Wizards of the Coast has kindly sent an early copy of the new Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide, and I immediately spotted some very familiar names on the inside cover. Critical Role DM Matt Mercer and actor Deborah Ann Woll are both listed as consultants for the new book.
In a press briefing on October 9, senior D&D designer Chris Perkins confirmed that both had helped “to make sure the advice we were giving was actually making the DM’s job easier”.
It should be obvious why Critical Role‘s Matt Mercer was selected for such a consultant job. His experience as a pro Dungeon Master and a game designer means that he’s one of the poster kids of the current Dungeons and Dragons era.
Fewer people might be aware that Deborah Ann Woll, star of True Blood and Daredevil, is also an accomplished DM and D&D superfan. She’s been involved in many star-studded actual play series, and she also went viral recently for teaching Walking Dead actor John Bernthal how to play D&D.
It seems that, for the Dungeon Master’s Guide, both public figures were brought in to provide DMing expertise. Perkins says that they, along with two other consultants, helped with chapters that focused on advice for running Dungeons and Dragons games. “We worked with four outside consultants to make sure advice we were giving to DMs was sensible”, he says.
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide is the next book up on this year’s DnD release schedule. When it launches worldwide on November 12, you can be assured that some of D&D’s most popular DMs had a hand in the advice you’ll be reading. In the meantime, we can report that the book is full of teasers for the new Monster Manual – and we regret to inform you that the Bag of Rats is dead.
For more information on what’s in the new DMG, check out our full DnD 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide review. We can also tell you about the new DnD magic items featured, as well as how DnD Bastions work.
Source: Wargamer
