Dungeons & Dragons RPG: Dungeon Master’s Guide 5th edition – 2024
Create thrilling adventures with this revised and expanded Dungeon Master’s Guide fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
Inside this essential guide is everything new and experienced Dungeon Masters need to weave epic tales, build fantastical worlds, and inspire memorable moments for your party.
By Mike
Attention masters!
Just like the Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook (PHB) got revised in 2024 based on a decade of community feedback, so has the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG). My verdict: it is mostly a positive change, especially for new DM’s, but might challenge a more seasoned DM’s experience of what their tools should contain. I personally found that some things were put in illogical places, but overall this book is way more useful than the old DMG.
Firstly, just like the new PHB, this new DMG has greatly improved info for first-timers and a better order of chapters. For beginning DM’s this means that essential knowledge that one previously had to attain by experience is now in the front of the book, easing you into the DM role. Now, whole pages perfectly guide you how to prep, manage a group, structure, and steer story and role-play. The 2014 DMG seemed to assume/omit much on that front. This one neatly sums up how and why you are a storyteller, referee, manager, and even somewhat of a therapist for a D&D group.
The new chapter called ‘DM Toolbox’ puts a lot of rules in one place that one might need in the heat of action during a session. For example, chases, mobs, hazards, and boons are easily found again in this section and more succinctly written than ever. Some things like how to create magic items, and entries about dungeons or settlements, seemed a little out of place to me since there are other chapters to which they could actually belong, but once you know what is where, there is no inconvenience.
In contrast to the old DMG, which seemed to assume that the best way to start DM’ing is to build an entire world yourself (take it from me, don’t), this new one cleverly scales up in how to run (and build, if you so desire) from small to large as your group develops. From single encounters to world-scale campaigns. It brings back the classic Greyhawk setting as a fully fledged example and provides the new Bastions system with which to design home bases with your players.
The only minor point of critique I have, which seems to be a trend in recent publications of Wizards Of The Coast, is that content like the Cosmology chapter and Lore Glossary seem less detailed and more catered to ‘homebrewing’ DM’s who like to fill in (multiverse-spanning) blanks and flavour things themselves. I for one, now miss the old tables from other planes of existence that give you a set of effects that those planes can have on the players. Some DM’s might also miss the evil player character options of the paladin oathbreaker and death cleric.
All in all, with updated magic items, amazing handholds for new DM’s, cool new features (the new mob rules table is genius!), and a handy DM toolbox, this is a Dungeon Master’s Guide that can actually be just that for new DM’s. It provides an easier, more practical version that is finally of use to DM’s of all levels and will be whipped open by a DM during even the most hectic sessions as opposed to the old one, that mostly sat on shelves, only to be occasionally involved in some prep, as many a DM in my circle has affirmed.
