The extensive 2023 playtest DnD rules for building Bastions (customizable and upgradable player base camps) seem to have all made it into the final D&D 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, judging by Wizards of the Coast’s latest preview video. And that’s all right by me, because I really want to open a really terrible fantasy pub.
In a 13-minute video preview published on Thursday (watch it below) DnD lead designer Jeremy Crawford, senior game designer James Wyatt, and in-house presenter Todd Kenreck wax lyrical about the rules for DnD bastions coming in the new Dungeon Master’s Guide, describing the wide variety of optional Facilities just as they appeared in the 2023 playtest rules. We’ve explained those in a full guide, and you can get the details by clicking the link above.
There may be some mechanical changes or tweaks to the system when we see it in print in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG) next month – but, judging by Crawford and Wyatt’s excited commentary, the broad strokes remain the same.
Certainly the list of 29 Special Facilities (optional bastion upgrades that have in-game mechanical benefits, and unlock at certain DnD level up stages) has been maintained. The list includes inspired options to add to your pad in a DnD campaign, such as a Greenhouse, a Laboratory, a Theater, a Menagerie, or – hallelujah – your very own Pub.
And Thursday’s video highlights some pretty cool narrative options baked into the Bastion system’s final form, too. Once you’ve built the Guildhall, for instance, you can open your own guilds operating out of your new home base – from brewers to thieves – and the new DMG encourages us to spark conflict and stories from them.
“Within the structure of these Bastions, like the guildhall, there’s the invitation for the player to sit down with their dungeon master and hash out some specifics about what [they] can do with this beyond what’s on the page,” Crawford says.
And Kenreck adds: “if you’re in a city setting, and you have competition because of the bastion, you can add story hooks there.”
“Maybe there’s two competing thieves guilds, and you own one of them – or two competing pubs… there’s so many extra hooks for storytelling”.
Finally, Crawford clarifies the (blessedly rare) circumstances in which your character’s Bastion could be damaged or destroyed.
“The one cataclysmic event which might befall your bastion is if you’re mucking around with the Deck of Many Things,” he says – “if you draw the Ruin card, it’s bye bye bastion.” Bastions can be rebuilt if that happens, though – because, as Crawford affirms, “the Bastion is not a knife for the DM to hurt the players”.
We won’t know the ins and outs of exactly how the final Bastions rules will operate until the new Dungeon Master’s guide release date of Saturday, November 12, 2024 – in the meantime, you can refresh your knowledge of the basics with our guides to the DnD classes and DnD races, or make sure you’re up to date with the daily hotness by following Wargamer on Google News.
Source: Wargamer
