Will 5e be the last edition to emphasize print products?

I need my print PHB and MM to run the game. I dislike using electronics at the table and would not play a digital only dnd.

I still find it quicker to refer to a book I know well than to use an app or PDF.

Morrus said:

I still find it quicker to refer to a book I know well than to use an app or PDF.

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And I still prefer to sift through and add to my 2,000+ collection of Laser Discs, DVDs and Blu Rays, but I also admit that the industry trend is towards Digital, and that only the most hardcore movie fans under 35 buy physical anymore.

I hope there are enough of us that physical discs will still get made for the next couple of decades, but I ain’t holding my breath.

My totally unfounded, purely gut feeling (stupid gut) prediction.

1. VTT play will continue to grow and expand while face to face game will remain largely static, or will grow at a much slower pace.

2. Print publication will continue as it remains the primary means to draw new gamers into the hobby. Even those of us who do play online still own at least the core books in paper form.

3. However, the growth of VTT play will push a lot more integration between print and VTT's. We're seeing this now with modules from WotC coming out at almost the same time in print and on platforms like Fantasy Grounds. Other companies are starting to join in as well - I can buy En World modules on FG for example.

4. The hobby will shift from being mostly supported by print with a bit of icing for virtual play to mostly being supported by virtual play with print being the icing. Which, in turn will drive greater integration and support between the games and virtual games.

Honestly, I do see VTT play as the way forward for RPG gaming. The biggest roadblock to play is actually getting five or six people in the same room on a fairly repeatable basis. VTT play short cuts this and makes getting a group together so much easier.

Once the UI's for VTT's like Fantasy Grounds get out of the stone ages, and actually start embracing all the advantages that playing on a computer brings, I think we'll see a big surge in VTT play. Right now, it's the learning curve and the fact that the VTT's are often unreliable and frankly, very very poorly designed to take advantage of online play (lack of built in VoiP, lack of animation, extremely fiddly tools - try setting line of sight on a Roll 20 map and you'll see what I mean) that is holding VTT's back.

I think though, with the acceptance of Twitch streaming, the notion of integrating online play and RPG's is becoming far more acceptable than it was, even five years ago. It used to be that VTT play was the red headed stepchild of gaming. It was what you did because you couldn't get a group together. Now, it's often touted as equal to face to face play with user numbers that support being able to find a game that you want to play when you want it.

Hussar said:

4. The hobby will shift from being mostly supported by print with a bit of icing for virtual play to mostly being supported by virtual play with print being the icing. Which, in turn will drive greater integration and support between the games and virtual games.

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I notice a lot of good arguments in favor of the idea that the future is digital. But all of them ignore a simple fact: All of these digital tools are ancillary second party products, and WotC isn't a digital developer -for the most part, MTG arena notwithstanding-. Their main business is in cardboard, with only a relatively small crew for MTGArena. The development and maintenance costs of replacing all of those tools with in-house ones would be huge, way higher than what they spend in D&D right now. And that is without taking into account all of the loss in goodwill (You spent a thousand dollars in DNDBeyond Content? though luck, we are rolling a new in-house set of tools and you have to buy it all over again!).

That is what it is. There are only a few ways that D&D in print dies, 1) WotC develops in-house everything -with the huge monetary cost and bad PR- 2) WotC buys Fandom, smiteworks and Roll 20 (for how much? that doesn't make any sense) 3) WotC goes all digital while entirely reliant on second party companies to keep the brand alive, essentially relinquishing all control over the development of D&D and the brand. (And that is corporate suicide) .

So it ain't happening. It is more likely that D&D gets into the Hasbro vault than it going all digital.(And this requires all-digital, there is no way WotC is promoting something outsourced/licensed over what it produces in-house)

I don't see any evidence to support your theory. At the scale of D&D, print is profitable. There was no noticeable dip in sale of core books when the digital products came out later. Since these are core books, outside a few replacements it 's mostly new players. And they are still buying them at the rate they were before the digital products. In other words, the digital products had no real effect on the sale of print books to new players.

So right now the trend does not exist. Sure there can be a sea change / new management with a new edition, but any business model that's just an evolution of their current profitable one will still contain print.

Kobold Avenger said:

Print not emphasized could mean the 3 core books only in print on a regular basis, and everything else only available in print for a limited time with a bunch of collector incentives.

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I could see that, but I would expect that setting books would also be offered in print. Even more than the core rule books, these are particularly enjoyable in print.

I find I most enjoy in print monster manuals and setting/lore books.

Until a digital version gets to the level of Holodeck, I will prefer the paper version.

I dunno. 4e proved that they could create very good digital tools for delivering material. They had a functioning vtt within a handful of months of development.

Give me a product that combines DnDBeyond with a decent VTT, charge a subscription for access to the entire library and you’ve got a pretty decent way forward.

Like I said, 4e proves the can do it.

The day they switch to digital-only, with no print products (i.e. physical books) is the day I stop buying D&D. I would have to just use the books I've collected over the years to play, and hope I could find like-minded people. (I'm fine with digital PLUS physical book, as in 4e. I bought every 4e book up until they switched to the "Essentials" rules-set, but I never did the digital-services-for-pay bit, and never intend to.)