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

[Weiley31]

Hmm, I wonder how much of this you could combine with MCDM's Strongholds and Followers book.

Hmmm.

 

[Yaarel]

You could just role-play your followers doing what they think is best, without any concern for how the PC communicates with them - they don't - the NPCs just do their best to do what their boss would want. If they fail in that goal, they fail.

That is how I understand the autonomy of the bastion. The character owns the bastion, but the persons there operate it while the character is away. Players can choose whether their character is micromanaging it while present or delegating it while absent. Either way, the player decides what happens within the bastion.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Hmm, I wonder how much of this you could combine with MCDM's Strongholds and Followers book.

Hmmm.

Level Up has a very good Stronghold mechanic, too. I'd be happy to discuss with you "which ones do what well" when the DMG is out, and maybe we can come up with a "best mix" of the three (plus anything else we discover while looking into it).

Sounds like a project!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Level Up has a very good Stronghold mechanic, too. I'd be happy to discuss with you "which ones do what well" when the DMG is out, and maybe we can come up with a "best mix" of the three (plus anything else we discover while looking into it).

Sounds like a project!

I'm on board! I'd love to expand the concept.

 

[Lanefan]

I think that they have a point, but that it's not anywhere near as bad as they make it out to be. I'd be much more on board and interested in a discussion on the subject, if it weren't always stated as if the designers were "hostile" to DMs.

I'm pretty sure that the designers ARE DMs.

That might be the problem right there: if the designers are already experienced DMs they may take for granted a lot of knowledge a new DM doesn't in fact have.

 

[Yaarel]

That might be the problem right there: if the designers are already experienced DMs they may take for granted a lot of knowledge a new DM doesn't in fact have.

The 2024 DMs Guide tries to address this issue of assumed knowledge, and tries to spell it out explicitly. The first chapter focuses on "what is a DM", giving the basics of the concept, how to find players, and so on. The second chapter focuses on how to run session and various challenges relating to it. Chapter three is various mechanical rules, in alphabetic order, such as for traps, poisons, etcetera which are rules that are specific to an encounter, but not in the Players Handbook, and which players dont really worry about unless encountering it. Only then do the chapters focus on how to run a leveling adventure, campaign arc, and cosmology. The authors of the DMs Guide want this book to be indispensable to DMs, highly useful, and to help make clear what a DM is and the kinds of things a DM does.

 

[DinoInDisguise]

I think that they have a point, but that it's not anywhere near as bad as they make it out to be. I'd be much more on board and interested in a discussion on the subject, if it weren't always stated as if the designers were "hostile" to DMs.

I'm pretty sure that the designers ARE DMs. It would be really weird to be hostile to one's self. I think they just get great joy, as I do, through making their players happy.

That said, I think that the game could be seriously improved, when it comes to Quality of Life, for the DM, with some serious thought and design effort put into it.

Hmm. Thinking about it here, I think that my main beef with them is the negative characterization of the motives behind why things are the way they are, rather than a push towards how positive things could be if they were different.

I have a theory. I think it's fairly clear why this is happening and it adds some clarity to the placement of this Bastion mechanic in the DMG, as well as to the wording of "off limits to the DM" in the video

We have heard in many instances on investor calls by higher ups at Hasbro about under monetization. And we have heard many times about how DMs buy a disproportionate percentage of products compare to players.

An easy, and obvious, solution to this is to give the players reasons to buy those products. Player focused optional rules in the DMG that are "off limits to DMs" as an example. Mechanical changes that make DMing slightly less pleasant but empower players. In essence a very player-centric "update."

So I think that all of this makes sense if WotC's intent is to drive player engagement and spending. It is assumed DMs will just go along with it and continue as is. If players, in a ill-advised desire to take back some power, demand the use of the Bastions, you may even gain a 2024 adoption from a DM that may have sat it out otherwise.

So in my head, it's not hostility to DMs, at least not on purpose. It's courting of players because WotC sees players as an untapped revenue stream. DM opinion doesn't matter, because it doesn't matter if the content is used, only that it's bought.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I have a theory. I think it's fairly clear why this is happening and it adds some clarity to the placement of this Bastion mechanic in the DMG, as well as to the wording of "off limits to the DM" in the video

We have heard in many instances on investor calls by higher ups at Hasbro about under monetization. And we have heard many times about how DMs buy a disproportionate percentage of products compare to players.

An easy, and obvious, solution to this is to give the players reasons to buy those products. Player focused optional rules in the DMG that are "off limits to DMs" as an example. Mechanical changes that make DMing slightly less pleasant but empower players. In essence a very player-centric "update."

So I think that all of this makes sense if WotC's intent is to drive player engagement and spending. It is assumed DMs will just go along with it and continue as is. If players, in a ill-advised desire to take back some power, demand the use of the Bastions, you may even gain a 2024 adoption from a DM that may have sat it out otherwise.

So in my head, it's not hostility to DMs, at least not on purpose. It's courting of players because WotC sees players as an untapped revenue stream. DM opinion doesn't matter, because it doesn't matter if the content is used, only that it's bought.

Well, that is both quite plausible and deeply depressing.

 

[tetrasodium]

I think that they have a point, but that it's not anywhere near as bad as they make it out to be. I'd be much more on board and interested in a discussion on the subject, if it weren't always stated as if the designers were "hostile" to DMs.

I'm pretty sure that the designers ARE DMs. It would be really weird to be hostile to one's self. I think they just get great joy, as I do, through making their players happy.

That said, I think that the game could be seriously improved, when it comes to Quality of Life, for the DM, with some serious thought and design effort put into it.

Hmm. Thinking about it here, I think that my main beef with them is the negative characterization of the motives behind why things are the way they are, rather than a push towards how positive things could be if they were different.

Citation very much needed... Absolutely REQUIRED In fact.

Have you noticed that you frequently reinterpret my posts and then blame blame for the new version i did not post after commenting on the reinterpretation?

Let me guess, you don't understand what I'm saying? How about start with pointing to the post in this thread that I made prior to the one you quoted that you think talks about being hostile to GM's... Failing that, what about a post made after the one you quoted. There is a wide ocean between things like "exclusive player focus" or "failing to appeal to GM's when hyping the dmg" and "hostile to GM's". Be careful not to cite posts like this post or this post while searching for posts from me that include a word like "hostile"only because I quoted someone else who attributed the claim to me based on a reinterpretation.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I’m begging people to play games that aren’t 5E. People love Call of Cthulhu.