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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 6990099" data-attributes="member: 59082">This is a good point and I admit to forgetting about that, but the reason I forget is that A) I'm not part of AL, and B) I don't buy PDFs as I simply dislike electronic reading and/or greatly prefer books. Of course I can do POD...Yeah, sounds about right. I woudn't be surprised if at some point within the next couple years, they do a fourth book that is akin to an expansion: maybe a new setting book, for instance, that opens up a new world. But we shall see.It makes me wonder how many copies of earlier story arcs they're still selling. I guess the best estimate is by looking at Amazon sales ranks. Here are the 5E D&D products in order of sales rank within D&D, with their current sales rank overall in all books:1. Player's Handbook #66 in books2. Volo's Guide #1783. DMG #2124. Monster Manual #2175. Starter Set #8076. Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide #18817. DM Screen #30018. Storm King's Thunder #34659. Curse of Strahd #378810. Hoard of the Dragon Queen #554411. Princes of the Apocalypse #624012. Out of the Abyss #896913. The Rise of Tiamat #9400Now we can't glean detailed info from that, but it does tell us some important things. One, the core three are still selling incredibly well after two and a half years, and the Starter Set seems to be selling pretty well too. I'm a bit surprised to see the Sword Coast selling above and beyond all of the story arcs. I'm also a bit surprised to see Storm King's Thunder fall back with the pack so quickly...its only been out a few months. I wonder what it looked like within a month of coming out.Volo's is selling well, but what remains to be seen is whether it sticks around as another "core book" (so to speak) or dwindles away like the story arcs.Anyhow, looking at this list it really makes me think that an expansion book is imminent. I mean, they core books are selling so well, so why not add a fourth core book? Wouldn't an Unearthed Arcana/PHB 2 (by whatever name) have at least the potential to be another perennial big seller? And if Sword Coast is holding up better than the story arcs, why not do more setting books?What I find interesting with this statement is the phrase "keep up," as if D&D books are collectible items that one must keep up with. Maybe that is how most feel, but does it have to be that way? Do we need to keep up and have a complete set? And a further question: Does producing more books negatively impact sales of core books? I think one of the valid arguments that people who want more product make (I'm not talking about the minimalist plus types like myself, but the folks who want 2E-4E style glut) is that you don't need to buy everything, just buy what appeals to you. I would argue that, at the least, there's room for more without glutting the market or overwhelming anyone.I think a lot of folks do buy books to collect/read.The other side of this is that Pathfinder seems to be doing just fine with their glut, and after 8ish years. So it might simply be a stylistic thing: how you want the brand to look in terms of output?It does seem that WotC is taking an approach similar to board games, with story arcs instead of expansions. Now of course the difference is that expansions tend to augment the core board game, whereas story arcs don't really have re-play value. The Sword Coast book and Volo's Guide are the only books they've produced since the core three that have more of a true expansion quality, and presumably the "mechanical expansion" coming out later this year (maybe) would do that in a major way.So maybe they're thinking:Two story arcs per yearOne minor expansion per yearOne major expansion per three yearsThat makes sense to me.</blockquote>

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