[WOTC] Revised Corebooks for July confirmed with info

[Agnostic Paladin]

Yeah, I think the people who's books are dying got them from a bad batch or something. Every book in our group is holding up great, quite the opposite of my old 2nd and basic books. They were all more or less bound and covered with nothing but masking tape by the time I gave up on them (say, 4 or 5 years use. But they were getting loose from their bindings within a year.).

 

[MerakSpielman]

Yeah, I think the people who's books are dying got them from a bad batch or something. Every book in our group is holding up great, quite the opposite of my old 2nd and basic books. They were all more or less bound and covered with nothing but masking tape by the time I gave up on them (say, 4 or 5 years use. But they were getting loose from their bindings within a year.).

I was a victim of the Bad Batch PHBs. Mind disintigrated totally - as in, the cover was no longer attached to the pages. I ended up salvaging it only by hole-punching the pages and sticking them in a binder. I took the PHB cover and put it in the transparent cover of the binder. It's sad, I know, but I wasn't about to go buy another one!

 

[buzz]

I was a victim of the Bad Batch PHBs. Mind disintigrated totally - as in, the cover was no longer attached to the pages.

Didn't WotC offer to replace these for free?

Buzz, who eagerly anticipates the revised core books and thinks naysayers are poopy-heads.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I think a couple people are missing a few things in the description of the book. Classes WILL be changed, WOTC says this in their description of the books. They say to make them more balanced.

People here have been saying "I don't see why anyone would get annoyed over all the errata that we already have being put into a book, don't buy it."

But it ISN'T just errata. There ARE rules changes. I've been trying to think of any way that they could change the classes that would make all of them completely compatable. I can't think of one.

I'm guessing they will only change the Bard and Ranger classes. However, I'm virtually positive that they will change them in a significant way. I REALLY doubt that the changes will be listed online anywhere (MAYBE in the SRD, but who knows). It will be like the SWRCRB. There was a revised Jedi Guardian class. I searched online everywhere to see if I could find details of that new class as it is the ONLY thing I wanted from the revised book. But WOTC didn't have that information anywhere. They had a web enhancement on "converting from the old core rulebook" but it was useless without the revised core rulebook in hand.

I'm worried that the new book will include 2 revised classes, a better description of what already exsists, and all the errata so far. To me, since I've read all the FAQ and every Sage Advice from Dragon and read through the whole errata, I don't really need any clarification. On the other hand, I'll need to know the information on the revised classes as those will become the new standard in all later books. So, in essence, I'll be forced to buy the new PHB just for 2 classes.

I assume they will likely do the same thing for both the DMG and MM, they will include at least ONE new thing with each book that you can't find elsewhere. They will try to make it something very important in each one so "people like us" will want to buy it. If asked why we will be required to buy a new book for so little information, they will reply "because we didn't want to change TOO much, so as to keep it as compatable as possible with the old core rulebooks."

Of course, because I love D&D so much, I'll end up buying the new books likely. But it'll mainly be for:

PHB: New classes because no one in my group plays bards at all and no one is a ranger longer than 1 level.

DMG: Updated price lists for magic items and magic item creation rules.

MM: Updated rules on playing monsters as PC (and hope it doesn't completely nulify needing Savage Species)

Majoru Oakheart

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I love when people use terms like forced to, as if WOTC will send out some leg breakers to make sure your playing the most up to date game.

Look if your happy with the game as is, just don't buy the new books nobody will force you to, and you can have tons of fun with your books still. And hey all the splat books will be more compatible with your game than with the revised books unless they take into account every prestige class that could be effeced by their changes.


Me I like buying RPGs and so this isn't a tough choice, I'll get newer books with updated rules I'm all for it.

 

[Negative Zero]

... as if WOTC will send out some leg breakers to make sure your playing the most up to date game...

they didn't show up at YOUR house???

~NegZ

 

[Vuron]

This discussion is pointless as the whiners will no doubt use that intraweb thingee to download scanned copies within days of them being released....

Let me put it this way, change can be good or bad but it's inevitable, whining about it serves nothing. So you can hide your head in the sand and continue playing 3e or get with the new and buy revised. Besides didn't we hear enough of these comments when 3e was announced 3 or so years back? "Oh no all my 2e stuff is worthless!" and "3e? hell I'm still playing 1e!".

Personally I'm hoping for dramatic changes much like Storyteller revised introduced for WW. I'd actually like a 4e rather than a short-term patch, but hell I'll buy it and hope that a real revision isn't that far off.

 

[ced1106]

Well, I'm happy. I started D&D since the "white box", stopped playing around college, but became interested again only a few months ago. I wasn't happy, either, when the $20 books went up to $30 (so bought the EQ RPG), and these revisions **will** get me to part with my money. On more of a soapbox note revising the core rulebooks shows that WotC **is** committed to supporting D&D. Really, Hasbro/WotC could have just fired all their staff, kept the printing presses running, and printed the existing rulebooks ad infinitum and done nothing else.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[kenjib]

But it ISN'T just errata. There ARE rules changes. I've been trying to think of any way that they could change the classes that would make all of them completely compatable. I can't think of one.

I suggested some ways in an older thread that come very close. Adding cha-based skills to the sorcerer's class skill list would have very minimal compatibility conflicts. Giving the ranger the option of choosing between ambi/twf or point blank shot/rapid shot would also have very minimal compatibility conflict. Adding additional spells to the bard's spell list would have absolutely no impact on compatibility.

As regards your other concerns, I would be very surprised if the SRD wasn't updated to reflect changes to things contained therein, and it does contain the ranger and bard classes. It's free for download.

 

[Michael Tree]

- Editorial coverage throughout Spring 2003 in Dragon and Dungeon magazines.

Hrm.. what do they need editorial coverage for? Are they leaving good stuff out intentionally to see more Dragon product? Are they aware that somethings aren't quite right already and they'll just fix them in dragon instead of figuring them out beforehand? Or do they just know that they'll be things they didn't think of that need to be clarified? I'm interested in seeing which (or all) of the above are what they're talking about.

Pay attention to the timing. The books are coming out in the summer of 2003. The editorial coverage will be in the spring of 2003. They're essentially talking about the same interviews, personality spotlights, themed Dragon, and web previews that come out before all their books. Maybe we'll see something like the "countdown to 3rd edtion" sneak peeks in Dragon.

I wouldn't be surprised if they post one or more of the revised character classes as a web preview, like they did for the revised Star Wars book.