D&D (2024) Dungeon Master's Guide Bastion System Lets You Build A Stronghold

The Dungeon Master's Guide's brand new Bastion System has been previewed in a new video from Wizards of the Coast.

Characters can acquire a bastion at 5th-level. Each week, the bastion takes a turn, with actions including crafting, recruiting, research, trade, and more.

A bastion also contains a number of special facilties, starting with two at 5th-level up to 6 at 17th-level. These facilities include things like armories, workshops, laboratories, stables, menageries, and more. In total there are nearly thirty such facilities to choose from.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Then don't use it... seriously if it's to abstract for you and you don't want your players to have control over their own base... opt not to use them. Every optional mechanic isn't for everyone

I was going to see if there is anything to lift from it to add to Strongholds & Followers. But seeing how the entire mechanic relies on removing the DM's input. And considering also the mechanics to standardize NPC interactions and what they've done to the Warlock, I really feel like the 2024 update is asking DMs to pay money to SKIP PLAYING THE GAME. With all these decisions d&d suddenly feels more like a video game and less like a collaborative storytelling game. Which also rises my concerns that they made those changes to make the game easier to handle for AI, because their endgame is to phase out the DMs completely.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

There is no "world". It's ALL a storytelling game that uses mechanics for action resolution!

It is MY job to weave the storytelling into a beleivable world PCs will CARE FOR! Something that is a half-assed video game mechanic that I am not allowed to make part of the world and serves to remind players this is a game, thus making them care less and thus more encouraged to screw with things for giggles. If I wanted a game in meaningless world where your actions do not matter and the world barely pretends to be more than there for your entertainment, I'd play Skyrim.

 

[Imaro]

I was going to see if there is anything to lift from it to add to Strongholds & Followers. But seeing how the entire mechanic relies on removing the DM's input. And considering also the mechanics to standardize NPC interactions and what they've done to the Warlock, I really feel like the 2024 update is asking DMs to pay money to SKIP PLAYING THE GAME. With all these decisions d&d suddenly feels more like a video game and less like a collaborative storytelling game. Which also rises my concerns that they made those changes to make the game easier to handle for AI, because their endgame is to phase out the DMs completely.

Lol... well the thing is by giving the option for players to be involved with and control things other than their characters... they're actually making it more of a collaborative game and less something being totally engaged with and interacted through a single computer interface... I mean person.

 

[BookTenTiger]

It is MY job to weave the storytelling into a beleivable world PCs will CARE FOR! Something that is a half-assed video game mechanic that I am not allowed to make part of the world and serves to remind players this is a game, thus making them care less and thus more encouraged to screw with things for giggles. If I wanted a game in meaningless world where your actions do not matter and the world barely pretends to be more than there for your entertainment, I'd play Skyrim.

If it doesn't fit your playstyle, don't use it.

I love having players create and make decisions for parts of the game world. This is absolutely something I would use.

This whole Bastions thing really seems to upset you.

 

[Imaro]

It is MY job to weave the storytelling into a beleivable world PCs will CARE FOR!

Wait... so while you do this the players job in your game is to do...what exactly.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

DM's treating everything as a knife is why almost every old school player I've met runs some boring ass orphan whose entire personality is "cautious and competent adventure winner". Because every pet, family member, lover, etc was turned against them, kidnapped, or fridged.

You are strawmaning by reducing all GM who like to use the NPCs like that to the worst case scenario. One of first lessons I've learned as a DM is to not murder PC's family. I do not see how kidnapping is bad aside the idea the player resents anythign bad happenning to "their" part of the world. But all this mentality leads to is that the player's NPCs do not really live in the world and aren't allowed to interact with anything. Do you really think I'm as bad as some jackass who kills player character's dog "for the story" because I think if a player leads order of righteous knights and then slaughters Village of Women and Children, Edmonton, pees on the king and kidnapps his daughter, then at least some of these knights should be appaled and disgusted by their leader? Or is "your acitons have consequences" now bad GMing?

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Wait... so while you do this the players job in your game is to do...what exactly.

Play their characters and shape the world by their decisions and actions. I run reactive world that changes and responds to the PCs, it's insulting to assume just because I don't like inserting anti-roleplay mechanics into it, that I run a game where PCs are worthless and players don't amount to anything.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Lol... well the thing is by giving the option for players to be involved with and control things other than their characters... they're actually making it more of a collaborative game and less something being totally engaged with and interacted through a single computer interface... I mean person.

Not if the mechanics to that reduce what they make to mindless automated numbers that are blatantly not part of the world.

 

[grimmgoose]

I'd hardly claim the bastion system is so complicated that it needs a spreadsheet that details labor/material costs and time estimations... For me it strikes a good compromise between DM fiat, player involvement/investment and randomness (some of which is adjustable) without taking over the entire game

And for me, I still think it has too many fiddly bits for what it's going to bring to the table.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Wait... so while you do this the players job in your game is to do...what exactly.

Take actions and make decisions for their PCs. This can't be a surprise to you.