While I Began my journey into RPGs with Lord of the Rings (Middle-earth Role Playing 2nd edition, to be more precise), its rules were far too complex and full of tables for a child. Then, one day my father came back from a trip to the USA, and brought me the Dungeons & Dragons 1991 boardgame, and that changed everything: With easy to learn rules, it provided a smooth introduction to the world of Dungeons & Dragons, opening my appetite of more; 2nd edition DM and Player books, and the Monster Compendium came after. But I would end disconnecting from the role-playing game after the 3rd edition, playing a lot of D&D-based videogames but not a single RPG session. And, since then, I have not played again (for various reasons). During (and after) the pandemic, I tried to convince my friends to play something online, to try some VTT (Virtual Table-Top) systems with any fantasy system (D&D or not), but to no avail.
And now, fast-forward to 2024, me visiting a local store, and finding the Lore & Legends book: A huge +400 pages book, full of images and drawings, indeed celebrating the 5th edition, but doing so by going back to the roots of the game: Each book, adventure module, setting/universe mentioned, explained from the first incarnation to the latest edition version. With abundant drawings, limited editions and associated merchandise (collectibles, miniatures, ...), I had a great time reading about the journey of the game. And I learned a lot, from the origins of the Dark Sun setting (influenced by Mad Max movies), to my surprise that the iconic Ravenloft module was created in the early 80s, it is full of details and gorgeous full-page pictures.
Regarding the pictures, not only we see some of the old ones, but I think that all the 5th edition books/modules detailed contain uncropped/"expanded" versions of the cover images, which is spectacular as at times, there is a significant portion of the drawing that you don't see in the cover.
While the text contents are of course interesting, what really got me spending "extra" time when reading were the images... I had forgotten how detailed and incredible they are. And this brings me to the less good part: For a book that goes through visual history, at times it feels doing less justice than it should: An overabundance of pictures from famous real-world folks, YouTubers, and celebrities; Many pictures of the WizKids not-really-great plastic miniatures (their painting being from average to, very often, mediocre); And a lot of emphasis on the latest digital era, with live role-playing sessions via streaming, YouTube, Twitch, and the like. It is good to know, but I'd rather have more images from the book contents, or more cool drawings, instead of the 6th photo of some celebrity during his module-related precisely timed campaign game session.
Don't get me wrong, it is still a great title, and feels to me as a D&D equivalent of a history book. It so happens that I got my hands on another title Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana: A Visual History, and despite being more focused (theoretically) on the art, this second book contains at times a deeper and more interesting history, which makes me feel that Lore & Legends should have been more ambitious and content-rich.