D&D General Is DnD being mothballed?

[mamba]

Yes, except Bestiary 6 is not aimed at players just like Bestiary 1 wasn't

so DMs are smarter than players?

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

so DMs are smarter than players?

Not necessarily, but if a player looks to start playing they're likely not going to buy a book called Bestiary or Armory or whatever.

If you have a book called Player's Handbook or whatever then it's important that it is a clear entry point. This is why Player's Handbook II probably wasn't a good name.

 

[Oofta]

so DMs are smarter than players?

Even if they pick up a MM 2, all they loose out on is the entries in MM 1. Totally different from picking up a PHB 2 with just additional classes and features and expecting it to tell you how to play the game.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The amount of 2e product was insane.

And awesome.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

But, Planescape is D&D

https://www.enworld.org/threads/planescape-is-d-d-says-jeremy-crawford.700207/unread

Jeremy Crawford says alot of things you should take with a grain of salt.

 

[Micah Sweet]

the difference between now and too fast might still be two books, 3e and 4e were both way too fast…

By what metric?

 

[Maxperson]

But, again, you're telling me what's in it for you. Fair enough. But, you're still not telling me what's in it for WotC or the rest of us. I can barely keep up with the amount of crunch for players in 5e as it is. I'll freely admit that. And, watching a new player, which my group has just gotten absolutely struggle with all the options that already exist for 5e tells me that there is not a whole lot of need for more.

Again, this idea of a need for a constant stream of crunch. Why? Most of it was never used by a given group. Think about your 3e or 4e games (whichever you played lots of). Did you actually use more than a tiny fraction of the material available? We certainly didn't. Thousands of feats, spells, book after book of magic items and equipment. All for what? So it could sit on the shelf and gather dust?

No thank you. I mean, good grief, by your own count, you've gotten a crunch book every year with a couple of exceptions. I highly doubt you've put much of a dent in any of it. How many FIrbolg characters have you seen in your games? How many aarocockra? I've just seen my first Samurai fighter in my current game. Fizban's saw a gem dragonborn and a couple of spells. 200 (300?, no idea) pages of material and it could have been three pages max as far as my table is concerned. Volo's hasn't even had the cover cracked in my games AFAIK.

A book a year of crunch with 2 exceptions and this is "slow"? Never minding that many of the modules come with crunch as well. And SCAG came out in 2015, which had crunch.

First, it's only two books. The monster books, while crunch, are not what I'm looking for or have been asking for, though I buy those two. I'm looking for books like Xanathar's and Tasha's. So two books in ten years.

As to why you need it, because we are all different. So what if you haven't played or seen an Aarocockra. Other people do play them. I've seen Firbolg in 1e and 3e, but not in 5e yet. Others have seen them. While you did not use most of the 3e stuff, I'm willing to bet that nearly all of it got used, and I say nearly because I don't like to speak in absolutes unless I know for sure, but I suspect it all did.

There isn't a 5e crunch book released prior to this year, monster books included this time, that I haven't used. The only reason I haven't used Bigby's is because I didn't buy it. I don't need or want another monster book with a little bit of crunch in it.

This isn't about any given table of players. It's about all tables of players. Why deprive tables of choices they would really like and want to use, just because you won't see that particular thing used?

It's only slow in comparison to 3e and 4e. Fair enough. But, we know that 3e and 4e were mistakes. They were very, very big mistakes. I like the fact that the hobby is growing year on year. So, how is it good for the hobby to increase the rate of crunch books? Will having fifteen more classes attract new players? Are there people out there who are saying, "Well, I'd play that new D&D thing, but, y'know, they just don't have a Warden class"?

I'm getting really tired of seeing this Strawman. Nobody that I've seen has been asking for 3e or 4e levels of release rates. For the 2163531st time, there is a massive middle ground that can see 5e's release rate of Xanathar's and Tasha's type books increase while still not coming close to 3e and 4e.

 

[Maxperson]

It's one of the reasons I use DDB, I can buy the 1/3 that I actually need.

That doesn't do me any good using paper and pencil at a real table. I don't use digital tools, because I don't like them. A computer is much bulkier and harder to use during a game than hardcover books. Plus I'm constantly handing my books to the players to look up something or other.

I think it's great that it works for you, but buying piecemeal like that doesn't work well in the physical world.

 

[Clint_L]

Not necessarily, but if a player looks to start playing they're likely not going to buy a book called Bestiary or Armory or whatever.

If you have a book called Player's Handbook or whatever then it's important that it is a clear entry point. This is why Player's Handbook II probably wasn't a good name.

It would be a terrible name, because it would be intentionally misleading. Xanathar's is not the Player's Handbook 2, it's a mixed bag, some of which builds on the PHB, a lot of which doesn't. Same with Tasha's - it's more of a mixing pot. A cauldron, if you will. Of everything.

This thread was silly to start with and now folks are just looking for things to complain about. It was some clickbait intended to get attention by riling up folks a little bit, the way sensational headlines do, and that's all. WotC is very publicly play testing the next iteration of 5e, they've purchased and started expanding DnDBeyond, they've been publicly play testing a hugely ambitious VTT, an excellent, though sadly poorly attended feature film came out, and an even better and record breaking video game, all while keeping the game far more profitable and popular than ever in its history. Not mothballed.

 

[Maxperson]

I have been debating that about the Planescape stuff, how much of this do I actually want/need?

Whereas I won't be getting any of it since I now refuse to buy the three book setting releases. No more am I spending money on an adventure I won't use and a setting book with not enough setting material in it(because of said adventure), even though Planescape is miles above that heaping pile of trash that was Spelljammer in that regard.