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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eyebeams" data-source="post: 4579718" data-attributes="member: 9225">First answer: You don't release multiple core books. I'm sure 4e's doing it because it worked well for 3e, but I have a feeling an ever decreasing number of people will buy PHB 3, 4 and 5.Second answer: You keep full advances in supplements, where applicable, in ways that clearly reference core vertical material. This was the tactic for some new classes in the GAZ series. Since the core books also include new core rules, full advances in supplements don't impact core sales.Third answer: The thing that *hasn't* been tried yet are multiple, cross compatible vertical streams. For example, let's say you want to advance into highly customizable characters with lots of options, but your buddy wants a simple character who can stand beside the party as an equal without too much career tracking or bookkeeping. The answer: Release books for each, whose rules can be used with each other.I was actually considering this with 3.5. I thought of developing a Fighter variant that didn't require heavy thoughts about feats but who could just fight well, all the time, perhaps with d12 HD and constant BAB and damage bonuses. This would be ideal for certain kinds of players, and could be integrated beside the standard Fighter - you could have both in the same party.Executing this would be difficult, but it's not unprecedented, especially if there's a cool new system in each stream. Right now though getting into D&D requires dropping almost twice as much money as an XBox 360 game, for the privilege of trying to figure out how to play. You can help yourself learn by dropping a wad of cash on the Basic game first, instead -- and then have it outmoded by three books that already have all that stuff in it, which feels like a ripoff and creates a disincentive for beginners to get it when they see all the veterans who never touched it.Instead, I think D&D would have been far better served with one book with everything you needed to play for 5-10 levels, greatly scaled back complexity (with room to fill it in later) and a comprehensive introduction to the game, all for *less* than that XBox game. This 128-164 page book should have come with a CD of player and DM tools (with a pretty interface, but nothing too complicated), a cardstock battle board that works with dry-erase markers, a screen and some dice. It should include an adventure that gets continued in the next 2-3 vertical sets, and some pregens to run right away -- and advice for customizing those pregens.Right now we have three big books devoted to a rules system that is excellent, but filled with difficult to remember instances (modifiers, mostly) and expressed using clipped terminology that's difficult for the average person to grasp. I find the remarks about 4e paying attention to new gamers kind of funny, because 4e is to my mind the least beginner-friendly version of D&D *ever*. Am I really supposed to think new gamers were thought of when the powers got written up almost entirely in contractions? I like 4e fine, but man: It's a game that requires some seasoning as a gamer to appreciate. If you yanked out everything that was based on, "We made a cool effect, and hung it on a thin narrative excuse" you'd end up with a much simpler game -- the game that should be the first version of D&D that people encounter.</blockquote>

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