D&D 4E 4E in 2008? Fact or Fiction?

[BrooklynKnight]

I think it would make more sense, and might actually work, to re-edit/print the actual core books once a year to add eratta/fix typos.

But actual established eratta.

And ok, not every year but every 2 perhaps.

I know I'd gladly fork over another 90$ if all the errata was put INTO the books and they were reprinted.

Why would this work better then a new edition? Simply because there is no question of compatiblity.

3.5 and 3.0 are supposed to be backwards compatible. But c'mon, they really arent. Its too much of a hassle.

The thing that a consumer wants most when buying, is convinence. Its why we like table of contents, and indexes and so forth. The more convinent it is to use any given product the more value it has. When you need to crossrefrence other products or books or printouts to have the most up to date information, then the product looses its value and depreciates.

I know quite a few people who bought the Leatherbound PHB because it had all the erratta for the PHB at the time of printing edited in.

If Hasbro wants us to keep buying the core books, they need to give us good reason. Reasons other then "additional support". A new edition wont work because 3.5 is still working.

 

[NimrodvanHall]

I know I'd gladly fork over another 90$ if all the errata was put INTO the books and they were reprinted.

amen

I know quite a few people who bought the Leatherbound PHB because it had all the erratta for the PHB at the time of printing edited in.

I just hope the next will have a non leather-back

 

[Rasyr]

To which I say, "you wanted to push D&D core rulebooks sales? Order up another printing run."

Except that doesn't work if there are still unsold copies from the previous print run.

Yeah, but so soon? There was a gap of three years between 3.0e and 3.5e. It's like buying a $90 Diablo I and then buying a $90 Diablo II thereafter. It has been my argument as to why I prefer PnP RPG over CRPG -- more bangs for your bucks -- now Hasbro/WotC management is thinking, "Gee, we should follow the same business model as CRPG. Release a new version of D&D more frequently."

Actually it seems to be more along the lines of the CCG business model (major version every couple of years, with smaller releases between).

 

[Ranger REG]

Actually it seems to be more along the lines of the CCG business model (major version every couple of years, with smaller releases between).

Yeah, I seem to notice that recently, when I hear there will be a 9th edition of Magic: The Gathering ... and those TCG players (aka TCG drones) will just eat this up with no complaint.

Maybe AEG is right in their approach to the "Collectible RPG" business model they used for their Spycraft line. Still, sucks for the customers -- the savvy ones not the mindless drones.

 

[KaosDevice]

I'm still all over 3.0 for a couple of reasons, the main one of which is when 3.5 came out a bunch of people dumped all their old 3.0 books at the used bookstores around here and my players could get them for a song. Also, I like others here, don't find them that terribly broken. If I get desperate for 3.5 I'll just read the SRD.

 

[Staffan]

Yeah, I seem to notice that recently, when I hear there will be a 9th edition of Magic: The Gathering ... and those TCG players (aka TCG drones) will just eat this up with no complaint.

Thing about Magic, they usually don't change the rules between editions (with the exception of 6th ed when they cleaned up the rules a lot and removed interrupts), just the card mix. They do minor modifications to the rules all the time though, such as with the release of Champions of Kamigawa when they changed the way Legends worked (and a minor change to Walls, but that one was mainly semantics).

 

[wingsandsword]

Maybe AEG is right in their approach to the "Collectible RPG" business model they used for their Spycraft line. Still, sucks for the customers -- the savvy ones not the mindless drones.

Of course, that's why I didn't get into Spycraft. I bought the core book, which seemed nice, but I quickly realized a lot of things were missing from it, and a few big holes that I ran across the first time I tried to run a game. Then a book comes out and it's another $20 for one thing, and $25 for another, and $30 for another. Not that you need everything in that book, just that one really useful class, or one really useful set of rules or subsystem is in there and you're paying pretty much for that. If you complain about this online, the Spycraft fans will happily point you towards all the books it takes to fill the gaps (which can easily run several hundred dollars), but that's the problem, I don't want to spend as much (or more) on a d20 game I might play on rare occasion as I would on D&D itself. At least with D&D, traditionally the core has been complete enough to run self-contained games and cover generally all the elements of the genre it's trying to cover, Spycraft kinda fell flat on that one I'm sorry to say.

As far as I'm concerned, the "Collectable RPG" idea is a quick way to keep me out of a game.

 

[Rasyr]

Yeah, I seem to notice that recently, when I hear there will be a 9th edition of Magic: The Gathering ... and those TCG players (aka TCG drones) will just eat this up with no complaint.

hehe... I have been saying that Hasbro is wanting WotC to adopt more of a CCG style business model since 3.5 came out. It is one of the reasons that I think 4e is a possibility in 2006.

 

[Ranger REG]

hehe... I have been saying that Hasbro is wanting WotC to adopt more of a CCG style business model since 3.5 came out. It is one of the reasons that I think 4e is a possibility in 2006.

Yeah, and it doesn't help that the TCG division of WotC is siding with Hasbro against the RPG R&D Group.

Have I told you how much anti-TCG I am lately?

 

[Rasyr]

No, you haven't.

That is also part of the reason why I think that 4e will be much more minis oriented as well - The collectibility aspects involed. Just look at how the D&D minis are done now. Base sets and random booster packs, just like Whiz Kids and their clicky games (collectible minis).