Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Mearl's Book Design Philosophy
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6927138" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>I regret doing this thread now… </p><p></p><p></p><p>I thought the quote was interesting from a book planning perspective, in that they don't sound like they want to do the "standard" books, the <em>Deities & Demigods</em> or <em>Manual of the Planes</em>. The books most of us were expecting at one time or another. Which is an interesting move… It makes their future books more unpredictable, but also more open to experimentation. </p><p>And it's something Paizo also did, eschewing doing the psionic book and the planar book.</p><p></p><p></p><p>But, of course, the thread immediately became another "WotC needs to release two-six splatbooks a year!" thread. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Sigh...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Really, even a single dedicated splatbook might almost be too much. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Subclasses be small. You can fit three and a picture into a two page spread. With 11 classes, you could give each class 8 pages for 12 new subclasses each, doubling even the number available to the cleric and wizard (and 6x as many for the bard and druid). And that's still *only* 88 pages! What do you fill the remaining 72 pages of a 160-page book with? Another 100 subclasses? 12 new classes? 150 new spells?</p><p>And then what? With (only) a dozen new subclasses they'd have published enough class for years and years of campaigns. What do they release next? You won't need more subclasses ever. The edition's done at that point...</p><p></p><p></p><p>Even making those 88-pages of 132 subclasses would be tricky. A quarter will be excellent hybrids of lore and unique/distinct mechanics, a quarter will likely have solid lore but weak/generic mechanics, a quarter will have strong mechanics but a flimsy story, and a quarter will just be there to hit the page count. </p><p>And there's no way you can remotely playtest 132 subclasses, so that goes out the window. </p><p></p><p></p><p>How is this remotely a good idea?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 6927138, member: 37579"] I regret doing this thread now… I thought the quote was interesting from a book planning perspective, in that they don't sound like they want to do the "standard" books, the [I]Deities & Demigods[/I] or [I]Manual of the Planes[/I]. The books most of us were expecting at one time or another. Which is an interesting move… It makes their future books more unpredictable, but also more open to experimentation. And it's something Paizo also did, eschewing doing the psionic book and the planar book. But, of course, the thread immediately became another "WotC needs to release two-six splatbooks a year!" thread. Sigh... Really, even a single dedicated splatbook might almost be too much. Subclasses be small. You can fit three and a picture into a two page spread. With 11 classes, you could give each class 8 pages for 12 new subclasses each, doubling even the number available to the cleric and wizard (and 6x as many for the bard and druid). And that's still *only* 88 pages! What do you fill the remaining 72 pages of a 160-page book with? Another 100 subclasses? 12 new classes? 150 new spells? And then what? With (only) a dozen new subclasses they'd have published enough class for years and years of campaigns. What do they release next? You won't need more subclasses ever. The edition's done at that point... Even making those 88-pages of 132 subclasses would be tricky. A quarter will be excellent hybrids of lore and unique/distinct mechanics, a quarter will likely have solid lore but weak/generic mechanics, a quarter will have strong mechanics but a flimsy story, and a quarter will just be there to hit the page count. And there's no way you can remotely playtest 132 subclasses, so that goes out the window. How is this remotely a good idea? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Mearl's Book Design Philosophy
Top