D&D 5E I believe a slow and light product release can cause more harm in the long run.

[Jester David]

Who held a gun to your head and made you purchase the books? Nobody. You made the decision to buy the books. If you are were the DM (and it sounds as if you were), you choose what to use and what not to include. It is not hard to look through books and see if it will be worthwhile purchase based upon what you will include in your game.

I bought them because they were available. I bought them because it's habitual, because I'm a collector. And I have no doubt I'm an anomaly. The majority of gamers, even non-casual ones, are not going to buy that many books.

Padding and filler is a separate issue. WOTC put a lot of what I felt was garbage in their 3e products in the form of PrCs.Guess what? I bought little of their supplements. I definitely didn't buy their Race or Class oriented books and very little would be allowed from them if a player wanted to use them (Ari's Complete Mage would be an exception if I didn't use the Wizard specialist material from Unearthed Arcana)
...
Yet despite my dislike for the majority of WOTC's 3e supplements and PrCs, a lot of people liked them and used them. I don't hold it against WOTC for producing supplements for which many fans liked and found use even if I did not. I just told players, "No" a specific supplement would not be in use or just a few specific items from a supplement would be allowed and, rather than purchase it myself, found other supplements which I would find useful.

It's more than just "I don't want them so no one should have them." Bloat and too many books have hurt the game before and cut editions short. It drives shorter edition cycles, which has not been healthy for the game or the community.

One of the catches with that many products was that they'd appear on shelves and then vanish. Reprinting was rarer. Which works for card games but less so for RPGs. Having key subclasses and options fall out of print is undesirable.
And lots of books are prohibitive for stores, especially big box stores. A few key releases are more desirable than the shelf of books.
And large numbers of books makes learning the game intimidating, scaring away newcomers.

 

[Jester David]

I keep seeing these threads calling for more books and a more robust release schedule, but no one every says how much more robust or how many new books they want. It's always "more" but vague, like a Victorian orphan holding up a bowl.
How much more? How often? For how long?

 

[JEB]

Me and others I know are worried less about having new options (though we certainly want those) and more worried about the loss of momentum that comes from long spans between new products. 5E is off to a great start, but they're really missing a chance to capitalize on new players' enthusiasm with such a modest, adventure-focused schedule.

And if Wizards intends the core rulebooks to be the only products they release in stores other than adventures for the foreseeable, I hope they have a plan to re-market the core rulebooks (or at least the Starter Set) every once in a while, to remind non-players that the game is out there. Because they won't have many new books on the shelf to catch people's eyes.

I would also note that this is the first time there's been nothing officially scheduled for D&D since the 1980s. There was more news about upcoming items during the Next playtest than we're getting now! So it really shouldn't be a surprise that it makes some of us nervous.

 

[JEB]

I keep seeing these threads calling for more books and a more robust release schedule, but no one every says how much more robust or how many new books they want. It's always "more" but vague, like a Victorian orphan holding up a bowl.
How much more? How often? For how long?

One or two non-adventure books a year, and a few smaller adventures between the big releases. (If they revive Dungeon Magazine, however, we probably don't need the latter.)

As for how long, forever, I'd hope...

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I keep seeing these threads calling for more books and a more robust release schedule, but no one every says how much more robust or how many new books they want. It's always "more" but vague, like a Victorian orphan holding up a bowl.
How much more? How often? For how long?

I saw what you did there.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Yeah, not only do I not want that many more books, I agree with others: I don't want them to be made. Not worth it for the games health.

So if you hate pizza then I shouldn't have it either?

 

[Harry Dresden]

I keep seeing these threads calling for more books and a more robust release schedule, but no one every says how much more robust or how many new books they want. It's always "more" but vague, like a Victorian orphan holding up a bowl.
How much more? How often? For how long?

And that is exactly what Wizards has done and what a lot of you use as your excuse as to why the schedule is the way it is.

When I say I don't want bloat, how do you know I mean down to a trickle? Then you come back with "well you said you didn't want bloat".

 

[Harry Dresden]

I bought them because they were available. I bought them because it's habitual, because I'm a collector. And I have no doubt I'm an anomaly. The majority of gamers, even non-casual ones, are not going to buy that many books.


It's more than just "I don't want them so no one should have them." Bloat and too many books have hurt the game before and cut editions short. It drives shorter edition cycles, which has not been healthy for the game or the community.

One of the catches with that many products was that they'd appear on shelves and then vanish. Reprinting was rarer. Which works for card games but less so for RPGs. Having key subclasses and options fall out of print is undesirable.
And lots of books are prohibitive for stores, especially big box stores. A few key releases are more desirable than the shelf of books.
And large numbers of books makes learning the game intimidating, scaring away newcomers.

So basically the problem is you just can't say no and your money basically has your pockets on fire so much that the devil would be jealous of the heat.

You don't want me to have what I want because you can't control your urge to buy. Looks to me like you are a gaming company's dream.

 

[Harry Dresden]

I want lot's of Forgotten Realms campaign material. I don't want to have to go digging through AP's and an MMO to get the information I am looking for. We are getting this stuff piecemeal and it's looking very sloppy.

 

[Ashran]

I keep seeing these threads calling for more books and a more robust release schedule, but no one every says how much more robust or how many new books they want. It's always "more" but vague, like a Victorian orphan holding up a bowl.
How much more? How often? For how long?

I'll bite.

Okay let's see... if we piece together all the clues around it looks like we'll have two big adventures a year (and it might become one later on, according to some interview), one forgotten realms novel every two or three months (according to amazon), and there are rumors wotc is planning to release "something" every now and then that is not an adventure. You have also to take into account the unearthed arcana monthly articles (well, at least up to now, that is monthly).

What I would like, personnaly, is some statement about what the "something every now and then" is. Will it be some setting books ? Will it be some form of meta gaming advices ( think the latest pathfinder "hint' book on how to best build some characters. I forgot its name, sorry).

And to better answer your question, I would love the following things:

* A monthly magazine which would be a collection of both Dungeon and Dragon old magazines in regard with what's on it (be it in print or web based)
* Smaller adventures (around the 32 pages long) at least three time a year
* Some form of new and old setting at least once a year (I would prefer a new setting, but I am not against a form of updating old settings, too, in a smaller book explaining what has changed since the old editions, and adapting some specifics mechanics of said setting... Think the influence of the moons in Dragonlance, The wizards' schools in Glantri (Mystara), dragonmarks for eberron, and so on and so forth...)
* A more varied novel schedule (I love the forgotten realms, but I would love some new Ravenloft novels, or Planescape, even Mystara is for me a potential almost untapped. So is Greyhawk for that matters, imagine a series of novel sets during the Greyhawk Wars, or after "From the Ashes")

For the how long ? I would say for as long as the 5th edition exists.

I realize I am in a 'double' minority (the one wanting more books, and apparently a collector of novels, as well). But you asked, so I answered

(Sorry for the spelling mistakes, english is not my first language, and I am a bit rusty at writting it)