D&D (2024) D&D Player’s Handbook (2024)

[DEFCON 1]

At the time the books get released, the announcement of D&D Next for these three products would have occurred at least a full 2 years ago (even longer for when the DMG and MM finally get released). And I know I said at the time of the announcement when people were questioning/complaining about the "cost of rebuying books" that you now had 24 months to save the $180 (American) if you actually thought cost was going to be an issue. That would work out to just needing to save $7.50 each month for the next 2 years and you'd have the cash on hand to buy all 3. Skip out on one trip to Starbucks every four weeks and you'd be all set.

If people chose to not do that, then any complaints now about how the books are too expensive for them to get... I do not feel WotC needs to apologize or do anything about that.

 

[GrimCo]

60e is good value proposition for someone who is new or is just getting into the system and doesn't have old 5e books.

But, one could argue that 60e per book might not be good value proposition for someone who already owns 2014 5ed books since high percentage of material in new books will be same like the one in the old ones.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting that Acolyte grants the feat “Magic Initiate (divine)” and Hermit grants the feat “Magic Initiate (primal)” when the last we heard the arcane/divine/primal spell lists were being scrapped for individual class spell lists again. I wonder if these pages are not yet finalized, or if arcane/divine/primal will remain as shared spell lists that classes modify. Like, if all the spells paladins and clerics both have get combined into a divine spell list, and each class also gives individual spells not on that list.

Could go either way, or it could be exclusive to the Feat now.

 

[Minigiant]

I am confused as to what you mean. Spell-like abilities have been there since the beginning. It’s just been added to some wizard NPC’s that really ruffled some feathers.

I wasn't talking about those.

I was talking about 50% of the spells need to be readjusted.

 

[mamba]

60e is good value proposition for someone who is new or is just getting into the system and doesn't have old 5e books.

it is also their only option as the old books go out of print… unless they go digital

But, one could argue that 60e per book might not be good value proposition for someone who already owns 2014 5ed books since high percentage of material in new books will be same like the one in the old ones.

one could argue that this is in the eye of the beholder and if you do not consider it worthwhile, you can simply choose not to buy them. I am sure some people will do just that while others will gladly buy them

Also, you can pretty much take 1/3 of that price off when you buy on Amazon. If you wait a while and time it right, you can take more than half off…

 

[Meech17]

Also, even with book prices increasing, RPGs are still one of the most economical hobbies out there in terms of cost-to-entertainment-hours ratio.

Certainly. This is why Hasbro considers D&D under-monetized. People in prison play RPGs. You could literally get into the game for free, so long as you have an internet connection. Download the SRD, and use a dice rolling app, or even write numbers on slips of paper and draw them from a cup.

But even at $60 for a single book, or ~$200 for the holy trinity that's still a heck of a bargain. Also when you consider the fact that it's a group activity. If you and four friends wanted to all get in on it together you could pool money and divide the cost. The cost per person per hour is absurdly low. There are probably some old Grognards out there still playing an older edition who's investment could probably be measured in fractions of a cent per hour.

 

[Kurotowa]

Interesting that Acolyte grants the feat “Magic Initiate (divine)” and Hermit grants the feat “Magic Initiate (primal)” when the last we heard the arcane/divine/primal spell lists were being scrapped for individual class spell lists again. I wonder if these pages are not yet finalized, or if arcane/divine/primal will remain as shared spell lists that classes modify.

Those pages are absolutely not final. If you look at the Fighter Subclasses header it only says, "This section presents the following sub-classes: Champion and Eldritch Knight." No mention is made of Battle Master, much less the mystery 4th subclass.

Also, pages are not finalized this far in advance. Not when there's lots and lots of changes and edits and art inserts still to do. This is a mock up, what they call a "vertical slice" in the video game sphere. They took some available text and art, and put it together using the planned layout and formatting in order to have a sample of something resembling the finished product that they can show off.

That's useful internally, both for showing the team what the intended final result is and for showing the bosses that you're on the right track. It's also occasionally useful for when you want to show it off externally, for a press event or trade show when the book isn't ready but you want to tease it anyway.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yup.

I take your point, but I'm not saying that no-one gets a discount at my store. Just that we are much more closely beholden to MSRP than pribably most of the copies of the books that are sold.

Also, your store and mine have a pretty big divide in what we consider good business practices. (For example... I don't generally jack the price on things unless they are OLD and have stood the test of time, value-wise.)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

USA is roughly where we were 5 years ago cost of living crisis.

I know people who basically can't afford any hobbies.

That sucks, of course, but RPGs are a luxury. (Though I think I would go hungry to get my hands on them myself).

I was going to make a joke about how it serves you right for living in such a beautiful place, but I thought better of it.

 

[Stormonu]

It probably wouldn't be profitable, but it would nice to have little A4 sized "handbooks" that cover one class, or a small group ("The Fighter PHB" or "The Martial PHB"). Just includes only the items a single class would access. Maybe with extra subclasses, gear, backgrounds or races closely associated with the class.

And I'd gobble up if they came out with a modern version of the old 2E Player packs - semi-rigid burlap/cloth or hard case, PHB (and space for the likes of a supplemental book - like Tasha's or Xanathar's forecoming replacement, character sheets, minis or acrylic stand-ups, set of dice, pencil, condition tokens and a hit point counter.