D&D (2024) What can WotC do in OneD&D to make the DM's Guide worth buying?

[MNblockhead]

I would like the DMG to be a tool kit.

I believe everything you need to play the game should be in the PHB. The DMG should be a mix of DIY / modification toolkit and a deeper dive in various approaches to running the game. Something like Cortex Prime for 5e that gives the DM all sorts of bits and bobs that they can use to tweak and customize their game.

I would also like much better organization, cross-referencing, side-bar notes and other tools to make it a much more useful reference in print. Heck, even in D&D Beyond I keep forgetting where to find a particular rule and find it takes too long to look up, even with its search capability.
I think the current DMG has a lot of great stuff in it, but I just find it very frustrating to use when prepping a game, much less trying to look things up in game. Even if they kept all the same content but better organization and cross referencing, I'd buy it. Though I hope they add even more options and ideas.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Wow, snarky comment.

I think they were just being silly, because of the running joke (but not really a joke) that "nobody has read the DMG".

 

[Retreater]

Here's what I'd like.

• Move magic items to the PHB. I consider that player-facing anyway (especially when their characters have the ability to craft magic items.)
• Drop the high-minded "how to be a DM" advice. There are better examples of actual plays and DM advice online.
• List many examples of traps (including complex ones) and environmental hazards
• Have a completely overhauled "player rewards" section. How to award XP, treasure, etc.
• Downtime rules
• Encounter design
• Travel vignettes, skill challenges

But basically, I think we keep getting DMs Guides because of tradition. I don't think it's a necessary book. I'd like to see a two-core book model.
Treasure, crafting, downtime rules in the PHB.
Traps, encounter design, hazards, skill challenges, etc., in the MM (adversary guide?)
Have the DM's advice stuff on D&D Beyond columns and in-print in the various "beginner DM" adventures.

 

[SakanaSensei]

I want a toolbox, something I can come back to time and again to generate content for my players, whether that be dungeons, faction creation, world building, NPC creation, magic items, etc. I’d also like a set of optional rules that give the game various feels, from “use these rules for gritty aesthetic games” to “use these rules for demigod PCs.”

Basically, I want WotC to go ahead and hire Kevin Crawford.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Wow, snarky comment. That was useful. Let's assume that I wouldn't have made this thread if I had not. I still have my AD&D DM's Guide, for that matter. It was also the least useful book in that edition.

I'm thinking that the DM's Guide needs a clearly defined purpose. The PHB and MM have that. The DM's Guide is more like a bunch of half worked out optional rules and thinly sketched ideas that no one uses. If you asked WotC, "what is the purpose of the DM's Guide," I'm not sure that they could give you a clear answer. So what should a "Guide" actually do?

Well, the first thing a guide does is show you how to do things so that you can learn to do them yourself. So presumably, this book should be guiding Dungeon Masters to do the hardest job in gaming: running an RPG table.

But let's assume that you have been doing this for awhile and don't really feel you need that kind of guiding? Maybe you are ready to try new stuff - modify your game, etc. That's where I think optional rules would still play a role.

So I would basically divide the DM's Guide into two sections. The first would be geared towards teaching DM's how to run games, and it would be built around a series of short adventure arcs, similar to the ones in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. Those could be used to teach new DMs how to do the job, and though short, would vary in complexity. There would be one designed to show how to start a campaign (get the party together to solve a fairly straightforward problem - rescue the captives from the gnoll cave, that kind of thing). Another might have a simple traps'n'monsters dungeon to show DM's how to pace a session and build in a variety of challenges. And so on. I would make the adventures very setting agnostic, or else include a simple setting guide that could be easily transplanted into the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, etc.

The back half I would clearly label as optional rules for more advanced DMs. Here I would include the various systems (critical hit tables, etc.) that can add more complexity and rules depth for those who want them. Whatever was in here, I would make sure that it was fully play tested and complete, rather than the often too thinly sketched material in the current DMG.

I would move magic items to the PHB. I think they are currently only in the DM's Guide because that's where Gygax originally put them, probably to give people a reason to actually purchase the book.

Having them in the DMG also discourages players from thinking of them as just another character option (like they were in 4e) and that's the way I want it.

 

[Malmuria]

The information can be more or less the same, but the organization and layout might be improved. The writing can be more succinct as well.

Section 1: How to Run the Game

• session 0, social contract, organizing sessions, safety tools, problem players
• how to run each pillar of the game (social, exploration, combat)
• how to prepare for a session
  • designing a (combat) encounter

Section 2: Worldbuilding

• Making and running NPCs and Groups
  • Villains, Patrons, Factions
• Making a starting town and starting region
• Designing an adventure location (dungeon, etc)
• Designing a larger world (brief overview)
• *put random tables in an appendix

Section 3: Reference

• Magic items (organize by type of item)
• Traps, puzzles, poisons, etc

Section 4: Additional and Optional rules
* The game could benefit from modularity in this respect. This section could indicate how to modify the game to make it low magic, high magic, or introduce genre elements (horror, pulp, s&s, etc).

Appendix: random tables for generating adventures, locations, npcs

 

[Micah Sweet]

I never read the 4e dmg but the 2e & 3.x dmg had good insight into running the game & the structure behind mechanical crunch. The 5e dmg however is like a grab bag of "PEACH my homebrew" that in far too many cases fails at rising to a level that wouldn't get mocked for being poorly thought out & incomplete.

I agree with most of this but having the magic items in the dmg when most players neither own nor read it presents two problems for me as a GM, magic items belong in the PHB or some other player facing book just like spells.

• Players don't have any idea what magic items they want or they only want the very specific magic items mentioned as being needed for some broken hypercharop "build" they read about. If it's not available they just shut down or keep looking for another place to get the thing they weren't going to get.
• As a GM I say "you find xyz" and the whole table effectively crosses their arms wanting me to explain what it is. Worse they often don't write down the details & make me look it up again when they use it.

That's still better to me than having the players present lists of magic items they want me to give them, like I'm Santa Claus. The 4e DMG encouraged that., and i don't care for it. If a PC wants something specific, they can try to buy it, quest for it, or make it themselves.

 

[tetrasodium]

Having them in the DMG also discourages players from thinking of them as just another character option (like they were in 4e) and that's the way I want it.

4e did a lot that helped encourage players to think that way

That's still better to me than having the players present lists of magic items they want me to give them, like I'm Santa Claus. The 4e DMG encouraged that., and i don't care for it. If a PC wants something specific, they can try to buy it, quest for it, or make it themselves.

I agree completely on the bold part.

 

[GetInTheHole]

Publish it.

Many people will buy it regardless. Like me.

 

[Dausuul]

First and foremost, organize the damn thing. There's a bunch of useful stuff in the 5E DMG, but I can never find it when I need it at the table, because it's buried in some randomly named subsection of a totally unrelated chapter and the index is a bad joke. So I end up just winging it even though I know there is a rule and I read it once.

(And D&D Beyond does not help. Quite the reverse. DDB is pretty decent at looking up things where you know the name, but it's terrible for finding things by topic.)

Second, where optional rules are provided, put more thought and playtesting into them, and address the common corner cases. Most of the optional rules in the 5E DMG seem to be just off-the-cuff suggestions; I might as well come to ENWorld and ask for ideas.

Third, provide toolkits. Noncombat challenges are a great example of an area where this would be helpful. Just as the Monster Manual provides a whole lot of components from which to assemble combat encounters, the DMG could provide components to assemble social encounters or exploration challenges. (Please do not refer me to 4E skill challenges. I have an extensive rant on the subject, but this is a 1D&D thread.)