[RPG] Is the Player’s Handbook sufficient to run a campaign

booksdnd-5e

The Player's Handbook (PHB) for D&D 5e is being released in August. The Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual are being released a few months after, however. Can a group run a successful campaign with only the PHB? What would they be missing out on?

Best Answer

Head designer Mike Mearls has tweeted

Lots of Q's about the staggered release: You will not need the MM or DMG to run a campaign. Or the PH or Starter Set to make a character.

To what extent this is true in practice remains to be seen! To me, the last point suggests they might have some basic resources available online for free, which might include a small amount of monsters.

And indeed, they have now announced "Basic D&D". The key quote:

At the launch of the D&D Starter Set, Basic D&D will include the material needed to create characters and advance to 20th level. In August, with the release of the Player’s Handbook, Basic D&D will expand to include the essential monsters, magic items, and DM rules needed to run the game, along with the rules for wilderness, dungeon, and urban adventuring. (The Starter Set already covers the aspects of these rules that you need to run the included campaign.)

They will also update Basic to keep it compatible with released adventures:

As we introduce new storylines like Tyranny of Dragons, we’ll also make available free PDFs that provide all the rules and stats missing from Basic D&D needed to run the adventures tied into the story. The adventures released as part of Tyranny of Dragons are playable without requiring any of the core rulebooks or the Starter Set.

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