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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 5262720" data-attributes="member: 8863">I'm going to chime in here with the others and say the whole Player's Option books were never a 2.5.  They were suppliments and options, not a replacement like 3.5 was.  There may be some confusion because at the time TSR did release new printings of the PHB and DMG with the same black covers and interior layouts that they used with PO so the books would look the same (I think the Tome of Magic got the same treatment too).  The revised core books weren't a huge change, they just changed typos and corrected minor errata.  I have the horse PHB and the black cover DMG and played 2e like that, so no there was no difference.  But this change is comparable to the idol and demon covers and later Easley 1e covers, not the 3.5 revision.  Much of the change was cosmetic, as the intro to the black DMG says, the look of the books that were produced in 1989 weren't as stylish in 1995, so they changed it for marketing purposes.  The whole "2.5" bit only emeraged when WotC pulled that 3.5 stuff.  Yeah, I think there were a lot of customers who felt burned over it, or that it was a huge money grab.  Some of it I didn't like either.  But I think it's because the whole three book model is obsolete and too costly, and probably was by 2002 or so when the decision to market 3.5 was made.  And another problem is that selling a new set of core books probably produces a notable spike in sales that isn't sustainable over a long term, once players buy a set of core books, they don't need more right away, and not all of those buyers buy splats.  TSR made the mistake of trying to drum up sales in the 2e days buy selling tons of campaign settings which failed spectacularly for the business end of things.  A lot of people accused 3.5 of being a money grab for this reason.  WotC may be fazing out the core books and instead looking for DDI to provide a more stable long-term revenue stream, since it needs to be renewed more often, while selling a more modular game.If WotC is going to stop printing the core books and switch to the Essential lines instead, they'll probably announce it at GenCon.</blockquote>

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