D&D 5E Light release schedule: More harm than good?

[delericho]

To an extent, it's not so much the rate at which books are released but rather the type of books that are released. Traditionally, RPG books have simply accumulated in the system - you add "Martial Power" to the game, and then you add "Martial Power 2" to the game, and then you add...

One of the big weaknesses of this is that the system simply bloats and becomes unwieldy, but that's easily countered by the DM simply saying "we're only using these books" (and, of course, electronic tools such as DDI or the late D&D Tools website help hugely).

But the other big weakness is that you get the "wall of books" problem - a new player goes into the game store and is presented with a display of some 40 books for the game. Not knowing where to start and being intimidated by the perceived investment (in money and time) that is required, he gives up and walks away. (Ideally, of course, he asks for help and is give a single, direct answer - "get the Starter Set" - but that's far from guaranteed, especially in game stores.)

Using a slower release schedule doesn't fix this problem, it just slows it down - the game still accumulates books.

What is crucial, and I hope WotC do this, is that books must be allowed to become unavailable. Twelve months from now, I really hope "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" and "Rise of Tiamat" become hard-to-find items (like, say "Secrets of Xen'drik" did - you can find it on eBay and the like, but you have to go looking). And I actually hope they don't put out some compiled and corrected edition down the line.

That only helps somewhat, of course, but if they keep the Core Rulebooks evergreen but have a cycle where the current one or two Adventure Paths (and their associated rules modules, if applicable) are available and anything else is special order only, that should probably help with the "wall of books". Which is probably a good thing.

 

[Sadras]

Great idea [MENTION=22424]delericho[/MENTION]. Your proposed solution might even have the effect of spiking WoTC sales if its customers new that there was only a limited supply of books being printed. Win-win situation.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I've spoken with a few of the devs on their forums and they've basically said that it's up to DM's what they want to use in their games. If they want their games to be based on just the corebook then that's fine, if they want to allow everything then the option is there. Same goes with any content that can pose problems. They know they can't fix everything single thing that is wrong with the system so they leave it up to individual DM's to leave ot out of their games if they don't want it there.

Paizo is actually doing it right and the proof is in the pudding. They are still going strong and I'm glad they use a bit of common sense in their goals.

Whereas I feel that Paizo, while on the right track conceptually, released too much generic player content too quickly, causing it to be less well thought out. Where I really feel they've done well is in the subscriptions for Adventure Paths and setting content.

It's not so much about the release schedule, as the general plan. Doing it right requires knowing what books your going to release well in advance. Shadowrun 4E did this well. There was a core rulebook, and then a specific set of advanced rulebooks covering different parts of the game. And it took them a few years to get the complete set out.

WotC needs a plan, and then to set that plan to a schedule that is maintainable. I just wish they'd talk to us more about that plan.

 

[Jester David]

Paizo is actually doing it right and the proof is in the pudding. They are still going strong and I'm glad they use a bit of common sense in their goals.

Paizo is doing okay. They're doing well without any competition but sales are dropping and players are feeling there is enough content. The edition is close to effectively "done" and they still have two years left of their planned 7. And even then, 7 years is pretty short all things considered.
Creating a Pathfinder Revised will be a risky proposition as they have everything to lose and people just don't like rebuying books.

The longer an edition lasts, the better it is for the hobby and community.

Case and point, Pathfinder Core:
http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lh0h?Introducing-the-Core-Campaign
They're creating a variant Pathfinder Society that pulls ALL their books out of game except the Core Rulebook and a couple choice accessories. Because crazy amounts of options are not always good, especially without a GM regulating use.

 

[darjr]

I'm still in midst of this thread, but I just wanted to thank wotc for slowing it down. I appreciate it greatly.

 

[JoeCrow]

There is no edition of any game that required you to allow everything in your home games. It's up to you to make the choice as to what you allow. That's why most books that follow the core are referred to as "optional".

These games are designed like a toolbox full of tools. You pick and choose what you use and leave the rest. A game should never limit itself because a few people can't say no.

Dude, I know that. But there's a difference between choosing what options to allow from a couple of sourcebooks, and trying to filter out the gold from the dross in a tsunami of options. It's a question of having to figure out what to say "no" TO, y'know? There's good stuff in there; there's stuff that genuinely improves the play experience, but there's also stuff that's just fiddly numbercrunch bonus optimizing hackwork, and there's stuff that's genuinely gamebending. And you have to sort through SO MUCH STUFF to try and figure out what to allow and what not to, and the tools that're used to build characters usually default to "allow everything!". And then you have to explain that even though the character generator thinks that "drow noble" is an allowed race, that's because the character generator is smoking the bad crack; now go back and make a sane character.

And that's one of the reasons I like the light release schedule.

 

[Bugleyman]

WotC is in the unfortunate position of being a hobby-publisher in an era where the internet has grievously wounded both traditional hobby gaming and traditional publishing. So, WotC's strategy is to try to build new revenue streams for D&D brand using formats with more growth-potential than dead trees.

Gosh, if only there were some digital form these books could take...

 

[Bugleyman]

Without offering any opinion of the merits (or lack thereof) of the slower release schedule, I'll note that there is no shortage of "WotC is a big company, therefore they must know best" in this thread.

Big companies react slowly, have trouble changing direction, and typically suffer from group think. And frankly, they are often arrogant. Do they enjoy advantages? Absolutely. Economies of scale. Financial reserves. Etc. But should we assume they make good decisions because they're big? Nope. In fact, one could be forgiven for thinking a single glance at the numerous follies of Corporate America would have put that canard to bed long ago.

After all, 4E was a disappointment -- if not an outright failure -- despite having all of WotC's resources and "superior information" behind it.

 

[Parmandur]

Without offering any opinion of the merits (or lack thereof) of the slower release schedule, I'll note that there is no shortage of "WotC is a big company, therefore they must know best" in this thread.

Big companies react slowly, have trouble changing direction, and typically suffer from group think. And frankly, they are often arrogant. Do they enjoy advantages? Absolutely. Economies of scale. Financial reserves. Etc. But should we assume they make good decisions because they're big? Nope. In fact, one could be forgiven for thinking a single glance at the numerous follies of Corporate America would have put that canard to bed long ago.

After all, 4E was a disappointment -- if not an outright failure -- despite having all of WotC's resources and "superior information" behind it.

They are nit "right" because they are big, bit they do know more because they have more information (tautologies are great because they are necessarily true!).



They have the data on 4E, what worked in terms of making money, what didn't, and lots of hard data on fan feedback from the past several years.



With their superior information, they are better positioned as rational actors than any of us forum commentators. We have our opinions, and we might be right or wrong, and Wizards might be right or wrong in their decisions. But their actions are more informed than our preferences, either way.

 

[Bugleyman]

They had the data on 3E, what worked in terms of making money, what didn't, and lots of hard data on fan feedback. With their superior information, they were better positioned as rational actors than any of us forum commentators..and then they released 4E. We all know how that turned out.

And then there was Netflix using their "superior information" to knock one out of the park. And forget New Coke. And the Edsel. And AOL Time Warner. And Apple Maps. Etc, etc, etc. Seriously, if you need help finding evidence of big companies with "superior information" making laughably bad choices...well, you just aren't trying.

P.S. For the record, I prefer a light release schedule...look at my freakin' signature, for pete's sake.