Vote on Epic

It seems like the Epic Level Handbook and other books like it had a significant impact on the product strategy influencing 4th Edition game design. Also, I read somewhere that one person has a low chance of guessing the number of beans in a jar at the county fair but if you average the guess of a 1,000 people you'd usually come very close to an accurate guess.

So let's test our collective wisdom. If you rank all 3rd edition D&D books (prior to 3.5) where would the Epic Level Handbook fall in terms of sales volume? The best selling book would rank #1 (PHB, DMG, or MM probably has this spot) and the worst selling book would rank #34 (at least according to my count when excluding adventures and character sheets).

So guess the rank of the Epic Level Handbook compared to other 3rd edition books.

I guessed "14" as it was one of the most oftenly criticized and panned books when it was still in print, though after it went out of print (it was never reprinted for 3.5) there was a little bit of noise on the forums about people wanting to see a re-worked Union. That said, I only seem to recall people asking for a re-worked Union. I don't think I ever saw anybody ask WotC to reprint the whole handbook.

I never bought it. It can't be high then, since I bought most of the Splats.

What I saw from it didn't convince me in any way.

Rank compared to what? NYT bestsellers? Other D&D books?

Figure the big 3, the 5 splats, FRCS, MMII, MotP, probably a couple I'm forgetting, and I think we're in that ~15 area.

PS

In alphabetical order here are the 34 non-adventure, non-folio books for 3rd edition:

1. Adventure Game (3rd edition box introductory set)
2. Arms & Equipment Guide
3. Book of Challenges
4. Book of Vile Darkness
5. Defenders of the Faith
6. Deities and Demigods
7. Dungeon Master's Guide
8. Enemies and Allies
9. Epic Level Handbook
10. Faiths and Pantheons
11. Fiend Folio
12. Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
13. Gazetteer
14. Ghostwalk
15. Hero Builder's Guidebook
16. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
17. Lords of Darkness
18. Magic of Faerun
19. Manual of the Planes
20. Masters of the Wild
21. Monster Manual
22. Monster Manual II
23. Monsters of Faerun
24. Oriental Adventures
25. Player's Handbook
26. Psionics Handbook
27. Races of Faerun
28. Savage Species
29. Silver Marches
30. Song and Silence
31. Stronghold Builder's Guidebook
32. Sword and Fist
33. Tome and Blood
34. Unapproachable East

jdrakeh said:

I guessed "14" as it was one of the most oftenly criticized and panned books when it was still in print, though after it went out of print (it was never reprinted for 3.5) there was a little bit of noise on the forums...I don't think I ever saw anybody ask WotC to reprint the whole handbook.

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Epic Level Handbook was in print and available from Wizards of the Coast during the entire life of 3.5 but was never revised like Expanded Psionics Handbook. Wizards considered the Epic Level Handbook compatible enough with 3.5 edition that they never re-released the entire book (some rules were updated in the Dungeon Masters Guide v.3.5 if I recall correctly).

For those who vote 20th, I'd like to know how you justify such a low position. Wizards of the Coast brought epic rules in to the Player's Handbook 4th Edition which seems to argue that the Epic Level Handbook was a strong selling supplement.

I know I didn't buy it.

I know a lot of people here did, though relatively few used it.

I don't know if it's sales actually have ANYTHING to do with the rules for Epic levels being 4E. I think that's actually a matter of just designing the game to work all the way up, as it were, and works well with 4E because the game is consistent at all levels, rather than the mechanics abruptly changing at 20+.

So I voted 8th. That's sales, note. In terms of "books which actually saw serious use", I'd suspect it'd be much much lower.

Mokona said:

Epic Level Handbook was in print and available from Wizards of the Coast during the entire life of 3.5 but was never revised like Expanded Psionics Handbook. Wizards considered the Epic Level Handbook compatible enough with 3.5 edition that they never re-released the entire book (some rules were updated in the Dungeon Masters Guide v.3.5 if I recall correctly).

For those who vote 20th, I'd like to know how you justify such a low position. Wizards of the Coast brought epic rules in to the Player's Handbook 4th Edition which seems to argue that the Epic Level Handbook was a strong selling supplement.

Click to expand...

I justify it by saying i didn't buy it. Therefore it must not have sold well.


Really what were you expecting given the nature of the poll? It's an opinion poll :\

Mokona said:

Epic Level Handbook was in print and available from Wizards of the Coast during the entire life of 3.5 but was never revised like Expanded Psionics Handbook. Wizards considered the Epic Level Handbook compatible enough with 3.5 edition that they never re-released the entire book (some rules were updated in the Dungeon Masters Guide v.3.5 if I recall correctly).

For those who vote 20th, I'd like to know how you justify such a low position. Wizards of the Coast brought epic rules in to the Player's Handbook 4th Edition which seems to argue that the Epic Level Handbook was a strong selling supplement.

Click to expand...

The Epic Rules were desired, maybe, but they also left a lot to be desired.