D&D (2024) 3,000 Player's Handbooks Available At Gen Con

At Gen Con (August 1-4), there will be 3,000 copies of the Player's Handbook available. These copies will include a gold foil D&D logo and a commemorative bookplate.

RENTON, WA – July 18, 2024 – It’s a banner year for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS! Coming off the acclaimed film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and the smash hit video game Baldur’s Gate 3, D&D is celebrating 50 years of the WORLD’S GREATEST ROLEPLAYING GAME. More than 64 million D&D fans love rolling dice, slaying monsters, and envisioning themselves as the amazing heroes they all are inside. This year at Gen Con 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS will be debuting the 2024 Player’s Handbook making D&D more accessible than ever before. Wizards is bringing 3,000 copies of the 2024 Player’s Handbook hot off the presses to Gen Con 2024 – each of which features the 50th anniversary logo in gold foil, along with a commemorative "Gen Con 2024" bookplate making it even more exclusive and distinguishing it from other first-run copies.

"The energy at Gen Con is always electric. Being able to put copies of the 2024 Player’s Handbook, fresh from the printer, directly into players' hands on the floor of the convention is something truly special,” said Jess Lanzillo, VP of D&D Franchise and Product at Wizards of the Coast. “We can't wait to see the excitement as our fans dive into the possibilities contained within!”

The Player’s Handbook goes on sale everywhere on September 17, 2024, and fans can pre-order the D&D Beyond Digital edition and/or bundlenow for character sheet bonuses: 10 frames, 5 backdrops, and 12 digital dice sets—one for each class!

Pre-order the core rulebooks bundle now on the D&D Beyond Marketplace to receive the Dragons of D&D digital art book, D&D BEYOND Gold Digital Dice set, and a 50th anniversary digital Gold Dragon mini in the upcoming 3D sandbox. Fans will learn how to sign up for the closed beta at Gen Con!

How to Purchase the First Publicly Available 2024 Player’s Handbooks

Gen Con attendees will be the first fans to have an opportunity to purchase the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Here’s how:

Where to Buy

The 2024 Player's Handbook will be available at Lucas Oil Stadium, Northwest Concourse. It will be in a shared sales area with the USPS D&D Stamps.

Sales Dates

August 1: 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM EDT
August 2/3/4: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT

Pricing

The 2024 Player’s Handbook is $49.99 plus tax. Credit card sales (Discover, Mastercard, Visa) only.

At 7:00 AM EDT on each sales day, tickets to reserve an opportunity to purchase will be released in the Gen Con event ticketing system as an event. The event will be listed as a free ticket and will be titled “D&D 2024 Player’s Handbook Early Release Sale.” A Gen Con attendee may claim one digital ticket for that day, subject to availability. The digital ticket serves as your access to purchase for that day only.

Once you have your digital ticket, you will show up at the sales location during the sales hours listed for that day. Sales will not be processed outside of those hours. You must be in line by the end of the sales window to ensure you are able to purchase for that day.

Rules and Restrictions

Only one digital ticket will be redeemable per person per day. Upon redemption, we may issue a wristband to denote that you have been checked in for your purchase, even while in line - this means you no longer need to show your digital ticket. There will be no sales to non-ticket holders (e.g., no "walk ups"). One book per redeemed ticket only; all sales are final.

 

[beta-ray]

I can imagine that living in Hawaii takes the edge off a lot of life’s disappointments!

Yes and no. It's not the paradise that it's often painted as, but I like it enough to not have left (damn expensive though)

 

[Zander]

That's some mad entitlement. Are you sure that their plan isn't to overjoy 3000 fans?

Not an iota of entitlement.
1. Historically, major D&D releases have taken place at Gen Con with a plentiful supply.
2. Gen Con remains the largest face-to-face gathering of D&D gamers in the world.
3. The PHBs would be sold at RRP, not discounted, and would pretty much guarantee WotC a handsome top line from the event.
Three reasons right there for why it's a completely reasonable expectation.

 

[Parmandur]

Not an iota of entitlement.
1. Historically, major D&D releases have taken place at Gen Con with a plentiful supply.
2. Gen Con remains the largest face-to-face gathering of D&D gamers in the world.
3. The PHBs would be sold at RRP, not discounted, and would pretty much guarantee WotC a handsome top line from the event.
Three reasons right there for why it's a completely reasonable expectation.

And that's why they did everything they could to get as many y available as possible, I'm sure.

 

[Zander]

Given the timeline, I strongly suspect that getting 3000 copies to sell was a push. Hardbound, high quality books like the PHB involve a lot of logistics and time to print.

I reckon, though this may never be confirmed, that at some point in the planning of the 2024 PHB that WotC's intention was to release fully at Gen Con, not have a limited release. But because of delays and the logistic & time challenges you mention, WotC wasn't able to do it. The 3,000 copies they will be releasing is the Plan B.

 

[Parmandur]

I reckon, though this may never be confirmed, that at some point in the planning of the 2024 PHB that WotC's intention was to release fully at Gen Con, not have a limited release. But because of delays and the logistic & time challenges you mention, WotC wasn't able to do it. The 3,000 copies they will be releasing is the Plan B.

Quite possible, though the standard release date is also in a time slot that has seen a major D&D release every year for the past decade.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Gen Con remains the largest face-to-face gathering of D&D gamers in the world.

Well, Comic-Con has almost double the attendance of GenCon. If more than half of Comic-Con attendees play D&D -- which is certainly possible -- that would make it the biggest gathering.

But if they were going to sell a bunch of PHBs there, we'd know by now, since it's happening before GenCon.

 

[Hatmatter]

Am I the only one who finds this news disappointing? I know WOTC's job is to bring as much disappointment to fans as possible, but when I read this, I'll admit, I just felt sad.

Sure, it'll be nice for those who get it, and a bazillion pictures and leaks will follow within days, but my immediate thought is that those leaks take away the sense of excitement and must-by-it-on-day-of-release that I (at least) was feeling. I've got a copy reserved at my FLGS, and of course I will buy it on day 1 as planned, but it will, absolutely, feel less exciting if I have seen all the leaks. Which I will have done.

I would absolutely not be surprised if the two-weeks-early release for game stores before online stores/Target/Amazon has a smaller impact that it otherwise would have done had they not made this choice.

Perhaps if not the only one, you are one of the few. Really, just be happy for those who get it early, wait a few weeks, and enjoy. No need to stress about these things.

The funny thing is that months ago there were those critical of Wizards of the Coast for not announcing a release date for the core books early enough. And then there have been those critical of the delays with the Book of Many Things. Now it appears Wizards is certain they will hit their announced release date and there are those critical that they are making some copies available early.

Negativity can be a way of life. It is possible when one has a petty complaint one can simply choose to not write it.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Not an iota of entitlement.
1. Historically, major D&D releases have taken place at Gen Con with a plentiful supply.
2. Gen Con remains the largest face-to-face gathering of D&D gamers in the world.
3. The PHBs would be sold at RRP, not discounted, and would pretty much guarantee WotC a handsome top line from the event.
Three reasons right there for why it's a completely reasonable expectation.

It's not entitlement to think that they might try to release the PHB at the Con. It's entitlement to think that they have to have copies for everyone or they are "planning to disappoint fans" - as if they are disappointing fans on purpose.

 

[Parmandur]

It's not entitlement to think that they might try to release the PHB at the Con. It's entitlement to think that they have to have copies for everyone or they are "planning to disappoint fans" - as if they are disappointing fans on purpose.

I have zero doubt WotC would prefer 30,000 sales to 3,000.

 

[Lalato]

Amen. A very small amount. I remember the line for The Witcher RPG book, I can't imagine what this is going to look like. Anyone know what part of the main square they'll be selling these?

As the article notes, you need to get a ticket in order to buy a book. I'm assuming that they will do 750 tickets per day.

At 7am each morning, 750 tickets will be released. The first 750 people to get a ticket at 7am is guaranteed a slot for purchasing a book that day.

There won't be a mad rush to the WotC booth. No ticket, no purchase. There is an allotted time each day (3 hour window) to stop by the booth at the Lucas Oil Stadium where you can complete the purchase.

Attached image of the ticketed "events".

So it's Thursday morning at 7am, you're on the GenCon ticket portal... and you hope that your click is among the fastest 750 people. You can then go buy the book from 3pm to 6pm at Lucas Oil Stadium.

If you aren't fast enough on Thursday, you can try again on Friday. Wash, rinse, repeat.