There’s a Matt Colville video where he talks about how people participate in the community of tabletop games that I cannot find, but will use as a jumping off point; if you recognise what I’m talking about, please link it in the comments
Colville highlights that there are people who might not be able to find a group to play a game with, but they still buy the books, read them, and discuss them online. It reminded me that my interactions with Warhammer 40k were even more insular than that. I had the rulebook and a few of the codexes, and I’d go down to Games Workshop every now and again to buy a few models to paint, and I’d get the odd issues of White Dwarf; but I never played the game, I didn’t really have any friends who were into it, the older boys at Games Workshop were scary, and I didn’t have regular access to the internet.
So I painted the models and read the books and used my imagination.
I’m not into 40k any more (the older boys at Games Workshops are still scary), but I did start playing Dungeons and Dragons again in the last year, and with that has come plenty of rulebooks and sourcebooks to read. I decided I’d better have an honest go at at least reading the Player’s Handbook (PHB) cover to cover. See the above joke.
The only other PHB I’m familiar with is the one for 3E, which has a kind of sketch on parchment quality to it, along with tiny text and a hell of a lot of tables. Why does 3E make you calculate your AC three times? Who knows.
The 5E PHB is such a massive difference. 5E is supposed to be a more accessible edition, and that starts with the handbook. Bigger writing, brighter colours, and a plainer systems more plainly explained.
I love the lore it manages to pack in. Little snippets of background for races and classes, or the worlds D&D takes place in. Not so much it’s prescriptive; just enough that it can fuel your imagination.
Of course, you’re supposed to dip in and out of a handbook, not read it cover to cover. Do you want me to tell you it was dull reading spell list after spell list? It was. But I also looked at sections and spotted details I might not have otherwise. When I started playing again, I was familiar enough with the idea of the game that I kinda swooped in on the class I knew I wanted to play and then had a glance at the combat mechanics before deciding I’d probably pick them up just fine as I played. Which I have. But that does mean I’d rarely have any reason to look at pages that don’t relate to my class or finer points of combat, and I’d have missed out.
Here’s the funniest detail I picked up reading the whole thing through. Did you know there’s a rule for using your sling as a melee weapon, and that it requires you to still have a piece of ammunition for the sling? If you’re in a group where someone is actually using a sling and you’re actually tracking the ammunition, please let me know. I want to talk to you. I haven’t looked it up, but that must be some vestige of the original game, right? Does it ever actually come up in the modern game? Anyone who might conceivably use a sling also has a free 1d10 cantrip.
I know D&D has taken a lot of directions over the years, and a lot of the DNA is still there. It can be strictly delineated and wildly improvisational by turns. That contradiction has mostly been massaged out, but you can still see it.
The end of the PHB added another project to my pile. You know what I mean. Appendix N. Well, Appendix E in the latest PHB. I’ve read a few of the things in it (just finished reading the Conan stories), but fantasy is a genre I’d like to get more familiar with. Is there ever enough time?
Another reason I decided to really spend some time with the analogue, paper PHB is because it’s so easy to play D&D with digital tools now. Once upon a time you needed unwieldy PDFs (or an even more unwieldy stack of sourcebooks). Now D&D Beyond will track your character, roll the dice, and keep all your sourcebooks in one place. I did not expect this tool when I got back into D&D. It’s useful, but…
I am using D&D to try and disconnect and spend real time with real people. I mean, I still have my phone on me, and if I want to look up an item, I use it. Our Bag of Holding is a Google Doc and it’s just way easier. But I still really like rolling real dice, having a paper character sheet, looking things up in the paper PHB. Adam Kotsko has written a couple of great pieces on how print is just better for retaining information. I’m inclined to agree with him. In my mind’s eye, I can see the two page spread with a laughing barbarian on one side, and the table with what he gets per level on the other.
I know I’ve come to this edition late. I’m looking forward to seeing the new core rulebooks as they start publishing them this year.
James Farson 