The launch schedule is as follows:
15 July: D&D Starter Set
19 August: Player's Handbook, Hoard of the Dragon Queen (adventure)
30 September: Monster Manual
21 October: The Rise of Tiamat (adventure)
19 November: Dungeon Master's Guide
Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro are betting a lot on the release of the new edition, especially as their plans for a tie-in movie franchise were torpedoed by a legal challenge by the previous rights-holders. 4th Edition, release in 2008, was a financial failure (after an initially promising start) and its mixed critical reception tore the core D&D fanbase apart. Many D&D fans have moved onto games like Pathfinder, 13th Age and Numenera, not to mention various 'retroclones' (games by third parties based heavily on older editions of D&D). The high price of 5th Edition ($50 each for the rulebooks and $30 for the adventures) isn't likely to do much to tempt them back.
One factor in D&D's favour is that its primary competition (and the pen-and-paper RPG market-leader for the last few years), Pathfinder, has now been going for over five years and is starting to get a little long in the tooth. With no proper second edition on the horizon for that game, D&D 5th Edition may tempt some fans to at least take a look. However, if 5th Edition fails to do well, we might be looking at the retirement of the D&D game for some time to come.
4 comments:
I do think that, if this doesn't capture a slice of the Pathfinder market, D&D is going to "rest" for a while.
I love the label "this will probably suck but you never know". I've got the same feeling. At $50/book, kids must make a lot more allowance than I used to! $150 is a lot of money to shell out for some books, especially since old versions are available for so cheap at used bookstores and online.
And don't even get me started on $30 for an adventure. At least with the core books you get a lot of reuse. What do you get from a $30 adventure after you've played it?
Looks to me like we won't have any more D&D any time soon. Too bad nobody could talk some sense into the product guys at Hasbro.
That cover art is a far cry from the original Monster Manual, isn't it?
Does anyone play D&D any more? Hasn't World of Warcraft killed it off? Who has 5-6 free hours to spend talking to each other? In that way, it's a shame it is in decline.
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