D&D 5E [Merged] D&D Next/5E Release Schedule Threads

[TarionzCousin]

Awesome announcements! Glad I'm going to Gen Con this year! Geek meter exceeding safety thresholds here

Quick, everyone: Hold Gilwen down and take the Mountain Dew away. I'll get the hose.

 

[Cybit]

That's awesome! Do you have a source I can point my friends to?

The Wizards Premier Retail Program or something like that has the relevant details. Basically, it says that you get product two weeks in advance. Mearls has confirmed it on twitter as well; players who have a store in their area could have their PH prior to GenCon.

 

[delericho]

You missed my point completely, which is new player wants to join existing game, is directed to get latest PHB.

If he's joining an existing game, then when the other players are directing him to get the latest PHB, why wouldn't they also show him their copies of that same PHB?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

If he's joining an existing game, then when the other players are directing him to get the latest PHB, why wouldn't they also show him their copies of that same PHB?

Not always. My first experience of D&D was buying the "wrong" PHB (2E for a 1E group). It happens.

 

[Hussar]

Not always. My first experience of D&D was buying the "wrong" PHB (2E for a 1E group). It happens.

Heh, apparently emblazoning the edition across the front doesn't help as much as people might think.

 

[thalmin]

The Wizards Premier Retail Program or something like that has the relevant details. Basically, it says that you get product two weeks in advance. Mearls has confirmed it on twitter as well; players who have a store in their area could have their PH prior to GenCon.

Actually it is 11 days earlier (12 for the Starter so it will be available on July 3) Just like they did for the 4E run, their WPN stores should be able to sell the new line on the 2nd Friday before the street dates. I believe this will include the new Minis line as well, but not the D&D Attack-Wing game line. Thus the PHB on August 8. This is info from my distributors and http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/28656.html

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Heh, apparently emblazoning the edition across the front doesn't help as much as people might think.

How would a new player know, though, that's the thing? I didn't know what editions were. It was AD&D, it said so right there on the cover! I wasn't looking for any edition information, because I had no reason to think it was relevant.

I think most people new to RPGs, and not familiar with the fact that many RPGs have editions which are wildly incompatible with each other (and many others have highly compatible ones, to help confuse the issue further!), aren't, instinctively, going to be looking for an edition logo, they're going to be looking for a title.

The one thing that works in 5E's favour is that people normally buy the newest thing (as I did), but you know people out there are going to do things like buy a 4E PHB because it was cheaper, and it said Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook on the cover, didn't it? Even as an adult, one of my friends nearly bought a 3.5E PHB not all that long ago (we play 4E). This is a very smart man (a very senior doctor, actually), he was just enthusiastic, buying online, and looking for the best price, and didn't look closely enough, but he did check with me so it was narrowly averted! I know I've seen other people actually buy wrong-edition stuff before, though.

I'm not saying this is a huge problem or anything, just that it will happen, from time to time, and it doesn't have much to do with people being dumb or whatever.

 

[Dausuul]

Not always. My first experience of D&D was buying the "wrong" PHB (2E for a 1E group). It happens.

Indeed. In my experience, this is how a first D&D book purchase usually goes:

• Newbie player joins an existing group.
• Not having any of the books, newbie player borrows somebody else's PHB when necessary.
• After a few games, newbie player is having a blast, but is getting tired of having to borrow somebody else's books all the time.
• Newbie player goes out and buys a PHB.

The experienced players never get to offer input on the purchase because it doesn't occur to the newbie to ask. What's to ask about? A Player's Handbook is a Player's Handbook, right? Maybe the cover looks different, but books get re-released with new cover art all the time. A copy of "The Lord of the Rings" published in 1970 looks totally different from a copy published in 2010, but the text inside is the same. If the newbie stopped to think about it, s/he might realize that "video game" is a better mental model than "book" in this case, but the whole reason we develop mental models is to avoid having to stop and think every time we turn around.

I started playing in the 1E era, but I didn't start buying my own books until early 2E. At the time, there was a mix of 1E and 2E books floating around, and I made my purchases without realizing there was a difference. It was quite a while before I figured out the reason for all those odd little inconsistencies between my Player's Handbook and my Dragonlance hardcover. I imagine people who started shortly after the 3.5 release had similar experiences.

Of course, the upshot of all this is that having an edition number on the cover isn't necessarily helpful. 2E had "2nd Edition" right there in the logo, and I never noticed it. As Ruin Explorer says, the only really foolproof fix is to change the book title, but that would arouse the wrath of all us grognards who don't feel like we're playing D&D if we don't have a Player's Handbook.

 

[Hussar]

How would a new player know, though, that's the thing? I didn't know what editions were. It was AD&D, it said so right there on the cover! I wasn't looking for any edition information, because I had no reason to think it was relevant.

I think most people new to RPGs, and not familiar with the fact that many RPGs have editions which are wildly incompatible with each other (and many others have highly compatible ones, to help confuse the issue further!), aren't, instinctively, going to be looking for an edition logo, they're going to be looking for a title.

The one thing that works in 5E's favour is that people normally buy the newest thing (as I did), but you know people out there are going to do things like buy a 4E PHB because it was cheaper, and it said Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook on the cover, didn't it? Even as an adult, one of my friends nearly bought a 3.5E PHB not all that long ago (we play 4E). This is a very smart man (a very senior doctor, actually), he was just enthusiastic, buying online, and looking for the best price, and didn't look closely enough, but he did check with me so it was narrowly averted! I know I've seen other people actually buy wrong-edition stuff before, though.

I'm not saying this is a huge problem or anything, just that it will happen, from time to time, and it doesn't have much to do with people being dumb or whatever.

That's what I'm finding funny though. The argument is that because there's no indication of edition on the 5e books, a new player will be confused as to which books to buy.

Your books had "2nd Edition" emblazoned on the top in big red letters and it still didn't help you. Why would having "5th Edition" help someone else?

 

[Henry]

Quick, everyone: Hold Gilwen down and take the Mountain Dew away. I'll get the hose.

'Cousin, you know that hose-chugging Mountain Dew never ends well.