3.5 is getting reprinted

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:11 pm

At least the core is anyway. It's due out in September.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx ... s/20120625
There's also a survey about which other books they should reprint, which may be worth doing.

:viking:

Previn · Post by **Previn** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:49 pm

Huh, the last question seems very much like a 5e fishing expedition for things that made 3.5 popular....

K · Post by K » Mon Jun 25, 2012 4:12 pm

Haha?

erik · Post by **erik** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:06 pm

I don't even

In investigating I found this little tidbit from April when apparently it was accidentally leaked that 3.5 was going to be reprinted.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/32220 ... ember.html
and
http://thelearningdm.com/2012/04/26/is- ... ty-crisis/
I enjoyed the mistaken speculation from the second link from april...

The Greyhawk Grognard is speculating that “Provolone” is really D&D Next, and that the 3.5 reprints are just placeholders for the Next versions of the books. While it seems shocking and outrageous on the surface, maybe there’s something to it. It would certainly explain Monte’s departure, a quicker timetable for playtesting, and the outright bizarre notion of selling 3.5 products at a mega-bookstore.

Still bizarre, but now true as well!

And I guess there is a board game as well that was noticed in the Enworld link from April.
http://wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=d ... /dungeonbg

But, well, here's a snippet from another thread.

Actually I've been climbing up the WOTC ladder when could. Their time frames and mine are diametrically oppossed so getting the right timing was a pain.

Talked to marketing today and this is what they said.

Yes. Dungeon! is seeing a new edition, scheduled for the listed October release at 19.99$.

No. They didnt put up the Amazon listing and they dont know who did. The title it is listed under is for retailer reffrence, not the games actual title. So they can tell it apart from the older versions. Somewhere in April the news of the game was leaked to a few foreign sources it looks like. My personal guess is one of their factories. But the person I talked to didnt know and probably couldnt say even had he known. A couple of other products showed up on Amazon in the same way.

The game *should* have been announced and had more fanfare. But the WOTC rep said that things had gotten so busy with all the new releases, 5th ed D&D, Kaijudo, etc that it somehow slipped through the cracks. That could well be as WOTC has been wheeling and dealing heavy these last few months. See the new Netrunner game deal they gave to FFG for just one.

What the fuck is this shit?

Hunh.

What a clusterfuck.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 6:16 pm

Republishing the PHB, DMG and MM is fairly meaningless.

Now, if they decide to republish 3.5 splatbooks and modules, at that point I'll be asking "What the fuck!?"

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 9:23 pm

It's meaningful in that I'll be able to buy them again, without getting beer-stained copies at twice retail. That's pretty boss.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 9:25 pm

hogarth wrote:Republishing the PHB, DMG and MM is fairly meaningless.

It's in the top 10,000 out of millions of books being sold on Amazon, even after being out of print for several years. Of course Pathfinder is like in the top 2,500. Considering that with the collapse of the 4E D&D product line and 5E D&D coming out at the very earliest in six or so months, that's a huge incentive to kick something out the door.

Hell, if they really wanted to stick it to Pathfinder, they'd release a 3.75E, complete with the greatest hits from 3.0E/3.5E. Not something to hang their hat on, but enough to get them through the dry years. Because there's no fucking way Hasbro is going to be happy about WotC earning practically nothing outside of DDI for 2-6 quarters.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 10:32 pm

Pathfinder is about to get a big boost from Looking For Group's reader base, since the guys are about to start playtesting rpg rules that are pathfinder compatible. I doubt pathfinder is really going much of anywhere.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 12:22 am

fectin wrote:It's meaningful in that I'll be able to buy them again, without getting beer-stained copies at twice retail. That's pretty boss.

What I mean is that they'll sell some copies, but unless they come out with a bunch of splatbooks and other supporting material as well, it's unlikely to cut much into their 5E sales, I think.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:31 am

So, can 3.5 be marketed as the "balanced alternative to Pathfinder"?

If so, what points would be highlighted?

Or for a '3.75', what would be the content from 3.5 that fits together for the best experience>

Krusk · Post by **Krusk** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:27 pm

That link has a survey where they ask what 3.5 splat books they should print next.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 4:51 pm

Forget reprinting 3.5E splat books. What they should do is apply the Spell Compendium treatment to magic items, prestige classes, and feats.

While the trend is nowhere near as bad as 4E, 3.5E went way, way the fuck overboard in cruft and fluff. The Planar Handbook is as large as the Manual of the Planes but has less content because of that shit. Or the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting vs. The Forgotten Realms Player Guide. How about cutting all of the shit and just giving us, say,:

Hero Compendium I: A bundling of races, alternate skill uses (and skill consolidation and expansion if you're really feeling your oats), and feats. This book also has the spells in the PHBII, Complete Mage, Champion that didn't it to the Spell Compendium. Minimal fluff, this book is like 90% crunch.
Hero Compendium II: A bundling of classes (except for the really weird ones like the Bo9S and MoI; we just don't have the space), alternate classes, and prestige classes. The classes also have their spell lists updated as well. If they're feeling really ambitious, the alternate class features could be used to stealth-bump the 'loser' classes like the monk and bard and whatever.
Mordenkainen's Emporium: This is just like the Arms and Equipment Guide.
Legion of Evil: It's a combination Monster Manual guide and Enemies and Allies. No 'new' monsters, everything in here are things like NPCs built like PCs, including such classics as the goblin antipaladins and troll barbarians.

If they can restrain themselves from inflicting Complete Warrior/4E/Pathfinder 'waaah, nerf it' mentality on older material and reprint that stuff as-is, these books could make a killing. There is a serious demand for people to be able to have all of the 'big' 3.5E content confined to like 4 books at the table.

erik · Post by **erik** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:07 pm

They did make a magic item compendium for 3.5. I would link but am on kindle and typing is annoying rnuff.

Edit... Jesus going by priced on amazon maybe they should reprint this too.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:14 pm

If you read the survey carefully, it's not actually asking which books to reprint, it's asking which books to pull material from for some sort of "best of" compendium. That makes the whole question weirder.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:17 pm

The Magic Item Compendium is actually a terrible book. I mean, it's the one where Andy Collins tries to solve all our problems by having magic items use up body slots and also charges per day. It gives us the Amber Amulet of More Powerful Than the Fighter (1/day, for 700 gold), and with that the Final Fantasy X2 "Pretty Pretty Princess Dressup for Power" model. And pretty much everyone agrees that that model is stupid.

But yeah, it does exist. People would be pretty excited about a Prestige Class Catalog. And hey, they'd even buy a Feats Compendium. They are so willing to do this that they'll buy 3rd Party Bullshit for nearly forty dollars.

-Username17

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:36 pm

fectin wrote:If you read the survey carefully, it's not actually asking which books to reprint, it's asking which books to pull material from for some sort of "best of" compendium. That makes the whole question weirder.

I wonder if they're going to use the 3.5E reprint books as a way to hedge their bets. Like when 5E D&D comes out and it (inevitably) ends up a bomb, they 'continue' the trend of consolidations and reprints. And of course they get to do grognard/4E-defusing doublespeak of 'we're not continuing 3.5E, we're just reprinting old stuff'. I just wish that this wasn't in the hands of Mearls, but, as long as he doesn't rub his micropenis on the game too hard, I can deal.

Seerow · Post by **Seerow** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:01 pm

Legion of Evil sounds like MM5.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:14 pm

Terrible as though the Magic Item Compendium may be, I could get behind the ideas of the Arms and Equipment guide. My only real problem with it is that it has too many specific magical items (which is actually how I prefer it, but it doesn't work at all in a system where you have such control over magic item accumulation) and that the artwork makes the book look really cheap and chintzy. But the idea behind it is sound. Grab all of the best magic items from various books, throw together some weirdass equipment like an auto-lock picker or grey render mounts, and BAM. Got your book right there.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:14 pm

fectin wrote:If you read the survey carefully, it's not actually asking which books to reprint, it's asking which books to pull material from for some sort of "best of" compendium. That makes the whole question weirder.

Yeah, I kinda went thematically for each year (Well, this, this and this could all fit into a book together... like Complete Arcane, Libris Mortis and Planar Handbook). I also used the 200 word comment field at the end (which they strangely considered ~35% of the survey) to make some suggestions from this thread (and mention that Wayne England should only draw inanimate objects for them, and that J Nelson thinks all arachnids are ticks, and that neither should be used for a monstrous compendium.)

Lago wrote:the artwork makes (Arms and Equipment Guide) look really cheap and chintzy

It really does, as if the book is literally a catalogue. Which does make me want to use a full paper print out as a prop for a Mercane's "Yeah, I can sell you any of this" catalogue... I wonder how well illustrations of items being used, as opposed to floating in racks, would go over... Like, instead of the holy avenger being pictured as if you were looking at it in a Mercane's shop, it being pictured in the hands of a paladin as he's fighting evil. Yes, you could lose focus on the item, but there are all kinds of art tricks to focus attention on a single part, it just means you need people who went to school to make art, rather than self teaching themselves to draw pretty pictures.

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 10:47 pm

Right now, I'm very wary of sending any money towards WotC. So, even if this reprinting sounds fun, I'll not be ordering more books from them. (I think this moment is when I officially turn into a Grognard)