D&D 4E No more reprints of the 4E core books?

[Greatwyrm]

The classes in the Player Essentials books do not include all the classes in the PHB, and are variants of the classes that are likely incompatible with previous books still in print such as Martial Power 2.

Have you had a chance to listen to the podcast yet? I'm not sure if it's an Insider Only or not.

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (D&D Podcast: Essentials)

Now, I'm no court reporter, so these may not be verbatim quotes:

"We didn't want the game that branches into two games."

"A person can mix and match their Essentials products with their existing D&D books."

"Does this new version of the Cleric replace the one in the Player's Handbook? No... it's much more like a new build."

"It would be like choosing a class feature instead of a new daily power at that level."

"There's less for you to manage, but your character's just as effective."

"The powers that a Domain gives you, you get them, but you don't have to keep them. You can still swap them out if you wish."

"It's no different than if we did a Player's Handbook 4 and said, 'instead of new classes, let's do new twists on the old classes.' Just like the Power books did with the Beastmaster Ranger..."

"...here is a power in a later book, or an earlier one, that I'd like to swap in -- we'll let you do that."

"Once we're done releasing the Essentials books, the books you'll get next year, are just like the books you're getting now."

 

[Evenglare]

perhaps they arnt printing the new core books. Perhaps they will reprint them with errata? Seems logical to me.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

perhaps they arnt printing the new core books. Perhaps they will reprint them with errata? Seems logical to me.

That's basically what I meant, but there's not a lot of reason to reprint them with ALL the rules, as those will be available in another book (Rules Compendium). They can just print the classes. They don't even need the race stuff for the most part. They could make a paperback that contained all of the PHB1 and 2 that are relevant.

 

[mudbunny]

For what it's worth, the people I have poked at WotC aren't saying anything about the rumor. "Can't confirm or deny"-type words. With most of them being gone to get ready for GenCon, I wouldn't expect any substantive WotC response until after GenCon.

 

[ggroy]

For what it's worth, the people I have poked at WotC aren't saying anything about the rumor. "Can't confirm or deny"-type words. With most of them being gone to get ready for GenCon, I wouldn't expect any substantive WotC response until after GenCon.

These responses from WotC insiders aren't too surprising, for the most part.

For a publicly traded company on the stock market, it is very bad form to be leaking insider information. Insider trading is illegal in many places.

Insider trading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Furthermore, "Regulation FD" law forbids such "selective" disclosure in the American financial markets.

Regulation Fair Disclosure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Stormonu]

Are they including the PHB2 this time around too?

y'know, when they did the Christmas bundle of PHB1 + PHB2, I thought it might be an attempt to sell off some PHB1 stock with the more popular PHB2.

At this point, it does make sense to stop production of the PHB1, DMG1, MM1 - the game has grown and made several shifts since they were printed and the errata is somewhat dragging the books value down. Refurbished versions would be nice, but it does look like the Essentials line is well organized to take the place of at least the 1st round of books.

I don't think it will matter much - if you don't have the first round of books, I'm betting the material will either be reprinted in the essentials line (such as we might see Warlord in the Heroes series) or will be repackaged a little further down the line.

Just as an aside, with my luck - just getting around to finally enjoying some 4E, it's going to go to another "version" or at least major repackaging, so I have to buy all the books again.

 

[Obryn]

(Reposted from rpg.net....)

OK, on the one hand, I find the general idea pretty believable. PHB1, DMG1, and MM1, if kept in print, could create some confusion among new players. Also, frankly, the material from the first 3 books isn't up to par with releases from Arcane Power and on. 4e has evolved, and I've said for over a year that I think a 4.5 release would be rather welcome.

On the other hand, it's an anonymous rumor on some website I don't think most of us had even heard of. I give it zero weight - even if the rumor is true, I don't think it's a trustworthy source, and none of us have learned anything new by the publication of said rumor. We know exactly as much as we did before, and not an iota more.

I think that talking about "4.5" at this point is inane and ridiculous. With that said, if the core* books are taken out of publication instead of being updated, and new core* books continue to cover the same classes and races as the books we already have, and this is now the means for everyone to get into 4e rather than one of two good options, it would fill most of my own criteria. I mean, if you stop making the core* game books, and start making new core* game books, it feels like a partial edition jump to me, insofar as that's a remotely meaningful statement when you're talking about a modular game like 4e. If we see later releases re-treading the Warlord, Bard, and so on, it's even moreso. I think that publication status is as good a dividing line as anything, when you're talking about core* books, and it's probably a bit better than most. Now, please remember that the idea of a "4.5" doesn't bother me in the least. It's something I've wanted for a while, but so far the Essentials hasn't fit the bill.

-O



* Core, here, meaning "The minimum books required to get sufficient information for a group to learn and play the game" rather than "generic and not tied to a specific setting." For D&D this has been, in every edition to-date, the PHB, MM, and DMG.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

These responses from WotC insiders aren't too surprising, for the most part.

For a publicly traded company on the stock market, it is very bad form to be leaking insider information. Insider trading is illegal in many places.

Insider trading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Furthermore, "Regulation FD" law forbids such "selective" disclosure in the American financial markets.

Regulation Fair Disclosure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Only if it has a material effect on the business position of the company. Considering the utterly negligible effect of minor details of the management of one small product line to Hasbro's business position or stock value it would be utterly meaningless.

 

[ggroy]

Only if it has a material effect on the business position of the company. Considering the utterly negligible effect of minor details of the management of one small product line to Hasbro's business position or stock value it would be utterly meaningless.

Keeping quiet is generally better than one day having the feds show up at the front door, or being subpoenaed.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

While silence is preferred- leaks CAN cost you your job, after all- the only kinds of leaks that the Feds care about are those involving illegal acts ("They're using elephant ivory to make the dice for your new game- Soylent Blue's Dice are made of DUMBO!") or involving info that could affect a company's value on the stock market ("Hasbro is insanely leveraged AND going into the black market for Zimbabwean blood diamonds!") getting to select investing parties before getting to the public at large.