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).

 

[tetrasodium]

I didn't get the feeling they said everything that the new DMG covered in this video.

Is there a reason beyond "WotC does everything wrong" why people think a lack of mention in this video means something doesn't exist?

It was less than a week ago that people were insisting the content mentioned today didn't exist because it wasn't mentioned in the broadest preview video possible.

Not everyone is viewing these previews from PoV of a player running a PC.

 

[bedir than]

Not everyone is viewing these previews from PoV of a player running a PC.

I didn't talk about being a PC, probably because I'm a DM 90% of the time.

I wrote about how last week people insisted that today's reveal didn't exist and now they're falling into that same trap because they have short term memories.
The absence of a mention in a preview video doesn't mean anything.

 

[mikeburke]

I didn't get the feeling they said everything that the new DMG covered in this video.

Is there a reason beyond "WotC does everything wrong" why people think a lack of mention in this video means something doesn't exist?

It was less than a week ago that people were insisting the content mentioned today didn't exist because it wasn't mentioned in the broadest preview video possible.

My post wasn’t intended to be negative or critical, and wasn’t trying to insinuate it doesn’t exist. Was just wondering out loud.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I now want a spell called summon planar energies.

 

[tetrasodium]

I didn't talk about being a PC, probably because I'm a DM 90% of the time.

I wrote about how last week people insisted that today's reveal didn't exist and now they're falling into that same trap because they have short term memories.
The absence of a mention in a preview video doesn't mean anything.

I talked about them because appealing to players has been the exclusive focus of phb coverage and the eng coverage has largely followed that same path.

Have I seen things that might appeal to me as a gm if I peer between the lines to find tea leaves so I can cross my fingers while reading tea leaves?... It doesn't matter until the tea leaves are presumed to be brewed for the gm.

 

[Ferrousbones]

I foresee the dwarf with a shotgun piece

The picture in question.

That is obviously a pistol-grip pose, so I am guessing that the artwork originally featured a pistol, then the artist was told a shotgun would look better, but they couldn't or wouldn't alter the grip (in time).

 

[Oofta]

I now want a spell called summon planar energies.

You just need to take that special "DM" class and you can summon planar energies all day long.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

Outside the list of magic items, I've always treated every DMG as a thing to read, not an encyclopedia to reference. Thus I've always enjoyed the DMG.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think there's a difference in the fact a lot of these creators have made videos, and profits, saying 'WotC failed to address this, and so here's what I eventually had to do' to then, some years later, say 'Wow, it was there the entire time'

Yup. Money trumps understanding every time.

 

[Chaosmancer]

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...

Really? They talked about Sanity, Loyalty, Firearms and explosives, mob fights... sure that's not every single thing that was a variant rule, but quite of few of these were variants.