Summary
The upcoming core rulebooks forDungeons & Dragonsare adding and overhauling plenty of new features, but the biggest selling point of the new books could be their approach to removing as much friction and frustration from the game as possible.DnD’s complexity has always been a sticking point for many new players, and even seasoned veterans can find aspects of designing characters, campaigns, and more inconvenient. Although the fifth edition ofDnDdoes a generally good job at being more approachable than past iterations, there’s still been plenty of room for improvement.
DnD5e has been using the same set of core rulebooks for a decade, and time has helped to clarify which aspects of the books tend to trip players up.DnDStarter Sets can be an easier way to jump into the game, butthePlayer’s Handbookfrequently serves as the first introduction in practice, and the 2014 version didn’t set things up in the most immediately legible way. For dungeon masters, both theDungeon Master’s GuideandMonster Manualhad their own issues, with theDungeon Master’s Guidein particular failing to deliver everything a starting DM might need.
D&D’s New Core Rulebooks Will Fix A Major Spellcasting Problem
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The 2024 Player’s Handbook Starts With Basic D&D Rules
A Simple Change In Structure Could Help A Lot
One big change should be immediately obvious upondiving into the 2024Player’s Handbook.While the 2014 version began with a brief introduction before jumping into a chapter onDnDcharacter creation,the newPlayer’s Handbookopens instead with a chapter titled “Playing the Game.“Although diving right into character creation can be tempting, it’s hard to make sense of it without understanding the basic rules, which the book now lays out in advance.
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This chapter offers a condensed overview of all the basic rules, while a glossary in the back serves as a more encyclopedic reference. If executed well, this should make both learning and reference easier. The first chapter also includes examples of play with commentaries about how the rules are being put into action, potentially helping to bridge the gap between understanding the rules on paper and making sense of how they connect to imaginative roleplay.
D&D Character Creation Is Easier Than Ever Before
Additional Features & Examples Make Things Clearer
Once players do move ontocreating characters inDnD, the second and third chapters include some of their own significant changes to structure and content. Chapter 2 features guidance on how to create characters at higher levels, as it’s not at all uncommon for campaigns to skip some of the earliest ones, as well as inspiration questions and ability score array examples for each class.The first page of Chapter 3 briefly summarizes every class and subclass on one page, and although these blurbs don’t offer much detail, they do make it much easier to get the initial gist.
Throughout thePlayer’s Handbook, an increased number of illustrations and a focus on what they’re offering to players serves to make the text go down smoothly. Each subclass in the 2024Player’s Handbookhas its own piece of art, offering another tool for understanding what they have to offer at a glance. Another useful example is a new two-page spread of basic weapons and prices, taking a catalog-style approach to showcasing them in a complete overview.
About 96% of the art in the new core rulebooks is estimated to be new, representing a significant overhaul from the previous editions.
Helpful Changes In The New Dungeon Master’s Guide
New Samples Offer More Examples Of How To DM
TheDungeon Master’s Guidewill take a similar approach to structural reorganization. While the 2014Dungeon Master’s Guidededicated its earliest chapters to crafting worlds and adventures, the new version starts with the basics of running games before moving to the art of creation. Like thePlayer’s Handbook,some samples of play with commentary will be included for reference, and the third chapter follows the new focus on presenting information in a way that’s easy to reference by arranging useful topics in alphabetical form.
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When it comes to creating adventures and campaign settings, the newDungeon Master’s Guideputs an emphasis on providing examples. Some sample adventure content in the book is written in a streamlined manner intended to be more reminiscent of how a dungeon master might lay out a campaign than the usual published style.A reference campaign setting is includedin the form of theclassic World of Greyhawk, which offers enough flexibility to make it work for plenty of custom adventures.
The back of theDungeon Master’s Guidecontains two established appendices. A lore glossary fills in the gaps regarding various characters, locations, ideas, and more that have been established in the decades sinceDnDwas first created, and a selection of maps should be useful in play. It hasn’t yet been clarified how indexes of monsters will be distributed this time around, with the 2014 books having placed some in theDungeon Master’s Guiderather than theMonster Manual.
D&D’s 2025 Monster Manual Fills In The Gaps
An Overall Expansion Addresses Past Weak Points
For theMonster Manual, most quality-of-life changes come from making sure the book will cover as much ground as possible. Various monster groups have been expanded, and a larger selection of high CR foes should make running campaigns at higher levels easier.The selection of NPCs is also getting significantly boosted, with the comparatively small section in the 2014Monster Manualoften proving to be inadequate in campaigns where dropping in humanoid characters and foes is common.
D&D’s New Monster Manual Will Have “Over 500 Monsters” In First Look At The Upcoming Rulebook
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No choices about organization and content will ever cover every possible approach, and it’s likely that the new core rulebooks will still have some sticking points of their own. All the changes in approach from the last iteration make a lot of sense, however, and it certainly bodes well for the ultimate usability of the books in practice.Dungeons & Dragonsis taking further steps toward becoming more accessible than ever before, and many of the ways in which it’s doing so don’t seem like they’ll compromise any of the game’s complexity or depth.
Dungeons and Dragons
Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the ’70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.
