Player's Options: Speculation

[Peraion Graufalke]

Every time I see 'Player's Option' I think back to Skills and Powers and I die a little inside.

Every time I see 'Player's Option' I think back to Skills and Powers and feel like I'm a teenager again.

That's not a brand name for a D&D product line that screams 'balanced quality' to me.

Well, you do have a point there, though I haven't seen many complaints about the other PO books, namely Combat & Tactics (except for the critical hit tables) and Spells & Magic. And I actually liked Skills & Powers. *ducks*

 

[Tony Vargas]

Hold on...is Heroes of Shadow part of Essentials? I've been hearing a lot of connection between the two, but I was under the impression that Heroes of Shadow was another core product, like the PHs and Power books.

Essentials is the new core. Well, it's more core than core, it's /essential/.

One of the challenges of publishing RPGs is that the main book, with the rules you actually need, always sells more than the suplements. WotC has been trying to overcome that challenge. In 3.x, they split the rules you needed to build characters over multiple books, and made sure that most suplements had something to make some characters more powerful - a feat, an item, a rule, something - the idea being players would buy the books to beef their characters up.

DMs responded increasingly with 'core only' games.

In 4e, WotC went ahead and slapped 'core rule book' on everything that wasn't an actual setting book or module. 4e didn't sell quite as well as they'd hoped.

Aparently, one complaint is that there are too many core books coming out too fast. So, now, we get 'Essentials,' a set of only-10-books-we-promise, that give you the minimum you need to play legitmate D&D games.

If it works, Essentials will sell well, like core used to, but subsequent suplements will fall off, just as non-core suplements always have.

 

[Markn]

I don't know what the future holds for PHBs, Power books and now the Players Options. But I do remember, reading some research that WotC did late in the 3e days. Books that had Players Handbook or Dungeon Masters Guide in the title were drastically outselling out books. The same went for anything that had Dragon in the title. At any rate, maybe WotC felt they pushed those titles as far as they can (with the 3 PHBs and 2 DMGs for 4e) and feel it is time to experiment again. If its not as succesful, then they go back to the PHBs again, claiming that was there plan all along. No matter how you look at it, its smart WotC strategy - at least I think so.

 

[Camelot]

Erm, I guess I need to brush up on my RPG terms. That's not what I meant by core, I don't think.

I thought "Player's Options: Heroes of Shadow" wasn't part of Essentials, but some people have linked them as if it is part of it. I thought it was just going to be another "normal" book, outside of Essentials, just like a Player's Handbook 4 would be.

Abdul said "If they aren't going to put rules for hybrids into Essentials, which I kind of doubt they will, then perhaps the new approach will be a somewhat better MCing to let you do something very similar." If the Shadow book isn't part of Essentials, then it doesn't have to adhere to the Essential rules and can still include hybrid versions of its new classes.

I doubt Essentials will have hybrids too, but I also doubt they're going to create another multiclass system. They'll probably have new multiclass feats for their classes, and use the already established multiclass rules. Hybrids are for people with the PH3 and/or DDI, and it makes sense for new classes to have hybrid versions alongside them.

 

[Jhaelen]

At any rate, maybe WotC felt they pushed those titles as far as they can (with the 3 PHBs and 2 DMGs for 4e) and feel it is time to experiment again. If its not as succesful, then they go back to the PHBs again, claiming that was there plan all along. No matter how you look at it, its smart WotC strategy - at least I think so.

Actually I've seen a quote (I think it was from Mike Mearls) from the time right after PHB1, MM1, and DMG1 had been released, that their plan was twofold:
- first they wanted to address the basic requirements for 3e players to switch over and quickly release products to cover everything that had been core in 3e.
- after that they planned to release products aimed at players new to the game.

So, something like the 'Essentials' line was planned all along.

I wish I'd saved the link to the quote somewhere, but maybe someone else remembers it and can provide a link.

 

[Dire Bare]

I thought "Player's Options: Heroes of Shadow" wasn't part of Essentials, but some people have linked them as if it is part of it. I thought it was just going to be another "normal" book, outside of Essentials, just like a Player's Handbook 4 would be.

Heroes of Shadow is not an Essentials product. There are only going to be ten. However, it is the first product to be released after all of the Essential products, and (IMO) is the new face of regular D&D releases. It's format, both physical (6"x9" softcover) and in game design, will be very similar to the Essentials softcovers.

Remember, Essentials is not "Basic" D&D in the sense that it is a different game or a "simpler" version of D&D, Essentials is simply the new "core" products that everybody will want to own (or so WotC hopes) and will be "evergreen" (continually printed).

Essentials is both a new product line and marks a shift in the way 4th Edition D&D goes from here on out. We'll probably still get traditional hardcovers, but many books will be 6x9 softcovers.

 

[mkill]

The thing is, even if there was a PHB4, I wouldn't know what to put into it. Except for the Necromancer and Black Knight (both in Heroes of Shadow), there aren't many fantasy archetypes that are not covered by a class. (And the Martial Controller crowd never came up with something that made sense.)

So even if there was a PHB4, it would be full of stuff that nobody wanted in the first place, like the Wilden. I'm happy to see it go unpublished.

There is room for DMG3, though, mainly concerned with epic tier play, world building, and other topics that interest experienced DMs.

I assume that what we'll see from here are more thematic splatbooks similar to what we saw in the end days of 3rd edition: A book on sea campaigns, a book for evil characters, a book for thievery-themed campaigns etc. I'm also waiting for a 4th-ed version of Savage Species.

Also expect another splatbook that details more subclasses in essentials style, such as a "Weapon Master" subclass for the fighter or a "Diviner" Mage.


TL;DR: The schematic product lineup is dead. Expect more splatbooks that fill a certain niche or theme.

 

[Camelot]

There is room for DMG3, though, mainly concerned with epic tier play, world building, and other topics that interest experienced DMs.

Yes please! =D