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.

 

[EthanSental]

I saw a copy on the shelf at my local comic and games store on Thursday. I purposely didn’t pick it up cause I usually buy gaming books if I thumb through them Hopefully those that got it can let us know what they think when they’ve looked it over.

This is also something I’d like them to release on DDbeyond so i can read it there instead of a hard copy.

 

[Parmandur]

I saw a copy on the shelf at my local comic and games store on Thursday. I purposely didn’t pick it up cause I usually buy gaming books if I thumb through them Hopefully those that got it can let us know what they think when they’ve looked it over.

This is also something I’d like them to release on DDbeyond so i can read it there instead of a hard copy.

It's not really a game product, though?

 

[mamba]

It's not really a game product, though?

it is adjacent, I would expect (people to look for) it in the D&D section, not the fantasy section. Plus people stumbling across (rather than searching for) it in the D&D section to be far more interested than the average customer.

 

[TarionzCousin]

(OBE)

"Order of the British Empire"???

 

[Parmandur]

it is adjacent, I would expect (people to look for) it in the D&D section, not the fantasy section. Plus people stumbling across (rather than searching for) it in the D&D section to be far more interested than the average customer.

It really isn't? It's an art book?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's not really a game product, though?

We've got people asking for lore products on this board. This is literally that, even if the writing is skewed toward younger kids.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It really isn't? It's an art book?

It's not an art book.

 

[Parmandur]

It's not an art book.

Ok, so it's a children's book..?

Still not.a game book? Not sure what the Beyond use case would be?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ok, so it's a children's book..?

Still not.a game book? Not sure what the Beyond use case would be?

I explained it back in March:

I had them all. It was not a reprinting of any of the 3E dragon lore (as I recall, these books predated the 4E dragon books), beyond the fact that the same things were true and not, lore-wise.

In many cases, these books made up new, largely harmless lore, like establishing Feywild geography or elements of vampire society or breaking down verbal components for wizard magic.

These are books squarely aimed at elementary age students, and skewed a least a year younger than the current Young Adventurers Guides.

It's full of lore. Most of it is straight out of 3E for the dragon books that were combined for this one and I suspect whatever new Krynn lore is in it is pretty inconsequential. (I couldn't guess what that lore would be, beyond the introduction of the narrator into Krynn.)

And the reason it'd be in DDB is the same reason any lore book would be: It's where some people keep their D&D book collections. If they're not collecting hard copy books and don't want a DMs Guild account (assuming this ever shows up there), DDB is pretty much it.

 

[mamba]

It really isn't? It's an art book?

It's a reprint of parts of 3e dragon lore books, no idea whether there are changes