I want to see one book

[Umbran]

You can look at is as having three books increases the buy-in for GMs. Or, you can look at is as having one book increases the buy-in for players.

As a player, I don't want to have to carry around a book three times the size, full of monster and GM information that I don't really need. So, I'd want at least two books - Player's guide and DM's guide.

If you want the DM to buy just one book, have the Player's guide be the first section of that book. Have it be the same, in layout and page numbers, so players and GMs have the same reference material, and can talk about page numbers and how far down a column you need to go to find a particular rules-detail.

As a GM, I'm happy to have three books - D&D has so many monsters that it calls for a separate book for them.

 

[delericho]

Personally, I'm done buying thousand page, multi-volume rpgs. If there isn't a single reasonably sized product (200 pages, give or take 100) that gives the necessary rules for playing a campaign of a reasonable length (say, 6 to 8 months of 3 hour a week play), then I won't be using 5e as my core rules. I'd then reserve judgment on supplementary material until I determine whether it's usable with the core rules I am using.

This.

IMO, 3e, 4e and Pathfinder are all absurdly bloated even in just the core rules. And then all three then have an unspoken assumption that you will then add another 1,000 pages of supplements or else they somehow won't feel 'complete'!

One of the things I like most about the 5e playtest materials so far is that there is so little of them. It should be possible to present the "full version" of those rules in 300 pages or so. If WotC fail to do so - if they produce another 1,000 page monstrosity, or they produce a game that is badly incomplete in the core - then that will be a deal-breaker for me.

 

[Tovec]

While I think we should have a completely separate world builders guide or something like it for DMs I think that the books should be split differently.

I would like to see "PHB" have the character creation stuff, including magic items, equipment, spells and powers. Everything a player is going to need to make a character but not necessarily be a book they need to reference constantly. With the exception of spells.

Because I think the "DMG" should have the combat rules and should be more of a rule compendium. This is where I would like to see the module stuff the choices and the rules. If I want the PHB to make a character I want the DMG to show me how to run a game. I thought about wanting spells in this book too but I think that is just too much content in a single book and it would make it too big.

MM would stay the same.

Notice I put PHB and DMG in " - that is because, given my suggestions, I'm not sure what the books should be called.

 

[zoggynog]

Modular Binders.

Between all the errata, and rules options...how nice would it be to lay out/expand a binder with only the material you want to use.

Create some cool looking binders with different logos/characters and sell those to us.

Color code 1-10, 10-20, and 20-30.

Allow folks to register books online and have access to errata page prints when they occur. Or sale us little errata packs through the website for us ocd folks who don't want to print our own.

 

[Umbran]

Modular Binders.

In my experience, for a book that's actively and regularly used for reference, toted around from house to house for gaming sessions... binder = holes torn and pages loose.

 

[Mercutio01]

In my experience, for a book that's actively and regularly used for reference, toted around from house to house for gaming sessions... binder = holes torn and pages loose.

That's been said before, but it was not my experience. I mean, a few pages here or there, but certainly no more than what I have with regular bound books. I've had to do quite a bit of taping pages back in even in regular books.

 

[Estlor]

I'm in favor of the three book model, but not the three books you're thinking about.

Book 1: Rules Compendium. All the core rules needed to play or referee a DDN game in one place. (Does not include classes, races, or monsters).

Book 2: Player's Handbook. Includes all the rules for "core" classes, races, themes, and backgrounds and nothing else.

Book 3: Monstrous Manual. Lots of monsters, illustrations, and info.

Everyone buys book 1. If you only play, you buy book 2. If you only DM, you buy book 3.

I also like the idea that 2e had with the big monster binder, but we know that won't work as a physical book. But some kind of a PC/Tablet app with a good interface and inexpensive add-on content that would properly index and cross-reference with whatever else you've purchased (so, a virtual binder)... now that I could get behind.

 

[Fifth Element]

I don't really consider them part of the same branch that grew from 1E, so not really. I think 5E is going to be growing from the Advanced branch. Basic is the long abandoned branch. Technically, BECMI DOES have three books, it just happens to have a fourth and a fifth, though, too. You are free to disagree, but more versions of D&D have had three or more books than those that haven't.

So it's not AD&D is what you mean then.

Also, BECMI had a lot more books than that. There were two books in the Basic Set, one in Expert, two in Companion, two in Master and two in Immortal, for a total of nine.

Nine books or it's not D&D, period!

 

[nnms]

Personally, I'm done buying thousand page, multi-volume rpgs. If there isn't a single reasonably sized product (200 pages, give or take 100) that gives the necessary rules for playing a campaign of a reasonable length (say, 6 to 8 months of 3 hour a week play), then I won't be using 5e as my core rules. I'd then reserve judgment on supplementary material until I determine whether it's usable with the core rules I am using.

I'm now a big sucker for digest sized books, so I'd like to submit an example of a good model for D&D presentation:

OSRIC (A5) by Stuart Marshall (Paperback) - Lulu

OSRIC is "a compilation of rules for old school-style fantasy gaming...intended to reproduce underlying rules used in the late 1970s to early 1980s"

408 pages, but A5 (8.3 x 5.8 inches). Everything you need, one book. I know 5e will not be 13.50 plus shipping, but I think they could do it for $30.

I'm at the point where 5E needs to give me a reason to go with it and the prospect of 3 $30+ books just for the core and then starting up the supplement treadmill? Ugh. That's as bad as paying a monthly subscription fee for digital stuff.

 

[Mercutio01]

I also like the idea that 2e had with the big monster binder, but we know that won't work as a physical book. But some kind of a PC/Tablet app with a good interface and inexpensive add-on content that would properly index and cross-reference with whatever else you've purchased (so, a virtual binder)... now that I could get behind.

I wouldn't mind so long as it had offline support (ie didn't always require an internet connection). Better still would be an actual e-book that I could put on my Kindle or Nook.