D&D (2024) Pack Tactics Diacusses New DMG, Includes New Details

[Yaarel]

In the 2024 DMs Guide.

There is a presentation of the Greyhawk setting and its cosmology (including Astral Plane and Feywild etcetera) as an example. But the advice on how to create ones own setting and cosmology from scratch is lacking.

Comment. Huh. It seems Greyhawk really is the default setting. At least, it is the setting that a newbie DM is expected to use if only using core books. But it is more clearly a "default" to add to the rules, rather than a "baked in". The Forgotten Realms setting will appear in a supplement book. The cosmology, "the multiverse", is indeed the "core setting". There will probably be a separate book for worldbuilding. Or. The example of different official settings can inspire homebrew settings.

The advice for creating a new monster is little more than tweak an existing monster.

Comment. In the 2014 DMs Guide, the costs for creating a new monster were all wrong anyway. 2024 might as well not have them. The 2024 MM might have info for the DM to build a new monster. Or 2024 might rely on DMs at large to figure things out for themselves, and come up with their own systems for balancing monsters. Much of monster creation is arbitrary and difficult to formulate.

 

[Charlaquin]

I don’t think world building is something the DMG really needs to do a deep dive on. There are a zillion pre-built settings, both 1st and 3rd party, so world building is really not an essential DMing skill. And world building advice isn’t D&D specific, so there are tons of resources out there that people who do want to build their own settings can look to. The DMG is much better served by using its limited page count to teach the fundamentals of running a game than on worldbuilding.

 

[Parmandur]

I don’t think world building is something the DMG really needs to do a deep dive on. There are a zillion pre-built settings, both 1st and 3rd party, so world building is really not an essential DMing skill. And world building advice isn’t D&D specific, so there are tons of resources out there that people who do want to build their own settings can look to. The DMG is much better served by using its limited page count to teach the fundamentals of running a game than on worldbuilding.

Yeah, I reckon that is their logic. Monster creation would have been cool, though.

 

[MarkB]

I don’t think world building is something the DMG really needs to do a deep dive on. There are a zillion pre-built settings, both 1st and 3rd party, so world building is really not an essential DMing skill. And world building advice isn’t D&D specific, so there are tons of resources out there that people who do want to build their own settings can look to. The DMG is much better served by using its limited page count to teach the fundamentals of running a game than on worldbuilding.

But world building is still part of what a DM does, and if they are interested in building their own world, one which will work well with D&D's built-in assumptions, they should be better served than a statement of "if you really want to do this, go find yourself a book about it."

 

[Alby87]

So, I watched the below video from The Pointy Hat detailing what changed woth the new DMG (very good overview, overall), and he had a few specific sections to critique where he felt the 2014 DMG sid a better job, namely: creature creation, dungeon creation, settlement creation and worldvuilding overall. Apparently, "create a creature" advice is limited guidelines for taking an existing stat block and resigning and altering it: no big math info. Still maaaaay be in the MM, buuuut...

WotC have pratically material to create a DMG2, simply rearranging what's letft from the 2014 DMG and expanding it, making a worldbuilding. The random dungeon tables are iconic in the game, WotC can not simply remove them.
Having a dungeon generator (along with random encounter tables), a wilderness generator, world bulding advice, universe and cosmology building advice, a math tools to create creatures, magic items and spells, plus some variant rules (like flanking) is pratically what's missing from this DMG.

 

[Parmandur]

WotC have pratically material to create a DMG2, simply rearranging what's letft from the 2014 DMG and expanding it, making a worldbuilding. The random dungeon tables are iconic in the game, WotC can not simply remove them.
Having a dungeon generator (along with random encounter tables), a wilderness generator, world bulding advice, universe and cosmology building advice, a math tools to create creatures, magic items and spells, plus some variant rules (like flanking) is pratically what's missing from this DMG.

Well, the will never call a book "DMg 2", since apparently that name depresses sales...but fair point that it could be in a future Everything book.

 

[Parmandur]

Actually, it is probably worth noting, given who the target audience for this new DMG is (midfleschoolers), that a bunch of world building advice and tools have made their way into the Young Adventurers Guides aimed at kids the past few years.