The Player's Handbook (spelled Players Handbook in first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D), abbreviated as PHB) is the name given to one of the core rulebooks in every edition of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). It does not contain the complete set of rules for the game, and only includes rules for use by players of the game. Additional rules, for use by Dungeon Masters (DMs), who referee the game, can be found in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Many optional rules, such as those governing extremely high-level players, and some of the more obscure spells, are found in other sources.
Since the first edition, Both the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Player's Handbook give advice, tips, and suggestions for various styles of play. For most editions of D&D, The Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual make up the core rulebooks.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
The first Players Handbook<!--This first edition does not have an apostrophe in the title. Please do not add it--> was released in June 1978 as a 128-page hardcover. It was written by Gary Gygax and edited by Mike Carr, who also wrote the foreword. The original cover art was by D.A. Trampier, Numerous foreign editions of the Players Handbook were published, including versions for the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and Germany. Games Workshop (U.K.) published a softcover version also in 1978. Dealers continued to place orders for the 1st edition Players Handbook even after 2nd edition was released, causing the final printing to be in July 1990, a year after the release of 2nd edition. The AD&D core game rules were divided between these books, The Players Handbook contained the information that players needed for playing the standard character classes: cleric, druid, fighter, ranger, paladin, magic-user, illusionist, thief, assassin, and monk. In 2012, Wizards of the Coast released a new printing of the original book, billed as the "1st Edition Premium Player's Handbook", as part of a set of limited-edition reprints of the original 1st Edition core rulebooks: the Monster Manual, Player's Handbook, and Dungeon Master's Guide. These premium versions of the original AD&D rulebooks were reprinted with the original art and content, but feature a new cover design. Purchase of the reprinted Player's Handbook helped support the Gygax Memorial Fund—established to immortalize Gary Gygax with a memorial statue in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Reception
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- Casus Belli (Issue 5 - Sep 1981)
- Casus Belli #34 (Aug 1986)
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The original Players Handbook was reviewed by Don Turnbull in issue No. 10 of White Dwarf, who gave the book a rating of 10 out of 10. Turnbull noted, "I don't think I have ever seen a product sell so quickly as did the Handbook when it first appeared on the Games Workshop stand at Dragonmeet", a British role-playing game convention; after the convention, he studied the book and concluded that "whereas the original rules are ambiguous and muddled, the Handbook is a detailed and coherent game-system, and very sophisticated."
Scott Taylor for Black Gate in 2014 listed the 1st edition AD&D Player's Handbook cover by artist David Trampier as #1 in "The Top 10 TSR Cover Paintings of All Time". Then in 2016, Taylor listed the Player's Handbook as #5 on the list of "Top 10 'Orange Spine' AD&D Hardcovers By Jeff Easley, saying "you aren't going to top Trampier's version, but nonetheless, for many players who didn't start D&D in the 1980s, THIS is their Players Handbook, and many of us have imagined this fantastic fight as we sat around a gaming table."
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition
The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Player's Handbook was a 256-page hardcover book written by David "Zeb" Cook and released in 1989. The original cover art is by Jeff Easley, and the book featured eight full-page illustrations in color. In 1986, Editor Steve Winter convinced management at TSR that the game needed more than a "reorganization" and instead that the game "should be redeveloped"; Winter and Cook then spent several years developing AD&D 2nd Edition. although some of these were added back into the game in supplements, such as The Complete Book of Humanoids.
Appelcline noted that following the release of the Player's Handbook (1989), TSR published a "player-focused series of splatbooks, the "PHBR" Complete series (1989-1995)"; A set of optional rules for proficiencies was added, to represent skills, and sections detailing role-playing, combat, magic, time and movement, equipment, and spell descriptions were all expanded from the original book. The book included major changes regarding character classes, races, and magic, and incorporated many new rules that had been published in supplements such as Unearthed Arcana (1985) and Dragonlance Adventures (1987).
In 1995, a new version of the 2nd edition Player's Handbook was released as part of TSR's 25th anniversary. mainly due to layout changes and new artwork. A new foreword in this edition specifically stated that the book was not Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition.
Reception
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- Magia i Miecz #22 (October 1995) (Polish)
- Jeux & Stratégie #58
- Australian Realms #24
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In the May 1989 edition of Games International, James Wallis called the 2nd edition "an improvement over the original", but concluded that it was "a step forward for the game, but a very small step." Wallis felt that the many improvements called for by the "archaic mechanics" and "hugely overly-complex" rules had not been addressed, and that the game still provided "a terrible introduction to role-playing." He concluded that the designer "lacked the vision to see what could have been done with the material", and gave the book a below-average rating of 2 out of 5, saying, "AD&D may be the biggest selling rolegame of all time, but like the IBM PC, that doesn't mean that it isn't thoroughly obsolete and to be avoided."
The 2nd edition Player's Handbook was an Origins and Gamer's Choice award winner. He saw the revised rules as a clear improvement. (with the Player's Handbook debuting at that year's Gen Con,) represented a major overhaul of the game, including the adoption of the d20 system. The third edition also dropped the word Advanced from the title, as the publisher decided to publish only one version of the game instead of both basic and advanced versions.
Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams all contributed to the 3rd edition Players Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual, and then each designer wrote one of the books based on those contributions. Tweet is credited with the book's design. The 3rd edition Player's Handbook also saw the return of half-orcs and monks to the core rules set, Another reviewer wrote a response to the first review. A third reviewer felt that the design team "smoothed out the rough edges from Advanced Dungeons & Dragon 2nd Edition and added tons of new goodies to make D&D 3rd Edition the best combat-oriented RPG you can buy".