The Book of Many Things

Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition

by Wizards of the Coast, Jason Tondro (Project Lead)

A book for players and Dungeon Masters alike with content that can be dropped into any campaign, all thematically tied to The Deck of Many Things.

Genres: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC /ˈwɒtˌsiː/ or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. Originally a basement-run role-playing game publisher, the company popularized the collectible card game genre with Magic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s, acquired the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game by purchasing the failing company TSR, and experienced tremendous success by publishing the licensed Pokémon Trading Card Game. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Renton, Washington in the United States.[1]

Wizards of the Coast publishes role-playing games, board games, and collectible card games. They have received numerous awards, including several Origins Awards. The company has been a subsidiary of Hasbro since 1999. All Wizards of the Coast stores were closed in 2004.

Reviews

[Ogre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard one. The information presented is amazingly useful; great magic items, great creatures, great resources. But the layout...oh dear lord, trying to look over a list of things without having a D&DBeyond and access to this book is all but impossible. The layout is terribly creative, but as a resource book it's honestly just terrible. It's as if nobody on the team stopped and said, "Hey, folks, you know, people are going to be trying to look things up in this book..."

This is honestly a trend recently in the Wizards of the Coast releases, ignoring the purpose of releasing resource books. I suppose with their acquisition of DnDBeyond, they figure people will spend more money getting access to the material online in a more organized fashion. But this is a hearty "screw you" to those who prefer the physical materials.

Don't bother buying this in hardcover. Buy it online only if you are going to use it; you can still read it in the order it was presented in the book but this way you'll have access to the information in an easily searchable fashion. Because the resource is good, just impossible to use as laid out.

[Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book plus in game magical card-deck project that was at the start involved in some polemic as there were some problems in the card stock and printing which led to a product recall and subsequent re-release, it's an actual pity that it wasn't a smoother release, as it is definitely one of the most interesting and compelling products to come to D&D in the last few years.

The physical set includes a lushly printed deck in its own case with a hardcover book detailing each card and how to use them to divine the future of characters or even to randomize and design whole adventures for use with the D&D game, as well as details of the meaning of each card (both upright and inverted), and together with this we get a whole hardcover book entitled the Book of Many things which develops the lore of the deck in a deep way, with whole factions fighting for its power or to protect the world from it, with monsters related to the deck, dungeons, settings, and the history of the decks creation, the introduction of some fascinating NPCs deeply connected to the deck and a myriad of magical items as well. The book is a treasure trove of material for your campaign, it's loosely structured but you could use this to very easily personalise a new adventure or even whole campaign around the deck.

I was lucky enough not only to be able to get one of the beautiful brick and mortar shop editions as well as get a replacement deck as well, which seeing as the original deck was in perfect condition means I now have two Decks of Many (More) Things. Nice!

[Steven "Steve" · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a backstory to the creation of the Deck of Many Things and has chapters dedicated to each card containing encounters, groups, or places associated with the deck. The chapters I found most interesting were on the Donjon, featuring a prison on another plane, and Euryale which gives a backstory to both the gorgon herself and the creation of the deck. The boxed set also contains an expanded 66 card deck and a guide book to the meaning of each card. The guide book is set up like a Tarot deck guide. Speaking of which, some of the cards are done by tarot deck creator Abigail Larson, which was a nice surprise. Overall this was a fun set even if some of the chapters were a little light on content.

[Pádraic · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book absolutely chock-full of different resources to add to your game: locations, factions, spells and powers, NPCs, plot hooks, character creation ideas; all themed and organised around the Deck of Many Things.

In theory, this would be a great book to dip in and out of, to flick through before a new campaign or to add a new element to an ongoing one. In theory. But in reality, all the sections are tedious and uninspired, there's no verve or excitement to any of it. WotC has been getting a lot of shit for their new products, most of which I think is way overblown, but I have to agree here: there's literally nothing in this book that I was interested in using.

[Andy Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a good variety of material in this collection. The Asteria and Euryale myth definitely gave me Theros vibes. There is definitely some cool lore in there as well. The cards look so nice, I’ll admit I couldn’t bear to open them.

[Mark Caton · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite WOTC dnd books. Full of ideas for any game or an entire campaign centered around this magic item. The physical cards, despite their production issues, are absolutely amazing and well worth the price.

[Yúri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great idea to add to campaigns in order to add more chaos and mischief or order and guidance. Or both!

[John Stinebaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

High concept but full of imagination this a great resource for DMs and I could see it pairing well with Planescape.