Charles Ryan on Adventures

[Sir Elton]

Tome of Magic fits that bill pretty nicely. Three completely original caster mechanics.

I'm talking setting, not sourcebooks! I would like Wizards to get a He-Man license; and do a D&D setting based off of He-Man.

 

[MerricB]

The only modules I've heard real buzz about are the revisits of classics they are doing like Expedition to Ravenloft.

You must have missed the massive buzz over the Red Hand of Doom.

Cheers!

 

[Agamon]

You must have missed the massive buzz over the Red Hand of Doom.

Cheers!

And Slaughtergarde, to a lesser extent. I want this adventure, but can't find it around here at all.

There's buzz over the new FR AP adventures.

And the Expeditions are a big chunk of what Wizards is putting out, adventure-wise.

But, I agree, Dungeon is a DM's best friend. All this means is that I'll be able to keep playing 3.5E without having to create completely original material long after 4E is introduced...

 

[Pramas]

SOrry for the threadomancy, but, I thought this was interesting.

Curse you for making me read all that again.

I knew the thread sounded familiar and I wondered if I had said anything. Guess you could say that.

 

[Glyfair]

Isn't there an overload of adventures already? I mean Dungeon puts out 3-4 adventures a magazine.

There are many things that can't be done in the limited amount of space Dungeon allows. In fact, Paizo recognizes this. They are releasing adventures as part of their Gamemastery line.

Are the adventures really profitable for WotC or is it that they had to fill a particular vaccum in support for their own product and didn't really have any other options but to publish them?

And wasn't it WotC that originally claimed adventures weren't profitable?

I don't believe it was ever said they weren't profitable. Just not profitable enough. A large publisher has a bar that is higher than the smaller publishers for profit. Why publish an adventure that might make you 1/10 of what you would make if you put that effort into another project.

The answer is clearly because adventures are needed in the market as a support product. WotC expected that niche to largely be covered by d20 companies and Dungeon magazine. For the most part, d20 companies have stopped creating them. The exceptions are a couple of companies who specialize in them. However, WotC clearly feels it's not enough support.

The same copies of Red Hand of Doom, Gates of Slaughtergarde, and the "Fantastic Locations" modules have been sitting in the Borders and FLGS around where I work for a while.

Are you certain they are the same copies and not reorders? Even so, RPG products send to sell heavily within the first month or two and then die off quickly.

The "Fantastic Location" series is generally considered a failure by WotC (mentioned at the "D&D Xperience"). I'm sure a long discussion about why and how to fix it could be made. I think a large part is the RPG customers saw it as a DDM product and often ignored it. Even as a fan of the concept, I think the RPG section felt tacked on. I think it could have been a success if they created it as an RPG product of some sort (a location based adventure, for example) and then added to maps to the product.

 

[Imaro]

Are you certain they are the same copies and not reorders? Even so, RPG products send to sell heavily within the first month or two and then die off quickly.

.

Hey I just realized it's not The Red Hand of Doom, it's Scourge of the Howling Horde that's been sitting in Borders forever. Now that think about it I don't think I've actually run across Red Hand of Doom, I think I've been mixing these two modules up for a while...DUH!

 

[diaglo]

SOrry for the threadomancy, but, I thought this was interesting.

We've known that the modules are coming for almost a year before they hit the shelves. And they hit pretty well IMO. Funnily enough, many of the predictions in the thread did not materialize. WOTC made modules profitable, not by tying them to DDM, but by actually innovating the module and making them easier to run.

A little blast from the past.

well they didn't forget the DDM either. nor the Dungeon Tiles.

 

[TerraDave]

And Slaughtergarde, to a lesser extent. I want this adventure, but can't find it around here at all.

Just got this. Looks very cool. And deserves more buzz then it has gotten.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Are the adventures really profitable for WotC or is it that they had to fill a particular vaccum in support for their own product and didn't really have any other options but to publish them?

And wasn't it WotC that originally claimed adventures weren't profitable?

As mentioned, it's a matter of "not profitable enough" most likely. I mean, they were also getting rid of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, so it's not like WotC has the lock on whether something is a perfect idea for every company.

I think the adventures have been pretty good myself, and there's no way Dungeon could institute the Delve format.

 

[MerricB]

Hey I just realized it's not The Red Hand of Doom, it's Scourge of the Howling Horde that's been sitting in Borders forever. Now that think about it I don't think I've actually run across Red Hand of Doom, I think I've been mixing these two modules up for a while...DUH!

Yeah, Scourge of the Howling Horde is probably the weakest of their recent adventures. It's not bad for newbies - which is who it is aimed at - but it has production problems, and a bad price point.

Cheers!