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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 6386630" data-attributes="member: 7635">Preach it. I will add on the Adventurer's Vault and the Monster Manual(s) to that list as well. The PHB at least got broken up with 1 paragraph "adventurers" and a column of fluff, the Monster Manual was pages and pages of stat blocks with maybe three nuggets of info, a picture, and some suggested encounters. There was no wonder. There was no majesty. It had all the cut-and-dry boring of a Video Game RPG Walk-through Guide. The Adventurer's Vault was worse; at least the MM had pretty pictures! Miles and miles of stat-blocks of the most unmagical magic items imagined. Third edition was dry, second edition was preachy, but fourth was downright clinical. Which felt like such a betrayal after the beautiful picture painted by Preview books. There was obviously a huge story bible for what the D&D world was like with the Dawn War, the deities, the Points of Light, Nerrath, the World Axis, etc. None of that is anywhere in the PHB or MM; hints of it are in the DMG. Say what you will about 4e as a system, but the original Core books were a failure in attempting to capture the majesty or wonder of such a fantastical world.</blockquote>