D&D (2024) D&D Pre-orders; this is sad

[DarkCrisis]

If by "a while" you mean decades, then, well, sure. That's not bookstores dying though - that's just brick and mortar getting hammered by online shopping.

I mean it's already FARRRR more profitable to release things digitally over printing books. Yet, we still have print books. People have been predicting the death of print since the late 90's. And, like the death of RPG's, it still hasn't happened.



Then again, I am continuously baffled by the notion that we live in some sort of dystopia. Good grief, it this is dystopia, I cannot imagine how good things are in a utopia. I dunno about you, but, I don't know anyone that has died of syphilis, or lost 80% of their children in childbirth. I'm over 50 years old and I've only been to a small handful of funerals, as opposed to someone my grandparent's generation, who would have been to more funerals by the time they were 20 than I'll go in my lifetime. I don't know anyone who has starved to death. I've never known hunger - as in been in danger of actually dying from hunger, nor has anyone I've ever known. I live in a country with a life expectancy of over NINETY years.

By every possible measure life is better than it was 50 years ago and mind bogglingly better than a 100.

Dystopias just arent about death and disease. It's about the haves and have nots. The ever-widening wealth gap. Which modern statistics show is getting wider and wider. The ever-shrinking middle class.

70 years ago you could afford a house and family on one paycheck. Today it's 2 for most Americans. And that 2 is barely stretching enough. A large large amount of Americans have no real savings and it's all going to come to a head when all of Gen X is retirement age not to mention Millennials when they hit retirement.

There is a sever wealth issue in modern America and the world. IE the 1% owning more wealth then the other 99% combined.

Edit: Speaking of medical. GoFundMe's largest amount of fundraisers are for medical bills. And the majority of the donations are from other poor people trying to help out.

 

[Chaosmancer]

If you want to use the SRD as a replacement for the core books, instead of using it to create a 5e-adjacent TTRP yourself, like Tales of the Valiant did, then missing all subclasses per class except for one is probably the biggest issue.

Whether you consider it devastating for a replacement or not is up to you, but what the SRD definitely is not is the core books minus art and a proper layout

I didn't realize the subclasses are not in the SRD. Curious though, is the Assassin in the SRD for the Rogue?

I ask, because of this video.


There is also this article: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1752-2024-rogue-vs-2014-rogue-whats-new

With just those two resources... how hard would it be to make a 2024 Rogue Assassin right now, without the books? I think you could pretty much get it exact with this. And we already have creator's like Treantmonk saying that once their NDA is over, they will be going over the new classes and subclasses in detail. And they do this for every subclass that comes out, The Dungeon Dudes did a series of videos over the Tal'Dorie and Humblewood subclasses.

I will say, I think it is impossible for the 2024 version of DnD to end up behind a paywall. Even if they release an exclusive, VTT only subclass that can only be seen by buying the golden table subscription... people are going to do that, then report on what it can do in enough detail that people that don't want to buy that subscription won't need to.

Now, is it possible that the next version of DnD will be made with no playtest, no public information, and Hasbro/WoTC will send cease and desist letters to every DnD creator on Youtube who talks about their proprietary information? I guess it is possible. But that would be looking at the successes of 5th edition and saying "what if we did the exact opposite of that and destroyed all goodwill in our community?". The Hasbro executives are stupid, but they would have to be beyond the pale to take everything that has made this version of the game the best it has ever been and do the opposite. And as long as they don't shut down those information sources... then we have access to the game in full, and attempting to paywall subclasses or rules is an exercise in futility and won't earn them anything.

 

[jerryrice4949]

Book stores have been dying for awhile. Same with most print media.

The second it becomes more profitable to release things digitally over printing books you can bet they will do it.

I would hope they might still have like print to order books like on Drivethrurpg etc

This is not really true. Bookstores saw a downturn in the early 2000s and some consolidation and bankruptcies. But more recently Barnes and Nobles has been quite profitable and independent book stores are doing pretty well too.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Dystopias just arent about death and disease. It's about the haves and have nots. The ever-widening wealth gap. Which modern statistics show is getting wider and wider. The ever-shrinking middle class.

70 years ago you could afford a house and family on one paycheck. Today it's 2 for most Americans. And that 2 is barely stretching enough. A large large amount of Americans have no real savings and it's all going to come to a head when all of Gen X is retirement age not to mention Millennials when they hit retirement.

There is a sever wealth issue in modern America and the world. IE the 1% owning more wealth then the other 99% combined.

Edit: Speaking of medical. GoFundMe's largest fundraisers are for medical bills. And the majority of the donations are from other poor people trying to help out.

Agreed, but I don't think this has anything to do with DnD and WoTC. And it veers close to non-gaming topics.

 

[Chaltab]

This is super depressing and just reinforces my plan to not buy the new revision unless I can find it used

 

[MonsterEnvy]

This is super depressing and just reinforces my plan to not buy the new revision unless I can find it used

Why.

 

[jerryrice4949]

Why.

My question too. Sometimes on these boards I feel like I am in an alternate reality. This whole thread literally makes no sense. I feel like I am reading 2+2 = cheese.

 

[mamba]

With just those two resources... how hard would it be to make a 2024 Rogue Assassin right now, without the books? I think you could pretty much get it exact with this.

it’s not about it being hard, it is about you violating WotC’s copyright if you did…

With the subclass not being in the SRD, you have to be pretty careful when creating your ‘exact copy’ of it, so you are basically back to creating another 5e-like game, but you cannot create an actual clone

 

[Keefe the Thief]

God forbid we gave those idiots who give us their money before they get any product something extra to make it worth their while. And yes yes, i know, it's not extra, it's taking away something from those who don't subscribe etc etc.

Seriously, sometimes I get reminded of the time when Eve Online let you buy a monocle for $60 that did nothing in the game except be visible on your character. And everyone flipped out. And then lots of whales bought the monocles and started to sneer on the monocle-less peasants. I don't really know why I rooted secretly for the monocolists back in the day, and do so today? Maybe because I own a D&D Beyond Master Tier mono... subscription?

No, it's because having something more, something better, something earlier is fun.

 

[Demetrios1453]

My question too. Sometimes on these boards I feel like I am in an alternate reality. This whole thread literally makes no sense. I feel like I am reading 2+2 = cheese.

Same.

Somehow D&D Beyond giving a nice, but extremely minor, bonus to their subscribers has turned into imminent downfall of civilization.