WotC WotC Winter 2026 D&D Community Survey

[Artamo]

You know what I don't know if the "nobody reads the DMG" meme still applies in the 2024 era? Maybe some don't, but the new DMG does not seem to be in general as ignored as the 2014 one was.

The 5.0 book just appeared as a giant wall of text to me which made reading and reference a chore. The organization on 5.5 is so much better overall.

 

[Stormonu]

The 5.0 book just appeared as a giant wall of text to me which made reading and reference a chore. The organization on 5.5 is so much better overall.

To be honest, I've read all the 1E-4E DMGs, plus the B/X, BECMI and many, many other GMing sections of RPGs over the years. By the time the 2014 DMG came out, all I was looking for was the monster creation rules and magic item charts. I haven't yet read the whole of the 2014 or 2024 DMG yet.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Strange, my book says :

Most importantly, a Bastion is a creative playground for a player and a shared storytelling space in the campaign. Be as permissive as you can with the stories players tell in their Bastions, but players should know their control might be limited by the campaign's larger story, which you strive to make fun for everyone.

And also:
You can slow the frequency of Bastion turns to better serve the needs of your players and your campaign.

And even:
The event is resolved immediately, with the player and DM working together to expand story details as needed.

I re-read the chapter on Bastions and you were correct, the chapter in itself does not actually says the DM is not allowed to interact with Bastions, so I was wrong on this being RAW, and I admit it. I must have confused it with something said by people from WotC trying to hype this thing up in an interview.

I am still going to argue with others because I take some issues with things being said in this thread.

So your solution to the problem of Bad DMs and Bad Players abusing the spirit of the rules is a sidebar that wags it's finger at them? You just said bad players and DMs ignore the rules, why would you think they wouldn't ignore a sidebar?

My solution is that instead of DM-adversarial rules that build a very shallow "DM vs players" mentality, a good explanation of building proper relationship between player and DM would be better use of the space.

Well, I ask since, as was pointed out earlier, what you are describing is not how the rules are presented in the DMG? At all...?

You are changign the timeline, that post came AFTER you tried to push a question that I beleive was done in bad faith, with you having ready way to dismiss me regardless of answer given.

But that's wasn't what was being advocated for. Decepticon said Bastions are bad because they can somehow be abused by players and the DM is powerless to stop them. That alone assumes the player is familiar enough with the rules to exploit them and to know the DM can't do boo about it RAW. So the answer then is to tell the naughty player don't abuse the rules and to tell the DM if the naughty player abuses them, to break the rules and punish them. None only is all of that useless advice, but it just fosters more DM/player antagonism rather than addressing the issue with a bad player in a mature way.

I beleive an advice on proper and respectful way to play and that respect goes both ways is far from useless advice and I will always prefer it over trying to put arbitrary roadblocks for one side one.

But I think something like that should be handled as a discussion between two players as adults, not as a passive aggressive "rocks fall, everyone dies" event in game.

You are twisting my position from "actions should have consequences and give players a way to avoid them is bad for the game" into being controlling and railroading dm. it's very disengenious argument.

... anyone thinking they'll probably put the surveys into ChatGPT or something and ask for a quick summary of highlights?

If so, then the survey was pointless.

While we don't have sidebars for Bastions specifically, the DMG already discusses at length (pp. 15-19) about etiquette (including a section on antisocial behavior and respect for both the DM and players). But no one reads the DMG.

One would think a Dungeon Master's Guide could spare some space to walk DM through proper etiquette regarding all discussed mechanics and systems. I think it could be good practice, especially when introducing a new system to have a sidebar explaining DM should not just arbitrary take Bastions away, but the player cannot expect to use the Bastion as a free "get away with bad behavior" card, culd go a long way.

Which is kinda my point. The DMG goes out of its way to tell you not to be a jerk, so telling DMs that if a player is a jerk you be a jerk right back to them is absolutely the wrong message.

Where did I say that? Can you give me exact quote, because I tihnk you are conflating two or three different things I've said separatelly into a strawman.

 

[Parmandur]

You are changign the timeline, that post came AFTER you tried to push a question that I beleive was done in bad faith, with you having ready way to dismiss me regardless of answer given.

You were painting a scenario that had nothing to do what is in the rules.