Corebooks in June!: News from the Alliance Retailer Summit

teitan · Oct 15, 2007

I just got back from Alliance's Ft. Wayne retailers summit and it was a heck of a good show. The big thing though is that during dinner WOTC's Sara Girard (who had quite the fan club) gave a great talk on 4e D&D. First the big news...

All three core rulebooks will be out in June!

They showed a list of all the products coming out for 08. A few caught my eye. Apparently the Realms are going to be 2 books, a Campaign Guide and then 2 months later a Player's Guide. I can't remember the names of all the books but the Manual of the Planes was on the list and some Dungeon Tiles.

In Miniature news the D&D minis sets are all going to be updated to 4e via a pdf download. They are starting with some of the more recent sets but will get to all of them. Sara said it was like designing an all new set and will take some time but eventually everything will be updated.

She re-emphasized several key points. Faster to play, easier to play and teach, and easier for the DM to run. She also mentioned that yes, the DM can run encounters etc. on the fly.

Reaper Steve · Oct 15, 2007

teitan said:
All three core rulebooks will be out in June!

No offense, but I'll have to see that from another source to believe it. I think it's a better business model to do one a month for three months.

Of course, it may be true, given that the blogs make the appear that the MM is about done.

teitan · Oct 15, 2007

It was right there on the screen in huge letters. But you are allowed to be skeptical.

Guild Goodknife · Oct 15, 2007

Does that mean that we have to wait an additional month for the PHB or that the MM was moved forward?

teitan · Oct 15, 2007

Looks like a delay and a bump up to me...

Jack99 · Oct 15, 2007

June would suit me perfectly, since I am starting 7 weeks of vacation on July 1st. I however will remain very sceptical until I see it on the Gleeeemax

jodyjohnson · Oct 15, 2007

The original plan was -

PHB May
MM June
DMG July

This pushes the PHB back and moves the DMG forward.

Reaper Steve · Oct 15, 2007

teitan said:
It was right there on the screen in huge letters. But you are allowed to be skeptical.

Ahhh...I didn't read close enough... June for all three, not May for all three. That certainly is more feasible.

But I would still prefer one a month. What ever happened to the reasoning that all 3 books in one month would be too much of a financial burden on the retailers?

teitan · Oct 15, 2007

Reaper Steve said:
Ahhh...I didn't read close enough... June for all three, not May for all three. That certainly is more feasible.

But I would still prefer one a month. What ever happened to the reasoning that all 3 books in one month would be too much of a financial burden on the retailers?

The decision was based on retailer and player feedback