D&D 5E Early release dates - Starter Set on July 3, PHB on August 8?

[Morrus]

Why can't it be both? A reward for WPN stores, and a way to encourage gamer interest in FLGS, which still have value to both Wizards and the larger RPG community?

It could be a million things. As it happens, it's an incentive for network stores.

 

[JoeCrow]

Well, they're not doing a great job of promoting it to the stores, either. Went up to Myriad Games in Salem, NH, just up the road a few miles from me, and asked them about it, and they hadn't heard anything about it. They're part of the official store network, on the Wizard's store page and everything, but they didn't know what I was talking about. Said they'd check into it, though, so that's cool. If they can get the goodness early, I'll probably be willing to take the price hit and get the books there.

They're a good store, too. The RPG shelf is a bit small, but they've got a lot of playing space, and they're trying to build the local gaming community.

 

[Morrus]

Well, they're not doing a great job of promoting it to the stores, either. Went up to Myriad Games in Salem, NH, just up the road a few miles from me, and asked them about it, and they hadn't heard anything about it. They're part of the official store network, on the Wizard's store page and everything, but they didn't know what I was talking about. Said they'd check into it, though, so that's cool. If they can get the goodness early, I'll probably be willing to take the price hit and get the books there.

They're a good store, too. The RPG shelf is a bit small, but they've got a lot of playing space, and they're trying to build the local gaming community.

Sounds to me like the store needs to up it's game. They should be on top of this stuff. If random punters know about it but a store owner doesn't, the weak link is fairly clear.

 

[JoeCrow]

Well, in their defense, I'm not just a random punter, I'm an obsessive weirdo who lives online and has been feverishly collecting info on 5th edition since they first mentioned it. I've got three different iterations of the playtest rules(1st one, the 03-20-13 version, and the last one) on my iPad, just to flip through and compare differences. I made up my own equipment list when we were playtesting, because I disagreed with some of their choices (splint and banded mail are NOT real things, dammit! And studded leather should be called brigandine! AAAAARGcalmblueoceancalmblueocean.).

I'm a statistical outlier, is what I'm trying to say. But yeah, they could probably stand to pay a little more attention to things. But it is what it is. We work with the game store we have, not the game store we wish we had.

 

[Remathilis]

So what date is the Basic PDFs being released?

 

[Thaumaturge]

So what date is the Basic PDFs being released?

If I understood Mearls' answer from the Q&A correctly, July 3rd.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Remathilis]

If I understood Mearls' answer from the Q&A correctly, July 3rd.

Thaumaturge.

Wow. That suddenly doesn't feel so far away...

 

[mach1.9pants]

Yeah with the Basic PDF releasing well before I will get my Starter Set here in NZ from Amazon I almost cancelled the order... til I saw the adventure in it!

 

[jrowland]

Let's Be clear: July 3rd is "most" of the Basic Rules. There will be more august 8th (PHB release), September (MM), and October (DMG). Although those last bits might be minor. But I think its pretty clear its not the "full" basic right out of the gate.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Wow. That suddenly doesn't feel so far away...

Mearls did say that it would be like a beta, with just black text on white background (to be finished by the end of the year), so maybe it won't seem so different from the playtest packets.