Dancey and Tweet on growing the hobby

From a recent interview:
http://www.silven.com/adnd.asp?case=show&id=332

Silven Crossroads said:

Q) What shape do you think D&D 4.0 would take in order to induce people to buy it or to bring new gamers into the hobby?

I do not believe that the core D&D books bring people into the hobby. I believe that the D&D intro box brings people into the hobby. (And I believe that its effects are significantly secondary to the effects of enthusiasts teaching friends and family at home, school, and work to play so they have someone to play with.)

At WotC, my staff developed a long-range plan that was designed to create a "pyramid" of products that started with 8 year olds and lead inexorably to the D&D Intro product later in life. The D&D intro box is the one product I can conclusively demonstrate had a direct impact on sales of the whole D&D product line, and it is that product that I think needs to be annually redesigned to reflect the absolute best in design ability and market research.

As a side note, Johnathan Tweet has outlined a plan that I think could workably be used to potentially increase core book sales without a huge design overhead. His idea was to make an annual "theme" for D&D. The obvious example is "anime". The "Anime D&D" books would use all new Anime art, Anime iconic characters, etc. but would use the 3.5 game rules virtually unchanged. Similar "themes" could include "Gothic Punk", "Arthurian Fantasy", "Cosmic Horror", etc. Such products could induce "fence sitters" who would like to play D&D but don't like the baseline fantasy imagery to buy and play the game.

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And cleverly add a small collectible element to the game since these would all be one shot releases....

I think these are both good ideas. I started playing D&D with a boxed set in 1980. The way to get new gamers is with the basic game. Although I might not buy a new set of core books with new art, it would be a nice marketing point.

The obvious example is "anime". The "Anime D&D" books would use all new Anime art, Anime iconic characters, etc. but would use the 3.5 game rules virtually unchanged. Similar "themes" could include "Gothic Punk",

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Countdown to public outrage, in 10 ..

As a side note, Johnathan Tweet has outlined a plan that I think could workably be used to potentially increase core book sales without a huge design overhead. His idea was to make an annual "theme" for D&D. The obvious example is "anime".

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That would be a good idea for people who just hate the art and/or cover/interior styles but does that actually prevent someone from buying a game book? Would it actually make a 'fence-sitter' change his mind about D&D if there were no rules changes?

After all, the theme of each of those types goes a lot deeper than just the outward style. If I wanted to buy 'Anime-D&D', I'd expect a lot more in the way of flavor-based rules (just off the top of my head, rules for some extreme martial arts styles, jumping huge distances, much more customizable classes; ie, I'd want BESM d20). If I wanted 'Cosmic Horror' D&D, I'd expect at least some rule on sanity checks at the least, and probably a 'default world' with fewer spells and monsters but with more notes on human/human-like foes.

The "Anime D&D" books would use all new Anime art, Anime iconic characters, etc. but would use the 3.5 game rules virtually unchanged. Similar "themes" could include "Gothic Punk", "Arthurian Fantasy", "Cosmic Horror", etc. Such products could induce "fence sitters" who would like to play D&D but don't like the baseline fantasy imagery to buy and play the game.

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This might be taken a bit out of context or something, but I sure hope this isn't going to dominate WotC's direction too much.

"Baseline" fantasy is what D&D is, and what attracts many gamers to it, IMO. Trying to expand into other areas too much by slapping the D&D logo on other genres may simply dilute D&D as a fantasy/sword and sorcery RPG.

To offer an example for comparison--Levis tried to use the Levis brand to sell non-jeans products a while back. The result was the image of Levis jeans was tarnished, people didn't have the same feeling of Levis jeans when you could also by Levis corduroy trousers.

As a side note, Johnathan Tweet has outlined a plan that I think could workably be used to potentially increase core book sales without a huge design overhead. His idea was to make an annual "theme" for D&D. The obvious example is "anime". The "Anime D&D" books would use all new Anime art, Anime iconic characters, etc. but would use the 3.5 game rules virtually unchanged. Similar "themes" could include "Gothic Punk", "Arthurian Fantasy", "Cosmic Horror", etc. Such products could induce "fence sitters" who would like to play D&D but don't like the baseline fantasy imagery to buy and play the game.

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Seems like a damn good idea to me. A heavily themed basic set or game guide (all the rules that hit the theme in one hardcover) a year supported by half a dozen modules and web support for a year or two afterwards might be a great idea. They'd have to be written for newbies or casual gamers and not ruleslawyer tomes however otherwise they'll chase the fence sitters away.

The big problem with this is the same one that TSR had: too many similar books means buyer confusion and paralyzation. If there are four similar books and you don't know which one to buy, you buy none of them.

WayneLigon said:

That would be a good idea for people who just hate the art and/or cover/interior styles but does that actually prevent someone from buying a game book? Would it actually make a 'fence-sitter' change his mind about D&D if there were no rules changes?

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Does that even matter, though? If I'm the target for 'come play D&D', odds are good I don't know the rules - it's the purty manga* pictures that drag me in, and the rules sneak up on me. If I'm an average Joe walking down the street, I don't know the first thing about D&D, but I may have an idea that I'd like to kill dragons and hang out with elf chicks for a while. Or something. I just don't know how, and forcing me to look at something I never knew existed works. Give me five years, then I can complain about broken spells and eternal revisions sucking my wallet dry. Of course, I probably spend equal chunks of money on PlayStation games with 8-hour lifespans. So that's not a big issue with something as flexible as an RPG ruleset.

Of course, you want rules that can be understood, something which boxed sets are often good at. And to satisfy the 'sophiste' crowd of mature D&Ders, throw in some setting-specific rules - the aforementioned 'jump good' rules or what have you.

The point of marketing D&D is to get people playing it, and it's the #1 gateway RPG. They don't want to be targeting the kind of person who's into GNS theory and bellcurve dice pools, they want to be targeting the kind of person who doesn't know about RPGs.

So I think that's actually a good idea. If they can pull it off right. Probably nothing'll come of it, but if it does, if they can get something cheap and playable out there, something the kids can play at lunch, it'll do the hobby a world of good.

* Manga = pictures on a page. Anime means animated, and I can't see a rulebook being made in broadcast form... Yes, I'm being horribly pedantic.

Expansion is expansion. Although I have no interest in anything Anime (including the direction psionics seems to be going in third edition--sadly), I'm perfectly happy to have Anime-loving purchasers buy products from WotC so that WotC can afford to continue to hire and pay high quality designers, artists, and other employees to continue to crank out the products I do want.

Go for it WotC. Expand however you'd like--trust me, I'll buy only what I want.

Dave