@Haffrung

Ultimately attrition may be an issue, but I think Pathfinder has grown both in Player base and product sales.  They don't have to release sales figures, but I don't think they need D&D to survive.   The old rules don't apply.

They may be growing in a shrinking hobby, but they seem to be doing alright.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;7537393.5 also had a simultaneous release, but it's debatable as to whether that counts as a new edition.

   And originally, 4E was supposed to be a staggered release over 3 months, but for some reason--I don't know if it was production issues, fan demand or something else--they pushed the PHB back a month and pulled the MM (I think) forward a month so all three released at once.

3 months extra editing on the 4e books might have saved a lot of grief, so I guess WoTC may have learned a lesson.

Quote from: Marleycat;753864I do get you but it is true that Mearls did say they would look into putting into a hardbound book when directly asked. So it may be a moot point in a year and you would have your book on the shelf.

I may skim a pdf but I'm about 20 times more likely to run 5e if I can get a printed & bound hardcopy of the Basic rules. PoD would be ok. So I'm looking forward to this being available; my long running 4e campaign will end around early 2016 and I'm open to a much simpler system for the campaign after that.

Quote from: S'mon;7539573 months extra editing on the 4e books might have saved a lot of grief, so I guess WoTC may have learned a lesson.

See, for instance, skill challenges (the rules for which I believe were framed in the DMG). It's bad enough that the mechanic for "anything which isn't a fight or a conversation" was tucked away, but the original version wasn't remotely fit for purpose and they brought out errata for it almost immediately, which not only started the errata avalanche for 4E but also really sucked the credibility out of the game. After all, you have this RPG which has very obviously been designed from the ground up with an eye to mechanical rigorousness - not my cup of tea, granted, but some people dig that and it's a legitimate preference - and you release rules which are that sloppy? You have to see that as a huge failure even if you're 100% onboard with the mechanical approach of 4E.

Of course, so far as I'm aware none of the subsequent versions of the skill challenge rule ever quite managed to feel right, but if 3 extra months of editing could have stopped the insta-errata debacle that'd have been something at least.

Quote from: Warthur;753967Of course, so far as I'm aware none of the subsequent versions of the skill challenge rule ever quite managed to feel right, but if 3 extra months of editing could have stopped the insta-errata debacle that'd have been something at least.

Who knows, 3 extra months might have persuaded them to junk skill challenges as a failed mechanic, and avoid the whole issue. Mearls went to great efforts in Dungeon magazine trying to present SCs as useful and valuable, a huge waste of time IMO.

Editing and proofing three 320 page books is an enormous undertaking. Releasing them all on the same day is simply foolish - WotC would need to hire several editors on a short-term contract, and having a single editor properly oversee everything would be impossible. It would need to be run as three largely independent projects - a big mistake for an integrated game system. Every publisher worth their salt tries to stagger the release of this sort of document if at all possible.

New Q&A with Rodney answering a few questions about the Starter set and Basic: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dndqa/20140530

Well whatever a free PDF is stupid IMO, rather have a bound book.  I hate PDF's they're more trouble than they're worth in the long run.  2nd a staggered release IMO is also dumb assery, which means if I even get into it, I will just wait until the whole thing is released before I even drop one cent on it, their up front loss I guess.  AD&D 1e (BTW, I bought all at once, same for 2nd & 3rd editions), I hate unfinished works and wont invest in a product unless it has everything needed to game with.  I'm not interested in a starter set, never buy them, never will, they're always vaporware to me.

Quote from: S'mon;753959I may skim a pdf but I'm about 20 times more likely to run 5e if I can get a printed & bound hardcopy of the Basic rules. PoD would be ok.

Yup, same here. I'm good with reading PDFs but I generally want hardcopy for the table.

Quote from: flyingcircus;754423Well whatever a free PDF is stupid IMO, rather have a bound book.  I hate PDF's they're more trouble than they're worth in the long run.  2nd a staggered release IMO is also dumb assery, which means if I even get into it, I will just wait until the whole thing is released before I even drop one cent on it, their up front loss I guess.  AD&D 1e (BTW, I bought all at once, same for 2nd & 3rd editions), I hate unfinished works and wont invest in a product unless it has everything needed to game with.  I'm not interested in a starter set, never buy them, never will, they're always vaporware to me.

Then don't. All you sound like right now is a spoiled brat. Because you already know the reason they are doing it and it's a good one. Obviously you have a computer so print the PDF out and stop whining. Also Mearls already said they are looking into putting the whole thing into a hardbook book. So my guess is that it will happen because they already know the demand is there.

I don't see how you could buy 1e or 3e at once when it came out given the former took years to come out and 3e has the exact publishing roll out as 5e. Not certain about 2e because we mixed and matched 1/2e so much it was irrelevant actually.

Let me sum up the past 69 pages:

Quote from: flyingcircus;754423Well whatever a free PDF is stupid IMO, rather have a bound book.  I hate PDF's they're more trouble than they're worth in the long run.  2nd a staggered release IMO is also dumb assery, which means if I even get into it, I will just wait until the whole thing is released before I even drop one cent on it, their up front loss I guess.  AD&D 1e (BTW, I bought all at once, same for 2nd & 3rd editions), I hate unfinished works and wont invest in a product unless it has everything needed to game with.  I'm not interested in a starter set, never buy them, never will, they're always vaporware to me.

There are good reasons to prefer things like printed products and simultaneous releases and such.  But presented as you just presented them, I have a sudden lack of sympathy.

Quote from: Mistwell;754469There are good reasons to prefer things like printed products and simultaneous releases and such.  But presented as you just presented them, I have a sudden lack of sympathy.

Quote from: Marleycat;754431Then don't. All you sound like right now is a spoiled brat. Because you already know the reason they are doing it and it's a good one. Obviously you have a computer so print the PDF out and stop whining. Also Mearls already said they are looking into putting the whole thing into a hardbook book. So my guess is that it will happen because they already know the demand is there.

I don't see how you could buy 1e or 3e at once when it came out given the former took years to come out and 3e has the exact publishing roll out as 5e. Not certain about 2e because we mixed and matched 1/2e so much it was irrelevant actually.

Quote from: Marleycat;754431I don't see how you could buy 1e or 3e at once when it came out given the former took years to come out and 3e has the exact publishing roll out as 5e. Not certain about 2e because we mixed and matched 1/2e so much it was irrelevant actually.

I could have sworn that the three core 3e products all came out at once, but I don't remember and am not going to bother researching it.

I do recall that the core 2e products came out at one month intervals over the summer of 1989.  That was pretty convenient for me at the time because I was a jobless teen.  It gave me a month to scrape together the $20+ tax for each product.  (Well, really $20, $18, and $20)

That said, in the short term I think it's pretty stupid to release a new product in three parts over a span of time in this day and age.  If I were to buy the game, I certainly wouldn't bother wasting my time on it until all three corebooks are out.