Nope all you need to get started is the basic rules which is free on the wizards website . Unless you plan to create your own adventures in which case I find it pretty necessary . I recommend picking up the starter set on Amazon , that contains the basic rules , some prefilled character sheets and The Lost Mine of the Phandelver adventure which is extremely straightforward to run Has the monster stats in the appendix at the back . That should help you get a feel for the game before dropping mad bucks on the other books . EDIT Also the dm guide is almost pure fluff , I ' d get the monster manual before that . <| sep |> We actually don ' t know where memories are stored . <| sep |> If you look at it from a purely commercial standpoint , I think anyone can agree that it ' s a massive success . But from a consumer standpoint , it ' s such a massive failure . Why should celebrate that they got money by lying to us and ripping us off ?