D&D 5E Books for DM and (or) or players

[Grimmjow]

The name might be confusing so I'll explain.

4e books did not work to well for me. The books were either for the DM or for the players. Until Darksun, I don't think that they had any books that that had content for both the players and the DMs.

I want (hope) that the DDN books (with exceptions to books like Monster Manuals, The Dungeon Master Guide, and the Player Handbooks [however many of these there will be]) that books contain things for both sides of the game.

For example: Lets say they release a supplement on sea adventures. The DMs part of the book would give tips on how to run a sea fairing adventure, have monsters, rules for natural phenomena, and other things to make the book a great thing for DMs wanting a sea fairing game. Then the second part of the book would cover what the players would need for a sea fairing game. Maybe new sub-races for some of the races we would already have (island elf, some kind of water dragonborn, a weird water halfling?), maybe some new options for classes, perhaps even updated information on gods of the sea domain and other domains that fit into the setting of the book (travel and weather for example).

The same thing should be done with campaign settings. I didn't enjoy having to get the Campaign guide and the player guide in order to play Eberon. Even if it means that books are really big and maybe cost a little more, these are sacrifices I'd be willing to make.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I think 3e splatbooks tended to be as you describe. the FRCS, for example, had stat writeups for NPCs and a billion pages of descriptions of locations, but it also had subraces, prestige classes, feats, etc. for players.

I think it really depends on the book what's most appropriate.

 

[Obryn]

It really depends. I think there is a hope, when you separate out player and DM content, that more players will buy books. In practice - in my group at least - my players buy no more than a handful of books, anyway. I'm the big collector. And as the DM, I still kinda need the players' books.

As long as the quality, pagecount, and price are all in a reasonable range, either way is good for me.

-O

 

[JeffB]

Depends, but generally I prefer the 4e type split. I could care less about all the feats, pr classes, paragon paths, blah blah blah/ other crunch, would rather not have to pay for it,and would prefer players kept their noses out of all the dm secret stuff.