but it’s organized in a more intuitive way this time, front-loading the things that a new DM really needs to understand and arranging other key concepts into straightforward glossaries. A DM wanting to double-check the stats for doors can find the page at a moment’s notice, eliminating the need to scan an index in the back oruse the D&D Beyond search function.
As someone who doesn’t have to deal with the prospect of publishingD&Dadventures, whether Wizards of the Coast decides to cut a couple of explanations in future adventures or leave them in place is no skin off my back. ButI am interested to see how the new core rulebooks shape future adventures as a whole, and getting confirmation from the creative forces behind theDungeon Master’s Guidethat they’re already itching for some changes provides an interesting tease for the future ofDungeons & Dragons.
