Time for a new Players Handbook

[SparqMan]

Did it get them financially lynched? Most people just seem confused about Essentials. I tried explaining it to my players and left them crosseyed.

 

[Mercurius]

I highly doubt WotC will veer away from the Holy Trinity being the core of the D&D line; it is so iconic and sacred--and it just works--that it wouldn't make sense in any way, whether financially or creatively. So I think it is just a matter of time before we see revised versions, at least of the three. What they will not do is advertise them as "4.5"; "Revised" should do nicely, sort of like the 2nd edition black books.

As much as I'd like to see this sooner then later, I wouldn't expect it until 2012, maybe late 2011 at the very earliest. They're going to want to see how Essentials flies, and what errata it accumulates, and even what fixes and tweaks it might need. But you could conceivably release 4E Revised version of the Holy Trinity in 2012 as a kind of halfway point to the edition, with 5E appearing in the 2015-2018 range.

 

[Mercurius]

Did it get them financially lynched?

Nope, well except by the Nerdrage Mob. The funny thing is that despite all the angst about 3.5, it was still wildly successful. Most of us serious-to-hardcore D&Ders actually want a continuous stream of new product and are compulsive buyers. Personally speaking I wouldn't want a new edition every year or two, but I do like to see changes and improvements and would be happy with a new edition of D&D every 5-6 years, with a mid-edition revised version.

Most people just seem confused about Essentials. I tried explaining it to my players and left them crosseyed.

I sometimes wonder if the mystique was intentional, getting folks to wonder: "What is this Essentials? The price point on the Red Box is low so I might as well buy it to find out." So I bought and am left wondering, um, what do I do with it? The later releases will probably be more useful, but the starter box has no utility for me whatsoever, except as an evening's diversion playing through the mock-adventure.

 

[Remathilis]

This is the one spot I think Essentials fails or at least is lying.

Well, that depends on your frame of mind.

We keep hearing that it's not there to replace the core rules but augment them.

...Insofar as people currently playing using the PHB DO NOT need to buy the Essentials Books to keep playing. You can continue to use your PHB-based dwarven fighter with no hitches right next to an essentials dwarven fighter and one won't be inherently more powerful than the other, or that Keep on the Shadowfell won't require extensive re-writing to make it work as an Essentials adventure (unlike say, trying to run Keep on the Borderlands).

The idea is that DDE is the new core, compatible with the old core, that doesn't invalidate the old, it just sets the baseline going forward. Not quite the same as a .5 edition (which invalidated the old core with new books) but definitely is the future jumping on point from here on in.

and we keep hearing that the core rules will be reprinted when the time is right.

They will. If they ever sell out of the core-books AND there is still demand for them. With Essentials out and DDi keeping updated lists, I don't see a pressing need for them except by people who want all the Essentials Updates in their Old PHB.

But if it's a straight reprint, even with errata, wouldn't that be ripping off people who already bought the rule compendium and the various heroes of x?

I assume WotC saw a need to make some changes to 4e and realized they had 3 options: New edition (nerdrage), .5 Edition (nerdrage), or separate-but-equal new core that can be swapped in at the DMs leisure, but we're going to use it going forward. (least nerdrage).

Now the problem is outside of the core classes/powers, there just isnt' enough content in the PHB to make it worth the purchase if you've bought the Essentials books.

Exactly.

If you own the major Essentials releases: (RC + HoFL + HoFK + DMV + MV) your not missing much from the PHB/DMG/MM trilogy. You swap druid for warlord, probably have a few different monsters in the MV, and don't get all the paragon paths/epic destinies (which is probably a good thing, thinking about daggermaster, pitfighter, and demigod). Otherwise, the core three is covered. If you really want the older material, its available but cavaet emptor: its OLD and outdated. Essentials is new hawtness.

 

[xechnao]

They will. If they ever sell out of the core-books AND there is still demand for them.

Which is probably not happening. You have to admit that addressing the matter like this can be considered misleading.

 

[BASHMAN]

They can't do it, for a very simple reason. If they do, it will be 4.5 - and they've invested so much capital into the "we'll never make 4.5 no matter what" that they can't do it, regardless of if it makes sense or not.

 

[scylis]

They already released a version of the PHB1, MM1, and DMG1 updated with the current errata at the time, you know. The Deluxe Editions.

 

[Andramelech]

If they want to do a revised edition that's fine, but you should have the option to still use the old PH with errata, and still be up to date. When they did 3.5 I was looking everywhere for the big errata pdf that would bring my 3.0 book up to 3.5. I thought, there's no way they really expect me to buy a new PH. If they made a new "revised" players handbook, I might buy it just to not have to dick with errata, but if they forced a new edition on me again, I'd do what I did last time, ignore all d&d books that come after the .5 cutoff, and just play .0

 

[xechnao]

They already released a version of the PHB1, MM1, and DMG1 updated with the current errata at the time, you know. The Deluxe Editions.

So? They thought they could sell them. Now and as we go in the future the probability to be able to sell these products shrinks considerably.

EDIT: And we still do not know how successfully compatible the classes will be after we get the full erata. So far, some problems have already been a matter of debade on the forums.

 

[ggroy]

You have to admit that addressing the matter like this can be considered misleading.

Unfortunately there is nothing in the legal code which forbids them from talking about things in this manner.

If talking about things in this manner was illegal, they would not be saying anything at all.