I'm having a D&D discussion on reddit about how I want to hit the person with the book everytime they lament that we would have all the answers if only we would read the DMG.

This ties into my previous tweeted thoughts Tasha's, and is something I have thought about lots.

The DMG is written, laid out, and organized for the dungeon master who has:

1. played at least other 2 editions before 5e

AND 2. DMed at least one other edition, preferably two.

It assumes the old way of beginning to DM: having played multiple campaigns with multiple DMs before sitting down at the DM chair yourself.

It assumes that you have already amased a wealth of "tribal knowledge".

And I use that last term honestly and respectfully.

Tribal knowledge is this beautiful oral tradition that is handed down through the generations of the tribe or group of people. It is information and knowledge learned from the youngest watching the folders and learning from their example.

It is also deliberate conversations, where the elder(s) teach and correct, with stories and myths, examples, and information to fill gaps in knowledge.

For many years, this has been the way D&D spread and the way that the art of Dungeon Mastering has been taught.

Thus, the dungeon masters guide has been written on that basis. On the assumption that it's intended market and readers have this foundational oral tradition and experience that the DMG can then build on.

As I mentioned in my Tasha's thread, this is very much not the case anymore.

Sure, the explosion of 5e has regathered the "old guard", some of whom have not played for some years. And those folks know what to do with the 5e DMG.

But 5e's explosion means a lot of brand new DMs.

And I can not emphasize enough just how NEW these brand new DMs are.

Many play only a few games before DMing, and many others play NO games.

I played only a handful of adventures league games before I started DMing at my FLGS's AL night, and we had DMs who had NEVER played D&D.

Additionally, the games had changed a lot. If you started DMing "back in the day", your first DM experience was probably an enclosed dungeon. Then, D&D was mostly dungeon crawl.

Hell, most old modules started at the dungeon entrance.

Why are the PCs there? Who cares! Treasure!

Of course, not every edition or experience has been this way, but from what I can gather, those DMs who "started from scratch", without having played much first, did so in the era of dungeon crawls.

Now there has been a shift to story and narrative, which makes starting harder.

Which bring me back around to the DMG. It assumes that as D&D has grown and shifted in it's style, and "matured", you have been there to see it and have grow alongside it.

The DMG was written for 3.5 players who skipped 4e, and before 5e's big explosion of new players.

To be clear, I am NOT saying this is BAD or WRONG.

The assumptions made when the DMG was published were largely correct at the time.

So the players and DMs who fit into that demographic find the DMG helpful!
It was written for them, they know it's contents and how to use it.

All of the D&D millennials and GenZ folks, like me, find the DMG largely a waste of $60.

From the crappy table of contents to the bad index to the confusing layout to the related information spread across multiple chapters to the lack of basic HOW to DM.

I have a theory. Consider it a hot take.

Because the WotC D&D team is primarily folks from 5e's early demographic, who have played multiple editions and have gained their knowledge through the aforementioned tribal knowledge,

They don't know how to write for us new folks.

It's like a group of expert chemists with many degrees and a bunch of collective PhDs, and have authored many ground-breaking studies pushing the boundaries of the current "knowledge circle"

But who don't remember what it's like to be in grade 9 learning basic elements.

And even more so, because when they were in grade 9, the world was different and heck, even the periodic table (which is a pretty stable thing in the world of chemistry) has expanded a bit, and can be presented and learned in a brand new way now.

I have been watching the things WotC has been publishing very closely, looking at it from this perspective. I think that they've been trying to figure out just what it is that this new market group needs and wants.

In the last few years, there's been a bit of an experiment.

A bit like throwing spaghetti onto the wall and seeing what sticks.

Some of this has been in player mechanics (ie the whole mystic and psionic stuff, and contrary to the loud twitter cries, the majority of the base actually doesn't want a whole new class or mechanics).

My additional theory is that I think that they have solidly figured out what the new generation of players want, but I think they are still figuring out what the new generation of DMs want and need.

I think that they are moving in the right direction and getting closer...

I really hope that when they feel like they have figured that out, they will publish an updated guide for DMs.

I honestly have thought about starting to sketch one out for a dms guild collaboration, but I'm afraid that by the time it's done, WotC will publish in via 5.5e.