D&D’s most exciting 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide change could shape future campaign books

Dungeons & Dragons‘2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide is set to follow the latter Player’s Handbook In November, and there are already several main reasons to pay attention to the release. While the appeal of the Dungeon Master’s Guide Is obviously a little more limited, it is a book that can still shape the game for everyone who plays it, at least in theory. The 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide is often criticized for being less basic than it could be, but with the 2024 edition, DND Has a great opportunity to turn this story around.

One of the new features that the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide Is learning on is the inclusion of bastions, which serve as strength for the party to build up and return to between adventures. The concept builds on the tendency to establish a base of operations that already exists in many DND Games, codifying it with specific mechanics to hopefully make the process more rewarding. Place bastions in the Dungeon Master’s Guide Rather than these Player’s Handbook Emphasizes that they may not be right for every campaignBut it is now looking like DND Plan to further commit to this concept.

Bastions don’t just show up in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide

A major new DMG feature may be here to stay

The biggest update on Bastions yet comes courtesy of a new video from the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube account, which features DND Designers Chris Perkins and James Wyatt discuss this feature. While many details are reserved for the book itself, there’s still a lot to glean from the conversation, mostly because the Bastions haven’t been done since their inclusion in 2023. Honored Arcana Playtesting. What might be the most enlightening bit comes when interviewer Todd Kenreck prompts them to talk about the future of Bastions, even if it doesn’t reveal any definitive answers.

Wyatt jumps at the chance to talk about how future adventures might use bastions, taking the example of the party’s opportunity to acquire an inn in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. so too, Campaigns may provide parties with “Lot of their own“Through the codified bastion system. With the rules already in place in the Dungeon Master’s GuideAn adventure would not have to provide all the framework, making it easier to include home base options in the future.

Wyatt and Perkins also mention as various DND Settings may take modified approaches to the bastion system to make it feel unique and appropriate. Count Strahd’s dangerous domain of Ravenloft is used as an example, as a bastion it cannot be a true sanctuary in the way it can be elsewhere. The possibility of a cemetery being a productive faculty in a Ravenluft bastion is thrown out as a joke, but it is also a serious proposition in itself.

Bastions in the & the campaign can change the course of the adventure

Future campaigns may feel very different

Although it’s not framed as much more than speculating about future possibilities at this point, The idea of ​​bastions being incorporated into future campaign books has a lot of potential. A home base wouldn’t necessarily make sense for every adventure, as some focus more on survival or take things in a restless trotting direction. For campaigns that have a viable central location, however, it can build on the tendencies that many players already exhibit to make the concept cohere in a more meaningful way.

The good thing about including Bastions in campaign or setting books is that, implemented correctly, it wouldn’t make them any more mandatory than before. Like these Dungeon Master’s GuideA campaign book should only be in the hands of the dungeon master, so they could still choose to ignore the possibility if it felt like it would simply dampen the excitement at their table. Bastions require some amount of active time investmentMaking them decidedly not for everyone.

In some ways, however, It feels like a natural evolution from Wu Fifth Edition DND took the game. A focus on long campaigns, party characters that tend to stick around for a while, and frequent opportunities for role-playing outside of dungeons all favor the side of gameplay balance that Bastions falls under, even if they most resemble the strengths of the first Addition. DND Will likely continue to throw adventures that hit on various points of old-school appeal into the mix, but it’s easy enough to imagine Bastion serving as the hub that ties together an anthology book.

The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide will actually matter

This time more than mildly helpful

What may be most relevant about the talk of bastions in future books is not the details of the mechanics, but simply the idea of ​​active future support for a concept introduced in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Although it is always recommended for a DM to have all three of the core rulebooks, any dungeon master would probably tell you that An experienced DM could hack it in 5e without absolutely needing the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide. There is certainly some useful stuff in there, but most of it is basic, and there are arguably better books on the art of running the game.

Including Bastions in future campaigns asserts an idea that is at the heart of the Dungeon Master’s Guide Revisions – making the book something that DMs constantly refer to for years to come, not a one-and-done read. This concept is supported by other additions such as Greyhawk’s sample campaign setting, short adventures and a glossary. The 2024 Player’s Handbooks rules glossary has already proven its usefulness in making the book a handy reference, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide Could ideally achieve the same.

It’s hard to tell how fun bastions are in practice until these Dungeon Master’s Guide Releases, and the version of ​​the feature last seen in Honored Arcana Was primed for some tweaks. For better or worse, however, it sounds like they are here to stay, and Dungeons & Dragons Adventures may not be the same in the wake of the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide.

Source: Dungeons & Dragons/ YouTube