The Amount of Changes in Dungeons and Dragons

Let’s start out by talking about the amount of changes. I’m not going to go into all of them, mainly because I want to talk about notable changes in the next section. But Dungeons and Dragons is getting a face lift, I’d say. And there are a fair number of notable changes out there. Enough that it can mix and match with the old stuff, but the recommendation is, and I think obviously, that people move to the new system. If you buy one book in the new system, migrate the whole way.

I say obviously because from a business perspective, they of course want you to buy the new stuff. It makes them money. But in terms of the content, while it is similar, a character in the 2014 5th Edition core rules, is going to be behind. So I think it is beware of that amount of change. Know that if you dabble you want to go all in.

Notable Changes

But let’s talk about some of the changes. And like I said, there are plenty. But we’ll talk about the biggest change to Dungeons and Dragons first. And I think it’s worth noting that they are moving away from the very loose theater of the mind feel of 5th Edition 2014. You certain might play 5th edition more now with a battle terrain set-up.

Weapon Mastery

This comes down to some things, in particular with melee characters. Almost all weapons have a mastery to them that if you know it, you can manipulate the battlefield. So this is different from your proficiency but it allows you to do even more with weapons that you really know. So some might trip up and an enemy, slow them down or otherwise disrupt them. This, per what they said, is to give the more versatility that was previously mainly found in spellcasting classes.

Subclasses

It is also worth noting that all classes now have four subclasses. And all classes unlock their subclasses at the exact same time. No longer do some get them at first level and others at third. No longer does the bard have two subclasses and the wizard six. All start on an equal playing field that way. And most of the subclasses are getting a lift. Whether that’s a boost from the masteries for weapons or an expanded spell list, that is fairly minimal in terms of what they get.

Ability Modifiers

And there are more things as well. One that I really like is that now when you pick your species you don’t get your stat boosts. You might gather boosts and boons for other things because of your species. But it doesn’t make various species lean various directions. Instead that is with your background. You want to be a dwarven thief, you get stats based off of what you did in your background. That, to me, makes sense because that is what my character has practiced.

Do You Need to Get It?

Obvious this doesn’t make your current books obsolete. But it does render them less useful if you get the new books. Someone who builds a character with the old systems is going to be less effective. But at the same time, Dungeons and Dragons is not changing so fundamentally that your old content is going to be worthless. It might come down to you need to tweak minor things and raise difficulties at times.

But let’s talk about it more from the perspective of you like you to get he new books. Is this 2024 version of 5th Edition worth buying? I think that it is. Mainly as I listen and watch the videos and discussions, I feel like they balance out the character classes. Is the Ranger going to be perfect now, probably not, but it’s going to be on par with the other classes. And overall, I feel like it offers more freedoms, which Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition was already good at. This just adds in more.

Final Thoughts the Updated Dungeons and Dragons

I want to see how this works. I buy basically every book, so I’m excited to get my hands on it. Though, I do wonder about some elements of it though. While I see this mainly as a positive, a couple of things hold me back from being completely excited.

The biggest item is the additional tactical nature of the game. I run theater of the mind, generally. So I expect to continue that. Will the added masteries make it harder to play theater of the mind? I feel for some groups they might generally get skimmed over. Especially for a group very familiar with the current version of 5th Edition. So is that a major add for those combat classes?

At the same time, I like the idea of tactical battles. It is possible to make it more dynamic. A weapon naturally pushes a bad guy, well, that is important. It allows players to push and manipulate the battlefield. Also, it is able to become a cat and mouse game as bad guys try to avoid getting smacked too much and players try and knock them into a hole or off the edge of a tower. So I see it working in either way.

Generally, though, I like what the system is adding. And I want to get my hands on it (coming in September for the Players Handbook). Do you like the sounds of the 2024 version of 5th Edition?

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Top 5 Dungeons and Dragons Accessories

5. Dice Storage

Don’t worry, we’ll get to dice later on. But how do you transport your dice. For me that is a bit of an all over the place question. I have some special cases for the metal dice or the set I got through Awaken Realms. And I keep another set in a bag that it came in. But for the bulk of your dice, and yes you’ll probably have more, what do you keep them in.

There are the classic clothe bags that you can buy. I’ve seen bags for dice that look like monsters from Dungeons and Dragons. Or, what I did, was convert a box we got that looks like a treasure chest into my dice storage. Because, what is more of a treasure than a pile of dice that you can roll. And it’s cool to open up a treasure chest when I need to grab a handful of dice to roll.

4. DM Screen

Now this one is specific to the DM. That is why I thought it could make sense to do two lists. But so many of the others work for both. But the DM screen, whether it’s the Dungeons and Dragons official one or a awesome expandable wooden one that looks like a castle, that is up to you.

As a DM, I own a screen but I don’t use it all that often. So this is one of those really fancy extra things that you maybe or maybe don’t use. But I want it on the list because it can be very useful. I think the custom ones even more useful. Those often let you customize with whatever you want on there. So the information might be the NPCs that you’ve created, the random monsters for your campaign or some campaign notes. And you really can make it work for you that way.

3. Campaign Journal

I say journal but you can use whatever you want. This is somewhere to take your notes while playing Dungeons and Dragons. As the DM, you use it for combats and keeping track of hit points and whose turn it is. Or I also add in the characters who I come up with, which I need to do a better and more consistent job of than just putting down a name. As a player, it’s taking notes on what is happening in the campaign. It might even have a spot for your character sheet.

I like something that has removable sheets. For me I run a 3 hole binder with some dividers. Why, because I can run two games at once, if I wanted. Or there is space to workshop future ideas. I also bring that notebook along at times to take notes on board games that I play or things that have RPG like elements. But there are a lot of specific and custom ones out there for Dungeons and Dragons that are awesome.

2. Minis

How I run and play Dungeons and Dragons you don’t need minis. Is it a hobby that I’d love to get into, sure, but painting minis and building terrain and battle maps is either a lot of work or a lot of money. But when you can create your character in the game, it’s awesome. It is great to have a copy of what you look like.

And now with 3D printing you can get your character. You might buy the file from some website and print it yourself. Or you might pay them to print it. Hero Forge is one that I think of which has a ton of different things that you can customize to create your character. A tiefling sorcerer with the entertainer background, you can customize your character to that if you want. That is an awesome feature. And I’d love to get a map and terrain and have my players bring their characters. But it can be pricy, so that’s why I don’t have this accessory yet.

1. Dice

You need dice to play Dungeons and Dragons. Are they really accessories? I say yes, because I don’t need as many dice as I own. And I don’t need giant squishy dice. I don’t need metal dice, I don’t need silicon dice. I own all of them. Not because you really need more than a single set of dice and maybe some extra D6. But because they are fun to play around with.

I can walk into a game store and have no plan of buying any dice, but if there is an awesome set, I’ll add them to my collection. That is the pull of dice. Plus they are something that you need for Dungeons and Dragons, but not as many as you probably have. And certainly, for me, not as many as I own.

And there is more…

I didn’t want to overload the list. I mention some other things like terrain or battle maps. There are also digital battle maps that you can use. Or with dice, since dice can’t be the whole list, there are dice trays and towers that you can get and use. And there are life counters, and really so much more that you can mess around with in Dungeons and Dragons.

Do you have a favorite accessory that you like to bring to your game? For me, I love my dice the best, but if I could start to dive into it, painting minis and terrain and making some cool set pieces would be awesome for adding a bit of flair to my campaign.

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What Character to Play?

So, even without having played as a player, I was generally the most experienced, or up there player of Dungeons and Dragons. And as a DM (dungeon master) I have created characters for players in one-shots at conventions, things like that. So I know how to build a character. I even got to play a character, once, at a convention when I got into a Dungeons and Dragons game.

So, why talk about all of that? It means that I decided to sit back and let other players pick what they wanted to play. I find fifth edition not that difficult to play any class, from what I’ve seen while teaching. That means that I feel comfortable s a player playing anything.

There was a good variety of characters, no healers. And I decided not to do that, completely. I picked playing a druid. Why, not too many druids in the games I’ve run, so it’d be something different.

Which Druidic Circle?

And I decided, yes, I wanted to have some healing. But I didn’t want to be purely a healing character. That is not interesting, enough, to me. It might be what is best but it is more fun to have a variety of things that I can do. And to have some offensive capabilities.

There are a lot of them that could work out there. And I could lean heavily into the wild shaping aspect of being a druid. But instead I went Circle of Wildfire. This one is interesting because it adds in fire based spells. But it also does have some healing abilities that come with that circle. So I can be a healer in a pinch but will also be mainly offensive.

Backstory?

So what’s my backstory?

My druid loves fire and the idea of renewal by fire. Kind of like some trees have built in ways to protect themselves from fire. Or how certain seeds only grow/come out of their shell when there is fire. So that is my characters mindset. The renewal of nature and habitats by fire (and just loving fire in general).

That means that he isn’t all that accepted by other druids. That isn’t the way that things are done. And even outside of druids, he isn’t all that accepted. A couple of times he has accidentally caught a building on fire. But most of the time it’s been intentional and in a controlled way. But even that is frowned upon generally which disappoints my druid.

Final Thoughts on being a Dungeons and Dragons Player

This is going to be a fun change. I need to actually roll up my character, that will be my plan this weekend. But I’m excited to see what it is like on the other side of the table. What I am going to have to do, versus in my one shot that I played, is to hold back some. When it is one shot, I can be as goofy as I want. I still balance taking over the show, but it’s okay to have that absurdly bad decision to happen.

In a campaign, even a short one, I will need to hold back. And with new players I want to hold back. As they learn what they are doing, it’ll allow me to open up a bit more with getting into it. But I already know that I love Dungeons and Dragons, at least running it, and I did like playing. So I want it to be a good opportunity and fun time for the other players as well.

What was your first Dungeons and Dragons Character?

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My expectations were middling going into it. I’d heard from other reviews and people who have seen it that it was good. But where does that fall into the mix of being a good movie critically and mainly just a popcorn flick? Let’s take a look, there might be some spoilers but minimal.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – Plot

Edgin wants a simple life of doing what is right. Well, maybe not that simple as he throws in his lot with a group called the Harpers. He is partly tasked with keeping bad folks off the streets and then taking artifacts or things too dangerous to be in the world or at least the people’s hands who have them. However, that all goes wrong when his wife is killed by one of the evil groups he’s dealt with.

Forsaking his Harper vows he tries to lead a good life for his daughter but without his anchor falls into drink and depression. Things do get better when he gets someone who helps him through the process. But good things don’t last when he finds of a chance to get his wife back but is betrayed by someone in his own party. So breaking out of prison, how does he get his life back, wife back, and now daughter back, when everything has been taken from him?

Thoughts

Firstly, this is very much a popcorn flick. I tried to tease that it might be more but it’s really not. You sit down and watch it to get a lighter fantasy story with Dungeons and Dragons tropes mixed in. Now, aren’t those the same as fantasy, some of them, but generally how they are done is going to be different.

Use of Dungeons and Dragons

And that’s really the highlight of this movie. It could have easily juts been generic fantasy. They could have picked some random fantasy script slapped Dungeons and Dragons on the marquee and called it good. But that is not what this movie is. They spend a lot of time to make sure that it feels like Dungeons and Dragons, and not just that but to make sure they get it right.

That detail is going to be lost on some people. If you don’t know Dungeons and Dragons it’ll seem like a slightly different fantasy. It’ll still be a popcorn flick, but it will be missing some of that heart. When you play Dungeons and Dragons, or know it fairly well, it’ll feel like Dungeons and Dragons.

The Story

I think the story is where it really can start to drive in that Dungeons and Dragons feel. Things like the monsters, and some jokes about intelligence help, but to make it really feel, the story needs to feel like that too. So what does that even mean?

In a Dungeons and Dragons campaign you often go from one quest to another. Mainly think one set piece to another. Where you interact with some of the story, find new characters and fight something. That works well in a campaign at home because everyone is directly involved in the story.

On the flip side, it often doesn’t work well in movies or books which are meant for a longer sitting but also need a specific end. In Honor Among Thieves, though, it works. Why, because it matches the light tone. You expect them to go and get a random thing. How the party comes together makes sense even though it’s a random(ish) group. It isn’t as tight and nice a story as you want in a lot of movies, but it helps give it the Dungeons and Dragons feel.

But, and this will be a negative for some, it also has a Marvel feel to it. It has that super hero feel in some of the fights or moments where everything comes together. For me, this isn’t a major issue, but it definitely tries to lean on what is successful to find it’s success.

The Acting

Finally, let’s talk about the acting. Mainly because this is an interesting mixture in the cast. You have bigger names like Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant in the movie. But then you have lesser known talent to pair with them like Rege-Jean Page, Sophia Willis, Justice Smith, and Daisy Head. It’s an interesting combination of talents playing in main roles.

But that combination works well. I think they did a good job casting the characters so that they made sense for their roles. With a niche in a a niche genre of fantasy, you need a few bigger names, but also it’s nice that it’s not just big names so that you can enjoy what everyone is doing, not just have an actor who is in it for a paycheck. Yes, they all are, but the up and coming or lesser known all need to do well. And even with the more established, they do a good job of putting in effort.

Who Is It For?

Great question on this one, I think for a lot of people this is going to be a fun popcorn flick. In fact, I don’t think that many people are going to watch it and think that it sucks. But it isn’t also going to be one that people are seeking out.

I put it in that camp of people will often stop and watch The Fifth Element when that is on television. But is it a movie people seek out? I feel like it isn’t. That is a good thing, it’ll have staying power. It is also a bad thing, because people will wait on it.

Final Thoughts – Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

This is a movie that I really enjoyed. Is it great, no, but it is a ton of fun. And that is what I wanted in that movie. And the big thing is that it gets it right. I don’t mind movies taking liberties with the story it’s adapting. But with Dungeons and Dragons I am glad that they kept it close to the source materials.

It could have gone more generic with a fewer nods. But it does a good job of building on an really open world of Dungeons and Dragons. It leans into the source material so it stands out like it should. And they tell a true story to the source materials.

My Grade: B+
Critical Grade: C
Fun Grade: A

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