Review Dragon Heist, Mad Mage, and Ravnica!

Three books over on the reviews section need your reviews, comments, or ratings. Please head on over to Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica and leave your rating!

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Other recent notable books awaiting ratings include Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition, Warhammer 40K Wrath & Glory Core Rules, and Masks of Nyarlathotep.

The system averages ratings to create an overall trending total once a book has 10 or more reviews.

 

[Kramodlog]

I'm fascinated by how the enthousiasm over new DnD books is low right now (my metric is how few people flock to review them nowadays, and how poorly they are rated), but sales of all DnD products are up 30% each years.

I wonder if books aren't the source of revenues they were and DMsguild and other licenses are driving it.

 

[eyeheartawk]

I'm fascinated by how the enthousiasm over new DnD books is low right now (my metric is how few people flock to review them nowadays, and how poorly they are rated), but sales of all DnD products are up 30% each years.

I wonder if books aren't the source of revenues they were and DMsguild and other licenses are driving it.

I think part of that review drought has to do with these particular releases. You've got to figure the enthusiasm for Forgotten Realms products certainly isn't at its zenith given we've already had a bunch of Realms stuff. In the case of Ravnica, I think the number of ratings reflect the general lack of interest in Magic the Gathering among the type of RPG enthusiasts who would rate a book such as this.

 

[EthanSental]

Maybe I’m overlooking something but mad mage has 3 reviews, all 4 out of 5 stars but a overall score of 75...shouldn’t it be 80 or is the overall scoring not determined that way?

 

[jayoungr]

I'm fascinated by how the enthousiasm over new DnD books is low right now (my metric is how few people flock to review them nowadays...

The number of reviews is highly likely to increase after the holidays. A lot of people are probably expecting to get these as presents over the next month or so.

 

[Morrus]

Maybe I’m overlooking something but mad mage has 3 reviews, all 4 out of 5 stars but a overall score of 75...shouldn’t it be 80 or is the overall scoring not determined that way?

There's no zero rating. There's five 25% increments (including 0% and 100%):

1=0%, 2=25%, 3=50%, 4=75%, 5=100%.

 

[EthanSental]

Thanks! Didnt know that Or maybe forgot

 

[vpuigdoller]

I generally like the three books but not in love with them but I agree most reviews will probably come after the holiday season. I do hope they keep publishing pseudo campaign settings like the Ravnica book it just needs some polishing.

 

[lluewhyn]

I'm fascinated by how the enthousiasm over new DnD books is low right now (my metric is how few people flock to review them nowadays, and how poorly they are rated), but sales of all DnD products are up 30% each years.

I wonder if books aren't the source of revenues they were and DMsguild and other licenses are driving it.

I love a lot of the accessories WotC has put out for D&D over the years (I just bought the 0-6 CR Monster Cards last night and are eager to try them out), but I've been mostly unhappy with the official published adventures they've put out. I've found much greater satisfaction with the smaller, cheaper adventures found on these third-party sites.

 

[Jester David]

I'm fascinated by how the enthousiasm over new DnD books is low right now (my metric is how few people flock to review them nowadays, and how poorly they are rated), but sales of all DnD products are up 30% each years.

It's almost as if we're not representative of the overall audience.
Like as if there were suddenly three times as many D&D players out there right now, most never having played before, and not frequenting the same websites as their parents...

I wonder if books aren't the source of revenues they were and DMsguild and other licenses are driving it.

DMsGuild is doing okay. So much so that DriveThru RPG needed to add two new metal for their bestsellers: mithral and adamantine. Because there were too many Platinum bestsellers.
But even then, Mithral selling products are still only in the 2500 copies sold range. Only 67 have hit that.
Meanwhile, 90.73% of products haven't even sold 50 copies.
So they're not getting much money from the fans.

Even the official PDFs of class products are lucky to hit platinum. Most are well below that. But they likely only make a few sales every day.
That said, it's easy money for WotC as they just need sit back and let the sales trickle in. A buck here, some quarters there. It adds up.
But it's still nothing compared to the revenue of selling 50,000 copies of a book. It's not going to sustain WotC.