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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5429199" data-attributes="member: 7006">I think right now many of us are arguing different things.I totally agree that the idea of sitting down with a D&D book and just reading it is a great thing and is something many of us wouldn't want to give up.  But the point to remember here is what is in that book that you wish to do that with is what is important.  A book of mainly fluff can support being printed and put on shelves.  The Campaign Setting books, the Manual of the Planes, Open Grave etc.  Because right now there is no place in the WotC online toolbox to put that information in, other than really condensing them and make them Dragon/Dungeon articles.  But those books are way too big to be handle like that in this current point in time.But the books whose primary purpose is game mechanics?  Absolutely, those could be taken down from the shelves and moved online. Do any of you "sit down to read" your Adventurer's Vault?  Or pick up your Player's Handbook and read the Powers sections of all eight classes?  Now if you do, more power to you... but I have a feeling that you'd be in the minority.  I would venture a guess that most people that subscribe to DDI and who want to look at the powers for a 23rd level Invoker will go straight to the Character Builder or Rules Compendium before ever picking up their hardcover PHII.  Some of you might of course.  Especially those of you who don't currently subscribe.  But those of us who do, will usually go with the most efficient way possible, which is the online tools for game content.And when you consider that the cost of buying a year's subscription to DDI is about the same as buying 3 hardcover D&D books a year off of Amazon (with their discounted prices), except that the subscription is all profit for WotC whereas they only make a small percentage of that from printing (what with the printer, the shipper, and the bookseller all getting their cut)... they will more than make up for the loss of the few people who only want to "own" things they buy.  Obviously I don't know the actual numbers, but I would venture a guess that one year's subscription would make up for the loss of 3 hardcover book sales to that one person who refuses to come along the digital river.So I completely understand why people are resistant to the idea of game books no longer being books... but from a cost to profit point of view it just makes too much sense not to continue in this path.  Keep the base game books printed and on the shelves so that it remains in the periphery of people walking through Barnes & Noble or their local game shop, and you can still put the other fluff books on the shelves as well, as they are also cool to read and flip through.  But move all the "extra" crunch stuff to DDI and the online tools where those of us who will actually use it... will actually use it.    After all... it's not that copy of Martial Power 2 on the bookshelf that is going to inspire a person to play the game who hasn't yet.  So having it there is kind of pointless based on the cost it took to get it there.</blockquote>

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