How slow is 5e “production” compared to others

[ZorroGames]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editions_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons

As always remember it is wikipedia, confirm from other sources ideally. This chart needed another chart to translate itself.

OD&D 1974 to 1977 (4 years)

AD&D (1st) 1977 to 1985 (8 years plus gap?)

This is pretty much the end of my first hand experience in depth until 2017.

AD&D 2nd 1989 to 1995 (6 years plus gap?) Reading books but not playing.

3rd 2000 (3 years)

3.5 2003 (5 years) total (8 years)

4th 2008 (2 years)

Essentials 2010 (whatever this means) I have no idea so I am going to ignore it until people here educate me.

5th 2014 (currently starting 5th year)

The whole, Basic, B/X, BECMI, RC version and “classic” thing is in a seperate column...

So in summary, OD&D 4 years, AD&D 1st 8-12 years, AD&D 2nd 6-11 years, 3.x 3 or 8 years depending on how you view editions, 4th 2 or 6 years (I am so confused,) and 5e now 4 years and counting?

The chart only dealt with core rules but personally I found splatbooks or new settings probably filled in those gaps but did not change rules significantly. So I guess we need firm numbers on how many official books were created in those to determine if the pace is relatively fast, slow, or inbetween

Edit: more research tonight or tomorrow...

[johnbragg]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editions_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons

As always remember it is wikipedia, confirm from other sources ideally. This chart needed another chart to translate itself.

OD&D 1974 to 1977 (4 years)

AD&D (1st) 1977 to 1985 (8 years plus gap?)

This is pretty much the end of my first hand experience in depth until 2017.

AD&D 2nd 1989 to 1995 (6 years plus gap?) Reading books but not playing.

3rd 2000 (3 years)

3.5 2003 (5 years) total (8 years)

4th 2008 (2 years)

Essentials 2010 (whatever this means) I have no idea so I am going to ignore it until people here educate me.

Essentials was a 4th edition product, intended I think to be a more basic introduction to the game. It did include some rules updates and errata, so I suspect there were some changes. WOTC apparently didn't like the idea that Essentials was "4.5".



5th 2014 (currently starting 5th year)

The whole, Basic, B/X, BECMI, RC version and “classic” thing is in a seperate column...

So in summary, OD&D 4 years, AD&D 1st 8-12 years, AD&D 2nd 6-11 years, 3.x 3 or 8 years depending on how you view editions, 4th 2 or 6 years (I am so confused,) and 5e now 4 years and counting?

If you want to get more confused, consider that WOTC put out playtest versions of the 5th edition rules starting in 2012 as "D&D Next". (In free PDF form.) I don't know if it's 100% accurate to therefore mark the end of 4th edition as 2012, because there were a good amount of things changed between the first playtest packets and the release of the actual books, so it's not 100% accurate to call D&D Next "official 5th edition."


The chart only dealt with core rules but personally I found splatbooks or new settings probably filled in those gaps but did not change rules significantly. So I guess we need firm numbers on how many official books were created in those to determine if the pace is relatively fast, slow, or inbetween.years

Someone will be along shortly with numbers. There were a LOT of 3rd edition (3.0 and 3.5) books produced in a fairly short time. 5th edition has had a more....deliberate release schedule. (Is that because they don't want to saturate the market with too many new-to-you books at once? Is it because Hasbro doesn't see D&D as a growth center and so isn't spending a lot of money on developers sitting around developing D&D products? I don't know.)

[Scots Dragon]

AD&D 1E and AD&D 2E published pretty constantly during their runs, making their duration around eleven years apiece.

D&D 5E has easily the most conservative and slow-moving publishing schedule I've seen out of the lot.

[Grod_The_Giant]

For 3.5...?

This (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?259706-3E-%28and-3-5%29-WotC-books-by-release-date&p=4874355&viewfull=1#post4874355).