I like a lot of the changes in the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, but most of them aren't necessarily things that would push me to immediately toss aside the 2014 copy. I've been running a long-term DnD 5e campaign for years, and I'm quite comfortable with the older edition at this point. That's not to say that I always every detail off the top of my head — I definitely don't — but I do have a good idea of how to use the book to quickly check facts when they're relevant to play.

Although I generally play DnD online, I always keep physical copies of the core books at hand during sessions, a task that can be tricky with limited desk space and a shelf that isn't close enough to be entirely convenient. Earning a spot within arm's length is consequently a bit of a feat, so at the end of the day, either the 2014 or 2024 Player's Handbook is going to end up relegated to the shelf. I've already reached the point where the 2014 book is failing to make the cut, and it's mostly because of one new 2024 feature.

D&D's Rules Glossary Is The Best Player's Handbook Idea

One Handy Resource Makes A Huge Difference

After spending a couple of months with the 2024 Player's Handbook, the feature that's emerged as my favorite is the Rules Glossary included in the back. Although tossing appendices in the final pages of DnD books is a common standard, they tend to serve fairly narrow purposes, like the list of multiversal gods found in Appendix B of the 2014 Player's Handbook. The Rules Glossary sets its sights on the much bigger goal of covering most of the basic info that a player or DM might need to check during gameplay, a challenging task that it pulls off surprisingly well.

Smartly, the Rules Glossary is also the one part of DnD's 2024 Player's Handbook that largely de-emphasizes artwork, squeezing monochrome scenes into banners at the top of some pages but devoting most of the real estate to the text. I love all the new illustrations in the rest of the book, but I can't pretend that the large s of artwork and increased font size make the spell chapter quick to flip through. In that specific instance, the 2014 book might take the lead, but the new spell art's so good that I can accept the sacrifice.

Even when using a digital copy of the 2024 Player's Handbook, the Rules Glossary makes looking things up a lot easier. D&D Beyond's search function can sometimes be too broad to be useful, and the digital sidebar for the Rules Glossary makes up for how long the scroll can be in the digital format.

Tossing so much into one glossary does come with certain drawbacks, like the need to reference the back of the book more frequently while learning the basic rules and the lack of a dedicated section for Conditions. For my personal use, however, the benefits have easily outweighed these limitations. With maps, notes, and more occupying my screens, I love being able to flip to any basic rule within seconds if I'm second-guessing how it works, and I haven't yet run into a situation where something I would have expected to find in the Rules Glossary wasn't there.

The 2024 Player's Handbook Has Already Converted Me

The 2014 Book Isn't As Convenient

In addition to my long-term DnD campaign, I've also been running a low-level dungeon crawl as a playtest of the 2024 rules recently, so it stands to reason that I'm using the new Player's Handbook for that one. Checking whether certain rules have changed during play is what's made me notice some of the more minor tweaks, and in a few cases, I have ended up cross-referencing the 2014 book to clarify the differences. The greater accolade for the 2024 Player's Handbook, however, is that I've also started picking it up for the campaign that's still officially on 2014 rules.

Everyone in the campaign has had enough experience by now to keep track of the essentials, and when it comes to minutiae, I'm happy enough to default to the way things have changed here and there for the sake of having an easier reference. The fact that I generally like the new rules helps, of course, but there's also a degree to which convenience can be paramount in DnD.

Some TTRPG systems — and even some DnD 5e campaigns — rely heavily on the specifics of rules. I tend to place a greater value on keeping up momentum, however, and I'd rather settle a dispute quickly with a Rules Glossary that's highly convenient than reference any set of standards that's harder to access. It's a path of much less resistance, and it basically guarantees that the 2024 Player's Handbook is the one I'll be defaulting to for years to come.

D&D's 2024 Player's Handbook Structure Is Stronger

Anything That Makes A DM's Life Easier Is Great

The Rules Glossary in the 2024 Player's Handbook may not be as useful for every DM as it is for me, as not everyone needs to check rules often. A custom DM screen or notebook can be a good way to curate whatever information suits a DM's needs, and even without that, there are always groups where every member has virtually every rule firmly planted in their memory. For those who are a little less organized, however, the Rules Glossary does a great job of picking up the slack.

There's never going to be a perfect way to arrange a book with hundreds of pages of rules, especially when it serves a game that's often played for social reasons above all else. The 2024 Player's Handbook isn't afraid to reinvent the structure, however, even though it isn't quite as bold when it comes to the nature of the rules themselves. The Dungeons & Dragons Rules Glossary is just as good in practice as in theory, and it might be the best reason to have the 2024 Player's Handbook at the ready.