D&D 5E What comes after the 2025 Monster Manual?

[EzekielRaiden]

If I'm being perfectly honest? A whole lot of not much. The release pace of 5e was glacially slow, and mostly focused on spells and subclasses, with a light sprinkling of feats. I'm just...terribly unenthused about that, and based on what we've seen and heard, I've very little hope of any real change at WotC.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I suddenly had the realization that any full FR setting book (and not just a regional update which the Thay adventure might have) would have to come after a likely Xanatar's/Tasha's book with new/updated subclasses, simply because four subclasses for clerics isn't going to work with the varied deities of the setting. They would otherwise have to either forgo suggestions for subclasses for the deities (which, admittedly, they might very well do anyway), or list subclasses from pre-2024 material.

I do have to think that a book with updated subclasses and species (and a 2024 version of the artificer) has to be high on their list of things to do, quite possibly with a release sometime in 2025. It would no doubt be a popular release. I'd suspect we might see some new UA stuff once the PHB hype starts winding down a bit...

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Well, more or less. The day that they put up Lost Mines as a POD on DMs Guild, I'm grabbing it. The changes made to it for Phandelver and Below are bizarre.

I don't disagree. The Starter Set and its Adventure, Lost Mines of Phandelver were top notch products that sold and sold and sold. Phandelver & Below is... an interesting Adventure with some neat ideas, most of which (IMO) belong no where near the original.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Oh wow, that's unexpected. That's certainly never been done in the previous editions to my knowledge beyond the core books!

I don't think it ever happened before. I know that OD&D did multiple printings on things, but that was probably because the first runs were relatively tiny. I know that it was very rare in 2e, 3e, and for any non-core book to remain available for very long past the time it came out. I can't swear that none of them had 2nd runs, but they certainly didn't have very many.

Edit to point out that I include the 2e "Brown Books" as core in the above assessment, or more importantly, I meant to be speaking about Adventures, or what we called Modules, not crunch books! Crunch books usually get a few printings, every edition!

But there has to be a point if they're doing extra print runs it's going to get asked why they aren't bothering to update outdated sections to the new rules.

Again - that was the whole point of "backwards compatibility" from WotC's PoV (and most "casual" or "newer" fan, the relatively small rules sections in most of the Adventures are "close enough" to compatible to not make much of a difference.

It's possible that they'll get to them eventually, sure, but I doubt that they're in any hurry.

(As an aside, I'd love to know what printing they're on for each of the adventure modules - is that tracked in the cover page anymore?)

I'll have a look. This conversation has me interested, too. Though I'll have to take into account that any book I look at on my store's shelf may not be the current printing for various reasons.

 

[Belen]

Oh wow, that's unexpected. That's certainly never been done in the previous editions to my knowledge beyond the core books! But there has to be a point if they're doing extra print runs it's going to get asked why they aren't bothering to update outdated sections to the new rules.

(As an aside, I'd love to know what printing they're on for each of the adventure modules - is that tracked in the cover page anymore?)

As a publisher, I doubt they are doing more print runs. It is expensive to go ack to print. If they have copied remaining, then it is because they printed an overrun and it remains in warehouses.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Lots of 2E stuff got multiple print runs; it may be a minority of the whole (mostly core game supplements and essential setting items), but you can see it in logo changes for both TSR and the AD&D game, company address changes after the WotC takeover, format changes in some cases (the leatherette supplements changed to cheaper stock or standard paperback, and even some hardcovers went to softcover), and other indicators. The Ravenloft Campaign Setting (the Red Box) stated that the original Realm of Terror set had gone through three print runs from 1990 to 1994 before being replaced with the new version.

As for the original question? War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

As a publisher, I doubt they are doing more print runs. It is expensive to go ack to print. If they have copied remaining, then it is because they printed an overrun and it remains in warehouses.

They have definitely done more than one print run on many of the books. I wouldn't say all of them - certainly not yet on recent ones - but they absolutely have printed the early ones more than once.

 

[Belen]

Lots of 2E stuff got multiple print runs; it may be a minority of the whole (mostly core game supplements and essential setting items), but you can see it in logo changes for both TSR and the AD&D game, company address changes after the WotC takeover, format changes in some cases (the leatherette supplements changed to cheaper stock or standard paperback, and even some hardcovers went to softcover), and other indicators. The Ravenloft Campaign Setting (the Red Box) stated that the original Realm of Terror set had gone through three print runs from 1990 to 1994 before being replaced with the new version.

As for the original question? War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death.

Sure, but it depends on demand for most publishers. You reprint when you run out of stock but people continue to order; however, you still need to gauge interest because printers have minimum sized print runs and you need to be able to make a profit.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Lots of 2E stuff got multiple print runs; it may be a minority of the whole (mostly core game supplements and essential setting items), but you can see it in logo changes for both TSR and the AD&D game, company address changes after the WotC takeover, format changes in some cases (the leatherette supplements changed to cheaper stock or standard paperback, and even some hardcovers went to softcover), and other indicators. The Ravenloft Campaign Setting (the Red Box) stated that the original Realm of Terror set had gone through three print runs from 1990 to 1994 before being replaced with the new version.

As for the original question? War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death.

I was speaking to Adventures. Yeah, crunch books tend to get reprints - that's true of most editions!

Here's some fun facts for you, @Stormonu & @Belen & anyone who's curious:

I had a look at my store's D&D shelf. Most of the 5e Adventures are on their 3rd or 4th prints, while the earlier ones (Such as OotA & SKT) are up to 8th or 9th print!

The PHB is at 17th Print. This is from what's on my shelf, and some of them may not be current prints, either because they've been on my shelf (it's possible that I've had later prints which people have grabbed first before earlier ones - not on purpose, most of the time, just randomly) or on my distributor's shelf. The PHB is probably current, because it turns over too often not to be.

So yeah... they've kept them in print.

 

[mamba]

Say you're new to D&D with 2024, and you see an old adventure on the shelves. It looks pretty neat to you. The 2024 core rulebooks are telling you the old stuff is compatible. You check and there's no sign of an updated version in the works. Why wouldn't you take the new rulebooks at their word, and buy the old adventure?

you would and you should

Later, they do release an update. Some folks might be unhappy, and feel like they made a mistake. But, this new version works better with your 2024 books. And there's new stuff in there, too! Maybe you'll just go ahead and buy it a second time. Just like the 2014-era fans might.

yeah, still splitting your userbase... I understand that it might generate some sales, I just do not think it is worth the hassle of creating the perception of incompatibility, so I do not expect WotC to do this