So, for those who haven't been keeping up, Mike Mearls gave a recap of the products that are soon going to be available for 5e and their release schedule. My first reaction was sticker shock; each of the core books is running about $50 USD, a bit of an increase from the $35 of the 4e books. Especially considering that the constant flow of errata, the end result on 4e was buying the cheaper Essentials line, I'm definitely holding out on buying any of the core books. The good news is that WotC will be releasing a free PDF they're calling Basic D&D, which is a stripped-down version of the 5e core books. Reading between the lines it looks like the release date for this will be in July when the Starter Set ($20 USD) is released, which I assume is a beefed up, print version of the Basic PDF with some extras.
For now I plan on making do with the Basic PDF, house-ruling as necessary. I'm going to take some convincing to lay down $50 each for the core books. We'll have to see.
For all the criticism I've levelled at WOTC over the years the free release of D&D Basics is a very clever move; a free game that you can run up to 20th level? That's quite a statement. You could argue that it's not a original marketing plan - FATE Core was, and still is, pay what you want and there are a couple of other games that went down the free route. Still, as a way of getting old hands back on board at zero cost to them....nice !
I would agree that the main core books are a little pricey but they probably match up fairly well when compared to other recent releases; Shadowrun and Numenera are listed at $59.99 and 13th Age $44.95 forex. A certain online giant is discounting those games and there's no reason to suppose that they won't do a similar thing with 5e; you may want to support your FLGS and pay list of course, but those shops are in very short supply over here.
Let me say again - very well done WOTC. The cynic in me is taking it as an apology for past misdemeanours .
People should note the core books are of decent size, each one being 320 pages. I'll be checking out the free Basic D&D download to be sure. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
Yeah, I could also consider buying the books a donation to my FLGS, which is run by an awesome lady, who totally deserves my money. That removes some of the sticker shock.
EDIT: I will still probably wait on the whole errata situation though, and see if they re-edit the first editions.
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