Review: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Rules
April 5, 2015 12:14 pm | 2 Comments
Pop Culture Leftovers Ratings System
Toss it = Hated it
Taste it = Liked it
Tupperware = Loved it
Let me get things out in the open, right at the start. This isn’t a review for the Dungeons & Dragons Movie (Toss) or for the Dungeons & Dragons Television Show (Nostalgic Tupperware!), but for the new, fifth edition of the fantasy tabletop gaming system released by Wizards of the Coast this year.
“Hi everyone, my name is Kevin, and I am an über-geek.”
I’ve been playing D&D (or DND) since I was about 16 years old. I won’t bore you with more details about me and my history with D&D. I’ve already covered that online elsewhere. Recently, my wife, Dana, started playing with my group and her perspective as a brand new player has helped guide and temper my review.
For those who don’t know much about tabletop gaming, here’s the breakdown: you and a few friends sit around a table and pretend to do stuff you can’t do in real life, all while weaving an interactive, character-driven story that is orchestrated by the Dungeon Master (DM). Unlike tabletop strategy games, like Warhammer 40K or other wargaming systems, in this one each player embodies a character and not an entire military. In this way, it’s more like Clue than Risk.
Like all good gaming systems, this one comes with a set of rules. How loosely or strictly you follow those rules is up to whomever runs the game. New in this edition, Wizards of the Coast (WotC – commonly pronounced “watt-zee”) released a completely free version. This means that if you just want to “try it out,” you don’t have to shell out any money to kick the tires.
I’ve read through the free rules (called D&D Basic) and own the D&D Starter Set, the three “Core” rulebooks (the Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual), and the two Tyranny of Dragons adventure modules (The Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat). I’ll be reviewing the Tyranny of Dragons books separately as I continue to run those adventure, so this review is for the rules.
Like the Leftovers do, I’ll bore you with details before giving you my actual review.
The Basic Rules
The Basic Rules are just that: Basic. It has enough for you to get your feet wet and decide if this system is right for you. They provide only the most core information that you need to play the game. I won’t bore you with the details, since you can read it free for yourself, but it provides the essential framework for making a D&D Character: the race and class. It offers up four races (Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human) and four classes (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard). The write-ups for these races and classes is incredibly in-depth considering that this is offered for free.
The Rules then go on to describe how to equip your character, how to flesh out their story by giving them a background, and how to handle interactions between players; whether that’s fighting monsters or trying to swindle someone’s cow for the cost of a few beans.
In summary, my rating on the Basic Rules is a high Taste-It. The rules are concise and the layout is similar to all of the other materials, which makes moving from Basic to Starter, and then to Core simpler, but it’s hard to just pick it up and start building up an adventure. I’m not the only one who thinks this: WotC shares this opinion and have provided an excellent resource for those who are intimidated by such a detailed document.
Wizards of the Coast has organized gameplay (called the Adventurer’s League) which all associated stores can run. This means that you have an experienced DM and set of PC’s (Player Characters) to help you learn the way through the system. Although the Basic Rules themselves get a Taste-It, the Organized Play option gets a Tupperware. If you want to try it out, just use the locator (here) and search for a D&D Organized Play event near you. Most stores run an event every Wednesday night, but call your local store to be sure.
D&D Starter Set
The Starter Set isn’t so much different than the Basic Rules, except for three distinct additions: it includes an adventure, a set of dice, and five pre-generated characters. The adventure is the Lost Mine of Phandelver. The dice are necessary for actually playing a game of D&D. If you want to get your own, they can normally be purchased at any gaming and many comic shops. Many stores running organized play even have “store dice” that are used by new players before they want to commit further to the game. The last bit is the most important: the pregens.
Pre-generated characters let you streamline the entire process. Grab yourself and four buddies, pick up the starter kit (retails for $19.99), choose a Dungeon Master, give him/her the adventure book, and have the other four pick one of the pre-generated characters each. You are ready to roll (pun intended)!
The Starter Kit gets a Tupperware! It’s concise and cooperative and has all the necessary elements for a group of friends to start playing with minimal headaches. This is an excellent way to get your feet wet and a bargain for a small group of friends.
The Core Rules: The Player’s Handbook
If you want your character to advance further than fifth level or want access to more races, classes, backgrounds, equipment, etc., then you’ll need to move up to the PHB. This is not an inconsiderate amount of money to shell out, as it retails for $49.95 – just like the other two core rulebooks.
Personally, this is the fifth version of this book that I own, since I’ve picked them up over the years. Hands-down, this is the best one yet. The information is organized perfectly, including hints for “quick building” a character. Let’s take an example that isn’t in the Basic or Starter rules. Say that you want to play a Warlock, you can flip to the Warlock class and look for the “Quick Build” area. It tells you in a few steps how to have build a completed character in minutes. You don’t need to read everything about a Warlock before start playing one. Some of the fun is discovering more about your character as you play.
Most players won’t ever need to read the whole book, nor would I suggest it for most. About half of the book is made up of the various spells that your characters can (potentially) use. As a DM, having players flip back and forth trying to find the details on a particular spell being used at the table drives me nuts. It halts gameplay and takes everyone with it. Thankfully, another gaming company, Gale Force Nine, has released a series of spell cards that shortcut this for everyone. These are an additional fee, but my players have gravitated to using them. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, the Player’s Handbook.
I really need to take a step back now and talk about the art for a second. If you saw my legacy D&D library in the link above, you realize that I’ve been playing and purchasing this stuff for years. The artwork in this book puts all, and I mean all, of that to shame. The work is simply stunning. There are just no words for how great it is. You can see the high resolution of the cover art on Wizard’s site (here) and between the front and back cover, the quality is just as good.
Another thing that was pointed out online (I can’t remember where) and that I verified, is that men and women are equally represented in the artwork – and neither is overly sexualized. If you have any familiarity with what art is “typical” in these types of publications, you know that every character race and class was typically male and any female in the artwork was overly buxom, a little doe-eyed, and normally in need of saving.
All of that has gone out the window: this is no longer relegated to a “boys” club event and the people at Wizards recognize that women gamers have oft been ignored. They have corrected that in every way.
So what’s my rating? That’s a little tougher. As a Player, this gets a Tupperware rating. It could have gotten a Tupperware on the merits of either the artwork or the content – but this thing has both! However, the DM in me still has a few problems with it, which relegates me to a high Taste-It.
As a DM, I normally have to know a little bit about every character that’s being played. Because the book is organized specifically with the player in mind, they can easily know everything about their particular race and class. My job is harder because I need to have a rapid access way to get this information for between 4 and 7 different players. I cheated with this by adding Post-It flags to the book because the index left something to be desired.
The Core Rules: The Dungeon Master’s Guide
The DMG isn’t at all like the PHB insofar as content. This book is geared towards the Dungeon Master. It provides the rules for running a game, how to make it fun, and how to handle “sticky” situations with characters. It also adds some great information about world-building. With Dungeons & Dragons, you can either build your own world, or use the out of the box one (Forgotten Realms). If you want to use the existing one, it gives you backgrounds on the planes of existence, the general goings-on in the world, and story hooks. If you don’t want to work within that campaign setting, then it provides excellent material to help you craft similar frameworks within your own world.
Like the PHB, the Dungeon Master’s Guide’s second half is mostly for reference. In this case, it is for magical items as opposed to spells. In the D&D world, a magical item is any physical object which embodies some magical talent. Everyone is familiar with wands and staves, but the DMG includes some very D&D-specific items as well, such as the Bag of Holding.
The art throughout the book is fantastic (just as good as the PHB), but where it involves the magical items, it truly excels. I’ve never known how to adequately describe a Ring of Protection to my players, but I do now.
This book cannot have two ratings, because players should never have this book. So from an experienced Dungeon Master, this edition of the DMG gets the coveted Tupperware rating. It does what it does exceptionally well and I’ve seen no shortage in all the time that I’ve been using it.
The Core Rules: The Monster Manual
Curveball – this gets the pinnacle of success, a Tupperware rating. Yeah, I gave you the rating first here because it’s just awesome! Now, I need to be honest, the Monster Manual has always been my favorite of the core books. I own about eleven different ones in total. This edition is easily my favorite.
I won’t repeat what’s been said before, but like the other two books the art and the content are amazing. The flavor text for most of the monsters rolls up years and years of development as the gaming system grew, developed, and matured. I knew that there are many specifics about Kobolds which govern family, religion, and militaristic aspects of the culture, but I’ve never had a better place for all of that material to be quickly available.
The biggest reason for this Tupperware rating is that every monster, and I mean every monster, has detailed art depicting the subject. As a DM, I don’t just find artwork as pleasing to the eye – I find it as being absolutely critical in weaving a good story.
Picture this scene: you are at your table playing with your group and you have them run into five goblin fighters and one goblin shaman. Since these characters haven’t ever seen a goblin before, you tell the players that there are five roughly-human shaped creatures with greenish skin and wide mouths dressed similarly and one of the same creatures dressed differently. Then they ask for more information on the one that’s dressed differently.
You have two options here: 1) tell them that there are five goblin fighters and one goblin shaman or 2) you can describe the goblin fighters and then describe how the shaman looks different. Option 2 is the better option for weaving a story so that the characters “learn” about goblins instead of just throwing it out there. It creates more interaction and allows for fun party dynamics afterwards. (“These must have been goblins.” “No way. These are the hobgoblins that we were supposed to find.”)
Summation
I’ve been running a 5e game with a group for quite a while and for a large part of that I’ve been recording and publish a podcast with my group. Some of my players were new to D&D (played other tabletop RPGs before), some were new to tabletop RPGs entirely, and all (including myself) were new to Fifth Edition.
Now, I’ve been running D&D 5e since it was released and I have to say that this is the best edition thus far. That’s not praise that I give lightly. Since I’ve been playing since the 2e (Second Edition) days, I’ve seen some bad releases (I’m look at you 4e!). I don’t just give praises this high just because something is new. In fact, because the previous edition left a bad taste in my mouth, I was hesitant, but hopeful with this edition.
Overall, this gets a Tupperware rating. There’s no denying it. Whether you are a new player to tabletop RPG’s (like my wife) or an old salty-dog at running them (like me), there’s something here for everyone. Grab a few friends, download some pregens, pick up the Starter Kit and see if you too don’t get sucked into the collective theater of the mind that is Dungeons & Dragons.
Kevin and the Runaway Dragons Podcast can be found on their own site on Facebook and on Twitter at @Runaway_Dragons.
Tags: Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons Dragons 5th Edition, pop culture leftovers, Runaway Dragons
Categorised in: Toy Addict
This post was written by Leftover Brian
2 Comments
-
-
@BAYEMON – No, I never played Pathfinder and I agree that the damage done during the D&D 4th Edition days may cause people to come up short.
Regardless of that, I’m trying to keep my mind open and work with what’s been given me. This version is better (yes, I said better) than the 3.5 Edition. I’ve played every edition since AD&D and this is by far the best. Besides that, it’s free if you want to get started. You can’t beat free!
-
Were/are you a Pathfinder player? If so, how would you compare it? The damage may very well have been done as many 3.5 players are already well invested into pfrg.