Dungeons & Dragonsis gearing up for a lot of huge changes with the upcoming release of the newPlayer’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, andMonster Manual, but the books I’m most excited about aren’t any of these core options. I’ve been playing fifth editionDnDfor a long time, and like everyone, there are things I love about it and things I hate. The newPlayer’s Handbookdefinitely addresses some of my gripes (even if it’s losing a little too much flavor text for my liking), but I could have survived another decade with the 2014 version.
There’s more torunning a good game ofDnDthan just having a rulebook on hand, a concept evidenced by the wealth of supplementary materialsDnDpublisher Wizards of the Coast has put out in the past. In the third edition ofDnD(and the revised 3.5e), Wizards might have overdone it a bit, and fifth edition has spaced out its releases with some additional care. One omission has always bothered me, however, and it’s one thatDnDwill finally correct in 2025.
D&D 2024 Player’s Handbook Release Date, Early Access, & Biggest Changes
The newly updated 2024 Player’s Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons is being released soon, and it will bring some exciting changes to the game.
Forgotten Realms Guides Are Exactly What D&D Needs
Sourcebooks For The Main 5e Setting Are Long Overdue
The primary setting ofDnD5e is the Forgotten Realms, but in the decade since the introduction of 5e, Wizards of the Coast has been incredibly sparing with material describing the world of the Forgotten Realms. In 2025, however, that will be changing, withtwo new source books for the Forgotten Realms announced in the D&D Direct 2024, available on the officialDungeons & DragonsYouTube channel. At the moment, both books simply have working titles, but they’re currently referred to asThe Forgotten Realms Player Guideand The Forgotten Realms Adventure Guid
The Forgotten Realms setting was created by Ed Greenwood, who started crafting the world as a child.
I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a diehard fan ofThe Forgotten Realms, and I don’t actually use it as the setting for my long-running campaign, which takes place in a homebrew world that tends to reveal new corners as the players explore it. I do, however, like to take inspiration from it and other publishedDnDsettings. One city that my party spent a while in earlier this year was mostly a redux of Saltmarsh, which has some good 5e material to pull from in the anthology bookGhosts of Saltmarsh.
10 Underrated D&D Locations That Should Get Campaigns With The 2024 Core Rulebooks
D&D’s primary setting in the Forgotten Realms has plenty of locations with established lore, but are rarely visited by official campaign material.
Like Saltmarsh, however,Forgotten Realms source material in 5e has tended to be sparse in nature and mixed in with adventures. Up until this point, the best standalone book on the subject was theSword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, a volume that’s frustratingly slim compared to every otherDnD5e book on my shelf. If it packed a ton of detail into its 150 or so pages, I could forgive that, but I tend to find my 2e copy ofGreyhawk: The Adventure Beginsmore useful despite its even smaller footprint. Sometimes, walls of small text can be a good thing.
My affection for the 2eGreyhawkbook points to an alternative solution —dungeon masters and players can always turn to material from previous editions, as nothing about rules changes renders older settings books as fundamentally incompatible. Third-party content or material for otherTTRPGs with their own fantasy settingscan be equally great, and thinking outside the Forgotten Realms box can add a lot. All the same, there should be good, current first-party content, and I’m glad that Wizards of the Coast is finally addressing the gaping hole in the product line.
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What To Expect From The New Forgotten Realms Books
Content For DMs & Players Alike
There’s not a ton of info out yet on what exactly the new Forgotten Realms books will cover, although the D&DDirect makes mention of key locations like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale that were already pretty obvious guarantees. A press release clarifies that thePlayer Guidewill feature “new subclasses, feats, backgrounds, factions, and spells,” whiletheAdventure Guidehas the lore and locations that DMs will want to reference when setting stories in the Forgotten Realms. It should all make building big custom campaigns — or simply going off the rails in published adventures — easier than before.
Other mentioned inclusions are the Dalelands, Moonshae Isles, and the land of Calimshan, each of which can provide a completely different flavor for campaigns.
Before those hit the market, the World of Greyhawk is also getting some love with aninclusion in theDungeon Master’s Guide, which could be a good tool as a looser template for custom campaigns. It’s nice to have a pre-established world to throw down at the game table without any other references on hand, especially when it comes to running one-shots impromptu sessions. I’m excited about that as well, but I’m prepared for it to be as anemic as most setting references have been in 5e so far, which is fine for its context.
The Future Of Dungeons & Dragons In 2025 & Beyond
2025 Is Sticking To The Basics
The Forgotten Realms sourcebooks aren’t the only tomes coming in 2025, and theD&D Direct also revealed aDragon AnthologyandUpdated Starter Set(once again, working titles). It’s all fairly back-to-basics stuff, in keeping with the fact that the game is getting a bit of a soft relaunch. Ardent fans might rather see a new campaign book than a new starter set, but there’s already a decade of 5e campaign books to pick from, and providing a clearer pathway to get new players on board makes a lot of sense.
Every D&D 5e Campaign Book, Ranked
Dungeons & Dragons has released a wide variety of campaign books over the course of fifth edition, and some definitely stand out more than others.
I’m not unilaterally optimistic about the future ofDnD, and missteps like recent plans toremove old content onD&D Beyond(now backtracked thanks to backlash) do occasionally raise serious concerns. All the same, there’s also a lot of good ideas happening right now, and I’m not sure I can think of any books I’d want to see more in 2025 than Forgotten Realms sourcebooks. It might have taken way longer than it should have, butDungeons & Dragonsis finally going to fill the gaping hole on my shelf that’s been bothering me for years.
Dungeons and Dragons
Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the ’70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.
