D&D 5E Wizards & Spells out March 10! Check out this overview of the Young Adventurer's Guide series

[Matthew Perkins]

Hey! So these books are rad.


They're targeted towards kids, but I love them even as an adult. So far we have Weapons & Warriors, Monsters & Creatures, Dungeons & Tombs, and Wizards & Spells coming out March 10.

These are not sourcebooks. They're very much like sourcebooks, containing all the same information, but completely divorced from rules. You couldn't use these to fill out a character sheet, but you could use them to conceptualise a character. These books are all theme and flavour and instruction, but there's something about them which I'm so stoked on.

I bet a bunch of you have bought these for your kids, but has anyone bought them for themselves? I'd love to hear what you all reckon.

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[Retreater]

In my professional life, I'm a children's librarian, and I have ordered this entire series for kids to check out from the public library.
But as an adult gamer, I don't like these. I feel like books like these come out every edition, and they're devoid of content to play the game. A well-meaning parent might buy these books for a kid interested in gaming, and that kid gets nothing that's useful in the game or really explains what the hobby is about.
I don't feel like kids need books to explain to them what dragons are. Or what a rogue does. They have played video games and watched movies/cartoons. They need a beginner-friendly version of the game that can teach them what D&D is with solo play or how to run a game for a few friends.
I think these just miss the mark. (Plus, they're not popular in the library either.)

 

[Matthew Perkins]

That's fair enough! But I know for me growing up, I would have preferred something like this rather than the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay manual as a starting point, because I remember agonising over all these rules and systems when the only thing I really cared about was the flavour and the art.

 

[jasper]

I agree with retreater. And will add shameless marketing ploy.

 

[Matchstick]

When I introduced my nine-year old nephew to D&D last holiday season I gave him these books and he loved them. When we sat down to play he used them as references. For example when they encountered goblins (I think it was goblins) he was hesitant to attack them, and talked instead. He then found out that there was a bugbear involved, and the Bugbear entry in his Young Adventurer Guide said they are bullies. So rather than killing his way through the goblins he recruited his way through them because he knew they were being bullied.

It was pretty great. I actually kind of pictured the books as being things his character had in-game. Like his halfling character would reach into his backpack and pull out notes and stories from other family members in the form of the Guides.

When I asked about them at our FLGS the employee there said they were great. For my part I'd certainly recommend them.

 

[Panda-s1]

In my professional life, I'm a children's librarian, and I have ordered this entire series for kids to check out from the public library.
But as an adult gamer, I don't like these. I feel like books like these come out every edition, and they're devoid of content to play the game. A well-meaning parent might buy these books for a kid interested in gaming, and that kid gets nothing that's useful in the game or really explains what the hobby is about.
I don't feel like kids need books to explain to them what dragons are. Or what a rogue does. They have played video games and watched movies/cartoons. They need a beginner-friendly version of the game that can teach them what D&D is with solo play or how to run a game for a few friends.
I think these just miss the mark. (Plus, they're not popular in the library either.)

idk I might give these books to an adult who's never played d&d before to help them decide what class or race they want to play. d&d parses fantasy differently from other stories, and while rogue might be clear for some, other things like druid aren't (also wtf is the difference between a wizard and warlock?). hell it doesn't help that some of the most high profile examples of fantasy right now aren't quite the same as d&d, like how would you explain a d&d cleric to someone who's only watched game of thrones?