Dungeons & Dragons' 2024Dungeon Master’s Guideis set to follow the recentPlayer’s Handbookin November, and there are already some major reasons to be paying attention to the release. While the appeal of theDungeon Master’s Guideis obviously a bit more limited, it’s a book that can still shape the game for everyone who plays it, at least in theory. The 2014Dungeon Master’s Guidehas been frequently criticized for being less essential than it could be, but with the 2024 edition,DnDhas a big chance to turn around that narrative.
One of the new features that the 2024Dungeon Master’s Guideis leaning on isthe inclusion of bastions, which serve as strongholds for the party to build up and return to between adventures. The concept builds on the tendency toward establishing a base of operations that already exists in manyDnDgames, codifying it with specific mechanics to hopefully make the process more rewarding.Putting bastions in theDungeon Master’s Guiderather than thePlayer’s Handbookemphasizes that they might not be right for every campaign, but it’s now looking likeDnDplans to further commit to the concept.
Bastions Might Not Only Show Up In The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide
A Major New DMG Feature Could Be Here To Stay
The biggest update on bastions yet comes courtesy of a new video from the officialDungeons & DragonsYouTube account, which featuresDnDdesigners Chris Perkins and James Wyatt discussing the feature. Although a lot of details are reserved for the book itself, there’s still a lot to glean from the conversation, mostly because bastions haven’t been thoroughly discussed since their inclusion in 2023Unearthed Arcanaplaytesting. 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.
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Wyatt jumps on the opportunity to talk about how future adventures could use bastions, taking the example of the party’s opportunity to acquire a tavern inWaterdeep: Dragon Heist.Similarly,campaigns could provide parties with “spaces of their own” through the codified bastion system. With the rules already in place in theDungeon Master’s Guide, an adventure wouldn’t have to provide all the framework, making it easier for it to include home base options in the future.
Dragon Heist’s tavern is a part of the economic focus in the campaign, serving as a severe fixer-upper that can easily be a money hole at first.
Wyatt and Perkins also mention how variousDnDsettings could 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 there might not be a true sanctum in the way it could be elsewhere. The possibility of a graveyard being a productive faculty in a Ravenloft bastion is thrown out in a joking way, but it’s also a serious proposition in its own right.
Bastions In D&D Campaigns Could Change The Course Of Adventure
Future Campaigns Might Feel Very Different
Although it isn’t being framed as much more than speculating about future possibilities at the moment,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 restlessly globe-trotting direction. For campaigns that feature a viable central location, however, it could 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 settings books is that, implemented correctly, it wouldn’t make them any more mandatory than before. Like theDungeon Master’s Guide, a 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 bog down the excitement at their table.Bastions require some amount of active time investment, making them decidedly not for everyone.
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In some ways, however,it feels like a natural evolution of where fifth editionDnDhas taken the game. A focus on long campaigns, party characters that tend to stick around for a while, andfrequent opportunities for roleplayingoutside of dungeons all favor the side of gameplay balance that bastions fall under, even if they most strongly resemble the strongholds of first edition.DnDwill presumably continue to throw adventures that hit on various points of old-school appeal into the mix, but it’s easy enough to imagine a bastion serving as the hub that ties together an anthology book.
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More Than Mildly Useful This Time
What might be the most significant about the talk about bastions in future books isn’t the details of the mechanics, but simply the idea of active future support for a concept introduced in theDungeon Master’s Guide.Although it’s always recommended for a DM to have all three of the core rulebooks, any dungeon master would probably tell you thatan experienced DM could hack it in 5e without absolutely needing the 2014Dungeon Master’s Guide.There’s certainly some useful stuff in there, but most is inessential, and there are arguably better books about the art of running the game.
Including bastions in future campaigns asserts an idea that’s at the core of theDungeon Master’s Guiderevisions — making the book something that DMs continually reference in years to come, not a one-and-done read. The concept is supported by other additions like thesample campaign setting of Greyhawk, short adventures, and a lore glossary. The 2024Player’s Handbook’s rules glossary has already proven its utility in making the book a handy reference, and theDungeon Master’s Guidecould ideally achieve the same.
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It’s hard to say how fun bastions are in practice until theDungeon Master’s Guidereleases, and the version of the feature last seen inUnearthed Arcanawas primed for some tweaks. For better or worse, though, it sounds like they’re here to stay, andDungeons & Dragonsadventures might not be the same in the wake of the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Source:Dungeons & Dragons/YouTube
Dungeons and Dragons
Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the ’70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.
