The thread on the current dmg made me wonder what people might want from the revised 2024 edition. Most conversation around the revisions have been about character options and monster statblocks, but less about the contents of the dmg. So what would the 5.5 dmg need to do in order for you to purchase it?
Here's my take:
Things to add
- Social contract: guidance on setting up the "social contract" of the game, including session 0 checklist and advice on managing player interactions and expectations (the Level Up dmg seems to do this, but I have not read it)
Things to expand
To keep unchanged
Needs repair and revision
Remove?:
Thoughts?
Here's my take:
Things to add
- Social contract: guidance on setting up the "social contract" of the game, including session 0 checklist and advice on managing player interactions and expectations (the Level Up dmg seems to do this, but I have not read it)
Things to expand
- Running the Game: It oft-noted that the "Running the Game" chapter is the most necessary, and yet is at the end of the book. They could expand this section further with more detailed procedures for how to do...whatever the new edition wants to do as a game (e.g. in b/x, it's dungeon- and wilderness-crawling, so there are procedures for that)
- DM Workshop: An expanded DM workshop section, with modular rules to fit a wider array of settings, tropes, and play styles. It's probably unlikely that they would do this. At the same time, they could go through all the optional rules they scatter throughout the book, reconsider what they really need, and gather the remaining ones together in one chapter.
To keep unchanged
- Treasure and magic items: leave as-is I guess.
- the NPC tables
Needs repair and revision
- Usability: editing, organization, layout.
- Encounter creation: fix the math and simplify
- Adventure creation and downtime: I do like the random tables for the most part, but the advice on writing adventures just leaves me cold for some reason. I think it's because it tries to provide advice for every kind of play, instead of being opinionated as to what kind of game dnd is. So we have mysteries and intrigue and moral quandaries, but all kind of half-baked imo.
Remove?:
- Miscellaneous rules: mechanics for things that don't come up that often, like ship rules, chases, diseases, etc. Would a lot be lost if rules were not included?
- Worldbuilding: The worldbuilding and cosmology sections are the weakest and least relevant parts of the book. I feel to do it right, worldbuilding needs much more space that would be allotted to it in a dmg.
Thoughts?