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.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Exactly! So, if other players are evidencing other interests, the DM does well to roll with it

Making the game entertaining for the players is part of the social contract of being a DM, but that means making sure all the players are on the same page, and removing any player who refuses to get on the same page, not letting a player do whatever they want, because that impacts on the enjoyment of the rest of the group.

 

[Zardnaar]

Making the game entertaining for the players is part of the social contract of being a DM, but that means making sure all the players are on the same page, and removing any player who refuses to get on the same page, not letting a player do whatever they want, because that impacts on the enjoyment of the rest of the group.

This. I had 2 players having fun. Their behavior wasn't fun for the DM or the other 2 players. Not bad enough to boot but wrapped that game up and started over.

 

[Vaalingrade]

No, if the DM is the problem they can be kicked just as easily as any other player.

I have my doubts as to how 'just as easily' that is when the DM is supposedly the final authority and that's so very important.

 

[Zardnaar]

In practice the DM cant really he kicked. Unless they're completely horrible. Groups usually blow apart first.

Groups advertising for a DM or advertising for a paid DM might gave that opti9n. Most don't.

It's also funny some ads you do see. "So basically you want me to travel half an hour on my own dime and babysit for free"?

 

[ezo]

Man, it is still staggering to me how much this thread explodeds in just a few hours sometimes.

So much to reply to, and yet so little point in replying.

 

[DinoInDisguise]

So much to reply to, and yet so little point in replying.

There is always a point in posting. After all you could convince someone on the internet.

 

[Yaarel]

Making the game entertaining for the players is part of the social contract of being a DM, but that means making sure all the players are on the same page, and removing any player who refuses to get on the same page, not letting a player do whatever they want, because that impacts on the enjoyment of the rest of the group.

The above describes the Homo sapiens species as a social animal.

With regard to the D&D game, we can assume someone in the game group has offered to DM and proposed one or more settings. The players in the group have already decided on a setting that one either loves or can live with. Now they are in the process of session zero and deciding on character concepts. Players are aware of the setting and are familiarizing with its details. A setting might need to tweak sometimes, because of DM or player preferences.

In my experience, both DMs and players are playing the game in good faith.

 

[Micah Sweet]

For what it is worth, a Warforged is the easiest to reflavor, such as "Wood Golem", or an "Animate Suit of Armor".

Unless you don't PCs playing magic robots in your game. Then none of those will work.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The above describes the Homo sapiens species as a social animal.

With regard to the D&D game, we can assume someone in the game group has offered to DM and proposed one or more settings. The players in the group have already decided on a setting that one either loves or can live with. Now they are in the process of session zero and deciding on character concepts. Players are aware of the setting and are familiarizing with its details. A setting might need to tweak sometimes, because of DM or player preferences.

In my experience, both DMs and players are playing the game in good faith.

“Good faith” means not insisting on playing a warforged when the group has decided they are not appropriate.

In my case though, I usually present a couple of options, and the players come back with “we don’t care so long as YOU DM.” So I choose. Session zero takes place over social media, and I get a lot of “can I play X?” (Especially if x is 3rd party), “do you think Y is a good idea for this game?” and “is this backstory okay? Can you suggest any revisions?”

 

[Micah Sweet]

The problem with authority is what people will do to keep it should it be threatened. Even at this scale it's a problem.

It says 'you have this authority and you are the final arbiter of it' and then the natural result of authority kicks in because it's your way or the highway.

Then the culture comes in and starts telling you that you need to fight to keep it. You deserve it after all. You do the work It's your world. Anyone that challenges that is the problem. They need to be shouted down. They need to be stopped. They need to be excised.

Sounds like you're arguing against leadership.