Complete X books were among the highest selling supplements of 2nd, 3rd, 3.5 and OGL products.
Not to do them is financially stupid and would be counter to what the majority of customers want (as evidenced by how well they sell).
WotC Spring 2009 Catalog
- Thread starter thalmin
- Start date
Complete X books were among the highest selling supplements of 2nd, 3rd, 3.5 and OGL products.
Not to do them is financially stupid and would be counter to what the majority of customers want (as evidenced by how well they sell).
Kobold Avenger
Legend
"Complete" books are fine, but they definitely need more books with fluff. Interesting concepts and ideas to use, and currently that's lacking.
Imaro
Legend
You know the one thing I'm kind of lost on is the Basic Set... why are they waiting until November to release this. I mean if the point of 4e was to attract a new market, you'd think this would have been a priority to at least be released before or with the actual core rulebooks. In fact I would argue they should have made one big boxed set that included the basic rules/the KotS adventure/counters (or even better, minis) and maps as a first release... and it would have sold like hot cakes. I think this would have even made the reprint maps in KotS more understandable.
Instead KotS released to pretty "meh" reviews, and pretty poor reviews as quality goes, and now that the basic set won't even have minis in it like the 3.5 set (which actually got me too buy it for that and the tiles), I wonder how this item is really going to do as far as sales. IMHO, this is one of those things that could really help WotC generate more revenue, by bringing in more gamers, yet they continuously treat this product (throughout all the editions under their watch) as a second rate release.
SIDE NOTE: My fiancee's sister and her boyfriend came by our apartment and saw some of my gaming stuff on a table. Both her and her boyfriend asked me about it... After a conversation both asked me if I would run a game that included them and they're son. Now I would have loved to have been able to point them to a good introductory product for their son who they would love to see "Do something besides playing video games" but instead I'm going to start running a game for them (not sure if it will be Castles & Crusades or D&D). . So by the time November comes out the usability of this product will be nill for them. Wasted opportunity WotC
Instead KotS released to pretty "meh" reviews, and pretty poor reviews as quality goes, and now that the basic set won't even have minis in it like the 3.5 set (which actually got me too buy it for that and the tiles), I wonder how this item is really going to do as far as sales. IMHO, this is one of those things that could really help WotC generate more revenue, by bringing in more gamers, yet they continuously treat this product (throughout all the editions under their watch) as a second rate release.
SIDE NOTE: My fiancee's sister and her boyfriend came by our apartment and saw some of my gaming stuff on a table. Both her and her boyfriend asked me about it... After a conversation both asked me if I would run a game that included them and they're son. Now I would have loved to have been able to point them to a good introductory product for their son who they would love to see "Do something besides playing video games" but instead I'm going to start running a game for them (not sure if it will be Castles & Crusades or D&D). . So by the time November comes out the usability of this product will be nill for them. Wasted opportunity WotC
Indeed, good question. Will the Eberron books be out by the time Arcane Power is released? If not, then I don't think we'd have the full version of the class yet.
Maybe at some point we'll get extra powers for the Artificer in a supplment on the DDI.
Logan_Bonner
First Post
A few comments on Arcane Power:
The artificer won't be supported in that book, because the artificer won't be fully developed until the Eberron Player's Guide goes through dev. It just didn't make sense to support an unfinished class in a book that already had more classes covered than Martial Power needed to. We were already designing powers for PH2 classes that weren't finished!
Shemeska and lkj: There are several books coming up that provide what you're looking for (like Draconomicon and Open Grave). We're supporting that content on D&D Insider, too.
Mercule: Do you hate the 4th Edition Realms specifically, or the previous versions. If it's the previous versions, you might like some of the new trappings and the new approach to it. Of course, you might not. But we have tried to make it more accessible and to add new things both to get people who disliked the Realms interested in it and to give old-timers something to make the Realms seem fresh again.
The artificer won't be supported in that book, because the artificer won't be fully developed until the Eberron Player's Guide goes through dev. It just didn't make sense to support an unfinished class in a book that already had more classes covered than Martial Power needed to. We were already designing powers for PH2 classes that weren't finished!
Shemeska and lkj: There are several books coming up that provide what you're looking for (like Draconomicon and Open Grave). We're supporting that content on D&D Insider, too.
Mercule: Do you hate the 4th Edition Realms specifically, or the previous versions. If it's the previous versions, you might like some of the new trappings and the new approach to it. Of course, you might not. But we have tried to make it more accessible and to add new things both to get people who disliked the Realms interested in it and to give old-timers something to make the Realms seem fresh again.
Darkwolf71
First Post
I'm glad to see Half-Orcs will be back. 
I am curious as to how they reconciled their 'troubling' back story.
Also glad that there won't be any more 'Bard chanting'. Not that I care for the class itself, but it's cult following has been... vocal.
I am curious as to how they reconciled their 'troubling' back story.
Also glad that there won't be any more 'Bard chanting'. Not that I care for the class itself, but it's cult following has been... vocal.
Thanks for dropping in with the info. So when do we see the other power sources? (Just kidding, I know you can't tell me)
Cheers,
AD
I'm pretty sure that's an error on the news page. Swordmage is showing up in the Forgotten Realms book, and they appear to be supporting 'setting classes' in their power books.
AD
Mercule
Adventurer
First, thank you very much for offering input to this discussion. I think it's very cool that some WotC folks do that. And I always appreciate it.
Full disclosure of bias, please don't stop with this paragraph: The Realms have never resonated with me since it was released. The short form is that the Realms have come to represent, to me, much of what caused me to bail on D&D in the early 1990s. Rightly or wrongly, I doubt I'll ever be able to look at it completely objectively. Ironically, the more of an uproar the 4e changes cause among old fans, the more likely I'll be to check it out. I will, though, check out the 4e version with as much objectivity as I can -- seriously.
What I'm concerned about, though, is that this is an indicator of Player's Guides to come. The Eberron PG will have the artificer. The Ravenloft PG will have the necromancer. The Dark Sun PG will have the psion. It may not be those specific classes, but I'm sure you understand what I'm saying. There are roughly 10 pages in the book that lots of people will want, even if they have no interest in the remainder.
I've bought my fair share of campaign settings over the last 25+ years. But, I generally bought them either because I was curious or because they sounded cool in their own right. The idea of buying a setting because I want a single, specific piece of crunch just doesn't sit right.
On a related note, I do like the three-then-done model for settings. It makes me much more likely to buy a variety of settings.
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