D&D 5E criteria for new races to be added to the PHB

[gyor]

This whole thing is another ridiculous argument.

Just buy the second goddamned book, you cheap bastards. And yes... also accept that you aren't going to use or want every single item on every single page of the book, and thus all of it is potential "wasted space".

I'm okay buying other books, but there is nothing wrong with improving effiency and reducing unneeded dupilcation. And I don't expect everything in books to be targeted to me, but I do expect that continually having to reprint stuff is not a good use of space. I don't think just anything not targeted to me is wasted space, but avoidable repetition and straight up lazy stuff like 17 pages of names certainly is.

Don't get me wrong, hind sight is 20/20, but these are lessons for 5.5e and 6e.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I'm okay buying other books, but there is nothing wrong with improving effiency and reducing unneeded dupilcation. And I don't expect everything in books to be targeted to me, but I do expect that continually having to reprint stuff is not a good use of space. I don't think just anything not targeted to me is wasted space, but avoidable repetition and straight up lazy stuff like 17 pages of names certainly is.

Don't get me wrong, hind sight is 20/20, but these are lessons for 5.5e and 6e.

Here's the thing though, there is something wrong with improving efficiency, as to do what you ask in this current edition is pretty expensive, again for not much new revenue (the current PHB is at #30, how much higher can it get?)

Now if we are talking about the next edition, sure it would be nice to have more races in the PHB, or even the MM. But considering how long it takes those books to be released (Tyranny of Dragons was finished by a third-party before the core Wizards team had finished all the core books) that having all of these options available on day one is a big ask.

 

[gyor]

Here's the thing though, there is something wrong with improving efficiency, as to do what you ask in this current edition is pretty expensive, again for not much new revenue (the current PHB is at #30, how much higher can it get?)

Now if we are talking about the next edition, sure it would be nice to have more races in the PHB, or even the MM. But considering how long it takes those books to be released (Tyranny of Dragons was finished by a third-party before the core Wizards team had finished all the core books) that having all of these options available on day one is a big ask.

Races are one of the essiest things make compared to say classes or even subclasses.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Races are one of the essiest things make compared to say classes or even subclasses.

Easy or not, the current PHB/MM/DMG wasn't released in time before the adventure book, so I don't know how a book with more material balances that.

 

[gyor]

Easy or not, the current PHB/MM/DMG wasn't released in time before the adventure book, so I don't know how a book with more material balances that.

I wouldn't expect the core books to be done as fast as a mere AP.

Here is how to handle it next time. Don't start writing the AP BEFORE the core books are done. There is a reason they had to redo those first APs recently.

 

[Hussar]

I wouldn't expect the core books to be done as fast as a mere AP.

Here is how to handle it next time. Don't start writing the AP BEFORE the core books are done. There is a reason they had to redo those first APs recently.

That doesn't really work though. There's about a year's worth of lead in time before you can publish an AP. There's a TON of work for one of those books. Which means, if you publish your core books then have to wait for the AP, there's a dead space year in there after the release of your core books. That's death for an edition. You want your players to be able to get their core books and start playing ASAP. And a somewhat flawed product is far preferable to no product at all.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I would not assume that just because goblins appear is a couple of different settings that there are actually many players PLAYING GOBLINS. I don't know of any, and D&D Beyond doesn't suggest there are many.

The criteria for a race to be in the PHB should be how many people play a race, not how many different books it appears in.

 

[gyor]

That doesn't really work though. There's about a year's worth of lead in time before you can publish an AP. There's a TON of work for one of those books. Which means, if you publish your core books then have to wait for the AP, there's a dead space year in there after the release of your core books. That's death for an edition. You want your players to be able to get their core books and start playing ASAP. And a somewhat flawed product is far preferable to no product at all.

You start the AP during the final playtest phase. Really it's just the mechanical elements that have to wait until the core books are done (not really counting the DMG as they DMG is really only core by tradition, not function unlike the PHB and MM), so the fluff and story writing can be done long before that.

 

[gyor]

I would not assume that just because goblins appear is a couple of different settings that there are actually many players PLAYING GOBLINS. I don't know of any, and D&D Beyond doesn't suggest there are many.

The criteria for a race to be in the PHB should be how many people play a race, not how many different books it appears in.

Then people would cut gnomes from PHB and Goliaths and Aasimar would replace them. Also more people own the PHB then books where goblins appear so that creates a distorted imagine. How many more people play Goblins in an edition where Goblins are in the PHB (or equivalent book) then compared to where they appear in a later book becomes an interesting question. A question Paizo BTW now has.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

You start the AP during the final playtest phase. Really it's just the mechanical elements that have to wait until the core books are done (not really counting the DMG as they DMG is really only core by tradition, not function unlike the PHB and MM), so the fluff and story writing can be done long before that.

What you are suggesting is a ton of development with no sales. Because the devs would have to spend all their time making a total of four books to all be released at once (the new PHB, the new MM, the new DMG, a new AP), which will be at least one year of dev time if we go by 5e.

That's a full year of zero sales, especially as not many people will be buying material for the old edition if they know a new one is coming. And you need to tell them ahead of time, you can't just drop a new edition with a "SURPRISE!" That kind of stuff really angers people.

Not to mention you'll have Hasbro breathing don't Wizards back to stagger the releases, for that exact reason of wanting sales continually through the year. So what your suggesting has zero chance of actually happening.