Matt Mercer, Deborah Ann Woll and other professional DMs helped write the new Dungeon Master’s Guide

The revised Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide (2024) will soon trickle out to fans worldwide thanks to Wizards of the Coast’s aggressively tiered digital pre-release schedule. However, the community that enjoys the world’s most popular tabletop role-playing game is in a very different situation than just a decade ago, when the original fifth edition DMG (2014) found its way into the world. By far the biggest change is the increase in actual play, with groups like Critical Role, The Adventure Zone and Dimension 20 bringing their passion for D&D to a much wider audience online. Turns out real stage performers also had a hand in how the new DMG was also written.

In a special press conference held last week, co-lead designer James Wyatt explained the new thing DMG starts with a longer introduction with lots of good guidance on how to prepare for your first game. It’s the same kind of open-ended step-by-step instructions that won fans over to the new Player’s Handbook (2024).

“We repeat that approach at the beginning of the Dungeon Master’s Guide as he pulled the camera a little more into the Dungeon Master’s head,” said Wyatt. “We only cover the basics: What is the DM’s job? What do you need to do to get started? How do you find players to play with? What do you do to prepare for a session? And then the gist of how running a session works.

“We also really want to encourage DMs to learn from others, but not feel like they have to imitate others,” Wyatt continued. “Because every Dungeon Master is unique. Everyone has their own style. (…) Your job is to facilitate the enjoyment of everyone at the table, and that will look different for different groups and different individuals.”

After that section, and for the first time in a DMG, comes a segment on learning while watching – perhaps one of the most common ways newcomers are introduced to D&D today. But the developers didn’t stop there.

“We also worked with four external consultants,” says co-lead designer Chris Perkins. “One of their goals in reviewing the material was to make sure that the advice we gave to the DMs was not only meaningful, but that we also came up with ways to make the DM’s job easier.”

Advisors included star DM Matt Mercer, co-creator of the Crucial role streaming series and the Vox Machina animated series; actor Deborah Ann Wolla veteran DM who recently made headlines playing D&D on Jon Bernthal’s podcast; bestselling designer and gamemaster Alyssa Visscher; and musician and educator Zac Clay.

“(They all) have their own style and their own way of doing things,” Perkins said, “(and) they all contributed to reviewing the DM advice chapters to ensure that the advice we gave actually made the DM’s job easier. not more difficult.”

Of course, it was Perkins himself who primarily contributed to the popularization of the medium of actual play. His work with Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, co-founders of Penny Arcade, spawned the Acquisitions Inc. podcasts. onwards, which launched in the mid-2000s alongside Fourth Edition D&D and are widely credited with inspiring many of today’s most popular companies.

So it’s fitting that this is new Dungeon Master’s Guide (2024) will also be Perkins’ last work as lead designer at Wizards of the Coast. The man who helped bring D&D as a form of entertainment to millions of people around the world brings all his wisdom and experience into one final guide.

“While I have made substantial contributions to the Monster manual (2025) and the next D&D starter set, the Dungeon Master’s Guide (2024) is the last official D&D book to mention me as a product lead,” Perkins revealed in an email to Polygon. “Knowing that, I tried to put as much of my DM brain into (…) that book as would fit. Whether that is a gift to the community or not, I let the users decide.”

The Dungeon Master’s Guide (2024) will be available everywhere on November 12.