D&D (2024) The New DM Tools In The New Dungeon Master's Guide

The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide contains a 'toolbox'. The DM's Toolbox is the third chapter in the book, presented as an alphabetical miscellany of varied things to help you prep or run a game.

Each entry is 1-2 pages long and includes things like creating monsters, fear and mental stress, chases, firearms and explosives, and traps. For example, it goes in depth into chases, with details about wilderness or urban chases.

Much of the topics were already in the 2014 DMG--albeit organized differently. Some new topics include character death, and more detailed look at alignment--and how actions determine alignment and not vice versa.

Also included is a big table of 'dungeon quirks'--why, then, and by whom was it built? Examples include made by giants (with everything being larger scale), built on top of a cloud, and so on.

There's plenty more stuff--environments, a settlement tracker (Chris Perkins and James Wyatt roll up a random settlement in the video), hazards, mob rules, marks of prestige (rewards like deeds, medals, or titles).

 

[Charlaquin]

Never assume.

Be impeccable with your word.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I assume the artist made a mistake with the shotgun painting and they weren't intentionally going for the dwarf not using it correctly.

And being "embarrassed" about not reading the 2014 DMG? Come on. It was organized in a slapdash fashion that actively hindered its use as a supplement, which is why WotC has led with "this time, the organization isn't terrible."

Gygax was making it up as he was going along with the 1E DMG, which shares many of the same issues, but WotC had already produced multiple DMGs before the 2014 one. Even if, as they've made clear, they were understaffed, had no budget and were in a rush, making a basic outline of what should appear when in the DMG, based on a glance at previous DMGs and what worked and what doesn't, is essentially free.

The 2014 DMG's problems are WotC's and if a customer didn't want to slog through a book that could have easily have been significantly better, just by not organizing it like crap, that's their right, as the person who shelled out $30 or more for the book.

 

[tetrasodium]

Full list of everything that got mentioned in the video; taken from reddit (kudos to Granum22):

1. Rules for Firearms and Explosives
2. Constructing chases
3. Traps and Hazards (includes rules for up leveling them)
4. How to deal with player character death
5. How to use alignment (emphasizing behavior dictates alignment, not that alignment dictates behavior).
6. Curses and magical diseases (magic diseases seem to be taken from Contagion spell and other sources)
7. Doors (includes HP, DC to unlock)
8. Dungeons (includes dungeon decay and dungeon quirks)
9. Environmental Effects (largely a consolidation of 2014 effects into one spot, includes planar effects)
10. Fear and Stress mechanics (Chris Perkins specifically calls out Psychic Damage as something you can apply this to. Also, this probably includes the Sanity rules from 2014. YAY!!!!)
11. Settlement and NPC Tracker
12. Poison
13. New hazards (includes Fireball Fungus (detonates like Fireball when it hits 0 HP, Vicious Vines))
14. Went through example creating settlement through the random tables
15. Rules for Mob fights
16. Marks of Prestige (alternative rewards like deeds and letters of recommendation)
17. Optional rules for NPC loyalty and mutiny
18. Supernatural gifts
19. Siege Weapons (includes new ones like Keg thrower and Flamethrower coach)

I think the problem is less listing what was discussed & more the glaring omissions or sections not mentioned.

 

[Charlaquin]

I assume the artist made a mistake with the shotgun painting and not that they were intentionally going for the dwarf not using it correctly.

And being "embarrassed" about not reading the 2014 DMG? Come on. It was organized in a slapdash fashion that actively hindered its use as a supplement, which is why WotC has led with "this time, the organization isn't terrible."

Gygax was making it up as he was going along with the 1E DMG, which shares many of the same issues, but WotC had already produced multiple DMGs before the 2014 one. Even if, as they've made clear, they were understaffed, had no budget and were in a rush, making a basic outline of what should appear when in the DMG, based on a glance at previous DMGs and what worked and what doesn't, is essentially free.

The 2014 DMG's problems are WotC's and if a customer didn't want to slog through a book that could have easily have been significantly better, just by not organizing it like crap, that's their right, as the person who shelled out $30 or more for the book.

Both of these things are true: first, that it’s completely understandable for people to not have read the 2014 DMG, or if they did read it, to have missed things, as a result of its terrible organization. Second, that its actual contents were mostly really useful if you could untangle them, and it’s a shame more people didn’t read it and retain the information from it. Especially people with large platforms who make D&D content for a living. Those are exactly the folks who were best positioned to have teased out the good in the DMG and communicated it to their audience so they wouldn’t have to do that work themselves.

 

[Selas]

I think the problem is less listing what was discussed & more the glaring omissions.

Huh? I'm just putting the list of what got covered in the video. But since you mention "glaring omissions", why don't you enlighten the rest of us on what they are?

 

[KYRON45]

If D&D players like anything, it's their wormy cans...

Mmmmmm....candied worms!!!!

 

[Xeviat]

Both of these things are true: first, that it’s completely understandable for people to not have read the 2014 DMG, or if they did read it, to have missed things, as a result of its terrible organization. Second, that its actual contents were mostly really useful if you could untangle them, and it’s a shame more people didn’t read it and retain the information from it. Especially people with large platforms who make D&D content for a living. Those are exactly the folks who were best positioned to have teased out the good in the DMG and communicated it to their audience so they wouldn’t have to do that work themselves.

I found the DMG 2014 a little hard to reference to find a particular rule, but I also found it's layout to be sensible when you're doing the thing you normally do with normal books: read them front to back. When I got mine day one way back 10 years ago, I read it front to back. I've done the same thing for the 4E DMG and the 3E and 3.5 DMGs, and I will continue to do so until I'm too senile to run games.

To be a DM and not read the Guide is more shocking to me than being a player and not reading the Handbook.

 

[Parmandur]

Fear and Stress mechanics (Chris Perkins specifically calls out Psychic Damage as something you can apply this to. Also, this probably includes the Sanity rules from 2014. YAY!!!!)

I actually got the vibe they wouldn't recreate the Sanity Attribute mechanics here, even if they address the topic. Noticed a complete absence of talk about variant rules from 2014, actually...

 

[MarkB]

Full list of everything that got mentioned in the video; taken from reddit (kudos to Granum22):

1. Rules for Firearms and Explosives
2. Constructing chases
3. Traps and Hazards (includes rules for up leveling them)
4. How to deal with player character death
5. How to use alignment (emphasizing behavior dictates alignment, not that alignment dictates behavior).
6. Curses and magical diseases (magic diseases seem to be taken from Contagion spell and other sources)
7. Doors (includes HP, DC to unlock)
8. Dungeons (includes dungeon decay and dungeon quirks)
9. Environmental Effects (largely a consolidation of 2014 effects into one spot, includes planar effects)
10. Fear and Stress mechanics (Chris Perkins specifically calls out Psychic Damage as something you can apply this to. Also, this probably includes the Sanity rules from 2014. YAY!!!!)
11. Settlement and NPC Tracker
12. Poison
13. New hazards (includes Fireball Fungus (detonates like Fireball when it hits 0 HP, Vicious Vines))
14. Went through example creating settlement through the random tables
15. Rules for Mob fights
16. Marks of Prestige (alternative rewards like deeds and letters of recommendation)
17. Optional rules for NPC loyalty and mutiny
18. Supernatural gifts
19. Siege Weapons (includes new ones like Keg thrower and Flamethrower coach)

I wasn't paying full attention watching the video, but I thought they made very brief mention of creature creation at one point.

 

[Parmandur]

Both of these things are true: first, that it’s completely understandable for people to not have read the 2014 DMG, or if they did read it, to have missed things, as a result of its terrible organization. Second, that its actual contents were mostly really useful if you could untangle them, and it’s a shame more people didn’t read it and retain the information from it. Especially people with large platforms who make D&D content for a living. Those are exactly the folks who were best positioned to have teased out the good in the DMG and communicated it to their audience so they wouldn’t have to do that work themselves.

I, for one, question Professor DMs doctorate program in D&D after this...