There is an average of two $30 Books released every month.

We are getting D&D books at a faster rate than a magazine subscription!!!!

Just think about that. Its rediculus.

D&D needs to slow down. Maybe if they released one book every 2 months they wouldnt be burning out so fast and 4th edition wouldnt be necessary for a long time.

Sadly there isn't much profit in modules it seems. I can't remember when the last time I ran a published adventure. I don't imagine the Fantastic Locations products would sell as well as they have without them being skirmish legal maps.

Red Hand of Doom seems like a set in the right direction for published adventures.

The problem with Adventures is you can only run them once, maybe twice and then they aren't of much use where as supplement books can potentialy be used over and over again assuming they have useful information to begin with.

[QUOTE]Orion72 wrote
Remember back in the good old days, when they used to publish adventures instead of rulebooks?[/QUOTE]

Luckily those days are returning as of NEXT MONTH!. 
Im VERY greatful for that. Thrilled actually.

September 06 - The Twilight Tomb
October 06 - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft
November 06 - Scourge of the Howling Horde
December 06 - The Shattered Gates of Slaughterford
January 07 - NO ADVENTURE :(
February 07 - Barrow of the Forgotten King
March 07 - Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave
April 07 - Expedition to the Demonweb Pits AND The Curse of the Dragon's Eye

Plus "Barrow of the Forgotten King" and "Cormyr:The Tearing of the Weave" are both Part-1s to trilogies! So there are 4 more adventures other than those listed at the very least. 

There is an average of two $30 Books released every month.

We are getting D&D books at a faster rate than a magazine subscription!!!!

Just think about that. Its rediculus.

D&D needs to slow down. Maybe if they released one book every 2 months they wouldnt be burning out so fast and 4th edition wouldnt be necessary for a long time.

[/QUOTE]Quoted for truth.  I'm already so saturated with books, that there is little more new rules information that I need.  The options available are great, but they're somewhat overwhelming as well.  I'd much rather see new adventures than 2 new books per month.

Think about this for a moment.  With this publication schedule, there is almost no way to build significant product synergy into the minis line.  We get 3 minis sets per year (approx 180 minis) and about 24 new books to draw figures from.  At most you'll see just a few figures from each book with the rest of the potentially cool figures left in the dust of the next new release.

Anyway, the simplest solution is to not buy what you don't need.  There a quite a few books of mine that I haven't even read cover to cover yet, let alone worked into my weekly game.  I don't feel a pressing need for much more.

Like the D&D brand needs to show X profit per month.  When they started to not hit that goal, they pushed their publishing schedule.  Sure each book may not sell as many, but as long as the combined sales allow them to hit their Profit goals...

There is NO doubt that this strategy WILL push the date of 4E up.  It may still be 2 years away (or more!), but it has to be moved up when they churn through the idea's so quickly.

And as an old Grognard, I'd say that I use adventures all the time, and go back to some over and over.  I've used parts or all of A2 nearly a dozen times since it was published...

Pat E

[QUOTE]gss_000 wrote
...

As for the amount we're paying compared to a magazine subscription, while it is more, if you start thinking about the $/hour of enjoyment you are actually getting it works out a lot better.  With a magazine, say it's a $30 subscription and you read each one for 2 hours, you're paying $1.25/hour over that one year subscription.  Think about how many hours you use the PHBand DMG and it is pennies for the hour over time (I've had mine for 3 years, reading them took about 2-3 hours, using them on average 3 times a month for 4 hours each time and that comes out to $.20/hour and it's just going down).  Now those are extreme examples and sure, if you don't use a book $30 is a waste of money.  But in a lot of ways RPG books that you use are a much better bang for the buck than other forms of entertainment.
[/QUOTE]

Some valid points but I certainly think my Dungeon Magazine Subscription is a great value.  A cheap module normally runs $10 and up but each Dungeon contains three at a lower cover price.  While not entirely accurate a one year subscription that included the entire adventure path cost about half of what the hard cover compilation does.  Dungeon anyway is far more than a 2 hour magazine if you intend to use it.

While not true of all the supplements I agree that RPGs are a great entertainment value.  Besides providing entertainment they also provide an education for everyone who uses them and promotes a true social activity that isn't (usually) hazardous to ones health.

[QUOTE]Orion72 wrote
Remember back in the good old days, when they used to publish adventures instead of rulebooks?[/QUOTE]

Remember back in the good old days, when TSR foundered because they were losing money trying to publish adventures which didn't sell nearly as well as rulebooks?