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The 10 Best Dungeons & Dragons Books

nostalgiaward — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 17:27:02 +0000

Greetings, adventurers! Welcome to your new Dungeons & Dragons campaign!

Thanks to several streams and popular shows like Critical Role, Dungeons & Dragons is becoming increasingly popular since its fifth edition arrived in 2014. Whether you’re new to the game or a veteran player or a complete newbie, the game can be a bit confusing. You may be wondering about how to get into the game. We’ve put together this handy list of the best ten D & D books to help you get a game going today. So, get your character sheet ready, pull out your dice and warm up your imagination as we dive into the ten best Dungeons & Dragons books.

10. Player’s Handbook (fifth edition)

The essential guide to D & D

What it’s about: Sharpen your axe and get ready for battle! Sneak around the city, stealing everything in sight! Sling spells with the best of them! Meticulously craft your player character with the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. The Player’s Handbook is the single most important book for any player of the game to have. The book walks you through the creation of a character from race (human, dwarf, elf, dragonborn, tiefling, etc.), class (fighter, wizard, cleric, rogue and more) and ability scores to introducing the basics of combat. It’s an invaluable tool for playing the game.

What’s great about it: A handy equipment guide, and information on how to develop the role-playing aspect of your character round out the usefulness of the book. The final third of the book contains a massive spell index, from which your character can select the appropriate spells for their level. The book is an invaluable asset to any player and will be constantly referenced throughout any game of Dungeons & Dragons.

9. Dungeon Master's Guide (fifth edition)

A step-by-step resource for running the game!

What it’s about: The Dungeon Master’s Guide gives the dungeon master—the person running the adventure—a wonderful set of tools for use in the game. Suitable for both beginning and advanced DMs, this book is the first place any dungeon master should go before, during and after a game. The book guides you on how to run the game, handle time, handle difficult players and more. Learn what the magic items do and successfully run a campaign with the fifth edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. As part of the Core Rules, the DMG is an absolute necessity.

What’s great about it: The DMG contains item crafting, monster creating and world-building guides that remove much of the guesswork of creating a campaign. Unlike previous editions of the book, this version has unique content that isn’t a straight copy of the PHB. The book also demonstrates different styles of play—using hex maps and miniatures or theater of the mind. Just don’t let your players peek inside!

8. Monster Manual (fifth edition)

Dragons, Beholders and Bugbears, oh my!

What it’s about: Every dungeon master needs a menagerie of beasts to throw at the unwitting adventurers in his game. This book provides hundreds of iconic and new monsters for use in any campaign. Each entry contains high-quality artwork, stats and background information on the monsters to use in any D & D game. Marvel at the insane abilities of the dragons and revel in the vicious nature of the beholder. Pick from a variety of monsters and have a blast throwing them at your players!

What’s great about it: The book provides ideas for how to role-play the monsters and use them in non-combat scenarios. For combat itself, the stat blocks are simple, laid out in an easy to read format and give the option to roll dice or simply use average stats. It makes running a combat or encounter simple and fun. The glossary and alphabetical listing make any monster easy to find and the artwork is superb.

7. Volo's Guide to Monsters (fifth edition)

The infamous Volo meeting a giant

What it’s about: The great master of lore, Volo, makes his fifth edition debut in this book. His travels through the Forgotten Realms have yielded spectacular fruit and he presents them in an amusing way here. This book is chock full of monstery goodness for DMs and players alike. The book covers a great many additional monsters for use in the D & D game and introduces several new abilities the players can use when they create characters.

What’s great about it: Volo and Elminster (the sage of the Forgotten Realms) have verbal battles of wit throughout the book. It’s hilarious and breaks up the monster manual format. The narrative surrounding the new monsters is a great addition to the game and some monsters from older editions—fan favorites—return here. The artwork is phenomenal, and the layout is even easier to use than the original Monster Manual.

6. Monstrous Manual (second edition)

Even more monsters with ecological info to boot!

What it’s about: Not to be confused with the current editions Monster Manual, the second edition Monstrous Manual is a hefty tome worth its weight in information. Combing all the old Monstrous Compendium loose-leaf sheets into one book, this over 300-page book covers the entire spectrum of established D & D lore. You get dragons, minotaurs, beholders, kobolds and traditional monsters, along with some weirder creatures from across the multiverse. It’s a lore book that’s fun both within and outside of the game itself.

What’s great about it: Though the stats are out-of-date for the current edition, the ecology and extensive lore contained in this book can help move the story forward in your current games. You can learn all about the different types of Beholders, for instance, or experience the flora and fauna of other D &D worlds like Dragonlance and Dark Sun. It’s easy to convert these creatures to the fifth edition and fun to read about the motivations of certain creatures. It’s also perfect for nostalgic value, if you’re into such things.

5. Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (fifth edition)

Who is this mysterious wizard and why does he keep threatening me?

What it’s about: The newest book on this list, Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes features extensive information on the Blood War between the devils and demons. It also covers the differences between dark elves and dark dwarves and provides some background on mainstay monsters like the Gith. Rounding out the book are new monsters and stats for use in the game. The coolest thing about this book is that it teaches you how to create non-player characters out of both devils and demons, for use in your campaign, along with providing additional powers for tiefling characters.

What’s great about it: The narrative alone will keep you enthralled. Seriously, it’s like reading a novel or watching Babylon 5. The first part of the book—extensively covering the Blood War—is incredibly engaging. The re-introduction of bipedal, mercenary hippo’s, the Giff (originally from second edition) is fan service at its best. The creepy, somewhat disturbing additional monsters are a great way to spice up a current or future campaign. Add in some sweet artwork, and you’ve got a recipe for amazing.

4. Xanathar's Guide to Everything (fifth edition)

Meet Waterdeep's most famous Beholder

What it’s about: The Xanathar is a feared and reviled creature, who also happens to be a mob boss in the city of Waterdeep. As a voracious hoarder of information, he can be difficult to deal with at times and downright dangerous if not properly spoken with. This tome covers a great dael of his hoarded information and makes it available to both players and DMs. New class features, magic spells and more abound in this hilariously written tome for the D & D game. This beholder hates to share, but share he does in this fantastic book!

What’s great about it: The new spells are useful for many applications in the game and can decimate any foe. The new class features allow players to create the ultimate heroes and better develop their role-playing abilities. On top of that, there’s a handy name table and an appendix demonstrating how to keep the game running if—for some reason—your dungeon master is no longer available to run the game. These small details make a big difference.

3. Tales from the Yawning Portal (fifth edition)

It's anything but boring

What it’s about: Enter the Yawning Portal and tell your adventurous tale! The tavern is a hub for the most interesting and unique adventures across the worlds of D & D. Ostensibly used as a framing device, the Yawning Portal is a tavern in the City of Waterdeep acting as a hub or leaping point for any of seven updated D & D adventures for your game. It can be used as the start of a campaign or the group can pick and choose individual adventures to run.

The adventures contained herein are:

Against the Giants
Dead in Thay
Forge of Fury
Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
Sunless Citadel
Tomb of Horrors
White Plume Mountain

What’s great about it: There are seven classic adventures, updated for use with the fifth edition of the game. Tomb of Horrors has lost none of its terrifying traps, White Plume Mountain is as adventurous as before and the other five adventures are perfect for any campaign or one-shot game. The best part? The adventures can be combined into a single campaign for your group. Starting at the lowest levels and progressing up to the ultimate high-level adventure (Tomb of Horrors), Tales from the Yawning Portal provides an immersive and detailed campaign experience, with fun for any player regardless of experience.

2. Curse of Strahd (fifth edition)

What a horrible night to have a curse...

What it’s about: Welcome to the strange and terrifying land of Barovia, adventurers! The Castle Ravenloft lies in the distance, home to the vile Count Strahd von Zaridovich. It’s up to you to infiltrate the town, seek out the information for your quest, find the magic items and slay the count. In this campaign, you’ll be scared to death if you don’t keep your wits about you. It’s like Castlevania on steroids!

What’s great about it: The book comes with a fold out map of Barovia that’s perfect for visualizing the campaign. The character arc of Strahd is not only full of intrigue, but it changes from game-to-game. So, you won’t have the same experience twice with this campaign. Along with the Castlevania style atmosphere, tarot readings in the form of the Tarokka Deck and the irresistible appeal of Strahd, this book is fun for the whole gaming group.

1. The Complete Psionics handbook (second edition)

Let's get psionic, baby

What it’s about: Behold the mighty powers of the mind! Control your enemies by sheer strength of will! The Complete Psionics handbook tells players everything they need to know about using psionics—magic-like abilities harnessing the powers of the mind, rather than magical energies. In some of the campaign worlds like Spelljammer, psionics are an invaluable asset to players. From telepathy to telekinesis and beyond, psionics are fun addition to any game!

What’s great about it: There are pages upon pages of unique psionic abilities. The abilities themselves can be taken from this book and easily converted to the fifth edition of the game, allowing for the use of psionics in fifth edition. Until we receive a new psionics book, this is the absolute best tome on the subject available from sites like Drive thru RPG and Dungeon Master’s Guild.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the ten best D & D games. Pick up a few of them, start a campaign and have fun! Until next time, keep rolling those dice!

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Top 10 Most Anticipated RPGs coming in 2017

YAhamed — Sun, 18 Dec 2016 01:37:31 +0000

A Promising New Year to look forward to

Role Playing Games,the genre that everyone has a thing for. The sole purpose of RPGs have always been the complete immersion of the player’s character. They are created so that you may lose yourself in them. The real world is never of consequence because why live one boring old life when you could live a hundred epic ones?

2017 is promising us tons of new lives to step into, so much that we might even not be aware of some of them. The choices are endless and i’m here to make it easy for you. What games deserve your time? What games should you be following and why? I’ve got all the answers here.

Vampyr

Will you prowl the streets for the blood of the innocent or unleash your wrath on the corrupt.

Vampyr puts you in the shoes of the military veteran Jonathan Reid and will take place in London circa 1918. The first great war is over, and the Spanish Flu has London by the throat. From gloomily lit labyrinthine streets to dark alleyways, chaos and fear has taken over, a perfect playground for a vampire.

With action-focused combat, skill-tree-based leveling up, narrative decisions and consequences, dialogue options and a protagonist fighting with how to balance rights and wrongs when drinking blood, Vampyr is fleshing out to be exactly what fans deserve.

Scalebound

There is no man or beast, both of you are one and the same. How well you pull that off will determine the outcome of this adventure.

Dragons? Check. Cool powers? Check. Fancy armor? Check. Platinum Games’ Scalebound will have you in command of Drew, a 20-something guy out to save the world with his dragon buddy, Thuban. Beside the beautiful and stunning world filled with quests, what makes Scalebound exciting is the in-depth customization.

The relationship between you and your dragon will be the center of the story. Every fight and mission will bring out the chemistry between the two friends. Add to that a great co-op experience, dynamic world and unique characters and we have a great game to look forward to.

Mass Effect Andromeda

New galaxy, new opportunities, new stories.

Mass Effect Andromeda will pull you back into the epic universe of the Mass Effect universe, but with a major twist. Bioware’s much-anticipated return to the franchise will take players out into the unfamiliar Andromeda galaxy. The Andromeda initiative takes off in the face of the Reaper threat, after the ending of Mass Effect 2, to ensure the continued existence of all the races. You will be a part of the Pathfinder initiative, responsible for finding, analyzing and establishing a new home for the species away from the milky way.

Mass Effect Andromeda will provide a playground much larger and juicier than the previous installments. This time you are the “Aliens”, how you deal with your missions and objectives are completely up to you. Will you survive? Or will you be overcome by alien threats in an alien galaxy? We’ll find out this February.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

From peasant to legend....

Warhorse Studios’ upcoming RPG is nothing short of impressive. The ultra-realistic, historically accurate Kingdom Come: Deliverance is claiming to be breath of fresh air. The story will take place during 1403 Bohemia, on a stage of a staggering 16 km countryside. As the son of a blacksmith, you take on the task of rescuing your kidnapped king.

If you want to know what it’s like to live in Medieval Europe, then this game is for you. Unlike most games, you are not the center of the world. The world is alive on its own. Others’ choices and actions affect you as much as yours affect them. There will be no classes, so in order to sharpen your skills, you’ll have to go where you normally train them. For example, you go to a monastery to learn to read or pick up a sword to improve your fighting skills. How well they put all of that together is beyond me, but i can’t wait to see.

Sea of Thieves

“hoist the colors, we ‘ave people to terrorize and treasure to loot!!!”

Every pirate fanboy has been waiting for this. Sea of Thieves is technically a pirate simulator. Rare’s Share World Adventure Game (SWAG) has a bit of everything for everyone. Players will need to join up with other crews of players if they are to survive the Caribbean. Everyone has a role when it comes to pirating, whether it be spotting, cannoneering or captaining.

The world will be inhabited by both the players and NPCs. Every location will be as unique and different as the real Caribbean. Skeletals and Pirate Ghosts and even the Kraken may try to stop you from reaching your destiny, but with the proper crew, nothing may stand in your way.

Nioh

Faced with a myriad of creatures from the Japanese mythology, survival is never guaranteed.

Tired of dying in Dark Souls yet? I hope not because we got a lot more dying to do!!! Sony’s Nioh is what people might call a Dark Souls clone and a good one at that. The game was initially announced in 2004 and had been in development ever since. 4 years ago Team NINJA from the Ninja Gaiden series took the lead and here we are, awaiting their epic comeback in the form of Nioh.

Nioh is every hardcore gamers fantasy. You will take on the role of William Adams, the first non-Japanese samurai. Your pursuit of your enemy brings you to Feudal Japan, during the era of the Warring States. The game is expected to be a mix of Dark Souls and Ninja Gaiden and will pit you against creatures from the Japanese mythology.

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Plan, utilize you environment and obliterate your foes.

Larian Studios’ role-playing epic is coming back to steal more of our lives next year. Divinity: Original Sin made dungeon crawling fun again with great interactive environments and complex gameplay mechanics. The game is currently out on steam on Early Access.

Divinity 2 will introduce new non-human playable races like the lizard-men, who have incredibly destructive fire-breathing abilities. You can even choose characters with pre-made origin stories or set out to create your own. Divinity: Original Sin II is definitely set to surpass its predecessor so don’t wait to check it out and sign up for the early access. Your support may bring out the game sooner than expected.

Horizon Zero Dawn

This is so unrealistic, mecha-animals??!!but who cares!!!!

Horizon Zero Dawn is the definition of a breath of fresh air. The post-apocalyptic world of Horizon Zero Dawn is inhabited by mechanical beasts and intriguing new stories. You are Alloy, an outcast out on a quest to find out what is corrupting the machines of her world. Along the way, you will meet various other tribes, spread out across and a vast and diverse world filled with amazing techno-beasts. Each with their own abilities and unique designs, they serve to be a primary reason to play this game. These techno-beasts carry unique loot and can even be tamed in some cases.

Apart from the creatures, the main story is said to be the key element of the game. Horizon Zero Dawn will be released for the PS4 on February 28, 2017.

Bless Online

Save the world, but earn some coin while you are at it. Anything goes.

Precious little is known about this MMORPG in terms of gameplay or story, but this ambitious game deserves to be mentioned on this list. Bless Online is currently being developed by 150 developers from the studio, Neowiz . The game will run on the U3 engine and looks to be the most graphically stunning MMORPG of recent years. You will have eight playable classes and a classic good vs evil story.

Developer Neowiz says that the primary focus of the game will be the story and immersion. The gameplay will be centered around competitive PvP or RvR (Realm vs Realm). RvR will have different factions going against each other for total dominance, Hopefully, what they mean is large scale battles. Bless Online, if properly done, may be able to stand up to the likes of WOW.

Shenmue 3

Bring the battle to your enemies. One way or the other, you will find who killed your father.

Last but not the least, the game that revolutionized the open-world RPG genre is coming back for a sequel. Shenmue has been brought to life via Kickstarter and is looking to build on what made the previous game so legendary.

The game’s development will be directed by the visionary, Yu Suzuki and will run on the Unreal 4 engine. The story continues Ryo Hazuki’s quest to find his father’s killer as his journey takes him to China. There he meets Shenhua and learns of a legend from her village that has foretold of their path together. Their journey takes them to a dark place. How Ryo deals with them will be up to you.

if you are interested in contributing to the game’s development, check out their Kickstarter campaign here.

RPG’s are what we gamers live for. Every try is a new life, and we can try however much we want. How many of us are going to pulled in by these magical worlds, we can only wait to find out. Sadly, 2017 is still ages away. What?! No?! Ah yes, its just a few weeks away. We can wait, can’t we?