D&D Workbooks Announced by Penguin Random House

Two new Dungeons & Dragons workbooks are coming out next year to help players and DMs workshop various parts of the DM. In May 2026, Penguin Random House will release The Dungeon Master's Workbook of Worldbuilding and The Player's Workbook of Epic Adventures, two interactive workbooks intended as companions to the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide. The Dungeon Master's Workbook contains various exercises designed to help spur on worldbuilding, come up with storyhooks, and craft homebrew magic items. Meanwhile, the Player's Workbook contains prompts to help players plan out their character and its advancement throughout the campaign.

Both workbooks will be released on May 5th, with each book having a retail price of $26.

The description for the Dungeon Master's Workbook of Worldbuilding can be found below:

Unleash your imagination with this officially licensed interactive workbook packed with exercises, prompts, visual guides, and other activities designed to prepare new Dungeon Masters and enrich experienced ones.

Whether you’re a fledgling Dungeon Master or an expert worldbuilder, The Dungeon Master’s Workbook of Worldbuilding helps you envision an unforgettable Dungeons & Dragons adventure. Through a series of fun writing and brainstorming exercises, you will:

• create an exciting campaign setting for your players
• practice improvisation and roleplaying as a DM
• craft tantalizing rewards and intriguing magic items
• weave compelling story hooks with over twenty-five scenarios
• learn the basics of mapmaking
• and more!

An official companion to the revised and expanded Dungeon Master’s Guide, this workbook is both an insightful storytelling tool and a beautiful volume to display in any D&D library. Get ready to level up your game!

The description for the Player's Workbook can be found below:

Your epic Dungeons & Dragons adventures start here! Packed with exercises, prompts, visual guides, and other activities, this officially licensed interactive workbook is designed to prepare new players and enrich experienced ones.

Never played Dungeons & Dragons before? Fear not, adventurer! Simply looking to level up your game? Hail and well met! Intended to introduce new players to the world’s greatest roleplaying game and provide new insights for experienced players, this interactive workbook guides you through the basics of fifth edition D&D. Through fun writing and brainstorming exercises, you will:

· choose a class, subclass, and origin for your character
· craft your character’s unique backstory and personality
· get to know your party
· plan responses to story scenarios
· envision your character’s advancement
· and much more!

As an official companion to the revised and expanded Player’s Handbook, this workbook is a helpful resource for embracing D&D’s new core rulebooks. There’s never been a better time to gather your party and begin your adventures!

 

[dave2008]

I like the 2024 PHB but the DMG cut a lot of content that I now have to refer to 2014 for (world building specifically, lingering injuries, madness.) I'm not entirely sure why these things were cut from the refresh.

I too like all of the optional, variant rules, and monster building guidelines cut from the 2024 DMG. On the other hand, I am pretty sure WotC has some data that suggest a lot of people didn't get much use out of them. Heck, I still encounter people that don't know those rules are in the 2014 DMG.

I am unreasonably hopeful that those chopped rules will reappear in a stand alone book. Actually that is where they belong IMO, not in the DMG but a specific book on variants, options, and homebrew.

 

[Charlaquin]

This is interesting, what did you think was improved upon?

I like the 2024 PHB but the DMG cut a lot of content that I now have to refer to 2014 for (world building specifically, lingering injuries, madness.) I'm not entirely sure why these things were cut from the refresh.

The 2024 DMG is an actual guide on how to DM. The 2014 DMG was a toolbox of ideas and optional rules for experienced DMs. If you already know how to DM, the 2014 DMG is probably the more useful resource for you, but the 2024 DMG does a better job of what a dungeon master’s guide purports to be for.

 

[mamba]

I am unreasonably hopeful that those chopped rules will reappear in a stand alone book. Actually that is where they belong IMO

I kinda expect to find them in the next ‘of Everything’ book

 

[Charlaquin]

I too like all of the optional, variant rules, and monster building guidelines cut from the 2024 DMG. On the other hand, I am pretty sure WotC has some data that suggest a lot of people didn't get much use out of them. Heck, I still encounter people that don't know those rules are in the 2014 DMG.

I am unreasonably hopeful that those chopped rules will reappear in a stand alone book. Actually that is where they belong IMO, not in the DMG but a specific book on variants, options, and homebrew.

Most of the optional rules in the 2014 DMG were ideas that got floated in the D&D Next Playtest at one point or another but presumably never met the approval threshold to make it into the core rules. In another world where 5e had followed through on the D&D Next’s initial premise of modular design allowing for a build-your-own-edition, I imagine we might have gotten more products with these sorts of cool “official optional” hacks and add-ons. @mearls has talked briefly on here about why that idea never really came together. IIRC playtest feedback just showed very little interest in non-core rules. People seemed to like the idea of the build-you-own-edition when they were imagining everything they didn’t like being cordoned off as “official optional,” but nobody actually wanted the rules they liked to not be part of the core rules.

 

[AlViking]

Most of the optional rules in the 2014 DMG were ideas that got floated in the D&D Next Playtest at one point or another but presumably never met the approval threshold to make it into the core rules. In another world where 5e had followed through on the D&D Next’s initial premise of modular design allowing for a build-your-own-edition, I imagine we might have gotten more products with these sorts of cool “official optional” hacks and add-ons. @mearls has talked briefly on here about why that idea never really came together. IIRC playtest feedback just showed very little interest in non-core rules. People seemed to like the idea of the build-you-own-edition when they were imagining everything they didn’t like being cordoned off as “official optional,” but nobody actually wanted the rules they liked to not be part of the core rules.

I think it would be very difficult to have a build-your-own-game option for D&D, after a certain point it would turn into GURPS. If you're good enough to fit all sorts of different option rules together and make it work you can probably create most of the house rules yourself.

On the other hand, these books might be a good place for optional rules.

 

[thatOneLinuxDM]

The 2024 DMG is an actual guide on how to DM. The 2014 DMG was a toolbox of ideas and optional rules for experienced DMs. If you already know how to DM, the 2014 DMG is probably the more useful resource for you, but the 2024 DMG does a better job of what a dungeon master’s guide purports to be for.

This is reasonable, I suppose I probably just fall into the latter part of your example. I was interested in a book that helps with designing games and worlds, which the Dungeon Master's Guide was historically for, but in 2024 it became far more literal (as you point out.)

Don't get me wrong, I still bought it, it just felt weird that it was a lot more dumbed down than the 2014 book (in my opinion.) I can see why it might be a good resource for new DMs though, especially if they need a bit of social guidance too (and don't just try to ape some streamer with a script.)

 

[thatOneLinuxDM]

I think it would be very difficult to have a build-your-own-game option for D&D, after a certain point it would turn into GURPS. If you're good enough to fit all sorts of different option rules together and make it work you can probably create most of the house rules yourself.

On the other hand, these books might be a good place for optional rules.

I suspect many people end up doing this anyway. The rules for Sanity are especially interesting if you're running a world or module where it might conceivably come up.

Lingering injuries confuses me a bit, because I can and have had players go, "Wait, I lost my leg, what does that mean?" and I used to refer to the DMG for that.

I obviously still can, and do, make a lot more use out of the 2014 DMG, those rules haven't gone away, they're just in a different book.

Noting too that XGTE and Tasha's haven't been refreshed yet, but bits of both those books found their way into core.

2024 feels a lot like tinkering around the edges.

 

[AlViking]

I suspect many people end up doing this anyway. The rules for Sanity are especially interesting if you're running a world or module where it might conceivably come up.

Lingering injuries confuses me a bit, because I can and have had players go, "Wait, I lost my leg, what does that mean?" and I used to refer to the DMG for that.

I obviously still can, and do, make a lot more use out of the 2014 DMG, those rules haven't gone away, they're just in a different book.

Noting too that XGTE and Tasha's haven't been refreshed yet, but bits of both those books found their way into core.

2024 feels a lot like tinkering around the edges.

Considering how well the 2014 books sold well beyond expectations and kept selling well for a decade I'm not surprised they didn't make major changes. It would be nice to have a curated book to reference, there are probably rules for this kind of stuff out on the web but that's always a gamble.

 

[aco175]

I did see some more pictures that look to be in the book. Some/all are reused from other books and things. Not sure if this is why the cost is cheap or is the $25 for 167 pages right? Then, this asks the question about the new books and adventure path books.