The newest incarnation of the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game (4th edition) has been out for just over a year. Reviews were fairly mixed at first, but most of the furor of over changes to the game have died down. Die hard fans of the old system (3.5 edition) have moved on to keep their holy flame lit in support of their familiar system, but most players have moved on and begun to embrace the new version. Wizards of the Coast has succeeded in their attempt to overhaul the game by making it easier to learn, quicker to play, and better balanced for character options. My initial reservation to the new system was a concern over the lack of variety in player characters. One fighter-type was pretty much like another and there was very little room to customize to make a unique character. Fortunately, material published throughout the year has done much to improve the situation. Follow along with me and I’ll give you a virtual tour of a year of releases, giving you the skinny on what books are best, and which ones you might as well avoid. Today we’ll look at my top picks of the year, and tomorrow we’ll briefly hit every major release of the year.

Writing a single review for each book is a bit tricky, as they can be seen from a DM’s perspective as well as a player’s perspective. While most player-focused books are useful to a DM, there are some DM-specific books which have far less player interest. With that in mind, here are my top picks for the year in several categories:

Best Player Aid: Character Builder
Hands-down, the best thing (and most cost effective) that Wizards has produced over the past year is the D&D Character builder. Just about everything Wizards has put out for the new 4th edition rules is built into this program. For the cost of a D&D Insider subscription ($6 to $10 per month, depending on how long you subscribe) you get access to a bunch of online gaming articles and the ability to upgrade the free version of the program to the full version. The free version is powerful enough (it contains everything needed, and I mean everything, that Wizards has put out on 4th Edition stuff to create characters up to 3rd level.) but when you subscribe to D&D Insider you get to upgrade the program to contain everything all the way through 30th level. Since you can download the monthly updates up to five times, you can install the program on several computers and update each one. This is a stand-alone program and will work without an online connection so an extreme cheapskate (who me?) could subscribe for a single month just to get the program (and that is very worth it.) All you would miss out on is the monthly updates which would include information from books published that month and from the online magazines for that month. However, to upgrade again all you need do is resubscribe to D&DI. There are some reasons to keep an ongoing subscription (active subscriptions can use nifty online tools like the newly revealed Monster Builder and the handy rules reference the D&D Compendium) but the character builder is a must buy. In fact, having the information in the character builder is so useful that it eclipses many of the best player’s guides released this year. If you play D&D and haven’t tried the Character Builder, go download it now!

Best Player Book: Players Handbook 2
After my Character Builder rant, you may wonder why you need to buy this book, as most of the info is in the character builder for a fraction of the cost. You don’t, but it is often nice to be able to page through a book to consider and learn about all the new options available rather than try to figure them out from the drop-down menus in the character builder. This book is packed full of new choices for a player character and, of all the releases last year, it goes the furthest in adding new content to make possible a broader diversity of characters. It has new races, new classes, and new feats and power choices – some of which complement previous races and classes as well. Two of the most awaited classes make their appearance here, the Druid and the Barbarian. If a player were to own only one book from the past year, I’d recommend this one. A close second choice goes to the Adventurer’s Vault, which is a book full of more weapons and treasure for players to find and use. Player’s Handbook 2 edges out the Vault because, while most of their information can also be found in the Character Builder, the information in the Adventurer’s Vault is far more easily found and understood in its electronic context. The Player’s Handbook 2 has quite a bit of additional context and backstory to help players grasp the style and flair of each new race and class that is hard to duplicate in the electronic form.

Best DM Resource: Monster Manual 2 and Dungeon Delve
It is nearly impossible to pick out a best book for every Dungeon Master (the person who plans, executes, and arbitrates every game) as every DM has their own style of play. However, there are a couple standouts in the crowd of books available that deserve special mention.

First, for those DMs who are under extreme time pressure and have very little time to devote to preparing for their regular games, the Dungeon Delve contains a series of 30 little mini-adventures (one for every player level) that can be put on the gaming table at the drop of a hat. Just about everything you would need to run each little adventure is written up in just a few quick-reference pages. The monster statistics, basic strategies for each monster in the encounter, and so on. Read through the mini adventure once or twice and you’re just about set. One interesting aspect of the book is how it could be used to turn D&D into a somewhat competitive game. Each encounter series (typically 3 to 4 encounters in a set) is designed to challenge the players to complete in a single session without a long rest (ie. camping for the night). As each Delve (as their called) is balanced against a party of five adventurers, a single DM could challenge their five players to some head to head gaming to see if they can successfully complete the mission. Used as an occasional one-off mini-adventure within a long campaign, as a DM vs players smackdown fight, or as a (somewhat diverse) 30 mini-adventure campaign the Dungeon Delve book has a lot to offer a DM who values keeping preparation time to a minimum.

For DMs willing to spend a little time developing their campaigns, the best bang for the buck is the new Monster Manual 2. This book is exactly what you expect, chock full of new monsters to throw at your party of players. The new online monster builder does make creating your own monsters easier, but the Monster Manual 2 is still a great reference for finding monsters of a particular type or level as well as providing you with additional background information that your players will want. Most monsters come in a two page layout that includes information that players can learn from successful knowledge skills as well as sample encounter groups for various levels. Two of the highlights of the book are its much improved minion monsters, given far more “bite” than many of the minions in previous resources. This book also contains Hydras, new Beholders, Frost Giants, and even new metallic (“good”) dragons. As a DM, I find creating balanced monsters one of the most fiddly parts of the game. Looking through a pile of new ones to throw at my players always gets my creative juices flowing as I work on creating a new adventure or campaign.

The Bottom Line
It has been a good year for Dungeons & Dragons. Having “survived” its update with most of its fan base still intact, the faster playing rules are also bringing new fans into the fold. Whether you’re a player or a DM, there are resources out there (cough – Character Builder – cough) that will bring you a deeper enjoyment of the game. Of course, everyone has different tastes, so in my next article, I’ll hit every major book release from last year and give them each a quick review to see if they would meet your expectations.

Tags: Misc, Unplugged