Dungeons & Dragons turns 50 this year, and the game has come a long way since the seventies. What started as a novel way to adapt skirmish wargames into the fantasy genre has become an internationally recognised way for adults to indulge their imaginations in a safe and fun way.
Over the years, there have been many imitators and innovators, games that have copied and improved on that early game, and like the legendary tarrasque, Dungeons & Dragons has gobbled them up and continued to rampage, helping generation after generation use a combination of maths, rules, improvisation and problem solving to learn more about themselves. The genius behind D&D rulebooks is that the publishers have figured out a way to sell someone’s imagination back to them, which is something a lot of adults need; D&D is permission to have fun.
Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook 2024 is the latest iteration of the rules; the previous rulebook was the ‘Fifth Edition’, though we’ve had much more than five versions of D&D over the last five decades. The game’s publisher, Wizards of The Coast, refuses to call this the sixth edition, and we can see why. It’s not a radical overhaul of the rules set; anything you have that works with the 5th edition (which came out in 2014) will work with the 2024 edition. Instead, they’ve cleaned up the rules, made it smoother to play and much easier for new players to get into.
This is something that pretty much all editions of D&D pretend to do, but there’s a fine balance between oversimplification and usable, a balance that this new version of the game finds on page one. Previous versions tried everything from instructional videos to literally putting the text on lined paper. The Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook 2024 feels like they’ve learned from all the previous versions. We get an example of play, larger font, clear page design and many, many illustrations. It’s an extremely pretty-looking book that’s easy on the eye. They’ve also used lots of pictures to space the whole thing out, meaning that key information isn’t crowded onto the page.
Another obvious innovation is to make key rules and principles of the game prominent and easy to see. Rules like ‘Bonuses don’t stack’ get a heading rather than being in a list of rules. Things are listed easily. Experienced D&D players will find this useful as it’s easy to familiarise themselves with the new rules, and new players will get to grips with it all very quickly.
Rules-wise, there are plenty of things your character can do, from fighting to fishing, flirting to falling. When and why to roll dice to figure out how any of that goes is clearly laid out, as well as all the options one has during combat. It’s a clear framework that makes what’s essentially a collaborative storytelling exercise fair. D&D is usually someone’s first roleplaying game, so clear boundaries and rules are important to ensure a sense of fair play. Clarity is essential, and Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook 2024 is the clearest, most straightforward presentation of this complicated endeavour we’ve ever seen.
The main job of the Player’s Handbook is to make it easy for players to make a character. No new character classes from the previous edition have been added, just the core 12, including Warlocks and Sorcerers. (So no Artificer class). All the classics are here, so if you want to play Conan, Frodo or Gandalf, there’s a way to do that. Each character class has four sub-classes, and they’ve been chosen to allow players to have as much choice as possible. So your fighter could be a tactically smart warrior or just really fit. Or mystically empowered in some way.
And yes, this means that Wizards and Clerics only have four sub-classes available to them in this book, a departure from previous editions, which had laundry lists of arcane and divine options for your character. Instead, they’ve stuck to the basics; your cleric can be about life, light, trickery, or war, and your wizard can cast illusions, blow stuff up, divine secrets, or use defensive magic. This is limiting but less intimidating for new players, and experienced hands will have the older, compatible options if they wish to use those.
Origin and species have been improved as options. Origin is stuff like ‘Guard’ or ‘Noble’. This choice controls what sort of equipment you have and bonuses to abilities, skills and a special trait called a feat. For example, if your character was a farmer before they went adventuring, they’re competent around animals, likely to be tough, hardy, and can repair a barn or cart. A sailor is less likely to fall over, is good at paying attention, can use a sextant and can hold their own in a street brawl. This also forces new players to flesh out their characters early on so they can start having fun from the start.
Species are stuff like elves, dwarfs, halflings, etc. Your character species gives your character some special traits (all elves can cast spells, halflings are lucky, etc.) More importantly, the species choice is more about what you think would be fun to play rather than looking for a rules-based advantage. They’ve ditched ‘half-elf’ and ‘half-orc’ because they restrict story ideas. You get to decide who your characters’ parents were and how they met, not the rulebook. Rules-wise, you pick one set of bonuses, not both. This encourages flexibility and creativity, rather than designing a character for the ‘best powers’.
In this brave new edition, we are still lumbered with the Nine Alignment system for your character’s morality. For those who don’t know it, that’s a scale that runs from Good to Evil and Chaotic to Lawful, with Neutral in the middle. It’s seen as old-fashioned by modern TTRPG standards, but it’s also a feature of D&D that has become essential to its simplistic and heroic flavour.
Feats are special powers that help define who your character is. These have been divided up into various groups to make it easier to find the abilities that suit your character. Again, the focus is on roleplaying more than any other edition. Feats are nice, but when you’re starting out, they aren’t world-changing. Musician and Lucky, which both let players re-roll dice, may seem the best options, but again, the focus is on character rather than playing to ‘win’. (It’s D&D, you win by having fun.)
The equipment section is lavish, with pictures of every single bit of kit you can think of. Equipment is as much a part of the game as spells or special powers, and you can flip through this section for hours looking for ideas; it’s very pretty. Equipment does stuff; Ball Bearings can help you knock someone down, and a bedroll keeps you warm. It all has explicit rules to encourage you to use your character’s kit in creative ways.
Spells and spellcasting have been better explained and are often phrased in a way that’s easy to understand when you’re in a rush. Which is typically how most D&D players read their spell descriptions. The book also explains the cosmology of the worlds of D&D, which matters because it interacts with some spells and is also a good way of understanding key elements of the default game world.
A final feature worth noting is the glossary; it’s extensive and comprehensive. Looking for a rule? Check the glossary. Not sure how surprise works? Check the glossary. Does the character need to take a long rest? Check the glossary. In summary, this is a very accessible, easy-to-use and inspirational version of the game. It’s D&D at its best.
We used both the digital and physical versions of this book when playtesting Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook 2024. We liked how easy it is to navigate the book digitally, but nothing beats the physical version (and it’s very pretty as well as sturdy).
2014’s Player’s Handbook was legendary and defined the hobby for a generation. The 2024 book keeps that legacy going; D&D is going to be around for a long time.
