Why re-release 3.5?

[Dannyalcatraz]

I know I'd be interested in 3.5Ed books with the errata included. And yes, I own copies of those 3.X games I listed upthread- including the etc.- but use them almost exclusively for idea mining.

 

[Nellisir]

With the recent reprinting of the 1e core rulebooks and now the reprinting of the 3.5 core rulebooks (and possibly some other books as well!) WotC seems to be firing a direct warning shot over the bows of two of the three non-current edition player blocks that they are going to really try and get their attention again.

I'm not sure how to directly "attack" the Pathfinder player base, but then again, the relationship between fans of Pathfinder and 3.5 is probably fairly complex.

Yeah, as I said (in a different thread, somewhere, a few months ago), this is a straight up shot at the Pathfinder crowd. It's less, i think to "pull" them away from PF immediately, and more to get them looking at WotC's release schedule again.
I'll expect to see, probably a few months before DDN comes out, comprehensive rules on playing 3e or 1e "style" (and probably 2e as well; anyone want to put money on seeing those books reprinted this coming spring?) using the D&D Next ruleset.

 

[delericho]

These books will sell and sell well. My guess is that we see a re-release of the 2E FR gray box next, followed by 1E modules.

That's a good call.

My guesses (in order) would be:

Rules Cyclopedia
The B/X boxed sets, or perhaps the BECMI Red Box. (Probably with B/X compiled into a single release.)

I would hope for a compilation of many of those classic modules - they're probably not worth doing as individual releases, but one box containing a dozen or so adventures could well be worthwhile.

Incidentally, that FR Grey Box predates 2nd Edition.

 

[Jiggawatts]

My question, why is 2E being snubbed?

2E was my start to D&D, we played it as our main game for 8 years before switching to 3.5 (and still play it from time to time now). I bought the 1E reprints, I will by 2E reprints, I will not be buying the 3.5 reprints (we all play PF, absolutely no need).

 

[Ahnehnois]

Yeah- and I feel much the same about the other upper-echelon 3.X games like Arcana Evolved, True20, Midnight 2Ed, etc.

I feel it's important to point these things out because I've read a lot of stuff lately to the effect that people still playing 3e D&D are afraid of change or are set in their ways or are unwilling to spend money on rpgs (and thus somehow don't "count" as rpg consumers). Most people are playing what they like because they like it, and there is nothing on the market that represents a clear "upgrade" for them.

My question, why is 2E being snubbed?

Agreed. I also started out on 2e, but never owned any of the books. If they were available, I'd check them out.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My question, why is 2E being snubbed?

Who says it is? WotC doesn't announce things very far in advance and releasing the editions chronologically doesn't really make sense, financially, since 2E was a lot less popular than either 1E or 3E.

(And don't mistake personal nostalgia for how everyone feels about 2E: I was here when 3E was announced and, as opposed to the 4E and 5E announcements, there was almost universal agreement that 2E needed to be taken out into a field and shot.)

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

My question, why is 2E being snubbed?

Well, if I've heard correctly, their ENTIRE back catalog will be made available in digital form again. So far, of physical reprints they have done 1E (with the honorable, albeit arguably token gesture of donating part of the proceeds to the Gygax statue) and now announced they will reprint 3.5.

Where is there indication 2E is being SNUBBED? Why have they not announced reprints of the LBBs? Why not the Rules Cyclopedia? Pick ANY version that is not 1E or 3.5 and by your criteria they're being SNUBBED.

Just because they haven't announced anything else doesn't mean it won't happen. Just because they might pick one edition before others doesn't equate to glorification of one over another. Any such choice almost certainly has everything to do with sorting out legalities first, followed by the costs and effort of preparing new prints versus expected sales. 2E would no doubt require completely resetting the whole books just as with 1E. Even if it doesn't happen you're assigning motivations to their lack of current actions which at best is precipitate and unsupportable.

As has been suggested by others I think all of this release in various forms of older material is likely directly related to the announcement of 5E not being released for another 2 years. It will have SOME bearing on how 5E is ultimately received but it also means they are nursing it as a revenue stream. And I would emphasize the word "stream". They don't want to just dump four different sets of reprints of old versions of the game onto the market at once. They want to announce a given reprinted version, build some anticipation for reception of that version, release it and let the inevitably limited sales of it run their course, then announce the NEXT release.

I know that there ARE a lot of 2E fans out there. Of all the "old school" users I think they are the quietest. They're a big percentage but they're just not as vocal, not the forum-active champions of their version that devotees of the other versions are. If I had to guess I'd say that they were almost trained to keep quiet. Upon its release 2E faced detractors complaining about it being dumbed down and bowing to political correctness (which was not entirely unwarranted...) and later on most definitely took hits for the uncontrolled bloat. This all in addition to legitimate complaints that any edition must face for straight-forward failings and errors in the rules, and at a time when the platforms for building and maintaining a "sub-community" were fractured and undeveloped.

Why 3.5 and not some other version? Because those books are in a format which can, with minimal work, simply be handed to ANY publisher with an order for X-thousand copies, and expect that those copies will all sell just as predicted, the revenue pocketed, even while work begins/continues on the next version to be reprinted - even if UNANNOUNCED.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Where is there indication 2E is being SNUBBED?

While I don't agree that it is, the inference is obvious enough- "1Ed books reprinted, 3.5Ed books reprinted...HEY, why'd they skip the 2Ed stuff?!?!"

(And because my mind works this way, I wouldn't be surprised to see WotC monitoring sales of the legacy reprints & 4Ed as a parallel source of data for pointers on how to design 5Ed.)

 

[Nellisir]

(And don't mistake personal nostalgia for how everyone feels about 2E: I was here when 3E was announced and, as opposed to the 4E and 5E announcements, there was almost universal agreement that 2E needed to be taken out into a field and shot.)

If by "here" you mean in the hall at Gen Con...do you still have the shirt? I love the shirt.

And yeah, I love 2e, but it was time for a change. My houserules were starting to rival the 2e PH in size.

 

[Nellisir]

I expect 2e and the RC will both have their turn. I doubt PO will, but I suppose it's possible.