D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Edition Reprints

mach1.9pants · Jun 25, 2012

And 2E and Rules Cyclopaedia too WotC! Muchos money there, esp in the RC IMO.

johnsemlak · Jun 25, 2012

I would by the original red box Moldway set.

johnsemlak · Jun 25, 2012

ChainSawHobbit said:
This is kind of sad. It seems almost like they are telling us Fourth Edition was a mistake. It also looks like they are trying to win back some of the fanbase that gravitated towards Pathfinder. I seriously doubt it will work.

Undoubtedly they are trying to win over customers; that's sort of their business objective. There's nothing 'sad' about that.

I'm not sure I buy the 'it means 4e was a mistake' idea though. If so, then what does releasing the 1e books mean?

WotC knows there's still demand for 3.5 books out there (because it's obvious) so why not sell some?

Obviously, it also strengthens the image of D&D next as 'bringing the editions together'.

I actually see this as a sign that 4e may continue to be somewhat supported in the Next era.

delericho · Jun 25, 2012

WotC Golem said:
We're pleased to offer 3.5 Edition Core Rulebook premium reprints releasing this September!

Cool! I may well pick up a set. I'll definitely be suggesting my players pick up copies of the PHB.

Any chance of a reprint of the "Rules Cyclopedia"?

These 3.5 Edition premium reprints feature new covers, gilded edges, and the latest errata.

Does this include the polymorph revisions? IIRC, these never made it into a printing of the PHB; will they be included here?

(I can understand if they won't - they were pretty extensive and so may require adjustments to the formatting. And omitting them will actually suit me since I refuse to use them.

However, it's a question worth asking, I think.)

Oni · Jun 25, 2012

delericho said:
Any chance of a reprint of the "Rules Cyclopedia"?

I'd buy that.

Lwaxy · Jun 25, 2012

Why is there no "all of them" option?

Sonny · Jun 25, 2012

UngeheuerLich said:
Why?

I rather see it as:

Hey, we made a mistake in not supporting earlier editions. Rest calm, we won´t stop selling 4e when 5e is released. Dear customer, it is your choice which version of the game you want to play.

This is what I'd like to see. Especially since they're so intent on giving 5e a lighter release schedule then 4e. There should be plenty of months were a 5e product won't be scheduled for released, but a favorite 1e or 3e book getting republished that month can fill that gap nicely.

Supporting D&D as a whole (regardless of edition) is something that should have been done back in the early 2000s.

delericho · Jun 25, 2012

Sonny said:
This is what I'd like to see. Especially since they're so intent on giving 5e a lighter release schedule then 4e. There should be plenty of months were a 5e product won't be scheduled for released, but a favorite 1e or 3e book getting republished that month can fill that gap nicely.

I will be extremely surprised if we see anything from 3e beyond the core rulebooks reprinted. Virtually everything else is easily available on eBay, and in many cases the business case for publishing those items in the first place was borderline; doing a second printing at this point seems unlikely.

The case for the 1st Ed books seems stronger, but even so I would expect interest to drop off sharply after the core rules. I guess reprints of the Greyhawk box or the Forgotten Realms "grey box" may happen.

The other thing I think there would be a market for is reprints of the classic modules. However, I can only see these being done in some sort of compiled form, and there's potentially an issue there.

(Warning: what follows is pure speculation. I have no evidence to back any of this up; it's just a possibility that occurs to me. So don't take it as anything more than that. And, since it needs said: IANAL.)

The potential issue that occurs: we've been assuming WotC own the full rights to all the old material lock, stock and barrel. But we also know from the days of the Dragon Archive that this isn't certain. A lot of the work done for TSR was done on custom contracts, and in many cases those contracts no longer exist. We don't know whether that applies only to the magazine content, or to everything (WotC may, of course).

Now, if WotC own full rights, then a compilation of the modules would seem to be a no-brainer. But if they don't, or if they don't know, then their only safe option may be a direct reprint*. Which may well make the modules impractical, as no individual module is likely to do well enough to justify it.

*And not even a PDF version, since that was exactly the rationale they used for the Dragon Archive, and it failed there.

(Incidentally, that would also explain why the PDFs disappeared so suddenly, and why they haven't reappeared (and never will). WotC got hit hard over the Dragon Archive, but they may not have realised that the same issue applied to their PDFs. If one of their legal team spotted the issue, that would have necessitated an urgent recall...)

Again, as I noted above, all that is speculation. I stand ready to be corrected.

Echohawk · Jun 25, 2012

Sonny said:
Supporting D&D as a whole (regardless of edition) is something that should have been done back in the early 2000s.

I'm not sure I agree with that. I think WotC was correct to focus only on the 3e releases in the early 2000s -- I don't think reprinting earlier material at that point would have been wise.

Now though, we are in the midst of a resurgence in interest in older D&D material, as evidenced by the many retro-clones being published. Arguably, the unpopularity of 4e amongst some player demographics has promoted this old school resurgence. So I think the timing is now just about perfect for WotC to start leveraging its back-catalog for reprints and other support.