D&D 5E DM Rules that Need to be in Basic

[Jester David]

It's great that WotC is releasing D&D Basic, allowing players and DMs to try the game without purchase, enabling people to make characters without the purchase of an expensive rulebook or even run the game using the published adventures.

A month or so ago we had the release of the DM rules, which were a smattering a monsters and the rules for building encounters. These seemed a little lackluster, seeming to be as useful for players (providing mounts and new forms for the druid to wildshape into) and not really providing all the rules needed to run a campaign.
The document didn't even incorporate the monsters and magic items from Tyranny of Dragons.

What other basic and foundational rules or elements are necessary for DMing? What else should be included in Basic D&D to make the DMG as optional as the PHB?
What content should be provided to allow people to run the game or try their hand at adventure design before taking the $50+ plunge into the DMG and its rules modules and content creation advice?

My thoughts are pretty simple:

Treasure. I think treasure tables are lacking. With magic items not being necassary and no set wealth-by-level, it's hard to know how much treasure is right and how much is too much. You don't want your PCs to feel poverty stricken or begging for food, but you also don't want people buying castles.

NPCs. Rules for the challenge of classed monsters.

Traps. A few sample ones would be nice. Trap creation would be better, but like monster creation that can be held back and sample traps provided.


What do you think? What would you like to see?

 

[Evenglare]

I agree with this completely. What frustrates me is that the basic rules got delayed because they had to finish up the DMG. First that was a terrible reason because they could have just released the basic rules and THEN finished the DMG back when all of that was going on. But now they announce that the DMG is delayed which means they didn't finish it which means that the delay was for, literally, no reason at all. I expected this stuff to be in the basic rules and the fact that it wasn't in there depressed me greatly. I just wish they would have waited and released everything at once instead of a half finished game. I'd have gladly waited until december or january. Even more annoying is that the books were said to be delayed because they wanted the entire team to focus on one book so it would be as perfect as possible, and yet the PHB still has some pretty damn big errors, especially dealing with spells and the warlock class. If waiting a couple of months would have fixed all of those little errors I'd have gladly waited.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Honestly I didn't even expect the Basic Rules to exist. I think that releasing them is a generous move as well as a smart promotional decision. I really don't want to be the kind of guy who complains about free stuff.

 

[GMMichael]

I was a bit confused as well when I saw the Basic Monster Manual called a Basic "DMG." But really, what do you need that isn't in a previous DMG, or already in the PH?

What other basic and foundational rules or elements are necessary for DMing? What else should be included in Basic D&D to make the DMG as optional as the PHB?
What content should be provided to allow people to run the game or try their hand at adventure design before taking the $50+ plunge into the DMG and its rules modules and content creation advice?

The DMG, if I have a nose for this, is going to provide a lot of optional rules. Things like tactical grid combat and bonuses beyond AD IN/AD OUT. And of course, magic items. Prestige classes. So, for your $50, you won't be getting a lot of "how to play" anyway.

I think treasure tables are lacking. With magic items not being necassary and no set wealth-by-level, it's hard to know how much treasure is right and how much is too much. You don't want your PCs to feel poverty stricken or begging for food, but you also don't want people buying castles.

Admit it. Monsters carry too much treasure. And if your enemy has cool magical gear, he should probably be using it to try and kill you. Along with those considerations, just whip out your 3e DMG, find the pay scales for hirelings or character upkeep, and toss one month's worth of income into the nearby chest.

Rules for the challenge of classed monsters.

The Starter set printed up encounters up to level 5, right? Try this: drop the encounter on your PCs early. If they die like dogs, let them wake up in the local shaman's hut, with a few scratches. After all, a long rest gives all hit points back.

If they fight like lions, well, you'll have to beef your boss encounter up a bit before using it as such, won't you?

A few sample ones would be nice. Trap creation would be better, but like monster creation that can be held back and sample traps provided.

Traps are easy, if you're figured out how to gauge the NPCs. A trap can perform one good attack (damage-wise) that a PC could of one lower, equal, or one higher level. Treat your trap like a character - give it a few proficiencies, and relevant ability scores (for determining modifiers).

Soon, you'll have a plethora of ideas.

 

[Tazawa]

What do you think? What would you like to see?

The basic rules for wilderness exploration. The Player's Handbook (p. 183) refers to rules in the DMG for navigating through the wilderness, tracking creatures, and foraging. These should probably also be in the basic rules.

Happy gaming!

 

[pming]

Hiya.

I don't think it needs those "rules" for those kind of things so much as it needs some suggestions and guidelines.

With Treasure, some campaigns are thick with it...others significantly less so. Most fall somewhere in the middle, with each group finding their own happy place. So I don't want "rules" of Party Level X = Treasure Amount Y. A couple of paragraphs about how treasure will affect a campaigns style and the players expectations in that campaign would be what is needed. Let a DM find his own particular comfort zone on his own, with guidance.

With NPC's...classed monsters? No. Just outright no. We all saw what that path led us to...in case you forgot, it lead us to "Half-Black-Dragon/Half-Minotaur Demon Blooded Shadow Phased Doppleganger Demi-Dragon-Were-Lich's with classes of Fighter 2/ Thief 3 / Druid 7 / Cleric of Baphomet 5 / Arch-Mage 3" with stat blocks taking up two entire pages or more in an adventure book, requiring no less than 5 hardback books (@ $30 to $50 each) for reference. No. Just NO!


But again...a section about the benefits and drawbacks for doing so would be good. Something that points out the variety and sense of "it could be anything", balanced out by pointing out that that level of variability comes at a cost in both time/effort of the DM as well as a high chance of potentially unwanted consequences (such as rules/feats/abilities aligning so perfectly as to upset the power of the universe). Mentioning that when you open this up in a campaign, that campaign moves decidedly away from the more or less "humanocentric" design assumption of 5e's core books.

Traps...yeah. I can see that. Traps are easy and a series of three or four tables a DM could roll randomly on if needed for a heat-of-the-moment thing or for inspiration. Not too much detail though. We don't really want to get into a situation where the DM needs a spreadsheet and a calculator in order to figure out how hard a trap is to discover and disarm, now much damage it does, if there are saves involved, what those save DC's are, etc...etc...etc... Simple is good: "Stone Block Trap: DC 10, 1d6 blunt @ +2 to hit". Let a DM modify from there as needed/desired.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Jester David]

Honestly I didn't even expect the Basic Rules to exist. I think that releasing them is a generous move as well as a smart promotional decision. I really don't want to be the kind of guy who complains about free stuff.

I don't disagree, but if they are going to give away the basic rules, they should at least do it right.
Having a "free rules document" that only kinda sorta does the job isn't inspiring.

The current document is kinda halfassed.

 

[Ratskinner]

With NPC's...classed monsters? No. Just outright no. We all saw what that path led us to...in case you forgot, it lead us to "Half-Black-Dragon/Half-Minotaur Demon Blooded Shadow Phased Doppleganger Demi-Dragon-Were-Lich's with classes of Fighter 2/ Thief 3 / Druid 7 / Cleric of Baphomet 5 / Arch-Mage 3" with stat blocks taking up two entire pages or more in an adventure book, requiring no less than 5 hardback books (@ $30 to $50 each) for reference. No. Just

I'll second that. I'd much prefer some 4e-style guidelines on basic monster numbers and advice on selecting or creating a small set of relevant abilities for various CRs and XP values. (DCs, ranges, etc) You can never go wrong keeping things simple, straightforward, and fast for the DM.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Obligatory "Random Harlot Table" comment goes here. I made it so you don't have to.

 

[Jester David]

Even if classed monsters aren't ever in Basic, knowing the Challenge of a class based NPC would be handy.
Such as a level 5 human fighter. What challenge is that?