D&D 5E One of the biggest problems with WoTC's vision of published adventures

[CapnZapp]

At the end of the day... I don't think you're ever going to get what you want because I suspect they just make more money bundling 7 "adventures" together into a single book (calling them "Chapters") and having DMs buy all of them at once... then they would by spending the same time, resources, and money on 7 completely different modules and selling them individually (where any DM might only pick up 1 to 3 of them.) Which means your only choice is to buy the full-sized books and treat those "Chapters" as individual stories with the serial numbers filed off, and then mixing and matching different chapters from all the books together depending on where the PCs want to go. So you might re-route off and away from the Caravan chapter in Hoard, and instead find yourselves advancing on Wave Echo Caves instead.

Also remember that the above discusses print products on one hand and pdf distribution on the other.

I think the simplest answer can be summarized as:

1) the hidden truth in rpg publishing is that core rulebooks earn money. Adventures never earn money.
2) the game needs adventures anyway - releasing a game without official adventures is doomed to failure
3a) lets limit ourselves to the surest bet: huge but few megamodules that everybody buys so we don't lose too much and still fulfil the necessary supply according to 2)

and

3b) lets leave the "smaller adventures" bit to the fans and 3PP. Even if that means no print products (since if we won't do it, small-time operations sure won't either). But there is PDF.

So lets open up an "app store" where people can publish their adventures as low-cost PDFs. We (WotC) wouldn't want to do PDF products anyway, because I) we're in the paper publishing industry and II) PDF products are seldom seen as "big releases" (not official enough, not enough quality, not "tangible" enough)

But we can still recoup our costs by skimming 20% (?) on top of what people would do anyway in return for a "safe haven" where they can use our IP safely.

A win-win-win scenario for us, the publisher.

Still no 32 page modules in our LFGSs for us, the fans, though.

And a bewildering array of DMsG offerings of hugely variable quality with next to no critical analysis to help you decide what truly is good.

 

[CapnZapp]

I also find myself disoriented and curious. Did the great board crash throw us all into a time warp back 15 years or so?

Must... resist... reply

 

[CapnZapp]

Indeed, IIRC, this was one argument Ryan Dancey put forth for the original OGL: "All these other guys will crank out the low profit adventure modules for us, and we can focus on the high margin supplements".

If only there were a way to write the OGL/SRD so that...

...those other guys were actually limited to adventure modules... and not, say, complete rewrites of the rules...

...any products had to be printed (on dead trees) and not just released as PDF. It is precisely because actual print products are so much more expensive, you can't afford to release hogwash. Not to say all d20 print adventures were good, but I can't imagine being able to release as PDF only helps with quality control...

To shift back from nostalgia to constructive approach, yes, the biggest problem (for me) with DMsG is the lack of transparency.

The little discussion of an adventure module there is, is often limited to useless gushing by fanboys.

I have never seen the width and breadth of comprehensive discussion that we regularly afford to WotC's print modules of any DMsG module IIRC.

Is this purely because it isn't 1st party official material? Or purely because it's PDF.

I don't think so - I think only print products from WotC itself gain that kind of attention.

Therefore I want print products from WotC itself

 

[wedgeski]

Does sharing a bucket of KFC with the DM count?

It does for me!

 

[Zardnaar]

I have been drinking heavily from the 3PP adventures so yeah you can get multiple adventures and halve the xp you give out or even cut it by 10 if you want slower levelling.

Its just not gonna work with WoTC mega campaigns which I don't use anyway and I own 4 books of them.

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

I've used a few Pathfinder adventures, converting them can be as easy or as complicated as you like.

Prepping a WOTC one compared to a Paizo one can take the same amount of time, or even less depending on how particular you are.

I've used Feast of Ravenmoor & Fangwood Keep and they were both top notch and were easy to prep/convert.

Plus, the Paizo ones can be purchased as PDF's, and discussions, reviews etc available (unlike dmguild titles). Pathfinder folks really like talking about Pathfinder stuff !

http://paizo.com/pathfinder/modules/pathfinderRPG

 

[jasper]

?
Pen, paper, dice, people to play with, place & time to play, snacks, PHB, DMG, MM, imagination.
Yep, I've got all of them. I'm set.

Dear Mr ccs,
It has come to our attention that your imagination is neither Capt Zapp or TSR (A Hasbro division) approved. You are in violation of trademark. As result we have scheduled a 3 thug (srd page 402) beat down. At what time do you want them to show up/
Midnight.
0530 because you like a good blanket party.
1200 In time for lunch period.
1600 to chill after work
2000 because you can't go to sleep without a good beating.
Thank you,
Sincerely TSR Trade Thug lawyers.

PS. Remember to tip Terrance Thug as he has kids to feed.

 

[jasper]

jester...Levels are gained much faster now. That's a pretty deliberate decision so people can reach the end of the story. Years of looking at how people okay has shown that campaigns tend to die and end before the story reaches its conclusion. The longer it takes a campaign to reach its climax
......
And except for the lucky people who had a stable table for more 2 years, (boo hiss) I think you right. Even when I had my own home before 3E I had gamers rotating out for various reasons.

 

[mcintma]

Man, I just miss the module format with pull-outs and detachable cover, more easy to reference because it can be laid flat easily and tended to be under 20 pages. It cost say $10 so you didn't feel terrible writing notes in there, or pressing down the spine etc., either.

WotC have produced mostly excellent adventures, kudos to them, but I'd like to see that quality work broken up (e.g. SKT could be 2-3 softcover modules). This may be bad for profits I guess, but on the plus side it would keep the fanbase hyped as new (though smaller) product would be coming more regularly.

 

[Jer]

This may be bad for profits I guess, but on the plus side it would keep the fanbase hyped as new (though smaller) product would be coming more regularly.

Not necessarily. If they were putting out a softcover product every 2 months there might be a lot of hype for the start of the storyline, but it would likely fall off and succeeding volumes wouldn't receive as much hype. And if it wasn't a full storyline but 3 separate modules then there would be less hype - in almost every industry they make rolling out a new product an event instead of something they do every month for a reason. By making adventure rollouts a twice-a-year event it ramps up the "specialness" of the rollout. If it came every other month then it would be more like a magazine being published - predictable and not very noteworthy. Plus after the first year what you'd likely have is the opposite of the complaints we see right now - people would complain that they're putting out too many adventures and why don't they have more sourcebook content instead? Keeping people hungry for "official" adventures likely means that their sell-through numbers on those hardbound adventure books stay high and look good to the bean counters.

OTOH - I agree that there should be more handout content. It's missing from modern adventures. And in this day and age it's even easier - just post it as bonus content on your website! Or as a freebie on dmsguild. It doesn't even have to take up page count anymore - just an ad page telling you to go check out the website for bonus content.