Thought on the yearly Core Books

[Warbringer]

It's different... but no way it'll replace complete series, enviornment books, setting books etc... it can't, they need to print more than 3 books a year

I'm hoping they are somehow themed, but that's a dangerous proposition as failure in one book can lead to failure in another.

One for Wizards... if you bring out themed books, ala Stormwreck, bring out supporting dungeon tiles and limited mini sets (even random) to support them. Hell, even an adventure that ties into the new classes/rules being introduced...

I'd love to see real integration between the products.

 

[Ranger REG]

It's different... but no way it'll replace complete series, enviornment books, setting books etc... it can't, they need to print more than 3 books a year

Of the three, it should replace the ridiculously titled Complete book series. That's what the PHB series/sequels should be about, at the very least.

 

[Li Shenron]

This might actually get rid of a problem in 3.5 where all supplements assume that you do NOT have any other supplements and thus make it hard to integrate new ideas like warlock. At the same time, we don't want happened in 2nd edition where the supplements used everything from every supplement and the only way you could run anything is if you owned everything.

It's still hard for me to decide which of the options is better... If I were a heavy-collector, then certainly I would have nothing against books being highly interconnected, because I'd have all of them anyway. But since I pick my purchases, I really dislike buying a book which I know in advance I will not be able to use it all. Connected books work well with heavy gamers, but can be a pain for the "middle gamer" like me.

Probably I would prefer tiers of books or "book trees" : you find the Warlock in Complete Arcane, and then the class will be expanded in CA2 and CA3, but books outside the tree won't have Warlock material. That'd be ok for me, but probably is not good for the publishers.

Maybe a possible solution would be to keep printed supplements separated like in 3.0 (3.5 broke that rule at some point), and then use DDI to release extras that interconnect different books?

 

[vagabundo]

I'd support the setting (fluff) referencing the 3 core books (crunch) for that year. And it should replace the complete books and environmental books too.

If everything is priced right it would be nice, however I could see a problem with release dates. How should the books come? Setting>>PHB>>MM>>DMG???

Currently a setting book is around €40-€50 euro, to buy into the setting completely with the system above (€30 a book) is €120, kinda pricy.

Unless the 3 core books for the year are optional and the setting can be run with the default books.

It all seems kinda flimsy and difficult to manage, I doubt they will do it.

 

[Wepwawet]

I don't like it, as it seems clear to me that default assuption for a module will be that you have all of the "core" books. This will likely make any modules published after the first year unusable for me since I can't imagine that I'll buy more than the 3 main core books.

I also suspect that some of the classes (like druid and bard) are being intentionally withheld so as to increase sales of the new "core books". Sure, there will be 3rd party fixes for druids, bards, etc, but once the "official" versions come out the third party versions will be dropping like flies.

Long live the Piracy LOL

Edit: I mean, I'll probably buy the core books, because I think 4E is worth it. But I'm not willing to keep buying books every year. Mostly because of money, and because I don't want to get flooded in too much extra classes and feats and spells and arghhhhh