Dungeons & Dragons Has Done Away With the Adventuring Day

Adventuring days are no more, at least not in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. The new 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide contains a streamlined guide to combat encounter planning, with a simplified set of instructions on how to build an appropriate encounter for any set of characters. The new rules are pretty basic - the DM determines an XP budget based on the difficulty level they're aiming for (with choices of low, moderate, or high, which is a change from the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide) and the level of the characters in a party. They then spend that budget on creatures to actually craft the encounter. Missing from the 2024 encounter building is applying an encounter multiplier based on the number of creatures and the number of party members, although the book still warns that more creatures adds the potential for more complications as an encounter is playing out.

What's really interesting about the new encounter building rules in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide is that there's no longer any mention of the "adventuring day," nor is there any recommendation about how many encounters players should have in between long rests. The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide contained a recommendation that players should have 6 to 8 medium or hard encounters per adventuring day. The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide instead opts to discuss encounter pace and how to balance player desire to take frequent Short Rests with ratcheting up tension within the adventure.

The 6-8 encounters per day guideline was always controversial and at least in my experience rarely followed even in official D&D adventures. The new 2024 encounter building guidelines are not only more streamlined, but they also seem to embrace a more common sense approach to DM prep and planning.

The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide for Dungeons & Dragons will be released on November 12th.

 

[Maxperson]

Yes. Altho.

By removing the explicit reference to "6 to 8 adventures per day", the DM is more free to balance encounters around "two Long Rests per level".


Even in 2014, the DMs Guide had alternative systems for Long Rest and Short Rest.

I consider the "two Long Rests per level" to be this kind of alternative. It is the Rest system I use in my own settings. Every rest is a Short Rest, regardless of time resting. However, twice per level, a player can choose to gain the benefit of Long Rest instead.


It seems the math for levels 1 thru 8 is the same. We need more info about how the math for the higher tiers work out, in terms of how many standard encounters there will be per level.

Yeah. I think the alternative resting variants will still be in the DMG. The problem is that the DM isn't informed about why they may need to use them. It's the lack of information for new DMs to identify the issue that's the key here, not the inability to fix the issue.

 

[Maxperson]

True. And those are WotC core market. They don’t care about a handful of number crunchers - they are not significant.

I think you are underestimating how many want balance and challenge. And no, they are not nearly all "number crunchers." The handful of number crunchers falls within that group, but they are not the group itself.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think you are underestimating how many want balance and challenge. And no, they are not nearly all "number crunchers." The handful of number crunchers falls within that group, but they are not the group itself.

And I’m sure you are wrong. The vast majority of players want to pretend to be a fantasy hero and kill monsters. That’s why 5e succeeded when 4e failed.

Players like the experience of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. That’s why the game has so much randomness. They don’t want to feel that their victory was inevitable because the encounter was precision balanced.

As a fantasy combat miniature combat game 5e is complete garbage, there is really no reason to play it if that’s what floats your boat.

 

[Maxperson]

And I’m sure you are wrong. The vast majority of players want to pretend to be a fantasy hero and kill monsters. That’s why 5e succeeded when 4e failed.

Isn't that why 4e had minions? I thought those were included so PCs could rip through monsters and feel like heroes, but those monsters could still do some damage to the PCs.

As a fantasy combat miniature combat game 5e is complete garbage, there is really no reason to play it if that’s what floats your boat.

What does this have to do with anything that I'm saying? Nowhere in my arguments is that present.

 

[tetrasodium]

Yes. Altho.

By removing the explicit reference to "6 to 8 adventures per day", the DM is more free to balance encounters around "two Long Rests per level".

No they are not "more free to [do that]" unless wotc provides that gm with a shield in the form of an alternative/variant rest mechanic that takes the player's ire as a good and proper form of play provided by wotc rather than some kind of monstrous and abusive killer GM deck stacking.


There is also the fact that short rest classes get the completely ignored fact that your earlier rest schedule same every two fights/at even though their resource pool continues to grow in both size and power 1-20 in addition to constant gains on their powerful at will abilities intended to carry them when they can't get enough short rests.

 

[Yaarel]

There is also the fact that short rest classes get the completely ignored fact that your earlier rest schedule same every two fights/at even though their resource pool continues to grow in both size and power 1-20 in addition to constant gains on their powerful at will abilities intended to carry them when they can't get enough short rests.

A "Two Long Rests Per Level" variant would ensure Short Rest and At Will classes remain competitive.

 

[tetrasodium]

A "Two Long Rests Per Level" variant would ensure Short Rest and At Will classes remain competitive.

Yes, that's the problem I pointed out in your method. They start more or less competitive in tier1 & early tier2 sure... but by late tier2 & beyond the SR classes have growth in too many compounding areas and pull far ahead if their availability is not adjusted.

 

[Oofta]

Yeah. I think the alternative resting variants will still be in the DMG. The problem is that the DM isn't informed about why they may need to use them. It's the lack of information for new DMs to identify the issue that's the key here, not the inability to fix the issue.

Do you have a preview copy of the DMG that you can assert that with any certainty? We don't know exactly what they say. Even if they do, it's all like the Pirate's Code. More guidelines than actual rules. Every DM has to figure out what works for them which is really nothing new.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Do you have a preview copy of the DMG that you can assert that with any certainty? We don't know exactly what they say. Even if they do, it's all like the Pirate's Code. More guidelines than actual rules. Every DM has to figure out what works for them which is really nothing new.

Not having even guidelines would make that harder though. We'll just have to see.

 

[Oofta]

Not having even guidelines would make that harder though. We'll just have to see.

Yeah, ask me again in a couple of weeks.