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).

 

[Remathilis]

Aside from things like dungeon decay, fireball fungus, and the new siege weapons, I wonder how much of this is actually new and how much is stuff that's in the 2014 DMG.

I'll also be interested to see if Stress is a new name for the madness mechanics. I understand why calling them that is now considered problematic; however, I would still like to keep stuff like that in the game (and yes, I can just refer to the 2014 DMG if need be).

I understand, and that's something that everyone needs to be cognizant of, but the mechanic itself can still be implemented in the right setting and if everyone is in agreement while keeping in mind real-world connotations. For example, Both the Call of Cthulhu game and the 5E Mythos rulebook include toneboxes with advice about using Madness/Dread mechanics while understanding real-world sensitivities.

Stress already appeared in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and it's a mixture between the current Exhaustion rules and a Horror check. Stress acts as a penalty to d20 Tests equal to your stress score (which goes down with recovery and up when exposed to stressors). It's possible they are expanding that further, but even that alone does make mental hardships difficult without having the character develop actual psychological disorders.

 

[pukunui]

Something I appreciated about the 3.5e DMG was all the "behind the curtain" sidebars - where the designers talked about things like the possible implications of implementing rules variants and such. I wish there was more transparency like that in the 5e books.

Stress already appeared in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and it's a mixture between the current Exhaustion rules and a Horror check. Stress acts as a penalty to d20 Tests. It's possible they are expanding that further, but even that alone does make mental hardships difficult without having the character develop actual psychological disorders.

I'd forgotten about that. Bummer. Sounds like maybe the Madness mechanics are fully gone. But then, I expected the disease mechanics to be fully gone too, and it looks like they're not.

 

[MichaelSomething]

And where's the recommendation to go to Enworld???

 

[Remathilis]

I'd forgotten about that. Bummer. Sounds like maybe the Madness mechanics are fully gone. But then, I expected the disease mechanics to be fully gone too, and it looks like they're not.

I mean, the old madness rules were basically "gain a role-playing flaw" which didn't actually have any mechanics behind it. Stress at least hurts and its not easy to recover from (a full day of rest to reduce one point or magic to remove more).

 

[UngeheuerLich]

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."

You can't know that if you didn't even try to read it.

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.

They tried a different approach and failed with that. Most of the things you need are in there. But scattered. And not perfectly thought out.
But as guidelines for your own rules, they were ok. Just annoying to find...

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.

As a normal customer I agree. As a content creator they should read it as it is part of their work. It won't kill them to read a few sections at least.

 

[pukunui]

I mean, the old madness rules were basically "gain a role-playing flaw" which didn't actually have any mechanics behind it. Stress at least hurts and its not easy to recover from (a full day of rest to reduce one point or magic to remove more).

That's just the indefinite madness. The short-term and long-term madness effects were more mechanical (short-term includes being paralyzed, stunned, frightened, etc for 1d10 minutes; long-term includes being blinded, deafened, confused, or otherwise disadvantaged for 1d10x10 hours). Those are the effects I like.

And remember that each 2014-era demon lord has its own table of indefinite madness flaws.

 

[Dire Bare]

I understand, and that's something that everyone needs to be cognizant of, but the mechanic itself can still be implemented in the right setting and if everyone is in agreement while keeping in mind real-world connotations. For example, Both the Call of Cthulhu game and the 5E Mythos rulebook include toneboxes with advice about using Madness/Dread mechanics while understanding real-world sensitivities.

Sure, that's one approach. The one WotC chose to not take. Shrug.

Depictions of "madness" and mental illness in RPGs has traditionally been . . . poor. WotC moving away from doing so is probably wise. I'm all for it.

 

[Scribe]

Why is Madness problematic? Because of the baggage behind Lovecraft?

Because of how language around mental illness (notice how its actually called mental health more often than not?) has changed.

Me? I'm team Madness myself.

 

[Selas]

I'd forgotten about that. Bummer. Sounds like maybe the Madness mechanics are fully gone. But then, I expected the disease mechanics to be fully gone too, and it looks like they're not.

Not gone; just turned into magical diseases rather than mundane, and moved to the DMG. Explains Contagion spell losing the conditions it gave, since they may be a part of the magic disease list

Stress already appeared in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and it's a mixture between the current Exhaustion rules and a Horror check. Stress acts as a penalty to d20 Tests equal to your stress score (which goes down with recovery and up when exposed to stressors). It's possible they are expanding that further, but even that alone does make mental hardships difficult without having the character develop actual psychological disorders.

That's fine for a standard Horror campaign, but for a Cosmic Horror/Lovecratian style campaign? They don't work well. When the mere presence of an Eldritch Horror or reading an Eldritch tome can destroy a character's grip on reality, Van Richten's rules are just lacking.

Anyways, I don't want to derail the topic at hand, which is what's included in the DM toolbox video.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You can't know that if you didn't even try to read it.

I did. There was a whole big thread I started about it last year.

They tried a different approach and failed with that. Most of the things you need are in there. But scattered. And not perfectly thought out.

The different approach being "we don't need to put any thought into organization" approach?

But as guidelines for your own rules, they were ok. Just annoying to find...

If you're making it hard to find useful stuff in your book -- that again, you're charging customers at least $30 for -- you might as well not put it in there.

The folks in charge at WotC -- the same people in charge there now -- were not kids who'd never published a book before. The bad organization, which makes finding content in it hard to find, to the point that it's common for DMs to not know the content is in there, is 100% that team's fault.

As a normal customer I agree. As a content creator they should read it as it is part of their work. It won't kill them to read a few sections at least.

The only thing a content creator has to do is create content that enough people find valuable enough to make it worth their time to create it. Given how popular Ginny D is, I don't think most people are concerned that she didn't read the 2014 DMG cover to cover.