Will Constant Errata Kill the Essential Line?

[JoeGKushner]

With the last batch of errata hitting recently, it made me wonder about the viability of the printed books, especially the 'core' books being reprinted.

Is it possible that those who already own the material will be put off from buying the new books not because they already own it, but because they figure it will be errata'd quickly after purchase?

 

[ggroy]

With the last batch of errata hitting recently, it made me wonder about the viability of the printed books, especially the 'core' books being reprinted.

Is it possible that those who already own the material will be put off from buying the new books not because they already own it, but because they figure it will be errata'd quickly after purchase?

Some people I know locally who are still playing 4E, have already been doing this for quite awhile. They got put off by so much errata, that they don't even bother picking up many new 4E splatbooks anymore. Any updated crunch they can just use via the DDI character builder.

Of the remaining 4E DMs I know of locally, some got fed up too to the point they're only buying DM specific splatbooks (such as Plane Below).

 

[jdrakeh]

I was going to say "No" and post about how older editions of D&D probably would have had a substantial amount of errata (if you include rules clarifications and such, as 4e does) had the means to easily distribute it existed in the 1980s and early 1990s. But. . . I'm going to have to go with "Possibly" instead. Why? Well, the hope of revised core books is why I stayed away from 4e for such a long time, despite being interested in it. After waiting for more than two years, I simply don't care about it very much anymore and have moved on to other games for my fantasy needs (including past editions of D&D).

 

[darjr]

I don't have any big problem with the errata so far. I don't seem to have much of a problem playing the game using the errata, or not as it has happened. I know plenty of folks that feel the same way, players and DM's.

Actually, I'm rather appreciative of the effort.

I'm not sure about what it'll do to the essentials line. I would like to think that new players picking up these books will appreciate it being included.

There are a couple of the books and the box set that I plan to pickup in part because of the errata in them. And I just like the idea of a rules compendium.

 

[jaerdaph]

The Emperor's New Clothes

Considering the amount of errata (much of which are really outright changes to the rules rather than corrections) that has come out for 4e to date, and comparing that to what was done in 3e/3.5e transition, I think it's high time we started referring to D&D as 4.5e now.

Because somebody needs to tell the king, "you're in your underwear"...

 

[MerricB]

There's a presumption there that most people who buy the Essentials books even know about the errata.

For my part, I appreciate the errata greatly. Of course, I also have a D&D Insider subscription, which makes it all a lot easier.

Cheers!

 

[darjr]

Considering the amount of errata (much of which are really outright changes to the rules rather than corrections) that has come out for 4e to date, and comparing that to what was done in 3e/3.5e transition, I think it's high time we started referring to D&D as 4.5e now.

Because somebody needs to tell the king, "you're in your underwear"...

eh, call it what you will. It's still a cool thing and done in a really useful way. You could almost print them out on sticker paper and paste them into your books directly.

 

[malraux]

Considering the amount of errata (much of which are really outright changes to the rules rather than corrections) that has come out for 4e to date, and comparing that to what was done in 3e/3.5e transition, I think it's high time we started referring to D&D as 4.5e now.

Because somebody needs to tell the king, "you're in your underwear"...

IMO, this is a lot closer to 4.1 than 4.5. The 3.5 transition was lot larger and affected significantly more of the game. The economy of magic items, for example, was heavily rewritten, in addition to several base classes and spell mechanics.

 

[Nagol]

eh, call it what you will. It's still a cool thing and done in a really useful way. You could almost print them out on sticker paper and paste them into your books directly.

I remember doing that for Star Fleet Battles. The Wild Weasel rules got 7? layers deep.

 

[Rechan]

Is it possible that those who already own the material will be put off from buying the new books not because they already own it, but because they figure it will be errata'd quickly after purchase

Anything's possible. Especially how sullen people can be.

Look, compare amount of errata that has been put out with the amount of material that's not been errata'd. I saw a figure earlier that said one third of 1% of feats have been errata'd, and one half of 1% of powers had been errata'd. It wouldn't surprise me if 1% of magical items had been errata'd. WotC didn't release a massive overhaul of MM1 after they rejiggered the Solo rules, they just said "Here's how to rejigger solos".

The biggest single areas of re-writing so far:

Skill challenge DCs (which have been reposted in DMG2)
Stealth Rules (republished in PHB2)