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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6508304" data-attributes="member: 22424">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 &quot;Martial Power&quot; to the game, and then you add &quot;Martial Power 2&quot; 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 &quot;we're only using these books&quot; (and, of course, electronic tools such as DDI or the late D&amp;D Tools website help hugely).But the other big weakness is that you get the &quot;wall of books&quot; 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 - &quot;get the Starter Set&quot; - 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 &quot;Hoard of the Dragon Queen&quot; and &quot;Rise of Tiamat&quot; become hard-to-find items (like, say &quot;Secrets of Xen'drik&quot; 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 &quot;wall of books&quot;. Which is probably a good thing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="delericho, post: 6508304, member: 22424"] To an extent, it's not so much the [i]rate[/i] 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 [i]these[/i] 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 [i]books must be allowed to become unavailable[/i]. 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 [i]don't[/i] 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. [/QUOTE]

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