50 Years Of Dungeons & Dragons: The 2024 Player’s Handbook
In September, the long-awaited 2024 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook reached players’ eager hands. Coming ten years after the original 5e Player’s Handbook, the 2024 edition streamlines rules and character creation, explains and clarifies gameplay, and, on the whole, revolutionizes how D&D is played.
How It Started
In 1974, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson published Dungeons and Dragons: Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures and changed the world of tabletop gaming forever. The set included three books: Volume 1: Men & Magic, Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure, and Volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. It wasn’t until 1977 that Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was released and with it the first Player’s Handbook.
Compared to the original’s simplicity, Advanced D&D was dense and rule-heavy. Hunting through the rulebooks to understand the game’s many regulations and guidelines was a chore that many players struggled with. The second edition, released in 1989, was more in line with the original 1974 D&D. It was simpler and easier to play through and offered a truly immersive D&D experience that is still praised today. Its campaign settings remain some of the best in D&D’s long history.
Dungeons & Dragons Under Wizards of the Coast
In 1997, Wizards of the Coast acquired Dungeons & Dragons. They released the third edition in 2000 and answered players’ requests for more character customization. 3e brought a more character-orientated game and added choices with regard to appearance, background, abilities, and powers. However, it also strayed into Advanced D&D‘s territory, adding rules that complicated gameplay and required a lot of reading and re-reading of the rulebooks.
Three years later, 3.5e revolutionized Dungeons & Dragons. This edition fixed many of 3e’s biggest issues, much to players’ delight and relief. It included even more scope for character customization and offered new skills, feats, spells, and crafts. 3.5e gave players the freedom to do whatever they wanted within the world of D&D and many still consider it the best D&D edition to date.
The fourth edition landed in 2008 and focused heavily on combat mechanics. This resulted in an edition that boasted the best action in the game’s history but failed to incorporate lots of other aspects, such as class abilities, into gameplay. 4e also came after changes to licensing agreements resulting in Paizo Publishing putting an end to its D&D-related materials and establishing Pathfinder. With some disruption to the gaming world, 4e’s failure to balance different aspects of D&D hit fans particularly hard.
Then, in 2014, D&D 5e arrived. The fifth edition achieved harmony between the best aspects of previous editions to produce an immersive and accessible gaming experience. 5e appeals to new and old players, combining easy entry to the game’s mechanics with a deep understanding and appreciation for D&D’s vast lore and long history. It has its flaws but overall it manages to satisfy fans’ wants, invite new players, and provide an immersive experience.
The Player’s Handbook
The 2024 Player’s Handbook is a revised version of the 5th edition. It’s still consistent with 5e and backward compatible with existing materials for that edition, but it’s also markedly different in certain ways.
The major change is that the 2024 Handbook streamlines character creation into a smoother and easier process. The layout is great and easy to follow for newcomers. Instead of races and backgrounds, you choose your character’s Origin, which will offer special bonuses. There are 12 classes to choose from and 4 subclasses within each, offering more variety and access to unique abilities and making character creation even more interesting.
The index and glossary are two standout features in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. For anyone who has spent too long flicking from page to page to find that one rule about that one spell or feat, the revised index is a godsend. The glossary helpfully defines terms without sending you flipping back through pages so it’s much easier to check rules in the middle of a game without disrupting your campaign for too long.
The 2024 Handbook also includes changes to feats and spells, but these will only really be obvious to those who have played the original 5e extensively. Some descriptions and explanations have been updated to make them easier to understand, which is always welcome!
Should You Buy The 2024 Player’s Handbook?
Every Dungeons & Dragons player should own a Player’s Handbook. The question becomes, which one? The 2014 and 2024 versions are both compatible with 5e, meaning new players can jump in with the 2024 Handbook and not miss out on any of 5e’s great features. It also means that, for those who already own the 2014 Handbook, it’s still a valid rulebook.
If you’re new to the world of D&D, the 2024 Player’s Handbook is perfect for you. It was designed with new players in mind. It excels in its aim to make character creation easier and to help inexperienced players get to grips with the game’s rules and nuances.
For experienced D&D players, it comes down to personal choice. If you like your characters and campaigns to run exactly as laid out in the most recent rulebooks and the updated classes, subclasses, spells, feats, origins, and bonus abilities sound intriguing to you, you’ll want the 2024 Handbook. But if you and your party are happy with the original 5e rules and features, or if your campaigns are generally more focused on improvisation and going where the wind takes you, the 2014 version will probably be just as good for you.
Updated Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide is due to follow the Player’s Handbook on November 12th, 2024. Advance reviews indicate that it’s significantly improved from its 2014 counterpart. These reviews describe it as a useful guide for DMs that outlines how to write and run your own campaign, while also providing examples of premade settings for new DMs.
The updated Monster Manual is expected to reach us in February 2025. Players can expect new and improved monsters, including some bosses that sound terrifying but exciting.
A Fitting Celebration
With the updated core rulebooks, Wizards of the Coast shows that the company continues to listen to fans’ feedback, requests, and complaints. The 2024 Player’s Handbook features some outstanding improvements compared to the 2014 version. Its backward compatibility means that it can be seamlessly incorporated into existing campaigns and used alongside other rulebooks. It makes D&D that much more accessible and welcoming to new fans, paving the way for the next generation of D&D players. With the updated Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual still to look forward to, the 50th-anniversary celebration of the world’s biggest role-playing game is off to a great start.
Are you looking forward to getting your hands on the 2024 Player’s Handbook? How do you think it compares to the 2014 version? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below. And don’t forget to sign up to our email list to get Finds of the Week and our free newsletter, PopPulse Digest, delivered straight to your inbox each and every week.
This article contains links to external sellers and affiliate marketing. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying sales.
