D&D 5E So Now We Are Paying for Early Access?

[Jester David]

I have been holding off on buying WGE and GMR until we know if anything in them will be AL legal.

Well, if the only time you play & run is AL, I can see that being an issue.
It doesn't sound like the settings will be used anytime soon: http://dndadventurersleague.org/when-worlds-collide/

I imagine the options in Ravnica will be legal, and it seems likely that the races and artificer from Wayfarer's Guidewill be legal as well after some more testing.

 

[Reynard]

It is an interesting choice by WotC, for sure, and I am very curious to see if it is a successful model. Being a huge Eberron fan I bought it immediately and am glad I did. I will be pleased to watch it grow and change. I am also excited about the prospect and both consuming and creating Eberron content in the Guild.

One thing to consider for folks on the fence because of the whole PDF --> POD --> Print product aspect: if you want to see other settings get official support and/or added to the Guild, then you should probably consider supporting this initiative. It is plain with the Ravnica book announcement at the same time as the Eberron PDF release that if we are to see classic settings at all, it is going to be in this context. If Eberron fails, they probably will not try again with Planescape or Mystara or whatever. Chances are, they will deem those classic settings not worth the trouble and continue to produce new ones at a pretty slow rate.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If you don't want to spend money for a playtest, just pretend the character generation stuff in the PDF doesn't exist. Then what you have is a primer on the Eberron setting with which you can run a campaign.

 

[Pauper]

Keep in mind, though, that the fact that a 'living PDF' exists on the DMs Guild doesn't pre-empt the publication of a hardcover Eberron book, which will likely contain duplicate info to the PDF, specifically the race and class information.

And yes, Mearls has stated this explicitly. So buying the PDF basically is paying for 'early access'. You decide if that's something you want to support.

--
Pauper

 

[jgsugden]

One other thing to consider: This has likely been on the way for a while. They may just be impatient to get something in our hands.

Keith wrote a blog post in mid-2014 with suggestions on how to play Eberron without official supplements, and that article indicated he had not started working with WOTC yet on Eberron 5E (but he was confident there would be a 5E Eberron book). He was clearly wanting to get Eberron 'live' in 5E ASAP then.

Remember the first Eberron UA article? It was the first UA article. February 2, 2015. I'm betting they were laying foundation for this book then. In a Nerdarchy Live Chat (#13) interview with Keith Baker in March of 2017, Keith mentioned that this UA article was written with a prior version of 5E in mind - in otherwords, the alpha playtest version. He made it clear that the version in the article was not his work and he was critical of the Warforged from the article.

He also sounded like he was scheduled to work on Eberron, but it was delayed until he had time to work on it and WotC was ready. I'm betting he began earnest development on it soon after that interview.

This new book is his work, but the final Eberron book will be a team effort. For example, Keith mentioned on his site that the artificer is not something he is developing. It is coming from others (likely with his input).

 

[Reynard]

This new book is his work, but the final Eberron book will be a team effort. For example, Keith mentioned on his site that the artificer is not something he is developing. It is coming from others (likely with his input).

Wouldn't it be interesting if the "unofficial" creator written Eberron ended up outselling the official version, when and if that book happens? I don't know how much traffic GMsGuild gets, but it seems like it could not be insignificant if WotC was willing to launch Eberron there.

 

[Gradine]

Everything I've heard is the that hardcover Eberron and the Wayfarer's Guide are written explicitly as companions to one another. Some mechanical stuff will likely be present in both but they're specifically being crafted so that fans would have plenty of reasons to want to own both. I'd guess this is a big part of the reason why, for instance, the Wayfarer's Guide has no monsters.

 

[Cyber-Dave]

Personally, I think the Wayfinder's guide is both dripping with business savvy and is good for the game's intellectual property. I have no issues. I already voted with my wallet.

 

[Jester David]

Keep in mind, though, that the fact that a 'living PDF' exists on the DMs Guild doesn't pre-empt the publication of a hardcover Eberron book, which will likely contain duplicate info to the PDF, specifically the race and class information.

And yes, Mearls has stated this explicitly. So buying the PDF basically is paying for 'early access'. You decide if that's something you want to support.

--
Pauper

I read Mearls’ statement that they will avoid reprinting. It will complement rather than replace.
I imagine if people pay for the PDF and the PoD they’ll be pissed off if asked to buy a hardcover with the same content. People complain about being asked to pay twice for digital access for Beyond, asking them to paying for it a third time for print rules would be pushing the fanbase.

 

[Jer]

I read Mearls’ statement that they will avoid reprinting. It will complement rather than replace.
I imagine if people pay for the PDF and the PoD they’ll be pissed off if asked to buy a hardcover with the same content. People complain about being asked to pay twice for digital access for Beyond, asking them to paying for it a third time for print rules would be pushing the fanbase.

They'll complement, but he does specifically say that "races, the artificer, and basic world info" would be shared between the two books. I would think that Dragonmarks would be too, so that would be everything but the Sharn information.

I think that the team probably has good intentions for this, but I can't see many ways that it doesn't end up with a lot of duplication.