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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 6347866" data-attributes="member: 59082">One of the things 1E did really well, especially in the early years (late 70s and early 80s) was adventures. The hardcovers were very limited; after the core three you had Deities & Demigods, Fiend Folio, Monster Manual 2, Unearthed Arcana, Oriental Adventures, Wilderness Survival Guide, Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, Manual of the Planes, Dragonlance Adventures, and Greyhawk Adventures. That's 10 supplemental hardcovers in a span of 9 years (1980-88), or 13 total rulebooks over a span of 12 years (1977-88). During that same span of time they published well over a hundred adventures, many of them now considered classics.I'm not saying that WotC should follow that same model - certainly in this day and age more than one hardcover per year would be nice. But what about only 2-3? Compare that to 2E, when you had about the same number of hardcovers, but then three times as many of the faux leather sourcebooks, plus all the compendiums, encyclopedias, and countless monster supplements.3E was even worse - there were literally about a hundred hardcovers in the span of only 8 years of publication - that's about one a month! 4E followed a similar publication schedule, at least for the first couple years.What is the happy medium? Well it isn't only quantity of product, in my opinion - it i about type of product. Adventures and setting books don't have the feeling of "bloat" because they're clearly optional and won't be incorporated into later products or expectations of canon. Truly optional rulebooks, like Vikings Campaign Sourcebook or Magic of Incarnum don't seem like bloat because they are clearly optional. What feels like bloat are countless monster supplements and feat/class option books - stuff that can easily be incorporated into Basic and online without needing tons of supplements.On the other hand, when I look at the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_rulebooks" target="_blank"> list of D&D books over the editions</a> I don't see a ton of products that makes me think, "I wish they had never published that," or "Who in the wide world would buy such a thing?" Almost every product has its place, and I for one like a diversity of product. So maybe, just maybe, the problem of "bloat" isn't a problem at all, just the necessary result of an edition cycle. Maybe WotC can slow it down by releasing fewer, but higher quality, supplements and focusing on adventures and setting stuff, but in the end there is probably no way around accruing bloat over time and necessitating a re-boot. It is the way of things.</blockquote>

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