More WotC Reprints; 3.5 This Time. WTF?

EDIT: Turns out B&N has now taken down “Provolone” and the two
3.5 reprints that were up there yesterday.

Well isn’t this interesting? It’s certainly been a day for news from Wizards of the Coast.

Remember how the reprints of the core 1E rulebooks caused such a stir, and they were then postponed a bit? Well now it seems that Barnes & Noble has put two of the 3.5 rulebooks up on their website for pre-order, going on sale September 18:

Players Handbook
Dungeon Masters Guide

Maybe Monte Cook disagreed with the corporate decision to re-release 3.5, as he thought it might compete with 5E? That’s pure speculation, of course, but there’s a lot of oddness coming out of WotC in the last day or so, and no mistake.

Written by 

Wargamer and RPG'er since the 1970's, author of Adventures Dark and Deep, Castle of the Mad Archmage, and other things, and proprietor of the Greyhawk Grognard blog.

13 thoughts on “More WotC Reprints; 3.5 This Time. WTF?

  1. Am I to understand they are re-releasing the 3.5 PHB and DMG?

    I have to say, I've been following them on Ebay and they are tricky to get cheap….

    How odd…

  2. I'm not even sure why they are reprinting 1st ed. Is this some sort of apology to the players for the 4th edition? 3.5 is not that far away into the past that people can't get their hands on the books for a very good price (just check eBay) so I don't quite get the point of this reprint.

  3. This is turning out to be a D&D rapture, where all the dead editions are resurrected…but instead of a second coming it's a fifth coming 😉

  4. I'd agree with Wes. I'd love to see the RC reprinted if only because my old copy (currently sitting on my nightstand) is falling apart and I'm afraid to look at it funny anymore.

    I suspect, in the end, that the reprints are because somebody convinced the higher ups that reprinting them won't cost sales simply because those who will buy the reprints either would never have bought the new edition in the first place, or would have purchased it in any case and will buy the reprint if for no other reason than nostalgia or replacing a damaged copy.

    WOTC/HASBRO lose virtually nothing by letting them back into print again, and stand lots to gain.

    That's my thought anyway.

  5. That's interesting for sure. Never invested into 3.5 though. If I play 3e, for me it's 3.0 before the "improvements" which made it even more complex. As a side note, "Provolone" is the name of an Italian cheese (yum!)

Comments are closed.