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

[BryonD]

My feeling is that Paizo have been extremely fortunate with their subscription system. It allows them to sell a lot of product that they'd never sell if they were relying on people buying them in gaming stores.

(Unfortunately, it also makes a lot of gaming store owners not like Paizo very much.)

I think we'll get a much clearer picture over the next 12 months of where Pathfinder actually is.

Cheers!

I think you are right.
I'd argue that "fortunate" isn't really the right word. The economy today is very different than the 80s. Paizo has been quite savvy in fan support and engagement, while minimizing the impact of middlemen.

Not being liked by dinosaurs who have not keeled over yet is not a big deal from a business perspective. No offense to the wonderful people who run some of the brick and mortars out there. And certainly no intent to put words in Paizo's mouth, they take relationships much more serious than what I just said. But I'm only talking about the business implication.

But I again agree with you. I'm very curious to see where Pathfinder (and Paizo) stand 12 months from now. Pathfinder would be an old game in this age if it wasn't built on a well covered chassis. But it seems to have a stable base, for now. Will that base hold on and on? Will 5E kill it? Will 5e burn out quickly? It will be interesting and will almost certainly include events no one expects.

 

[BryonD]

15 years? I see PF as a continuity of 3e and 3.5 and represent of type of evergreen edition. Some people call PF D&D 3.75. I guess some could say 1e/2e was evergreen for a longer period of time, as they were both similar and lasted 20 years put together.

Pathfinder 2.0 should really be a continuity of Pathfinder and by continuity I mean backward compatible like PF is with 3.5 and 3.5 with 3e. PF 2.0 really should be PF 1.5. It would still be evergreen if it did that.

Agreed. Though I still use 3E and 3.5 stuff with PF. The reality is that most people won't. That is a lot of what caused the D20 bust. People would not buy 3E stuff and both 3PP and stores got stuck with stuff on the shelves.

So I like your thought, but it may be easier said than done for a business.

 

[Shasarak]

My point is that we have had a new edition every three or four years FOUR times now.

It seems to me that every company that makes DnD has been able to keep an edition in print for longer then three or four years except for WotC.

So maybe it is not a problem with the game or people buying the game.

 

[MerricB]

It seems to me that every company that makes DnD has been able to keep an edition in print for longer then three or four years except for WotC.

So maybe it is not a problem with the game or people buying the game.

TSR managed a bare 3 years with original D&D before releasing AD&D.

The Holmes Basic D&D managed 4 years.

Moldvay's Basic set was in print for 2 years.

Menzter's red box survived 8 years (the longest)

After 2-3 years of the Rules Compendium edition of Basic D&D, the entire line was killed.

 

[Hussar]

If a game has been the same for as long as you can remember, and you don't foresee it changing, then we can call it evergreen. Chess, Checkers, Monopoly, Sorry, Candyland, and the like are clearly evergreen. Most games, in fact. I don't foresee Dominion having a second edition, even with occasional expansions.

Tabletop roleplaying games have been an exception, but it doesn't have to be this way.

To take a fairly recent example, Settlers of Catan is what, about twenty years old now and is still sold in the same box. . That's pretty evergreen.

 

[Dire Bare]

All true, and it's going to be difficult for WotC to square that circle.

But there are reasonable expectations of support and unreasonable ones. Complaining because Shifter variant #276 isn't covered is one thing. But where something is large and therefore difficult to homebrew, where something is integral to one or more of the published settings, or where something was previously a core option that is now no longer supported, it's much less unreasonable to want support... and where the likelihood is that it will be years before it is supported, or indeed it may never be supported, it's not unreasonable to complain.

No, I don't see any circle for WotC to square. WotC has never said, "We're not doing psionics." And they have not said that we won't see additional rules and options. They are just not going to inundate us with splats every month. The release of splats, or expansion of the game, will still occur, just at a much slower pace.

It is reasonable to want and to expect WotC to publish some sort of psionics expansion at some point. It's reasonable to want it right away if you are a psionics fan. It is NOT reasonable to criticize WotC for not putting out psionics support RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I WANT IT! IMO, of course.

Patience. The turtle wins the race. And there are plenty of fun things to with D&D before we get psionics rules. And if you just can't wait, download fan psionic rules or create your own! Problem solved!

 

[Hussar]

It seems to me that every company that makes DnD has been able to keep an edition in print for longer then three or four years except for WotC.

So maybe it is not a problem with the game or people buying the game.

Considering there's only been two companies, I'm not sure we can draw any conclusions.

 

[Shasarak]

Considering there's only been two companies, I'm not sure we can draw any conclusions.

Four if we include the shewhomustnotbenamed era of TSR.

And even she managed more then four years.

 

[BryonD]

To take a fairly recent example, Settlers of Catan is what, about twenty years old now and is still sold in the same box. . That's pretty evergreen.

SoC is gamist.

 

[Shasarak]

TSR managed a bare 3 years with original D&D before releasing AD&D.

ODnD was like a Beta test for the actual game, so I would not be too hard on it.

The Holmes Basic D&D managed 4 years.

Moldvay's Basic set was in print for 2 years.

Menzter's red box survived 8 years (the longest)

After 2-3 years of the Rules Compendium edition of Basic D&D, the entire line was killed.

And interestingly each of those were considered to be "revisions" rather then new editions which gives Basic a 16 to 17 year run.