D&D 5E I have a sneaking suspicion about how they are going to expand 5e via splatbooks....

[Psikerlord#]

So after going through all the unearthed arcana posts every month they do make it clear that the articles are kind of like the playtests. What I think will happen is that every year they are probably going to combine all those articles and make it into a splat book that basically just contains all the stuff they have put out the previous year via unearthed arcana. It won't focus on any one thing like psionics, or divine champions or whatever, but it'll just be more -stuff- of all kinds that you can use in your game. So basically one splat book a year that contains all kinds of stuff. Anyone think the same?

I'd really like that approach actually

 

[SigmaOne]

I certainly don't see the likelihood (or like the idea of) solving the "players don't buy adventures" by putting player stuff in the adventure book --- encouraging players to possess a book they explicitly not supposed to read big parts of doesn't really make sense from any perspective. I could see them as separate player's companions, whether free or not. The original PotA companion was supposed to be a proper for profit book, rather than a free pdf, but they changed it pretty late in the game for (I assume QA) reasons.

I like Evenglare's idea, and see no problem with that, too. And it's clear from some comments made that the UA stuff is still considered "playtest" (and so not really official) mode. But I agree from what few words have been spoken, option 2 seems more likely. Either way, bring on the content!

 

[Evenglare]

Yeah I didn't even think of that. Why would you want your players to buy the adventure books essentially giving them the entire story to read? Sure some wouldn't read it but I can hardly see people paying 50 bucks for a few pages of new player material. I know they release this stuff separate on the site for free and im super happy that wizards does that. I would just like to see a compilation every year or something.

I mean, they are putting out literally 0 splat books per year as much as we know. Surely ONE per year would be okay, right? People had problem in the past of releasing one a month, but surely the kneejerk reaction wouldn't be to completely forsake the entire process. One good big book a year with all sorts of modules and options would be fantastic in my opinion. Hell, even include that stuff in the adventure books in an appendix, that would be awesome. Just please at the least do a yearly compilation. I can't imagine a scenario where someone wouldn't be for that model of release structure.

 

[Nifft]

I certainly don't see the likelihood (or like the idea of) solving the "players don't buy adventures" by putting player stuff in the adventure book --- encouraging players to possess a book they explicitly not supposed to read big parts of doesn't really make sense from any perspective.

Yeah, exactly. I was going to post this.

Encouraging players to buy an adventure module negates a bunch of the value of the module for me as a DM.

I don't see them doing that specific type of bundling more than once.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

TSR used to publish new classes, critters & spells, etc., in AD&D & 2Ed modules, which were much smaller and relatively cheaper than full-blown rulebooks. I'm one of the only players I know who has been playing since then who has more than a dozen or so of them. Task Force Games used to do the same thing for Star Fleet Battles...and again, few people bought all the little interim expansion material.

Somehow, I don't see WotC going that route.

 

[delericho]

I'm not convinced WotC themselves have decided how they're going to support the game with supplements. I think they know a bunch of things that don't work, but they're still trying to work out what would. Indeed, in the "Mearls tweets..." thread, he noted that he sees a problem around years 2-3 of the edition - my guess is that that's probably the point where the player base will demand something by way of expansion (as in the boardgame model), but they're not quite sure how best to fill that need.

As for Unearthed Arcana: I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some of next year's UA articles revisit topics covered already, providing expanded and revised versions of the same material.

 

[delericho]

TSR used to publish new classes, critters & spells, etc., in AD&D & 2Ed modules, which were much smaller and relatively cheaper than full-blown rulebooks.

Paizo still do publish new critters and (less often) spells and magic items in their adventures. I'm not aware of them doing any classes that way. That said, they also tend to then put most or all of those things out as OGL material, which mean they go onto sites compiling the material.

WotC, of course, have also published some new material in their adventures, and this has tended to be repeated in the free PDF players guides (or other companion guides for the adventures). Where 'free' seems to be a key feature - I doubt many people would pay to collect these things, but when the price is right...

I do miss the Compendium, though - I was very surprised when 5e didn't have a DDI of its own.

 

[pogre]

I don't think WOTC "knows" what they will do for sure.

FDR said, "It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another."

WOTC's actions remind me of a bunch of trial balloons and right now, things are working.

 

[overgeeked]

Except that they are already providing it to players free via pdf. See, for example, what they did with the new spells and classes contained in the PotA adventure.

I think we'll see new subclasses, races, spells, feats, etc. on a modest "as needed basis" in upcoming adventure modules and in contemporaneous pdfs.

I do think we'll see an Unearthed Arcana compilation somewhere down the road, but I'd be surprised if it's an annual event. They just aren't putting out that much material at this point.

Now, if they combined Unearthed Arcana updates with Adventure rules supplements, then I think I think they'd have enough material to fill a supplemental rules book once a year or so.

So far we have 39 pages of content from Unearthed Arcana. After a year we might have 78. It will take two year to produce enough content to fill a 160-page book, which is pretty darn small. And would still likely be pretty expensive, and a harder purchase to justify since we'd have seen the content before.

Plus, this wouldn't leave a lot of time to playtest and revise the later article.

Why do so many people just assume that every gamer will check the Wizards site and always know about these updates? Not all gamers are obsessives. Not all gamers are as connected to the net as the hardcore plugged-in types that frequent D&D forums in the middle of a weekday. Besides, what they've released is playtest material, not the final drafts. Look at the Pscionics... there's what, five levels of progression there. The thing's clearly not finished. There would be more, new spells and items, fully fleshed out progression, oh... and art. There's a lot that can be done to pad out the pages.

 

[Staffan]

...I cannot begin to describe how happy the above would make me. Pirates of the Sword Coast makes me giggle in an unmanly fashion.

Pirates would work better in the Sea of Fallen Stars, which is more akin to the Mediterranean. The Sword Coast has a bunch of travel and shipping going north and south along it, but the Sea of Fallen Stars has ships going all over the place in all sorts of directions.