Have you seen what WoTC is Doing ?

[docplutonium]

Hey Hey;

I was at my comic shop yesterday and it seems WoTC is now releasing adventures for e3.5, e4.0, and DnDNext all in the same module! What you do it, buy the module, go to their web site to register it and then all the monsters and traps download in a PDF (I assume) to run the adventure for the desired edition. I don't know if you have to pay for every edition you download. So basically you buy the story and battlemaps at the store and download the appropriate edition content later from the internet.

I, personally, think it's an AWESOME idea! New adventures for any edition! But it left me with some questions...

1. I wonder if by doing this WoTC is quietly saying "sorry about 4th ed"... my paraphrasing
2. What about all those 3.5 licences that publishers threw away to publish for 4th ed.... Does this mean that GG couldn't do the same thing? Or is WoTC the only ones allowed to publish 3.5ed now? If that's the case then that's kinda a dirty move on thier part.

Anyways...opinions? Thoughts?
Thanks
Doc

[marshal kt]

Sounds like they're saying, they don't think the buyers are smart enough to convert between systems.

[GnomeBoy]

I haven't been anything near to keeping up with the D&D Next stuff, but I thought the published things were 5th Edition, and you could pick up 3.5 and 4th Edition conversions off the website.

I don't see it as apologetic at all, and see no need to be. I know 4th Edition has brought in new players and that many of them are at a minimum curious about earlier stuff. Fifth Edition is supposedly fairly compatible with Basic through 2nd Edition, so basically they're publishing for whatever version of D&D you're playing right now (even if it's not exactly "D&D").

[Crimsontree]

I don't play modern D&D anymore. I last played in 2001. However I like the idea of these adventures being supplied with the stats for multiple versions. There have been DCC conversions of D&D adventures & I also think that is a good idea. If it encourages people to try new or old adventures with the system they feel comfortable with, then it's not a bad thing.

[MrHemlocks]

Also not fair to those players that do not like PDFs! Everyone does not live on a smart phone or tablet. Some of us are off the matrix. Besides it cost a lot of ink to print out every darn adventure, if doing it from home, and cost more cash if printing at the library.

[Skyscraper]

I don't think they're apologizing. I think they're just trying to please their customers. This seems like a good idea to me.

I understand that it might cost ink to print out the stuff, but if you print in black and white (like I do), the price is probably negligible for printing a few pages of stats only (the maps and story don't need to be reprinted). I find this solution quite elegant myself. The option of them printing all versions themselves, where each customer would in fact use only one version, seems like a lot of waste and would mean that all customers pay much more on buying the product. I admit to not seeing where this is bad.

I think it's good to recognize when a company does something good. WotC has been the target of a lot of critism, let them also get the praise when it's warranted.

I don't know that i'll buy anything 5E, let alone convert back to 3E or 4E, but I raise my hat to this approach, in so far as I understand it.