Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

[Anders]

Read all about it.

The core books cost $50 each, or $150 for the set - compared to GURPS (to take an example purely at random) which costs $85 but includes three (?) pages of monsters *cough* bestiary *cough*. But there's a starter's kit - gateway D&D - for $20.

Very little on what they contain, but maybe there's some information online?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anders

Read all about it.

Very little on what they contain, but maybe there's some information online?

I certainly need some real information on what the game is like. There was nothing ion that piece.

$50 for a PHB is a barrier too. Whatever anything "comparable" is priced at these days it's more than my impulse buy threshold.

I'm not sure what's comparable anyway. I've gotten used to spending 7.19 on Amazon for an unknown paperback but even if the 5e books are only $35 on Amazon that's the same as a 5 book paperback series.

Wizards is also in the hole credibility-wise over 4e. I didn't come even close to getting my money's worth out of my 4e PHB and nobody in my gaming group did either. The ones who sprung for the whole 3 book set for 4e lost even more.

I do not judge yet but there are thresholds that have to be met. They're going to have to sell me pretty thoroughly and with hard information too.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by Anders

Read all about it.

The core books cost $50 each, or $150 for the set - compared to GURPS (to take an example purely at random) which costs $85 but includes three (?) pages of monsters *cough* bestiary *cough*. But there's a starter's kit - gateway D&D - for $20.

Very little on what they contain, but maybe there's some information online?

For comparison:
$150 gets you (as PDFs) GURPS Basic (Characters & Campaigns), Magic, DF1-3, DFM1 and maybe another 4x DF volumes to suit tastes. DFM1 contains (I think) 30 Monsters, and the Monster Index at the back of that volume references another 80+ from the other DF volumes!

[Anders]

Originally Posted by SCAR

For comparison:
$150 gets you (as PDFs) GURPS Basic (Characters & Campaigns), Magic, DF1-3, DFM1 and maybe another 4x DF volumes to suit tastes. DFM1 contains (I think) 30 Monsters, and the Monster Index at the back of that volume references another 80+ from the other DF volumes!

Excellent comparison, but you need to include (part of) the cost of tablet as well. Without that, your PDFs won't do you much good.

I won't be an early adapter of this. The price is too step and my confidence in WotC is too small. I don't think they are "pretty great at designing games". I really don't.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by Anders

Excellent comparison, but you need to include (part of) the cost of tablet as well. Without that, your PDFs won't do you much good.

Why would you need a tablet? Virtually any vaguely modern computing device should have sufficient power to run a PDF reader.
Most people have a computer (very likely for those willing to spend over $100 on RPG stuff), and access to a printer for some pages shouldn't be a major issue, but isn't required.

My D&D experience ended with BECM. I'm far more interested in the DnDClassic releases.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by SCAR

Why would you need a tablet?!

To take your gaming material to your game when said game is not conveniently held in your computer room.

A tablet works much better for this than even a small laptop. Though we d have one guy who's using what looks like one of those hybrid Surface things.

As to printing out your pdfs I'd have to say absolutely no. I own a _lot_ of paper gamebooks but I want those professionally done and not DIY.

[Anthony]

All I know about 5th edition was that the early playtest was a train wreck. It doesn't make me very hopeful about the final result.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

To take your gaming material to your game when said game is not conveniently held in your computer room.

A tablet works much better for this than even a small laptop. Though we d have one guy who's using what looks like one of those hybrid Surface things.

Rulebooks at the gaming table can be a distraction. Once you're familiar enough with the rules, don't open the books at the table. Have them accessible in some form for reference should be sufficient - and with laptops, netbooks, tablets, e-readers, smartphones being all but ubiquitous these days, access to quick reference PDFs is simple, and unlike physical books they can make use of a Search which can be pretty handy for quick reference

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

As to printing out your pdfs I'd have to say absolutely no. I own a _lot_ of paper gamebooks but I want those professionally done and not DIY.

That's your opinion, and would doubt its the majority.
I have several file folders with printouts of part or all of various PDFs for GURPS and other systems, although I don't do that so much these days, I just print the pages I might want to reference, or cut and paste short sections into word and print those for reference.
I wasn't suggesting printing out all of those books - maybe just a copy of GURPS Lite for rules reference at the table, copies of the Templates for character generation, some blank character sheets and that should be sufficient.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I own a _lot_ of paper gamebooks but I want those professionally done and not DIY.

SJ Games grants permission to have the PDFs printed. It's easy enough to take one to a service to print and bind them in the manner of your choosing.

For example, http://www.lulu.com/publish/books/?cid=nav_bks

The GURPS 4e books look like the "casewrap" binding. The 3e ones were "perfect-bound" paperbacks.

[Trixbat]

Originally Posted by Anders

Read all about it.

The core books cost $50 each, or $150 for the set - compared to GURPS (to take an example purely at random) which costs $85 but includes three (?) pages of monsters *cough* bestiary *cough*. But there's a starter's kit - gateway D&D - for $20.

Very little on what they contain, but maybe there's some information online?

It looks from the WotC site, however, that they will be making the 5th edition "Basic Set" free, and progressively updating them along with the print books so that by the time the print books are out, the Basic Set will be a complete rules set equivalent to the old Cyclopedia (i.e., covering up to 20th level).

http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/27/575...basic-rulebook