D&D 5E What Would You Give Up For A Cheaper PHB?

[The Human Target]

Art is incredibly important. The first impression given to anyone is from the art. If they cheapen the art, they would give a bad first impression to many potential buyers. Black and white pages give the impression of a low quality product.

I looked at my first D&D book because of a glimpse of the colored art.

 

[Kinak]

I'd sacrifice rules complexity: smaller classes, fewer spells, and less corner-case rules. I basically want starter rules good enough to use for a whole campaign or a PHB simple enough to use as starter rules.

But it looks increasingly like D&D Next is trying to go head-to-head with Pathfinder, which just isn't going to work in my group.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Alzrius]

Good news! After noticing your erudite and convincingly well argued posts on ENWorld, WotC have sought your advice on possibly lowering the Player's Handbook's price tag. Of course, there's a catch. Doing so means part of the PHB will be removed, and saved for a future product. So you have to decide how much you want to strip it back by, in order to get a more affordable product. Or you can choose not to reduce it at all - in which case, the price stays as is.

My choice would be to reject the premise of the deal. Instead, the PHB would go on sale at a reduced price, and the loss of revenue would come out of the salaries paid to higher-end executives at Hasbro, by which I mean those who earn $100,000+ per year (not WotC, considering that they don't seem to have anyone who makes that much).

 

[DMZ2112]

Glad to see more people acknowledging that maybe we don't need 12 classes and 10 races. I could get by on four and four, although that's probably a little stringent for most palates.

For $50 I'd damn well better get a full-color hardback. But honestly, at this point I'd pay $80 just for the pleasure of hacking people off.

 

[MoonSong]

I'd sacrifice rules complexity: smaller classes, fewer spells, and less corner-case rules. I basically want starter rules good enough to use for a whole campaign or a PHB simple enough to use as starter rules.

But it looks increasingly like D&D Next is trying to go head-to-head with Pathfinder, which just isn't going to work in my group.

Cheers!
Kinak

I'm confident your group will be best served by the starter box.

 

[Kinak]

I'm confident your group will be best served by the starter box.

Agreed. If anything in Next is going to be useful to us, it'll be the starter material.

If the starter stuff is as simple as the early playtests but relatively complete, I'll pick it up. But, with WotC's track record for intro products, I'll definitely be waiting until I can give it a thorough review before I make that decision.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Jester David]

I don't really agree with this thread, because they shouldn't have to cut things out. Other gaming companies can release books as thick as a good PHB for less than $50. Which is the reason I'm upset, it's not the price, it's the difference from what the expected price is, the value of the book, and the contrast between what WotC is asking and other publishers.

If they can cut material to drop the price, that likely means the PHB is bigger than normal, in which case the higher price is irrelevant.

 

[MoonSong]

I don't really agree with this thread, because they shouldn't have to cut things out. Other gaming companies can release books as thick as a good PHB for less than $50. Which is the reason I'm upset, it's not the price, it's the difference from what the expected price is, the value of the book, and the contrast between what WotC is asking and other publishers.

If they can cut material to drop the price, that likely means the PHB is bigger than normal, in which case the higher price is irrelevant.

Must spread love, blah, blah blah...

Like I said before I don't want a cheaper phb, I want a good and complete phb for those $50.

 

[Jester David]

Must spread love, blah, blah blah...

Like I said before I don't want a cheaper phb, I want a good and complete phb for those $50.

I agree. If they come out with a sizable, hefty 450+ page book for $50 I am cool with that. Because that feels like a $50 book from WotC.

 

[JeffB]

Again that is what the starter box is for. Leave the PHB alone.

WOTC starter boxes suck and have so since 1998. Leave my opinion alone.