Fishing for Rumors

[kbs666]

Originally Posted by Duggan

I suspect the occasional reboots are necessary for revenue, though. First of all, not everyone is going to use supplemental books and modules, so there's some segment of the population whose sales are more or less lost forever after the first sale. That one is, in part, one of the reasons most systems on HLC get only sporadic updates since it's not really driving new sales. Secondly, and this is not something I have any data to support, people seem more likely to pirate or secondhand supplemental items compared to the core book, where they like having a physical copy to pass around to the players. Lastly, the profit margin often isn't there. A single module requires a lot of work, artwork, etc, and then retails for a few dollars. The core book costs more to produce, but will likely sell more copies.

You're definitely right that new editions are a commercial necessity. However the successful ones are evolutions not new games with the same name.

2e AD&D was very different from first but clearly an evolution and things like THACO was just putting a name on something that had existed in First.

3rd was still just adding more systems and refining what already existed (same for 3.5)

4e was not. They tried to turn D&D into a pen and paper MMO with each class having a tightly defined role. People hated it and it did not sell well.

PF1 was a step forward from 3.5 but not that much of one. Renaming some skills and other stuff that really had little effect.

PF2 is not an evolution of PF1. The systems that had been stable and worked well not just throughout PF1 but stretching back to 1e AD&D were changed just for the sake of changing them. The systems that did not work in PF1, combat maneuvers to name a glaring example, got little if any attention. It may yet succeed but I strongly doubt it. There are going to be lots of people like me and Maidhc O Casain who have too much money in PF1 to move.