Okay, slight divergence from the theme today…

Let’s talk about the impending elephant in the hobby- The 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide. Why? Because the “DungeonTubers” already have their copy in hand and are already telling us how awesome Wizards of the Coast thinks they should tell us it is.

Yeah, I’m a touch jealous, but also not interested. I’m weeks if not months behind on reviews for products made by a company I do love. (*cough* Free League *cough*) Why do I care about the artsy abomination that is the 2024 DMG from a company I don’t like much?

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

Whether we want to admit it or not, D&D is always the elephant in the room.

Or at least it is industry wide. And for sure here in the United States. I could be happier about that, but Paizo, makers of Pathfinder are basically in WotC’s back pocket. Renegade Game Studios may as well be property of Hasbro. In fact WotC seems to be cutting deals with anything resembling competition these days such as Kobold Press, MCDM, Ghostfire Gaming, etc.

I’m afraid D&D is here to stay. In fact, D&D Beyond is poised to become the largest digital platform in the world for tabletop roleplaying games. The Dungeon Master’s Guide, one of the three core rulebooks for D&D, is one of the most widely referenced resources both offline and online in the world for not just D&D, but several tabletop fantasy games the world over.

What is the Dungeon Master’s Guide?

The DMG is intended to assist the Dungeon Master in running the game of D&D. It is supposed to be packed full of advice for new DMs as well as tools and tips for experienced ones. It contains the most vital information the DM is going to need while running the game, prepping, or afterward if Experience Points and loot are being handed out.

I can’t say for sure the new 2024 DMG is going to function that way for sure as I have not seen it yet. I will look through it at a FLGS when it becomes available to the public. (*We all know there’s no way in Hell WotC would ever send me a review copy of anything. I can’t even get them to return my emails.) We don’t have a lot to go on besides the various preview videos on YouTube and what all the shills are saying. Obviously they never give us the whole neutral, honest story. Maybe it will do what it should do.

I will say the 2014 DMG was a bit of a miserable disappointment when it came to building monsters, encounters, magic items, etc. I was not impressed. Then I found out that the game designers weren’t even using their own Encounter Design method. WotC had a different in-house system for that. I call BS on the whole operation at that point.

Back in my day…

We had the First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide. It is still easily in my Top 5 D&D books of all time. I will say, in all honesty, I have read the whole thing cover to cover. I’ve gone back over some sections multiple times. I sat in the air conditioning during the very long, hot summer of 1987 and read the DMG among other things. Before then I had just been cherry picking info as needed.

That’s what most of us DMs do with the DMG. We skim through the book and familiarize ourselves with certain parts. We might check to see if there’s an index and look up some things for specific rules changes or official rulings in general. We go through the magic items and artifact creation stuff. (*Or at least I do.) Normally most DMs don’t go digging about the DMG unless we need to look something up. A lot of players actually pick up a DMG just to have the magic items available to them.

5E introduced us to a lot of nifty changes and online tools that made the physical DMG almost obsolete. Suddenly we could build NPCs, monsters, encounters, and maps online or on various Virtual TableTops. Kudos to all of the hard working designers and artists who came up with that. We also got D&D Beyond, the website that covers everything D&D for a price. Suddenly we could look up rules as needed on D&D Beyond if we had the right books. Spells, skills, feats, monsters- it was all there. If you owned the book online, it was easy to reference something.

Which brings us to the current time.

A good DMG, like the best one of all time, tells us  how to run the game, structure encounters, make NPCs, create new worlds/areas/dungeons to explore, and gobs of treasure, magical or otherwise. The book should be as much mechanical as it is inciteful. It should be a valuable resource for new and old DMs. Sounds a bit esoteric or idyllic for a DMG, but that’s how I see it. I don’t know if that’s what the 2024 DMG brings to the table.

So far I’ve seen a lot of hype from Chris Perkins and company about all of the neato stuff in the book, including a ton of new art and a lot of player-facing information like the new bastion system. That information makes me cringe, personally, because it’s not why I’d buy the book. That’s not what DMs need.

That’s why I’m pushing as much DM advice out the door as I can for the next month or two. I’m truly most concerned for people picking up the mantle for the first time. What are they going to learn? I want to give new DMs as much of a leg up as I wish I had gotten all those years ago when I first started because nobody was there to teach us anything about D&D back in 1984. (Unless you count all the wackadoos jumping up and down about Satan worship or some junk.)

Much like new players just getting in through the 2024 edition, new DMs are going to need as much support as possible. I also have a bit of an ulterior motive in trying to maybe lure some new people off into other (re: better) games. If they’re still coming in through the mainstream funnel many of us came in through; they’re going to need as much love as we can give them.

My other slightly ulterior motive is to show off the tabletop side to the hobby. I want new DMs and players alike to know that D&D or other roleplaying games are about the physical, not-plugged-in, social experiences that we all love. You don’t need a laptop, phone, tablet, or big screen TV embedded in the gaming table to play a roleplaying game. Just bring your dice, pencils, paper, beverage, and snacks. Go and play! Have some fun with it.

At the end of the day, the physical books, rules, or even the online tools provide a framework. We fill that framework with imagination and collaborative storytelling together. It’s us who are involved with the game and one another.

Sure, D&D is great. Hopefully this new DMG will be passable. But the lessons about running the game are going to have to come from more than just the books. Hi. I hope I can help you.

Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.