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.

 

[tetrasodium]

oops.. premature submit

 

[CreamCloud0]

...

this made me log out so i could check you weren't responding to someone who had blocked me.

 

[ezo]

oops.. premature submit

It happens as you get older I've heard.

 

[tetrasodium]

If there are never any negative consequences for Resting whenever they want, then, of course, the group will rest whenever they want.

Even more so if the "consequences" are actually positive. If the effect of resting whenever they want is being better prepared for encounters, being better able to overcome set challenges etc. Then of course they will rest when best for them.

We seem to agree on a lot of points even if we disagree on the hows whys & secondary results. I agree with that about why players will just rest whenever they want & am sure that you will find quite a few posts in my history describing the ultra low bar for resting being unreasonable in how it forces the GM to be fun police rather than setting a high bar that the GM can rule zero in an exception when reasonable & appropriate. Likewise I'm sure that you will find posts where I expressed a desire to see alternative resting rules in the new DMG that provide a more linear recovery than the current all or nothing where the solution for an interrupted rest is to dare the GM into crossing the line into TPK tossing the adventure or descending into a crapsack world when trying again for another rest

On the other hand, if there are actual consequences for resting whenever they want? They get to the treasure hoard and find it emptied out. They get to the adventurer's hall and find all of the lucrative contracts have been handed out. They rest in enemy territory and get swarmed, etc. Maybe they will be a bit more judicious about resting?

That's one of the reasons why such a rule should have the bar set somewhere around a "we need to go back to town to rest..." With a linear recovery it was still important to retreat far enough for the monsters or some other party to loot the dungeon during a few days of travel away->rest->travel back->dungeon try N+1, but that's not really an option when players are taking a rest under leomund's invulnerable bunker in a broom closet. Worse still is the fact that any such treasure loss is likely to be noticed & the PCs don't actually need it for anything (even with the new bastions)

It's only an out of game issue if the players are, for some reason, surly about not getting to rest their characters enough. Then it would merit an out of game discussion on campaign expectations etc.

Almost like it could be a problem when the system contains a pair of classes designed to expect regular rest->nova->rest loop even as their at will & limited use resource pools continue to scale in size & power far beyond the point where they still justify that loop

@CreamCloud0 Something went screwy & somehow spacebar managed to trigger [post reply] like two words in but there's no good way to nukre the resulting post so I went with some now clarufied dots.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Bitterness doesn't help your position. If you find the rare abusive DM, find a different game to play in. The vast majority of DMs just use it to modify the game.

Observation is not bitterness.

I am seeing this attitude here constantly.

 

[Vaalingrade]

To a point, certainly, but Rule Zero includes the fun the DM has, not just the players. If allowing 2024 materal, for example, makes the game less fun for the DM, the players need to consider that, too.

However, if there is a great disparity, then probably the DM/player isn't a good match when it comes to the game.

Rule Zero is about establishing the baseline for the game style that hopefully everyone can enjoy--and that means everyone--including the DM.

Too often, the DM is prioritized over the whole rest of the group though.

 

[Zardnaar]

Too often, the DM is prioritized over the whole rest of the group though.

DMs often the one doing all the organization, sometimes providing the location and food or drinks.

Ultimately they also get to choose who plays.

 

[ezo]

Too often, the DM is prioritized over the whole rest of the group though.

True.... but hopefully they aren't an @$$ about it...

DMs often the one doing all the organization, sometines providing the location and food or drinks.

Ultimately they also get to choose who plays.

Also very true. As someone who DMs 90% of the time, I do provide location and spend more hours prep on the adventure than we do on the session, which IME is common practice.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Dors ot say how many hours should last between long rests?

 

[Zardnaar]

True.... but hopefully they aren't an @$$ about it...


Also very true. As someone who DMs 90% of the time, I do provide location and spend more hours prep on the adventure than we do on the session, which IME is common practice.

I don't but used to. I've mastered ad hocing it and mining stuff. My players used to get home baked scones, savory's or cinnamon scrolls as snacks.