D&D General A DMG for all of us

[DEFCON 1]

In my experience, players can usually tell, or at least suspect when you are fudging.

And I think you give players WAY too much credit.

 

[clearstream]

I was thinking of how many playstyles now exist side by side in D&D. And more than one is pretty popular. Often they are not compatible. Often people in a particular area don't even realize the other styles exist.

How can the designers of a DMG go very deep when whatever the direction they take they will alienate someone. They can't. The book ends up being a bunch of tables and some very light advice.

One thing about the 1e DMG. It was dripping with opinion. Gygax presented his way and taught players how to manage games his way. He ignored all other ways. For me, that approach really resonated and I learned what he was teaching and I made it work and work well. Others though may have been driven mad by it. I do also notice that many new games present their playstyle front and center and make few bones about it. Only D&D is caught in this web of making everyone happy. I do though think though that some version of D&D could be played in many different styles.

So what if someone created a DMG (or GMG) for a given playstyle specifically. Then imagine others create the same for other playstyles. If the rules were genuinely flexible enough, they aren't now but they could be, we could all play the same rules but with different underlying assumptions. Campaigns might even be named after particular DMGs. I'm playing with the Gygaxian philosophy.

The generic stuff would then be left in the official DMG.

To my reading, while the 2014 DMG was fairly agnostic on mode of play - other than a heavy emphasis on DM curation - the 2024 DMG lays out what @TwoSix accurately called "...a modern D&D playstyle. Story arc focused, with a heavy lean towards unique characters and current tropes." That doesn't mean D&D has to be played that way, only that it is the mode carefully, step-by-step, taught by the new DMG.

Caveat: I'm still reading through it, and in 2014 it took a few passes before I picked up on everything. The designers are experienced professionals, very aware of contemporaneous play styles, and capable of subtlety and nuance. Maybe in a few months I'll have a different view.

 

[clearstream]

To my reading, while the 2014 DMG was fairly agnostic on mode of play - other than a heavy emphasis on DM curation - the 2024 DMG lays out what @TwoSix accurately called "...a modern D&D playstyle. Story arc focused, with a heavy lean towards unique characters and current tropes." That doesn't mean D&D has to be played that way, only that it is the mode carefully, step-by-step, taught by the new DMG.

Caveat: I'm still reading through it, and in 2014 it took a few passes before I picked up on everything. The designers are experienced professionals, very aware of contemporaneous play styles, and capable of subtlety and nuance. Maybe in a few months I'll have a different view.

I'd add that the 2024 DMG also seems to me to aim to transmit a take on archetypal D&D to new DMs. For example, it seems very appropriate to me to include the Greyhawk setting in the 50th anniversary publication, and it serves as a compact and clear example of creating a world for home campaigns.

 

[Emerikol]

I have always said that modularity (and backwards compatibility) were two ideas that WotC thought they were promoting X and the community thought was X, Y and Z. I don't think you could make a D&D modular enough that one fighter could represent the simplicity of AD&D, the complex build nature of 3e and the tactical powers of 4e without some crossover that bleeds into each other. I don't think you could make a D&D that would satisfy everyone. I actually think it's healthy that other games step in and fill that void, but it seems like even with that, everyone still looks to D&D to fill that role as well, to validate their style of play even if they aren't playing that system anymore.

Absolutely. I don't doubt a lot of it is validation. I think I was into that in the days leading up to 5e 2014. At this stage, I really have given up on WOTC. I just like to talk game design so I show up here sometimes. I don't really care what people play but I will defend my own style if impugned as you've seen. I will also as I go explain and teach my style because I think it is a wonderful game to play.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Absolutely. I don't doubt a lot of it is validation. I think I was into that in the days leading up to 5e 2014. At this stage, I really have given up on WOTC. I just like to talk game design so I show up here sometimes. I don't really care what people play but I will defend my own style if impugned as you've seen. I will also as I go explain and teach my style because I think it is a wonderful game to play.

Do you have a YouTube channel, live stream show, or Tik Tok???

 

[ezo]

Absolutely. I don't doubt a lot of it is validation. I think I was into that in the days leading up to 5e 2014. At this stage, I really have given up on WOTC. I just like to talk game design so I show up here sometimes. I don't really care what people play but I will defend my own style if impugned as you've seen. I will also as I go explain and teach my style because I think it is a wonderful game to play.

Do you have a YouTube channel, live stream show, or Tik Tok???

Ditto.