Why is being "in print" important?

[Dice4Hire]

If I can find players for an out of print book, then no problems, but usually it is. Most put of print rulesets are pretty obscure, and get more obscure, tough D&D is an exception to this. Everyone knows D&D.

Trying to find old rules is just difficult.

 

[steeldragons]

"In print" does not require an outlet or battery that will eventually loose its charge.

Also, regardless of one's available technological capabilities, some people just like/prefer having actual hard copy in their hands.

(That said, I play pretty much only out of print versions of D&D. But I still have my hard copies from ages past.)

--SD

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

If I can find players for an out of print book, then no problems, but usually it is. Most put of print rulesets are pretty obscure, and get more obscure, tough D&D is an exception to this. Everyone knows D&D.

Trying to find old rules is just difficult.

Only if you want the white box OD&D from 1974. All other AD&D/D&D rulesets are easily available (though 3.5 books apparently are pricey on the used market).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Available player pool, current support from the company, additional support by way of articles or regular discussion from third parties, etc., IMO.

Player pool is the big one for me. "Well, go look on eBay for a few weeks and keep an eye on Noble Knight" does not a healthy pool of players make.

On this note: WotC, take a cue from White Wolf, and put your OOP books online already. It won't kill 4E if I'm able to get the 1E Monster Manual 2 in PDF form.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

"In-print" might just mean "new" to some people.

"New" books will hopefully fix mistakes in previous books. While C&C isn't my cup of tea, it's a lot closer to that than 2e was.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Mostly it has to do with getting new players or teaching new players who want to have a book just like the other guys (or mom, dad, uncle Joe, aunt Julie or whatever).

It makes it easier if every player has at least a copy of a player's guide. If it's OOP, and you have one copy for 6 players, it gets a little tedious after about two sessions. Kind of like having one set of dice for EVERYONE at the table to use, GM and player's alike. While there is no bias, what happens when the cat eats the d4 (other than a horrific BM and vet bill later)?

I know I assume most player who want to play an older version are in established groups, but having moved back home to the middle of nowhere, I came to the stunning reality, that players are hard to find in the first place.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Oh! And if it's in print, you don't loose it when your hard drive crashes...

This is particularly funny for me. My hard drive died a couple months ago taking the offline CB and MB with it.

Next week I'm starting up a 1E AD&D game. I will no longer bother running any TTRP that is a nightmare to prep for without software. It will be better for my overall sanity.

 

[The Shaman]

I'm inclined to say player pool as well, but my tastes in roleplaying games tend to run pretty far outside the mainstream, so finding players is a chore for me either way.

That said, that's the only reason, as far as I'm concerned. I've no problem writing my own material.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

For me, it is solely a question of whether or not the players need the rulebook for us to enjoy playing. My criteria for that condition, however, is probably not the same as most DMs.

The players in our group have no problem playing pregens characters, for example. So if I want to whip up a game of Dragon Quest, then it won't matter that I've got one, out of print, copy of the rules. I'll hand out pregens, and we'll learn as we go.

It's really kind of odd with us, because the simpler the rules are, the more likely the players will want to read them/monkey with characters themselves. So they are more likely to want their own copy, unless it is something as simple as Toon.

Naturally, how much "looking up stuff at the table" is required, affects this too. I'd be more likely, for example, to run out of print, with one copy, of D&D 4E than 3E, simply because with 4E I'm going to bother to get "powers" onto cards anyway, even without the online CB, but I'd hate to do that with 3E spells into the middle levels. And I could run Burning Wheel just fine with one copy of the rules, if we had about three copies of the character burner.

 

[Votan]

I think that it depends (at least a little bit) on the emphasis of the game. A game that has a complex character generation system (like late 3rd edition D&D) would be difficult to recruit players to (if everyone did not already have a copy of the rulebooks). I would also worry about damaging vintage game books that I care a lot about -- this would be especially true of softcover games where wear and tear is a major issue.

So I would prefer Pathfinder to 3.5E, right now.

I think it is fine if online copies of the game exist (as legal PDFs, for example) as those can be printed as play copies (I find PDF gaming books on a laptop to be hard to read due to the screen size and the need to keep scrolling).