Draconomicon: surprises ahead! (scoop + speculation)

[The Little Raven]

WotC certainly doesn't commissions artists to do book cover sized pictures out of fun and generosity.

They abandoned the original Grand History of the Realms cover, after it was completed, in order to have Todd Lockwood paint it instead.

Yeah, it seems fun and generosity have nothing to do with it, but getting the exact picture they want does.

 

[The Little Raven]

Jeez, prices have gone up. $40 for a monster splat?

Paper is one of the most expensive commodities in publishing these days.

 

[The Little Raven]

Yeah, either an inflated page count in the Player's Handbook or a decreased page count in the Monster Manual leaving monsters that have pretty much always been core out of the core rules.

The PHB is artificially cheaper, because it's the top-seller in any edition of D&D, and has the largest print-runs out of any book in the entire industry, which allow them to eat a bit of cost because they make it up in volume. It's the book that players and DMs alike pick up.

The DMG and the MM are DM-specific books, which means far less of them will sell, and they can't make as much of the cost up in volume as the PHB. Especially given the transfer of all necessary rules for play into the PHB, and the number of people who will buy the DM book decreases (I knew players that only bought a DMG because of the magic item stuff).

 

[JoeGKushner]

The PHB is artificially cheaper, because it's the top-seller in any edition of D&D, and has the largest print-runs out of any book in the entire industry, which allow them to eat a bit of cost because they make it up in volume. It's the book that players and DMs alike pick up.

The DMG and the MM are DM-specific books, which means far less of them will sell, and they can't make as much of the cost up in volume as the PHB. Especially given the transfer of all necessary rules for play into the PHB, and the number of people who will buy the DM book decreases (I knew players that only bought a DMG because of the magic item stuff).

And yet with the 3.5 books, all three had equal page counts.

And heck, 1st ed the DMG was actually fairly larger than the PHB.

And the Monster Manual 4e? Well, if the gnome loves are actually going to spend money instead of just talk, it'll probably be one of the biggest 'Player" books this year.

 

[The Little Raven]

And yet with the 3.5 books, all three had equal page counts.

And that doesn't change the fact that in the 5 years between then and now, the price of publishing has increased a good deal. The American economy is in a much worse place than it was then. So, yeah, if you want to make comparisons that ignore all the relevant economic factors involved, feel free. But don't be surprised when your comparisons don't really mean much in the face of reality.

And heck, 1st ed the DMG was actually fairly larger than the PHB.

In terms of useful content, I didn't find the 1st edition DMG anywhere as useful as the PHB (especially because of Gygax's tendency to ramble and provide random tables for anything he could think of).

And adjusted for inflation, the 1e DMG would be considered vastly overpriced today, especially with it's lack of full color, and low-quality paper and printing.

And the Monster Manual 4e? Well, if the gnome loves are actually going to spend money instead of just talk, it'll probably be one of the biggest 'Player" books this year.

If there are as many gnome lovers as you seem to think, maybe. But the fact that Wizards removed them from the PHB based on feedback really speaks about how truly popular they were. Fans are loud, but that doesn't make them numerous.

 

[Spatula]

And heck, 1st ed the DMG was actually fairly larger than the PHB.

That's because that's where the rules were. The 1e PHB has races, some of the class info (no saves, hit tables, etc.), equipment, spells, and... that's it. 128 pages, 60 of which are spells.

 

[Man-thing]

In terms of useful content, I didn't find the 1st edition DMG anywhere as useful as the PHB (especially because of Gygax's tendency to ramble and provide random tables for anything he could think of).

The 1st edition DMG is the single best book book I have in my collection because Gygax covered absolutely everything in his rambling way and tendency to provide random table.

 

[JoeGKushner]

In terms of useful content, I didn't find the 1st edition DMG anywhere as useful as the PHB (especially because of Gygax's tendency to ramble and provide random tables for anything he could think of).

Wow. You have some good points on some of the other stuff but the 1st ed DMG is one of the few books I keept from that era precisely because it had all those weird and crazy tables. Look AEG's Toolbox, it comes in handy in so many situations.

 

[JohnSnow]

In terms of useful content, I didn't find the 1st edition DMG anywhere as useful as the PHB (especially because of Gygax's tendency to ramble and provide random tables for anything he could think of).

Sorry Mourn, but this just isn't true.

Like many others, I have kept my 1st Edition DMG available even as I boxed up all my other old D&D books. Similarly, most of my 3e books will slowly go into storage as 4e comes out (Probably core first, then the rest, as replacements exist).

But that First Edition DMG will stay on the shelf. Why?

It may be (and probably IS) the worst-organized book ever published in the history of gaming. It is, however, one of the most comprehensive books on medieval fantasy roleplaying ever put together in print. I think Wizards is still mining the thing.

Yes, it rambles. Yes, it's got dozens (hundreds?) of random tables. But I'm still finding useful stuff in it for the first time, and I've owned it for nearly 30 years! (Did I mention it was poorly organized?)

 

[small pumpkin man]

I don't really understand why people are complaining, they've moved the magic items from the DMG to the PHB, thus the PHB has the most pages, since most groups will have one DMG and at least two PHB's, the way I see it, the fact that they kept the prices the same instead of upping the price of the PHB and lowering the price of the DMG will benefit most groups.

But maybe I'm just weird.