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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 5710235" data-attributes="member: 2525">I've been thinking about the "support all editions at once" idea some more.I think that plan would take the form of five different product types.Type 1: All past editions (OD&D, BECMI, AD&D, 2e, 3e, 4e) would receive full support in DDI. So you can make and look up characters, npcs, monsters, rules and house-rules, traps and set pieces and other challenges, treasure and equipment, and use the DDI to create dungeons, adventures, maps, player handouts, and play all of it online;Type 2: All editions would see republication of their old books in some digital format, updated with errata eventually;Type 3: All editions would see new products specifically for their edition, mostly in Dungeon and Dragon magazine. These would mostly be similar to the content found in "players options" books in 2e, "splat" books in 3e, and "Power" books for 4e.  You also use these products to introduce common elements into all versions of the game, or to add in elements from one version to be usable in another version.  So for example, you can publish "ritual magic" optional rules articles for every version of the game, so you can make Type 4 products (below) with rituals that will be usable by all versions of the game.Type 4: Some new products will be intended for all editions at once, with story content applicable to all and crunch for each individual game version.  These could be hard-copy or digital. Things you could do this with include adventures, books like deities and demigods, setting books, books about the planes (though it would be complex to represent the Wheel along with the 4e version, I think it could be done in the same book as almost all the Wheel planes are already in the 4e version, just with different visual representations), etc..Type 5: RPG support products, which includes things like miniatures, over-sized maps, set pieces, monster cards, treasure/equipment cards, dice, dungeon tiles, initiative trackers, etc..  You can even tailor these to sets designed specifically for Type 4 adventures.  So, you can buy the "Return to the Slave Lords" ("RSL") adventure, and then optionally buy the RSL miniatures set, the RSL treasure/equipment card set, the RSL monster cards set, the RSL over-sized glossy markable maps set, the Slave Lords Dungeon tiles, etc..Now lets compare it to what Monte wrote. You'd acknowledge all old content with Type 1 and Type 2 products - because he says you don't eliminate things entirely from the game and pretend they never existed. Then you would want to know what you want to continue to support from those old editions, and what you would not want to support, to do Type 3 products. And finally you'd need to know the big picture of what common elements are in all versions, or what elements could be easily added to old versions as optional rules, so you could write those Type 4 books.</blockquote>

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