The D&D Essentials books are a really nice size to take with you. But they don’t have that feeling (or the look), that you get with hard covers.
So would you purchase the Essentials in Hardback?
D&D 3.5 had the core rules in black leather, and they did look impressive. Would there be a market for the 4th edition rules in leather covers?
Essentials is not aimed at the same audience that the rest of the 4e books are. That alone is justification for not making them more expensive. I also don't believe anybody but the most severe 4e grognards (is that a thing? does 4e have grognards yet?) would buy.
I have no interest in purchasing Essentials in any form.
Same.
At the D&D meetup that I belong to, we have new members joining every week, most of whom are new to 4e or completely new to D&D. The essentials line simply isn't a good enough solution as an entry point.
I'd love to see a single volume in a boxed set with dice, pregen characters, a decent solo adventure and a starter DDI sub. Maybe some random character minis as well. DDI sub would just give CB access to allow creation of characters from the boxed set.
Honestly, introducing players right now is a big hurdle. You either hand them the PHB and explain it's outdated, give them the Essentials books but mention that's not everything and a lot fo classes play differently, or just intorduce them to the whole shebang and hope they aren't overwhelmed. Id' like a book that consolidates what's useful, often used, and basic into one thing for new players to pick up and grasp the majority of the game.
Nope, definetely not. I stopped buying D&D 4 when they started the "Essential" revision to the line. I would pretty much like to get my hands on a DMG 3, but alas, 4th turned into a different ship mid-sail...
+1
I like the idea of an updated "Beginner Boxed Set" for the newbies and Litmus has a great idea with the included DDI subscription.
In response to the beginner set thing - I'd very much like to see them try again with that, and try to make something with the quality of the Pathfinder Beginner Box. System aside, the Pathfinder beginner box set is really incredible. It is solid. 4E deserves something that good, IMO.
In response to the beginner set thing - I'd very much like to see them try again with that, and try to make something with the quality of the Pathfinder Beginner Box. System aside, the Pathfinder beginner box set is really incredible. It is solid. 4E deserves something that good, IMO.
In regards something similar to the Pathfinder Beginner Box - I'd like to see that as something separate to a player's starter box. Something that is pretty much the DM's Kit on steroids would be great. If you look at the Games Workshop (Warhammer, 40K etc) starter boxes, they are huge and packed full of stuff - they're exciting to open. I'm thinking something along the lines of a heroic tier campaign in a box with minis to cover every encounter, battlemaps, handouts etc etc.
Then again I only bought it for the tokens anyway.
I have the Monster Vault in softcover and I'm not sure if I'm really happy with the format; it keeps trying to close itself when it put it down on the table.
Then again I only bought it for the tokens anyway.
I really miss the old monstrous compendium format from 2e (expandable ringbinder). It's always puzzled me that they discontinued that approach. I'd usually just remove the monsters that I needed for a particular session and take them in a folder with my session notes. If you're running an encounter with, for example, goblins and wolves, you just lay out those pages next to each other instead of having to flip back and forth between the two entries in a book. Also loved the way you had all of your monsters in a single volume in alphabetical order. Good times...
If done as hardbound books, HotFL and HotFK could be combined - between them they have barely as much content as the PH1, so eliminating the redundancy, they could easily be one $35 hardcover instead of two $20 softcovers...
The DM Kit and MV have definite advantages - aka maps & tokens - to their packaging aproach, so, no, I don't think there'd be any benefit to reprinting them as hardbacks. The Monster Vault might almost be better as a collection of tokens (or plastic minis) and monster stat sheets that you could keep in the box (or a binder), propping a book open to reference monster stats has never been convenient.
The RC is a pocket rules reference, so making it hardcover would be self-defeating.
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A final-round collector's series of higher-quality 4e Core books - with all legitimate updates included and no new errata forthcoming - would be be worth picking up. It'd have to be some sort of end-of-edition capstone thing, though... And, really, they'd want people to abandon the game for the new ed, not commemorate the old one.
I can see a compiled version of Fallen Lands/Forgotten Kingdoms in hardcover would be a pretty handy book to have, but at the same time I think the big lure of Essentials to new players (such as myself, who began playing the game via Essentials) was that it was a very cost-effective entry point into the game. For that, I'm very thankful.