D&D General What would your "fourth core rulebook" be?

[Marandahir]

Essentials Kit, or perhaps Tales of the Yawning Portal.

Maybe Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse box set as it's the one setting book that's really core to the base assumptions of the game (though Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, Spelljammer: Adventures IN SPACE!, and a few of the adventure modules like Wild Beyond the Witchlight explore other core elements of the multiverse too.

 

[Oryzarius]

I'd agree with a Libram of Expansion or something of the sort, offering an assortment of genre guides, practical advice, rules tweaks, and a few campaign options or monster variants for various different kinds of campaigns that people might want to try. How do you expand on Bastions to do heavier domain-level play? What are some tips for making a "West Marches" style campaign work successfully? How might you mix up the treasure tables for a post-apocalyptic campaign rather than an epic fantasy setting? More daringly, how might you vary the game engine if you want to rebalance the pillars, taking emphasis away from regular combat, and putting more onto exploration or social interaction?

 

[MichaelSomething]

Instead of a 4th book, I'd encourage all D&D players to join Enworld! No book is a match for our collective knowledge and skill!

 

[GrimCo]

4th book should be something like "Gamebuilder's toolkit- how to homebrew". Optional rules, guidlines for crating custom classes, subclasses, monsters, spells, items, settings. Something for people with firm grasp of mechanics, will and creativity to do a bit of homebrewing.

 

[delericho]

I tend towards the view that the game already has too much by way of "core rules", and so could do with fewer books, not more. If I was forced to nominate a "fourth core rulebook", I'd go for some sort of setting guide - either Forgotten Realms or Eberron (I'd prefer the latter, but the market has spoken).

But as neither of those options are really in the spirit of the thread, I'd go for the Book of Options others have mooted - something like the 3e "Unearthed Arcana", the "Book of Experimental Might", or "Pathfinder Unchained".

 

[AnotherGuy]

Skills and Options
too soon?

 

[Voadam]

Skills and Options
too soon?

Too soon.

 

[Yaarel]

I am a huge proponent of the fourth core is the setting.

The reason is, 2024 is careful to avoid a "default setting". There is a default, in the sense that the same information in the 2014 core books is also in 2024 but it organizes differently. 2024 is easy to modify and replace.

From a worldbuilding perspective, 2024 is the best edition of D&D so far. It has lots of tools, tons of information ready for use, and all easily manageable.

This is why choosing a specific setting is necessary. Maybe via old school (and DMs Guide Greyhawk setting), one can use local adventures somewhat randomly, and see what setting emerges and evolves as a result. Even then, a DM needs to make some decisions about the world setting, for characters to get a sense of place in the world.

Because the 2024 leans setting neutral, one might expect the Monster Manual to lack flavor. But actually there is lots of tasty flavor. The monsters tend to lack "history", which they gain as part of a detailed setting. But the monsters do have "concept". The flavor is in their concept. For example, the Goblin is a Fey creature. The Goblin has a distinctive context and meaning as part of the multiversal setting. The Feywild is flavorful in concept. What the Goblin is, a Small creature that is obsessively excited or incompetently malevolent now situates within the magic and whimsy of the Feywild. The Goblin is a fun concept. Of course, this is how reallife fairy tales often portray "goblins". But 2024 can do this concept well. The Goblin has a remarkable amount of flavor even before the creature steps into the history of any particular world setting.

Analogously, many monsters of the Monster Manual heighten the flavor of the concept.

 

[Marandahir]

Oh, the other possible 4th Rulebook would be to go the D&D Essentials route from 2010-2012 and publish a Rules Compendium that duplicates the core encounter (combat, social, etc), exploration, character creation, status effects, creature/monster/npc/pet stat block interpretation, downtime activity, skills and tools & items rules from each of the 3 other core rule books in a manner that is safe for both Players and DMs to use while also being a one-stop reference for any and all rules adjucation (while also cross-referencing with the appropriate page and/or chapter & subsection of the other 3 books if further elaboration is necessary or desired). Sort of like the DM's Screen, but more comprehensive and something anyone at the table can take a look at without fear of spoilers, in case their's questions.

Yes, D&D Beyond serves this purpose. But the D&D Online Tools (and specifically the Virtual D&D Compendium) existed alongside the physical published Rules Compendium, and I think such a book would be invaluable to remove smart devices from the table. But I think that door may be closing with the direction of the world and Hasbro's business perogatives in general.

 

[beta-ray]

What I want is probably different from what should be. But I am selfish.

Since it would be a 4th "core" book, I'd feel weird if it were a purely DM facing book. I'm not sure it would work, but I'd like to see a book split into some player facing content and some DM facing content.

It would be some options for players (classes, subclasses, optional equipment, some tips/strategies, optional magic systems or psionics) and some for DM (more tips, monster building rules, more campaign worlds and options, other optional rules and advice).

Boring, but that's what I would want as a fourth core