D&D General How many of your 5E D&D books have you used?

Morrus · Oct 12, 2021

I have a shelf full of official 5E D&D books, but I have used only half of them at most (and I stopped automatically buying all of them about 3 years ago, choosing the ones I think I'll use now). Then again I have 10 x that number of RPGs total, many of which I've never had chance to play. That's OK -- I like reading RPGs!

How many official 5E D&D books have you got?

How many of those have you used?

rgoodbb · Oct 12, 2021

I'm of a similar mould to you in as much as I stopped buying them all and cherry picked a few years back.

All of the non-adventures have been used thoroughly. About a third just adorn my shelves.

Maxperson · Oct 12, 2021

Morrus said:
I have a shelf full of official 5E D&D books, but I have used only half of them at most (and I stopped automatically buying all of them about 3 years ago, choosing the ones I think I'll use now). Then again I have 10 x that number of RPGs total, many of which I've never had chance to play. That's OK -- I like reading RPGs!

How many official 5E D&D books have you got?

How many of those have you used?

I own 11 and have used 10. Soon to be 12 and 10 when Minsc and Boo arrives.

I tend not to buy adventure paths, because I like running my own stories. I will buy things like Candle Keep Mysteries and Tales From the Yawning Portal, since I can pull out dungeons/adventures to throw into my campaign. The exception to that is Dungeon of the Mad Mage, which I bought because I love Undermountain. Even then I'm pulling out individual levels to use as dungeons elsewhere in the world.

overgeeked · Oct 12, 2021

I have 12. The core three, the two extra monster books, the two extra rule books, the 3 D&D setting books, Theros, and Curse of Strahd.

I've used them all. But I haven't used them all more than once. The setting books are mostly reference material, sit on the shelf until I need them. Curse of Strahd I've run a few times. I use the DMG a bit, mostly looking up variant rules and firearms or random charts, but that's it. It's the PHB and two extra rule books that get the most use. The monster books are used the least. I just homebrew monsters as the official ones are weak sauce.

Umbran · Oct 12, 2021

I don't know the count off the top of my head, but I have used every 5e item that I have purchased.

UngeheuerLich · Oct 12, 2021

Quite a lot of books.
Many read through, at least in parts.
Core + 2 are thouroughly used.
Others in parts.

ART! · Oct 12, 2021

I only own 3 physical 5E books: the PHB, DMG, and JetPack7's Gods & Goddesses. Goodman Games' Beowulf will make four.

I've definitely used the first two, I'm sure G&G will get used, and Beowulf...maybe? I'll probably pull ideas from it for use in not-Beowulf things.

Enrico Poli1 · Oct 12, 2021

I've got21 (PHB, DMG, MM, the introductory Boxed Set, Rick and Morty Boxed Set, VGtM, MToF, XGtE, CoS, ToA, DiA, WBtW, RotFM, GoS, ToYP, DotMM, DH, Ravnica, Eberron, Ravenloft, Wildemount)

I peruse the core books and the adventures, plus the bestiaries.

The ones I didn't use but are happy to own are: Rick and Morty, Eberron, Ravenloft, Wildemount.

The ones I didn't use and I am a bit disappointed with are: XgtE, Ravnica

delericho · Oct 12, 2021

Official: Own 18 (counting Starter and Essentials Kits as one each), used 9 at least partially.
3rd party: Own 4, used 4 (all monster books, so they're easy to get some use of)

I also own a few PDFs, and have used almost all of them at least a little.

The only thing I would note is that of the 9 I've used, many of them have only seen a very small amount of use - about a third of "Storm King's Thunder", one chapter of "Curse of Strahd", and the monsters from Volo and Mord's Guides.

And despite all that, 5e is probably the most efficient edition I own, in terms of books owned vs. used.