The Dungeon Master's Guild has been around for about a week now, and in that time nearly 500 player-created products have been uploaded to the website. It can't be denied that the thing is spurring a blast of creativity. Anyhow, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the most popular items on offer, as well as the highest rated items, which include new archetypes, an Epic Level Handbook, some Forgotten Realms background material, and various monsters and feats.
UPDATE: Three of the items listed below have been removed from the store. I've noted them accordingly.
[h=4]Most Popular Items[/h]
The ten most popular items are as follows. I've listed the price in the last column, and where an item is Pay What You Want (PWYW), I've noted the average contribution. I've no idea what the actual sales figures of these items are, but it's interesting that the first two by Matthew Mercer have 40+ ratings, while the third drops to 7 ratings. Of course, Mercer's work was on there from launch.
[h=4]Highest Rated Items[/h]
For highest rated items, I have not included items with fewer than 5 ratings. Most items only have 1-2 ratings, so that took some pecking and hunting!
[h=4]Lowest Rated Items[/h]
It'd be a bit mean to highlight the less well thought of items on the site (so I guess I lied a bit in the article title), but talking in general terms there are 10 1-star items there, and 33 2-star items. That's not too bad out of a selection of nearly 500 products, and implies that the quality on DM's Guild is reasonable. I count 171 items with more than 3-stars, which - when you consider that a lot have not been rated at all - puts the average item above average in quality.
One of WotC's stated aims for DMsG was to spot upcoming new writers. From the above lists, James Introcaso has two items in the top-10 rated list. I'm already aware of him from the excellent Round Table podcast, as well as some of the 5E articles he's written for EN5ider. Scott Holden has two of the most popular items on DMsG, and so could be worth following.
UPDATE: Three of the items listed below have been removed from the store. I've noted them accordingly.
[h=4]Most Popular Items[/h]
The ten most popular items are as follows. I've listed the price in the last column, and where an item is Pay What You Want (PWYW), I've noted the average contribution. I've no idea what the actual sales figures of these items are, but it's interesting that the first two by Matthew Mercer have 40+ ratings, while the third drops to 7 ratings. Of course, Mercer's work was on there from launch.
| 1 | Gunslinger Martial Archetype for Fighters | Matthew Mercer | PWYW ($1.64) |
| 2 | Blood Hunter Class | Matthew Mercer | PWYW ($1.57) |
| 3 | Extra Feats (5E) | Igor PhoenixRion | $1 |
| 4 | DnD 5e Epic Level Handbook [since removed] | Gerard Shore, Mark Altfuldisch | PWYW ($1.63) |
| 5 | Blood Magic (5E) | Joshua Raynack | PWYW ($1.25) |
| 6 | New Feats | Andrew James Woodyard | $1 |
| 7 | D&D Denizens: Drow & Driders | Scott Holden | $0.99 |
| 8 | Swordmage Class | Juan Marcano | $0.99 |
| 9 | D&D Citizens | Scott Holden | $2.95 |
| 10 | D&D 5th Edition Spell Cards [since removed] | Matthew Perkins | PWYW ($2.30) |
For highest rated items, I have not included items with fewer than 5 ratings. Most items only have 1-2 ratings, so that took some pecking and hunting!
| 1 | The Food Fight - An Acquisitions Incorporated Sidetrek [since removed] | Daniel Sweatman |
| 2 | 3 for 1$ DiBastests's Archetypes #04 - Druid | Diego Bastet |
| 3 | Troll Trouble | Gary Whicker |
| 4 | 15 New Backgrounds - World Builder Blog Presents | James Introcaso |
| 5 | Adventure Template For OpenOffice/LibreOffice | Dale Robbins |
| 6 | Catastrophic Dragons - World Builder Blog Presents | James Introcaso |
| 7 | Gunslinger Martial Archetype for Fighters | Matthew Mercer |
| 8 | Kobold Triggerer - Fifth Edition Monsters #01 | Igor Moreno |
| 9 | Races Revived: Slythe | Dylan Serra |
| 10 | The High History of Impiltur | George Krashos |
It'd be a bit mean to highlight the less well thought of items on the site (so I guess I lied a bit in the article title), but talking in general terms there are 10 1-star items there, and 33 2-star items. That's not too bad out of a selection of nearly 500 products, and implies that the quality on DM's Guild is reasonable. I count 171 items with more than 3-stars, which - when you consider that a lot have not been rated at all - puts the average item above average in quality.
One of WotC's stated aims for DMsG was to spot upcoming new writers. From the above lists, James Introcaso has two items in the top-10 rated list. I'm already aware of him from the excellent Round Table podcast, as well as some of the 5E articles he's written for EN5ider. Scott Holden has two of the most popular items on DMsG, and so could be worth following.
