Which D&D Books Should You BUY?? (2024)

[@BobWorldBuilder]

🔴 My dungeon book -- DELVE is in it's Final Week on Kickstarter! www.kickstarter.com/projects/bobworldbuilder/delve-5e-shadowdark?ref=2k086x

[@TabletopWorms]

I made sure to get the Shadowdark set. Such a great system.

[@helixxharpell]

Great video Bob! Let me give you some history sir.. Back in 80s FR "regions" were "clear-wrapped", about 64ppg & did a great job imo of giving DMs & players places to explore in the realms. For "Khor The World of Many Portals", I plan on releasing it much the way TSR did FR bitd.. Imo, it allows for more localized adventures & each one is linked. World settings don't do all that well in Kickstarter but I'm hoping this strategy will break that trend! Would love to "link" Delve to it in some way. Let's talk!

[@helixxharpell]

We ought to get our attorneys together to discuss a "Marvel Team-Up" style Bob. Seriously. Khor is going to be an on-going 3 year project. Starting in 2025.

[@hillsby9380]

is it next year already? super hyped for my big box to delve into exciting and terrifying new dungeons :D

[@jaybakata5566]

Backed on day one. Waiting for rewards to ship.

[@Enn-]

If I recall... the last time you put out a video like this, a couple weeks later, you asked for Christmas Ideas, and I said you have enough D&D books, and suggested a nice, comfortable poncho.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Haha and it was an awesome idea! Love the poncho

[@Clem68W]

@@BobWorldBuilder Ponchos...I remember ponchos. HA!

[@helixxharpell]

​@BobWorldBuilder Now all you need is a Clint Eastwood hat & cigar! Now, I'd pay to see that video! 😉

[@Enn-]

@@BobWorldBuilder I love them too! I have a really soft baby alpaca wool one, and a thicker, warmer, llama wool one. They're both great!

[@Carnagepwnz]

@@BobWorldBuilder Outdoor Poncho video When?

[@93techie]

I won't say Fizban's is my favorite, but it's definitely the only time I opened a book, read through and saw a singular table that made me think, "man am I glad I bought this". The dragon name phonemes table is a life saver.

[@chubbypapaya]

Fizban's is *so* good, it's got so much inspiring material to make dragons usable and interesting for pretty much any table. Maybe not number one, but it's definitely up there on my favorite supplementary books.

[@samuelwillliams7333]

It's one of my favorite supplement books.

[@Darth_Sheepus_the_wise]

Yeah it is great after players handbook and Tasha’s first one I got

[@pipechair_DnD]

My personal favorite 5e non-core book is Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, followed by Arcana of the Ancients. I love playing with the steampunk/magicpunk setting of Eberron, so I often "divert" data from the sci-fi settings that work in 5e. It's something that's not in the "official" books.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Yeah I'm excited to see how many of RotLDM's ideas end up in the new DMG, because he was carrying DMs for the last 10 years haha

[@pipechair_DnD]

@@BobWorldBuilder I found out about Return of The Lazy Dungeon Master through your video and started reading it, even though I am a non-English speaker. Thanks to you, I feel much more comfortable leading the twice-weekly sessions. So I am very grateful to you for this channel (and I look forward to reading your new book, Delve).

[@Michael-ft5bm]

“The Game Master’s Book of” series is pretty fun. Really gives you things to contemplate when crafting a campaign.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

The official setting of the 2024 PHB will actually be "The Multiverse" including Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, and all other D&D settings including your homebrew settings. The 2024 DMG will include some information about Greyhawk and a 2 sided map (campaign world/main city) with the suggestion that DM's may wish to use Greyhawk as a setting due to it being less fleshed out than other official settings.

[@BrenoAngelotti]

Honestly, I love these videos since D&D books are quite expensive in Brazil and I don't want to "waste" my money figuring out which books are good. BUT the section showing alternatives to D&D is always even better, reminding me other systems can but as much fun (maybe even more fun) without giving money to what has become a really shady corporation. Thanks Bob!

[@Dedézin-coremdeo]

Vdd mano,muito caro aqui,eu só N encontrei um livro pra nós DMs no vídeo,meio triste já que no vídeo do ano passado ele recomendou o melhor livro pra DM de todos

[@mariogariazzo2024]

Na shoppe tem um mano que vende pdfs impressos encardenados em capa mole, bem bonitinho

[@davidjennings2179]

Can confirm the roll under is better with kids. They understand what they're aiming for right off the bat (rather than a seemingly arbitrary number chosen by the GM) and it's clear how things come down to a dice roll. With a few tweaks I ran a call of cthulu game for my nephew and a few of his friends. The setting was based on five nights at Freddie's (apparently a big hit with kids). It works on a d100 roll under with a couple of divisions for harder checks/better success.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Thanks for the testimonial! That makes sense and the 5 Nights at Freddies thing sounds like a great idea for Cthulhu with kids!

[@andrewdiaz3529]

Might want to write down those tweaks you made to make five nights at Freddie's Cthulhu, sounds like something people would love

[@Brik888]

as an old time fan of Dragonlance, Shadow of the Dragon Queen was a fantastic Campain to run, and while i had no idea what planescape was about that campain was amazing too,

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Glad to hear it!

[@elizabethgemmell7635]

I really want to run Planescape! It seems like it would be a great fit for my table, but I'm currently at the end of act 1 in a homebrew campaign. I will be running one of the adventure hooks from the Mortuary add-on to Planescape, though, in act 2.

[@Brik888]

@@elizabethgemmell7635 Nice!, good luck

[@laughingpanda4395]

Currently running dragonlance. It's been a really fun campaign but the difficulty has been a little tough for my players at times. We've been at it for nearly 6 months and I'd say we're about half way through the books events. I bought shadow of the black rose to run as an epilogue as well. If they are still enjoying the campaign then maybe we play out the war of the lance too. If not, it's on to icewind Dale or vecna eve of ruin.

[@Matthimeo]

“Dungeons Of Drakenhiem” and “Call From The Deep” are amazing 3rd party campaigns, I highly recommend them

[@captainkiwi77]

That essentials kit is amazing. The material stuff they give you is so much, and nothing loops the party in like getting a physical quest card (and I didn’t have to spend 30 min browning paper) and the magic items are great. The map stays on the table during the session unless we need the space, makes phandalin feel like home, and the north sword coast region becomes visible and conceivable to them. Most importantly that adventure, if itself a little light on compelling plot lines, is perfectly bite sized to fit in various campaigns. I pull the individual quests apart to use in lost mines of phandelver, and a prequel campaign my party asked for.

[@villesavolainen5793]

And you get three free mini-campaigns for the same price, all the way until 12th lvl quests.

[@PiiskaJesusFreak]

Surprised of no recommendation of buying Shadowdark, just using the free ruleset. Shadowdark is awesome value if you decide to buy it. Very complete, concise and easy to use.

[@spacerx]

I like that the first recommendation is actually Shadowdark. The second and last could well be the full version of that game.

[@Sortiara]

I was just searching 'this' video up because I wanted to rewatch the 2022(?) version and then I see that this was uploaded 40 minutes ago. Perfect timing lol Obviously, I've not yet watched the video yet, but either way, thank you again for what is sure to be usful advice!!

[@SortKaffe]

Haha, I saw this on top of my feed as I opened KZbin to find the 2023 video to refresh what you had to say about Radiant Citadel before I purchase it with the beautiful alternate cover

[@christopherscholl639]

My only problem with DCC for new players, is that it assumes a certain level of familiarity. It was the first TTRPG that I bought, and I did a lot of cross-referencing with second-hand D&D 3.0 books that I bought from a thift store right after acquiring DCC. I appreciate your recommendation of DCC as a progression after learning D&D from other sources.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Bingo. DCC is written for GMs who have run D&D before. Super fun, but wouldn't be my first recommendation for a new GM.

[@kmalsom01]

@@BobWorldBuilder I think it's also very much old school in that you want to make sure your players understand that their characters aren't really expected to survive and the die roll probably hose them over.

[@dukeofburgerz5225]

For non WotC supplementals, I'm a big fan of XP to Level 3's Quest-o-nomicon. It's an anthology of short adventures from a multitude of genres that can be used as one shots or to give your players the XP to Level 3 (WOW). It's been a great source for if I'm seeing friends or family who wanna do play some D&D but cant do it regularly. It was also how the >1 year long campaign I'm currently running got started

[@andrewstraight2961]

Amazing vid, Bob! Equal parts history, community/internet reception, and book categorization all with your classic chill, even-handed approach. I look forward to these vids every year!

[@SortKaffe]

The videos from past years are still worth a watch. They elaborate more on certain books

[@louis1372]

I like Books with lore. In terms of rules/system, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the DC20 Kickstarter, mentioned at 7:39 which launches June 4th.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

It's gonna be interesting for sure!

[@AwesomeWookiee]

The Planescape set is actually VERY, VERY good. But Eberron: RftLW is definitely the goat for 5e books.

[@darrenlodge6322]

An awesome video! As a gamer (99% of the time as a GM) who started in 1980, onboarding new players is something I've done too many times to remember - and this advice you lay out for the current game is fantastic. Starting with Shadowdark's free basic rules is a perfect approach to enable an understanding of the baseline game mechanics and terms and the style of these types of games. Well done Bob. Love this.

[@perildice]

Yeah... I went ahead and bought all of them, but I also bought your Delve book and several of "Hank"'s and Kelsey's and some of Colville's and Shea's and Kobold's and Troll Lords' and Paizo's and umm... several others, but I might have a problem. Honestly though, I completely agree with you; but my shelves are really pretty, especially my original BX and AD&D and Greyhawk stuff. 🛡️ Btw, I'm a big fan of simplified stats, roll-under rules, and a homebrew usage die system to replace spell slots.

[@henrymalinowski5125]

Absolutely correct is starting with ShadowDark. Though I’m not planning to switch for long campaigns, it is fantastically easy to teach people; which is perfect for beginning players and aspiring GMs.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Thanks for the testimonial!

[@DoomedButHappy]

I think there has been a misunderstanding. The GameInformer article states that Greyhawk will be in the new Core Book and more fleshed out, not that it will be the default setting. I think there will probably be a chapter named Campaign Setting with instruction on how to DIY and an overview of the official settings with enough info to run them

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Hmm, I only heard about that from seeing people talk about it and assumed it was locked in. Thanks for the heads up!

[@tylerthompson7078]

I believe they said there is now no “official setting” but instead they are embracing the multiverse as the setting. Greyhawk will be used as one example.

[@KristoVaher]

Greyhawk being the main setting in core rulebooks makes it the default. It's very much like Forgotten Realms was considered the default in 2014.

[@BraamBafflehelm]

Currently DMing Curse of Strahd and really enjoying it. There is an absolute ton of community content and support out there, and it makes prepping a cohesive experience for my players much easier.

[@nutherefurlong]

As for book ideas, Mausritter and Knave are great, the systems in Mausritter could be expanded upon if you don't like the theme, and Knave has a ton of well-considered decisions that allow things to go in a bunch of different directions, with plenty of idea generators if you need a boost. Mausritter is free in PDF, too.

[@Kaletiel]

My favourites are TCoE and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. The first for the optional cleric rules (cleric player here), and the second for. Well. Dragons. Also, if I ever get the cash together, I really, really need to get the entire Pathfinder: Kingmaker set. Mainly since enforced choices in video games annoy me and I want to run that campaign without them. Finally, and I know that's obscure if you don't speak German, but if you ever want to find out how much micro-managing you can cram into an RPG and still potentially have fun with, check out The Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge) by Ulisses Spiele.

[@odinulveson9101]

Agreed! Though baffingly missing, gem dragon ancestries for sorc. With Fizban, homebrew / slot in GEM dragon ancestries for the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer and Drake Warden. Voila'!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Yeah I think Tasha's made a pretty big impact, especially through the not-tying-ability-score-increases-to-races-anymore

[@SilverBolt1159]

My personal recs for 3rd party supplements are the Lazy DM series, and the Griffon's Saddlebag series! Lazy DM made the process of putting together my homebrew game far more manageable, and has so much great advice packed in. Griffon's Saddlebag is perfect for magic item lovers; there's nearly 1000 magic items across both volumes, plus subclasses, plug-n-play settings, monsters, loot tables, and a few races. For other systems, I'm very excited for the Tales from the Myriad. The beta is looking so good, I adore the way it's managed to incorporate skill trees into class progression! Most of it is close enough to 5e that I should be able to get my table to at least try it.

[@nabra97]

I chose Index Cards RPG to start running, mostly because I happened to have it (it was like 5$ with a discount, and I decided that I could need it later) and because it has a Sci-Fi standard setting. It's not compatible with D&D but has similar base mechanics. My main issue with it is that it has very little content easy to find, and I'm not ready to deep dive into some weird forums

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Haha yeah, ICRPG has some awesome ideas. Some of which have definitely impacted the D&D-adjacent design space, but it does seem like it could be hard to find compatible material

[@spartaninvirginia]

You should get the reprint of Rules Cyclopedia, the reprint of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, and the reprint of X1 Isle of Dread. That book and those two modules will provide years of play.

[@HarmonicClockwork]

I love these buyer's guide videos.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Thank you!

[@Thandulfan]

Good video, tons of information for people new to 5e looking at all possible books, the money sink goes deep this video definitely will help lot of folks to get the right products

[@bradwilcox]

Commenting not just for the algorithm, but to say you rock Bob! Thanks for all your wonderful videos!

[@AvonofTalamh]

I will always point people to Andrew Kolb's books for fun, self-contained, adventuresome setting gazetteers. Neverland might be my personal favorite, although that could change with his upcoming book on Wonderland. As far as running the adventures put out by WotC, I found Rime of the Frostmaiden so much easier with a little help from Justin Alexander. He's got a whole primer on his blog, the Alexandrian, where he lays out travel time changes and additional GM tools.

[@nathangomez4409]

Easily the best version of this video you've made. Doin great work here- I'm not super into dnd these days, but I really appreciate this for those who are ^_^

[@carlcascone1202]

THis was helpful to me a long time Grognard. I got out of 5e around Tasha's rulebook and started a full on unofficial Elserscrolls RPG campaign and then Traveller for a year. Finally ended up playing Dragon Age RPG, and decided I wanted D&D Again. I'll rethink buying Ravinica because I love guild rules, and I appreciate you cutting through the noise. The last book I bought was Mordenkainen's TOme of Foes so I am going to pick up Mordenkainen Presents first thanks to your overview. Planescape I am DEFINITELY Getting especially because Shemeska who is a superfan worked on it. Thank you this was very useful.

[@invisibledooley]

Great video, my favourite non-D&D RPG source-book is Index Card RPG, I might check out Shadowdark when funds are available.

[@spooderous]

Dragonlance was fantastic. Feels very epic in its scale. I ran frostmaiden twice. It's definitely one of my top 3 adventures but I agree it requires some extra work prep wise. It's chunky.

[@toddpickens]

Good stuff. Thank you for not sugar coating WotC treatment of spelljammer, planescape, and dragonlance. Polite, professional, and accurate.

[@DefaultSeaTurtle]

I liked how the criticism was fair, concise, and made a point without embellishments. I like how I was reassured I was correct to skip them while not veering into WotC Drama content.

[@Macabrellian]

As an old Ravenloft fan as well as a Dragonlance/Planescape fan, (they're my top three favourite D&D settings,) I honestly felt much the same about its treatment as I was reading through Van Richten's Guide, if to a _slightly_ lesser extent. It really is unfortunate; especially after years of wanting to see other old D&D settings get the same attention that Forgotten Realms has gotten for years.

[@MatthewNope]

@@Macabrellian right there with ya buddy

[@dicebringer]

Kudos for steering new players in the direction of indie DND products!

[@BlueFrenzy]

I settled on Shadow of the Weird Wizard. Completely recommended for people who likes d&d 5e but doesn't want all the crunch and complexity of pathfinder.

[@samusamu5342]

Is it out yet

[@BobWorldBuilder]

I keep hearing Sly FLourish talk about that haha, I'll have to check it out

[@BlueFrenzy]

@@samusamu5342 the beta is out. It contains everything you need to play. I think that in August they will release the final version.

[@ChadHensley]

Great coverage as always! Agree with you in pretty much every case. I complete agree that Tomb of Annihilation is one of the best published adventures. Also, I'm running Keys from the Golden Vault as a campaign right now but put all the adventures into a world that I am creating and fleshing out with my players and creating side quests in between heists. It works really well in this way except that the players end up with an exorbitant number of magic items and you definitely have to adjust the encounters accordingly or be unable to offer any challenge to the players. Excite to get my hands on DELVE soon!

[@dantherpghero2885]

I Love ALL Bob World Builder videos! Especially any video over 30 minutes long! More Bob = More Fun. No love for Deathbringer?! What would Dan the Didactic say?

[@definitelynotcarrie]

100% also recommend the Eventyr supplements for BG: Descent into Avernus. I'm in Chapter 3 right now as a DM and they have a whole module on making that chapter more of a "sandbox" style where the players have more agency in where they go in Avernus. Also the DM notes and maps have been incredibly helpful. Even with those supplements it's a lot of work. I also used the "Fall of Elturel" module on DMs Guide to start everyone off and lead into the campaign because it puts them at the point of action and really gives them more motivation going into the campaign. Highly recommend both if anyone is planning to run BG:DiA! Great information in the video. I appreciate the straight forward information and also stating the fact that some of these campaign adventures to require a lot of work on the part of the DM. Great job!

[@PeaceLoveAndGuns]

Starter Set is the best D&D publication, especially when combined with the Essentials Kit. I love the softcover books.

[@JasonCrosen]

Amazing list. I’ve got a nice shopping list now.

[@roninanwar]

This video is really great. Going over all the books sounds like an arduous task for a KZbinr but it is helpful for dm's, players, and those who would want to dip their toe into ttrpgs. So for my own experience with these books. I personally love Xanathar's, Tasha's, and the PHB and I don't plan on ignoring those when the new phb comes out. As far as adventures go, I use the books as you said, as setting books, not adventure books. I've played through two of the adventures you mentioned, Waterdeep Heist and Curse of Strahd. Of the two, I like Waterdeep Heist more but honestly, it wasn't much of a heist. I am currently running Waterdeep Heist now but it is heavily homebrewed... and has been going on for four years. I've added a lot. I've also gutted a lot. As for Curse of Strahd, I played it with a group for over a year and I can say, I'm not a fan. Maybe it was the DM (although I doubt it because he was good), but that adventure was pretty straight forward and kind of lackluster. Every area while being somewhat unique, was mostly just glooms of different flavors. The fights were overall pretty underwhelming and I didn't find the story that engaging. Also, with the right group, Strahd, when he shows up to antagonize and fight the group, was a pushover. Anyway, as far as DMing with these books. As I mentioned with the Waterdeep Heist, I use the book occassionally for reference but for the most part, I refer to it occassionally for guidelines. I also have made a spinoff campaign which is based on "Out of the Abyss" but instead of trying to get out, the players have a mention to adventure into the Abyss. I took out some of the demon stuff (although I use it a little) and I use the locations there for my players to travel around. I combined part of that campaign with the Frostmaiden. I've been enjoying that for a Lord of the Rings style mission of getting from point a to point b. Anyway, that's my experience with the books. The rest of the books I cherry pick stuff I like or buy for possible mechanics. I was very let down when spelljammer somehow didn't have any mechanics driving the spelljammers.... Lastly, and this is some self promotion, I saw you are working with Eventyr games for your book. Do they need anything other artists? If so I do fantasy style art (painterly pieces and comic book style stuff).

[@GrippaNL]

Love the DC20 shout out. ❤ Hyped for next week. He brought me to your kickstarter last month.

[@brokenmeats5928]

I love ALL Bob World Builder videos!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Thanks for commenting!

[@leeway3739]

I love all the Drakkenheim books from the Dungeon Dudes!

[@patmichael5514]

Dragonlance SotDQ is definitely more adventure then setting book, only giving the bare minimum of info in a couple of pages. The adventure however is pretty good, it's sad that shadow of the dragon queen got overshadowed by the OGL.

[@nicolascesar9240]

Recently I've found a 5e "supplement" called Nimble, which I've fell in love with; it takes the best parts of MCDM RPG, DC20 and Daggerheart and magically converts it to DnD5e. I would love to see Bob talk about it.

[@BernardoMachado]

Bob I love these videos! Great overview.

[@James33470]

Just a suggestion, but I think it would be really fun to see you giving advice about your favorite third-party dnd books. Really would like to see it on the channel!

[@moolowik]

Totally agree on Rime of the Frostmaiden. It was a fun setting to run but required a lot of prep. The chase section alone had me working on tables for about 3 hours to map out who would be where and when.

[@willschoonover8654]

A friend of mine tried to run Strahd for us, but gave up because he thought the organization of the book made prep too difficult, so maybe Curse of Strahd is only well loved because of the legacy it follows in the brand. Also, I love what you called "GM homework" books. I enjoy prepping all of the encounters digitally before running a campaign, and then largely ad libbing my way through the campaign based on what I remember from the books with every map ready to go. Lastly, I think it is great that they gave Lost Mine a full book treatment since I too think that adventure is a great beginning to a longer campaign.

[@trombaritone86]

Currently in a Strahd campaign. My DM says he does have to bounce around a lot depending on what it is we're doing

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

As a DM running Strahd. Yeah. It’s awful. I’m currently rewriting the whole castle section to be usable at the table…I barely open the book at this point because I had to write most everything out in a usable way.

[@Psymonkee]

Very useful video. Certainly helpful to try and help guide my newer players :)

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Thank you! Happy to help

[@marxmeesterlijk]

Speaking of cool monster book, The Monster Overhaul is fantastic.

[@cynistar742]

Just wanted to comment that at 25:25 is the first time I've seen the like button have that RGB glow. It was really cool to see. That is all :)

[@jhumza]

Man, I love your content. You're an inspiration to me as a DM. I"ve had some very successful sessions off your advice. Thank you VERY much!

[@doctorsethjones]

My favorite 3rd party 5e-compatable books are Kobold press's monster books (Tome of Beasts and Creature Codex) and Obvious Mimic's solo 5e gamebooks. Right now, I'm running "Tomb of the Serpent Kings" as a Shadowdark adventure for my kids. They love it and it fits perfectly in Shadowdark's dangerous mindset.

[@insanefreegameplay603]

I really like The Old School Essentials classic rules. It's a remake of old school basic expert DnD with excellent formatting. I got the box set which splits the rules in to about 5 smaller books which makes them even better for quick reference and sharing at the table.

[@ZacharyRicks]

I love your annual book review videos, and just pledged to the Kickstarter - really looking forward to this.

[@louismuir9485]

MCDM gets a lot of hype because of Flee Mortals! - especially now it's going to be in DnD Beyond - but I implore both new and veteran players and GMs to check out ARCADIA by MCDM

[@BobWorldBuilder]

I still need to check it out myself! haha

[@louismuir9485]

@@BobWorldBuilder Haha, its definitely the product I recommend the most to people, and I think potentially doing a video on it would bring it to more peoples attention. They're arent really any video "reviews" of them outside of MCDMs own channel but they stopped doing videos on them after like issue 10 - and there's 20 to look at now!

[@MoonbornUwU]

The new cover art is perfect and crispy

[@miraza.]

great timing as i only recently watched the 2023 one. was thinking of buying an anthology or setting book from my local shop to support them

[@zanthusprime4355]

I'm currently running The Shattered Obelisk right now. I've had to rewrite chapters 2 and 3 as well as 6 to make it enjoyable for my group. but out of the pages the book does have great ideas, side quests and faction ideas that are interesting. i only used one of the factions and then created my own to help give players some interesting ways to gather info when they feel like they are not sure where or what to do next. I'm planning to move straight into Vecna: Eve of Ruin next to the last chapter or 2 will have to be adjusted to accommodate that transition. I do feel that those 2 along with the collection of stand alone books (candle keep, infinite staircase, golden vault and Volo's) are so useful and if i need then to get a thing i can drop one of those in and off i go. Great video!

[@jR0b3rt0]

I'm running the adventure in Strixhaven right now and its actually super fun! I think it wouldn't suit all groups though. You have to have a group that likes role playing and meeting characters since a big part of the adventure is meeting NPC students and deciding who you befriend vs become enemies with. If a group likes crunchy tactical adventures then Strixhaven isn't the first adventure I would suggest.

[@orHekt]

Great DC 20 shout. Thanks.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

More coming next week! :D

[@Year2047]

Gonna say Ars Magica, Mork Borg, Call of Cthulhu and the epic Dungeon Crawl Classics are all well worth checking out

[@jordanw2741]

For anyone who wants to play Descent into Avernus, would highly recommend the re-write that the Alexandrian did of it. Ditto for Waterdeep Dragon Heist. But it really helped fix alot of my issues with the opening act. Players were incredibly engaged in the opening conflict. Really helped set the stage for what was to come.

[@krempelritter9950]

Nice overview, thank you! While I get your point regarding The Shattered Obelisk (especially the frustration about the free LMoP being taken down), I don't think the new part is a bad sequel provided you're into Far Realm stuff (and don't mind that it doesn't tie in to the old story at all). Not entirely sure though. I'm currently running the original LMoP with lots of additions. If my players like the Nest of the Eldritch Eye, I'm gonna throw in some obelisk fragments (Jorphdan really did a great job compiling his obe-list). I have a hard time picking my favorite. I think I'd choose VGM for all the lore 5e used to have back then (which still wasn't much compared to older editions). Bigby's, Fizban's and the old Mordenkainen's are kinda tied for second place. And I want to make a case for the SCAG. While it's far from being a good setting book we wouldn't have much of a 5e version of the pantheon for the main setting without it. I also like the Deck of Many Things very much (the book, I never liked the item at all until I read the book, still don't like the traditional way to use it). It has lots of cool ideas and no way to find them. Really confusing, but cool. One of my groups really loves drawing cards. Speaking of cards, CoS Revamped does actually includes a dozen post cards (for whatever reason) and a beautiful Tarokka Deck that plays an important role in the Adventure. They really loved drawing those. My favorite RPG book ever is Changeling: The Dreaming (2nd edition) by White Wolf. It's part of the original Wolrd of Darkness and let's you play humanoid fey in a modern urban fantasy setting. Best splats, lore and mood ever. The rules for magic will give you brainworms, but those are the cutest and most whimsical braimworms vou can get. Great game!

[@fanboykc9140]

Love your videos, brother! Proud and satisfied supporter/backer of Delve! .. ... ... DC20 HYPE TRAIN!!! Kickstarter launch in less than 4 hours!!!

[@raedlives9261]

My favorite class is sorcerer so naturally Tasha's cauldron of everything was a big pick up for me.

[@TheSpacesam]

Thanks for the video, it's super usefull ! Ryuutama was my favorite non-DND 5E book with the most interesting way of handling traveling, exploration AND item management so far ! It has a bunch of other really cool ideas that are great for creative players and new DM ! And it's also really easy to read it through !

[@mightyzeus1e]

Current fav setting book- Planegea

[@BobWorldBuilder]

I've been seeing Jorphdan's recent videos about it. Looks fun!

[@weasley0094]

My favorite third party supplement to D&D 5e is the Svilland books from DRS Publishing. It's a whole campaign setting with some adventures across a few books that takes place in a custom Norse themed setting. They rework existing classes and introduce new Norse themed abilities, feats, items, and weapons, and even a whole 'raiding party' mechanic so your players can build up a raiding force and go raiding. I'm using it to help me craft my own homebrew Norse setting and it is really awesome, I love it. They also do other settings as well that look really cool.

[@ilyas1702]

I was looking forward to this year's what to buy video. Would you please consider doing one of these for non-WotC books?

[@SpingotGoomer]

Gotta say, been absolutely drooling over DM Guild's Monster Manual Expanded books lately, I just love any book that gives me more fun and scary things to throw at my players 😂

[@fanboykc9140]

I love this series you've done! This is the best one yet. Can't wait to get my copy of delve! ...also...DC20 HYPE TRAIN!!! LESS THAN A WEEK TO THE KICKSTARTER!

[@fallenangelzelos2807]

First off, excellent video. I see this as a great resource for new DMs interested in diving into the game. You did ask that DMs who have ran some of 5e's campaigns share their experience, so here ya go. -CURSE OF STRAHD: Same experience as what you said in the video. Great customizable campaign for both DMs and players that is well liked for a reason. -LOST MINES OF PHANDELVER: The proof of concept that an adventure doesn't have to be long to be excellent. A great introduction to 5e for DMs and players alike. -STORM KING'S THUNDER: This one took a huge amount of work on my part. The book provides so much info that...admittedly I didn't use a lot of despite the work I did. The book gives an encounter for EVERY community in the Sword Coast, only a few of which are good. They would have done better if they just provided a list of encounters based on a general location. Ended up cutting the end game because it took so long. With that said, I had a great time, even though I had to research/change a significant amount. -WATERDEEP DRAGON HEIST: Oh boy. This campaign advertises itself as a starter campaign for DMs but it is NOT. If you run it as is, it is incredibly linear and takes away a lot of player agency. But once you allow that agency, it becomes a huge amount of work. Another "I had fun" campaign but I was often frustrated for the amount of work I needed to do to make everything work. The featured villains of the book are all great though. -OUT OF THE ABYSS: my campaign was cut short, but from what I played, this campaign as one of the best adventure introductions, but then immediately becomes a poorly organized slog. From my limited time running it, it's a great concept that unfortunately doesn't stick the landing.

[@Makeshift_Housewife]

I love the MCDM book Flee Mortals the most. It makes running monsters so much easier. To me the planescape books are great because it's a setting that can be put into any campaign, even as a quick change of scenery.

[@hernanescu]

I was lucky enough to buy the revised run of the Deck of Many Things and I sincerely can't recommend it enough. Of course the cards themselves are amazing and beautiful, but the book content is just amazing: factions, locations, detailed lore, NPCs, items... it has absolutely anything you could possible need. I've seamlessly incorporated the cult inspired by the Comet card at my game, and made them the "secret villains in the shadows" and it's very flavorful with the general tone of my campaign. If you can get a copy of the rulebook without the deck and its accompanying book, at least give it a quick glance and you'll be amazed. Thanks for this review!

[@Majiger]

A quick note on DC20 - It blends D&D5e with Pathfinder/Starfinder and sprinkles a little bit of its own flair on it. Not something I would recommend a newbie to pick up normally, but seeing how the alpha rules are very cheap it's interesting to read at least.

[@StartofBroadcastDay]

As a huge fan of Blood War stuff, MToF made adult me feel the same way I felt when I was first getting into TTRPGs. Reading through the monsters and lore of that book was an absolute treat and I still crack it open every once and a while.

[@curtiswatkins2581]

I just received the Book of Many Things, and it does an excellent job of expanding on magic items, the Deck itself and lore and monsters. Also the card deck is so well produced now and I really like it and will get some usage of it.

[@paulhaak5678]

My favorite of those was the Rick & Morty adventure. It was short and so much fun, my players loved it. I love playing the indie games now, they are much easier to run and I think are more fun. Shadowdark EzD6 Monster of the Week. Games I'm looking forward to playing soon are Crown & Skull the new MCDM game. Thanks Bob.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

I also need to try out Crown & Skull! And I'm excited to see what the MCDM RPG ends up looking like too. Enjoy!

[@llynxfyre]

Oh oh! I'm in a party thats just starting to wrap up The Wild Beyond the Witchlight! Its a fun game but... maybe our party were just bone headed but we couldn't avoid combat in a lot of situations lol

[@eddygreen3631]

I'm an old grognard which has liked much of this (2014) run of the game, I really dig the Planescape rerelease. As a longtime fan of the original, it was worth the price of admission. That said, as an older (mid-40s) GM, one my best campaigns came from Storm King's Thunder. Its a true sandbox which I supplemented with years of 2nd & 3rd edition Forgotten Realms material. This edition is the most well written and really the highest production values of any over the past 50 years. It has been a real fun ride and with the popularity and VTT access; It's been easier to keep gaming groups together for long campaigns than ever before. Certainly there have been some hiccups and CEOs that get in the way of the community. But the thriving third-party material that we are rich in sort of helps keep me engaged. Great material, as always, Bob!

[@shay212]

I ran The Price of Beauty from Candlekeep Mysteries for my first attempt at DMing and it was a ton of fun!!! The one critique I think I’d have is, since they’re mysteries, I wish there was a bit more guidance on how to place clues or what the clues should be that could point the players towards answers, rather than talking to NPCS as the main way (kinda only way sometimes) they get clues. I just think it’d be helpful to add in other things, but it was still a lot of fun and highly recommend that anthology!

[@johnscripture9306]

Tash is my favorite expanded rule book.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Nice! Thanks for commenting

[@SortKaffe]

TCE has some neat chapters for DMs like group patrons, parleying with monsters, sidekicks, and environmental hazards. Like XGE, it also has a great selection of magic items.

[@zvennn]

Please keep doing this every year. I love this!

[@gcampoverde]

As a fan of Eberron, I was about to mention it (I actually just did), but since you asked for non-official content, I love the 5e version of the Shadowcaster, and it was written by the original author, Ari Marmell. Not every DM will allow its use on their table, but it has given so many cool ideas for my evil spellcaster I have extracted every cent of value from it. It's available in the DM's Guild.

[@Poke_Rouge12]

Fizbans is by far my favorite, it expands on the dragonborn race and gives more option of breath attacks, along with other option for classes that are based on my favorite mythical creatures, plus all the new encounters are just amazing, I believe it is one of the best books for 5e

[@eduardogarcia6318]

First of all, awesome video!! Second, I feel like Tasha's deserved a special mention for having the whole Artificer class, which will not be included in the new core books. I love that class (it's actually one of the things that made me want to play DND in the first place) and being the only book that contains a new official class while aldo having extra rules, subclasses, spells and everything it has, I feel like it's a better purchase than other books. Personally I would place it even above XGtE, but maybe I'm just super into the Artificer class and Tasha's content.

[@Sting-me1hz]

And here’s me pirating all of the books online…

[@chibirad]

been ripping them from anyflip, look up the downloader it takes a bit to set up but its a godsend.

[@phoenixdzk]

Is the Trove still going strong?

[@morphias1008]

@@phoenixdzknah it got shutdown. I mainly use 5etools. Not the same but gets the job done

[@jgr7487]

​@phoenixdzk the last time I looked for it, it was no longer available.

[@RudeCanine]

The only way to do it. We do not support Hasbro in this house.

[@thecaveofthedead]

I'd appreciate hearing your take on chases unless you already did and I missed it.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Haven't made that video yet, but it's on my list!

[@Nothingbutlead]

Something that I love that my dm let's us do, is we get 1 action point, 1 cantrip point, 1 bonus point, and our movement each turn. That extra cantrip that can be used makes things spicy.

[@guyman1570]

Ow that's a bit unfair to the martial characters

[@nearlyinfinite6720]

Haven't cracked a single one nor been paying much attention since 4e/PF1 split... yet still nailed the number of books trivia question. It's like, cosmic.

[@KiMo7PDC]

Into the ODD (one of the main inspirations for Cairn) is my fav non 5E rpg it has a whole bunch of offshoots and hacks with different flavors and it’s super simple to teach to new players … it was the first RPG I felt confident to run and even homebrew a lil dungeon adventure for it and another “mystery” werewolf adventure for its weird west hack Knights of the Road

[@RodrigoKuerten]

I believe the Starter Set is already out of print.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

😭

[@Thandulfan]

yes, because they made like two different starter/adventure sets to replace it - there was Dragons of Stormwreck Isle and Essentials Kit for sure

[@lukerabon7925]

​@@Thandulfanalso because LMoP was/is getting an expanded campaign to level 12

[@SortKaffe]

After running the starter set, it requires a fair bit of DM work to transition to another campaign. Designing an actual sequel is a good idea, but it should just have been a separate book.

[@danniemczyk730]

The monster's in MCDM's "Flee, Mortals!" are SO fun to run as a GM! I now pretty much use them as the default for any encounter I run.