The New Dungeons & Dragons: Mistakes and Masterstrokes

[el_kabong]

As a person who's insane enough to play 40K, I find "sticker shock" over 3 $50 books very quaint.

 

[Aitamen]

I can't see jumping either my 1.0 campaign or my pathfinder campaigns into the new system... there's not enough to warrant it.

Despite my love of Gygax's stuff, I know that's not universal... but pathfinder seems so very well designed (aside from my personal fetish for FFD20) for the newer players to jump in.

 

[Kahani]

What about usability, here? You have to admit that a single nearly 800 page, 8.5 x 11' hardback book is basically useless at a table, while a 360 page book would be way more useable at a table.

But neither is anywhere near as convenient as an electronic version on a tablet. A dedicated app would likely be the best option from a user's point of view, but even just a standard ebook or pdf version would be much better for those people who want the information but don't care about actually having a physical copy. It also solves the price problem, since they could sell it at half the price and still make a profit since there are no production or shipping costs. I know it's not for everyone - not everyone owns a tablet (although with decent ones now under £100 you could probably get one for less than the difference in price between hardcover and ebook versions) and some people just like having a physical book - but it would be absolutely nuts not to offer it as an option at all.

 

[Fasckira]

I love the idea of the Starter Box, I think thats very much the way forward for most RPG games; release a cheap basic ruleset system so as to allow your average RPer the chance to grasp his or head noggin around the core concepts and see if they like the system before investing more money into the products that expand upon that knowledge.

Im looking forward to the release (same day as my birthday to boot) and I like to add that I enjoyed this article, great work!

 

[JonB]

What about usability, here? You have to admit that a single nearly 800 page, 8.5 x 11' hardback book is basically useless at a table, while a 360 page book would be way more useable at a table.

But neither is anywhere near as convenient as an electronic version on a tablet. A dedicated app would likely be the best option from a user's point of view, but even just a standard ebook or pdf version would be much better for those people who want the information but don't care about actually having a physical copy. It also solves the price problem, since they could sell it at half the price and still make a profit since there are no production or shipping costs. I know it's not for everyone - not everyone owns a tablet (although with decent ones now under £100 you could probably get one for less than the difference in price between hardcover and ebook versions) and some people just like having a physical book - but it would be absolutely nuts not to offer it as an option at all.

If there's not a hyperlinked PDF of this game I'll eat my hat.