(Part 3) Top products from r/dndnext

I would suggest OP purchase:

1. The Players Handbook
   
   
2. The Monster Manual
   
   
3. A Chessex battlemap
   
   
4. Pathfinder Assorted Bases
   
   I feel like the inclusion of the PHB and MM are self-explanatory.
   
   The battemat is something I own and I have used to great effect - It's supremely durable, survived multiple moves, and still looks great. I'm moving more towards tiles now that I have a little bit more money to spend on D&D, but the mat was one of my biggest tools when I was first starting out as a DM.
   
   The token bases are from pathfinder, a related tabletop RPG, but can easily be used in DnD 5E. Simply print out pictures of the monsters that you've found online, cut them out, and place them in the bases, and viola - instant miniatures! They can help tide your players over while you build your own miniature collection.
   
   N.B. I agree with many of the other posters here that the use of a map and miniatures is not at all necessary for doing D&D, however, I have found that using them greatly enhances the experience, and it is my opinion that I like them. If you feel so inclined, OP, instead of the battlemap and bases, purchase the DM's Guide, which contains great advice in building and running your own adventures and campaigns, which might interest you down the road if it doesn't already.
   
   Total cost: $95.86 on amazon.

To be honest, 2nd edition Faerun was really good. We still play in that time period (as did we in 3rd ed, and 4th ed).

The best FR source book past 2nd ed was the 3rd edition book. I would try and find this book in PDF and go from there. It is not bad, but 4E realms was...well we did not like it (your results may vary).

A good all around book for everything is A Grand History of the Realms.

>What are the major 'world changing' books or series

3rd edition - books about the Shadow Weave and the return of the Netherese.

4th edition - The spell-plague.

Also there is also the best Realms Source on the internet (Ed Greenwood posts there): http://www.candlekeep.com/

Maybe in a very general way you could say that. But the history is quite complicated.

If you haven't read Playing at the World, I would highly recommend it. It is, hands down, the best academic study of the history of roleplaying games. Peterson did a mind-boggling amount of research, and mines obscure old gaming 'zines for some really interesting stuff.

One of the biggest revelations to me was that Arneson had been playing a kind of proto-RPG called a "Braunstein," invented by a college kid named David Wesely. These were games where people would take on the roles of average people in a medieval or Napoleonic town, like the Mayor or the Baker. They would run entire campaigns around these towns and the lives of the people in them and it heavily influenced Arneson's later work on D&D.

In fact, it was Arneson's Braunstein-style world called Blackmoor that would later evolve into a D&D campaign. (Monsters literally showed up in the castle dungeon...)

My recommendation would be to go pick up some 2nd, 3rd or 4th edition sourcebooks for dirt cheap at Half Price Books or online. The Forgotten Realms sourcebook from 3.5 is what I am currently using, it has a removable foldout map of Faerun, and detailed lists of major sights throughout the realms, including descriptions of the major cities, ruins, etc.

I've heard good things about the Greenwood Forgotten Realms book as well.

You can probably also find sourcebooks specific to Waterdeep, Neverwinter, etc. though I don't know the specific titles.

The point is that generally speaking the edition doesn't matter when it comes to background materials, physical descriptions, major characters, history, politics, factions, maps, etc. It just doesn't. So do yourself a favor and buy this stuff cheap from older editions.

Also, keep in mind that while you are building off of an existing world, and there is something cool about that, the minute you start to play in it it's YOUR world. None of these sourcebooks are going to have every single detail fleshed out, and often will just give you the flavor of a particular city, a few major landmarks, etc. From there on you should create your own landmarks, taverns, interesting characters, history, etc.

This is the book that I use a lot:
http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Campaign-Setting-Dungeons-Roleplaying/dp/0786918365/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417478819&sr=1-2&keywords=FOrgotten+Realms

Here are more:

http://www.amazon.com/Greenwood-Presents-Elminsters-Forgotten-Realms/dp/0786960345

Neverwinter book:
http://www.amazon.com/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958146/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417478789&sr=1-4&keywords=Neverwinter+source+book

Waterdeep book:
http://www.amazon.com/City-Splendors-Waterdeep-Roleplaying-Supplement/dp/0786936932/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417478895&sr=1-1&keywords=Waterdeep

http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Realms-Atlas-Karen-Fonstad/dp/0880388579/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417478853&sr=1-3&keywords=FOrgotten+Realms

Hope that helps. Also buy 4th edition stuff now if you ever think you want it. Lots of stores are having fire sales moving their 4th ed stuff.

Nice! I always felt like minis were great for players, but take up too much storage space for enemies. I like the suggestions others have made around printing onto labels and such.

You may want to look into getting a 1" hole punch as well.

I bought a bulk pack of junk Magic The Gathering cards and can convert one of them to a monster token pretty fast. It is also handy when I have a surprise and want to drop 10 tokens I wasn't prepared for.

If you want to see how they used to manage it, check out the Forgotten Realms Atlas for more ridiculously detailed maps from all over the realms. They include huge overland maps and detailed interiors in a collection that detailed every major location in the Realms as of its publication based off the collected fiction/novels of TSR.

EDIT: Real old school here, but the most detailed maps EVER made for the Realms are only available in the CD ROM Forgotten Realms Atlas, where EVERYTHING existing at the time was rendered in Vector Maps. Infinitely rescalable and extractable. I use the Forgotten Realms CD to copy the maps from, then Campaign Cartographer to export them in at least 6000x6000 image size where I then lazily project them onto the whole table top. A mouse wheel zooms from perfect clarity overhead of Waterdeep to a just as clear doorway level map, all on the same image.

There's a great book came out in 2007 called "Grand History of the Realms" but I'll be honest it reads like stereo instructions. I utilize that, the forgotten realms wiki, and general googling to patch together timelines.

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-History-Realms-Forgotten/dp/0786947314

It's a go-to for me. So much good stuff. Good luck!

I think this might kinda sorta of work for you:

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Lairs-5th-Wolfgang-Baur/dp/1936781700

There is a cookbook called A Feast of Ice and Fire that has really cool recipes, and is accompanied by a blog (has free recipes that aren't in the book).

If your party drinks alcohol, I like to get some growlers or 22oz bottles with old timey labels served in mugs or steins. Or you could get some mead/wine served in goblets.

Those are pretty labor intensive though, but just my suggestion.

I’d say a folder for the ones that will fit. For the smaller ones you could do some [Binder Pocket Protectors] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HIOVOG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_IcsSAbG8D3Y84) and have them easily accessed and separated in a binder. For the ones that are huge, I have no idea as I’m sure you don’t want to fold them up

It would be cool if these cards could fit in binder sleeves. Here is what they look like:

https://www.amazon.ca/Ultra-Pro-Pocket-Page-Protectors/dp/B005HIOVOG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1465044020&sr=8-4&keywords=card+binder+sleeves

Surprisingly, not true. Recommended reading: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Travelers-Guide-Medieval-England/dp/1439112908

Linen undergarments were surprisingly good at absorbing sweat and oil, so as long as *those* were clean (changed and washed frequently) people didn't stink like you would expect. Further since the common knowledge at the time was that disease could be caused by 'miasma' or bad air it was important not to stink.

Medieval cleanliness standards were different from today, not nonexistant.

I use these. Your party will know true terror upon hearing the clashing of giant dice, like the footsteps of an angry God, from behind your DM's screen. They might not be the fanciest, but it shows authority in the classic "bigger is better" sort of way.

I like Pathfinder Pawns, but they don't work for everything (and are still pricey to collect).

I have 1", 2", and 3" wooden circles and 1", 2", and 3" hole punches. I print off the minis on card stock, punch them out, and glue them onto a wooden circle of appropriate size.

I also have some multicolored counting chips that I can write numbers on for large groups of monsters. They also double as status effects when needed.

Essentially, I go through the pawns first, but they don't always have everything, so then I go to printing.. but sometimes if I have a pawn of it, I'll just use the one pawn, then use the tokens for the rest of them. One representation is good enough usually.

Lmao we have opposite opinions on this; I love the Dragon Heist and Mad Mage maps so I can add flavor however I would like, and they don't feel cluttered.

You can make out a bit of the map style of the map of Avernus in the [dice set for sale on Amazon]( https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Baldurs-Gate-Miscellany/dp/0786966777/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=dice+set+avernus&qid=1567540823&s=gateway&sr=8-3), I believe they said that's the same one that would be in the book, however the style will be different from the rest of the maps in the book because this one is a map made by some crazy mage that the players find.

Beyond that, I haven't heard anything about the rest of the maps in the story, but I'm very excited to find out!

This is a pretty inexpensive approach. I've seen people use button makers before, but those are expensive, all this stuff together is like 20$ per 100.

The circular punch seems just as cheap as scissors on amazon so I'd probably do that.

Color printing is what, 10 - 20 cents a page these days, so I imagine less than 1 dollar per 100.

Macrame Rings in varying sizes for AoE Effects. They scale perfectly with 1" square tile sets.

https://www.amazon.com/Darice-Gold-Metal-Ring-8-Inch/dp/B0026HR0M6/ref=pd_sim_201_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VW6QWDSX4DXAHQRXYZ8C

There's a set of cheap plastic knights/warriors for $7 which I think is a great starter kit:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YA7FS6/

If you need minis there are lots of cool ideas on how to make cheap ones:

Like this - http://newbiedm.com/2008/11/22/newbiedm-tutorial-counters-tokens-or-pogs/

People also use small wooden pegs (like these) and decorate them.

Some people also use Lego.

Also:

http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder

and

http://www.trollandtoad.com

and

http://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-36-Piece-Guardian-Knights-Action/dp/B000YA7FS6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1449186880&sr=8-2&keywords=plastic+fantasy+men

AmazonSmile Link: Olympia Tool 85-010 Grand Pack-N-Roll Portable Tool Carrier, Black

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Collapsible crate on wheels something like this.

It's Adventures in Middle Earth which is the 5e version of TOR. I was getting the names mixed up you're right.

https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Middle-Earth-Players-Guide/dp/0857443038

If you don't care too much about exact scale, you can get bags of plastic toy figures on Amazon for dirt cheap. They're a bit larger than normal minis, but work fine.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DK4FO0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RYM2F0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YA7FS6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is the way to go. I have figurines for the players themselves, but I use pawns for the monsters. There are four Pawn sets. Here are Amazon links:

Bestiary Box 1

Bestiary Box 2

Bestiary Box 3

Bestiary Box 4

Looks like HOTDQ and Rise of Tiamat are also on sale for around $20:

• Hoard of the Dragon Queen
  
  
• Rise of Tiamat
  
  Volo's and Xanathar's are around $30:
  
  
• Volo's Guide to Monsters
  
  
• Xanathar's Guide to Everything
  
  SCAG is $30, as is the not-yet-released Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes:
  
  
• Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
  
  
• Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (pre-order)
  
  ...and scrolling down the list, it seems a bunch of normally $50 adventures are also on sale around $30-34. The DMG is $32 and the Monster Manual is $34:
  
  
• Dungeon Master's Guide
  
  
• Monster Manual

There are two blank spaces listed on Amazon right now (here and here), both of them under $20. I doubt it's going to be a big adventure path. I'm guessing one of them is going to be a collection of UA stuff.

I preordered in early April. I've now had an update saying it will be delivered between the 9th of July and the 8th of August.

I emailed to complain, they said sorry and gave me £10 amazon credit. They said I want to cancel my preorder I still can and suggested I could still buy it on amazon from another seller. I'm still deciding what to do.

Here is the desktop version of your link

8 inch ring of fireball:

https://www.amazon.com/Darice-Gold-Metal-Ring-8-Inch/dp/B0026HR0M6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1543072778&sr=8-2&keywords=8+inch+ring

1-6 inch rings :
https://www.amazon.com/eBoot-Pieces-Assorted-Catcher-Silver/dp/B071HDX7Y8/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1543072837&sr=8-15&keywords=5+inch+diameter+ring

Book of Lairs for 5th Edition (Volume 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936781700/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Wi.TAb5ZWTQPP

https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Pawns-Assortment-Paizo-Staff/dp/1601256698

Check out Pathfinder Pawns.

https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary-3-Box/dp/1601255810

http://paizo.com/pathfinder/miniatures/pawns

Are you aware of Adventures in Middle Earth, the official Lord of the Rings RPG that uses a version of D&D 5E rules?

Here are the links to the book, which is which and why they are so cheap is beyond my knowledge, but maybe ToA is a player and a DM book, or a Campaign and a Map set?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0786966203/ref=ox_sc_act_image_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/078696619X/ref=ox_sc_act_image_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/Nanny-Oggs-Cookbook-Information-Astonishing/dp/0552146730/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451767059&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=auntie+ogg%27s

or

http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Ice-Fire-Official-Companion/dp/0345534492/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1451767129&sr=8-3&keywords=fantasy+cookbook

http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Cookbook-Timothy-Hildebrandt/dp/0672527030/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1451767129&sr=8-4&keywords=fantasy+cookbook

http://www.amazon.com/Redwall-Cookbook-Brian-Jacques/dp/0399237917/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1451767129&sr=8-10&keywords=fantasy+cookbook

This book by Jared Blando really helped my group's map artist up their game by leaps and bounds. Cannot recommend highly enough.

One of the products is a "Dice & Miscellany Set".

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786966777

EDIT: Posted the wrong link.

As a fantasy, I guess it's ok. But that is so not the accurate history at all. So much so I call it an outrageous misinformation could do actual damage to education / history. I hope it does not become popular.

If you want the actual history read this https://www.amazon.com/Playing-at-World-Jon-Peterson/dp/0615642047

For our campaigns our group uses the miniatures for our characters, and those colored circles for enemies. These ones specifically.

Then I bought some small star stickers and used a sharpie to write numbers on them so we can keep track of hp. Different colors === different enemies.

Edit: we also use the lids to the dice containers for large creatures and three jenga blocks for huge

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes is releasing on Fantasy Grounds May 18th. Their releases usually coincide exactly with the pre-release. So... pre-release on May 18th

>D&D Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Coming to Fantasy Grounds May 18
We are happy to announce the next big release from Wizards of the Coast. The master magician Mordenkainen has amassed information on many of the biggest conflicts in the D&D multiverse such as those between elves, gith, devils and demons.
The Fantasy Grounds version is expected to be $29.99 and will feature an integrated reference manual, NPCs, new races, dynamic story templates and tokens.

This Amazon product page seems to indicate the regular release is on May 29th.