D&D 5E Why is no one talking about THE BOOK OF MANY THINGS?

[Burnside]

I am less familiar with the Book of Many Things. What are some ways that a DM would use the book for an adventure? (Besides the obvious, it is a magic item that the DM can introduce.)

It actually has adventures in it, mostly suggested by the cards (like, here’s an adventure to claim the castle one of the cards says you can have; here’s the fiend that becomes your enemy and what they’ll do, etc.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Elaborate?

There's a chapter on a fantasy zodiac, the Sky of Many Things, with information about the constellations, what they might mean for characters born under that sign and what other influences they have on the world, including magical effects, suggestions on how they could be part of magical items, plus some stuff about observatories, magical and otherwise.

All of the chapters in this book are basically meaty Dragon articles riffing off of the cards in the Deck of Many Things.

 

[MerricB]

It is a book that is strangely limited by its subject matter.

As I was reading it, I was going "this is great!" a lot, but the more I read, the more I thought "I just wish they weren't shoehorning everything to fit with the Deck of Many Things".

By the end, I felt it had missed the mark substantially.

This is a book that I initially thought should sit next to Xanathar's Guide to Everything on my shelf. It's that sort of book - a grab bag of interesting elements to add to your D&D campaign. But the organisation is horrible. And the tying of game elements to the Deck diminishes them. Stuff that should be generally useful is made weirdly specific.

 

[Parmandur]

Thinking about why people might not talk about the book...it doesn't present many problems with use. The Big Campaign books need a lot of work to make into a game, but the bite size bits in here don't require big threads on how to fix the material.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I just didn't get it was because it was outside my price range for a D&D product.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I just didn't get it was because it was outside my price range for a D&D product.

Yeah, I got a good deal on it at the same time as I got an unexpected windfall.

 

[Chaltab]

Book of Many Things and Keys from the Golden Vault were imo the two best official books of 2023, a year that had what I would consider several serious missteps (Phandelver & Below, Planescape, Vecna).

I think the rollout for Book of Many Things got snakebitten by production delays caused by the deck itself experiencing printing errors and the 2023 release schedule itself having a sub-optimal release pileup late in the year (nothing released from March through July, then 5 books jammed into August-December).

Vecna was last year

 

[Umbran]

It is a book that is strangely limited by its subject matter.

As I was reading it, I was going "this is great!" a lot, but the more I read, the more I thought "I just wish they weren't shoehorning everything to fit with the Deck of Many Things".

By the end, I felt it had missed the mark substantially.

So, it is a product focused on the Deck of Many Things, and by having everything relate to the Deck, it missed the mark?

I am not sure I am on board with that as a critique, which ought to be about whether the thing meets its own design goals well. It sounds like saying that you don't like a seafood restaurant because it doesn't have enough pizza on the menu.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Book of Many Things and Keys from the Golden Vault were imo the two best official books of 2023, a year that had what I would consider several serious missteps (Phandelver & Below, Planescape, Vecna).

I think the rollout for Book of Many Things got snakebitten by production delays caused by the deck itself experiencing printing errors and the 2023 release schedule itself having a sub-optimal release pileup late in the year (nothing released from March through July, then 5 books jammed into August-December).

Interesting, I think Planescape is a great product. First time I became interested in the setting!

But to the OP (@THEMNGMNT), I passed on the Book, what is there that would make me want to get it?

 

[Burnside]

So, it is a product focused on the Deck of Many Things, and by having everything relate to the Deck, it missed the mark?

I am not sure I am on board with that as a critique, which ought to be about whether the thing meets its own design goals well. It sounds like saying that you don't like a seafood restaurant because it doesn't have enough pizza on the menu.

While it's cool that the content is thematically tied to the deck, organizing the actual chapters in the book according to the themes of the cards arguably ends up being a cute gimmick that makes the book harder to use than it might otherwise have been. However, the intro section does provide a reasonable guide to locating the sort of content you want, albeit spread throughout chapters.