Like I mentioned in "The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins"  , I've been on a bit of a Dungeons & Dragons kick. I started playing D&D with a group of friends a few months ago, and to say I was a bit rusty would be an understatement. To get back in fighting shape, I've been consuming a lot of tabletop RPG material, from YouTube channels and blogs, to books and podcasts. Most of the stuff is Dungeon Master (DM) related, since I'm the group's DM and responsible for actually running the games that the other friends participate in with their characters.

For those that aren't familiar with D&D, The Player's Handbook (PHB for short) is the most important book you need. It contains all the basic rules for how to create a character, and how the game is played. There are a lot of options to consider (each player picks a race and class for their character, each of which has unique attributes and abilities) and there are all kinds of rules to determine how combat, magic, interactions, etc. are meant to happen in the game. The PHB covers all of that, so I figured a good place to start would be to go through the entire core rulebooks again and re-familiarize myself with everything. This will either be a huge benefit or a massive waste of time when the new edition of the books come out in a few months (depending on how much of this content they keep), so I guess we'll cross that particular bridge when we get to it.

Overall, re-reading the PHB has reminded me of (1) how much I love this game and all of its nuances, and (2) how much work goes into crafting this game. It's been around since the mid-1970s, and has evolved greatly over that time. I started playing back when it was still AD&D (2nd Edition), and then again when they graduated to Third Edition (3e), Edition 3.5 (3.5e), 4th Edition (4e), and now 5th Edition (5e) which was introduced back in 2014. 5e is probably the best version of the rules for your average player, and this year they're releasing what's supposed to be an update to the 5e rules (not a full new 6e version, or even a 5.5e... but more of an enhancement/refinement to 5e) to coincide with the 10th anniversary of 5e, and the 50th anniversary of the game as a whole.

Sorry... nerded out for a bit there... I just am really enjoying rediscovering how much I love this game.

My wife, meanwhile:

Anyway, all of that to say... yes, I re-read the PHB this month.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of D&D 2014 Player's Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebook) 2014 Edition   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jan 18, 2025 at 2:02pm • Submit your own review...