The Dungeon Master’s Guide is the second core rulebook updated for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. It is full of advice and tips for both new and veteran Dungeon Masters. Compared to the 2014 DMG, it has more useful information and is organized better.

DnD 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide Description:

The updated DnD Dungeon Master’s Guide is meant to provide the DM with the tools, rules, and guidance necessary to create and manage the game world.

Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the basics of being a dungeon master and how to run the game. For some this will be unnecessary information. But there are some good reminders and tips for experienced DMs too. For people just beginning their dungeon master journey or new to Dungeons and Dragons there is a lot of useful content.

In chapter 3, titled DM’s toolbox, there is a focus on things that might come up while running an adventure. They are rules and situations that you need to be able to navigate but don’t always come up. For example, creating custom PC backgrounds, creatures, or spells, dealing with death, environmental effects, or hazards, and how gods, alignment, prestige can affect your game.

Chapters 4 and 5 concentrate on building adventures and campaigns. There are tips for getting players involved, creating encounters, experience and rewards, and a few example adventures. Next there is advice on how to string those adventures together to create a campaign. Greyhawk is given as an example campaign setting you can use or model your setting off of.

The Cosmology and lore regarding the planes, planar adventuring, and the multiverse is handled in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 is full of treasure and magic Items you can use as rewards for PCs.

Chapter 8 details Bastions including how to get one and how they impact your game. Bastions are strongholds and as you level you can add more special facilities to your bastion. These special facilities give PCs hirelings that can research lore, produce potions or poison, or craft magic items and other things.

There are two appendices. The lore glossary is full of the D&D’s most famous heroes, villains, creatures, locations, and materials. The second appendix has maps you can use in your adventures. The maps are of basic locations you might have in your adventure like a crypt, a boat, liars, dungeons, and more.

Quick Review of the D&D 2024 DMG:

The new Dungeon Master’s Guide is a big improvement over the original 5e DMG. Many will tell you that is not saying much. But this 2024 update is organized better, has more content, and useful tips and advice.

The beginning of the DMG is focused on new DMs and gives a good idea of what your role is and what will be required to perform it. There are helpful tips and different ways to approach prep. It goes over making sure you and your players are on the same page and have similar expectations of the game, tone, and setting. If you are a seasoned DM you could skip this, but I think most readers will glean a few bits of helpful advice or new ideas.

In the next chunk of the book, gets into the nitty gritty of running adventures, creating campaigns and how to deal with certain situations in-game. This section has lots of good advice and there will be sections you will refer to often when playing or planning sessions. There are some good examples of situations and adventure hooks. As well as a lot of details you can borrow for your game. The information on Greyhawk can be mined for ideas whether you plan to use that setting or not.

If your party is interested in multiversal adventuring the Cosmology chapter will be very helpful for you (and them). It has descriptions of the planes as well as ideas for changing their configuration and how to travel the planes. This might be overwhelming for first-time DMs but it is full of interesting information.

The chapter on Bastions again is useful if it is something your players (and you) want to add to your campaign. From reading through it the implementation is lighter than it has been in the past, but still requires some upkeep and administration from the party. This is another component that feels more suited for experienced groups. But newer DMs could introduce bastions after they are generally comfortable running the game.

All said there are still some issues with the content. For example the chase rules still aren’t very good. Also some useful content from the original DMG on making monsters is missing. I am guessing that information will be in the updated Monster Manual, but it couldn’t hurt to have it in both. The same can be said of custom backgrounds being here instead of in the Updated Player’s Handbook.

If you plan to run the 2024 edition of 5e Dungeons and Dragons then you should pick this up. It is especially useful for newer DMs, but even veterans will find the advice and tips useful. Compared to its predecessor the 2024 DMG has more content that is better organized and worth the investment.