D&D 5E D&D 5E’s Top-Selling Adventures and What It Means for the Hobby from Teos Abadia aka Alphastream.

[ersatzphil]

I hesitate to recommend any books as people have different wants and tastes. But for me, it is one of the best 5e books. I would follow @Parmandur's suggestion and try to flip through it a bookstore or library to see if it is for you.

I admit I was really impressed with how useful I found Fizban’s - I only hesitated on Bigby’s because I’ve never found giants terribly compelling as adversaries. A book that could make them compelling would be very cool, actually.

 

[Parmandur]

I admit I was really impressed with how useful I found Fizban’s - I only hesitated on Bigby’s because I’ve never found giants terribly compelling as adversaries. A book that could make them compelling would be very cool, actually.

Bigby's does one better: it makes a compelling case for Giants as both adversaries and as allies or at least neutral NPCs. Really develops the mythical side of Giants, while also making room for them to be usable at the table.

It's actually the first book to use the new reaction rules from the upcoming Core rules, so the random encounter tables provide lots of possibilities for roleplaying encounters with Giants.

 

[aco175]

The breakdown on that site seems to be about what we talked about as far as being the best adventures and also how to be a billion dollar brand. I thought this was the biggest takeaway for me.

if you can’t tell whether Phandelver and Below or Planescape is the primary adventure for 2023, you aren’t alone. 2023 sees five books released between August 15th and November 14th!

 

[mamba]

if you can’t tell whether Phandelver and Below or Planescape is the primary adventure for 2023, you aren’t alone.

I go with Phandelver, Planescape is more a settings book

 

[Parmandur]

The breakdown on that site seems to be about what we talked about as far as being the best adventures and also how to be a billion dollar brand. I thought this was the biggest takeaway for me.

if you can’t tell whether Phandelver and Below or Planescape is the primary adventure for 2023, you aren’t alone. 2023 sees five books released between August 15th and November 14th!

4: a Monster Supplement, the bigh September Campaign, a Settimg, and an oddball box set.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

The Monster Overhaul

Monster Overhaul? Is that a 3pp book?

 

[ersatzphil]

Monster Overhaul? Is that a 3pp book?

Indeed - dtrpg link. It aims to be a 'practical bestiary': the entry for Minotaur includes a sample labyrinth and Sphinx includes two pages of riddles, as examples. It also includes a table for nearly every entry that describes what happens if you eat the monster after defeating it, which... I don't know if I've been playing at the right tables or the wrong ones, but it has yet to come up for me. @Whizbang Dustyboots as a thread about it here.

 

[dave2008]

Monster Overhaul? Is that a 3pp book?

Yes, it is semi-system neutral but seems to be geared more to OSR if I understand it correctly

 

[dave2008]

Indeed - dtrpg link. It aims to be a 'practical bestiary': the entry for Minotaur includes a sample labyrinth and Sphinx includes two pages of riddles, as examples. It also includes a table for nearly every entry that describes what happens if you eat the monster after defeating it, which... I don't know if I've been playing at the right tables or the wrong ones, but it has yet to come up for me. @Whizbang Dustyboots as a thread about it here.

Eating & harvesting monsters are a common concept in manga, manhua, etc. In a lot of those stories the best equipment is forged from mythic beast parts and eating their meat increases your strength

 

[ersatzphil]

Yes, it is semi-system neutral but seems to be geared more to OSR if I understand it correctly

You’d need to change the numerical values for some things, but all of the non-math stuff would be usable in 5e. From what I’ve seen so far at least; I’m kind of waiting for the physical book to really dive into it.