D&D 5E With the release of each new setting book, the SCAG looks worse and worse...

[Parmandur]

ten years ago, even 6 years ago, there would be pitchforks and torches for expecting people to buy a fifty dollar book for 10 pages of rules content! Now everyone is like “I will eat that other 48 dollars and like it”. that’s one reason Xanathar is a good book, it reprints stuff from the adventures or online resources as well as having new stuff in it. It’s a win for DMs who don’t want to buy adventures but would like to have that stuff. I’d love to see them take those 30-40 page parts of the adventures about the region like Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate and put out a 50 dollar hardback that also has new stuff in it as well for those who don’t want Avernus or Dragonheist and make it available in a print form from the FLGS and not just pdf and POD sites. Support the local stores man. It’s Not that hard and the material is already there.

Releasing extraneous books that undermine other books in the stores won't help local stores, which still sell Avernus and Dragon Heist.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I admit that I am privilagge to be interested in approximately 80+90% of every book released so far, except for Acquisitions Incorporated.

But WotC has made elements such as the Waterdeep Enchiridion available in other formats at reasonable prices. The prices WotC is charging for the page count and production quality are reasonable by publishing industry standards.

In support of your point, D&D Beyond, you can buy the content you want for significantly less than $50.

 

[Parmandur]

In support of your point, D&D Beyond, you can buy the content you want for significantly less than $50.

Exactly: while I appreciate the desire for hardcover books (looking at my wall of D&D books), if the full hardcovers don't appeal, but WotC has made sure to offer an affordable a la carte options...what more could they do?

 

[BrokenTwin]

...

But WotC has made elements such as the Waterdeep Enchiridion available in other formats at reasonable prices. The prices WotC is charging for the page count and production quality are reasonable by publishing industry standards.

Oh, I fully agree that the books as a whole are worth the price WotC charges for them. Their production quality is second to none in the industry. I just understand why some people think they're not worth the price when the amount of content they actually want is only a small portion of the book. Especially for people coming from the 3.x era, where there were tons of crunch heavy books to pick and chose from.

(For the record, I am NOT advocating a return to that publishing style. Even if I did want it, I don't think 5e could survive that level of official crunch.)

 

[Parmandur]

Oh, I fully agree that the books as a whole are worth the price WotC charges for them. Their production quality is second to none in the industry. I just understand why some people think they're not worth the price when the amount of content they actually want is only a small portion of the book. Especially for people coming from the 3.x era, where there were tons of crunch heavy books to pick and chose from.

(For the record, I am NOT advocating a return to that publishing style. Even if I did want it, I don't think 5e could survive that level of official crunch.)

And I don't think anyone has to buy these products if they aren't interested in the contents: but WotC has bent over backwards to offer options.

 

[BrokenTwin]

And I don't think anyone has to buy these products if they aren't interested in the contents: but WotC has bent over backwards to offer options.

They've certainly improved from their earlier years of digital offerings, that's for sure. Personally, the fluff to mechanics ratio is about what I'd expect from the mechanical density of 5e. If I had any real gripe with their publications so far, it would be that they're not offering a lot in the way of shorter campaigns. Same issue I have with Paizo's Adventure Paths. Interesting premises, but way too much padding to fill out the level range. Curse of Strahd is probably my favorite book from this edition so far, even with its lack of real player crunch.

 

[teitan]

Releasing extraneous books that undermine other books in the stores won't help local stores, which still sell Avernus and Dragon Heist.

Didn't hurt them when Xanathar came out.

 

[teitan]

Exactly: while I appreciate the desire for hardcover books (looking at my wall of D&D books), if the full hardcovers don't appeal, but WotC has made sure to offer an affordable a la carte options...what more could they do?

It doesn't help those that do not use D&D Beyond or don't/can't use a tablet or computer screen and yes they do exist.

 

[teitan]

I would love to see WOTC do smaller adventures for sure. Small cost staple bound books are not that expensive to produce. I know, everyone is going to say "DMSguild" but that doesn't support GAME STORES. We used to be a culture all about supporting the FLGS, what happened to that? I just don't see a lot of that on these boards anymore. It's really sad to me.

 

[The Green Hermit]

It doesn't help those that do not use D&D Beyond or don't/can't use a tablet or computer screen and yes they do exist.

You can print them out. That is what I usually do, and then hole-punch them and put them in a binder.

I do much prefer the real books, though, hardcover or softcover.