Wild Speculation: Player's Handbook Revised

[interwyrm]

I don't think it's going to change without some essentialization to the classes.

Marks, curses, and quarries are so much of a needless PITA that if those classes get reprinted, I'd expect them to be reworked into the essentials defender aura and essentials striker damage bonus.

The only defender that actually makes sense for a mark is the swordmage.

 

[Primal]

It's not like WotC is ignoring those who don't subscribe. You still get book releases, and, save Dragon/Dungeon material, you can get everything 4e has to offer (material-wise) without a subscription just by buying the books.

That said, it does seem a little silly to ask for these things, get pointed towards a comprehensive, extremely affordable way to get all those things, and to reject it because it's not printed on paper.

Why would it be silly? I don't use a computer when I'm DMing, so any purely digital content would have to be printed out anyway, and that's not cheap in the long run. Add the cost for DDI; I'm not comfortable with paying for temporary access to material, nor for PDFs (because I don't think DDI will be around forever). I want books that I can use, even after 20 or 30 years. For example, I could just dig out my original red box and still run Basic D&D adventures if I feel like it; I highly doubt I would be able to do the same with DDI in year 2028. And I doubt PDFs will do me any good, because I'm fairly sure file formats will evolve and change; will Adobe Acrobat still be supported in the future?

 

[Dannager]

Why would it be silly? I don't use a computer when I'm DMing, so any purely digital content would have to be printed out anyway, and that's not cheap in the long run.

Oh, sorry, that's true. If you don't DM with a computer in front of you, I can see digital support being significantly less useful.

That said, plopping my netbook down behind the DM's screen was the third best decision I've ever made for my DMing, right behind subscribing to DDI and having a can of Monster at the table.

Add the cost for DDI; I'm not comfortable with paying for temporary access to material, nor for PDFs (because I don't think DDI will be around forever). I want books that I can use, even after 20 or 30 years. For example, I could just dig out my original red box and still run Basic D&D adventures if I feel like it; I highly doubt I would be able to do the same with DDI in year 2028. And I doubt PDFs will do me any good, because I'm fairly sure file formats will evolve and change; will Adobe Acrobat still be supported in the future?

Thirty years from now, there will still be a way to view PDFs on whatever your computer looks like at that point in time. The PDF file format is about as widely-used and long-lived as a proprietary file format ever gets.

 

[Primal]

Oh, sorry, that's true. If you don't DM with a computer in front of you, I can see digital support being significantly less useful.

That said, plopping my netbook down behind the DM's screen was the third best decision I've ever made for my DMing, right behind subscribing to DDI and having a can of Monster at the table.

I'm still a bit leery about "digital DMing"; computers surely help, but IME using digital resources only can be problematic. For example, in one the groups I gamed with we had MapTools totally crash on us, and we had to keep going without a map; not even the DM could see it, and he didn't have a printed copy of it. And usually most of the DMs put less effort into digital maps than hand-drawn ones, at least the DMs I know. Although I might write my adventures on computer (and print them out), I still prefer books, minis and gorgeous dungeon tiles at my table.

Thirty years from now, there will still be a way to view PDFs on whatever your computer looks like at that point in time. The PDF file format is about as widely-used and long-lived as a proprietary file format ever gets.

I'm not so sure about that; formats come and go, even ones that were popular at some point of time. I think it depends a lot on which kind of e-book readers we will have in the future, and which formats the manufacturers and publishers want to support. As far as I know, not every reader supports PDF format even now; why would it be surprising if better and/or more popular file formats (for whatever reasons) replace it in five or ten years? And even though you could still read it on your computer, there might be e-readers or other handheld gear that have replaced laptops for trendy DMs, so you won't be able to read PDFs when running the game.

But it's all speculation on my part, and it is true that at the moment PDF is a widespread, hugely popular file format.

 

[DNH]

There have been various indicators that at some point both an adv PHB and DMG were considred.

Citations, please. Not being confrontational here, just interested.

Thanks.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Thirty years from now, there will still be a way to view PDFs on whatever your computer looks like at that point in time. The PDF file format is about as widely-used and long-lived as a proprietary file format ever gets.

The best I can say to this is maybe. PDFs are good, granted, but are also huge files. And a proprietary format, which means it could be changed at any time.

 

[WalterKovacs]

The big thing standing in the way of a revised PHB is the PHBs still sitting around. If they were to put out a new book, not only are they spending the time/effort to do all the work on making the new book (formatting, editting, updating, art, etc), and the cost of making books (printing, shipping, etc). They are also essentially (no pun intended) giving up on ever selling more copies of the original PHB (and probably a few other books, like the PHB2 if they are taking many of the classes and races from that book ... and if they are including builds from Martial Power, Arcane Power and Primal Power? Say goodbye to those book sales as well). Creating a book that is mostly redundant AND up to date information would basically kill any potential to sell the older books. Any books that WOTC is still sitting on, they'd pretty much need to just destroy, since storing them would be more costly with no intent to sell. And any store holding on to those books would either send them back, or feel foolish trying to sell a product that is inferior to the new product, not just in how much content it has, but that it's out of date.

Ultimately, the books would only be a good idea if the potential revenue is enough to not just offset the cost of the book itself (Which is, say, how Paizo would have settled on their massive book) but ALSO have to factor in the extra costs involved with obsoleting a lot of their older books which they are probaby still sitting on. They aren't the movie business, able to release a barebones DVD, and follow it up with the extended cut a year later in the hopes of hitting the same people twice. Their audience is small enough where trying to sell the same thing repackaged is rarely going to work. (There are some exceptions, the Spell Compendium and Rules Compendium from 3.5, and in the latter case 4e as well, are examples where they take a portion of content from a lot of books and put them into a single book. Those were useful enough that even someone who had purchased all those other books would want them, because they were useful for reference, but the original books would still be necessary if you wanted access to feats, classes, etc.)