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.

 

[pemerton]

there is however asymmetry in the number of players looking for GMs VS the number of GMs looking for players, if one side leaves it's far easier for a GM to replace their players than the other way around.

To the extent that it is true, it's a fact about social power dynamics, not a fact about the rules and structures of D&D. Unless you're really suggesting that exactly the same rule book would nevertheless establish different rules in a universe in which the supply of GMs is adequate to the demand.

 

[pemerton]

The DM narrates the fiction for the game.

But this isn't true.

The GM narrates some of the fiction. The players narrate some of the fiction. Sometimes, there are impersonal processes for establishing the fiction.

 

[Yaarel]

The DM lacks "absolute" control, because the players can choose to go in a different direction.

Ultimately, it really is the players who control the narrative. To a meaningful degree, the DM is answering to the authority of the players.

 

[pemerton]

Even if the DM uses the players fiction as the basis, it was still the DM deciding what the shared fiction is however.

Even if the players use the GM's fiction as the basis, it was still the players deciding what the shared fiction is however.

In other words, the position are symmetrical. Because we are talking about a shared fiction.

 

[Zardnaar]

The GM didn't have the power to establish the Kobold's cognitive abilities. They tried to. And failed.

Maybe, maybe not. Who knows what happened in any future game that guy GMed? You certainly don't!

But whatever happened in that future game, that doens't time travel back into the game I played. In the game I played there was no shared fiction established about the cognitive ability of Kobolds. Rather, the game collapsed over disagreement about that very thing!

Well you only tried 1 session. Without more information you guys are the AH here.

If it was just a clash of preferences no one's the AH it happens.

With the information you gave us that DM did nothing wrong. If they were doing it over and over (basically players have no agency) yeah sure.

 

[pemerton]

To me that would be a very disrespectful move on the part of the players (to leave because you don't agree with how the GM is roleplaying an NPC). That isn't your area as a player, because it isn't your PC.

Well I think it's very disrespectful of that GM to offer to GM a RPG, and then to sit down and try and tell us a boring story instead.

So there you go.

 

[Zardnaar]

Well I think it's very disrespectful of that GM to offer to GM a RPG, and then to sit down and try and tell us a boring story instead.

So there you go.

DM made more effort than you. You just have to turn up. That DMs not coming across as the AH here.

For all you know DM may have been inexperienced or spent 5 hours prepping.

I put about 20 into my ancient Greek one. A lot less into DoSI and I advertised that one as newbie friendly.

 

[tetrasodium]

The DM lacks "absolute" control, because the players can choose to go in a different direction.

Ultimately, it really is the players who control the narrative. To a meaningful degree, the DM is answering to the authority of the players.

The ability to define what is found after heading in either direction is an absolute authority resting in the GM's control IoW.... both directions lead to ravenloft because that the adventure the gm bought and prepared. This is such a well defined authority that it even has a name to describe making use of it (quantum ogre)

 

[Maxperson]

But this isn't true.

The GM narrates some of the fiction. The players narrate some of the fiction. Sometimes, there are impersonal processes for establishing the fiction.

Not in D&D, and this is a D&D thread. The order of play is very clear.

1) The DM describes the environment(narrates the environment)
2) The players tell the DM what they would like their PCs to do(not narration)
3) The DM narrates the results(more DM narration)

The players don't narrate in D&D unless the DM has changed the game from the default.

 

[pemerton]

I wouldn't mind your style for a one shot in a car riding cross country playing with family and younger kids.

I'm not sure if you're intending to imply that my RPGing is juvenile.

For what it's worth, I will put the seriousness and verisimilitude of the stuff that I and my friends do when we play RPGs up against anyone posting in this thread. I've got dozens, probably well over a hundred, actual play reports on these boards that are easy enough to find and read, so you can see for yourself.