Dungeons & Dragons: Player’s Handbook 2024
Hardcover
D&D Accessory
Wizards Of The Coast
Release Date: September 17, 2024

Good day, fellow tabletop gaming enthusiasts! I am stunned by the fact that it has been 10 years since the original Dungeons & Dragons 5e Player’s Handbook dropped, it feels like it was just yesterday that we were beta-testing this version. So many books have been added to the 5e library that have added not just fun, but so much variety to the world’s best roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons. That said, things have definitively changed over the years since this newest edition was released to the public. But even starker are the differences we see over the decades, from those early and basic sets to the one that sits before me now: Dungeons & Dragons: Player’s Handbook 2024. I say all this to ensure that you understand that things change, but often we only see the differences, rather than the similarities. I’ve met gamers from all walks of life, some are open and ready to try new ideas put before them, whereas others feel the need to gatekeep and refuse to move forward. As with all things, we must adapt and change to survive. Wizards of the Coast recognizes this and tries their hardest to bring us new and inventive things to enhance our games. Does it always work? No. But refusing to try is tantamount to sacrilege when we are talking about a game that has morphed repeatedly for 50 years! So all I ask of you is that you approach this updated tome with an open mind, as you might be surprised how much you like it. For those who have not yet journeyed into other worlds created by your local DM, hello and know that all are welcome here. We always need new friends at the table to roll our clickety clacks.

Heroes’ Feast Flavors of the Multiverse: An Official D&D Cookbook
Heroes’ Feast D&D Cookbook Series
Hardcover | Spiral Bound | Kindle
By Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, Michael Witwer, and Sam Witwer
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Release Date: November 7, 2023

Good day and well met, friends! It boggles my mind to think that we are living in an age where Dungeons & Dragons has been so deeply ingrained into our culture that there are literal cookbooks to help create the perfect setting for any campaign. In my day (he says in his old man voice), we made do with Pizza Hut pepperoni pizzas and 7-Eleven Big Gulps to satisfy our sustenance needs whilst rolling our clickity clacking funny-shaped dice. Of course, teen-aged me was about as uncouth as you can imagine. A big change in my cuisine was the addition of taco-flavored Doritos. But the addition of books like Heroes’ Feast Flavors of the Multiverse: An Official D&D Cookbook has really raised the bar. In fact, one might even say it has taken the gameplay up a level. Get it? Up a level? I crack myself up, you know. But anyway, you are not here for my lame jokes, soon with the review!

Dungeons & Dragons: Lore & Legends
A Visual Celebration of the Fifth Edition of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game
Hardcover | Kindle
By Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, Sam Witwer
Foreword by Tom Morello
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Release Date: October 3, 2023

Well met, readers! I hope you are having the best of days and find success in all that you do. How goes my day, you ask? Splendidly, I must say, for I get the distinct pleasure of raving about a beautiful tome that found its way to my home just days ago. It was accompanied by many of its friends, but I will concentrate solely on this book, Lore & Legends: A Visual Celebration of the Fifth Edition of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game. This references, of course, the game of Dungeons & Dragons, a franchise of gaming that has helped my interests, passion, and some small fortune of mine that I have invested in supplies and whatnot. Time, effort, and money well spent, I must say.

What Kind of Mother
Hardcover | Kindle | Audiobook
By Clay McLeod Chapman
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: September 12, 2023

My grandma always says, “Where there’s a thought, there’s an image; where there’s an image, there’s an event.” If, like Grandma, you believe that thought projection leads to manifestation, then the events of What Kind of Mother will make perfect sense to you. If not, then when you get through the last third of this book by Clay McLeod Chapman, you’ll probably be like, “What the hell did I just read?!” Actually, you might think that either way, because wow does this story take a wild turn.

The September House
Hardcover | Kindle | Audiobook
By Carissa Orlando
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: September 5, 2023

Bleeding walls, nightly screams, and mutilated apparitions are what Margaret and Hal are up against in their new home every September in The September House, the debut novel from Carissa Orlando. When the empty-nesters first moved in, this large, beautiful, and surprisingly affordable Victorian domicile was their dream home. But with their fourth September as homeowners fast approaching, Hal has had enough of this place and its eerie inhabitants. He wants his wife to move out with him, but Margaret refuses because as strange as it may seem, this is the only place she’s ever been able to call her own. Sure, the ghosts can be menacing and there’s some kind of evil lurking in the basement, but there’s also a live-in housekeeper… albeit a dead one, but she’s actually really good at her job. Margaret has figured out the “rules” of the house to follow in order to maintain the status quo and make it through to October; therefore, she’s staying put. But after Hal suddenly leaves, their daughter, Katherine, becomes suspicious. Where did her father go and why isn’t he answering her calls? When Katherine insists on visiting her parents’ new home for the first time during September of all months, Margaret struggles to keep up appearances as the hauntings become more frequently intense.