ishy wrote:Imagine if every text in your 2nd edition book was worded differently and littered with mechanical changes some better most worse and some so unclear that you don't know what they are supposed to do or don't even realise that they are there.
they already tried that and called it 3rd Edition D&D. didnt work, thus TETSNBN exists on Dragonsfoot. also Hackmaster exists as licensed to by WotC. they already did it with 2nd editoin twice, so what is wrong with it being done to 3rd?
there is also a larger surplus of 3.x books than 2nd edition and 1st.
the real reason i assume they are printing errata versions of 3.x is to balance out against or decrease sales of the 1st edition reprints.
they will then have 2 "old-school" products in print, one TSR and one WotC while 4th churns to a halt.
sadly they are printing the worst possible books as both of those editions core books were utter trash to read or find anything in.
the fact so many OGL product exist out there means they need 3.5 reprints to compete, and the lack of 2nd edition clone out there, means there is only need for a 1st edition core rule reprint to compete in those markets.
if i had a single trustworthy and knowledge person with copyrights...then i would have had the 2e clone out there when the OGL hit.
also MANY people play with just the SRD, it has been printed and sold as a rulebook, and there is VERY little missing form it to be able to play with.
the smartest thing for them to do now would be drop 5e, write off the design efforts as a loss and do what they should have done to begin with. reprint all the main editions:
Rules Compendium
1st edition
2nd edition
3rd edition
write material for them all and support them all, and stop being afriad if you are competing with yourself.
if competing with yourself was such a bad thing, there wouldnt be product lines, only products.
Pepsi
Pepsi Next
Pepsi Max
pepsi one
diet pepsi
caffeine-free pepsi
cherry pepsi
crystal pepsi
diet caffeine-free pepsi
McDonalds would only sell the Big Mac, etc
HASBRO and WotC fail to understand that having a bigger market share doesnt always entail having a single product that takes over the market, but having enough products that can gather a larger share.
and you dont need a broader brand. McDonalds doesnt make clothes, they license their logo out and characters to allow for sales in those areas. likewise D&D doesnt need board games or card games. McDonalds doesnt have a boardgame, and they do much better than HASBRO
so with making the 3.5 books again WotC is saying that Pathfinder is competition for its own product, so trying in desperation to get those people back, but its too late. some are already full ahead on Pathfinder, like people that just jump to the next version of D&D, and many if not MOST of those kind of people, dont backtrack.
