Player's Handbook II (and other May releases)

[William Ronald]

If Wizards make a successful product, it means they made something people wanted. That seems a good business outcome to me.

Cheers!

I think this is a good business philosophy -- understand your customers and make products that the majority of customers want. (Trying to please everyone is probably an exercise in futility.)

As an example of what happens when companies DON'T meet the needs of their customers, here is a link to an essay that Ryan Dancey wrote about WotC's buy out of TSR, and why TSR failed: Why TSR failed.

Mind you, I wonder if the release of PHB II means that a new edition is NOT just around the corner. Creating a PHB II when there is an effort underway to craft a new edition would seem to be somethigng of a waste of resources.

Perhaps PHB II will also have some advice on player disbutes, styles of play, and how players can have their characters work together as a team.

 

[JoeGKushner]

It'll be interesting to see how it goes.

I do wish that they'd open up some of the game content from the DMGII though. I recall Phil had some ideas he wanted to pursue using some of the new material and I think that those areas aren't going to be touched by WoTC again as they're "one offs", and the open material in Unearthed Arcana has seen some good uses in various products including Iron Heroes with it's reserve points if nothing else.

I also hope that they keep the Oriental style classes out of the PHB II and save those for an Expanded Oriental Adventures book. I'd like to see some more focus on "alternative" core classes with a note on which class the new one is replacing, if you should use both the core class and this one, redundances with certain PrCs, where game mechanics should and should not stack due to a "rules" break. There is a difference in a duelist and swashbuckler for example and some new DMs might wonder if they should both be allowed in the same game.

 

[Nikosandros]

I sincerely hope they *do* reprint all the core classes & races previously released in their Complete series books and others:


Warlock
Scout
Marshal
Healer
Noble
Soul Knife
Wu-Jen
etc.

Warforged, et. al.

I hope not... I'd rather see new stuff... but I guess we'll se when the time comes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Out of curiosity, are the people offended by the notion that WotC might be doing this to make a profit (because that's an amazingly radical notion) independently wealthy or do they have all their financial needs taken care of by someone else?

I have pure motives when I go to work. I try to great a good product that the end user will enjoy and value, but I also am going because I want the electricity to stay on in my house, I want to buy my wife sexy lingerie and go on a vacation once in a while.

Cash != evil

Pointing out that WotC would be fools not do another sequel to a core book, now that DMG2 was a megahit is not the same as freaking out on them, especially since Phil is a grown-up who sells books for a living.

 

[philreed]

Out of curiosity, are the people offended by the notion that WotC might be doing this to make a profit

I'm not offended at all. In fact, projects like this make me happy since it's obvious that the people running the D&D line _are_ interested in profit. After all, if D&D ever stops showing enough of a profit to matter it wouldn't be too far-fetched to see Hasbro discontinue the RPG. I'm not saying they would kill D&D -- minis, computer games, and fiction would all exist -- just that they wouldn't need to support the RPG.

Let's face it, D&D as a brand is bigger than a pen-n-paper roleplaying game.

 

[the black knight]

Oh boy, I can't wait for this one, because we all know how much better sequels are compared to the original.

 

[elforcelf]

I am hoping for new races. Hi,Phil!

 

[thundershot]

I'll end up buying it so long as it doesn't collect all of the classes in the Complete books. I own all of them already, and they're all fairly recent, not like the original splatbooks that needed updating to 3.5.



Chris

 

[The Lost Muse]

Well, I opted not to buy the DMG II for budgetary reasons; however, I will definately take a look at a sequel to the Player's Handbook. Unlike a book only I can use, this is one that everyone in the gaming group could use.

 

[Tuzenbach]

Cash != evil

For me,


absence of cash = evil



Yes, due to my extreme absence of cash, I don't own any books featuring core classses/races beyond the PHB I. That's why (if WotC does it the way I want them to) I'm really looking forward to the PHB II.