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<blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 5323789" data-attributes="member: 52734">I think the designers for D&amp;D have inadvertently put themselves into an &quot;edition rollover&quot; rut; they have set up their model so the only way the can maintain the revenue stream is by reinventing themselves every few years.&nbsp; However, with each new edition, you're bound to lose part of your customer base - you have to ensure you can pick up an equal or greater number of new customers and with a niche hobby like this, I'll imagine its very hard to get new customers to buy in.I wish they would sort of go the way Piazo has started; put out a singular ruleset and make your money off the adventures (and campaign worlds), maybe a few sideline items (like power cards, dungeon tiles and minis).&nbsp; An &quot;evergreen&quot; RPG core that is only occasionally reprinted (say every 3-5 years) with errata would be more beneficial to customers, but not to profit margins.&nbsp; While it's not a perfect parallel, I'd think it would be beneficial if D&amp;D were treated much like another boardgame - say, monopoly.&nbsp; You can have one base game and many flavors (Simpson's monopoly, Misssissippi monopoly, etc.), but they stand on one rule set that isn't constantly being added too.&nbsp; This would be like putting out the base D&amp;D rules and selling campaign worlds or adventures for the game.&nbsp; Every once in a while you get a variant (Monopoly City or Monopoly Boardwalk, for example for monopoly, player splatbooks for D&amp;D), but it still uses the same base rules and you aren't buried in additions or variants coming out twice (or more) a month.&nbsp; In the end, I think D&amp;D has hobbled itself with the mandate of &quot;print or die&quot;; if less pressure was on putting out a constant stream of new (or reprinted) material, the game would steady and grow at a slow, steady rate instead of the expected exponential rate WotC is, I think, hoping for.&nbsp; The problem is that if the money intake slows from what WotC/Hasbro is used to, the game is likely to be canned for &quot;not generating a profit&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Stormonu, post: 5323789, member: 52734"] I think the designers for D&D have inadvertently put themselves into an "edition rollover" rut; they have set up their model so the only way the can maintain the revenue stream is by reinventing themselves every few years. However, with each new edition, you're bound to lose part of your customer base - you have to ensure you can pick up an equal or greater number of new customers and with a niche hobby like this, I'll imagine its very hard to get new customers to buy in. I wish they would sort of go the way Piazo has started; put out a singular ruleset and make your money off the adventures (and campaign worlds), maybe a few sideline items (like power cards, dungeon tiles and minis). An "evergreen" RPG core that is only occasionally reprinted (say every 3-5 years) with errata would be more beneficial to customers, but not to profit margins. While it's not a perfect parallel, I'd think it would be beneficial if D&D were treated much like another boardgame - say, monopoly. You can have one base game and many flavors (Simpson's monopoly, Misssissippi monopoly, etc.), but they stand on one rule set that isn't constantly being added too. This would be like putting out the base D&D rules and selling campaign worlds or adventures for the game. Every once in a while you get a variant (Monopoly City or Monopoly Boardwalk, for example for monopoly, player splatbooks for D&D), but it still uses the same base rules and you aren't buried in additions or variants coming out twice (or more) a month. In the end, I think D&D has hobbled itself with the mandate of "print or die"; if less pressure was on putting out a constant stream of [I]new[/I] (or reprinted) material, the game would steady and grow at a slow, steady rate instead of the expected exponential rate WotC is, I think, hoping for. The problem is that if the money intake slows from what WotC/Hasbro is used to, the game is likely to be canned for "not generating a profit". [/QUOTE]

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