I will note that I slept in, and and that as I rolled out of bed I grabbed my DDB app and downloaded it. Then I made coffee, and came here, and I am still drinking my coffee as I type this. I am going to make notes of what stands out to me, after 45 years in the game and 3000 4 hour sessions. So it is the stuff that piques my curiosity, that makes me smile, that confounds me, and that i have opinions on.
Make of it what you will.
TL;DR: Some major changes in this new Book to the 5e 2014 game. Renewed emphasis on Exploration, some amazing advice, new ways to advance, very subtle shifts in the way that things are supposed to be done, the book teaches you how to be a DM, and even offers things 45 years of the game haven't occurred to me. A lot of things I think of as Bad Behaviors are explicitlycalled out. Definitely a high level awareness of the difference between Realism and Realistic -- which I don't think most players are aware of. Easily the most useful stuff for 5e ever produced for a DM, and that's just the first two chapters.
I will be back for Chapter 3 -- I think it will be a Tea chapter.
Chapter 1
The magical table image is cute. The initial, one line descriptor of the role of a DM is "The player who presides over the game and makes sure everyone is having fun." Good list of the roles -- I might quibble, but it's pretty much exactly what I think.
DMs need the DMG. This is now RAW. I am going to laugh for days.
Default basis is 4 to 6 players, plus DM. Nice bit about finding players. They mention the campaign journal for the first time.
Prep Time: The one hour guideline is totally data driven. But it is good advice and a nice guideline. I run four hour sessions (actual play time) that can be five hours long in reality, and i have highly experienced players, and I still only get about that. The 9th step is one thing I would move up a level, and drop 7 down -- but that's mostly due to how I set things up. Really nice way for a new DM to learn.
Sessions: The recap should probably be dropped back a step into planning -- but cool. My group does both: I do a quick bullet recap, then players do a round the table recap. We have a rule of Minute Notes, so the recap cannot take more than a minute per person. Including me. I find tis helps me to see things differently, as my players recap things from their PC's POV.
First example of play is really great.
Ha! They even note that Interpretations should be recorded and kept as part of the house rules! Thirty five years of doing that (we have a creaky old House Rules binder and then a Table Rules binder for each DM's game), where every interpretation or spot call is stored. It has a lot of uses: keeps DMs from making wild calls, keeps players and DMs on the same page about the rules, shows the evolution of the edition and the way that interpretations change, and means more consistency.
Ensuring Fun for All: Trust and respect, right out of the gate. I usually put this under what I think is the most important role of a DM during play: being the referee. The first little handout is here. I can already hear the annoying comments about the beholder on it. OOOOHHH a downloadable PDF of it! Limits aren't negotiable. Interesting. Strong suggestion to take player's needs into account. I like it.
Good bit on respect for the players and take-backs/retcons.The Tragic Limits bit is good. Fantastic line in the second paragraph here.
A social contract!?! How Woke! I love it. Anachronistic thinking is called out. And they even note that modern science might not apply. Antisocial and Evil PCs. Nice. Exploitation of the rules? As an actual heading? OMFG! They called out the peasant railgun! Economy, combat, Good Faith Rules. Virtual Table rules as well.
Chapter 2
Wow, great start to the chapter, by talking about different player goals, and how to meet them!
Ugh, DMPCs are now normative. I will shake my fist at the heavens. Good advice on dealing with small and large groups. They don't include the timed turns thing, which I understand. It doesn't work for all groups. I try to avoid 10 or more except for special circumstances, and I would like 6 per party, but I have an open dungeon crawl game of 12 right now on Sundays, and four regular games of 9, 9, 7, and 6.
My group is huge -- so we have 11 people who can DM, and 7 of them are "regular" DMs (counting me). We do oncurrent, but we have done all the others as well (except me -- I'm weird in that I only like DMing).
Nice narrative bit. Good table for what and when to do certain checks around abilities.Oh, wow, great advice for group checks, including one I'd never tried. Hmmm. I might rethink Passive scores use.
Better spread on the DCs. I will still use our inhouse tables that provide a precise number, but I note that we already match what they have. Not new, but it lays it out more clearly.
Great improvising damage and severity, tables, and while I have personal issue with crits, they are now a base part. They also give notes about using them outside of combat -- with the proviso that it usually means nothing on an ability check.
Attitude is noted under social interactions -- not a new system, but one that my group has always felt is oversimplified. But here they note explicitly the ability to shift an attitude. THis is important, imo.
oh, wow -- I doubt it was intentional, but there is an image that invokes an old Whelan painting. Very cool.
There is a LOT more emphasis on exploration this time around. I am grateful.
Noise rules. Underwater visibility. Way better stuff on travel. Weather, Wind, Terrain, vehicles, special movement, navigation, rations (with a discussion on should you track), Obstacles, Searches, Tracking.
New cheat sheet: Travel planner. I am def going to create a version of this for me. And also a Downloadable PDF.
At several points I have noted the distinct use of Realistic in place of Realism. This is really good, but it means folks will likely have to look up the difference between the two concepts: they are not synonymous.
Combat stuff: Way better, but they still create a problem for my tables (small and medium in same space). THis is a me problem (or a my group problem), though, not an issue with the game. Creature sizes on hexes and grids. Cover on hexes and grids. LoS, too. Long range fights! Keeping COmbat moving is a good section.
HOLY Hula Hoops! Training to Gain Levels Variant!! We've been doing this for decades, and they added it to the game! I want to cry. It is validation, of a sort.
Lots of ways to advance presented here -- not just milestone or XP. Big change.
Ok, I need more coffee, and that's the first two chapters. Gotta write a quick summation up top, do some little stuff, then will come back and do Chapter 3.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Alignment: Actions indicate Alignment. Alignment doesn't limit the actions a character can take -- the actions they take indicate what their alignment is. Good an Evil can cooperate -- Chaos and Law are not mentioned though. Outer planes are where alignment manifests.
Monster alignment gives Starting attitude, and reflects personality traits linked to that alignment (from PHB). Organizations can have an Ethos.
Chases: Improved version of the 2014 rules for it. No major changes, just a little depth to it.Suggested to create your own chase tables. Major hilarity in he Chase Complications, for urban and wilderness. they don't say it, but a cabbage cart could be a consistent roll of 1 on the urban table.
Creating a Background: Straight up, simple rules for how to do it.
Creating a Creature: Interesting basics. HP and amount of damage done are the two areas they suggest shying away from.
Creating a Magic Item: this is not crafting, this is DM side only. Altering, but also some rules for rarity and bonus. Attunement is for limiting sharing, and limiting stacking.
Creating a Spell: They gave a table for damage. Not joking. We are giggling like school girls in the chat. (I am also going through it with the others in my group). We have a standard amage table for all our games, that is more potent than this, but the same idea.
Curses: Some glossing on the nature of curses, but good info on "level" of them. Possession rules. Each turn is a struggle. Remind me to create an exorcism spell if I haven't already (I think I have one under the Ceremony stuff. -=[I have setting specific uses for Ceremony]=-
Magical Contagions: This is basically the 1e disease equivalent for 5e. They just made it magical for more fun and hijinks and horror. More details on the ones from the 2014 rules, no new ones.
Death: They acknowledge in the start of this chapter that Character Death may be a Hard Limit from the 1st Chapter for some players. In that chapter, and noted above, those are not negotiable. So they've seen and read the arguments about PC death and all that, and their response is "up to the players". All a DM can do is not have that player at the game.
Fairness stuff: roll dice in front of players for deadly situations, don't punish a character for player behavior or grudges (my emphasis on referee), provide fair warning (note on consequences, but give clues that this is self destructive, and they even say ask "are you sure?", lol. I am being teased. I always ask if they are sure. Scaling Lethality, which covers very precisely the things that I am often saying to folks who argue that 5e isn't lethal. I have plenty of party deaths. Poop happens, fans spin, and sometimes that heroic crazy action isn't going to work (chandeliers...). Rules for Defeated state. Holy coma movies, batman -- it's my rules for the comatose condition!
Death Scenes: Some cute stuff herre. Fluffy.
Dealing: these are standard rules to me. Space is a thing, but I would have included some additional ways to think about it. I think a party that leaves a companion to just sit there if the player loves the PC is going to take a massive alignment change, because its a dick move by players, not PCs.
TPKs: Six options for recovering from it.
Doors: Barred or locked by type of door, lock complexity and quality, secret doors, Portcullises. pretty nifty little section.
Dungeons: They just start off with the whole "why" and in a couple lines it is presumed there is a why. Then they jump into Quirks. Quirks are why, where, how, other things. 37 options. Mapping guidelines. Soe nice stuff mentioned there for new folks. Good sparks for imagination. Design basics for rooms. COmmon types of rooms.Decay (d6).
Environmental Effects: Dead Magic, Deep Water, Extreme Cold, Extreme Heat, Frigid Water, Heavy Rain, High Altitude, Planar Effects (with 5 examples), Slippery Ice, Strong Wind, Tin ice, Wild Magic zones. Ain't no one gonna say that exploration at a big part of the game anymore -- well, at least, not honestly.
Fear / Mental Stress: Psychic Damage is going to bother a LOT of people, lol. I am getting poked by my current setting's approach to fearsome things -- I have tables for Fear and Awe, and will have to work this into them. Given my recent post on genres, this will be interesting.
Firearms & Explosives: This is not for PHB listed weapons. Burst fire rules. Reload feature. Energy Cells. Mastery Properties. Modern and Futuristic weaponry. Explosives. Bombs. Dynamite stick. Figuring out alien technology. Pack yer bags, kiddos -- D&D ain't just for medieval fantasy. They actually helped out. I am being given looks because I am cackling after my recent arguments about the game on reddit and here.
Gods & Other Powers: ranking (six), Plane and alignment (not bad at all), divine magic nature, divine knowledge (citing certain spells), divine intervention and rules around it, Creating religions, creating deities. There *is* a list of deities in the DMG -- in the Greyhawk chapter, and it is the greyhawk deities -- only them. No FR Deities.
Hazards: falling and dehydration are mentioned as being in the PHB, but they toss a whole alphabetical list that includes: Brown Mold, Fireball Fungus, Green slime, an inferno (usable for forest fires, too), poison gas scalable by level damage, quicksand (yay!), razorvine, rockslides, Webs, and yellow mold. Again, exporation stuff.
Marks of Prestige: This is very much the same as the 2014. Which, like, it seems as if only 1 in 250 DMs know about.
Mobs: Big ole by Level table for handling results. Will have to analyze and work into my game. Targets in area of effect. examples for it, too.
NPCs: Starts off telling you to use the Stat Blocks. Sheet: NPC Tracker - does not have stat blocks, has reference to the one to use and place for how you changed it. Name tables -- 6 of them. Choose a Stat block, alignment, create a personality (using PHB guidelines), appearance tables, secret table, NPC Tracker, Recurring, Archetypes in as party members, a note about not going overboard. Optional rule of Loyalty. I am so adding it in. For Bastions. Because I am wicked that way.
Poisons: Pretty much bog standard to 2014, better presentation, though.
Renown: Optional, more info on how to use it, better by level. Still mostly the same as 2014. I track it by party.
Settlements: Improved on from 2014 in layout and extra info, tracker sheet for it, some fun tables, comment on di you need a map or not. There is a new bit: the max value of an item or service available. I need to drop that into my game.
Siege Equipment: Cannons. Flamethrower Coach. Keg launcher. Lightning Canon. Oh, and the regular suspects.
Supernatural Gifts: Blessings and Charms. Specific ones given. How they work, how they differ. Very nice add in. Totally something that fits with my game.
Traps: Use Sparingly is the first thing, lol. Example traps have a level, a trigger, a duration, effects, ways to detect and disarm, and how to scale them up.More traps given as examples. Old standards plus new stuff. How to build your own, by level, with effects in a table.
Ok, break again, then back for 4.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
They start right off with how to create an adventure in four steps. Then there is a box that talks about how to use published ones, and it includes suggestions like adjusting them with replacing the villain, adding in details from your world (localization), and using them as inspiration. Take a part of one and blend it into another.
Lay out the Premise: Start with a slow bit to get to a point: think of them as a series of situations. A note about guide rails and Railroads.
Only other place I've seen that kind of description is talking to other DMs at conventions. Some websites. I am willing to bet youtube videos. Now it is right there. Call it what you want, but I will always think of it in terms of Dungeon creation; each room is a situation, and there are a lot of different possible situations that connect to each other and slowly lead you to the final situation, the climax, followed by the path out.
Stuff on brainstorming a premise, identifying the conflict, breakdown of situations by level with tables by tier (20 suggestions for each). Ugh, I am being told we need to develop our own since we use a slightly adjusted tier set up.
Setting, maps, common map symbols, bringing a location to life, critters and factions.
Draw in the Players: Talks about the nature of hooks, has a section on subverting cliches. Patrons for an adventure, with hooks from them. Supernatural hooks. Happenstance hooks.
Plan Encounters: right into "objective with obstacle", list of three things, one of which will be accomplished by it. 7 objectives for PCs described. Keeping things moving, with 3 suggesions.a note about making the adventure fit your table style. Multiple ways to progress. Social interaction notes. Exploration encounters. With links to key things.Combat encounters, with five suggestions for making them more challenging.
Encounter difficulty! Budget per character per level based on three levels of difficulty, so now to figure out an encounter and what you need, you just look up a number, multiply by the number of folks in your party, and then go look for a CR beastie or ten that has an XP value that adds up to that total.
For a party of five 20th level PCs, that's a 110,000 XP to spend. on a single encounter, for a deadly one. Examples of how to do that. They need to update the encounter builder here so that you can look monsters up by XP value.
Troubleshooting tips. Monster Behavior. Monster Personality, with a quick table. Monster relationships. Sme interating possivilities here.
Reactive tactics, with specific kinds of them. Prepared defenders with specifi things done.
Encounter pace and tension, with suggestions. Urgency and rests (bwahahahahaha)
RANDOM ENCOUNTERS: Why they are useful and important (urgency, drain resources, establish atmosphere, provide assistance, reinforce themes, become a whole side quest).
Bring it to an end: Climax table. Denouement notes.
Adventure rewards: Note about marks of Prestige. Individual Treasure based on CR. Hoards by CR. A note about how the MM will list Treasure Preferences.
Adventure examples. These are what I call Adventure Outlines. Enough info for you to do a simple to complex set up. They are fairly varied: a solve the the nature problem, a miners in peril, A small dragon, a bad guy has a need for something, and a ball.
All in all, a really good rough guide for creating adventures -- and an improvement to the way that encounters should be set up and how to determine them.
Major win.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I am going to skip over the Greyhawk stuff, with this proviso: it is really good. A lot of the same stuff as was in the 1e Greyhawk guidebook, plus some new stuff. Its a really nice little "light" set up for anyone to pick up and start using.
As I noted before, the deities that are listed are the greyhawk ones, not the FR ones. I confess to being a bit giddy about it considering how I sai that the reason no deities were in the PHB was because the DM has to make them, and turns out, I was right.
Ok, away I go.
Step-by-Step again, same steps, except the 3rd one is plan adventures.
Campaign Journal, with a tracker for it. It is basically a session planning page, and the idea is you keep them together. Talks about using a journal, as well.
Bit on Foreshadowing. I am personally a little disappointed they didn't mention Keywords (use of the same words frequently) or Motif (use of the same symbols repetitively), but at least this was in there. it is really cool and a critical part to making a long campaign of small adventure feel more connected. I especially like the suggestion that a small thing seemingly innocuous could be important later -- and that they don't make it obvious that a DM could use the Trinkets table in the PHB for exactly this purpose.
Then, my favorite thing: adventure stockpile. I save the outlines for every adventure and idea for one I get. I have spent weekdays watching movies and taking notes, lol. I probably have 500 different ones. Some I will never use again, others are almost go to now.
Campaign Premise: They start up right with noting how the whole point is the PCs, and they go right into getting player input. I Do this when creating a world, and I take it as a challenge to use every single idea i can. Then I do it again for adventures. It is why I know they want to do the espionage action stuff for the next campaign, and why I am assembling every bond movie, every Bourne movie, every M:I movie, and then additional ones into a single, overarching narrative that will be a total trip. Then I do it for more stuff after that.
Player input is key: it isn't using what they give you straight, it is taking it and then putting your twist on it, and having the setting guide you in that.
Character Arcs: Wow, this is a really good section. I do most of this by habit now, but seeing it laid out like this really makes me stop and analyze it again and see some areas for improvement. Some of this should go into PC creation, though, i think. But...
Motivation, Goals, Ambition (as a distinct thing, good), Quirks, Whims, Family, Setting new goals, Building on actions, and then a stunningly useful tracker! Character Tracker is great. Definitely will be creating a version for us.
Campaign Conflicts: three conflicts you can create adventures around. Arcs for them A Tracker for it.
Flavors of Fantasy: ok, this one is big to me.
just a few days ago I did a poll on different genres. I took the responses and constructed a top ten list, blending a few response together to get there. Wasn't a big thing, but it made me smile to see that my world voers 9 of the top 10. Here's how it looked:
1 Heroic / High Fantasy 2 Sword & Sorcery / Low Fantasy 3 Urban Fantasy / Mystery / Detective 4 Dark Fantasy / Weird Fantasy 5 Space Fantasy / Science Fantasy 6 Nautical Fantasy 7 Wild Western Fantasy 8 Spy / Heist / Gangster Fantasy 9 Fairytale Fantasy 10 Alt-History Fantasy
I cover all but one of them in my current setting -- it isn't an alt-history, so, eh. What does this have to do with this chapter? Well, a lot of folks keep saying that 5e is designed for only one kind of fantasy. This section completes establishes that that very idea is an outright lie. Heroic, Sword & Sorcery, Epic, Mythic, Supernatural, Intrigue (spy political, etc), Mystery, Swashbuckling, War, and Crossing the Streams (SF) are all explained, with four examples for each of them as conflicts in the game.
The game was created to be able to allow all them -- and now more.
Also, the Dragon Turtle image here is killer.
Campaign Setting: Tells you right out the door you have two choices: use an established setting, or create your own. Lists 12 published ones, including exandria, Dark Sun, and the MTG ones. Yes, Dark Sun is called out explicitly.
Then it goes into five questions to consider when creating your own. These were done better, imo, in the 2014 DMG, but space is a thing, and it comes down to the same info.
Campaign Start: Zero session right off the bat. Create characters then (yes! *arm pump*), OMFG! "Help the Players come up with explanations for how the PCs know each other have some sort of history together". We've called that "Meeting of the Minds" since about 2002, , and the whole end of the "session Zero" is just me laying out what things are like when the adventure startts, and then the Players telling me how they got together and got there.
Setting the Stage: The way things are set up at the very start. Key events, current or past, that help frame the campaign. House rules.
Starting Location: This is mentioned as a campaign hub. This is where they drop the "start small" advice.
Plan Adventures: Garden metaphor. They talk about the Episodic or the Serialized style of adventure. Linking adventures gets a table. Recurring Elements -- including the likeable villain I used in my last campaign that was an awesome twist.
Player faves: this is about creating something the Players will love. Doing it as a narrative thing, and have the PCs describe the details.
Four questions to ask while acknowledging the incredible:
How are the characters the perfect people to solve a problem?
How are the characters’ talents highlighted during the adventure?
What stories do NPCs know of the characters’ past exploits?
How might an NPC comment on a character’s abilities or recognize that they’re special?
Break Episodes, with suggestions (7)
Time -- handling it, and timed events.
Ending a Campaign.
Note that you don't have to reach level 0. Allow time for personal goals. Advice for ending sooner than expected.
Then it goes into Greyhawk.
up next, Cosmology -- chapter 6.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
gives the five groups: material, transitive, inner, Outer, Positive and Negative.
Great wheel described as default
Other Configurations. Tell you straight up you can use a differen tmodel, gives examples. I don't use any of the default ones, but I am glad to see this here.
Discussion of the different groups. list of 17 planes and the alignment(s) for them. Pretty image of it, Layers, Alignment, including planar dissonance and alignment shifts.
Planar Travel: Portals and how they work; Spells; Features that connect the Outer planes and how to use them (including the infinite staircase).
Planar Adventuring. The core of an Epic fantasy cycle usually involves a trip to the underworld, either really or metaphorically -- and this is the really one.
Talk about the Blood War.
Planar Adventure situations, with a 10 item table.
A Tour of the multiverse with descriptions and ideas for each. Huge improvement over the 2014 version.Psychic Wind Effects.
Radiant Citadel. Far Realm. Outlands.
If you like the default set up, this will be a huge benefit. For the original creators, it gives lots of ideas for how to describe stuff.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
That's it for me. Treasure, Bastions, and the Appendices are better dealt with separately and with a bit ore detail.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
CHAPTER 1 The magical table image is cute. Being a DM: • The one line descriptor of the role of a DM is "The player who presides over the game and makes sure everyone is having fun." • Good list of the roles of a DM. DMs need the DMG. This is now RAW. Default basis is 4 to 6 players, plus DM. Nice bit about finding players. They mention the campaign journal for the first time. Prep Time: Guidelines according to time, one to four hours. • Really nice way for a new DM to learn. Sessions: Do a recap. Options for it. First Example Of Play is really great. Interpretations should be recorded and kept as part of the house rules! Ensuring Fun for All: • Trust and respect, right out of the gate. • Limits aren't negotiable. Interesting. • Strong suggestion to take player's needs into account. I like it. • Good bit on respect for the players and take-backs/retcons. • The Tragic Limits bit is good. Fantastic line in the second paragraph here. A Social Contract! • Anachronistic thinking is called out. • They note that modern science might not apply. • Antisocial and Evil PCs. • Exploitation of the rules. They called out the peasant railgun! • Economy, combat, Good Faith Rules. • Virtual Table rules as well. CHAPTER 2 Wow, great start to the chapter, by talking about different player goals, and how to meet them! • DMPCs are now normative. • Good advice on dealing with small and large groups. • Nice narrative bit. • Good table for what and when to do certain checks around abilities. • great advice for group checks, including one I'd never tried. • Better spread on the DCs. Great improvising damage and severity tables. • crits are now a base part. • They give notes about using them outside of combat -- with the proviso that it usually means nothing on an ability check. Attitude is noted under social interactions -- they note explicitly the ability to shift an attitude. Exploration. • Noise rules. • Underwater visibility. • Way better stuff on travel. • Weather, • Wind, • Terrain, • Vehicles, • Special movement, • Navigation, • Rations (with a discussion on should you track), • Obstacles, • Searches, • Tracking. Travel planner. Combat stuff: Way better, but they still create a problem for my tables (small and medium in same space). This is a me problem (or a my group problem), though, not an issue with the game. • Creature sizes on hexes and grids. • Cover on hexes and grids. LoS, too. • Long range fights! • Keeping Combat moving is a good section. Training to Gain Levels Variant! Lots of Ways To Advance presented here -- not just milestone or XP. Big change. CHAPTER 3: DM'S TOOLBOX Alignment: Actions indicate Alignment. • Alignment doesn't limit the actions a character can take -- the actions they take indicate what their alignment is. • Good an Evil can cooperate. • Chaos and Law are not mentioned though. • Outer planes are where alignment manifests. • Monster alignment gives • Starting attitude, and • reflects personality traits linked to that alignment (from PHB). • Organizations can have an Ethos. Chases: Improved version of the 2014 rules for it. No major changes, just a little depth to it. • Suggested to create your own chase tables. • Chase Complications, for urban and wilderness. Creating a Background: Straight up, simple rules for how to do it. Creating a Creature: Interesting basics. HP and amount of damage done are the two areas they suggest shying away from. Creating a Magic Item: this is not crafting, this is DM side only. • Altering, but also some rules for rarity and bonus. • Attunement is for limiting sharing, and limiting stacking. Creating a Spell: They gave a table for damage. Curses: Some glossing on the nature of curses, but good info on "level" of them. • Possession rules. Each turn is a struggle. Magical Contagions: This is basically the 1e disease equivalent for 5e. More details on the ones from the 2014 rules, no new ones. Death: They acknowledge in the start of this chapter that Character Death may be a Hard Limit from the 1st Chapter for some players. In that chapter, and noted above, those are not negotiable. Fairness stuff: roll dice in front of players for deadly situations, • don't punish a character for player behavior or grudges (my emphasis on referee), • provide fair warning (note on consequences, but • give clues that this is self destructive, and • they even say ask "are you sure?", • Rules for Defeated state. • Death Scenes: Some cute stuff herre. Fluffy. • Dealing: these are standard rules. • TPKs: Six options for recovering from it. Doors: Barred or locked by type of door, lock complexity and quality, secret doors, Portcullises. Dungeons: They just start off with the whole "why" and in a couple lines it is presumed there is a why. Then they jump into Quirks. Quirks are why, where, how, other things. 37 options. • Mapping guidelines. • Design basics for rooms. • Common types of rooms. • Decay (d6). Environmental Effects: • Dead Magic, • Deep Water, • Extreme Cold, • Extreme Heat, • Frigid Water, • Heavy Rain, • High Altitude, • Planar Effects (with 5 examples), • Slippery Ice, • Strong Wind, • Thin ice, • Wild Magic zones. Fear / Mental Stress: Psychic Damage and Fear stuff, with table for effects and potential ramifications. Firearms & Explosives: This is not for PHB listed weapons. • Burst fire rules. • Reload feature. • Energy Cells. • Mastery Properties. • Modern and Futuristic weaponry. • Explosives. • Bombs. • Dynamite stick. • Figuring out alien technology. Gods & Other Powers: Several bits. • ranking (six), • Plane and alignment (not bad at all), • divine magic nature, • divine knowledge (citing certain spells), • divine intervention and rules around it, • Creating religions, • creating deities. • There *is* a list of deities in the DMG -- in the Greyhawk chapter, the Greyhawk deities.. Hazards: falling and dehydration are mentioned as being in the PHB, but they toss a whole alphabetical list that includes: • Brown Mold, • Fireball Fungus, • Green slime, • an inferno (usable for forest fires, too), • poison gas scalable by level damage, • quicksand (yay!), • razorvine, • rockslides, • Webs, • and yellow mold. Marks of Prestige: This is very much the same as the 2014. Which, like, it seems as if only 1 in 250 DMs know about. Mobs: Big ole by Level table for handling results. Will have to analyze and work into my game. Targets in area of effect. examples for it, too. NPCs: Starts off telling you to use the Stat Blocks. • Sheet: NPC Tracker - does not have stat blocks, has reference to the one to use and place for how you changed it. • Name tables -- 6 of them. • Choose a Stat block, • alignment, • create a personality (using PHB guidelines), • appearance tables, • secret table, NPC Tracker, • Recurring, • Archetypes in as party members, • a note about not going overboard. • Optional rule of Loyalty. Poisons: Pretty much bog standard to 2014, better presentation, though. Renown: Optional, more info on how to use it, better by level. Still mostly the same as 2014. I track it by party. Settlements: Improved on from 2014 in layout and extra info, tracker sheet for it, some fun tables, comment on di you need a map or not. There is a new bit: the max value of an item or service available. I need to drop that into my game. Siege Equipment: Cannons. Flamethrower Coach. Keg launcher. Lightning Canon. Oh, and the regular suspects. Supernatural Gifts: Blessings and Charms. Specific ones given. How they work, how they differ. Very nice add in. Totally something that fits with my game. Traps: Use Sparingly is the first thing, lol. • Example traps have o a level, o a trigger, o a duration, o effects, o ways to detect and disarm, and o how to scale them up. • More traps given as examples. Old standards plus new stuff. • How to build your own, by level, with effects in a table. CHAPTER 4: ADVENTURES They start right off with how to create an adventure in four steps. • Then there is a box that talks about how to use published ones, and it includes suggestions like adjusting them with replacing the villain, adding in details from your world (localization), and using them as inspiration. • Take a part of one and blend it into another. Lay out the Premise: Start with a slow bit to get to a point think of them as a series of situations. • A note about guide rails and Railroads. • Brainstorming a premise, • identifying the conflict, • breakdown of situations by level with tables by tier (20 suggestions for each). Setting, • maps, • common map symbols, • bringing a location to life, • critters and factions. Draw in the Players: Talks about the nature of hooks, has a section on subverting cliches. • Patrons for an adventure, with hooks from them. • Supernatural hooks. • Happenstance hooks. Plan Encounters: right into "objective with obstacle", list of three things, one of which will be accomplished by it. • 7 objectives for PCs described. • Keeping things moving, with 3 suggestions. • Note about making the adventure fit your table style. • Multiple ways to progress. • Social interaction notes. • Exploration encounters. • Combat encounters, with five suggestions for making them more challenging. Encounter difficulty! • Budget per character per level based on three levels of difficulty, • They need to update the encounter builder here so that you can look monsters up by XP value. • Troubleshooting tips. • Monster Behavior. • Monster Personality, with a quick table. • Monster relationships. • Reactive tactics, with specific kinds of them. • Prepared defenders with specific things done. • Encounter pace and tension, with suggestions. • Urgency and rests Random Encounters: • Why they are useful and important • urgency, • drain resources, • establish atmosphere, • provide assistance, • reinforce themes, • become a whole side quest. Bring it to an end: Climax table. Denouement notes. Adventure rewards: Note about marks of Prestige. • Individual Treasure based on CR. • Hoards by CR. • A note about how the MM will list Treasure Preferences. Adventure examples. Enough info for you to do a simple to complex set up. They are fairly varied: CHAPTER 5: CREATING A CAMPAIGN Step-by-Step again, same steps, except the 3rd one is plan adventures. Campaign Journal, with a tracker for it. It is basically a session planning page, and the idea is you keep them together. • Talks about using a journal, as well. Bit on Foreshadowing. Adventure Stockpile. Campaign Premise: They start up right with noting how the whole point is the PCs, and they go right into getting player input. • Player input is key: Character Arcs:. • Motivation, • Goals, • Ambition (as a distinct thing, good), • Quirks, • Whims, • Family • Setting new goals, Campaign Conflicts: three conflicts you can create adventures around. Flavors of Fantasy: Several explained, with four examples for each of them as conflicts in the game • Heroic, • Sword & Sorcery, • Epic, • Mythic, • Supernatural, • Intrigue (spy political, etc), • Mystery, • Swashbuckling, • War, and • Crossing the Streams (SF) • The game was created to be able to allow all them. Campaign Setting: Tells you right out the door you have two choices: use an established setting, or create your own. Lists 12 published ones, including Exandria, Dark Sun, and the MTG ones. Yes, Dark Sun is called out explicitly. • Five questions to consider when creating your own. These were done better, imo, in the 2014 DMG, but space is a thing, and it comes down to the same info. Campaign Start: Zero session right off the bat. • Create characters then (yes! *arm pump*), OMFG! • "Help the Players come up with explanations for how the PCs know each other have some sort of history together". • Examples: • Bonding Event, • Happenstance, • Mutual Acquaintance, • Shared history, • Tavern Gathering. Setting the Stage: The way things are set up at the very start. Key events, current or past, that help frame the campaign. House rules. Starting Location: This is mentioned as a campaign hub. This is where they drop the "start small" advice. Plan Adventures: Garden metaphor. • Episodic or • Serialized style of adventure. • Linking adventures gets a table. • Recurring Elements. Player faves: this is about creating something the Players will love. Doing it as a narrative thing, and have the PCs describe the details. Four questions to ask while acknowledging the incredible: • How are the characters the perfect people to solve a problem? • How are the characters’ talents highlighted during the adventure? • What stories do NPCs know of the characters’ past exploits? • How might an NPC comment on a character’s abilities or recognize that they’re special? Break Episodes, with suggestions (7) Time -- handling it, and timed events. Ending a Campaign. • Note that you don't have to reach level 20. • Allow time for personal goals. • Advice for ending sooner than expected.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Sorry if I’ve missed it, but any rules or guidance on allowing characters downtime for training to acquire new skill, tool or language proficiencies? That seems to have been left out of PHB24.
Sorry if I’ve missed it, but any rules or guidance on allowing characters downtime for training to acquire new skill, tool or language proficiencies? That seems to have been left out of PHB24.
so, not to the degree they had stuff in the 2014 rules. There’s not really any section on Downtime at all.
The new DMG puts a lot into the act of being a DM from the standpoint of creating your own stuff — and they didn’t spend much of anything on that. There’s a place in Campaign Journal where it talks about the Character Arcs, and that would be where something like that falls, but there’s no real meat to it at all.
However…
Because this is still 5e, the stuff in the 2014 DMG is still usable for that. It also means that there’s a space there for developing a system around it.
they do talk about assorted things that allow a PC to get that, but not in terms of setting aside time for it.
That’s going to be pretty heavily based on how one paces an adventure, which it does talk about a little bit. There is also the Bastions system, which has some facilities that enable that.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
If I'm not mistaken, some variants or optional rules from the 2014 DMG haven't been included in the new 2024 DMG. This isn’t a comprehensive list on my part:
Action Options: Climb onto a Bigger Creature, Disarm, Overrun...
Hitting cover
Injuries
Massive Damage
As you said, they're still there if a DM wants to use them.
But there's one rule I’m missing the most, and I'm still not sure what the consequences of removing it from the book will be. I created this thread 2024 DMG: Combining Game Effects - Rules & Game Mechanics in Rules & Mechanics yesterday asking for opinions.
Just wanted to say thanks for these detailed looks at the new DMG. Though my FLGS has them in stock, it's not a quick drive for me and so I won't be able to pick up the physical book until the official release date. But this thread has me excited to read through it. (I do have the DDB version but I don't read things onscreen like I do hard copy.)
Hi AED, this is really aesome stuff. Still haven't picked up my copy so I'm watching this thread like a hawk.
A question: do they have an updated table for monster building that has expected HP, DPR, AC, etc by CR? That would be very helpful for updating my monster builder spreadsheet. I mean specifically an analogue of the "Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating" table in chapter 9 of the 2014 DMG. Looks like it may be in chapter 3 of the 2024 DMG.
Sorry if I’ve missed it, but any rules or guidance on allowing characters downtime for training to acquire new skill, tool or language proficiencies? That seems to have been left out of PHB24.
so, not to the degree they had stuff in the 2014 rules. There’s not really any section on Downtime at all.
The new DMG puts a lot into the act of being a DM from the standpoint of creating your own stuff — and they didn’t spend much of anything on that. There’s a place in Campaign Journal where it talks about the Character Arcs, and that would be where something like that falls, but there’s no real meat to it at all.
However…
Because this is still 5e, the stuff in the 2014 DMG is still usable for that. It also means that there’s a space there for developing a system around it.
they do talk about assorted things that allow a PC to get that, but not in terms of setting aside time for it.
That’s going to be pretty heavily based on how one paces an adventure, which it does talk about a little bit. There is also the Bastions system, which has some facilities that enable that.
Under Marks of Prestige, there's a Training option that's specifically for these options. If you have the physical book, it's on page 81.
I will note that I slept in, and and that as I rolled out of bed I grabbed my DDB app and downloaded it. Then I made coffee, and came here, and I am still drinking my coffee as I type this. I am going to make notes of what stands out to me, after 45 years in the game and 3000 4 hour sessions. So it is the stuff that piques my curiosity, that makes me smile, that confounds me, and that i have opinions on.
Make of it what you will.
TL;DR: Some major changes in this new Book to the 5e 2014 game. Renewed emphasis on Exploration, some amazing advice, new ways to advance, very subtle shifts in the way that things are supposed to be done, the book teaches you how to be a DM, and even offers things 45 years of the game haven't occurred to me. A lot of things I think of as Bad Behaviors are explicitly called out. Definitely a high level awareness of the difference between Realism and Realistic -- which I don't think most players are aware of. Easily the most useful stuff for 5e ever produced for a DM, and that's just the first two chapters.
I will be back for Chapter 3 -- I think it will be a Tea chapter.
Chapter 1
The magical table image is cute. The initial, one line descriptor of the role of a DM is "The player who presides over the game and makes sure everyone is having fun." Good list of the roles -- I might quibble, but it's pretty much exactly what I think.
DMs need the DMG. This is now RAW. I am going to laugh for days.
Default basis is 4 to 6 players, plus DM. Nice bit about finding players. They mention the campaign journal for the first time.
Prep Time: The one hour guideline is totally data driven. But it is good advice and a nice guideline. I run four hour sessions (actual play time) that can be five hours long in reality, and i have highly experienced players, and I still only get about that. The 9th step is one thing I would move up a level, and drop 7 down -- but that's mostly due to how I set things up. Really nice way for a new DM to learn.
Sessions: The recap should probably be dropped back a step into planning -- but cool. My group does both: I do a quick bullet recap, then players do a round the table recap. We have a rule of Minute Notes, so the recap cannot take more than a minute per person. Including me. I find tis helps me to see things differently, as my players recap things from their PC's POV.
First example of play is really great.
Ha! They even note that Interpretations should be recorded and kept as part of the house rules! Thirty five years of doing that (we have a creaky old House Rules binder and then a Table Rules binder for each DM's game), where every interpretation or spot call is stored. It has a lot of uses: keeps DMs from making wild calls, keeps players and DMs on the same page about the rules, shows the evolution of the edition and the way that interpretations change, and means more consistency.
Ensuring Fun for All: Trust and respect, right out of the gate. I usually put this under what I think is the most important role of a DM during play: being the referee. The first little handout is here. I can already hear the annoying comments about the beholder on it. OOOOHHH a downloadable PDF of it! Limits aren't negotiable. Interesting. Strong suggestion to take player's needs into account. I like it.
Good bit on respect for the players and take-backs/retcons.The Tragic Limits bit is good. Fantastic line in the second paragraph here.
A social contract!?! How Woke! I love it. Anachronistic thinking is called out. And they even note that modern science might not apply. Antisocial and Evil PCs. Nice. Exploitation of the rules? As an actual heading? OMFG! They called out the peasant railgun! Economy, combat, Good Faith Rules. Virtual Table rules as well.
Chapter 2
Wow, great start to the chapter, by talking about different player goals, and how to meet them!
Ugh, DMPCs are now normative. I will shake my fist at the heavens. Good advice on dealing with small and large groups. They don't include the timed turns thing, which I understand. It doesn't work for all groups. I try to avoid 10 or more except for special circumstances, and I would like 6 per party, but I have an open dungeon crawl game of 12 right now on Sundays, and four regular games of 9, 9, 7, and 6.
My group is huge -- so we have 11 people who can DM, and 7 of them are "regular" DMs (counting me). We do oncurrent, but we have done all the others as well (except me -- I'm weird in that I only like DMing).
Nice narrative bit. Good table for what and when to do certain checks around abilities.Oh, wow, great advice for group checks, including one I'd never tried. Hmmm. I might rethink Passive scores use.
Better spread on the DCs. I will still use our inhouse tables that provide a precise number, but I note that we already match what they have. Not new, but it lays it out more clearly.
Great improvising damage and severity, tables, and while I have personal issue with crits, they are now a base part. They also give notes about using them outside of combat -- with the proviso that it usually means nothing on an ability check.
Attitude is noted under social interactions -- not a new system, but one that my group has always felt is oversimplified. But here they note explicitly the ability to shift an attitude. THis is important, imo.
oh, wow -- I doubt it was intentional, but there is an image that invokes an old Whelan painting. Very cool.
There is a LOT more emphasis on exploration this time around. I am grateful.
Noise rules. Underwater visibility. Way better stuff on travel. Weather, Wind, Terrain, vehicles, special movement, navigation, rations (with a discussion on should you track), Obstacles, Searches, Tracking.
New cheat sheet: Travel planner. I am def going to create a version of this for me. And also a Downloadable PDF.
At several points I have noted the distinct use of Realistic in place of Realism. This is really good, but it means folks will likely have to look up the difference between the two concepts: they are not synonymous.
Combat stuff: Way better, but they still create a problem for my tables (small and medium in same space). THis is a me problem (or a my group problem), though, not an issue with the game. Creature sizes on hexes and grids. Cover on hexes and grids. LoS, too. Long range fights! Keeping COmbat moving is a good section.
HOLY Hula Hoops! Training to Gain Levels Variant!! We've been doing this for decades, and they added it to the game! I want to cry. It is validation, of a sort.
Lots of ways to advance presented here -- not just milestone or XP. Big change.
Ok, I need more coffee, and that's the first two chapters. Gotta write a quick summation up top, do some little stuff, then will come back and do Chapter 3.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Chapter 3: DM's Toolbox
Alignment: Actions indicate Alignment. Alignment doesn't limit the actions a character can take -- the actions they take indicate what their alignment is. Good an Evil can cooperate -- Chaos and Law are not mentioned though. Outer planes are where alignment manifests.
Monster alignment gives Starting attitude, and reflects personality traits linked to that alignment (from PHB). Organizations can have an Ethos.
Chases: Improved version of the 2014 rules for it. No major changes, just a little depth to it.Suggested to create your own chase tables. Major hilarity in he Chase Complications, for urban and wilderness. they don't say it, but a cabbage cart could be a consistent roll of 1 on the urban table.
Creating a Background: Straight up, simple rules for how to do it.
Creating a Creature: Interesting basics. HP and amount of damage done are the two areas they suggest shying away from.
Creating a Magic Item: this is not crafting, this is DM side only. Altering, but also some rules for rarity and bonus. Attunement is for limiting sharing, and limiting stacking.
Creating a Spell: They gave a table for damage. Not joking. We are giggling like school girls in the chat. (I am also going through it with the others in my group). We have a standard amage table for all our games, that is more potent than this, but the same idea.
Curses: Some glossing on the nature of curses, but good info on "level" of them. Possession rules. Each turn is a struggle. Remind me to create an exorcism spell if I haven't already (I think I have one under the Ceremony stuff. -=[I have setting specific uses for Ceremony]=-
Magical Contagions: This is basically the 1e disease equivalent for 5e. They just made it magical for more fun and hijinks and horror. More details on the ones from the 2014 rules, no new ones.
Death: They acknowledge in the start of this chapter that Character Death may be a Hard Limit from the 1st Chapter for some players. In that chapter, and noted above, those are not negotiable. So they've seen and read the arguments about PC death and all that, and their response is "up to the players". All a DM can do is not have that player at the game.
Fairness stuff: roll dice in front of players for deadly situations, don't punish a character for player behavior or grudges (my emphasis on referee), provide fair warning (note on consequences, but give clues that this is self destructive, and they even say ask "are you sure?", lol. I am being teased. I always ask if they are sure. Scaling Lethality, which covers very precisely the things that I am often saying to folks who argue that 5e isn't lethal. I have plenty of party deaths. Poop happens, fans spin, and sometimes that heroic crazy action isn't going to work (chandeliers...). Rules for Defeated state. Holy coma movies, batman -- it's my rules for the comatose condition!
Death Scenes: Some cute stuff herre. Fluffy.
Dealing: these are standard rules to me. Space is a thing, but I would have included some additional ways to think about it. I think a party that leaves a companion to just sit there if the player loves the PC is going to take a massive alignment change, because its a dick move by players, not PCs.
TPKs: Six options for recovering from it.
Doors: Barred or locked by type of door, lock complexity and quality, secret doors, Portcullises. pretty nifty little section.
Dungeons: They just start off with the whole "why" and in a couple lines it is presumed there is a why. Then they jump into Quirks. Quirks are why, where, how, other things. 37 options. Mapping guidelines. Soe nice stuff mentioned there for new folks. Good sparks for imagination. Design basics for rooms. COmmon types of rooms.Decay (d6).
Environmental Effects: Dead Magic, Deep Water, Extreme Cold, Extreme Heat, Frigid Water, Heavy Rain, High Altitude, Planar Effects (with 5 examples), Slippery Ice, Strong Wind, Tin ice, Wild Magic zones. Ain't no one gonna say that exploration at a big part of the game anymore -- well, at least, not honestly.
Fear / Mental Stress: Psychic Damage is going to bother a LOT of people, lol. I am getting poked by my current setting's approach to fearsome things -- I have tables for Fear and Awe, and will have to work this into them. Given my recent post on genres, this will be interesting.
Firearms & Explosives: This is not for PHB listed weapons. Burst fire rules. Reload feature. Energy Cells. Mastery Properties. Modern and Futuristic weaponry. Explosives. Bombs. Dynamite stick. Figuring out alien technology. Pack yer bags, kiddos -- D&D ain't just for medieval fantasy. They actually helped out. I am being given looks because I am cackling after my recent arguments about the game on reddit and here.
Gods & Other Powers: ranking (six), Plane and alignment (not bad at all), divine magic nature, divine knowledge (citing certain spells), divine intervention and rules around it, Creating religions, creating deities. There *is* a list of deities in the DMG -- in the Greyhawk chapter, and it is the greyhawk deities -- only them. No FR Deities.
Hazards: falling and dehydration are mentioned as being in the PHB, but they toss a whole alphabetical list that includes: Brown Mold, Fireball Fungus, Green slime, an inferno (usable for forest fires, too), poison gas scalable by level damage, quicksand (yay!), razorvine, rockslides, Webs, and yellow mold. Again, exporation stuff.
Marks of Prestige: This is very much the same as the 2014. Which, like, it seems as if only 1 in 250 DMs know about.
Mobs: Big ole by Level table for handling results. Will have to analyze and work into my game. Targets in area of effect. examples for it, too.
NPCs: Starts off telling you to use the Stat Blocks. Sheet: NPC Tracker - does not have stat blocks, has reference to the one to use and place for how you changed it. Name tables -- 6 of them. Choose a Stat block, alignment, create a personality (using PHB guidelines), appearance tables, secret table, NPC Tracker, Recurring, Archetypes in as party members, a note about not going overboard. Optional rule of Loyalty. I am so adding it in. For Bastions. Because I am wicked that way.
Poisons: Pretty much bog standard to 2014, better presentation, though.
Renown: Optional, more info on how to use it, better by level. Still mostly the same as 2014. I track it by party.
Settlements: Improved on from 2014 in layout and extra info, tracker sheet for it, some fun tables, comment on di you need a map or not. There is a new bit: the max value of an item or service available. I need to drop that into my game.
Siege Equipment: Cannons. Flamethrower Coach. Keg launcher. Lightning Canon. Oh, and the regular suspects.
Supernatural Gifts: Blessings and Charms. Specific ones given. How they work, how they differ. Very nice add in. Totally something that fits with my game.
Traps: Use Sparingly is the first thing, lol. Example traps have a level, a trigger, a duration, effects, ways to detect and disarm, and how to scale them up.More traps given as examples. Old standards plus new stuff. How to build your own, by level, with effects in a table.
Ok, break again, then back for 4.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Chapter 4: Adventures
They start right off with how to create an adventure in four steps. Then there is a box that talks about how to use published ones, and it includes suggestions like adjusting them with replacing the villain, adding in details from your world (localization), and using them as inspiration. Take a part of one and blend it into another.
Lay out the Premise: Start with a slow bit to get to a point: think of them as a series of situations. A note about guide rails and Railroads.
Only other place I've seen that kind of description is talking to other DMs at conventions. Some websites. I am willing to bet youtube videos. Now it is right there. Call it what you want, but I will always think of it in terms of Dungeon creation; each room is a situation, and there are a lot of different possible situations that connect to each other and slowly lead you to the final situation, the climax, followed by the path out.
Stuff on brainstorming a premise, identifying the conflict, breakdown of situations by level with tables by tier (20 suggestions for each). Ugh, I am being told we need to develop our own since we use a slightly adjusted tier set up.
Setting, maps, common map symbols, bringing a location to life, critters and factions.
Draw in the Players: Talks about the nature of hooks, has a section on subverting cliches. Patrons for an adventure, with hooks from them. Supernatural hooks. Happenstance hooks.
Plan Encounters: right into "objective with obstacle", list of three things, one of which will be accomplished by it. 7 objectives for PCs described. Keeping things moving, with 3 suggesions.a note about making the adventure fit your table style. Multiple ways to progress. Social interaction notes. Exploration encounters. With links to key things.Combat encounters, with five suggestions for making them more challenging.
Encounter difficulty! Budget per character per level based on three levels of difficulty, so now to figure out an encounter and what you need, you just look up a number, multiply by the number of folks in your party, and then go look for a CR beastie or ten that has an XP value that adds up to that total.
For a party of five 20th level PCs, that's a 110,000 XP to spend. on a single encounter, for a deadly one. Examples of how to do that. They need to update the encounter builder here so that you can look monsters up by XP value.
Troubleshooting tips. Monster Behavior. Monster Personality, with a quick table. Monster relationships. Sme interating possivilities here.
Reactive tactics, with specific kinds of them. Prepared defenders with specifi things done.
Encounter pace and tension, with suggestions. Urgency and rests (bwahahahahaha)
RANDOM ENCOUNTERS: Why they are useful and important (urgency, drain resources, establish atmosphere, provide assistance, reinforce themes, become a whole side quest).
Bring it to an end: Climax table. Denouement notes.
Adventure rewards: Note about marks of Prestige. Individual Treasure based on CR. Hoards by CR. A note about how the MM will list Treasure Preferences.
Adventure examples. These are what I call Adventure Outlines. Enough info for you to do a simple to complex set up. They are fairly varied: a solve the the nature problem, a miners in peril, A small dragon, a bad guy has a need for something, and a ball.
All in all, a really good rough guide for creating adventures -- and an improvement to the way that encounters should be set up and how to determine them.
Major win.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Chapter 5: Creating a Campaign
I am going to skip over the Greyhawk stuff, with this proviso: it is really good. A lot of the same stuff as was in the 1e Greyhawk guidebook, plus some new stuff. Its a really nice little "light" set up for anyone to pick up and start using.
As I noted before, the deities that are listed are the greyhawk ones, not the FR ones. I confess to being a bit giddy about it considering how I sai that the reason no deities were in the PHB was because the DM has to make them, and turns out, I was right.
Ok, away I go.
Step-by-Step again, same steps, except the 3rd one is plan adventures.
Campaign Journal, with a tracker for it. It is basically a session planning page, and the idea is you keep them together. Talks about using a journal, as well.
Bit on Foreshadowing. I am personally a little disappointed they didn't mention Keywords (use of the same words frequently) or Motif (use of the same symbols repetitively), but at least this was in there. it is really cool and a critical part to making a long campaign of small adventure feel more connected. I especially like the suggestion that a small thing seemingly innocuous could be important later -- and that they don't make it obvious that a DM could use the Trinkets table in the PHB for exactly this purpose.
Then, my favorite thing: adventure stockpile. I save the outlines for every adventure and idea for one I get. I have spent weekdays watching movies and taking notes, lol. I probably have 500 different ones. Some I will never use again, others are almost go to now.
Campaign Premise: They start up right with noting how the whole point is the PCs, and they go right into getting player input. I Do this when creating a world, and I take it as a challenge to use every single idea i can. Then I do it again for adventures. It is why I know they want to do the espionage action stuff for the next campaign, and why I am assembling every bond movie, every Bourne movie, every M:I movie, and then additional ones into a single, overarching narrative that will be a total trip. Then I do it for more stuff after that.
Player input is key: it isn't using what they give you straight, it is taking it and then putting your twist on it, and having the setting guide you in that.
Character Arcs: Wow, this is a really good section. I do most of this by habit now, but seeing it laid out like this really makes me stop and analyze it again and see some areas for improvement. Some of this should go into PC creation, though, i think. But...
Motivation, Goals, Ambition (as a distinct thing, good), Quirks, Whims, Family, Setting new goals, Building on actions, and then a stunningly useful tracker! Character Tracker is great. Definitely will be creating a version for us.
Campaign Conflicts: three conflicts you can create adventures around. Arcs for them A Tracker for it.
Flavors of Fantasy: ok, this one is big to me.
just a few days ago I did a poll on different genres. I took the responses and constructed a top ten list, blending a few response together to get there. Wasn't a big thing, but it made me smile to see that my world voers 9 of the top 10. Here's how it looked:
1 Heroic / High Fantasy
2 Sword & Sorcery / Low Fantasy
3 Urban Fantasy / Mystery / Detective
4 Dark Fantasy / Weird Fantasy
5 Space Fantasy / Science Fantasy
6 Nautical Fantasy
7 Wild Western Fantasy
8 Spy / Heist / Gangster Fantasy
9 Fairytale Fantasy
10 Alt-History Fantasy
I cover all but one of them in my current setting -- it isn't an alt-history, so, eh. What does this have to do with this chapter? Well, a lot of folks keep saying that 5e is designed for only one kind of fantasy. This section completes establishes that that very idea is an outright lie. Heroic, Sword & Sorcery, Epic, Mythic, Supernatural, Intrigue (spy political, etc), Mystery, Swashbuckling, War, and Crossing the Streams (SF) are all explained, with four examples for each of them as conflicts in the game.
The game was created to be able to allow all them -- and now more.
Also, the Dragon Turtle image here is killer.
Campaign Setting: Tells you right out the door you have two choices: use an established setting, or create your own. Lists 12 published ones, including exandria, Dark Sun, and the MTG ones. Yes, Dark Sun is called out explicitly.
Then it goes into five questions to consider when creating your own. These were done better, imo, in the 2014 DMG, but space is a thing, and it comes down to the same info.
Campaign Start: Zero session right off the bat. Create characters then (yes! *arm pump*), OMFG! "Help the Players come up with explanations for how the PCs know each other have some sort of history together". We've called that "Meeting of the Minds" since about 2002, , and the whole end of the "session Zero" is just me laying out what things are like when the adventure startts, and then the Players telling me how they got together and got there.
Notes: Bonding Event, Happenstance, Mutual Acquaintance, Shared history, Tavern Gathering.
Setting the Stage: The way things are set up at the very start. Key events, current or past, that help frame the campaign. House rules.
Starting Location: This is mentioned as a campaign hub. This is where they drop the "start small" advice.
Plan Adventures: Garden metaphor. They talk about the Episodic or the Serialized style of adventure. Linking adventures gets a table. Recurring Elements -- including the likeable villain I used in my last campaign that was an awesome twist.
Player faves: this is about creating something the Players will love. Doing it as a narrative thing, and have the PCs describe the details.
Four questions to ask while acknowledging the incredible:
Break Episodes, with suggestions (7)
Time -- handling it, and timed events.
Ending a Campaign.
Note that you don't have to reach level 0. Allow time for personal goals. Advice for ending sooner than expected.
Then it goes into Greyhawk.
up next, Cosmology -- chapter 6.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Chapter 6: Cosmology
Lady of Pain right off the start.
gives the five groups: material, transitive, inner, Outer, Positive and Negative.
Great wheel described as default
Other Configurations. Tell you straight up you can use a differen tmodel, gives examples. I don't use any of the default ones, but I am glad to see this here.
Discussion of the different groups. list of 17 planes and the alignment(s) for them. Pretty image of it, Layers, Alignment, including planar dissonance and alignment shifts.
Planar Travel: Portals and how they work; Spells; Features that connect the Outer planes and how to use them (including the infinite staircase).
Planar Adventuring. The core of an Epic fantasy cycle usually involves a trip to the underworld, either really or metaphorically -- and this is the really one.
Talk about the Blood War.
Planar Adventure situations, with a 10 item table.
A Tour of the multiverse with descriptions and ideas for each. Huge improvement over the 2014 version.Psychic Wind Effects.
Radiant Citadel. Far Realm. Outlands.
If you like the default set up, this will be a huge benefit. For the original creators, it gives lots of ideas for how to describe stuff.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
That's it for me. Treasure, Bastions, and the Appendices are better dealt with separately and with a bit ore detail.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Thanks very much for this. Lots of positive-sounding stuff there.
CHAPTER 1
The magical table image is cute.
Being a DM:
• The one line descriptor of the role of a DM is "The player who presides over the game and makes sure everyone is having fun."
• Good list of the roles of a DM.
DMs need the DMG. This is now RAW.
Default basis is 4 to 6 players, plus DM. Nice bit about finding players. They mention the campaign journal for the first time.
Prep Time: Guidelines according to time, one to four hours.
• Really nice way for a new DM to learn.
Sessions: Do a recap. Options for it.
First Example Of Play is really great.
Interpretations should be recorded and kept as part of the house rules!
Ensuring Fun for All:
• Trust and respect, right out of the gate.
• Limits aren't negotiable. Interesting.
• Strong suggestion to take player's needs into account. I like it.
• Good bit on respect for the players and take-backs/retcons.
• The Tragic Limits bit is good. Fantastic line in the second paragraph here.
A Social Contract!
• Anachronistic thinking is called out.
• They note that modern science might not apply.
• Antisocial and Evil PCs.
• Exploitation of the rules. They called out the peasant railgun!
• Economy, combat, Good Faith Rules.
• Virtual Table rules as well.
CHAPTER 2
Wow, great start to the chapter, by talking about different player goals, and how to meet them!
• DMPCs are now normative.
• Good advice on dealing with small and large groups.
• Nice narrative bit.
• Good table for what and when to do certain checks around abilities.
• great advice for group checks, including one I'd never tried.
• Better spread on the DCs.
Great improvising damage and severity tables.
• crits are now a base part.
• They give notes about using them outside of combat -- with the proviso that it usually means nothing on an ability check.
Attitude is noted under social interactions -- they note explicitly the ability to shift an attitude.
Exploration.
• Noise rules.
• Underwater visibility.
• Way better stuff on travel.
• Weather,
• Wind,
• Terrain,
• Vehicles,
• Special movement,
• Navigation,
• Rations (with a discussion on should you track),
• Obstacles,
• Searches,
• Tracking.
Travel planner.
Combat stuff: Way better, but they still create a problem for my tables (small and medium in same space). This is a me problem (or a my group problem), though, not an issue with the game.
• Creature sizes on hexes and grids.
• Cover on hexes and grids. LoS, too.
• Long range fights!
• Keeping Combat moving is a good section.
Training to Gain Levels Variant!
Lots of Ways To Advance presented here -- not just milestone or XP. Big change.
CHAPTER 3: DM'S TOOLBOX
Alignment: Actions indicate Alignment.
• Alignment doesn't limit the actions a character can take -- the actions they take indicate what their alignment is.
• Good an Evil can cooperate.
• Chaos and Law are not mentioned though.
• Outer planes are where alignment manifests.
• Monster alignment gives
• Starting attitude, and
• reflects personality traits linked to that alignment (from PHB).
• Organizations can have an Ethos.
Chases: Improved version of the 2014 rules for it. No major changes, just a little depth to it.
• Suggested to create your own chase tables.
• Chase Complications, for urban and wilderness.
Creating a Background: Straight up, simple rules for how to do it.
Creating a Creature: Interesting basics. HP and amount of damage done are the two areas they suggest shying away from.
Creating a Magic Item: this is not crafting, this is DM side only.
• Altering, but also some rules for rarity and bonus.
• Attunement is for limiting sharing, and limiting stacking.
Creating a Spell: They gave a table for damage.
Curses: Some glossing on the nature of curses, but good info on "level" of them.
• Possession rules. Each turn is a struggle.
Magical Contagions: This is basically the 1e disease equivalent for 5e. More details on the ones from the 2014 rules, no new ones.
Death: They acknowledge in the start of this chapter that Character Death may be a Hard Limit from the 1st Chapter for some players.
In that chapter, and noted above, those are not negotiable.
Fairness stuff: roll dice in front of players for deadly situations,
• don't punish a character for player behavior or grudges (my emphasis on referee),
• provide fair warning (note on consequences, but
• give clues that this is self destructive, and
• they even say ask "are you sure?",
• Rules for Defeated state.
• Death Scenes: Some cute stuff herre. Fluffy.
• Dealing: these are standard rules.
• TPKs: Six options for recovering from it.
Doors: Barred or locked by type of door, lock complexity and quality, secret doors, Portcullises.
Dungeons: They just start off with the whole "why" and in a couple lines it is presumed there is a why. Then they jump into Quirks. Quirks are why, where, how, other things. 37 options.
• Mapping guidelines.
• Design basics for rooms.
• Common types of rooms.
• Decay (d6).
Environmental Effects:
• Dead Magic,
• Deep Water,
• Extreme Cold,
• Extreme Heat,
• Frigid Water,
• Heavy Rain,
• High Altitude,
• Planar Effects (with 5 examples),
• Slippery Ice,
• Strong Wind,
• Thin ice,
• Wild Magic zones.
Fear / Mental Stress: Psychic Damage and Fear stuff, with table for effects and potential ramifications.
Firearms & Explosives: This is not for PHB listed weapons.
• Burst fire rules.
• Reload feature.
• Energy Cells.
• Mastery Properties.
• Modern and Futuristic weaponry.
• Explosives.
• Bombs.
• Dynamite stick.
• Figuring out alien technology.
Gods & Other Powers: Several bits.
• ranking (six),
• Plane and alignment (not bad at all),
• divine magic nature,
• divine knowledge (citing certain spells),
• divine intervention and rules around it,
• Creating religions,
• creating deities.
• There *is* a list of deities in the DMG -- in the Greyhawk chapter, the Greyhawk deities..
Hazards: falling and dehydration are mentioned as being in the PHB, but they toss a whole alphabetical list that includes:
• Brown Mold,
• Fireball Fungus,
• Green slime,
• an inferno (usable for forest fires, too),
• poison gas scalable by level damage,
• quicksand (yay!),
• razorvine,
• rockslides,
• Webs,
• and yellow mold.
Marks of Prestige: This is very much the same as the 2014. Which, like, it seems as if only 1 in 250 DMs know about.
Mobs: Big ole by Level table for handling results. Will have to analyze and work into my game. Targets in area of effect. examples for it, too.
NPCs: Starts off telling you to use the Stat Blocks.
• Sheet: NPC Tracker - does not have stat blocks, has reference to the one to use and place for how you changed it.
• Name tables -- 6 of them.
• Choose a Stat block,
• alignment,
• create a personality (using PHB guidelines),
• appearance tables,
• secret table, NPC Tracker,
• Recurring,
• Archetypes in as party members,
• a note about not going overboard.
• Optional rule of Loyalty.
Poisons: Pretty much bog standard to 2014, better presentation, though.
Renown: Optional, more info on how to use it, better by level. Still mostly the same as 2014. I track it by party.
Settlements: Improved on from 2014 in layout and extra info, tracker sheet for it, some fun tables, comment on di you need a map or not. There is a new bit: the max value of an item or service available. I need to drop that into my game.
Siege Equipment: Cannons. Flamethrower Coach. Keg launcher. Lightning Canon. Oh, and the regular suspects.
Supernatural Gifts: Blessings and Charms. Specific ones given. How they work, how they differ. Very nice add in. Totally something that fits with my game.
Traps: Use Sparingly is the first thing, lol.
• Example traps have
o a level,
o a trigger,
o a duration,
o effects,
o ways to detect and disarm, and
o how to scale them up.
• More traps given as examples. Old standards plus new stuff.
• How to build your own, by level, with effects in a table.
CHAPTER 4: ADVENTURES
They start right off with how to create an adventure in four steps.
• Then there is a box that talks about how to use published ones, and it includes suggestions like adjusting them with replacing the villain, adding in details from your world (localization), and using them as inspiration.
• Take a part of one and blend it into another.
Lay out the Premise: Start with a slow bit to get to a point think of them as a series of situations.
• A note about guide rails and Railroads.
• Brainstorming a premise,
• identifying the conflict,
• breakdown of situations by level with tables by tier (20 suggestions for each).
Setting,
• maps,
• common map symbols,
• bringing a location to life,
• critters and factions.
Draw in the Players: Talks about the nature of hooks, has a section on subverting cliches.
• Patrons for an adventure, with hooks from them.
• Supernatural hooks.
• Happenstance hooks.
Plan Encounters: right into "objective with obstacle", list of three things, one of which will be accomplished by it.
• 7 objectives for PCs described.
• Keeping things moving, with 3 suggestions.
• Note about making the adventure fit your table style.
• Multiple ways to progress.
• Social interaction notes.
• Exploration encounters.
• Combat encounters, with five suggestions for making them more challenging.
Encounter difficulty!
• Budget per character per level based on three levels of difficulty,
• They need to update the encounter builder here so that you can look monsters up by XP value.
• Troubleshooting tips.
• Monster Behavior.
• Monster Personality, with a quick table.
• Monster relationships.
• Reactive tactics, with specific kinds of them.
• Prepared defenders with specific things done.
• Encounter pace and tension, with suggestions.
• Urgency and rests
Random Encounters:
• Why they are useful and important
• urgency,
• drain resources,
• establish atmosphere,
• provide assistance,
• reinforce themes,
• become a whole side quest.
Bring it to an end: Climax table. Denouement notes.
Adventure rewards: Note about marks of Prestige.
• Individual Treasure based on CR.
• Hoards by CR.
• A note about how the MM will list Treasure Preferences.
Adventure examples. Enough info for you to do a simple to complex set up. They are fairly varied:
CHAPTER 5: CREATING A CAMPAIGN
Step-by-Step again, same steps, except the 3rd one is plan adventures.
Campaign Journal, with a tracker for it. It is basically a session planning page, and the idea is you keep them together.
• Talks about using a journal, as well.
Bit on Foreshadowing.
Adventure Stockpile.
Campaign Premise: They start up right with noting how the whole point is the PCs, and they go right into getting player input.
• Player input is key:
Character Arcs:.
• Motivation,
• Goals,
• Ambition (as a distinct thing, good),
• Quirks,
• Whims,
• Family
• Setting new goals,
Campaign Conflicts: three conflicts you can create adventures around.
Flavors of Fantasy: Several explained, with four examples for each of them as conflicts in the game
• Heroic,
• Sword & Sorcery,
• Epic,
• Mythic,
• Supernatural,
• Intrigue (spy political, etc),
• Mystery,
• Swashbuckling,
• War, and
• Crossing the Streams (SF)
• The game was created to be able to allow all them.
Campaign Setting: Tells you right out the door you have two choices: use an established setting, or create your own. Lists 12 published ones, including Exandria, Dark Sun, and the MTG ones. Yes, Dark Sun is called out explicitly.
• Five questions to consider when creating your own. These were done better, imo, in the 2014 DMG, but space is a thing, and it comes down to the same info.
Campaign Start: Zero session right off the bat.
• Create characters then (yes! *arm pump*), OMFG!
• "Help the Players come up with explanations for how the PCs know each other have some sort of history together".
• Examples:
• Bonding Event,
• Happenstance,
• Mutual Acquaintance,
• Shared history,
• Tavern Gathering.
Setting the Stage: The way things are set up at the very start. Key events, current or past, that help frame the campaign. House rules.
Starting Location: This is mentioned as a campaign hub. This is where they drop the "start small" advice.
Plan Adventures: Garden metaphor.
• Episodic or
• Serialized style of adventure.
• Linking adventures gets a table.
• Recurring Elements.
Player faves: this is about creating something the Players will love. Doing it as a narrative thing, and have the PCs describe the details.
Four questions to ask while acknowledging the incredible:
• How are the characters the perfect people to solve a problem?
• How are the characters’ talents highlighted during the adventure?
• What stories do NPCs know of the characters’ past exploits?
• How might an NPC comment on a character’s abilities or recognize that they’re special?
Break Episodes, with suggestions (7)
Time -- handling it, and timed events.
Ending a Campaign.
• Note that you don't have to reach level 20.
• Allow time for personal goals.
• Advice for ending sooner than expected.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Sorry if I’ve missed it, but any rules or guidance on allowing characters downtime for training to acquire new skill, tool or language proficiencies? That seems to have been left out of PHB24.
so, not to the degree they had stuff in the 2014 rules. There’s not really any section on Downtime at all.
The new DMG puts a lot into the act of being a DM from the standpoint of creating your own stuff — and they didn’t spend much of anything on that. There’s a place in Campaign Journal where it talks about the Character Arcs, and that would be where something like that falls, but there’s no real meat to it at all.
However…
Because this is still 5e, the stuff in the 2014 DMG is still usable for that. It also means that there’s a space there for developing a system around it.
they do talk about assorted things that allow a PC to get that, but not in terms of setting aside time for it.
That’s going to be pretty heavily based on how one paces an adventure, which it does talk about a little bit. There is also the Bastions system, which has some facilities that enable that.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Wow, amazing job, @AEDorsay!
If I'm not mistaken, some variants or optional rules from the 2014 DMG haven't been included in the new 2024 DMG. This isn’t a comprehensive list on my part:
As you said, they're still there if a DM wants to use them.
But there's one rule I’m missing the most, and I'm still not sure what the consequences of removing it from the book will be. I created this thread 2024 DMG: Combining Game Effects - Rules & Game Mechanics in Rules & Mechanics yesterday asking for opinions.
Just wanted to say thanks for these detailed looks at the new DMG. Though my FLGS has them in stock, it's not a quick drive for me and so I won't be able to pick up the physical book until the official release date. But this thread has me excited to read through it. (I do have the DDB version but I don't read things onscreen like I do hard copy.)
Hi AED, this is really aesome stuff. Still haven't picked up my copy so I'm watching this thread like a hawk.
A question: do they have an updated table for monster building that has expected HP, DPR, AC, etc by CR? That would be very helpful for updating my monster builder spreadsheet. I mean specifically an analogue of the "Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating" table in chapter 9 of the 2014 DMG. Looks like it may be in chapter 3 of the 2024 DMG.
Under Marks of Prestige, there's a Training option that's specifically for these options. If you have the physical book, it's on page 81.