The Actual Table of Contents for Xanathar's Guide to Everything

A lot of good stuff there.

Of course, on the DM side, a lot of stuff is not there, but I like what I see.

Actually, one of the most useful things will be the appendix of sample names.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

It seems that of all the countless RPGs out there to choose from, you are playing (or, at least, participating in the forums of) one that you intensely dislike....

I won't speak for anyone else but in many ways I clearly love the game, though there are things I find frustrating. I've played it since the early '80s when I was a kid, off and on. Right now some version of D&D is all I play (a bit frustratedly as I'd like to play some other things). The issue is that one needs to get a group together and D&D is undoubtedly the easiest thing to get together with.

I don't much like the publisher's behavior. Loving the game isn't loving the publisher.

I totally recognize that the publisher needs to make money. Some repeated content is OK. In fact, 1E had quite a bit. The PHB, DMG, etc., all were essentially collections of Dragon articles with some added content. MM2 collected a lot of monsters that were in modules already. Content dumping is a problem, too, so I get the desire to avoid doing that. It creates a lot of fratricidal competition and market fragmentation among the publisher's own offerings. What I don't like about the current publication model is that they seem to have done a 180 turn away from publishing nearly anything. No Dragon or Dungeon, for instance. Pretty much the entire model is turning towards WotC generating little new content at all and just figuring out how to license what they've already written.

 

[Parmandur]

Go check the the 3e PHBs. They had already learned how to write good spells lists, nobody understood how did they forget it when designing the 5e PHB.

They probably found in surveys that more people prefer straight alphabetical order is Timon: easier to find quickly in play.

 

[Kobold Boots]

This is where you went wrong.

Perhaps so. But that type of DM does exist.

 

[Kobold Boots]

easier to find quickly in play.

Bingo. It helps game play dramatically and slows down character generation.

 

[DM Howard]

What I don't like about the current publication model is that they seem to have done a 180 turn away from publishing nearly anything. No Dragon or Dungeon, for instance. Pretty much the entire model is turning towards WotC generating little new content at all and just figuring out how to license what they've already written.

I'd definitely agree with you here, WoTC has turned into being a brand manager rather than a brand producer. I'd be very happy with the current release schedule if they put out a Dungeon and Dragon magazine on alternating months, but as it stands they are leaving it to their customers to generate content and taking a nice cut on top of it. That's brand licensing if I ever saw it.

 

[jmucchiello]

Edit: Never mind, they figured it out.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I won't speak for anyone else but in many ways I clearly love the game, though there are things I find frustrating. I've played it since the early '80s when I was a kid, off and on. Right now some version of D&D is all I play (a bit frustratedly as I'd like to play some other things). The issue is that one needs to get a group together and D&D is undoubtedly the easiest thing to get together with.

I don't much like the publisher's behavior. Loving the game isn't loving the publisher.

I totally recognize that the publisher needs to make money. Some repeated content is OK. In fact, 1E had quite a bit. The PHB, DMG, etc., all were essentially collections of Dragon articles with some added content. MM2 collected a lot of monsters that were in modules already. Content dumping is a problem, too, so I get the desire to avoid doing that. It creates a lot of fratricidal competition and market fragmentation among the publisher's own offerings. What I don't like about the current publication model is that they seem to have done a 180 turn away from publishing nearly anything. No Dragon or Dungeon, for instance. Pretty much the entire model is turning towards WotC generating little new content at all and just figuring out how to license what they've already written.

Fair 'nuff.

 

[Parmandur]

Bingo. It helps game play dramatically and slows down character generation.

Ideally, one spends more time playing characters than building them

 

[Parmandur]

I'd definitely agree with you here, WoTC has turned into being a brand manager rather than a brand producer. I'd be very happy with the current release schedule if they put out a Dungeon and Dragon magazine on alternating months, but as it stands they are leaving it to their customers to generate content and taking a nice cut on top of it. That's brand licensing if I ever saw it.

Isn't that largely what Dragon/Dungeon we're, though? Not much different from DMs Guild.

 

[Parmandur]

I won't speak for anyone else but in many ways I clearly love the game, though there are things I find frustrating. I've played it since the early '80s when I was a kid, off and on. Right now some version of D&D is all I play (a bit frustratedly as I'd like to play some other things). The issue is that one needs to get a group together and D&D is undoubtedly the easiest thing to get together with.

I don't much like the publisher's behavior. Loving the game isn't loving the publisher.

I totally recognize that the publisher needs to make money. Some repeated content is OK. In fact, 1E had quite a bit. The PHB, DMG, etc., all were essentially collections of Dragon articles with some added content. MM2 collected a lot of monsters that were in modules already. Content dumping is a problem, too, so I get the desire to avoid doing that. It creates a lot of fratricidal competition and market fragmentation among the publisher's own offerings. What I don't like about the current publication model is that they seem to have done a 180 turn away from publishing nearly anything. No Dragon or Dungeon, for instance. Pretty much the entire model is turning towards WotC generating little new content at all and just figuring out how to license what they've already written.

One of my favorite parts of their current publication strategy is how little of it they are doing: I've bought as many D&D books this year (2) as I did from the time I started gaming till 2014, and it looks like I will go 50% past that number. I can keep up now, and it's great. A few reprinted pages is no biggie to me.