Which D&D Books Should You BUY?? (2024)
Vložit
- čas přidán 25. 06. 2024
- There are a TON of D&D 5e books, but which books (and boxes) are actually worth buying? This video is your Dungeons & Dragons 5e buyer's guide for 2024, covering EVERYTHING published for D&D 5e since 2014! ▶️ More below! ⏬
🔴 DELVE: Final Week on Kickstarter! www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
💥 Free Shadowdark RPG Quickstart: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
🛒 D&D Stuff (affiliate): www.amazon.com/shop/bobworldb...
Best ways to support
💪 Join Patreon: / bobworldbuilder
✅ CZcams membership: / @bobworldbuilder
✅ Get Merch: my-store-f02975.creator-sprin...
✅ Get BWB PDFs: / shop
✅ Shop with these affiliate links
🛒 Amazon: www.amazon.com/shop/bobworldb...
🛒 DriveThruRPG: www.drivethrurpg.com/index.ph...
🛒 RPG dice: www.onlycrits.com/bobworldbui...
🛒 GM Tools: dscryb.com/bob
Thank you for all your support, and keep building :D
00:00 how many dnd 5e books are there??
02:20 best "dnd" books for beginners
06:55 how to get the most fun out of dnd
08:55 the ONLY dnd book you "need"
11:30 everyone's favorite dnd books
17:28 dnd books you don't need
19:24 cool dnd setting books for players & DMs
24:58 okay dnd anthology books for DMs
29:04 big dumb dnd adventure books
34:49 the dnd book I have a personal vendetta against
#dnd #dungeonsanddragons - Hry
🔴 My dungeon book -- DELVE is in it's Final Week on Kickstarter! www.kickstarter.com/projects/bobworldbuilder/delve-5e-shadowdark?ref=2k086x
I made sure to get the Shadowdark set. Such a great system.
Great video Bob! Let me give you some history sir.. Back in 80s FR "regions" were "clear-wrapped", about 64ppg & did a great job imo of giving DMs & players places to explore in the realms. For "Khor The World of Many Portals", I plan on releasing it much the way TSR did FR bitd.. Imo, it allows for more localized adventures & each one is linked.
World settings don't do all that well in Kickstarter but I'm hoping this strategy will break that trend!
Would love to "link" Delve to it in some way. Let's talk!
We ought to get our attorneys together to discuss a "Marvel Team-Up" style Bob. Seriously. Khor is going to be an on-going 3 year project. Starting in 2025.
is it next year already? super hyped for my big box to delve into exciting and terrifying new dungeons :D
Backed on day one. Waiting for rewards to ship.
The official setting of the 2024 PHB will actually be "The Multiverse" including Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, and all other D&D settings including your homebrew settings.
The 2024 DMG will include some information about Greyhawk and a 2 sided map (campaign world/main city) with the suggestion that DM's may wish to use Greyhawk as a setting due to it being less fleshed out than other official settings.
Don't forget that the Essentials Kit rules and Basic Rules (which is bigger than the essentials kit) are still available as a free pdf download. You could play the rest of your life using these rules.
Basic rules is a great rules set and I wish it were more showcased.
@@SuddenShock Exactly. Less rules= less time= more fun.
If I recall... the last time you put out a video like this, a couple weeks later, you asked for Christmas Ideas, and I said you have enough D&D books, and suggested a nice, comfortable poncho.
Haha and it was an awesome idea! Love the poncho
@@BobWorldBuilder Ponchos...I remember ponchos. HA!
@BobWorldBuilder Now all you need is a Clint Eastwood hat & cigar! Now, I'd pay to see that video! 😉
@@BobWorldBuilder I love them too! I have a really soft baby alpaca wool one, and a thicker, warmer, llama wool one. They're both great!
My personal favorite 5e non-core book is Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, followed by Arcana of the Ancients. I love playing with the steampunk/magicpunk setting of Eberron, so I often "divert" data from the sci-fi settings that work in 5e. It's something that's not in the "official" books.
Yeah I'm excited to see how many of RotLDM's ideas end up in the new DMG, because he was carrying DMs for the last 10 years haha
@@BobWorldBuilder I found out about Return of The Lazy Dungeon Master through your video and started reading it, even though I am a non-English speaker. Thanks to you, I feel much more comfortable leading the twice-weekly sessions.
So I am very grateful to you for this channel (and I look forward to reading your new book, Delve).
I won't say Fizban's is my favorite, but it's definitely the only time I opened a book, read through and saw a singular table that made me think, "man am I glad I bought this". The dragon name phonemes table is a life saver.
Fizban's is *so* good, it's got so much inspiring material to make dragons usable and interesting for pretty much any table. Maybe not number one, but it's definitely up there on my favorite supplementary books.
“Dungeons Of Drakenhiem” and “Call From The Deep” are amazing 3rd party campaigns, I highly recommend them
Can confirm the roll under is better with kids. They understand what they're aiming for right off the bat (rather than a seemingly arbitrary number chosen by the GM) and it's clear how things come down to a dice roll.
With a few tweaks I ran a call of cthulu game for my nephew and a few of his friends. The setting was based on five nights at Freddie's (apparently a big hit with kids). It works on a d100 roll under with a couple of divisions for harder checks/better success.
Thanks for the testimonial! That makes sense and the 5 Nights at Freddies thing sounds like a great idea for Cthulhu with kids!
Might want to write down those tweaks you made to make five nights at Freddie's Cthulhu, sounds like something people would love
as an old time fan of Dragonlance, Shadow of the Dragon Queen was a fantastic Campain to run, and while i had no idea what planescape was about that campain was amazing too,
Glad to hear it!
I really want to run Planescape! It seems like it would be a great fit for my table, but I'm currently at the end of act 1 in a homebrew campaign. I will be running one of the adventure hooks from the Mortuary add-on to Planescape, though, in act 2.
@@elizabethgemmell7635 Nice!, good luck
Currently running dragonlance. It's been a really fun campaign but the difficulty has been a little tough for my players at times. We've been at it for nearly 6 months and I'd say we're about half way through the books events. I bought shadow of the black rose to run as an epilogue as well. If they are still enjoying the campaign then maybe we play out the war of the lance too. If not, it's on to icewind Dale or vecna eve of ruin.
Honestly, I love these videos since D&D books are quite expensive in Brazil and I don't want to "waste" my money figuring out which books are good. BUT the section showing alternatives to D&D is always even better, reminding me other systems can but as much fun (maybe even more fun) without giving money to what has become a really shady corporation. Thanks Bob!
Vdd mano,muito caro aqui,eu só N encontrei um livro pra nós DMs no vídeo,meio triste já que no vídeo do ano passado ele recomendou o melhor livro pra DM de todos
Na shoppe tem um mano que vende pdfs impressos encardenados em capa mole, bem bonitinho
I like that the first recommendation is actually Shadowdark. The second and last could well be the full version of that game.
I was just searching 'this' video up because I wanted to rewatch the 2022(?) version and then I see that this was uploaded 40 minutes ago. Perfect timing lol
Obviously, I've not yet watched the video yet, but either way, thank you again for what is sure to be usful advice!!
Haha, I saw this on top of my feed as I opened CZcams to find the 2023 video to refresh what you had to say about Radiant Citadel before I purchase it with the beautiful alternate cover
I think there has been a misunderstanding. The GameInformer article states that Greyhawk will be in the new Core Book and more fleshed out, not that it will be the default setting. I think there will probably be a chapter named Campaign Setting with instruction on how to DIY and an overview of the official settings with enough info to run them
Hmm, I only heard about that from seeing people talk about it and assumed it was locked in. Thanks for the heads up!
I believe they said there is now no “official setting” but instead they are embracing the multiverse as the setting. Greyhawk will be used as one example.
Kudos for steering new players in the direction of indie DND products!
The Planescape set is actually VERY, VERY good. But Eberron: RftLW is definitely the goat for 5e books.
My only problem with DCC for new players, is that it assumes a certain level of familiarity. It was the first TTRPG that I bought, and I did a lot of cross-referencing with second-hand D&D 3.0 books that I bought from a thift store right after acquiring DCC. I appreciate your recommendation of DCC as a progression after learning D&D from other sources.
Bingo. DCC is written for GMs who have run D&D before. Super fun, but wouldn't be my first recommendation for a new GM.
@@BobWorldBuilder I think it's also very much old school in that you want to make sure your players understand that their characters aren't really expected to survive and the die roll probably hose them over.
I settled on Shadow of the Weird Wizard. Completely recommended for people who likes d&d 5e but doesn't want all the crunch and complexity of pathfinder.
Is it out yet
I keep hearing Sly FLourish talk about that haha, I'll have to check it out
@@samusamu5342 the beta is out. It contains everything you need to play. I think that in August they will release the final version.
I like Books with lore. In terms of rules/system, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the DC20 Kickstarter, mentioned at 7:39 which launches June 4th.
It's gonna be interesting for sure!
Can you imagine paying $80 for an adventure book and after days and weeks of reading you learn that you need to rewrite the adventure because it is incomplete and unplayable as is?? Why do people do that?? Why do they support a company that expects you to complete their product, expects you to pay good money for an unusable product, expects you to rewrite it to make the product work? Seriously can you imagine that? I prefer to buy complete playable product that I am not required to rewrite to enjoy.
I love ALL Bob World Builder videos!
Thanks for commenting!
Good stuff. Thank you for not sugar coating WotC treatment of spelljammer, planescape, and dragonlance.
Polite, professional, and accurate.
I liked how the criticism was fair, concise, and made a point without embellishments. I like how I was reassured I was correct to skip them while not veering into WotC Drama content.
As an old Ravenloft fan as well as a Dragonlance/Planescape fan, (they're my top three favourite D&D settings,) I honestly felt much the same about its treatment as I was reading through Van Richten's Guide, if to a _slightly_ lesser extent. It really is unfortunate; especially after years of wanting to see other old D&D settings get the same attention that Forgotten Realms has gotten for years.
@@Macabrellian right there with ya buddy
I love these buyer's guide videos.
Thank you!
I chose Index Cards RPG to start running, mostly because I happened to have it (it was like 5$ with a discount, and I decided that I could need it later) and because it has a Sci-Fi standard setting. It's not compatible with D&D but has similar base mechanics. My main issue with it is that it has very little content easy to find, and I'm not ready to deep dive into some weird forums
Haha yeah, ICRPG has some awesome ideas. Some of which have definitely impacted the D&D-adjacent design space, but it does seem like it could be hard to find compatible material
An awesome video! As a gamer (99% of the time as a GM) who started in 1980, onboarding new players is something I've done too many times to remember - and this advice you lay out for the current game is fantastic. Starting with Shadowdark's free basic rules is a perfect approach to enable an understanding of the baseline game mechanics and terms and the style of these types of games. Well done Bob. Love this.
I love all the Drakkenheim books from the Dungeon Dudes!
Surprised of no recommendation of buying Shadowdark, just using the free ruleset. Shadowdark is awesome value if you decide to buy it. Very complete, concise and easy to use.
For non WotC supplementals, I'm a big fan of XP to Level 3's Quest-o-nomicon. It's an anthology of short adventures from a multitude of genres that can be used as one shots or to give your players the XP to Level 3 (WOW). It's been a great source for if I'm seeing friends or family who wanna do play some D&D but cant do it regularly. It was also how the >1 year long campaign I'm currently running got started
Commenting not just for the algorithm, but to say you rock Bob! Thanks for all your wonderful videos!
That essentials kit is amazing. The material stuff they give you is so much, and nothing loops the party in like getting a physical quest card (and I didn’t have to spend 30 min browning paper) and the magic items are great. The map stays on the table during the session unless we need the space, makes phandalin feel like home, and the north sword coast region becomes visible and conceivable to them.
Most importantly that adventure, if itself a little light on compelling plot lines, is perfectly bite sized to fit in various campaigns. I pull the individual quests apart to use in lost mines of phandelver, and a prequel campaign my party asked for.
And you get three free mini-campaigns for the same price, all the way until 12th lvl quests.
Amazing vid, Bob! Equal parts history, community/internet reception, and book categorization all with your classic chill, even-handed approach. I look forward to these vids every year!
The videos from past years are still worth a watch. They elaborate more on certain books
Absolutely correct is starting with ShadowDark. Though I’m not planning to switch for long campaigns, it is fantastically easy to teach people; which is perfect for beginning players and aspiring GMs.
Thanks for the testimonial!
Dragonlance SotDQ is definitely more adventure then setting book, only giving the bare minimum of info in a couple of pages. The adventure however is pretty good, it's sad that shadow of the dragon queen got overshadowed by the OGL.
I am a sucker, I get all the books. Now just need to find time to read them.
My favourites are TCoE and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. The first for the optional cleric rules (cleric player here), and the second for. Well. Dragons.
Also, if I ever get the cash together, I really, really need to get the entire Pathfinder: Kingmaker set. Mainly since enforced choices in video games annoy me and I want to run that campaign without them.
Finally, and I know that's obscure if you don't speak German, but if you ever want to find out how much micro-managing you can cram into an RPG and still potentially have fun with, check out The Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge) by Ulisses Spiele.
Agreed! Though baffingly missing, gem dragon ancestries for sorc. With Fizban, homebrew / slot in GEM dragon ancestries for the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer and Drake Warden. Voila'!
Yeah I think Tasha's made a pretty big impact, especially through the not-tying-ability-score-increases-to-races-anymore
As for book ideas, Mausritter and Knave are great, the systems in Mausritter could be expanded upon if you don't like the theme, and Knave has a ton of well-considered decisions that allow things to go in a bunch of different directions, with plenty of idea generators if you need a boost. Mausritter is free in PDF, too.
Great video, my favourite non-D&D RPG source-book is Index Card RPG, I might check out Shadowdark when funds are available.
Tash is my favorite expanded rule book.
Nice! Thanks for commenting
TCE has some neat chapters for DMs like group patrons, parleying with monsters, sidekicks, and environmental hazards.
Like XGE, it also has a great selection of magic items.
Current fav setting book- Planegea
I've been seeing Jorphdan's recent videos about it. Looks fun!
I Love ALL Bob World Builder videos! Especially any video over 30 minutes long! More Bob = More Fun. No love for Deathbringer?! What would Dan the Didactic say?
Speaking of cool monster book, The Monster Overhaul is fantastic.
My personal recs for 3rd party supplements are the Lazy DM series, and the Griffon's Saddlebag series!
Lazy DM made the process of putting together my homebrew game far more manageable, and has so much great advice packed in.
Griffon's Saddlebag is perfect for magic item lovers; there's nearly 1000 magic items across both volumes, plus subclasses, plug-n-play settings, monsters, loot tables, and a few races.
For other systems, I'm very excited for the Tales from the Myriad. The beta is looking so good, I adore the way it's managed to incorporate skill trees into class progression! Most of it is close enough to 5e that I should be able to get my table to at least try it.
Great DC 20 shout. Thanks.
More coming next week! :D
Grim hollow campaign guide has been my favorite, cool monstrous player transformations, good advice dark fantasy, advanced weapons, advanced backgrounds, advanced curses and a very interesting setting
Oh so true! Grim Hollow has been one of the absolute favorite 3rd party settings. My love for dark fantasy was only enhanced by its addition to my bookshelf and table.
I'd appreciate hearing your take on chases unless you already did and I missed it.
Haven't made that video yet, but it's on my list!
You should get the reprint of Rules Cyclopedia, the reprint of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, and the reprint of X1 Isle of Dread. That book and those two modules will provide years of play.
Amazing list. I’ve got a nice shopping list now.
Currently DMing Curse of Strahd and really enjoying it. There is an absolute ton of community content and support out there, and it makes prepping a cohesive experience for my players much easier.
IMO you only really need a few things, A copy of the Dungeon masters guide, A players hand book, and a Monsters Manual. Pencils and paper are need as well. Dice can even be optional. All the rest is just window dressing
I will always point people to Andrew Kolb's books for fun, self-contained, adventuresome setting gazetteers. Neverland might be my personal favorite, although that could change with his upcoming book on Wonderland.
As far as running the adventures put out by WotC, I found Rime of the Frostmaiden so much easier with a little help from Justin Alexander. He's got a whole primer on his blog, the Alexandrian, where he lays out travel time changes and additional GM tools.
The new cover art is perfect and crispy
Man, I love your content. You're an inspiration to me as a DM. I"ve had some very successful sessions off your advice. Thank you VERY much!
Gonna say Ars Magica, Mork Borg, Call of Cthulhu and the epic Dungeon Crawl Classics are all well worth checking out
Bob I love these videos! Great overview.
Good video, tons of information for people new to 5e looking at all possible books, the money sink goes deep this video definitely will help lot of folks to get the right products
Easily the best version of this video you've made. Doin great work here- I'm not super into dnd these days, but I really appreciate this for those who are ^_^
I love your annual book review videos, and just pledged to the Kickstarter - really looking forward to this.
Great coverage as always! Agree with you in pretty much every case. I complete agree that Tomb of Annihilation is one of the best published adventures. Also, I'm running Keys from the Golden Vault as a campaign right now but put all the adventures into a world that I am creating and fleshing out with my players and creating side quests in between heists. It works really well in this way except that the players end up with an exorbitant number of magic items and you definitely have to adjust the encounters accordingly or be unable to offer any challenge to the players. Excite to get my hands on DELVE soon!
Very useful video. Certainly helpful to try and help guide my newer players :)
Thank you! Happy to help
I really like The Old School Essentials classic rules. It's a remake of old school basic expert DnD with excellent formatting. I got the box set which splits the rules in to about 5 smaller books which makes them even better for quick reference and sharing at the table.
Yeah... I went ahead and bought all of them, but I also bought your Delve book and several of "Hank"'s and Kelsey's and some of Colville's and Shea's and Kobold's and Troll Lords' and Paizo's and umm... several others, but I might have a problem. Honestly though, I completely agree with you; but my shelves are really pretty, especially my original BX and AD&D and Greyhawk stuff. 🛡️ Btw, I'm a big fan of simplified stats, roll-under rules, and a homebrew usage die system to replace spell slots.
Please keep doing this every year. I love this!
THis was helpful to me a long time Grognard. I got out of 5e around Tasha's rulebook and started a full on unofficial Elserscrolls RPG campaign and then Traveller for a year. Finally ended up playing Dragon Age RPG, and decided I wanted D&D Again. I'll rethink buying Ravinica because I love guild rules, and I appreciate you cutting through the noise. The last book I bought was Mordenkainen's TOme of Foes so I am going to pick up Mordenkainen Presents first thanks to your overview. Planescape I am DEFINITELY Getting especially because Shemeska who is a superfan worked on it. Thank you this was very useful.
Dragonlance was fantastic. Feels very epic in its scale.
I ran frostmaiden twice. It's definitely one of my top 3 adventures but I agree it requires some extra work prep wise. It's chunky.
great timing as i only recently watched the 2023 one. was thinking of buying an anthology or setting book from my local shop to support them
Love the DC20 shout out. ❤ Hyped for next week. He brought me to your kickstarter last month.
I believe the Starter Set is already out of print.
😭
yes, because they made like two different starter/adventure sets to replace it - there was Dragons of Stormwreck Isle and Essentials Kit for sure
@@Thandulfanalso because LMoP was/is getting an expanded campaign to level 12
After running the starter set, it requires a fair bit of DM work to transition to another campaign. Designing an actual sequel is a good idea, but it should just have been a separate book.
100% also recommend the Eventyr supplements for BG: Descent into Avernus. I'm in Chapter 3 right now as a DM and they have a whole module on making that chapter more of a "sandbox" style where the players have more agency in where they go in Avernus. Also the DM notes and maps have been incredibly helpful. Even with those supplements it's a lot of work. I also used the "Fall of Elturel" module on DMs Guide to start everyone off and lead into the campaign because it puts them at the point of action and really gives them more motivation going into the campaign. Highly recommend both if anyone is planning to run BG:DiA! Great information in the video. I appreciate the straight forward information and also stating the fact that some of these campaign adventures to require a lot of work on the part of the DM. Great job!
"Here are the best Dnd books for 2024" spends the next 15 minutes listing off non-dnd books 😂😂
Just a suggestion, but I think it would be really fun to see you giving advice about your favorite third-party dnd books. Really would like to see it on the channel!
Recently I've found a 5e "supplement" called Nimble, which I've fell in love with; it takes the best parts of MCDM RPG, DC20 and Daggerheart and magically converts it to DnD5e. I would love to see Bob talk about it.
I was looking forward to this year's what to buy video. Would you please consider doing one of these for non-WotC books?
My two favorite unofficial 5e books: "The Monsters Know What They're Doing", a guide for DMs for running monsters in combat, and "Live to Tell the Tale", the companion combat guide for players.
Totally agree on Rime of the Frostmaiden. It was a fun setting to run but required a lot of prep. The chase section alone had me working on tables for about 3 hours to map out who would be where and when.
A friend of mine tried to run Strahd for us, but gave up because he thought the organization of the book made prep too difficult, so maybe Curse of Strahd is only well loved because of the legacy it follows in the brand. Also, I love what you called "GM homework" books. I enjoy prepping all of the encounters digitally before running a campaign, and then largely ad libbing my way through the campaign based on what I remember from the books with every map ready to go. Lastly, I think it is great that they gave Lost Mine a full book treatment since I too think that adventure is a great beginning to a longer campaign.
Currently in a Strahd campaign. My DM says he does have to bounce around a lot depending on what it is we're doing
My guess: 80 (which would be two every 3 months on average)
Probably true including the D&D-Beyond-only releases
56 is my guess
So close!!
Thanks , awesome videos please do more like this
My pleasure! I was already thinking that next year I'll probably only show the best-selling / most popular "2014" books with the new 2024 books.
Gotta say, been absolutely drooling over DM Guild's Monster Manual Expanded books lately, I just love any book that gives me more fun and scary things to throw at my players 😂
This video is really great. Going over all the books sounds like an arduous task for a CZcamsr but it is helpful for dm's, players, and those who would want to dip their toe into ttrpgs.
So for my own experience with these books. I personally love Xanathar's, Tasha's, and the PHB and I don't plan on ignoring those when the new phb comes out. As far as adventures go, I use the books as you said, as setting books, not adventure books. I've played through two of the adventures you mentioned, Waterdeep Heist and Curse of Strahd. Of the two, I like Waterdeep Heist more but honestly, it wasn't much of a heist. I am currently running Waterdeep Heist now but it is heavily homebrewed... and has been going on for four years. I've added a lot. I've also gutted a lot. As for Curse of Strahd, I played it with a group for over a year and I can say, I'm not a fan. Maybe it was the DM (although I doubt it because he was good), but that adventure was pretty straight forward and kind of lackluster. Every area while being somewhat unique, was mostly just glooms of different flavors. The fights were overall pretty underwhelming and I didn't find the story that engaging. Also, with the right group, Strahd, when he shows up to antagonize and fight the group, was a pushover.
Anyway, as far as DMing with these books. As I mentioned with the Waterdeep Heist, I use the book occassionally for reference but for the most part, I refer to it occassionally for guidelines. I also have made a spinoff campaign which is based on "Out of the Abyss" but instead of trying to get out, the players have a mention to adventure into the Abyss. I took out some of the demon stuff (although I use it a little) and I use the locations there for my players to travel around. I combined part of that campaign with the Frostmaiden. I've been enjoying that for a Lord of the Rings style mission of getting from point a to point b.
Anyway, that's my experience with the books. The rest of the books I cherry pick stuff I like or buy for possible mechanics. I was very let down when spelljammer somehow didn't have any mechanics driving the spelljammers....
Lastly, and this is some self promotion, I saw you are working with Eventyr games for your book. Do they need anything other artists? If so I do fantasy style art (painterly pieces and comic book style stuff).
Thanks for the video, it's super usefull !
Ryuutama was my favorite non-DND 5E book with the most interesting way of handling traveling, exploration AND item management so far !
It has a bunch of other really cool ideas that are great for creative players and new DM !
And it's also really easy to read it through !
I love this series you've done! This is the best one yet. Can't wait to get my copy of delve! ...also...DC20 HYPE TRAIN!!! LESS THAN A WEEK TO THE KICKSTARTER!
I recommend this if you are new and somehow got to this video and into the comments 2 weeks after it was published.
1) I recommend converting a D&D one shot into an audio file and then listen to it. By hearing follow it in your mind. Once you can “see” what is happening then and only then can you understand what TtRPGs are at their best. Every thing from props to Matt Mercer is secondary to the magic of friends having a daydream together and rolling some dice.
2) Share this audio file with your friends and let them hear it. Hit them up after a couple of days to remind them to listen because usually people don’t till you if them. Meanwhile move on to step three.
3) Get the rules from online for D&D. By going on line you are not limited to how many people you can send the rules to. They are not likely to read them but hey you still can send them once they are on board with the audio idea. Read the rules a bit at a time till you get it. (You can use alike systems but if they make any deviations you wouldn’t know so for peace of mind stay “official” cause likely you said “D&D” so let’s not confuse anyone and stay focused).
4) Now once you have read the instructions unless you have luck unheard of you are the DM. You can go online and get the dice from Amazon or a local game store and same with a starter adventure. I recommend the game store since most people a the store have tried D&D and will have an idea is how to get you started. If that don’t work because you are in the middle of nowhere-your-country, go on and take your chances online. CZcams has good help in some videos and if not there are options. Many places to go even (shivers) Reddit. Pick one and if they are respectful have a listen and if not searches are (sorta ) free. Get help with your first campaign.
5) Talk to everyone and set a date to make characters and a Sesion zero (you will hear all about it and checklist on line exist). I recommend that your first meeting everyone show up and you have more munchies and some extra dice 🎲. If successful dice will go missing and everyone will look for the next meeting for your one shot.
6) have a one shot and expect - a) you will be nervous b) something will go wrong c) more dice will go missing (don’t worry ask Google and it will roll a die if you need). But know this - someone will have fun. Someone may want to be the DM. Stuff will happen but. Is you can pay real money for more dice and a starter set.
7) With the starter set keep going. If things are going well then the Players handbook may be needed. And more dice. And dice trays and maybe even miniatures but…
Start cheap and slow. There is no right way but this is how I would suggest to do it. With a low barrier then people tend to be happier and more relaxed. But that is just me.
My favourite nom-wotc books currently are level up 5e monstrous menagerie, grim hollow and Dungeons of Drakkenhiem settings/adventure/campaign.
Love you Bob, thanks for all your knowledge and kind personality 😊🙏❤
Comparative breakdown videos ♡ it's cool that a lot of youtubers like to spotlight and deepdive on specific aspects like monsters, subclasses, etc.
But these overarching views of the wild amount of content published for dnd is so important for helping people set expectations for the products thenselves.
Hope you have a great day and the algorithms grant you some loot.
Hey bob!! this is great content!
My favorite of those was the Rick & Morty adventure. It was short and so much fun, my players loved it.
I love playing the indie games now, they are much easier to run and I think are more fun.
Shadowdark
EzD6
Monster of the Week.
Games I'm looking forward to playing soon are
Crown & Skull
the new MCDM game.
Thanks Bob.
I also need to try out Crown & Skull! And I'm excited to see what the MCDM RPG ends up looking like too. Enjoy!
I love Fizban’s most, and Tasha’s, but Xanathar’s name tables are the best resource out there
This is my favorite annual video you make.
The Deck of Many Things is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE BOOK of any supplement of this generation. The story creation mechanics using the deck alone make it a buy for me. That said it is expensive and if you don't have the money it isn't at all necessary to play and I would save it till it goes on sale or something.
I got in on the kickstarter on the final day. Really looking forward to getting it both digitally and physically. Kind of hope to see it on dndbeyond at some point to add it there too.
I dont really buy wotc 5e books anymore. But boy do I collect 3d party materials in droves, some for constant use, some for fun reading and some to simply support the maker.
My go to 5e stuff for my games is Helianas guide to monster hunting for the harvesting and cooking rules and some really fun player options and also Larsenes Ledger by the same team for more options and magic item sets. The tome of beasts books from kobold press and griffons saddlebag 1&2 for magic items and also some really nifty locations to drag and put into my settings. My players prefer going to griffons to look for items when building characters. I also want to shout out Kibblestasty who is a homebrew creator that has several subclasses aviable for free on his webpage and even more in the book he published. The player material in there is very flavorful and pretty well balanced, atleast they havent broken my games when they have been used.
The questonomicon was a gamechanger, not for me but for my player who wanted to try dming those low level adventures were so varied in theme and eays to run it really helped them get into the grove and not feel overwhelmed with prepping. They ran a game for us, liked it and now is almost a year in on running the Fools Gold settingbook and included adventure module. (which has been a blast)
The monsters know what theyre doing by Keith Aman also really helped me shape up my monster combats to be more dynamic and how i now think when reading a monster statblock. And ofcourse return of the lazy dungeonmaster by sly flourish is very helpful to structure up you prepping so you dont feel overwhelmed.
I also backed the Ryokos guide to yokai realms kickstarter and play in a playtest version of the beta material. Very fun and vibrant and packed to the brim with mechanics and player options to fit the japanese folklore themes and got the companion book wrath of the kaiju with 5 adventures each focusing on a kaiju and some megahype bossbattles.
I can also reccomend pirates of the aetherial expanse from ghostfire for the ones who want spelljammer but way more sefaring and pirates in droves.
Heres a short lightninground of other books i wanna mention but not to write big heartfelt paragraphs about.
Adventures: Heckna (clown horror), Great Wyrms of Drakha (epic dragonfighting on a distant moon lvl 17-20), Court of the shadowfey (fey intruige by kobold press) Sunken Isles (island hopping adventure lvl 1-20)
Beastiaries: Planar Beastiary (planebreaker setting supplement by Montecook Games), Total party Kill beastiary 1&2 by 2CC gaming, Field guide to Floral dragons ,
Settings: Planebreaker by Montecook games (planar hopping in the wake of a interdimensional moon that crashes through realities) Brancalonia (Low level spaghetti fantasy as an homage to italian literature and folklore) Grim Hollow by Ghostfire (grimdark fantasy)
Ruins of Symbaroum by Free League is fantastic. Pretty much anything Free League does has been golden.
I liked when you shoehorned all the indies into the conversation. Props for that!
Great video! Thanks. Now, could you do this with the AD&D books? Really hoping someone can sift through them like this! :-P
MCDM gets a lot of hype because of Flee Mortals! - especially now it's going to be in DnD Beyond - but I implore both new and veteran players and GMs to check out ARCADIA by MCDM
I still need to check it out myself! haha
@@BobWorldBuilder Haha, its definitely the product I recommend the most to people, and I think potentially doing a video on it would bring it to more peoples attention. They're arent really any video "reviews" of them outside of MCDMs own channel but they stopped doing videos on them after like issue 10 - and there's 20 to look at now!
Just wanted to comment that at 25:25 is the first time I've seen the like button have that RGB glow. It was really cool to see. That is all :)
Unrelated but it's cool to see a fellow TWRP head in the wild
My wife got me into them and I'm glad she did! Great stuff!
I bought delve 5e. I didn't want to buy anymore 5e supplement but, let's face it, my friends and I will continue to play D&D for years. I hope it contains a lot of low level magic items and deadly traps! ☺️
@15:00 keep all that player options stuff out of my DM books!!!
@25:00 the Venture Maiden's Campaign Guide, Dungeons of Drakkenheim and the Dark of Hot Springs Island are my favorite non WotC environments.