Let's get waaaay head of ourselves. :D

[Crazy Jerome]

My preference is Basic Core Rules in a single digest size book. They don't reprint these rules anywhere, because, you know, it is in a digest sized book that is relatively cheap, and everyone needs it anyway.

Then if necessary to have a complete basic game (i.e. there wasn't room in the core rules book), there is a second digest sized book to complete the basic game. This is roughly analogous to buying the Basic/Expert part of BECMI, although one would hope with modern design and formatting, they could conceptually cover whatever is equivalent to the 4E "heroic" tier.

This is followed rapidly by the PHB/DMG/MM trilogy, in hardback, which provides a host of options (the ones expected to be most popular), building upon those same core rules. Not everything in the trilogy is directly useful to someone wanting to run the "Basic" game, though more magic items and monsters are always welcome. And some people, not concerned with running in a pure style, might grab a class or three, this or that optional rules, etc.

 

[Agamon]

Everybody chant with me now:

BOXED SET! BOXED SET! BOXED SET!



Digest sized books is an awesome idea, especially if (or, more likely, when) the rules are complimented online.

 

[kitsune9]

I'm for a starter set--64 page Player's Guide, 96 DMG with MM, tiles, dice, monster counters, etc.

For a core set--probably a 128 page Player's Guide, 128 page DMG, and 256 page MM. Modularity components would be in another Player's Guide (but don't call it Player's Handbook II or something).

 

[DNH]

Setting the Pace, in the Legends and Lore column, discusses release schedules of past editions. He doesn't reach any hard-and-fast conclusions but this is interesting: "Complexity stands as perhaps the biggest argument against a rapid release schedule. One of the things R&D must consider is what it’s like for a new player to enter a store and pick up a D&D product. If that new player is greeted by a wall of books and
boxes, buying into the game becomes that much more daunting. It’s easy for an experienced player to navigate that maze, to understand that the Player’s Handbook is the key to getting started while Complete Warrior and Martial Power are optional expansions.
However, that isn’t clear from their titles or even how they are arranged in the store. Compare that to many board game lines, where the core set is in a bigger, more expensive box and expansions in smaller ones. That might seem like a minor detail to an experienced gamer, but such visual cues are really helpful to beginners. It’s easy to understand that the big box is a starting point and the small box is an expansion."

I will now join the trend and draw some wild and unfounded conclusions from this: D&D Next's core product will be a boxed set (a la Red Box or Pathfinder's Beginner Box) with additional products in a clearly different format and released at a conservative pace.

 

[El Mahdi]

Leather wrapped Wood covers, authentic Velum pages, hand written Caligraphy and Illuminations, and bound with real gut.

Anything else is a deal breaker!

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Leather covered Wood covers, authentic Velum pages, hand written Caligraphy and Illuminations, and bound with real gut.

Anything else is a deal breaker!

Heh. I can tell you what might be a deal delayer for me. If they have a starter set that is not a complete game, but that 1-2 or 1-3 levels crap, without even the ability to generate a standard character, and instead taking up all the space with boilerplate instructions written to a 10 year-old--I may not buy anything in the line for several years out of sheer disgust.

This is probably why I cringe just a little every time someone advocates "starter set" in a box. I can't quite shake the idea that WotC has confused "box" with "marketing tool to present lack of content in a pretty package". I'd like to be proved wrong, though.

 

[Number48]

I think they should release a nice hard bound PHB/MM/DMG as a limited run.

I also think they should release a soft cover edition of these books ala essentials, including maybe some form of starter box at launch.

I believe they need to release the PHB online .pdf for free. Or at the very least the starter version of the PHB (the one in the beginner box that has extended play available and not just rules for the included board game scenario).

Cost is a huge factor for most gamers in aquiring or even being interested in a new edition. Make it like drugs, the first one is free to get them in the door, once they are hooked, splatbook out the wazoo. (not endorsing this, but as a business model it works)

LOL! As long as we're bankrupting them, let's have them come over and mow our lawns, too. Or they can pay us to play the game.

 

[Astrosicebear]

LOL! As long as we're bankrupting them, let's have them come over and mow our lawns, too. Or they can pay us to play the game.

Releasing a free starter edition .pdf is in their best interest. Its a business model that works, and WOTC uses it all the time for M:TG, giving away starter decks.

For every four people who said they wont purchase another edition of books, I bet you'd convert one into a retail sale with a free starter .pdf.

 

[Sunseeker]

I hope they release a starter box, people loved them even though I never bought one.

Overall, while I LOVE the pretty, hard-bound books, I also really like the more digest-sized Essentials books. Like with more literature, I would love to see every book released in a really cool awesome hardcover version, and then a cheaper, smaller paperback version.

 

[Transformer]

This. This is what I want.

Dear Wizards.

I don't know whether Paizo beat you at system design; in fact, I think 4e is pretty great. One thing's for certain, though: they annihilated you and buried your meager ashes on introductory boxed set design.

The Pathfinder Beginner Box is perfect. Absolutely perfect.

It covers 5 levels. That's a great range. When's the last time you made an intro box set that covered more than 2 levels, Wizards? Oh, never, did you say?

It has two beautiful softcover books, totaling close to 200 pages. They are lavishly illustrated; very evocative.

The players' book includes full character creation rules, very cleanly presented. It has simple, to-the-point instructions for leveling up characters. Your latest boxed set had, what, a solo adventure for making characters, and then no other character creation rules so that you had to play through the same **** adventure every time someone needed to make a character? Good friggin' job, Wizards.

The DM's book is a masterpiece. It has pages of magic items. It has pages of information on different sorts of adventures and the environments they take place in, including a nice sampling of environmental hazards. It has something like 50 different kinds of monsters.

And then there are the pawns. Oh, the pawns. We're talking rectangular pieces of heavy cardstock (like you make dungeon tiles out of) that have very nice art of different monsters on them, and that slot into plastic mases so they stand up. They are beautiful. They are functional. That are a hundred times better than flat cardboard counters, and they can be used alongside miniatures without looking ridiculous. The set comes with scores and scores of them; something like 90.

Wizards, I don't care if you copy the Pathfinder Beginner Box page for page and monster for monster. Just do it. Do exactly what Paizo did. Your intro boxed sets are terrible. You should be ashamed of them. This, this is what an intro box looks like. Do it, Wizards. 5 levels, stand-up pawns, a complete roleplaying game that you could play for years (though you won't; you'll be inspired to buy more books instead!)