D&D 5E Which of the core books have you read cover to cover?

[CanadienneBacon]

I'm curious about practice. Which of the core rulebooks have you read in its entirety? I'm not talking about in one sitting. It counts if you're reasonably certain you've read the whole book, even if in multiple disjointed reads spread out over time. Me, I'm pretty sure I've read darn near all of the PHB, but only skimmed or read in full sections of the MM and DMG.

 

[KahlessNestor]

All three.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I've read all three in their entirety, and gone back to re-read whole chapters here and there. I even read both the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide cover-to-cover in a single sitting each.

A rule-book has to pass 400 pages in length before there starts being a doubt that I've read every word of it at least once... but even then, if I actually like what I absorb in my first read, I keep going back until I've got it all read (for example, I've nearly completed reading the kickstarter backer PDF of Exalted 3rd edition - just have about half of the charms left that I've only skimmed over).

 

[GMMichael]

I read a good portion of the online basic rules. Does that count?

 

[Uchawi]

Considering my experience with RPGs all the way back to the D&D blue box, I do not remember reading any of the rules books from cover to cover (even over a couple days or a week). However, like anything else it depends on the meaning, i.e. are the chances good that you will read an entire rule book based on playing the game for 2 years or more? Then the chances may be good that you have looked at everything.

 

[Shiroiken]

Because of how I was trained to be a DM, I always read every non-adventure book I plan to use in my campaign cover to cover. The 5E books were better for this than most previous editions, but spells always take forever to slog through. Memory isn't nearly as good as it once was, however, so retention (especially spells) is less. Might have to reread them a time or two more.

 

[Jester David]

100% of the PHB and MM but I skipped over a lot of magic items in the DMG.

 

[Rhogar_Rarr]

When I got it, I did go through my DMG reading each and every little bit. While I didn't retain a lot of the random charts and information, I did get a lot of useful bookmarks in there for future reference. I have gone through some sections the PHB a lot, but I have gone through the whole thing at least once.

Otherwise, I have flipped through the whole MM, but I see no need to read each and every creature. I usually pull out a fun and fitting monster, like a snowball throwing yeti atop a snowy mountain, and read the creature's stats as the battle starts. Other times I'll pick a random CR that is about right and fluff it into the monster I want. Either way, I use the MM as a reference and not something I need to know. Plus, that makes it much more exciting when I'm a PC and I have no idea what the monster's capabilities are or how deadly it may be.

 

[jodyjohnson]

The read the 3.0 PHB cover to cover. My eyesight went to crap since then, so now I just skim.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'm curious about practice. Which of the core rulebooks have you read in its entirety? I'm not talking about in one sitting. It counts if you're reasonably certain you've read the whole book, even if in multiple disjointed reads spread out over time. Me, I'm pretty sure I've read darn near all of the PHB, but only skimmed or read in full sections of the MM and DMG.

I might be pretty close to having read the whole PHB, but I definitely skipped the sections on gods.

I believe I have familiarized myself with all the monsters in the MM, but I've skipped a lot of the fluff, especially for monsters that I already know.

DMG I've only skimmed the sections I'm interested in.

I believe the PHB is the most important one for a DM to be familiar with, because you need to know when what you're doing diverges from what the players will expect from the rules they have access to. E.g. I've rewritten Simulacrum, and I've been up-front with the players about the changes so they can plan appropriately... but if I decide to compute cover differently on a grid than how the DMG recommends, the players won't know or care.