D&D (2024) Deborah Ann Woll and Matt Mercer consulted on the 2024 DMG.

WotC consulted with celebrities including True Blood's Deborah Ann Woll and Critical Role's Matt Mercer when revising the upcoming 2024 edition of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Apparently another (unnamed) consultant provided advice on running game for kids.

That's it; that's the news.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Is Tom Morello in the court?

He's too busy being pissed at Modrons

 

[beta-ray]

Yes they are proficient DMs, so am I, so are you. But the reason there's a news item about them is because they are famous and WotC announced they consulted on it. Did WotC announce that Nina Hess worked on the 5e PHB? No. These two didn't even write/edit the DMG, they just did some 'consulting'. They might be great consultants! I don't know. But that's not the point, if the content was why they were hired, then the content would speak for itself. But they chose to give it media exposure...

Let me put it this way: Before 2000 no one cared that Vin Diesel played D&D, almost no one knew Vin Diesel. When he became famous, it was a big thing he played D&D... And I don't care if they are (famous) actors, we had a lawyer here that ran a D&D compatible game company a wrote oodles of D&D compatible books, now he's a judge. I know a great DM that was a politician. People have day jobs, pnp RPGs generally don't pay very well or at all.

I am absolutely NOT a proficient DM and am offended you assumed I was.



Maybe they chose to give it media exposure is because D&D is in a different place now. It is a more "known" things by more people. If consultants on the book might draw more eyes, I don't see the problem with them talking about it.

Maybe I might feel different if their names were large on the cover above the title, but it seems like a minor mention just to generate a little bit of news. Almost like a bullet on a list, like 50 new art pieces or something. In that vein, I wonder if people would object if they announced something like "Drew Struzan will be contributing some art to the DMG"?

 

[Hussar]

I wonder if people would object if they announced something like "Drew Struzan will be contributing some art to the DMG"?

Waiter! This 20 dollar bill is folded entirely wrong! Take it back.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It is amazing how everyone says old D&D was impossible to learn and GMing was even worse, yet most of us it managed it at 10 or so.

Learning new things is easier at 10 than at 20, to be fair. Not to mention how dramatically the existence of real “we gotta find literally anything to do you guys” boredom changed between them and now.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yeah I don't really want to diss D&D on a D&D forum, but like, there are a lot of streamer and podcast DMs who are running D&D games where they'd be so much better off with a different system, and they're literally having to work around D&D in a way you just wouldn't with a system closer to their intent. Oh well, I suppose people being familiar with D&D counts for a lot.

I see a lot of online games described as “they’d be better off using XYZ”, but most of the time I am perplexed as to why, when what they’re running…is a D&D game with a given genre element, not a game entirely focused on that genre.

Like to use a “more suited” system for my home game I’d have to use different games for different story arcs and sometimes even sessions. Not to mention parties that have very different story arcs going between different characters.

Like would my wife’s Paladin who is part of a disgraced order she is trying to redeem be more fun for her in a game focused on holy knights and their holy orders and stories of redemption and corruption and romantic fantasy? Maybe, but it would suck for the kobold wizard on a revenge quest and the bugbear swarm ranger trying to find his place in the world and the Shadar-Kai cobalt soul monk with his noir meets Sherlock Holmes personal story arc.

But in D&D i Have tools for all of them, and in 5e specifically I can add things like heist rules and rules around romantic chivalry, etc because the system doesn’t thematically dial things in that specifically and the system is very mathematically simple.

Now when I want to play a game of holy knights of different orders on a quest, I look outside D&D.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I see a lot of online games described as “they’d be better off using XYZ”, but most of the time I am perplexed as to why, when what they’re running…is a D&D game with a given genre element, not a game entirely focused on that genre.

Usually its because they're skipping over or finessing mechanics that don't suit what they're trying to do when there are games that don't have those issues.

 

[Reynard]

I see a lot of online games described as “they’d be better off using XYZ”, but most of the time I am perplexed as to why, when what they’re running…is a D&D game with a given genre element, not a game entirely focused on that genre.

Like to use a “more suited” system for my home game I’d have to use different games for different story arcs and sometimes even sessions. Not to mention parties that have very different story arcs going between different characters.

Like would my wife’s Paladin who is part of a disgraced order she is trying to redeem be more fun for her in a game focused on holy knights and their holy orders and stories of redemption and corruption and romantic fantasy? Maybe, but it would suck for the kobold wizard on a revenge quest and the bugbear swarm ranger trying to find his place in the world and the Shadar-Kai cobalt soul monk with his noir meets Sherlock Holmes personal story arc.

But in D&D i Have tools for all of them, and in 5e specifically I can add things like heist rules and rules around romantic chivalry, etc because the system doesn’t thematically dial things in that specifically and the system is very mathematically simple.

Now when I want to play a game of holy knights of different orders on a quest, I look outside D&D.

It isn't about genre elements or setting details, it is about what actual gameplay they are focusing on. For example, DAW's game are usual combat lite and investigation heavy. D&D isn't particularly well suited to that.

 

[Oofta]

It isn't about genre elements or setting details, it is about what actual gameplay they are focusing on. For example, DAW's game are usual combat lite and investigation heavy. D&D isn't particularly well suited to that.

I run plenty of sessions that are combat light with a focus on other activities. But as @doctorbadwolf just said, that's because of specific story arcs or sessions. In most cases we're doing stuff that is still easily handled by the D&D framework because it's stuff I don't particularly want to overly gamify anyway.

EDIT: Also, I'm not sure what I'm missing. Well, other than what "DAW" stands for. If I have an investigation session, I have to be able to notice something out of place, understand an objects relevance, be able to read people's emotional state, etc.. All things covered by skills and proficiency checks in D&D. There's no built in scorecard, but I wouldn't want one anyway. So possibly a different thread, but what else do I need? Other than vague "rules".

 

[Wolfram stout]

How about getting Vin Diesel to write a section on DM Tips for dealing with lone wolf players? That would be useful, by a celebrity, and based on what I have read about his play style, an area of knowledge for him.

 

[Oofta]

How about getting Vin Diesel to write a section on DM Tips for dealing with lone wolf players? That would be useful, by a celebrity, and based on what I have read about his play style, an area of knowledge for him.

My section on lone wolf players would be short. "Don't be one, it's a team game."