D&D General Kobold Press Going Down a Dark Road

[Parmandur]

It wouldn't surprise me if WotC really pushed digital at the expense of physical books. Not completely, of course, but to me it looks like WotC would really prefer everybody just use DnD Beyond for everything. They just can't pull that trigger just yet.

Both are gravy to the brand: movie merchandise is going to be bigger than either. Theybwant people to play, no matter how, sonthey buy t-shirts and pluahies.

 

[Micah Sweet]

But that's the thing, neither is really a "switch" at all. OneD&D is just 5E with some revisions, and Black Flag looks to be usable with older material as well. If anything, the recent decisions like "everyone gets a Talent AND and ASI" shift the math around to make Black Flag much more of a change in practice.

Your opinion. Far from universal.

 

[Micah Sweet]

But that's the thing: OneD&D is 5E, with a few changes, not enough to actually compete with itself.

Not to my mind. There's is more to 5e than the core math.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So what it feels like to me is that Kobold Press started their design and marketing planning assuming that OneD&D would be a major rules change and that WotC would majorly push digital over analog play...and now thst the rules revision is turning out not ot be major, and there is no evidence that books aren't going to be printed...their marketing plan comes off as weird to me.

Who agreed that the rules revisions aren't major? Very much up to debate at this point.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Editions change. It's not reasonable to expect a company to keep a product on the shelf forever. As it is, 5e is the longest-lived edition in the history of the game.
Buy extra copies now if you're concerned. Or wait to get a "close enough" retro clone in print when they're available. It's literally what we've been doing since the first rules update occurred.

Or jump off the WotC train and go with Black Flag, or Level Up, or any other version of 5e.

 

[Micah Sweet]

My first impression of this as written was that KP was saying that OneD&D will be digital only and the 2014 5e books will go out of print so new players who want a hardcopy book should get a new version like the Black Flag ones.

On closer reading I think it is saying that when OneD&D hits the 2014 5e books will go out of print and the 2014 5e versions will only be available for purchase digitally on Beyond and such. The "a new version" is OneD&D I guess?

Personally I doubt the 2014 books will be available for new purchase on DDB at all once 6e hits.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I guess it helped that TSR was fighting against bankruptcy and was unable to push out a new edition

Also, 2e had revised core books in 1995 along with the Player Options books. That is as much of a refresh as 5e is getting now. So either 2e was shorter than 5e or 5e is still in the running to become the longest running edition with the 1D refresh

The text of both versions of the 2e books was virtually identical. Not so with the new books. Not the same thing, at all.

 

[Micah Sweet]

but the player options did

The Player's Options were new books, supplements in fact. How can this be seen as the same situation? Nothing was replaced.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Both are gravy to the brand: movie merchandise is going to be bigger than either. Theybwant people to play, no matter how, sonthey buy t-shirts and pluahies.

I can't disagree with that. The game itself, in any form, is clearly not the priority anymore.

 

[Parmandur]

Your opinion. Far from universal.

It's all in the math.