D&D General What's The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons?

It wasn't in any previous announcements about 2023-2024's D&D release schedule, but now The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons has appeared on the slate!

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It's a 128-page hardcover, coming out on August 15th for $39.95, and it details dragon anatomy, society, language, hoards, magic, lairs, and more. This is a full-on 'lore' book, with no game rules in it.

The Practical Guide to Dragons came out in 2006, and was followed by A Practical Guide to Dragon Riding and A Practical Guide to Dragon Magic. This book is a compilation of the best parts of those three books. The originals were illustrated guides designed for younger readers, and featured a wizard called Sindri Suncatcher, the fictional 'author' of the works.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I get where you're coming from, but I also think we could have got even more great content overall if 2E TSR had a somewhat better business plan.

I don't see how, looking back, but I'm open to being swayed. All I know is that 2e was the golden age of content as far as I'm concerned, and I was and am very happy with what we got, for as long as we got it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's not a 128 page book, it's a two-fer 192 page book with a 80 page supplement focused on the cards themselves, plus a 66 card deck.

We'll see what the market can bear, but that's a higher page count than Spelljammer got.

Look, I like the idea of a Deck of Many Things project, but it getting a higher page count than Spelljammer is insane.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I get where you're coming from, but I also think we could have got even more great content overall if 2E TSR had a somewhat better business plan.

Marathons, not sprints.

 

[Parmandur]

Look, I like the idea of a Deck of Many Things project, but it getting a higher page count than Spelljammer is insane.

I mean, I'm really curious to what is in this, exactly. The answer to that will sway a lot for me.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I don't see how, looking back, but I'm open to being swayed. All I know is that 2e was the golden age of content as far as I'm concerned, and I was and am very happy with what we got, for as long as we got it.

Specifically, I think there was a bunch of low-quality product that TSR put out that they didn't need to, that didn't result in sales, and that contributed to ending TSR's life several years before it would otherwise have happened. Not least Dragon Dice. Some of it was actively perverse, like the second edition of Dark Sun, which flatly would have done better if it was just the first edition done in cheaper materials (I presume that was part of the reason it existed, as that cool flipbook and stuff can't have been cheap), rather than the ugly (no Brom!), badly-written, unnecessarily meta-plot-changed thing we got.

I know this may be heresy, but I don't think that WotC put out many, perhaps not any great sourcebooks except Eberron in 3E/3.5E (open to being persuaded otherwise). I won't argue the rules quality (I think a new edition would have happened in 2000 regardless of whether TSR lived), but I don't think WotC really started making good sourcebooks until 4E, and even in 5E, it's been spotty, with some great ones (including Theros) and some really "meh" ones (SCAG), and others which were conceptually strong but just ridiculously under-paged (VRGtR and Spelljammer).

So my position is if TSR had been more sensible and lived even, say, 5 years longer, even putting out stuff less wildly, the fact that they were keen on new settings (something WotC flatly is not) would have got us at least 1-2 more new settings and probably cool ones, and probably some cooler sourcebooks too.

Look, I like the idea of a Deck of Many Things project, but it getting a higher page count than Spelljammer is insane.

I think the best we can say is maybe TSR are learning from their mistakes? Though maybe not as it sounds like the page count will ALSO be higher than Planescape!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I mean, I'm really curious to what is in this, exactly. The answer to that will sway a lot for me.

My guess is that there will be a lot of Tarot-themed monsters (a great vein for monsters!) and scenarios.

I know this may be heresy, but I don't think that WotC put out many, perhaps not any great sourcebooks except Eberron in 3E/3.5E (open to being persuaded otherwise).

Draconomicon, which is a high they and the rest of the RPG industry has been chasing in the monster-themed sourcebooks ever since.

I think the best we can say is maybe TSR are learning from their mistakes? Though maybe not as it sounds like the page count will ALSO be higher than Planescape!

Charitably, I'm guessing the 88-page book about using the cards will actually be a quarter-sized booklet and shouldn't really be included in the overall page count, which would make this another WotC marketing self-own putting it out there like this.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Marathons, not sprints.

2e ran for 11 years. How is that not a marathon? What fraction of 2e's content has 5e done in nearly that long?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

2e ran for 11 years. How is that not a marathon? What fraction of 2e's content has 5e done in nearly that long?

An edition that ends with the company going bankrupt is a weird thing to hold up as the standard companies should aspire to.

If they had spread things out a bit more and not burned piles of money unnecessarily on settings like Jakandor, TSR might well be with us today. (Not you, Ernie. Sit down.)

 

[Micah Sweet]

An edition that ends with the company going bankrupt is a weird thing to hold up as the standard companies should aspire to.

If they had spread things out a bit more and not burned piles of money unnecessarily on settings like Jakandor, TSR might well be with us today. (Not you, Ernie, sit down.)

Oh, I'm not holding it up as a standard for corporations. It is, however, my gold standard for content. No other edition comes close (although 3e certainly had a good run). This is a personal feeling. 2e's amazing quantity and variety of content meant a great deal to me, and most of my happy memories about D&D are associated with that era and all the cool stuff they put out. If they were a better run company, they wouldn't have published nearly as much, and I wouldn't have as many fond memories of reading that content and imagining how to use it in a game.

 

[StoicElf]

Maybe I am getting old (aren't we all?), but these days I am actually more interested in material like this, no-mechanics, just fluff. I know this is meant for younger players, but I loved the no-rules books that came out at the end of 4e. They are among my favorite D&D book ever.