That's it, That's it exactly. People Will buy the PHB to play D&D FIRST the
Espionage game will be a secondary purchase. They aren't overpaying for the
rules to the Espionage game, they are paying for the D&D game which contains
free of charge the espionage rules. Imagine two shelves at the game store. One
for WOTC and one for non-WOTC D20. The WOTC shelf contains the PHB and other D&D
books, Star Wars which has a D20 logo, but is not open etc. The other shelf has
a big sign reading D20, Uses the D20 PHB. On that Shelf is the espionage game
along with twenty other games. All of those games "Require" the PHB. Now it
truely is a value. With one $20 book, the average player has a source for the
basic rules of potentially dozens of games. AND, that player has the knowledge
of basic mechanics and could play the game fully with perhaps only a small cheat
sheet.
OOO, OOO, Imagine how much money a company could make if they sold $25 core
books with all the specifics about a game (race and setting) and the minor rules
variations including different skills, feats and equipment. and $2 player
cheatsheets including only the basic rules changes and such. The Core book would
sell to GMs and the Cheat sheets could be run off at Kinkos $0.50 a pop Easy to
keep in stock and easy on the gamer's pocket.
Corey Reid wrote:
>
> What WotC is betting is that you'll buy the D&D PHB anyway. Not JUST to play
> your espionage game, but because they're figuring that everyone in the
> industry will buy one.
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