The Free Library, Nine Booklets and Who Each One Is For
The Library holds nine booklets, set for print the same way The Book of Dice is. Each is free: no account, no email, tap a cover and the PDF downloads. Nine is too many to open at once, so here is what each one covers, in its own words, and who should read it first.
Start here if you are choosing a game
The Virtues of Every D&D Edition
A tour from the 1974 white box to the 2024 revision. It refuses to crown a winner, because "every one of them earned its place at the table." Each edition gets the thing it still does better than the rest. On 1st Edition's danger: "Your level 1 magic-user has 1d4 hit points and one magic missile per day. Survival is a verb."
Read it if your table argues about editions, or someone wants to try an older one and needs a reason.
Download the Virtues of Every D&D Edition (PDF)
D&D Alternatives Compared
Three alternatives, with honest strengths and weaknesses: Pathfinder 2e, Critical Core and Shadowdark. Its starting point, in its own words: "most popular" is not the same thing as "best for every group." Pathfinder 2e suits tactically minded groups. Critical Core suits kids and families, therapeutic or educational settings, and autistic players who benefit from a more structured introduction. Shadowdark "blends old-school danger with a more modern, readable rules presentation."
Read it if D&D almost fits your table, but not quite.
Download D&D Alternatives Compared (PDF)
Pathfinder 2e vs D&D 5E
The close-up on one pair. Its short answer: "D&D 5E is usually easier to start, easier to improvise, and more familiar to new players. Pathfinder 2e is more structured, more tactical, and more precise. Neither game is automatically better." It walks through the big mechanical split: 5E leans on Advantage and Disadvantage, while Pathfinder 2e stacks typed bonuses and grades every roll on a four-degree scale, critical success to critical failure, so a small bonus can turn a success into a critical success.
Read it if the alternatives booklet left you torn between these two.
Download Pathfinder 2e vs D&D 5E (PDF)
Start here if you roll online
How to Use DnD Dice Roller
A manual for the roller at dnddiceroller.com, built for anything from "a basic 1d20 check" to "a reusable multi-line combat setup, a 5E ability score roller, or more specialized AD&D and custom-rule rolls." It covers labels on each line, multi-line setups and the save and sound toggles, with worked examples.
Read it if you want one screen that rolls a whole character's attacks.
Download How to Use DnD Dice Roller (PDF)
Saved Lists and True Randomness
What changed on the roller: dice lines can follow you between browsers on an optional account, and "the save button is gone because the site saves as you go." The part worth reading twice is where the numbers come from. Choose your own device, or the NIST Randomness Beacon, which "publishes a fresh, cryptographically signed random value every minute, in public." On a shared computer, use a private window: "it is all forgotten when you close the window."
Read it if anyone at your table has ever said the roller is rigged.
Download Saved Lists and True Randomness (PDF)
Legend Roller
Arthur, the Dungeon Master who built the roller, introduces its Android and iOS apps, and asks for feedback while they are new. It ends: "behind every critical failure lies a story worth telling."
Read it if you want the roller in your pocket at the table.
Start here if you freeze on your turn
How to Win
A friend who had never played asked whether a D&D turn is like blackjack, learnable rules so you never freeze when the table looks at you. The booklet says yes and compresses each game to one law. For D&D: "actions are the currency, so spend yours to take away theirs." Then it gives the turn as a short ordered list, each step with its reason: get a dying teammate back up, then keep yourself standing, then finish an enemy off if you can, because "a dead enemy stops rolling dice at you forever," otherwise hit what the party already hits, and spend your movement and Bonus Action before you end the turn.
Read it if you are new, or you play a character with too many options.
Start here if you love the hobby itself
Gen Con 2026
Written from a desk in another hemisphere, not the show floor. The show had over 74,000 attendees; the booklet sticks to what changes your table. The biggest: Arcana Unleashed, out 15 September, with 8 subclasses, 33 spells, 10 backgrounds, 29 feats and 47 magic items, and the Psion as an official class.
Read it if you missed the announcements and want them in one sitting.
Cosplay Moodboard
Seven pages of costume reference, made with bestcosplaygirls.com. Almost no words, all picture.
Read it if your character deserves to leave the page.
Download the Cosplay Moodboard (PDF)
Which one first
| If you are | Open |
|---|---|
| Choosing a game | D&D Alternatives Compared |
| New and nervous | How to Win |
| Rolling online | How to Use DnD Dice Roller |
| Sure the dice hate you | Saved Lists and True Randomness |
| Arguing editions | The Virtues of Every D&D Edition |
One more free thing sits beside the booklets: the four-page fillable character sheet. Our post on filling it in, box by box walks a Fighter through every box.
The booklets are the free half. The Book of Dice is the rest: the shapes, the language of the table, every way to roll and what each one means.
