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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6303609" data-attributes="member: 58197">Indeed. In my experience, this is how a first D&amp;D book purchase usually goes:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Newbie player joins an existing group.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Not having any of the books, newbie player borrows somebody else's PHB when necessary.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">After a few games, newbie player is having a blast, but is getting tired of having to borrow somebody else's books all the time.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Newbie player goes out and buys a PHB.</li>
</ul>The experienced players never get to offer input on the purchase because it doesn't occur to the newbie to ask. What's to ask about? A Player's Handbook is a Player's Handbook, right? Maybe the cover looks different, but books get re-released with new cover art all the time. A copy of &quot;The Lord of the Rings&quot; published in 1970 looks totally different from a copy published in 2010, but the text inside is the same. If the newbie stopped to think about it, s/he might realize that &quot;video game&quot; is a better mental model than &quot;book&quot; in this case, but the whole reason we develop mental models is to avoid having to stop and think every time we turn around.I started playing in the 1E era, but I didn't start buying my own books until early 2E. At the time, there was a mix of 1E and 2E books floating around, and I made my purchases without realizing there was a difference. It was quite a while before I figured out the reason for all those odd little inconsistencies between my Player's Handbook and my Dragonlance hardcover. I imagine people who started shortly after the 3.5 release had similar experiences.Of course, the upshot of all this is that having an edition number on the cover isn't necessarily helpful. 2E had &quot;2nd Edition&quot; right there in the logo, and I never noticed it. As Ruin Explorer says, the only really foolproof fix is to change the book title, but that would arouse the wrath of all us grognards who don't feel like we're playing D&amp;D if we don't have a Player's Handbook.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 6303609, member: 58197"] Indeed. In my experience, this is how a first D&D book purchase usually goes: [LIST] [*]Newbie player joins an existing group. [*]Not having any of the books, newbie player borrows somebody else's PHB when necessary. [*]After a few games, newbie player is having a blast, but is getting tired of having to borrow somebody else's books all the time. [*]Newbie player goes out and buys a PHB. [/LIST] The experienced players never get to offer input on the purchase because it doesn't occur to the newbie to ask. What's to ask about? A Player's Handbook is a Player's Handbook, right? Maybe the cover looks different, but books get re-released with new cover art all the time. A copy of "The Lord of the Rings" published in 1970 looks totally different from a copy published in 2010, but the text inside is the same. If the newbie stopped to think about it, s/he might realize that "video game" is a better mental model than "book" in this case, but the whole reason we develop mental models is to avoid having to stop and think every time we turn around. I started playing in the 1E era, but I didn't start buying my own books until early 2E. At the time, there was a mix of 1E and 2E books floating around, and I made my purchases without realizing there was a difference. It was quite a while before I figured out the reason for all those odd little inconsistencies between my Player's Handbook and my Dragonlance hardcover. I imagine people who started shortly after the 3.5 release had similar experiences. Of course, the upshot of all this is that having an edition number on the cover isn't necessarily helpful. 2E had "2nd Edition" right there in the logo, and I never noticed it. As Ruin Explorer says, the only really foolproof fix is to change the book title, but that would arouse the wrath of all us grognards who don't feel like we're playing D&D if we don't have a Player's Handbook. [/QUOTE]

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