Unearthed Arcana Poll: How will the US Class Feature Variants be brought to Market?

[Parmandur]

You'd likely need to increase the page count either 16 or 32 pages, which, once you add in the Artificer and the Psion classes, would fit quite nicely

What I really don't get is how it makes and current PHB worthless. They didn't change any rules, they added additional ones to it. Adding this to new printing of PHB no more makes the old ones worthless than putting the rules into another supplement does. But it does mean that every new player gets these choices at their entry point to the game, and gets around PHB+1 issues for AL.

It does harm the resale value, which WotC has said they are very concious of in the past when asked about modifications to the PHB. They want the PHB to be a constant.

Don't expect anything except minimal errata in the,PHB until 6E rolls around. Indeed, at this point, don't expect any new errata for the book.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

You'd likely need to increase the page count either 16 or 32 pages, which, once you add in the Artificer and the Psion classes, would fit quite nicely

What I really don't get is how it makes and current PHB worthless. They didn't change any rules, they added additional ones to it. Adding this to new printing of PHB no more makes the old ones worthless than putting the rules into another supplement does. But it does mean that every new player gets these choices at their entry point to the game, and gets around PHB+1 issues for AL.

It doesn't make the old PHB worthless, but it does annoy a lot of people. It annoys the people who aren't willing to buy the new PHB because they miss out on the rules, and it annoys the people who do buy it as they are buying a small section for a full book price.

It's a lot like the Wayfinder's Guide vs. The Last War book. Except way worse, because the Last War actually has new content.

 

[OB1]

It doesn't make the old PHB worthless, but it does annoy a lot of people. It annoys the people who aren't willing to buy the new PHB because they miss out on the rules, and it annoys the people who do buy it as they are buying a small section for a full book price.

It's a lot like the Wayfinder's Guide vs. The Last War book. Except way worse, because the Last War actually has new content.

You won't miss out on the rules, they'd be available via PDF. Only reason to buy a new one would be for convenience. And if you have the PHB on DDB, it would just be updated automatically.

 

[Parmandur]

You won't miss out on the rules, they'd be available via PDF. Only reason to buy a new one would be for convenience. And if you have the PHB on DDB, it would just be updated automatically.

Yeah, it won't happen.

 

[ad_hoc]

I think that because of the PHB+1 rule, these rules make more sense integrated with the PHB. Otherwise, they can't be used with all the other sub-classes from other books.

That's just an AL thing though.

They can't design the game and their production methods based on AL. That just doesn't make sense both from a game design and business strategy viewpoint.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

You won't miss out on the rules, they'd be available via PDF. Only reason to buy a new one would be for convenience. And if you have the PHB on DDB, it would just be updated automatically.

So let me gets this straight;

Wizard's is going to spend a lot of money to make a new version of the PHB, having to redo the layout to make room for this new content, having to stop printings of the old book and replace it with this new one....

For no gain? People can still get it for free?

If an employee told me we should eat a cost like that for no additional revenue I'd laugh in their face, and consider firing them.

 

[Parmandur]

That's just an AL thing though.

They can't design the game and their production methods based on AL. That just doesn't make sense both from a game design and business strategy viewpoint.

But it is a design principle of the game, though: they work on any product with only assuming PHB options are interacting with new options. Honestly, it mostly works fine anyways.

 

[OB1]

So let me gets this straight;

Wizard's is going to spend a lot of money to make a new version of the PHB, having to redo the layout to make room for this new content, having to stop printings of the old book and replace it with this new one....

For no gain? People can still get it for free?

If an employee told me we should eat a cost like that for new additional revenue I'd laugh in their face, and consider firing them.

I see quite a bit of gain for WoTC.

The PHB is the flagship product and the most important gateway to onboarding new customers, which is why it remains the best selling D&D book in the marketplace after 5 years. Refreshing it from time to time with updated content that doesn't require re-purchase of all the other books, and in fact is still 100% compatible with all other books, makes it an even more attractive product to new users.

If I'm just getting into D&D and I have to buy 2 books just to get the common sense updates they are suggesting in this UA, I might just say this is too complicated and go do something else.

 

[Parmandur]

I see quite a bit of gain for WoTC.

The PHB is the flagship product and the most important gateway to onboarding new customers, which is why it remains the best selling D&D book in the marketplace after 5 years. Refreshing it from time to time with updated content that doesn't require re-purchase of all the other books, and in fact is still 100% compatible with all other books, makes it an even more attractive product to new users.

If I'm just getting into D&D and I have to buy 2 books just to get the common sense updates they are suggesting in this UA, I might just say this is too complicated and go do something else.

No.

The book is evergreen, they have nothing to gain by disrupting the customer base like that. They'll just put new options in a new option book.

 

[Salthorae]

But it is a design principle of the game, though: they work on any product with only assuming PHB options are interacting with new options. Honestly, it mostly works fine anyways.

Many games I play in are PHB+1 even if they're not AL. It really helps simplify things from a DM perspective and a player option one as well.