D&D 5E (2014) GAMA Trade Show and Game Developer Conference start Monday - announcement Tomorrow?

[Morrus]

Big summary here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?1535-D-D-Next-Notes-from-GAMA

 

[dm4hire]

Sounds like the DMG, with the exception of the magic item stuff will be more in line with what Paizo did. All the rules for play will be in the PHB and the DMG will be more to help direct the DM in storytelling.

 

[Agamon]

" To recap: Starter in "summer," PH "later," no dates, no prices, lots of pretty pics, story is king"

Me: OK, so that is confirmation the "leaked" Barnes and Noble entry for the PHB was false, as they had a Summer release date.

Technically, no. If they release the Starter in late June, early July and the PHB in late July, early August, then it's both later and summer.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

" To recap: Starter in "summer," PH "later," no dates, no prices, lots of pretty pics, story is king"

Me: OK, so that is confirmation the "leaked" Barnes and Noble entry for the PHB was false, as they had a Summer release date.

Not necessarily. "Later" in WOTC speak can simply mean "later in the summer". It does sound like they are aiming for Gen Con but are a little concerned that they might not be able to get the number of books printed in time for Mid August and might slip into September and therefore "Fall".

This is making me wonder if they might end up selling a limited number of PHBs at Gen Con but not actually release them to stores for another 2-3 weeks. It's been done before by a number of other companies who send their very first limited shipments of product to Gen Con and then build up their warehouse stock and actually release the game a couple of weeks later.

 

[Agamon]

This is making me wonder if they might end up selling a limited number of PHBs at Gen Con but not actually release them to stores for another 2-3 weeks. It's been done before by a number of other companies who send their very first limited shipments of product to Gen Con and then build up their warehouse stock and actually release the game a couple of weeks later.

Small companies with smaller brands can get away with that more easily. That would not be on the best interest of WotC and their new D&D edition, I don't think.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

But magic items are optional, and not assumed.

Sure. But they're optional like feats are optional.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Small companies with smaller brands can get away with that more easily. That would not be on the best interest of WotC and their new D&D edition, I don't think.

I'm not sure. It would encourage Gen Con attendance(not that it needs it), it's likely to hype the game up a couple weeks before release as people start talking about the game. Even WOTC has done it a couple of times with their books. I've returned home from Gen Con with a WOTC book almost every year that didn't come out for a couple of days to 2 weeks later.

Either way, I think they have to release on or before Gen Con at this point. They've hyped Gen Con up as their biggest Gen Con ever. Dave Christ who organizes all the Organized Play at Gen Con opened judge registration early this year in order to make sure they had more volunteers and has hyped up on his twitter that this Gen Con is going to be awesome. They give out swag to their judges for running games and WOTC has barely released product in the last couple of months.

It sounds like the next Living campaign will be premiering at Gen Con given that there are a number of 4 hour D&D Next slots being run at Gen Con but no one will say what kind of game they are(since the new Living Campaign hasn't been announced yet). It would be kind of difficult to launch that without the ability to create characters.

I suppose all of that could be done off of just the Starter set, but I think that unlikely. At this point it kind of HAS to come out at Gen Con.

 

[Mistwell]

Sure. But they're optional like feats are optional.

Yes. They're even called out as optional, with the default being a stat increase, and they're not assumed in the mechanics.

And I think of feats as highly optional. I'll probably not use them. I think a lot of people won't.

 

[Mistwell]

Technically, no. If they release the Starter in late June, early July and the PHB in late July, early August, then it's both later and summer.

To me, August is in summer, and "Later" than summer means not August. I didn't read that as "later" than the date the Starter set is released, but later than the Summer release schedule. Regardless, I believe the Starter set and the PHB had the same release date with Barnes and Noble, and we now know that's not accurate.

 

[darjr]

Yes. They're even called out as optional, with the default being a stat increase, and they're not assumed in the mechanics.

And I think of feats as highly optional. I'll probably not use them. I think a lot of people won't.

I'd agree with you on magic items only if the rules to create them by the DM were in the PHB.

Otherwise if the DMG was meant to be optional then the magic items shouldn't be in it. IMHO.