D&D (2024) Bastions in the 2024 DMs Guide

[bedir than]

I still really don’t like the whole abstract Bastion Turn currency. Downtime already exists, just make Orders a Downtime activity.

They may have connected Bastions and Downtime. We've had zero visibility towards 2024 Downtime.

 

[Charlaquin]

They may have connected Bastions and Downtime. We've had zero visibility towards 2024 Downtime.

Not zero. Lifestyles are still in the PHB, and crafting still uses downtime.

 

[Lanefan]

One change I caught is that they said the only way your Bastion can fall is if you draw Ruin from the Deck of Many Things. Which sounds like the Bastion Attack event is gone, which would also mean the Facilities that were entirely about interacting with that one event result will have new functions.

And that makes me very happy, because the nested mini-game of having to recruit Bastion Defenders for the low chance of an Attack event coming up was the one part I most disliked in the UA version. My survey feedback was mostly about how that part needed work. So I'm glad to see this.

Does this mean that by RAW a Bastion cannot be attacked?

If yes, that's poor. Once a character (or entire party) is known to have a Bastion or base of operations, isn't that the most logical place for an enemy of that character (or party) to attack?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Not zero. Lifestyles are still in the PHB, and crafting still uses downtime.

Glad to hear it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Does this mean that by RAW a Bastion cannot be attacked?

If yes, that's poor. Once a character (or entire party) is known to have a Bastion or base of operations, isn't that the most logical place for an enemy of that character (or party) to attack?

"When your enemy goes to ground, leave no ground to go to".

 

[Sulicius]

The thing is, my players love using the Xanathar's downtime rules in their bastion. They interact with the hirelings, talk about how they imagine the place and it feels to them like their own.

That's the thing I didn't expect, but it works really well.

Bastion points... I like them more than gold. I don't want my game to turn into a spreadsheet any more than it already has.

 

[Arilyn]

If I'm remembering the UA correctly, your bastion being attacked lost you a room and meeples, at worst. Ruin of the Bastion happened if you neglected the Bastion by not giving Bastion orders for too long.

Removing Ruin does not necessarily mean bastions are free from attack.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If I'm remembering the UA correctly, your bastion being attacked lost you a room and meeples, at worst. Ruin of the Bastion happened if you neglected the Bastion by not giving Bastion orders for too long.

Removing Ruin does not necessarily mean bastions are free from attack.

Interesting. My preference is for a stronghold to be a thing in the world subject to the same setting events everything else is, but some folks like a more narrative take on the idea.

 

[tetrasodium]

They have the video on Bastions up

"bastions are such a great extended way of fleshing out your character & who your character is. And even before there was anything like a bastion system I would draw out my in that I wish I'd owned or the apartent my character lived in & this fleshes that out to have meaning and purpose & can work with other players. So I have talked for very long about bastions without you, but tell me about the bastion system"

That opening ten billion percent does not engender hope that the changes were made in service of the GM's needs. Perkins Immediately going from there to talk about players sculpting the campaign is not a good sign for the remaining video coverage, nor does the phrase "it's off limits for the dungeon master".

It took almost six minutes to talk about the DM & that statement was that the DM has flexibility to accelerate or decelerate bastion turns... I'm starting to wonder who the heck this book is made for..

The closest I could see as an effort to sell these as a thing useful to GM's was mentioning that it was a place for players to dump gold. Nearly the entire video was talking about PCs. Can wotc maybe make the next DMG video for DMs instead of perma-exclusive-players?

Which MCDM system? I bounced off Kingdoms & Warfare cuz it was "too much" to try to get into, but I still use Strongholds & Followers extensively. The rules in that one are pretty basic and tell the players exactly what they get, and I use other simple rules if warfare ever comes up. If the new DMG somehow covers the content that K&W did but in a more approachable way then I'll be using it, but it suggests to me that it's just covering S&F-type stuff.

Draw Steel. Very different in lots of ways but pretty darned cool even with only one level out so far.

 

[Charlaquin]

If I'm remembering the UA correctly, your bastion being attacked lost you a room and meeples, at worst. Ruin of the Bastion happened if you neglected the Bastion by not giving Bastion orders for too long.

Removing Ruin does not necessarily mean bastions are free from attack.

Furthermore they’ve said combining bastions allows you to combine your bastion defenses. Which is meaningless if the bastion can’t be attacked.