On Jan. 25, 2022, Wizards of the Coast released a three book expansion to ‘Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition titled “Rules expansion Gift Set”.
The set includes three books: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and Monsters of the Multiverse.
The point of these three books is to build upon experiences for players and dungeon masters by adding new options for both parties. For players, there are new subclasses and races to play as, and for dungeon masters there are tips for worldbuilding and puzzle making among many other things. Think of it kind of like extra downloadable content for a video game.
It is a nice bundle of the core three books that you would need to enhance your Dungeons and Dragons experience. It’s also worth noting that all three books have three alternate covers that make them more rare and collectable than if you bought the three books separately. Additionally, it comes with a unique dungeon master screen. The price before shipping or tax comes down to $169.95.
On its own the bundle is a pretty sweet deal but I do have a bone to pick with the way they released it. You see, “Monsters of the Multiverse” is a new book. New enough that it has not been released for purchase on its own yet. The only way to currently obtain the book is by purchasing the “Rules expansion Gift Set”.
It is made worse by the fact that ‘Xanathar’s Guide to Everything’ and ‘Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything’ have already been out for a while, meaning that a large number of players (myself included) and fans already have these two books. So if I want the new book I have to pay $169.95 to get it when I should have only had to pay $49.95 (How much the book will be on release).
It seems to be a clear cash grab from fans who just want to play with the updated rules for the game. In case you were wondering, “Monsters of the Multiverse” comes out May 17, 2022, so it is going to be a while before you can actually buy the book individually.
It gets a little worse because “Monsters of the Multiverse” is not really a full expansion but more of a reworking of a large amount of the races in D&D 5th edition as well as remade stat blocks that are easier for Dungeon Masters to use. So instead of an expansion, it feels more like an update to 5th edition that I have to pay for to use.
If you really want to get the book you can buy it at a marked up price on eBay, but the cheapest I could find was around $70 which is cheaper but also risky as I have been scammed on eBay before.
All in all, the whole thing really puts a bad taste in my mouth. It feels like Wizards of the Coast is just milking their fans. Hopefully this strategy doesn’t make them enough money for them to justify continuing it in the future but only time will tell.
