D&D Player and Dungeon Master Workbooks Set for May 2026 Release

Penguin Random House will release the Dungeon Master's Workbook of Worldbuilding and the Player's Workbook of Epic Adventures in May 2026, two interactive workbooks intended as companions to the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide. Both workbooks drop on May 5th.

Both books are written by Andrew Wheeler, a Toronto-based writer and editor originally from southern England who has contributed significantly to a number of Dungeons & Dragons books, including co-writing the Young Adventurer's Guides and authoring the D&D cocktail recipe book Puncheons & Flagons. He is a Shuster- and Eisner-award winning creator known for works such as Another Castle, Love and War, and the anthology Shout Out.

The Player's Workbook of Epic Adventures is a 176-page interactive companion book for the 2024 Player's Handbook designed to help both new and experienced D&D players create characters, develop backstories, understand game basics, and connect to a larger campaign. The book helps players choose their classes and subclasses and craft their origin story, and also provides room for adventure planning and helps players track their character's advancement as they level up. It retails for $24.99 USD.

The Dungeon Master's Workbook of Worldbuilding is likewise a 176-page companion book, this time to the 2024 DMG, designed to help both new and experienced DMs build out detailed adventures, campaigns, and worlds. The Dungeon Master's Workbook contains various exercises designed to help spur on worldbuilding, come up with story hooks, and craft homebrew magic items. It also has compelling story hooks for over 25 scenarios. That volume carries a retail price of $26.00.

Author Andrew Wheeler appears to have delved deep into the advice experienced players have been giving each other for years. That is the big takeaway from both books: there isn't anything in here that D&D players haven't been telling each other for decades. The workbooks' real value, then, lies in consolidation: "The ambition and the usefulness of these workbooks come not from their content but from bringing that content together in one place. They won't change the way experienced players and DMs play D&D, but they are a useful resource to hand someone starting out, which is exactly their purpose."

Together, the two titles represent a new push by Wizards of the Coast and Penguin Random House to make D&D more accessible and narratively rich. Both are available for pre-order now from local game stores, book stores, and on Amazon.

Rounding out the spring release slate, the Player's Workbook also serves as a companion to the Dungeon Master's Workbook of Worldbuilding, framing the two volumes as a matched set for the full table. For groups that want something a little different from their D&D supplementary reading, a new crochet book from Penguin Random House hits shelves March 31, 2026. Written by longtime D&D contributor and professional artist Stacy King, it features twenty new patterns inspired by the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse, including an Owlbear Cub plushie and a handmade Bag of Holding.