Legends & Lore #3 -
Setting the Pace
March 1, 2011
No original EN World thread found
Talk about a prescient article. In this one, Mearls discusses the release schedule of editions throughout history. The impetus for this article was the cancellation of three products from the 2011 schedule. (These were
Hero Builder's Handbook,
Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword & Spell, and
Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium. Material from HBH would eventually show up in Dragon magazine; the Essentials format for the Core 4e classes that were supposed to be in the Class Compendium were eventually released in PDFs, and MME was eventually released in print format in September of 2011.)
OD&D had five supplements in 18 months (Greyhawk; Blackmoor; Eldritch Wizardryl Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes; and Swords & Spells). AD&D emphasized adventures, with the Core Three and only 10 hardcover expansions in 12 years, as well as two boxed campaign sets and some FR sourcebooks. Much of the new material, particularly player-side new material, showed up in Dragon magazine. AD&D 2nd Ed. cut back on hardcovers, but released a metric craptonne of softcover expansions (Mearls says 5 or 6 a month), as well as many boxed sets. Both 3rd and 4th went back to hardcovers - often player-oriented, with only scattered stand-alone adventures published -- people relied on Dungeon magazine for more adventures.
Looking ahead, Mearls seems to question the wisdom of a heavy release schedule.
He then brings up the question of complexity and the difficulties it brings.
It really is funny to read these after all this time. Given that I can't find a thread for this article here at EN World, I surmise that for many people it was just seen as face-saving and butt-covering for the cancellation of three anticipated releases. But really, in hindsight, the above paragraph is meaningless in a 4e context. The horses were already out of the barn. 4e shelves were a mess of complexity, with the core books and twentysome hardcover expansions AND the new Essentials line, with its own version of a DMG, own version of a MM, and two PHBs (the former two coming in boxes). Mearls may have been trying to justify the Essentials roll-out, but it sure looks now like he was looking even further ahead.
Finally, Mearls slips in a little bit of design philosophy --
Yeah, I think he was definitely thinking about 5e at this point.
How did things end up in 5e?
Well, as is clear now, they are drastically cutting back on the release schedule. Mearls put it somewhere (can't find the source now -- an EN World post, maybe?), "If we've put out enough material to last you six months, why would I try to sell you anything else in that time?" The current plan appears to be two big adventure path/campaign type releases a year, supplemented by a few standalone products and web content. Mearls did indeed put the 5e starting point in a big box, and created the online Basic Rules as a smooth, relatively less complex on-ramp to the rest of the game. One strategy that wasn't really talked about in the article (for obvious reasons) was the release of old material as PDFs on D&D Classics. This allows them to make use of past products without having to create print product with high overhead for what may be a limited audience. Want to play in Eberron? Buy a cheap PDF of the 3e or 3.5 campaign book and use this online supplement for PCs. Want to play in the Realms? Choose your favorite version and convert it fairly easy on the fly.
Another aspect of 5e as far as material goes is there's a lot of space to go to without worrying about unbalancing the game too much. Backgrounds being one, and the chunkier feats being another. The big question is how crazy they will go with subclasses, in whatever form, be that new player expansions, a resurrected Dragon magazine, or Unearthed Arcana-type articles.
