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.

Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual
Hardcover
Wizards Of The Coast
Release Date: September 30, 2014
Cover Price: $49.95

The second of three core books from Dungeons & Dragons has arrived (you might remember me mentioning it in this article here)! Today we welcome the Monster Manual to our D&D rulebook collections. Wedged between the covers of this tome we find classic monsters along with a plethora of less common creatures. In total, more than one hundred fifty types of beasties are compiled here. But it’s more than just statistics here, many of the entries are steeped in legend and lore.

Included within these pages are twelve different dragons, over half a dozen giantkind, and a multitude of demons and devils. Creatures unique to Dungeons & Dragons like beholders, displacer beasts and mind flayers are also given space within this compendium. Orcs, kobolds, ogres, and the like are in here, too. And no monstrous book would be complete with the ever popular goblin and related kin. I could go on and on, but there is no need. Suffice to say there is a wide array of creatures that any Dungeon Master will be happy to throw at hapless adventurers.

Player’s Handbook
Dungeons & Dragons
Hardcover
Wizards of the Coast
Release date: August 19, 2014

Two weeks ago, I arrived home to find a package from Wizards Of The Coast on my doorstep. Having just reviewed the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set a few weeks earlier, I knew what this was. I immediately ripped the envelope open and found not one but two books inside! Today’s article is about the first one, the D&D D&D Player’s Handbook! The newest incarnation of a game book that I have been using for the better part of my life and it was all mine. If you are having trouble understanding how I felt, just imagine Gollum holding the One Ring and you aren’t far off. In fact, I probably cackled a bit without even thinking about it.

As you may already know (since I told you about it here), this year marks the 40th anniversary for Dungeons & Dragons. And what better way to celebrate than by releasing a ton of new books, modules, games, and a new logo?! Wizards of the Coast has just announced the release dates for a plethora of items that will surely find many of us flocking to our book or game shops looking for these latest and greatest additions to what is arguably the best role-playing game franchise ever!

Here’s what we know so far about the new releases for summer and fall 2014. I’ve included a few sample photos below to give you a taste of what’s to come.

D&D: Player’s Handbook 2
A 4th Edition D&D Core Rulebook
Written by Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, and James Wyatt
Wizards of the Coast
$34.95
Release date: March 17, 2009

I’ve been meaning to do a series of articles on the books being released for the newest edition of Dungeons and Dragons since I started playing several months ago, but it just kept getting pushed back. However, I now find myself with some free time and spare energy, so I will begin this series today, by talking about one of the most recent books released for the game, the Player’s Handbook 2.

Player’s Handbook 2, or PH2, is a fairly important book in the line, clearly the most important since the first Player’s Handbook. Each Player’s handbook is important because these are the books that tell us what kind of characters we can play. Where PH1 laid the groundwork for the game and gave us the basic classes and races for characters, PH2 gets a bit more exotic, with 5 new races, and 8 new classes.

Some are of the races are classics from earlier editions that were left out of PH1 for space, while some are new additions to the game that look to set out their own place in gamers’ hearts. The five new races are Deva (kind of an angelic race and the opposite number of the Teifling from PH1), Gnome, Half-Orc, Goliath, and Shifter.