Holy sheepdip - wotc to republish old editions

[Argyle King]

So... the plan is to allow someone to 'rent' the old material via DDi?

Meaning I would first need a DDi account and then pay extra to access the old material for a limited time?

 

[Agamon]

For the ebooks I thought they were strictkly talking fiction, not gaming.

Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

 

[Umbran]

The books had to be completely disassembled and, IIRC, cut apart to put in the scanner they used, so if you donated a book, it was gone...it's one thing to dig up a used copy of B2 KEEP ON THE BORDERLANDS to donate but it's something other if they're after, say, a set of original D&D books.

These days, they make scanners that correct for the curve of the page at the binding. So, if they want to re-do some of that old work, and get the right equipment, destruction of the original may no longer be necessary.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Although, eventually, they did get everything...

Almost everything. There were a few odds and ends that never went up--I remember waiting for GAZ10 The Orcs of Thar and Wrath of the Immortals to show up, for example.

Now, IIRC, reports from the DDI seminar said that they were working on print-on-demand for maps and "other things", so perhaps we will see that option. I like the Eberron subscription deal as a precedent, but I'm worried that it means that we'll only see the stuff that exists in electronic format. Since almost everything I'm interested in getting is pre-2000, that means none of the stuff I want would go up.

 

[cyderak]

I was happy to see THAC0 and negative armor classes go the way of the dinosaur. I think I'll stick with Pathfinder.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

So... the plan is to allow someone to 'rent' the old material via DDi?

Meaning I would first need a DDi account and then pay extra to access the old material for a limited time?

DO NOT WANT!

But if I can purchase older RPG boxed sets, books, and modules from them in either pdf or physical form I will happily be a customer.

 

[thedungeondelver]

These days, they make scanners that correct for the curve of the page at the binding. So, if they want to re-do some of that old work, and get the right equipment, destruction of the original may no longer be necessary.

There is an entire hobby segment dedicated to book-scanning, good sir!

These guys have turned non-destructive flat page scanning into an art and you can do it with junk you have lying around your house.

 

[Umbran]

I was happy to see THAC0 and negative armor classes go the way of the dinosaur. I think I'll stick with Pathfinder.

That's nice. The real (rhetorical question) is why you decided to rain on other people's parade.

While everyone has a right to an opinion, with that right comes the responsibility to find the right time and place to express it. This above comes across as threadcrapping.

 

[OnlineDM]

I was also at the seminar yesterday morning (extensive notes are here on my blog). My notes from this particular Q&A are as follows:

11:24 Q: Digital distribution – opening the vault for novels, what about older editions of the RPG? A: Can’t give specifics (don’t want to say anything until they’re ready to go)… it’s like a band when you like the first 3 albums and when the 4th comes out they destroy the old ones. Not great. They do use the older editions as sources and inspiration for the current edition. 2nd edition had great setting support, for instance. James: If your party is a Wilden Seeker and Shardmind Psion and no dwarf fighter, is it still D&D?

My take on it from reading Mearls in the room is: They're definitely having real talks about what they want to do with older edition material. So far they've at least been mining that material for inspiration for the current edition. However, they do realize that they've alienated a big chunk of the community, and they at least recognize the problem and want to work to mend the rift (a very tall order).

I think they've probably had some proposals about older edition material getting pretty far internally and then backing up, and they're not ready to announce yet because they're still working on their plans. I suspect it will be electronic format rather than print, based in part on the Eberron bookshelf they talked about.

My guess is that if this Eberron subscription thing works well, they will try it with older edition material. I don't think this is what the community is looking for, mind you, but I think it's what's on their mind at the moment. Just my own speculation from having sat in the room taking notes.

 

[Umbran]

There is an entire hobby segment dedicated to book-scanning, good sir!

These guys have turned non-destructive flat page scanning into an art and you can do it with junk you have lying around your house.

I would expect the hobbyists to have developed some very neat solutions that require some rather specialized knowledge and fiddly-bits. Hobby-solutions are usually not *economical* ones. A business requires something they can hand to an intern and expect it to get done quickly and well.