D&D 5E The Printers Can't Handle WotC's One D&D Print Runs!

One of the reasons why the three new core rulebooks next year will not be released together is because D&D is such a juggernaut that the printers can't actually handle the size of the print runs!

Jeremy Crawford told Polygon "Our print runs are pretty darn big and printers are telling us you can’t give us these three books at the same time.” And Chris Perkins added that "The print runs we’re talking about are massive. That’s been not only true of the core books, but also Tasha’s Cauldron. It’s what we call a high-end problem."

 

[Incenjucar]

I wonder if we'll see scalping.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They are behind schedule on the design front and need the extra time to actually write the new MM and DMG. They save face by framing it as a printing problem, not a product development problem.

That sounds reasonable.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I wonder if we'll see scalping.

In what sense?

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

That sounds reasonable.

Not really IMO.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Possibly, though I doubt it saves them any face or that they really care about that.

They did the same thing, staggered core books release dates, in 2014 and didn’t blame it on printer issues. I don’t think your hypothesis holds much water really.

You don't think WotC cares about their image?

 

[Incenjucar]

In what sense?

People buying up a bunch of books off Amazon to sell for double. Everything sufficiently limited and in demand gets scalped these days.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

You don't think WotC cares about their image?

I don’t think a staggered release date, whatever the reason, does anything to hurt their image. They were fine with a staggered release date in 2014 because of books not being done, why would that change now?

Also, I don’t think the idea of “loosing face” is such a big deal for them. The whole OGL debacle should have made that clear

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

People buying up a bunch of books off Amazon to sell for double. Everything sufficiently limited and in demand gets scalped these days.

So you are assuming limited supply and lots of demand. I guess that is possible, but I think part of the point of a staggered release date is avoid a lack of supply. So scalping seems unlikely under that scenario to me.

 

[darjr]

Conspiracy theories about this? Really? wow.

 

[Parmandur]

Possibly, though I doubt it saves them any face or that they really care about that.

They did the same thing, staggered core books release dates, in 2014 and didn’t blame it on printer issues. I don’t think your hypothesis holds much water really.

I mean, TSR and WotC have staggerd the core books for juat about every Edition.