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Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Book Details Emerge!
May 20, 2014 by brennon
Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition has finally emerged from the playtesting dungeon and the new covers and adventure books have been unleashed on the world. See what you think!
First thing first is of course the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set that will be coming to your tabletop around July 15th. It will have everything you need to get started included an adventure, characters, dice and of course a cut down version of the rules. You also CAN make characters with the starter set!
The three core books in the range aren't coming out as one entity at the start either this time. Instead they are going to be spread out over a few months towards the end of the year. The Players Handbook will be available in August (and will be at Gen Con) followed by the Monster Manual in September and the Dungeon Masters Guide in November. It's a shame they're going to be spread out like this!
There will also be a pair of adventure books with Hoard of the Dragon Queen as the first followed by The Rise of Tiamat. The first of these will be available alongside the Players Handbook giving you a ready adventure to get involved in. The Rise of Tiamat will follow later and provides a massive story arch for your characters to follow.
This is all very exciting and I can't wait to actually get my hands on the books!
Will you be picking them up?
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The PHB is due for general release two days after GenCon so I’m guessing it’ll be on pre-release there. If the other books aren’t available at GenCon then my guess is that WotC just won’t have them ready in time rather than intentionally holding them back.
I’m do not understand the logic of the staggered release of the core books. As a DM I won’t be able to gain access to the DM’s guide until four months after the players handbook is released and three months after the monster manual is released. This is a serious limitation on me being able to create games not knowing the full extend of what is possible. I would prefer to buy the box set of all the core books in one go.
Ah well, back to shadowrun until this is sorted out.
I would imagine that the Starter Set rulebook with have a small DMG and small MM section in it. Mike Mearls has said that you can make characters with the Starter Set so that does point to a little bit of expansion out of the box.
I guess the other thing on favour of WotC is that they are bringing out the Hoard of the Dragon Queen as an adventure alongside the PHB which will sort out all of your monsters/adventure needs.
That being said it is still a bit of a slap in the face that you can’t get them all straight away together in order to make your own worlds. I remember they did it with 4th Edition and they also bought out an adventure book at the same time.
Ah well – I think I’ll be picking up the Starter Set and seeing where we go from there. With the lack of time I have nowadays it will be good to have a set adventure I can work from and just tweak it when I need to.
I will be buying the starter set as well, they are very good and usually cheap to begin with until the short run stops and the prices go ballistic.
Let’s face it. If you play Shadowrun, a big complex “core” system like that. Come on are you really going to be playing 5th ed. anyway. If you like Shadowrun style games why wouldn’t you just go play Pathfinder and skip the WoTC junk. Also they’ve always done these cruddy staggered releases … yes its crappy but I guess they think the average group is going to move into the new system slowly. I do agree with you but they apparently have their reasons, as this is what the third time they’ve done this now.
Most hardcore D&D players left WoTC sometime before or during 4th ed. and moved on to Paizo’s Pathfinder. Pathfinder is what 4th ed. probably should have been and it is the system of choice for most people who started D&D post 3.0. I’m an old guy who played Red Box D&D and mostly 2nd ed. I never cared for “grid” based D&D. Though I have played my fair share of 3.5/4e/Pathfinder. I’ll play in a well run grid game but I really don’t like running them (I prefere Dungeon world these days if I’m going to run a game).
At my club I organise and play all sorts of games for many different levels of players; everything from Magic the gathering and Talisman for younger players all the way up to Shadowrun for some painfully serious rpg zealots. I do play pathfinder, as a player not a DM, on occasions and it’s a great game without a doubt. To answer your question I certainly will play D&D 5th. Ed. I have been playing D&D since the beginning in all its manifestations and I still enjoy it. Even the much maligned 4th. Ed, which I think was made due to WotC’s panic attack over the rise in popularity of World of Warcraft that made them think they had to create a system on similar lines. It certainly had some flaws but that was something I saw players and DMs sort out for themselves at club level. I have had 40 years of great pleasure playing D&D and hope to continue for many more years to come.
I don’t know what to do about this, I loved 3.5, but I’m DM’ing Iron kingdoms now and we’re not getting together with this, let alone another RPG.
If they fixed 1st Edition in 5th Edition I would buy it. Otherwise I will remain content to play 1st Edition with our group’s own revised rules.
I think WoTC is in an impossible situation, they need to please the Grognards, the new kids, attract people away from Paizo (which is a well run, much beloved little company that seems to have a knack for getting things right and listening to its fans/customers) … WoTC is in one of those unenviable positions where they need to not just get on base they need to hit a home run … or it is game over.
I don’t see this ending well. They initially said they were going to create a “modular” system that would allow GMs/players to layer in levels of complexity, etc. and they initially had some really cool flexible character creation ideas (allowing players to have a healing fighter or a lock picking/trap disarming cleric, etc.) and those quickly got locked down and tossed out. As the playtests went on flexibility fell by the wayside. Somewhere in there I lost interest as it seemed the game was turning back towards fat 400 page rulebook levels of complexity, low flexibility, etc. and for that I’ll just play games like Pathfinder/Shadowrun/etc. pick a 400 page rulebook, inflexible monster of your choice. I’ll play those games with a very proficient DM but I really have no inclination to run them anymore, as who the hell has that kind of time?!?!
I’m sad to see the venerable old franchise fall this far, but with what happened between 3.0 and 4th I don’t see any other way for this to end than with the slow, painful death of pen and paper D&D. I don’t know why Hasbro doesn’t just license out the pen and paper to Fantasy Flight (or just let it go totally dormant) and then spend their time and energy developing video games with the IP. Pathfinder is too entrenched and all the Grognards are happy playing 1st ed./clones … stuff like Labyrinth Lords, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, etc. all the 3.5 guys are either still playing that or playing Pathfinder and any new players are just as likely to end up playing a new “indie/small press” title as not (Dungeon World, etc.) so what room is there at the table for D&D anymore … especially given most people are still pissed about 3.5/4e, etc.
Does WoTC have a snowball’s chance in hell on this one … personally I think not. But hey on this I’d honestly like to be wrong, I really would.
IMHO. AD&D is still the best version by far. OK so the thaco stuff could do your head in. But for us all it took was a little diagram that everyone kept a copy of and we were golden.
I’m sorry but even Pathfinder is shite. ( Again. My opinion – you don’t have to agree. lol ) The reliance on a grid for movement and combat is a serious GTFO for my group.
I never went beyond AD&D, so can’t compare, but we’re happy with it for the most part. It takes a long time to become familiar with a system, especially if you’re DM’ing, which I can now do in my sleep with 1st Edition. Therefore, introducing an entirely new system will never get me to open my wallet. I’m happy to spend my money instead on figures and my time on homegrown adventures/battles.
The AD&D Battlesystem extension, while flawed, was far better than GW’s system, and still is, and more closely resembles medieval games and real life in terms of tactics and maneuver. The problem was that it used the same cumbersome game mechanics, but as with the original AD&D, we can now fly through the tables and modifiers. We also make a lot of snap decisions for the sake of playability, as we are a mature group and therefore devoid of the whiners xwilling to argue rules to the death.
And revamping a system, like GW does every two years, just for the sake of making money, just pisses me off. If you plan on buying into their crap, you need to sell your house and ditch your family, because no sane spouse would put up with that kind of unfathomable financial commitment (which I’ve seen more than once). I suppose you could always leave your family on the street and move into the store. Repeat after me: GW will look after all your needs. Join us. It’s a community of believers… just give us everything you own.