D&D 5E I get the feeling that the books are going to be very dense.

[Evenglare]

So, whether you like 4e or not I think we can all agree that the core books were sparse compared to other offerings, especially 3.x books. From what I've seen it looks like 5e is going to have a LOT of stuff in it. It looks like it's going to cover as much possible ground as it possibly can. Anyone else have the same feeling? Maybe a contributing factor is the fact that they moved away from the WHITE background on the pages (THANK GOD).

 

[timbannock]

So, whether you like 4e or not I think we can all agree that the core books were sparse compared to other offerings, especially 3.x books. From what I've seen it looks like 5e is going to have a LOT of stuff in it. It looks like it's going to cover as much possible ground as it possibly can. Anyone else have the same feeling? Maybe a contributing factor is the fact that they moved away from the WHITE background on the pages (THANK GOD).

Hard to say, but I certainly think they *should* cover a lot of ground. D&D's got a huge history, and with the Basic rules out there for free and a (thus far critically well-received) cheap-as-all-get-out Starter Set, they can afford to use the PHB/DMG/MM trio to cover D&D as much as possible.

There will always be those players and GMs that have their favorite setting or thing as well as their "I revile this and D&D is dead to me if they include it" stuff, but the fact is that there are a bajillion players of all editions that don't mind cherry-picking what they like from the game. Give them all the cherries, I say!

 

[Nikosandros]

Well, the dwarf and tiefling excerpts show actual pages from the PHB, so I think that we can evaluate the density. Unsurprisingly, it seems that the text is denser than in 4e, but less dense the in 3e.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Perhaps. I think the simpler writing style and more flexible mechanics will allow more content to be included without cramming the books.

 

[Agamon]

Well, the dwarf and tiefling excerpts show actual pages from the PHB, so I think that we can evaluate the density. Unsurprisingly, it seems that the text is denser than in 4e, but less dense the in 3e.

...which is perfect, imo.

 

[Gundark]

Well, the dwarf and tiefling excerpts show actual pages from the PHB, so I think that we can evaluate the density. Unsurprisingly, it seems that the text is denser than in 4e, but less dense the in 3e.

Isn't the page count in the 5e books higher than the other editions?

 

[Tony Vargas]

So, whether you like 4e or not I think we can all agree that the core books were sparse compared to other offerings, especially 3.x books. From what I've seen it looks like 5e is going to have a LOT of stuff in it.

Y'mean a lower crunch:fluff (signal:noise, for us hard-core rules wonks) ratio? Yeah, I suspect so. (And, yeah, early 4e books were like freak'n technical manuals, that way.)

I expect something like late-post-E HotFW (doubled-down on fluff text, sample characters' stories woven through it) and/or like 13A with lots of conversational asides. Should make for a more pleasant cover-to-cover read. Only trade-off being it might take a few moments longer to look up or decipher specific rules.

 

[Nikosandros]

Isn't the page count in the 5e books higher than the other editions?

Compared to AD&D, by a large margin. The PHB has had the same number of pages in 3.0, 3.5, 4e and 5e. The DMG has now more pages and the MM too compared to 3.0 and 4e (in 3.5 it also had 320 pages).

Of course, since text density is different, the number of pages doesn't tell the whole story.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I don't know about "dense". I think the books will be quite smart, actually.

Thaumaturge.