D&D 5E What do we hope to see in the DMG?

Phoenix8008 · Sep 2, 2014

Evenglare said:
I hope it includes most of what is found in pathfinder's ultimate campaign book. Infact the future of me running 5e depends on this, pathfinder has everything I could ever want for a million years of playing, ultimate campaign blew up the scope of pathfinder so much it's hard to even comprehend, so if 5e does it better then i'll be one happy camper.

From what I remember of the Ultimate Campaign Guide, it wasn't very rules specific. Couldn't you still use a lot of those rules in that with any game system including 5E? If I'm wrong about that cross rules compatibility, then I would agree that I'd love to see a 5E version of the UCG, although maybe not as the DMG.

billd91 · Sep 2, 2014

Phoenix8008 said:
From what I remember of the Ultimate Campaign Guide, it wasn't very rules specific. Couldn't you still use a lot of those rules in that with any game system including 5E? If I'm wrong about that cross rules compatibility, then I would agree that I'd love to see a 5E version of the UCG, although maybe not as the DMG.

I don't think a 5e DMG would need to replicate the PF Ultimate Campaign Guide, but I would hope that the DMG would offer substantial coverage of what to do beyond the dungeon (or other adventuring site). What should PCs do with the wealth they recover? How should PCs be able to influence the campaign world around them beyond just racking up a body count? The DMG should include that sort of aspects of the RPG.

Hand of Evil · Sep 2, 2014

Magic Point System
Magic Item Creation System
High Fantasy Equipment - flying ships, etc.

Curmudjinn · Sep 2, 2014

sgtscott658 said:
In 3E there was a chance of spell spell failure, in 1E even if you had levels of fighter, castting armor was a no go.

You must be thinking of 2e, because it was a normal multiclass Fighter/Wizard ability and no one cared much. I still don't see why it's a problem. Let them eat cake.

Grimstaff · Sep 2, 2014

I'll be looking for sandboxy stuff: town and country design, random monster tables for dungeons and terrains, lots of random dungeon dressing, city encounters/events, NPCs, plots, adventure seeds, basically all the stuff you need to sit down with a pile of dice and run a really cool game on the fly.

Ragmon · Sep 3, 2014

Magic items and magic item economy.

Stuff to spend gold on in general.

Hussar · Sep 3, 2014

I would like to see morale rules.

Extended skill rules a la 4E skill challenges.

A list of changes and tweaks to push the game in one six rion or another. If you want grim dark do x and y. If you want swashbuckling do a and b. Sort of a la carte choice selections

Gargoyle · Sep 3, 2014

One thing that appealed to me about 5e was the promise of a modular system. What I'm hoping for is some of that modularity, particularly in the form of optional tactical rules to add some 4e elements to the game. Variant rules are fine too, but I don't want it all to be Unearthed Arcana stuff, I'd rather see more of things I can choose to add or leave out for a customized ruleset, particularly with regards to combat.

I'm hoping that magical items and traps will be more interesting than what we've seen so far.

Any rules or guidelines that help me design adventures and customize monsters quickly would be good.

I want the book to be more than just a rulebook though, I'd like it to have a soul. It needs to be interlaced with inspirational writing...and tables, lots of tables. lol Yes, I want it to pay homage to the 1e DMG.

What I don't want is a book of generic advice on how to DM that isn't edition specific. Some of that is fine and expected, but it's just not what I need, and I'd prefer to see most of that in products like the starter box, or perhaps a separate product.

Curmudjinn · Sep 3, 2014

Gargoyle said:
One thing that appealed to me about 5e was the promise of a modular system. What I'm hoping for is some of that modularity, particularly in the form of optional tactical rules to add some 4e elements to the game. Variant rules are fine too, but I don't want it all to be Unearthed Arcana stuff, I'd rather see more of things I can choose to add or leave out for a customized ruleset, particularly with regards to combat.

I'm hoping that magical items and traps will be more interesting than what we've seen so far.

Any rules or guidelines that help me design adventures and customize monsters quickly would be good.

I want the book to be more than just a rulebook though, I'd like it to have a soul. It needs to be interlaced with inspirational writing...and tables, lots of tables. lol Yes, I want it to pay homage to the 1e DMG.

What I don't want is a book of generic advice on how to DM that isn't edition specific. Some of that is fine and expected, but it's just not what I need, and I'd prefer to see most of that in products like the starter box, or perhaps a separate product.

Half of me agrees with you, but the other half says, "If you want inspiration writing, their are a hundred non-system-specific GM Help books." Due to that, I don't see them going too deep into the fluff, unless it pertains to specific setting information.

drjones · Sep 3, 2014

I'd like to see something like the 4e DMG, which had a lot of good advice on how to actually run a D&D game that people will enjoy playing for both the new DM and the old. I thought it was an excellent DMG and it had very few crunchy rues in it.

Some interesting rules variations would be great, but more than that I hope that they reinforce that this is not a game about following rules precisely, it is a game about using rules to have a good time and tell an interesting story with friends.

Encounter/trap etc building rules that are as complete as possible given the framework to minimize prep for those who roll their own.