Summary

• A new crafting system in the 2024 Player's Handbook is a significant addition to DnD gameplay.
• Crafting could end up distracting from the main priorities in a campaign if implemented poorly.
• With the right group, crafting could still be a good addition to expand survival options or explore further progression.

The 2024 Player's Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons is adding a lot of cool ideas and features, but there's one that could be a detriment to many campaigns. As the first of the three core rulebooks to get a revamp, the new Player's Handbook will herald some major changes for the game when it arrives in September. Everything's still intended to be backward compatible with previous 5e material, but on top of reworked elements like classes, spells, and weapons, it's easy enough to add new systems into the mix without breaking the balance of the basic ones.

Things get more complicated when deciding just how many systems should actually be included in a campaign, and there's a reason that DnD generally tries to avoid too much of the number crunch that permeates some tabletop RPGs. At its core, DnD 5e is intended to keep the action moving, whether that action comes in the form of combat or roleplaying. Streamlining things too heavily in favor of this goal can be a mistake, but although fleshing things out with more rules and options can be tempting, additions can quickly end up distracting from the best parts.

Crafting Is A Major Change For Dungeons & Dragons

The 2024 Player's Handbook Is Adding A Brand-New System

One significant addition to the 2024 Player's Handbook is a new crafting system, and as exciting as that could be, it's also easy to see how it could end up dragging down campaigns. Although it makes sense that seasoned adventurers with wide-ranging talents might craft some of their own gear, it's not something that was covered extensively in the 2014 version of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Crafting is more or less just briefly mentioned in the section on downtime activities, with a bare-bones system focusing on the gold and levels necessary to craft magic items of each rarity.

Xanathar's Guide to Everything did end up expanding a bit on crafting, but there's still not that much to the system. It does encourage some more interesting possibilities than what can be found in the Dungeon Master's Guide, particularly in some possible complications that could occur while crafting. Considering how anemic the guidelines remain and the fact that the expanded system still isn't in the core rulebooks, however, possibilities for crafting have remained largely sidelined through the years.

Although the details of the new DnD crafting system remain unclear, it does sound like it will be more robust than in previous treatments. Putting it in the Player's Handbook is also a big game-changer, as systems intended to be deployed on a more campaign-by-campaign basis are often relegated to the Dungeon Master's Guide. There's no way that crafting will be the right fit for every table, however, and taking this approach might open up a can of worms.

Crafting Affects The Core Loop Of D&D Gameplay

Official Rules For Loot & Magic Items Are Usually Simple

The current approach to gathering equipment and magic items in the average DnD campaign tends to feed directly into adventuring and roleplaying. A lot of great items can be found throughout dungeons or received as rewards for successfully completed tasks, providing a direct system of loot-focused motivation. When a character is interested in acquiring something more specific, they often take care of it through shopping, which can be played as either an efficient exchange of currency for items or a more roleplay-oriented shopping arc with opportunities to haggle and barter to bring prices down.

The problem with crafting is that it tends to provide its own lane of progression, and DnD isn't particularly in need of another gameplay loop in that regard. If characters end up locking into the incremental dopamine hits provided by making and improving items at the expense of other aspects of the game, it could create an imbalance that leads to an ultimately unsatisfying campaign. This is especially true in any situation where the party's interests end up split, as there isn't necessarily much for one player to do while another keeps the focus on crafting.

Crafting Could Be Fun For The Right D&D Campaign

Being Excited About Crafting Is Perfectly Reasonable

A more robust crafting system could also have some significant upsides, and it's something that some groups already play with homebrew rules to . In a campaign oriented around survival, for example, crafting basic supplies can help foster a sense of scrappy ingenuity. It's also possible to use crafting to make looting more engaging, as a plant monster that might not drop any gear could still provide ingredients for crafting potions or poisons. Deployed carefully, crafting has the potential to make a great campaign even better, and there's a chance the new Player's Handbook will provide some solid tools.

At the same time, it still feels like keeping it in the Dungeon Master's Guide and letting DMs decide whether crafting is the right fit for a campaign might lead to less potential for problems. Although including crafting in the Player's Handbook doesn't mean that a DM can't make the ultimate call, it does position a side feature as possibly being a core component of the game. Whether the Player's Handbook will end up noting crafting as optional remains to be seen, but if it's going to be in there, this would probably be the wiser course of action.

Choosing not to focus on crafting doesn't mean there can't be exceptions, and any player looking to craft one particular item of importance for their character can always still check in with their dungeon master about the possibility.

For any group going in without a clear idea of whether crafting should be included, the best solution is to hash things out in a Session Zero, where everyone can figure out what each person wants to get out of a campaign and how to make those desires compatible. If the crafting system in the new Player's Handbook is good, plenty of groups could emerge excited by the new possibilities. Others might make a huge mistake in going down the rabbit hole, however, and it's definitely best to approach the new addition to Dungeons & Dragons with care.