heimdall said:
I don't see three years as that unreasonable.
Maybe it's because I've lived through Mage: First Edition, Mage: Second Edition, and now Mage: Revised. Werewolf is much the same way. Along those same lines, let's talk BattleTech when it was really in its prime. Good googly moogly folks. Anyone remember when the Clans came back to the Inner Sphere?
The advantage these game systems have is they are built around a common setting. If you took the time to read the history and game notes about Mage, part of the reason was for rules changes, yes, but part also is to reflect changes in the setting. Vampire and Werewolf are the same way. Battletech was throwing out new mech manuals at the same time the "world" was being changed by the fiction novels. The same can be said for Shadowrun. (A toast to the dragon.) D&D doesn't have such a luxury.
Ultimately WotC is going to have to make decisions that may be business oriented in order to keep D&D viable within its stable of products. Remember TSR? Remember its financial straits? 3.5E may be more of a business decision that a rules decision, but still, at least WotC is trying to be proactive.
I don't see three years as necessarily unreasonable, either - so long as it's needed.
Up until third edition came out, I was a huge White Wolf fan. I've multiple editions of Werewolf, Mage, and Vampire all sitting upstairs in my bedroom, as well as a few different editions of supplement books. I didn't argue at all with their release, and, in fact, anticipated them, and bought them soon after they came out.
As you said, though, they're built around a common setting. The new books didn't come out because the rules needed up-dating (well, between 2nd and 3rd edition, anyway), so much as they were released for the changes in the setting, and to organize some information that previously had required having multiple books on hand (Vampire's the best example of that; 2nd edition required the main book, and Players Guide to the Sabbat, for example, to run many Vampire games - 3rd turned those two books into one). They did revise the rules in them, of course, but a lot of the information is settings up-dates.
I also don't think White Wolf made those core rule books with the intention of making another edition a few years down the line.
The Core D&D books, however, are essentially rules. While not the biggest of Forgotten Realms fans, I'd be more supportive of a Forgotten Realms campaign setting book coming out every three years more than I would a rules up-date.
I don't consider unnecessary revisions to be proactive. I want them to succeed, but not at the cost of an unnecessary purchase. Pop out a book on Waterdeep, or the Undermountain - have those been done in 3rd yet? Do something at least a little new or unique, like Ghostwalk.
Besides, I'm pretty sure D&D is doing well enough. I think more people are playing it now than they have in years - I know I wasn't playing it five years ago. I just think WotC (or Hasbro) is trying to make it into Magic, or Pokemon, which, quite simply, it's not going to be. I don't think it's in any sort of financial straits.
Gah. I feel so pointlessly repetitious at times, and like I'm grumbling for grumbling's sake. Oh well.
I'm just saying its much better to keep an open mind than to start swearing things off 3 years ahead of time that have as good a possibility not to happen.
