Tuesday, 8 July 2025

Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide 2024

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.


Pros

  • Lots of full colour art (as we have come to expect of this edition)

  • Lots of rules to help you run your D&D games.

  • Out of the books since 5th Edition D&D, this is probably the best at helping new Dungeon Masters do their job.


Could Go Either Way

  • Some things were missing compared to the older Dungeon Master’s Guide. The mass combat rules are gone. Those rules...weren’t great. However, it was a good chance to give us something better instead of avoiding the topic all together.

Cons

  • There’s not a lot of new here. Some rules slightly changed, but there’s not as many changes here as the Player’s Handbook. If you played since 5th edition release, there's a good chance you'll be fine without it, and house ruled what was missing.

  • No PDF*


* Denotes nitpicking.

 

Dungeon Master's Guide 2024 Cover
Front and back of the new book.

Introduction

Here we are. The Dungeon Master’s Guide of this rules refresh. I’m going to do things a bit differently here. Instead of reviewing this like a new product, I’m going to go over what’s changed, what I’d like to see, and who this book is for. What makes this book different is that it’s a lot more similar to the previous book,

Dungeon Master's Guide 2024 Bastions
A page about bastions.


What’s Changed?

In terms of content, it’s very similar to what you remember in the previous Dungeon Master’s Guide. There are some minor changes, like the mass combat rules being missing. There’s also some new trackers for things like overland travel, and a section for the player’s base, castle, or wherever else they hang out (called a bastion). I really do like this. I have fond memories of this feature from Baldur’s gate 2, and playing old D&D and our party getting a castle. So I’m happy to see it. But overall, it’s very similar.


The catch is that the presentation is different. It is FAR better organized. If you are new and want to run a game, this book will make it much easier for you to do so. The previous book was difficult if you didn’t know what you were doing. From the flow of the book, to just how easy it is to reference rules, it’s way ahead of what we had before. It was a common complain by many people, on the internet or those I discussed with in real life, that some things were just squirrelled away deep in the book and not really referenced. Is it enough to make it a good book for new players? I’m not sure, but it’s better than the previous book. I do wish they had a section of their websites with some scenarios for new players. That way they can run through a fake combat round, see some common mistakes at the table, etc. Don’t charge for this, but have it available.


As for new stuff...well, there’s “Enspelled Items,” which are magic items that allow you to cast a spell for 6 charges, and recharge 1d6 every dawn. These are...interesting? On one hand, they’re a nice option for a party lacking a particular role, or for smaller groups like 1-2 players. It could also be a potential way to give the non-spell casting classes a helping hand if they need it to remain balanced. But it could also cause balance issues, and isn’t the most creative way to handle items. I wish there was a little more here. Some kind of modifications to make it worse if desired. Options of fewer charges, maybe only having a range of touch, 2 turns to cast, etc. These all being ways to make them unique, worse than the spells, and possibly utility items rather than combat. I don’t mean to replace them with my worse options. But just spend the time going over various different changes we could do to customize particular items for our group. What is interesting is that this now replaces the old wands and staffs of fireball, for example under a simple system. This...I like. From that perspective, I’ll replace such staffs in my games going forward with these rules. And ultimately, I’m in charge of what items end up at my table.


I do wish there was some explicit guidance on non-magic contagions. You know, some sort of natural plagues. Almost everything from before seems to have made it. Almost. The mass combat rules are missing. While they weren’t great before, and I don’t remember anyone actually using them, the chance should’ve been taken to make better ones. Big battles do happen, and it’d be nice to have support for this right in the box, especially for newer players.


The way it lays out challenge rating, challenges, combat, and how to adjust it, is really rather nice. It’s clear, and gives several options like height differences and adding enemies in part way through an encounter. It could’ve gone further too, with establishing goals like getting an item or killing a particular enemy, but it’s not bad.


All in all though? It’s clearly an improvement to the book that came before. In many ways, it’s the book I wish came out back then.


Some New Commendation

The laying out of adventures in the Creating Adventures section is particularly well done. It’s nicely organized and shows players a good way to plan out a game. I’d usually go further and have a few maps or tiles and a basic battle plan to have combat be more interesting. But the organization is good, and I’m curious to see if new Dungeon Masters make use of it.


Dungeon Master's Guide 2024 Art
The sort of art I like from this book. I do wish there was more, since a lot of it is more vibrant and stylized. Maybe I just like dingy aesthetics. 


The Art and Book Build Quality

In terms of the book itself, I’m happy. It looks nice. The binding is good. I didn’t see some of the really big issues I saw in earlier books. The art is also what we’ve come to expect in previous books, and generally high quality. None of those ones 3D images I really didn’t like in some newer adventures. It’s hard to describe, especially given how much of it we’ve seen. I do wish it had more environmental and scenery images. Beautiful views of strange planes, or even vast cities are the sort of things that make me inspired. It’s also nice to have images I can show my players to demonstrate an area. Sometimes I wish they’d release just an art book of various places within a setting for that reason, and that they’d have 20 pages at the end of an adventure so I can show important scenes to my players. Though this is a small preference of mine, and not something new I’ve complained about.


The maps section. Oh the maps. I’m always happy to see many included in a book, and this section in particular makes me happy. I would love just a book of D&D maps. And then another. Many of them are simpler though. More like the grid paper maps of old. I would prefer more colour, but a map is better than none, and these are good regardless. Please, do this more often.


I do have to say, I prefer the older cover. They are both beholders, and I like that callback. But something about the lighting in the original spoke to me. In fact, I’d have preferred if they amped it up. The Rise of Tiamat cover is still my favourite of 5th edition for that reason.


Price

Same as usual.


What I felt was Missing

I wish morale rules were modified too to be more flexible. High wisdom doesn’t necessarily mean brave. This is something I complained about last time. The thing is, it’s something easy to fix. Just say “use wisdom. However, this is a guideline and you can adjust it however you wish. If the character is cowardly, it might be this instead.” Same complaint as last time, and the same fix.


Free Stuff

Nothing here.


Summary

The book is good. It’s like the previous Dungeon Master’s Guide, but cleaned up. Unfortunately, not everything made it here. I’d love to see more of an attempt to bring everything that was there before, and start from scratch for the things that really didn’t work. I mentioned it above, I’ll mention it here too: mass combat rules. Instead of getting rid of it completely, I would’ve liked a brand new attempt at it here. However, nearly everything made the transition as far as I can see. I hope this book will make it easier to bring new people into the hobby. It can’t do worse than the older one. And if you’re thinking about it, now isn’t a bad time. There’s some new stuff as well, like bastions and trackers for things like travelling. However, what we have here isn’t a massive difference in substance. The changes aren’t dramatic, and you know what you’re doing already. I kind of wish they had just released a few pages summarizing the changes for those with the previous book. However, the organization is vastly better. I cannot stress this enough. It’s much better, more specific, better organized, For some, that alone could be worth it. As much as I’ve played D&D and 5th edition specifically, I also need a refresher and to reference things every now and then when I’m coming back after a break with a different system.

No comments:

Post a Comment