D&D General The 2024 PHB is the best Player's Handbook ever

[THEMNGMNT]

I'm not claiming the 2024 rules are the best version of Dungeon & Dragons ever. Although I believe they probably are, it's a matter of personal taste. Reasonable people can disagree.

But there is no doubt the 2024 PHB is the best Player's Handbook ever published.

Introducing the game: The examples of play in Chapter 1 are the best intro to D&D since the old Red Box.

The rules glossary: All the rules, all in one place. It's not a dream! It's real!

Characters: Presentation of classes, subclasses, species, and backgrounds is clear and inspiring.

Stuff: There's just a lot here. Gobs of subclasses, feats, gear, spells, etc. I haven't counted the numbers, but this must be the most comprehensive, complete, and authoritative PHB of any edition.

The design: The book is beautiful and presents information in a way that's easy to understand.

The art: While not always to my personal taste, both the quality and quantity of art are unmatched.

In order, my favorite PHBs are: 2024 5E, 3E, and 4E. 1E, 2E, and 2014 5E have many great qualities, but they're not my personal faves.

TL;DR the 2024 Player's Handbook is a masterpiece.

 

[Parmandur]

I agree, it is quite an achievement in RPG book design.

 

[GMMichael]

I'm not claiming the 2024 rules are the best version of Dungeon & Dragons ever.

Good. Because I think that honor belongs to Shadowdark.

The rules glossary: All the rules, all in one place. It's not a dream! It's real!

They made real strides here. About 150 of them, looks like. It's interesting - my game only has about 80 rules, but I still felt a need to codify them, track some rule dependencies, and sort them into modules. Maybe WotC will do that in a later book. Anyway, I consider Modos RPG to be light crunch, and D&D to be medium (pushing heavy now), so it's cool to be able to put some solid numbers on these terms.

Here's my "glossary":

Rules Catalog | Modos RPG | Obsidian Portal

Here are the five standard rules modules that make up Modos RPG. These modules are free to use and replicate under a Creative Commons license (read here) when y

modos-rpg.obsidianportal.com

 

[DarkCrisis]

 

[boffo01]

Speaking as someone who has just recently come back to TTRPGs as a kind of 50-something mid-life crisis after 30 years away from it, I'm really impressed with the 2024 PHB. I haven't read a Players Handbook since 2nd Ed, and the accessibility and smoothness of onboarding in this is terrific. The art isn't really to my taste (bit too slick for my liking - it was DCC's aesthetic that got me back into it all, so that's where I am), but there's plenty of it, and the whole thing is presented in a way that makes sense, slowly adding complexity with every chapter. And yeah, those play examples are brilliant.
On the art, it was funny to see all the moaning about it in advance, somehow trying to frame it as a "woke", cosy game now, but all the danger, action and monsters are still there in the art as well. It's just that sometimes in the art people smile, almost like they're enjoying themselves. Nuts, I know.
I also wonder what those guys must've made of the Tom Wham art in the AD&D manuals...

 

[Zardnaar]

Not a phb but 1991 Rules Compendium.

Hard to beat that.

 

[Scott Christian]

The design: The book is beautiful and presents information in a way that's easy to understand.

While I agree with this sentiment, there is another side to this.

Yes, the information is organized clearly. Yes, the examples are clear and concise. And yes, they changed the language in the book to read like a YA novel. The last part, the lower vocabulary and fewer use of compound and complex sentences I am not a fan of.

And for this reason only - Like many of us here, we read these books as kids or young teenagers. They helped us learn how to read and broadened our vocabulary. The new book reads like a middle school text, and for my own personal reasons, I dislike that.

 

[TiQuinn]

I'm not claiming the 2024 rules are the best version of Dungeon & Dragons ever. Although I believe they probably are, it's a matter of personal taste. Reasonable people can disagree.

But there is no doubt the 2024 PHB is the best Player's Handbook ever published.

I’ve been hearing this consistently: the layout, organization and artwork of the book is absolutely top notch.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

While I agree with this sentiment, there is another side to this.

Yes, the information is organized clearly. Yes, the examples are clear and concise. And yes, they changed the language in the book to read like a YA novel. The last part, the lower vocabulary and fewer use of compound and complex sentences I am not a fan of.

And for this reason only - Like many of us here, we read these books as kids or young teenagers. They helped us learn how to read and broadened our vocabulary. The new book reads like a middle school text, and for my own personal reasons, I dislike that.

Are you advocating for a return of Gygaxian Purple Prose?

 

[Zardnaar]

Are you advocating for a return of Gygaxian Purple Prose?

The milieu doesn't support it.