Chris Perkins: Reintroducing Settings in Ways that Surprise People

WotC's D&D Story Manager, Chris Perkins, was the subject of an interview by a chap called Chris "Wacksteven" Iannitti. One of the topics covered is campaign setting books; Perkins says that they want to reintroduce settings in "surprising" ways, and that they're not guaranteed to be books. (thanks to Mistwell for the scoop)

The video is below, but if you can't watch it right now, here are the highlights as listed by pukunui on WotC's website:

• He can't talk about products that haven't been announced yet
• They value all of their worlds, as each one has "tons of fans"
• They are focusing on specific areas within settings to detail and "codify" via their story bibles
• Their goal is to "challenge people's expectations" re: sourcebooks
• They're "not interested in releasing books for the sake of releasing books anymore"
• They want book releases to be events that will "surprise and delight people"; they also want to put out books that people will actually use rather than books that will just get put on a shelf to "stay there and slowly rot"
• "One of our creative challenges is to package [setting] material - reintroduce facts and important details about our worlds - in a way that we know that DMs and players are going to use, that's going to excite them, that's actually going to surprise them. We may get that content out, but I'm not going to guarantee it's going to be a book. I'm not going to guarantee that it's going to be anything that you've seen before. But it will be something."

[video=youtube;alnwC34qUFs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alnwC34qUFs&feature=youtu.be[/video]
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[Jeff Albertson]

Perfect, absolutely dig, they just keep nailing it for me with this edition. There is no need at this point to release a fifth FR campaign setting book/boxed set, etc.

 

[DMZ2112]

It will be something.

Good to know!

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Very interesting!

Can't really watch the video right now, as I'm ENWorlding at work (heh), but the vibe I'm getting off the summary is that we won't be seeing any campaign setting books this year or next year. I was never 100% convinced we would, but I figured it was a good contender for a potential late 2015 release. Now I'm wondering if campaign setting content will be limited to the adventure path books, or if we're going to see campaign setting "spotlight" articles online as well.

The "not interested in releasing books for the sake of releasing books anymore" line is what's most interesting to me, though. Pretty much tracks with what I've been saying all along - they're not interested in book sales per se anymore, or in competing with Paizo in the pen-and-paper sales arena. The paradigm's shifted to the amount of groups playing, and I suspect they have data saying most groups don't really buy all that much beyond the core books. With the Big Three having been released they're investing less resources into the tabletop game and more into tie-ins like Sword Coast Legends and the Elemental Evil board game, where they're more likely to see the kinds of returns they're looking for.

 

[Kramodlog]

This would indicate that campaign settings are gone.

focusing on specific areas within settings to detail and "codify"

They'll just focus on some area of a campaign setting in their APs.

Perkins' work schedule is crazy. He doesn't even have time to DM. I would have thought that with such a smakk staff (15), they wouldn't need that many meetings. Even when factoring 3rd parties he has to guide with stories, WotC seems to have lots of red tap.

I'm not sure APs are the books who spend the less time rotting on shelves. Paizo staff said that most gamers do not finish APs. Re-use is limited too. Campaign settings see more use. Lore doesn't depend on mechanics and this is why old campaign setting books are still used.

 

[Zaran]

I think they should focus on making books people want to buy. I want to buy setting books. I don't want to buy adventure paths.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Even when factoring 3 parties he has to guide with stories, WotC seems to have lots of red tap.

I think we all have that, until we bleed out.

 

[Uchawi]

The challenge for WOTC is finding the right juxtaposition between all their worlds. Each one has unique qualities and I believe they do not want to end up with watered down story lines that carry more generic themes and elements just so it can fit into FR, versus Greyhawk, versus Eberron. The other challenge is the thirst for more content, and I realize the value of quality over quantity, but that does not mean release stuff at a snails pace. And where I am really worried is the desire to add more crunch to the game, whether that is maneuvers, feats, spells, items or magic in general. IF they have a slow release schedule and the ratio of new spells versus feats, etc. is 4 to 1, then that does not bode well.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

The challenge for WOTC is finding the right juxtaposition between all their worlds. Each one has unique qualities and I believe they do not want to end up with watered down story lines that carry more generic themes and elements just so it can fit into FR, versus Greyhawk, versus Eberron. The other challenge is the thirst for more content, and I realize the value of quality over quantity, but that does not mean release stuff at a snails pace. And where I am really worried is the desire to add more crunch to the game, whether that is maneuvers, feats, spells, items or magic in general. IF they have a slow release schedule and the ratio of new spells versus feats, etc. is 4 to 1, then that does not bode well.

Why does it not bode well?

The splat-crunch-avalanche has not worked out too well, so far; burn out; maybe they are trying to actually alter a bad tradition.

"…tradition is the illusion of permanence…"

-Woody Allen

 

[MoonSong]

This all just feels like a subtle way to say we won't see a full CS anymore....