The clock is ticking down fast towards the release of Dungeons and Dragons‘ new 2024 player’s handbook on September 17, and everyone wants you to buy your copy from them. Popular, if famously scrappy, virtual tabletop Roll20 is sweetening its deal by offering third-party expansion Monster Manual Expanded as a pre-order bonus, along with one extra digital DnD freebie that changes each week until release.
To get the bonuses, you’ll need to pre-order either the Roll20-only digital version of the DnD 2024 Player’s Handbook, at $29.99 (£22.88) or its Core Rulebook Bundle – $89.97 (£68.65) before September 17.
As the name suggests, Monster Manual Expanded is a 320-page unofficial sourcebook published in 2019 for DnD 5e, aiming to “provide Dungeon Masters more options and flexibility in designing adventures and dressing up their dungeons with a wider variety of creatures and characters”. What you’re getting here is the version of the book that’s plumbed into the Roll20 system, mind you – not the standalone PDF.
A chunky bestiary of over 470 expanded and/or modified statblocks for DnD monsters, it’s garnered an excellent reputation in the tabletop RPG community – and it makes sense to offer as a counterpart to the Player’s Handbook release, since we’ll be waiting until February 4 for the 2024 Monster Manual release date. It normally costs $29.99 as a PDF via DriveThruRPG, too.
As with any DnD books designed for 5th edition, we’d caution that – even though Wizards insists 5e materials are all compatible with the new rules – using these monsters in your D&D 2024 games may require some careful tuning and balancing. That’s because the new rules have increased power levels for all DnD classes, so your buffed up players may need slightly deadlier foes to slay.
That’s not the only pre-order bonus Roll20 is offering, though – according to the promo page, each full week running up to the PHB release, you’ll get a different additional bonus.
Currently, that’s the R20 module for M.T. Black’s Mordenkainen’s Tome of Marvelous Magic – a Wizards of the Coast-approved compendium of 200 original, high-power DnD magic items, all at the Wondrous rarity level. That’s the bonus until Monday, August 26 – on the 27th it swaps to a mysterious new pick.
Again, it’s potentially a handy add-on for DMs who want to dive right into playing DnD 2024 in September, but don’t have a large existing library of sourcebooks; while the new, official Dungeon Master’s Guide will include a whopping 300 updated and new magic items to play with, it won’t be released until October 29.
Whatever form you pick up the new Player’s Handbook in, there’s a lot of exciting new content to munch through – we know, because we’ve read the whole thing to break it down into handy guides! For starters, try our explainers on the new DnD tools rules, our rundown of the updated DnD feats, and the radical changes baked into the new DnD 2024 backgrounds.
Source: Wargamer
