What’s in the 2024 D&D DMG? Chris Perkins Shares Some Hints
Chris Perkins, D&D’s DM to the stars, shared a closer look at what’s coming in the 2024 DMG and why it’ll be the best one yet.
The Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014) is probably the least-read sourcebook in all of 5th Edition. It’s the one book that throughout the last decade, continues to confound players. Because odds are good if you’ve said “I wish D&D had rules for…” then the answer is already there in the DMG. You just might not have known it.
Even if you’ve read it cover to cover, multiple times, you probably still don’t know everything that’s in it. The layout is confusing. Every single time it’s come up, I’ve had to go and spend twenty minutes trying to hunt down where the rule is for climbing on larger creatures, and I wrote an article about how the DMG has rules for that.
The point is, the DMG as it stands, is probably the least polished of the core rulebooks. But that’s something that the D&D team is hoping to change with the 2024 DMG. Because in the 2024 DMG, which is what WotC has shifted to using, dropping One D&D to further hammer home their idea that the new core rulebooks are more of a living rules update rather than a new edition, the DM will be front and center of the design team’s mind.
And not just an experienced DM, but a new DM, someone trying to run the game for the first time. Chris Perkins shared some details about what t expect in the 2024 DMG, so let’s take a look.
What’s in the 2024 DMG
First and foremost, Perkins talked about the organization of the new DMG. In the 2024 DMG, WotC’s goal will be to make it easier than ever to look up what rule you need. A handy thing for any DM who’s ever struggled to keep the energy at the table up while also fumbling through books looking for the rule that says that, actually, the monster can do the thing it just did.
But it’s not just organization. The core content of the book will change as well. WotC is adding new sections on the fundamentals of DMing, and group dynamics. Their goal, according to Perkins, is to make it easy for the first-time DM to pick up the book and get excited. While also making it easy for veteran DMs to actually use the rules. Instead of relying on the tried-and-true combo of “a rule you sort of remember from 3.5E with some 5th Edition concepts mixed in”.
Perkins outlined a tentative table of contents, dividing the book into eight chapters with several appendices:
- The Basics – What is D&D
- The Walkthrough – Taking the DM through common things that happen during play and how to handle them
- Rules Compendium – All the rules that aren’t in the PHB, alphabetized and laid out in one place
- Adventure Building – With practical examples and work for the DM to follow
- Campaign Building – Same
- Magic Items
- “A Surprise”
- Appendices with Maps, a Lore Glossary, and a poster map of “A Surprise”
All this awaits in the 2024 DMG. As more details come out, what do you think? Is this 5.5E? Is WotC trying to pull a Games Workshop and make D&D into a Warhammer/AoS “living edition” type game?
