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<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 6578284" data-attributes="member: 3586">For D&amp;D AL purposes, yes. They announced this plan to combat bloat back about 8-9 months ago, but it's very likely that people who don't participate in D&amp;D AL play wouldn't know about it.And bloat is very much on Mike Mearls' mind. The general thinking about D&amp;D has been &quot;more is better&quot;, which proved to not work exceptionally well for AD&amp;D 2E. (Really, the finances of TSR were such a mess at that time - there were a number of products that cost more to make than they'd make back. Boxed sets in particular, but I think there was no way they could even break even on the Encyclopedia Magica!)In fact, at the beginning of 3E, Ryan Dancey had a plan where D&amp;D was basically just the core books with only a few supplements (like Sword &amp; Fist). You can see it in the initial release schedule. Unfortunately, Wizards had blundered: they'd described D&amp;D as a Magic-like line which could easily make $50 million+ profit per year. (<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?315975-WotC-DDI-4E-and-Hasbro-Some-History" target="_blank">see here</a>). And, with Ryan Dancey moving on, the light-D&amp;D schedule got retooled into more and more products... and the release of 3.5E when it became apparent that they needed something more to get close to that $50m figure.There's been a big change in how D&amp;D is handled at Wizards. Most of it is now being licensed out (and Wizards have regretted for years the decisions that both TSR and Hasbro made with regard to the movie and computer game rights, which stripped them of a lot of potential revenue). Meanwhile, they're observing the market very carefully to see the reaction to the few books they do release. They want a new release to be something significant and not just something which you put on the shelf and don't have time to read.I've seen Mike talk about how he'd like a Greyhawk campaign setting book and a Forgotten Realms book, but - with the experiences of both the 3E and 4E settings - I think they're rightfully cautious about how to approach it.Cheers!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 6578284, member: 3586"] For D&D AL purposes, yes. They announced this plan to combat bloat back about 8-9 months ago, but it's very likely that people who don't participate in D&D AL play wouldn't know about it. And bloat is very much on Mike Mearls' mind. The general thinking about D&D has been "more is better", which proved to not work exceptionally well for AD&D 2E. (Really, the finances of TSR were such a mess at that time - there were a number of products that cost more to make than they'd make back. Boxed sets in particular, but I think there was no way they could even break even on the Encyclopedia Magica!) In fact, at the beginning of 3E, Ryan Dancey had a plan where D&D was basically just the core books with only a few supplements (like Sword & Fist). You can see it in the initial release schedule. Unfortunately, Wizards had blundered: they'd described D&D as a Magic-like line which could easily make $50 million+ profit per year. ([url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?315975-WotC-DDI-4E-and-Hasbro-Some-History]see here[/url]). And, with Ryan Dancey moving on, the light-D&D schedule got retooled into more and more products... and the release of 3.5E when it became apparent that they needed something more to get close to that $50m figure. There's been a big change in how D&D is handled at Wizards. Most of it is now being licensed out (and Wizards have regretted for years the decisions that both TSR and Hasbro made with regard to the movie and computer game rights, which stripped them of a lot of potential revenue). Meanwhile, they're observing the market very carefully to see the reaction to the few books they do release. They want a new release to be something significant and not just something which you put on the shelf and don't have time to read. I've seen Mike talk about how he'd like a Greyhawk campaign setting book and a Forgotten Realms book, but - with the experiences of both the 3E and 4E settings - I think they're rightfully cautious about how to approach it. Cheers! [/QUOTE]

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