Essentials replacing Hardbacks?

[Nathal]

I get the impression that the Essentials line, although "backward compatible", will replace the current hardbacks. And for you literalists out there: No, I don't mean Essentials will make the current books irrelevant, or that my books will vanish into thin air. In other words, are the hardbacks going out of print as of September? If not, has WOTC been updating the core rules in each print run to reflect Errata? I know they plan to incorporate all updates in the forthcoming Compendium.

Thoughts?

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I get the impression that the Essentials line, although "backward compatible", will replace the current hardbacks. And for you literalists out there: No, I don't mean Essentials will make the current books irrelevant, or that my books will vanish into thin air. In other words, are the hardbacks going out of print as of September? If not, has WOTC been updating the core rules in each print run to reflect Errata? I know they plan to incorporate all updates in the forthcoming Compendium.

Thoughts?

My impression is that no errata has been added to existing books (other than specific rule re-writes in specific books) but that the Essentials line is errated to the current level. Not sure of the policy going forward but I also get the impression that going forward both soft cover and hardback books will be published.

 

[Rex Blunder]

I would guess that nothing will go out of print, but that wotc will no longer expect that stores should stock phb, mm, and dmg. The new stuff will "form the baseline experience for the roleplaying game moving forward."

In other words: you will probably be able to buy the older books at your FLGS (which generally have a lot of assorted wotc stuff) and on amazon, but not necessarily at a brick and mortar Barnes and Noble, which usually only carries a handful of books.

 

[Nathal]

If I were playing on a regular basis, i would probably just get Online D&D stuff with the compendium. Essentials does intrigue me though. I liked a lot of what 4e has done, and i was not a big fan of evereything 3.0, so I would like to see more of a hybrid produced.

 

[ggroy]

There's already a few allegations that the 4E core books are either not available anymore from the publisher,

RPGnet Forums - View Single Post - And this is why the hobby will stay niche:
RPGnet Forums - View Single Post - And this is why the hobby will stay niche:
http://www.therpgsite.com/showpost.php?p=395363&postcount=213

and/or some distributors are now recommending gaming stores to stock up on 4E core books

http://www.therpgsite.com/showpost.php?p=395827&postcount=252

 

[Nathal]

And if that's the case, I can imagine all of the original core stuff being re-released in time in the new "Essentials" format.

It reminds me of when 2nd Edition was re-released in those big, black cover hardbacks. Remember those, anybody? The first page of those stated "This is NOT 3rd Edition!". Heh.

There's already a few allegations that the 4E core books are either not available anymore from the publisher,

RPGnet Forums - View Single Post - And this is why the hobby will stay niche:
RPGnet Forums - View Single Post - And this is why the hobby will stay niche:
http://www.therpgsite.com/showpost.php?p=395363&postcount=213

and/or some distributors are now recommending gaming stores to stock up on 4E core books

http://www.therpgsite.com/showpost.php?p=395827&postcount=252

 

[Jack99]

Watch the 5e Essentials announcement at Gen-Con..

 

[ggroy]

Watch the 5e Essentials announcement at Gen-Con..

Too early.

 

[Aegeri]

People are going to hate me for saying this, but Wizards really should consider a re-release of the three core books with errata added and the original MM creatures improved to MM3 standards and fluff. I would absolutely rebuy those two books, especially if they added some things to them. The DMG would probably be skippable, as to be honest not much has been absolutely mauled in there and the DMG2 updates many of the most relevant tables.

I dunno what they would do to the original PHB, but just having a new PHB with all the current rules updated in it would be fantastic. Maybe if they added another class or a build or two that would be good. In many ways, essentials was what I was hoping that would be. Then again the fellows already going bananas that this is 4.5 would have a field day with a re-release of the core three books - even if it was mostly just errata.

 

[ggroy]

People are going to hate me for saying this, but Wizards really should consider a re-release of the three core books with errata added and the original MM creatures improved to MM3 standards and fluff. I would absolutely rebuy those two books, especially if they added some things to them. The DMG would probably be skippable, as to be honest not much has been absolutely mauled in there and the DMG2 updates many of the most relevant tables.

For something like this, they should just call it 4.25 D&D outright.

PHB1 = 4.0
PHB1 + PHB2 = 4.1
PHB1 + PHB2 + PHB3 = 4.2