Anyone got the Dummies book?

[Zappo]

I won't bother ordering it online. But if they ever sell it in bookstores in Italy, I will pick it up and use it as a throwing weapon against any player that asks me again whether he can make an attack of opportunity against an opponent that takes a 5' step.

 

[howandwhy99]

I scored a freebie as I still have a problem learning the rules. The problem is all the other players are far more knowledgeable than I, so it's hard to get motivated.

I paged through the book. It has some good advice for those who don't read the boards and need to know what to pick/choose for a quality character build. Nothing on backgrounds and personality of course, but those aren't important to the game. It is very simple and starts at a low level of understanding.

The page count is deceiving. The words/page is very low and the total words in the whole book is far less than the PHB. It's an introductory and enough to play the game at a basic level. The basic game probably had something very similar, but stripped down. That said, the "10 best" lists in the back are rather week. They run across many pages, not because they list the contents, but because they give a short blurb on each.

 

[francisca]

Chapter 32: The Ten Best D&D Novels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .373
Dragonlance Chronicles ..............................................................................373
Dragonlance Legends ..................................................................................373
Icewind Dale Trilogy ....................................................................................374
R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen .................................................374
Knights of the Silver Dragon.......................................................................374
The City of Towers.......................................................................................374
The Temple of Elemental Evil .....................................................................375
The Hunter’s Blades Trilogy .......................................................................375
The Year of Rogue Dragons.........................................................................375
The Savage Caves.........................................................................................375

From the index, man, the top ten D&D novels? Ironically enough, hardly any of them are actually novels as opposed to whole series. Sheesh.

For those who have never seen it, let me offer a better list:
http://www.geocities.com/rgfdfaq/sources.html

 

[HellHound]

I gave it two thumbs... mmm.... meh.

But then again, I'm an old-timer, and it has nothing for me. Beyond that, I have zero patience for starter products... One of the best-reviewed CyberPunk products was the GM advice book... a book I couldn't stand because it was a bunch of advice to do what I already do.

So there we go.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

Hi-

Wow, that is a much better list and very informative. Thanks!



Scott

 

[shaylon]

Chapter 32: The Ten Best D&D Novels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .373
Dragonlance Chronicles ..............................................................................373
Dragonlance Legends ..................................................................................373
Icewind Dale Trilogy ....................................................................................374
R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen .................................................374
Knights of the Silver Dragon.......................................................................374
The City of Towers.......................................................................................374
The Temple of Elemental Evil .....................................................................375
The Hunter’s Blades Trilogy .......................................................................375
The Year of Rogue Dragons.........................................................................375
The Savage Caves.........................................................................................375

From the index, man, the top ten D&D novels? Ironically enough, hardly any of them are actually novels as opposed to whole series. Sheesh.

I am having a little trouble with this. City of Towers is a top ten D&D novel? It came out a few months ago and while I enjoyed it I would hardly put it in a top ten list. Anyone know what they are basing this on? If they were trying to include novels from all settings I guess I could see that since there are only a couple of Eberron novels currently but come on, City of Towers doesn't beat anything Elaine Cunningham wrote about the realms, IMO. Same thing with the year of Rogue Dragons. It's entertaining, and I suppose it deals with current Realms topics, but is it better than say, Spellfire? Or any of the earlier Harpers series novels?

I am disappointed to see this. I know this book isn't marketed towards me but I don't think you should mislead new players by encouraging the novels that you still make money on. WOTC should care enough about their old material to mention it even if it means that they don't get first purchase rights when the player has to find it at a used book store.

Disappointing.

 

[reveal]

I am having a little trouble with this. City of Towers is a top ten D&D novel? It came out a few months ago and while I enjoyed it I would hardly put it in a top ten list. Anyone know what they are basing this on?

The in-depth research performed by WotC's marketing department.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

it took nearly a month. but i finally got to give the group their copies.

maybe JoeBlank, biorph, howandwhy99, Olgar Shiverstone, or Sam who's name on ENWurld i don't know can give a review.

Heh. diaglo, smart-ass that he is, passed out D&DFD at our last session. I very nearly made the group playing the session using only the rules in that book -- which would have eliminated every single character in the group, as the book only focuses on four races (human, elf, dwarf, halfling) and four classes (fighter, cleric, rogue, sorcerer).

It's a good introduction for a new player, though it is designed to be used in conjunction with the PHB as well. It's very reminiscent of the D&D Basic Game, which it matches with as well.

I'm not all the way through it yet. I find it a little disorganized. It has detailed descriptions of the four classes and their stats and abilities, but only later on explains what the six Ability scores mean, for example. I'm getting into the more "advanced" portions of it now. The hints on choices of weapons, armor, and spells are useful for new characters -- it has suggested feat paths and spell selections for the primary classes up to 10th level, which is kind of a neat feature. It offers suggestions for different takes on each of the classes -- nothing too dramatic, but "blaster sorcerer", "buffing sorcerer", and "sneaky sorcerer" are examples.

The "Top Ten" lists do read like an advertisement -- particularly since there are items on it that haven't been released yet (Weapons of Legacy, anyone?).

Again, not a bad intro, but not much you'll learn much from if you've spent much time playing 3/3.5 D&D already.

Gotta thank diaglo for the nice gesture, though!

 

[Breakdaddy]

I picked up a copy and from a preliminary look it does what it came to do- teaches a total n00bhammer how to play D&D from a zero knowledge base. It does, however, have Pimp Factor: 10 (engage) on WOTC's premiere product list, couldnt have been more blatant.

 

[Ysgarran]

The fact that enworld isn't listed as one of the ten best resources is enough for me to say the book is...well, lacking. I would like to use some stronger termonology...

Ysgarran.

Chapter 31: The Ten Best Player Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .369
Ugh... how the heck can a book, the weapons of Legacy, be a best player resource when it's not even out yet? What are they smoking?

Man, the point of this Dummies book is beyond obvious to almost be insulting.