Books for Dungeons & Dragons vs cost.
Earlier today a new player to the game asked me about what books where worth buying. This post reflects me personal thoughts about the books and there overpriced cost vs the need of a physical book in the hand.
Right so my personal thoughts on the hard copy books is, there not worth there cost. You can download PDF files off online for most every book they have put out, or get E-text files from here websites for far less then the cost of one book. An many databases online have compiled all the books in to a much easier to read format them even the PDFs or E-text come in. And, with how many different rules sets there are out there you would be looking at many books for each one just to have a basic starter collection. I personally like 3.5 and at the bare bones if you really must real book in your hands get the 3 books that are pliantly to run a basic game. The players handbook 1, the monster manual 1, and the Dungeon Master guide, even just getting 3 books its going to run you something like 60$s if you can find them all on sale.
Oh' and each rule set has something like 20+ books so trust me hen I say the joy of a Physical copy in your hand is only worth it if you are completely invested and know its what you want. And on that note there is a lot of game information that only came out in the old Dungeons & Dragons magazine so in order to get a copy of all the new spells magic items and rules they released you have to go online for them anyhow. By the way Dungeons & Dragons comes in "Basic, advanced, 2.0, 3, 3.5, pathfinder, and 4.0". And each has its own set of rules and guidelines with everything from carry over where something works the same way to nearly the same way to nothing a like to not even existing with in the other rule set.
Edited: KittenPunk on 30th Jun, 2013 - 11:18pm
I have been trying to find such texts online but either I'm using the wrong search engine or I am using the wrong keywords for searching for such references. I have found only hardcopy for sale online and the three key books are about ninety dollars! I had even tried to find e-books on the matter. It has been rather hard for me to gain personal reference to questions I am trying to find the answer to. Thank you Kittenpunk for creating a thread for my question. I appreciate your time. So thank you for answering my question. Also does any of the extra rule books give any extra insight into character creation? And could they possibly help with story lines and plots if you where to Dungeon Master a game? (Not that I'm looking to do so, but would be nice to know if I could convince some others to start a table top game. All though I have yet to be able to get enough players for such a game) I would just like opinions into what additional books may be of service and for what purpose, without spending money on unnecessary books.
Edited: Canabusis on 30th Jun, 2013 - 11:23pm
Canabusis, what information are you after that cannot be gotten here: D&D Characters, Equipment, Spells and Monsters? There are 100s of pages of FREE info there you do not have to buy anything and will be well versed in 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons. Look under "Select From The Current Options:" Or see the Sitemap for all: Sitemap.
UPDATE: You edited your Post, then you need the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's manual which you have to buy, it is not free and if someone offers it free it is because it is pirated. Wizards are the creators and you can get it from them OR look on Ebay / Amazon, etc. There are PDF versions you can buy - Google is your friend.