For new players, it's hard to beat the Hero Builder's Guidebook
maransreth
Explorer
I have never looked through HBG as others bought it and I saw nothing useful, even for newbies.
However something I do find useful is a pdf called Dice and Dramatics, available at RPGnow.com. I found this a really useful sourcebook for new players and there is a number of pieces of equipment that I also found useful.
However something I do find useful is a pdf called Dice and Dramatics, available at RPGnow.com. I found this a really useful sourcebook for new players and there is a number of pieces of equipment that I also found useful.
Li Shenron
Legend
I have read HBG when I was playing D&D since a few months only, and I found it very bad. It was long ago, so it's possible I don't remember correctly what's in it, but I thought most of it was a total waste of time.
I do NOT remember anything in it explaining how to play a RP character in D&D. I remember that more than half of the book was spent in little chapters about each single class-race combination, telling players which feats/skills choices they shoud make for a standard character and maybe one or two variants. A beginner player is obviously playing ONE character, why giving him this sort of redundant (and often repetitive) walkthrough of all combinations? It would have been much better to have a more generic approach, eventually a walkthrough of all classes but not each combo...
About the rest of the book at least I remember:
- a completely useless explanation of ability scores curves... which beginner really cares about this?
- a long test to determine character's alignment: now this was full of little interesting suggestions about playing an alignment, however it would have been MUCH better if it wasn't in the silly form of a quiz. The quiz works this way: first you answer the questions, then you calculate the "points" and the final score gives your PC's alignment. It is much better (and twice as good for a beginner) to give something the other way around: first you choose an alignment by your mental image (PHB already has enough to get the point of Law vs Chaos), and the HBG's chapter talks about all this little ideas and tell you whether a behavious conforms to which D&D alignment, so you know better how to play a typical LG, NE or CN character
- a large selection of character names by race, with (very good actually) suggestions about creating names; this could be useful for players at any level (actually I have less naming ideas now than I used to), but with one serious big mistake... there is NO indication of the character's GENDER! How is a beginner supposed to know if an elf called Elethril is male or female?
Of course you saw nothing useful, if you have never looked through it...
I do NOT remember anything in it explaining how to play a RP character in D&D. I remember that more than half of the book was spent in little chapters about each single class-race combination, telling players which feats/skills choices they shoud make for a standard character and maybe one or two variants. A beginner player is obviously playing ONE character, why giving him this sort of redundant (and often repetitive) walkthrough of all combinations? It would have been much better to have a more generic approach, eventually a walkthrough of all classes but not each combo...
About the rest of the book at least I remember:
- a completely useless explanation of ability scores curves... which beginner really cares about this?
- a long test to determine character's alignment: now this was full of little interesting suggestions about playing an alignment, however it would have been MUCH better if it wasn't in the silly form of a quiz. The quiz works this way: first you answer the questions, then you calculate the "points" and the final score gives your PC's alignment. It is much better (and twice as good for a beginner) to give something the other way around: first you choose an alignment by your mental image (PHB already has enough to get the point of Law vs Chaos), and the HBG's chapter talks about all this little ideas and tell you whether a behavious conforms to which D&D alignment, so you know better how to play a typical LG, NE or CN character
- a large selection of character names by race, with (very good actually) suggestions about creating names; this could be useful for players at any level (actually I have less naming ideas now than I used to), but with one serious big mistake... there is NO indication of the character's GENDER! How is a beginner supposed to know if an elf called Elethril is male or female?
maransreth said:
Of course you saw nothing useful, if you have never looked through it...
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