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]

Okay that’s great except that I’m talking from experience at both conventions as well as trying to find local games. So I’m glad that your experience is better but that is not uniform nor is it simply an internet myth.

If these horrible DMs are lurking around every corner ready to jump out and ruin your gaming day, why do you keep trying?

I've seen a very small handful of players talk about how these DMs are everywhere and that's why the game needs to try and legislate away bad DMing(not that the game can). I've seen many, many more players from around the world who agree with me that these DMs are rare.

You've had bad luck. I'm sorry to hear that. But by and large DMs are not bad ones. They can make mistakes. They can be new and not understand how the game works. Those things don't make DMs bad. Very, very few are actually jerks out to ruin your day. Most want to improve and learn how to make the game better and more fun. I'm still looking for ways to do that and I've been DMing for just over 4 decades.

 

[Oofta]

One of the most common rookie (and even veteran) DM mistakes I've seen (and know many, many, others who have seen) and read about from others is unwillingness to part with information "too easily."

They're afraid giving out information will make it overly easy for the players so they make things way too difficult and annoy/frustrate them instead.

If a DM isn't willing to move out of this tendency it can lead to frustrating games and lots of lost players.

I agree with this, and it's something I have to be careful to avoid. But if I make a mistake like this, I would hope that my players simply talk to me outside of gameplay and explain their frustration and give me a chance to do better.

 

[Oofta]

They ain’t that rare.

In my experience bad DMs are rare. Mediocre DMs? DMs that just run a style of game that I don't personally care for? Those are more common. But I've had dozens of decent to great DMs and I've had 2 truly bad DMs. For one of them, they had been a decent DM and I think they just burned out. Heck, I even had 1 DM that when I was chatting with them and they made their pitch, I likely would have hated their game. Their example of how hilarious their game was that the PCs had unexpectedly gone to a town so he named it Bobtown. Everybody, male and female alike, was named Bob. Thing is, we were chatting with the prospective DM and a person that was in the game and the player thought it was laugh-out-loud funny. For that player? He was a good DM. He just wasn't the DM for me.

 

[Yaarel]

But isn't it a red flag.

Setting concept and character concept are distinct.

It is normal to find a setting appealing, and still have in mind an inspiration for a kind of character one wants to play. So figure out a way to make it happen in that setting.

(To be fair, it is concerning if a DM comes across as obsessed with controlling a players character concept.)

Sometimes, if the either the setting or the character varies from a Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms setting, it can take a moment to ensure everything meshes well.

 

[Oofta]

Setting concept and character concept are distinct.

It is normal to find a setting appealing, and still have in mind an inspiration for a kind of character one wants to play. Then figure out a way to make it happen in that setting.

(To be fair, it is concerning if a DM comes across as obsessed with controlling a players character concept.)

Sometimes, if the either the setting or the character varies from a Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms setting, it can take a moment to ensure everything meshes well.

I expect character concept to make sense for the setting concept whether I'm player or DM. I'll work with players and see if we can work something out and I can't remember a time when we couldn't work something out. It just means that you can't play a warforged in my world because they don't exist.

 

[TiQuinn]

If these horrible DMs are lurking around every corner ready to jump out and ruin your gaming day, why do you keep trying?

That’s silly. That’s like asking if you had a bad experience at a restaurant, why do you keep going to restaurants? Obviously, you go to a different restaurant until you find ones you like.

I've seen a very small handful of players talk about how these DMs are everywhere and that's why the game needs to try and legislate away bad DMing(not that the game can). I've seen many, many more players from around the world who agree with me that these DMs are rare.

I think bad DMs need to continue to be called out, and the right tools and guidance put into GM resources if that’s what you mean by legislating.

You've had bad luck. I'm sorry to hear that. But by and large DMs are not bad ones. They can make mistakes. They can be new and not understand how the game works. Those things don't make DMs bad. Very, very few are actually jerks out to ruin your day. Most want to improve and learn how to make the game better and more fun. I'm still looking for ways to do that and I've been DMing for just over 4 decades.

Oh, I’m not saying there aren’t DMs at different points on the learning curves, or ones that make mistakes. That’s not what I mean by a “bad DM”. I’m very much talking about DMs who do not have a desire to improve, still believe their role is adversarial or more importantly, have a way to accept feedback on their game.

I don’t know what else to say, lol. If you’ve never encountered this, I guess you figure it doesn’t exist.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Setting concept and character concept are distinct.

They are not completely. A character is part of the setting, and should also feel like it.

 

[tetrasodium]

That’s silly. That’s like asking if you had a bad experience at a restaurant, why do you keep going to restaurants? Obviously, you go to a different restaurant until you find ones you like.



I think bad DMs need to continue to be called out, and the right tools and guidance put into GM resources if that’s what you mean by legislating.



Oh, I’m not saying there aren’t DMs at different points on the learning curves, or ones that make mistakes. That’s not what I mean by a “bad DM”. I’m very much talking about DMs who do not have a desire to improve, still believe their role is adversarial or more importantly, have a way to accept feedback on their game.

I don’t know what else to say, lol. If you’ve never encountered this, I guess you figure it doesn’t exist.

Please call it out specifically. Which actually described action of the GM are you saying meets the bar of being a bad GM that needs to be called out.

 

[Yaarel]

I expect character concept to make sense for the setting concept whether I'm player or DM. I'll work with players and see if we can work something out and I can't remember a time when we couldn't work something out. It just means that you can't play a warforged in my world because they don't exist.

Yeah. Me too. I expect character and setting to make sense, and also as far as I remember, have always found a solution, whether as DM or as player.

I mentioned earlier. Normally, players are happy to go with the flow, and work with whatever the setting offers. But sometimes, because of an inspiration or a concern, working together is necessary.

I welcome the player input, because it helps detail the setting, and the diversity and the surprises enhance the verisimilitude.

I am looking forward to bastions for this reason too. Players will be able to directly detail the setting.

 

[Maxperson]

That’s silly. That’s like asking if you had a bad experience at a restaurant, why do you keep going to restaurants? Obviously, you go to a different restaurant until you find ones you like.

If huge numbers of restaurants were bad, I'd stop going. You don't find out until after you pay that the food is terrible and I'm not fond of throwing a lot of money into the trash.

I think bad DMs need to continue to be called out, and the right tools and guidance put into GM resources if that’s what you mean by legislating.

If there were a lot of bad DMs, you'd see those tools and guidance. WotC wants to make money and that means not giving a large percentage of their players a bad experience. That you don't see a large portion of the DMG and PHB warning players and drilling into DMs not to be jerks is a pretty good indicator that they aren't as common as you are making them out to be.

Oh, I’m not saying there aren’t DMs at different points on the learning curves, or ones that make mistakes. That’s not what I mean by a “bad DM”. I’m very much talking about DMs who do not have a desire to improve, still believe their role is adversarial or more importantly, have a way to accept feedback on their game.

There are around 13 million people playing D&D right now. The average table size is 1 DM and 4 players(3-5 is average). That means that there are around 2.6 million DMs. If even 1% of those are jerk DMs, that's 26,000 jerk DMs. If it's 5% then there are 130,000 jerk DMs.

That seems like a huge number until you realize just how small a percentage of people who play this game it is. Yet that number of DMs will generate a huge number of complaints on the internet. Further, since they will lose their players and go get more, repeatedly, a fairly high number of players will encounter jerk DMs during their D&D playing days. Not all, but a good chunk. A small number of players, like you, will have the bad luck of running into several of them. That doesn't make them common.

I don’t know what else to say, lol. If you’ve never encountered this, I guess you figure it doesn’t exist.

I have. Of the many DMs I've encountered over the years, 1 was a flat out jerk DM and 1 was borderline.