What is meant by saying that in 4e "Everything is core"?

[pemerton]

Forked from: Pramas: Does 4E have staying power?

I think this is a strategy that's not going to work in the long run. Regardless of the fact that WOTC is now saying "Everybook is Core!", I believe that most consumers will still view the initial books as "core" and everything that follows a "supplement".

Forked from: Pramas: Does 4E have staying power?

By calling them "core," they are tapping into that collector's mindset. "All these books are essential for REAL D&D! If you play D&D without them, you're playing some sort of jury-rigged, half-arsed D&D that obviously isn't up to snuff with our Platinum Edition Insider All Core Books Exclusive Membership. And you don't have $30 this month? Aww...")

I see this quite often, that in 4e "everything is core". But looking at my copies of FRPG, AV and MP, they are all labelled as "Roleplaying Game Supplement". Whereas the PHB, DMG and MM are labelled "Roleplaying Game Core Rules".

(I don't have FRCG or Draconomicon, and so can't comment on them.)

So what exactly is the issue that the quoted posts (and many others) are referring to?

 

[Jack99]

To a comment made by the game designers that they would strive to make things more balanced and usable in any game. That vis-a-vis the RPGA, everything published would be considered core. It has something to do with everything published, from FR books to Dragon articles being vetted by the rules department (name escapes me atm).

Hope that made some sense.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well they way I have interpreted what they mean by "core", is that every 4e book is interchangeable.

You can take something from a FR book, something from Core Rules, something from a Power book, something from Eberron and it will all work together without any rule alterations.

 

[Glyfair]

So what exactly is the issue that the quoted posts (and many others) are referring to?

Every year there are going to be at least 3 new "core books." The PHB II, MM II and DMG II are all supposed to be core. Thus, three new "core books" each year. This is where the comment first appeared (from comments WotC made a panel discussions at GenCon).

Also, if you go to the products page and choose "all 2008 D&D Core products" you will see things like the Dungeon Tiles listed. Then again, this has been going on a while. Go to the right panel and choose "D&D Core Products" and don't choose a year and you will see the Complete series, Magic of Incarnum etc. listed. Not really what they mean, but possibly a misconstrued bit of information.

Finally, the RPGA is moving towards automatically allowing all books after a certain period, with a list of things that are disallowed. This even includes Dragon articles.

 

[amysrevenge]

Finally, the RPGA is moving towards automatically allowing all books after a certain period, with a list of things that are disallowed. This even includes Dragon articles.

A very very short list, that is hardly more than "artifacts".

 

[justanobody]

This will vary greatly upon who you ask.

"Core" to many mean the heart of the game.

It seems WotC is taking the route to say "everything is core" as there is no more optional material, and no real reason a DM should tell a player they cannot use something that is optional because it may break the game as everything is core and properly balance with the core.

I prefer core to mean "at the heart of the game", which denies things like campaign settings to be "core".

The idea was to help get rid of the connatation of optional material and the reason for people to not want to buy something because it wasn't going to be allowed if a DM didn't want some Planescape or DragonLance material in his Forgotten Realms game. So no more splatbooks or optional material.

 

[Glyfair]

It seems WotC is taking the route to say "everything is core" as there is no more optional material, and no real reason a DM should tell a player they cannot use something that is optional because it may break the game as everything is core and properly balance with the core.

It's possible this is one of the reasons. However, I feel that the primary motivator behind this tactic is likely the fact that the nature of 4E increased the amount of material that many feel should be core to later books.

I imagine a large number of AD&D and 3E players would consider a significant amount of the material in the next couple of Player Handbooks and Monster Manuals to be "core." (Let's start with the often mentioned Frost Giants and build from there). Rather than having a list of "used to be core on earlier editions" they just made all of later PHBs, MMs and DMGs be core.

Not that I feel it is the only reason. However, I do think that may be where the idea started.

 

[fba827]

So what exactly is the issue that the quoted posts (and many others) are referring to?

I think it's what Glyfair said a couple replies up from mine...
It's referring to the fact that everyyear there will be a new PHB and DMG and MM. The others are, as you say, "officially" supplements.

 

[justanobody]

It's possible this is one of the reasons. However, I feel that the primary motivator behind this tactic is likely the fact that the nature of 4E increased the amount of material that many feel should be core to later books.

Well I just wanted to get to its meaning, not the speculation where I feel the idea is to sell more books, by claiming everything is core so you need to buy each PHB, DMG, and MM set that is made to have a complete game because things were left out of the true core, which is the first (and should be the only set) of PHB, DMG, and MM for the edition.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Forked from: Pramas: Does 4E have staying power?


Forked from: Pramas: Does 4E have staying power?


I see this quite often, that in 4e "everything is core". But looking at my copies of FRPG, AV and MP, they are all labelled as "Roleplaying Game Supplement". Whereas the PHB, DMG and MM are labelled "Roleplaying Game Core Rules".

(I don't have FRCG or Draconomicon, and so can't comment on them.)

So what exactly is the issue that the quoted posts (and many others) are referring to?

I think the major effect this has in practice is that you will see supplemental material refering to other supplemental material. So,Arcane Power will have supplemental material (powers, feats, paragon pathes, variant class abilities) for the Swordmage, even though the Swordmage was only in a Forgotten Realms specific book.

This is definitely an advantage for anyone owning the campaign players guide, since he knows his class will have ongoing support and is not some "second-class" material. This was a more common problem in 3E, I think.
Of course, if you don't own the campaign books, you will find material that seems useless to you. (But this might just be an incentive to buy that book anyway, or as KM describes it, tapping into your collector mind. )

Certainly there is a certain change in the way the campaign books work in that most or even all of the material is designed to be usable in different campaigns. So even someone playing only Eberron or a Homebrew campaign will find rules stuff in the Players Guide to Forgotten Realm or Dark Sun that he find useful (and compatible).