D&D (2024) Dungeon Master's Guide Bastion System Lets You Build A Stronghold

The Dungeon Master's Guide's brand new Bastion System has been previewed in a new video from Wizards of the Coast.

Characters can acquire a bastion at 5th-level. Each week, the bastion takes a turn, with actions including crafting, recruiting, research, trade, and more.

A bastion also contains a number of special facilties, starting with two at 5th-level up to 6 at 17th-level. These facilities include things like armories, workshops, laboratories, stables, menageries, and more. In total there are nearly thirty such facilities to choose from.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

It is MY job to weave the storytelling into a beleivable world PCs will CARE FOR! Something that is a half-assed video game mechanic that I am not allowed to make part of the world and serves to remind players this is a game, thus making them care less and thus more encouraged to screw with things for giggles. If I wanted a game in meaningless world where your actions do not matter and the world barely pretends to be more than there for your entertainment, I'd play Skyrim.

What's up slippery slope? How ya been?

Remember kids, if you cant have the bastion NPC's betray the party/get killed by DM fiat, the world is garbage and no one cares.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

You know what I think the problem is? That several people in this conversation do not consider the Game Master to be a player who also gets to have fun. If anything I think people consider the GM a necessary evil, that needs to be put in place and submit to players' uncontrollable power fantasy, at best, and an obstacle and enemy to be beaten, at worst.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

God forbid we ever try to look at the games through critical or analitic perspective, right? It's jsut a game, turn your brain off, stop thinking, buy more product!

If I wanted a game that insults me for thinkign I'd be playing Call of Duty multiplayer right now.

You're never going to trick yourself that the game you are running isn't a game.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

You know what I think the problem is? That several people in this conversation do not consider the Game Master to be a player who also gets to have fun. If anything I think people consider the GM a necessary evil, that needs to be put in place and submit to players' uncontrollable power fantasy, at best, and an obstacle and enemy to be beaten, at worst.

I am almost always a DM. I have yet to play 5E as a player. It's why I feel pretty qualified to laugh in the face of your constant fearmongering and hysterics at the thought of sharing a sliver of narrative control.

AI DM's! Muh authoritah! Woe unto the DM for all is lost!

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Remember kids, if you cant have the bastion NPC's betray the party/get killed by DM fiat, the world is garbage and no one cares.

And the only way to avoid these strawman argument examples was to reduce them to things that are not people living and interacting with the world and remove consequence for player actions?

Don't be a coward, answer my hypothetical:
Player decided his bastion is populated by order of righteous paladins of god of good, who adore his character as greatest hero of them all and chosen one of their god, new messiah maybe even.
The player then proceeds to on a hwim slaughter Village of Women and Children, Edmonton, assaut the king and pee on him before kidnapping his daughter and fleeing to his keep.
Am I the bad guy for deciding that the princess hates him, his knights are horrified and disgusted by his actions and king sends an army to lay a siege to the Bastion? Or should I just let the player face zero consequences and in fact, because she is now in his bastion, I should let thep layer decide the Princess, who was previously as an NPC established to hate his guts, is actually totally in love with him, Stockholm Syndrome style?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Games are games. It's only an issue if you demand to murder their granny in the inn or whatever then get fussy when the rules say you shouldnt because its a designated player safe space.

So once again, like all GNS obsession, its a self inflicted wound.

The space in question makes no sense to be DM-free to me, because it's part of the world and not part of the PC. I know you disagree/don't care about other points of view, but, well, I do.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I am almost always a DM. I have yet to play 5E as a player. It's why I feel pretty qualified to laugh in the face of your constant fearmongering and hysterics at the thought of sharing a sliver of narrative control.

AI DM's! Muh authoritah! Woe unto the DM for all is lost!

Yeah, that's not disrespectful and contemptuous of the opinions of others at all.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

You're never going to trick yourself that the game you are running isn't a game.

Doesn't stop me from wanting it to be immersive enough to not be constantly reminded I'm playing the game by blatant video game mechanics.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

I am almost always a DM. I have yet to play 5E as a player. It's why I feel pretty qualified to laugh in the face of your constant fearmongering and hysterics at the thought of sharing a sliver of narrative control.

AI DM's! Muh authoritah! Woe unto the DM for all is lost!

I like how you built a strawman of me without ever playing at my table. If you're going act like a spoiled child, why should I treat you seriously?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

You know what I think the problem is? That several people in this conversation do not consider the Game Master to be a player who also gets to have fun. If anything I think people consider the GM a necessary evil, that needs to be put in place and submit to players' uncontrollable power fantasy, at best, and an obstacle and enemy to be beaten, at worst.

Is it possible that you tend to exaggerate or read way more into the things people are expressing? Because you seem to think most objections to your position are insults, dismissal, bad faith etc.

Remember when you were arguing a few weeks ago that the dance bard was made as a direct permission from WotC to explicitly bully and humiliate monk?

Doesn't it seem like a bit much? It's a discussion forum, there must be a good space between "all" and "nothing".