AbdulAlhazred
Legend
I think there is a subtle point of distinction about essentials that is lost on most people commenting on it. Essentials is not a line for new players. Its a product line for non players. Its target audience IMHO does not appear to be people that are interested in starting to play D&D or are getting into a game for the first time, or a new DM. They're aimed at people that don't play and may not even really know what D&D is.
Look at the new 'Red Box'. Its a complete game. Its not "stuff that you may want to use when you play", its the whole kitten kaboodle, a box containing a game that you can open up and start playing right then and there. If you look at D&D from the 10,000 foot level the issue is there really isn't currently a way for a group of people to become D&D players. Probably more to the point there's no product that Grand Ma can buy for Jr who is a creative kid that likes games as a gift. Jr doesn't play D&D and Grand Ma sure isn't going to spend $75 on a PHB, MM, and DMG. Plus she isn't really sure those are the right books or if other stuff is needed, etc. The game just isn't accessible to anyone that isn't "hooked up" already. You can't have a long-term successful product that way. WotC wants to be able to sell you a box, just like you'd buy a box that has the Monopoly game in it and all the fun is in that box.
People that already play? Essentials has nothing to do with them. At least the Red Box doesn't, and to a large extent the other 2 player books don't either. They're "expansions" for the Red Box. Once the kids burn through the first couple adventures (if you ever played Basic in the old days you know what I mean) then there are these other 2 books (and a DM kit) they can pick up to add to the fun.
Honestly it all does leave me wondering about the Compendium, but I think that really comes out of the need for WotC to balance the new stuff against the existing 4e stuff. Lets face it, they desperately want to grow the market for the game, but they can't possibly make a success of a new product without a decent amount of crossover to the existing customers. So we have a Compendium that will appeal to existing players and also be useful to people that come up through the new product line. This is also why we see them saying there will be a lot of new stuff in the 2 new player books, if it was all just 100% stuff that is already in PHB1/2/3 sales will be that much lower, so why NOT use it to introduce new stuff and make it interesting to both? Even if only a few existing 4e players buy it that's a win for them.
I'd expect we'll still see setting type books and 'fluff' books that are pretty much what we're used to with existing 4e. These are going to be useful to anyone, regardless of which set of core rules they happen to have. Whether they switch the physical format on all of these eventually or not is hard to say, it may well depend on how the new format is received. That may be another reason the schedule has been pushed back some on the older series of books, they want to see if the 6x9 PB format sells better before they decide what to do about a Shadowfell book or whatever.
Honestly I would be happy to continue to buy hardbacks of fluff books. I really kind of feel like splat books and such have pretty well reached their limits though. There's only so big a system can be before its a monstrosity. I think we need more setting, fluff, modules etc, not endless more minor variations of PC options. Those will no doubt show up in Dragon or new Essentials compatible books ANYWAY, but the game needs new players a lot more than it needs 12 more fighter builds.
Look at the new 'Red Box'. Its a complete game. Its not "stuff that you may want to use when you play", its the whole kitten kaboodle, a box containing a game that you can open up and start playing right then and there. If you look at D&D from the 10,000 foot level the issue is there really isn't currently a way for a group of people to become D&D players. Probably more to the point there's no product that Grand Ma can buy for Jr who is a creative kid that likes games as a gift. Jr doesn't play D&D and Grand Ma sure isn't going to spend $75 on a PHB, MM, and DMG. Plus she isn't really sure those are the right books or if other stuff is needed, etc. The game just isn't accessible to anyone that isn't "hooked up" already. You can't have a long-term successful product that way. WotC wants to be able to sell you a box, just like you'd buy a box that has the Monopoly game in it and all the fun is in that box.
People that already play? Essentials has nothing to do with them. At least the Red Box doesn't, and to a large extent the other 2 player books don't either. They're "expansions" for the Red Box. Once the kids burn through the first couple adventures (if you ever played Basic in the old days you know what I mean) then there are these other 2 books (and a DM kit) they can pick up to add to the fun.
Honestly it all does leave me wondering about the Compendium, but I think that really comes out of the need for WotC to balance the new stuff against the existing 4e stuff. Lets face it, they desperately want to grow the market for the game, but they can't possibly make a success of a new product without a decent amount of crossover to the existing customers. So we have a Compendium that will appeal to existing players and also be useful to people that come up through the new product line. This is also why we see them saying there will be a lot of new stuff in the 2 new player books, if it was all just 100% stuff that is already in PHB1/2/3 sales will be that much lower, so why NOT use it to introduce new stuff and make it interesting to both? Even if only a few existing 4e players buy it that's a win for them.
I'd expect we'll still see setting type books and 'fluff' books that are pretty much what we're used to with existing 4e. These are going to be useful to anyone, regardless of which set of core rules they happen to have. Whether they switch the physical format on all of these eventually or not is hard to say, it may well depend on how the new format is received. That may be another reason the schedule has been pushed back some on the older series of books, they want to see if the 6x9 PB format sells better before they decide what to do about a Shadowfell book or whatever.
Honestly I would be happy to continue to buy hardbacks of fluff books. I really kind of feel like splat books and such have pretty well reached their limits though. There's only so big a system can be before its a monstrosity. I think we need more setting, fluff, modules etc, not endless more minor variations of PC options. Those will no doubt show up in Dragon or new Essentials compatible books ANYWAY, but the game needs new players a lot more than it needs 12 more fighter builds.
