New 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide Includes “DM Toolbox”

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In a recent video posted on the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel, Wizards of the Coast offered more details on what to expect from the upcoming 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide. In particular, they provided a deep dive into a new chapter entitled “DMs Toolbox” that’s designed to make it is easier for both beginner and veteran Dungeon Masters alike to quickly find and use important in-game elements.

So what exactly is a DMs Toolbox and can it make your next game of DnD better? Below, we unpack all the details.

What’s included in the DMs Toolbox?

The new DMs Toolbox will actually be the third chapter in the upcoming 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide and will include a range of resources to enhance both narrative and game mechanics. This chapter (which is ordered alphabetically and designed to be easy to use) includes the following information:

• Dungeon Creation: The new toolbox section in the DMG includes expanded content on how to create and customize dungeons, including “quirks” to make them more unique and hazards to challenge players. It also includes detailed tables that allow DMs to quickly roll up randomly generated dungeon environments.
• Handling Character Death: The new DMG includes a detailed section on how to approach character deaths, including making these moments more meaningful and managing player expectations going forward.
• Advice on Character Alignment: The tollbox chapter emphasizes that the DnD alignment chart is determined by actions, not the other way around, and encourages DMs to think of alignment as fluid, something which hasn’t really been explicitly stated in previous DnD editions.

• Traps, Curses and Hazards: The DM’s Toolbox section offers a range of obstacles and challenges, that can be quickly sprinkled into a campaign, from environmental hazards like quicksand and razor vines, to traps, curses and magical contagions.
• Random Tables and Tools: The toolbox chapter will include a variety of useful random tables that allow for spontaneous creation of settlements and NPCs, with the ability to quickly roll up names, personalities and details.
• Mental Stress, Fear, and Psychic Damage: While physical damage is central to DnD 5e combat, the DM’s Toolkit offers advice on how to handle mental stress, fear and psychic damage from combat and exploration.

• Siege Weapons, Firearms, and Creative Combat Options: The Toolbox also includes a comprehensive guide to siege weapons like trebuchets, ra, and even flame-throwing coaches, along with advice and rules for using firearms and explosives (assuming both are available in your campaign setting).
• Marks of Prestige and Non-Material Rewards: The DM’s Toolbox also introduces the concept of “Marks of Prestige,” which go beyond treasure and magic items and introduces powerful in-game rewards like titles, deeds to lands or letters of recommendation from powerful rulers.
• Mobs, Chases and Streamlined Mechanics: The toolbox section also offers streamlined mechanics for handling mobs and large-scale encounters, as well as how to run run and manage chases in both urban and wilderness environments.

Final Thoughts

One of the biggest complaints about the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide is that it’s not particularly useful, with many DMs only ever referring to a small part of the game. The inclusion of a chapter like the new DMs Toolbox, however, seems to address that criticism and offer up practical and easy-to-use tips that can be quickly translated to the table. It remains to be seen, however, if this is one toolbox that DMs will actually crack open on a regular basis.

You can find the new rules in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, which is available for order now on D&D Beyond and Amazon. Below is also a recent video from Wizards of the Coast which discusses the DMs Toolbox chapter in more detail.

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