The Player's Workbook of Epic Adventure and the Dungeon Master's Workbook of Worldbuilding are the latest official D&D player and DM aids. Both are designed to complement 5E, blending basic information with advice on playing and running a D&D session, though a lot of the advice could be used for any edition.
What makes these different than the player and DM advice in the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, or Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything? First, these are workbooks, with room to write in answers, sketch your character’s appearance, etc. Certain pages are even printed with a grid for drawing maps. Second, the advice goes deeper, with exercises to make characters more well rounded and campaigns more compelling.
Player's Workbook of Epic Adventure
PWoEA is organized to take you from character concept to complete, well-rounded character. It’s divided into five sections—Learning the Basics, Creating Your Character, Defining Your Character, Playing Your Character, and The Playground. The first chapter addresses the fundamentals, like the types of dice, the shorthand that explains what dice to roll, etc.
Creating Your Character takes you through the steps of making a character. I like the chart that summarizes key points for backgrounds. For example, Guard is defined as “drilled, communal, elegant, lawful, and settled” while Entertainer is “apprenticed, independent, elegant, lawful and transient.” You still need the PHB for mechanical specifics but this supplemental material efficiently provides info new players can grasp quickly.
Part 3 reminds me of exercises in the old HERO System’s Champions III, which helps you round out your character. But instead of listing hobbies, favorite entertainment, ambitions, and philosophy of life, the PWoEA has exercises to describe the stories behind your character’s tattoos, items they carry as remembrances or tokens from family or friends, etc.
Part 4 addresses Session Zero as well as ways to bring your character to life through role-play. Exercises help the player evaluate group dynamics, who is the best at what, and more. Part 5 has ideas and information for staying in touch with the game between sessions, like journaling exercises, visualizing your last session as a movie, and such.
Dungeon Master's Workbook of Worldbuilding
Designed for both new and established DMs, DMWoW is divided into four sections. Part 1, Building Your World, is full of prompts to inspire worldbuilding and campaign design. It also offers story hooks to engage players, and tips on how to borrow from favorite books, movies, and TV shows, and blend it into something new.
Part 2, Developing Your Skills, helps you to improve your DMing, from doing character voices to improv tactics to help you better handle the curve-balls players invariably throw. Venger from the old D&D cartoon makes an appearance in the artwork for this section. It’s nice to see the old guy pop up now and then.
Part 3, Running a Campaign, gets into the nitty-gritty of makes a campaign fun for players. That includes things like compelling NPCs, developing a play style that works for you and your group, and tailoring rewards to your players’ interests.
Part 4, Adventures and Encounters, has map-making advice and prompts for creating encounters and adventures. Don’t expect full scenarios. These are adventure seeds to get you started, and then expand to suit your needs.
Both books end with the same question and response: “Is everyone at the table having a good time? So long as you can check this box, you are doing great.” It’s an appropriately encouraging note to finish on.
Summary, a.k.a. Should I Buy Them?
Both workbooks appeal to a specific yet broad audience, namely those who want to do more as a player or DM. Neither book is essential to play D&D, but could be helpful. New players and players who like to focus on role-playing are likely to enjoy the PWoEA. If your style is more hack and slay with lots of combat and little role-playing, not so much.
As for DMs, DMWoW offers a broad spectrum of tips, exercises, and advice. So if you want help with campaign ideas or to up your performance skills, it has useful suggestions.
Both workbooks are beautifully designed, with art on the end pages, gilt lettering on the covers, a clear, logical layout, and attractive art throughout. While their square binding looks good and will fit in well on your game book shelf, they’d be easier to write in if they had been spiral bound.
I only have two complaints, both of which might be minor to some. First, the lack of a table of contents is annoying. It would be a lot easier and faster to return to a section if you knew which page it was on. Instead, you could end up wasting a lot of time flipping through trying to get back to the thing you want. If you’re using a workbook a second time for a new character or campaign, it would be even easier to accidentally go past the part you’re seeking.
The second is a complaint I can level at most RPG books, though that doesn’t make it any less annoying. While attractive, the designs could be tweaked to be a bit more visually friendly. Few RPG books seem to use true black fonts any more, but they could at least use darker ink to provide better contrast. Aging eyes would also benefit from slightly larger fonts, too. Both would make flipping through to find things easier since there isn’t a table of contents.
Either book would make a great gift for the D&D fan in your life. For yourself, if you’re a new player or a player or DM who wants to up your skills, they’re definitely worth considering.
Rating: A-. Each book retails for $26 and are currently available.
What makes these different than the player and DM advice in the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, or Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything? First, these are workbooks, with room to write in answers, sketch your character’s appearance, etc. Certain pages are even printed with a grid for drawing maps. Second, the advice goes deeper, with exercises to make characters more well rounded and campaigns more compelling.
Player's Workbook of Epic Adventure
PWoEA is organized to take you from character concept to complete, well-rounded character. It’s divided into five sections—Learning the Basics, Creating Your Character, Defining Your Character, Playing Your Character, and The Playground. The first chapter addresses the fundamentals, like the types of dice, the shorthand that explains what dice to roll, etc.
Creating Your Character takes you through the steps of making a character. I like the chart that summarizes key points for backgrounds. For example, Guard is defined as “drilled, communal, elegant, lawful, and settled” while Entertainer is “apprenticed, independent, elegant, lawful and transient.” You still need the PHB for mechanical specifics but this supplemental material efficiently provides info new players can grasp quickly.
Part 3 reminds me of exercises in the old HERO System’s Champions III, which helps you round out your character. But instead of listing hobbies, favorite entertainment, ambitions, and philosophy of life, the PWoEA has exercises to describe the stories behind your character’s tattoos, items they carry as remembrances or tokens from family or friends, etc.
Part 4 addresses Session Zero as well as ways to bring your character to life through role-play. Exercises help the player evaluate group dynamics, who is the best at what, and more. Part 5 has ideas and information for staying in touch with the game between sessions, like journaling exercises, visualizing your last session as a movie, and such.
Dungeon Master's Workbook of Worldbuilding
Designed for both new and established DMs, DMWoW is divided into four sections. Part 1, Building Your World, is full of prompts to inspire worldbuilding and campaign design. It also offers story hooks to engage players, and tips on how to borrow from favorite books, movies, and TV shows, and blend it into something new.
Part 2, Developing Your Skills, helps you to improve your DMing, from doing character voices to improv tactics to help you better handle the curve-balls players invariably throw. Venger from the old D&D cartoon makes an appearance in the artwork for this section. It’s nice to see the old guy pop up now and then.
Part 3, Running a Campaign, gets into the nitty-gritty of makes a campaign fun for players. That includes things like compelling NPCs, developing a play style that works for you and your group, and tailoring rewards to your players’ interests.
Part 4, Adventures and Encounters, has map-making advice and prompts for creating encounters and adventures. Don’t expect full scenarios. These are adventure seeds to get you started, and then expand to suit your needs.
Both books end with the same question and response: “Is everyone at the table having a good time? So long as you can check this box, you are doing great.” It’s an appropriately encouraging note to finish on.
Summary, a.k.a. Should I Buy Them?
Both workbooks appeal to a specific yet broad audience, namely those who want to do more as a player or DM. Neither book is essential to play D&D, but could be helpful. New players and players who like to focus on role-playing are likely to enjoy the PWoEA. If your style is more hack and slay with lots of combat and little role-playing, not so much.
As for DMs, DMWoW offers a broad spectrum of tips, exercises, and advice. So if you want help with campaign ideas or to up your performance skills, it has useful suggestions.
Both workbooks are beautifully designed, with art on the end pages, gilt lettering on the covers, a clear, logical layout, and attractive art throughout. While their square binding looks good and will fit in well on your game book shelf, they’d be easier to write in if they had been spiral bound.
I only have two complaints, both of which might be minor to some. First, the lack of a table of contents is annoying. It would be a lot easier and faster to return to a section if you knew which page it was on. Instead, you could end up wasting a lot of time flipping through trying to get back to the thing you want. If you’re using a workbook a second time for a new character or campaign, it would be even easier to accidentally go past the part you’re seeking.
The second is a complaint I can level at most RPG books, though that doesn’t make it any less annoying. While attractive, the designs could be tweaked to be a bit more visually friendly. Few RPG books seem to use true black fonts any more, but they could at least use darker ink to provide better contrast. Aging eyes would also benefit from slightly larger fonts, too. Both would make flipping through to find things easier since there isn’t a table of contents.
Either book would make a great gift for the D&D fan in your life. For yourself, if you’re a new player or a player or DM who wants to up your skills, they’re definitely worth considering.
Rating: A-. Each book retails for $26 and are currently available.
