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."

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You shouldn't forget now WotC themself is going to publish the translated editions in other languanges.

 

[Older Beholder]

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[Demetrios1453]

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.

They've staggered the release in every edition.

 

[Parmandur]

Honestly, if Tasha's did sell that well, I'm genuine surprised that WotC hasn't released more general 'of Everything' sourcebooks. I know they've got a deliberate strategy of keeping the number of subclasses, feats etc under control to try to avoid the 3e trap of option paralysis and broken optimisation builds, but the sort of money represented must have been reeeeal tempting.

They have a schedule with a big fat update about every 3.33333 years, the new Core books are the followup to Xanathar's and Tasha's.

 

[Parmandur]

was there scalping for past editions?

Doubtful.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Doubtful.

There's only usually "scalping" on D&D after a book goes out of print. So usually when a new edition comes out. (If by scalping you mean buying up available stock and reselling it at a markup).

It wouldn't work here - they're not going to release a limited run of one of the books (and even if they did, it would be followed quickly by a mass release) they are just going to stagger the books so the core three come out (presumably) one month after the other.

 

[Vincent55]

bragging about how big the run is, lol Like many haven't heard that one before, lol

 

[Plageman]

I'm not concerned about staggered release, I'm concerned about book-to-book incoherent content. Because the MM book will take 6-9 month more time to be released and will see it's content change evolve, making the first in the line, the PHB, need to be corrected to stay consistent.

But to be honest my main concern is not the 3 core books, it's the other release who have been subpar for the last couple of years. tbh I moved away from WotC products for anything else but the PHB, and with all the new 5e flavors being around in 2024 I'm not sure about switching to 5.5e... It will need to be -real- good.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

In the early days of 5e, Mike Mearls said they figured out that the large number of books published in previous editions was not something profitable and that they would do it differently this time. It has nothing to do with the alleged incapacity of printers to print their books.

Which does not contradict what I wrote. My observation is that the print runs are a conformation of the greater profitability of the publish less model.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

You know who else printed lots of books?

Publishing a lot of titles is not the same as printing a lot of books of a given title. Also WoTC does not (as pointed out in the linked article, operate on a "No Sale - Return" model.