D&D: Apparently Some of You Play D&D Without The Player’s Handbook
According to the latest data from D&D Beyond users, some of you have turned off your targeting computers and are playing D&D without the PHB.
One of the newest features for D&D Beyond is the ability to Blacklist certain sourcebooks from being used for character creation purposes in your campaign. There are a number of reasons you might want to do this–you might want to keep players from picking overpowered options, you might want to limit campaign materials to books that make sense for your campaign area (the Tomb of Annihilation backgrounds might feel out of place in a Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaign, for instance). Or maybe you just don’t want to worry about the balance of different options.
And according to the user data from D&D Beyond, people have jumped on the option with gusto. We’ve got a look at the most blacklisted books today, which shows off what players aren’t using in their campaigns. The results are interesting, let’s take a look.
via D&D Beyond
Here’s a look at every book in the game and how often they get blacklisted by different GMs for their campaigns. Both ends of this picture are very interesting because you’ll find that a lot of players are leaving Waterdeep: Dragon Heist by the wayside–the winding roads of Waterdeep in Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, are forbidden from many a campaign. It’s interesting because aside from the magic items, there aren’t that many things that a character could pick from–but perhaps the regalia of a Lord of Waterdeep or the Stone of Golorr are too powerful?
Then there are a few other books that make sense. Rrakkma is an extraplanar, very specific, high-level adventure. Lost Mine of Phandelver is a mystery as it’s one of the starter sets–Out of the Abyss makes sense if you don’t want to deal with weird Underdark stuff–and then down at the very bottom we get to the heart of the issue here.
Which books do you allow in your games?
UPDATE: Blacklisting does not, as we initially believed, ban players from using the content in a book–but rather reading the adventure. So instead it seems that people are diving headlong into Waterdeep without spoilers. This tracks a little more, but also makes you wonder, what the heck is going on in a campaign where players aren’t allowed to read the Player’s Handbook? It’s hard enough to get players to read their own classes on a good day, let alone the rules…
Happy Adventuring!
