Player’s Handbook
Player’s Handbook (2024 edition) is a core rulebook for the epic fantasy Dungeons & Dragons, written by Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins, Ben Petrisor, F. Wesley Schneider, Ray Winninger, and James Wyatt and published by Wizards of the Coast.
By Aaron T. Huss
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The 2024 Player’s Handbook is the latest revision of the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition rules set. Despite dedicating around 30% to spell descriptions, it takes a more modern approach to the presentation of the mechanics and makes one major improvement (or at least what I think is an improvement). That major change is how backgrounds and species (no longer called races) work. Previously, each species carried with it an Attribute bonus that effectively meant if you wanted to get the most out of your low-level characters, you had to align your character class with your species. That has been changed; now, that Attribute bonus has been moved to backgrounds which are no longer ambiguous and align with the types of character classes they fit with best. This means you can effectively create any type of character class and species combination; a missing feature in previous iterations that I really hated.
Additionally, the 2024 Player’s Handbook appears to be the largest Player’s Handbook that I’ve seen. Whereas I’ve seen previous iterations of Dungeons & Dragons where character options in the core book were limited, this new version gives you 12 Character Classes and 10 Species to choose from. The value alone of this one book has been dramatically increased such that you don’t need to rely on future releases to play the character you want (unless you’re looking for something niche or setting-dependent that requires supplemental books). Each Character Class has multiple paths to choose from to fine-tune what you want that character to feel like and then you combine it with a meaningful Background and the Species of your choice. As as side note, I also feel that Character Creation has been streamlined and simplified, but I would really have to spend time creating characters in multiple versions to really define that. It just feels simpler.
Of course, this version of the Player’s Handbook also includes all the normal mechanics you need to play the game and even provides this really cool appendix that visually demonstrates what the D&D multiverse “looks” like. There is also this fantastically designed glossary that is way more than just a glossary – it is effectively a quick reference set that provides a quick look for all the basic rules during gameplay. No more flipping through dozens and dozens of pages to find an explanation of the rules while you’re playing; just thumb your way through these 18 pages, in alphabetical order, and you should find 95% of your answers. This type of presentation of the core rules might set a great precedence of other RPGs going forward; it’s so simple and yet so powerful.
On a final note, Wizards of the Coast presents a collection of beautiful illustrations including ones that really represent the content and moved to a less-busy book formatting. I’ve seen this with many other publishers, but some still stick to their overly-busy books that almost distract from the content. I love a beautiful book, but I want the content and illustrations to catch my eye, not the graphic design.
I understand a lot of gamers get upset with Wizards of the Coast for publishing new versions of their rules set, but this one really captures the best update to 5th Edition that I have seen so far. Other than the original 5th Edition release, I did not really see the value in subsequent revisions to the core books. This one actually makes improvements and really presents the player with the only book they will need to play memorable games for years to come!
