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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AmerginLiath" data-source="post: 7657553" data-attributes="member: 777">Publishing projects being cancelled before any announcement – or changed from printed books into online materials with a change of formatting – is de rigeur, regardless of the industry. Some of that comes from the author's end in terms of how material is written or compiled, while some comes from market research in how sales or use is expected. Now, I'm accustomed to it from a textbook perspective from work (probably a quarter of my illustrator work in some years is either prospective work for cancelled projects or else work held over to be rolled into later combined books/online supplements, given how paper costs have risen), but roleplaying books are surprisingly textbook-like in their production and use (compared to, say, novel publishing).I'd guess that the costs involved needed a 160-page hardcover and they realized they couldn't put together as mechanically-complete a 160-pager on an Elemental theme that would be worth the price for the consumer. Therefore, releasing the core material within the adventure path and online allows them get what they want out there out there (expanding the game resources) while letting them take what's remaining and rework/expand it for future use. I've said before that there are certain timeframes that a publisher wants a book or books to exist in their current state in (before new editions are released, or in this case before new physical splatbooks that appear at least pseudo-core are released). Given the sense that 5e has of bringing in new players or bringing back lapsed players, having a longer period of less non-adventure books on the shelf (even with more material accessible online for those who wish to download it) makes for less "buy-in" for a project that already has a three-book base. It's the same reason that more of the textbook projects that I'm seeing are becoming smaller but with online or CD/DVD supplements so as to appear more easily accessible for a purchasing agent...</blockquote>

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