Dungeons & Dragonshas been home to a ton of great ideas over the years, but the designers currently steering the future of the game might be the first to admit that not every concept was a winner. The 2024 core rulebooks forD&Daren’t burning anything to the ground, with an emphasis on backward compatibility that continues the legacy ofD&D5e and the 2014 rulebooks that defined it. They do toss some things out, however, withone casualty of the rework being the idea of the “Adventuring Day"that the 2014Dungeon Master’s Guidefeatured.
In aninterview withScreenRant,D&DCreative Director Chris Perkins explained the removal of the Adventuring Day, describing the original concept as “kind of bogus.” The Adventuring Day prescribed six to eight medium or hard encounters per day, providing an XP budget table to determine how much the party should face per level. According to Perkins, the Adventuring Day ultimately didn’t align with how the game was typically being played, so focusing on other advice proved more relevant.
So what we’ve discovered is that the Adventuring Day as a concept was kind of bogus, that in a great, great many campaigns, it was just not true. It was not how actual games were running. And so, sticking with the idea that we’re presenting tried and true advice and things that actually work at the table, we abandoned the idea of the Adventuring Day and instead focused our attention on making sure that when you are building any encounter, once you’ve decided how difficult you want it to be, that the math is actually helping you deliver that encounter.
D&D’s Adventuring Day Wasn’t Right For Everyone
Balance Isn’t Just About A Daily Encounter Threshold
The basic guidelines of the Adventuring Day helped to determine the core balance ofD&D5e, so Perkins’s description of the idea might come across as surprisingly harsh. Taken as any kind of doctrine, however,the Adventuring Day didn’t consistently fit into the average campaign. Meeting a daily XP threshold in combat isn’t the onlyway to provide challengesor deplete resources, and even with a focus on combat, plenty of parties prefer fewer encounters with more intense threats to the six to eight that the Adventuring Day advises.
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OtherD&Dbalance changesin the 2024Dungeon Master’s Guideshould lead to harder encounters on average, further throwing things off from the 2014 Adventuring Day ideal. The daily XP budgets associated with the concept, which were also removed, might still be useful, butthe current prerogative seems to focus on the balance of individual encountersrather than the day as a whole.
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide Encourages Individuality
Great D&D Adventures Aren’t All The Same
I’ve never personally followed the Adventuring Day concept, and I mainly try to balance things around the needs and preferences of my regular group. If Perkins’s word is anything to go by, I’m not alone in ignoring it, althoughsome game tables do put it to use. There are countless ways to playDungeons & Dragons, and the removal of the Adventuring Day in the 2024Dungeon Master’s Guideemphasizes that great adventures don’t have to follow one type of structure.
