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The DM's Toolbox in the D&D 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide is filled with fireball fungus and total party kills

by: Randy - posted: 10/10/2024 10:09:00 PM
More On: Dungeons & Dragons

They've said that chapter 3 in the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide is going to be a weird one. They're calling it the DM's Toolbox probably because "Miscellany" sounds too random, even if it's accurate. The DM's Toolbox scoops together an odd assortment of so many things that were scattered willy-nilly throughout the previous 5e DM's Guide.

These are oddments for prepping and running games—or they might not come up at all. The topics are so varied that they've resorted to an alphabetical presentation, like the excellent Rules Glossary in the new D&D 2024 Player's Handbook. This grab bag will include page-long topics on things like:

  • Alignment
  • Chases
  • Curses
  • Creating new monsters
  • Death
  • Doors
  • Dungeons
  • Fear and mental stress
  • Firearms
  • Hazards
  • Mobs
  • Name generators
  • NPC guidance
  • Settlements
  • Siege weapons
  • Traps

These aren't just glossed-over topics. Look at Chases for instance. There are sub-headers for running chases, ending chases, mapping chases; chases taking place in wilderness versus an urban chase. By their own admission, this is "high-protein content." 

One topic they felt needed more discussion than ever before: death. How to handle character death in a campaign. How to handle death scenes. Do you give the player a moment to process this loss? Does the character come back from the dead? Does the player want them to come back? What if you run into that dreaded three-letter acronym: TPK? That's a Total Party Kill. Also, a lovely piece of art in this section depicts a boatman on a river with several adventurers contemplating the epigraph:

Sometimes death—even the death of an entire party—is just a passage to new adventures.

Action determines alignment; alignment doesn't determine action. As designer Chris Perkins puts it, "I am not Lawful Good therefore I act this way, I act this way therefore I am Lawful Good." Alignment is malleable. They even bring up the example of Bigby (of Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants). Bigby was evil. Then Mordenkainen took Bigby under his wing and now Bigby is no longer evil. Although interviewer Todd Kenreck says Mordenkainen is still a jerk. "That's why I grew my hair back."

Curses are fun for Dungeon Masters but incredibly grating on players. Use that information how you will, you terrible, horrible no good, very bad DMs. All the way from demonic possession to lycanthropy (werewolves). 

Does it sound mundane that there's a section on Doors? One of the most common occurrences in any D&D game is...you come to a locked door. Or you have to find a secret door. Doors are such a ubiquitous item in D&D that they deserve their own section. Glass, wood, metal, stone—doors of every make and model. 

For a game called Dungeons & Dragons, it does seem appropriate that at least some of this DM's Toolbox chapter would be dedicated to, of course, dungeons. "Quirks" is one of the charts that will help bring a dungeon environment to life:

  • Why, when, and who built this dungeon? 
  • What shape is it in?
  • What might be in there?

Dungeons have more variety than their name would hint at. A dungeon could be inside of a dead beast. It could be made by giants. It could be built atop the clouds, in the sewers, by dwarves, in a volcano, floating on a sea. Chris Perkins once teleported his players into a dungeon inside of an extinction-level comet heading straight for a planet. 

Here's an exciting new addition: Fireball Fungus.

Fireball Fungus is a small, inanimate mushroom that can grow anywhere. Fungi are found in abundance. Its luminous orange cap sheds light. It can withstand a certain amount of damage, but when you drop it to zero, it decimates, as if a fireball explodes in its place. 

Having three or four of those together can even set off a chain reaction. Good stuff for those pesky high-level adventurers that you can't seem to damage much anymore. The DM's Guide wants to arm Dungeon Masters with more than just monsters.

Chris Perkins builds a random settlement while he's just sitting there. Surely it's easier than what I was trying to pull together in the old 5e DM's Guide. In their example, the town's defining feature is [roll the dice] a Sprawling Cemetery. The town's claim to fame is [roll dice again] spellcasters. Necromancers in a cemetery town? "This is their IKEA," Todd Kenreck says. What current calamity is befalling the town: Monsters infest the settlement. Local leaders: An illegitimate leader causing civil unrest. The tavern: The Witch & Satyr. That shop over there is a: Mason. "Probably building tombstones."

This chapter alone has so many fun things in it. Maybe the DM's Guide won't be that book everyone ignores anymore. D&D Beyond posted a comprehensive list of what's new in the D&D 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. The book launches November 12.