Ryan Dancey - D&D in a Death Spiral

[RefinedBean]

Ironically, a lot of edition warrior gamers would benefit from reading this book...

Getting to Yes should be up there as well.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm not willing to bet that WotC just isn't experiencing the general economic hardships and publishing rigamarole that everyone from Random House to Penguin is experiencing. Bookstores are going through a little bit of what CD stores went through a few years back.

If 4e isn't selling as predicted, that's because someone failed to predict a second Great Depression + Publishing Revolution perfect storm, which I can't blame them for. The blame comes in how they react to this unfortunate position they've been put in. That...could end up being a death spiral. But I don't think the move to ditch PDF sales is entirely emblematic of that. Talk to me in a year or two or three when they start flatly denying 5e.

 

[Puggins]

Hitting any non-fiction bestseller list isn't that hard. For April 2nd, when the PHB2 was #14, "Who Moved My Cheese" was #15, and it's an eleven-year-old book.

The obvious conclusion then would be that many roleplaying books have made the list in the past, right? After all, if the PHB2 didn't sell that well and managed to only beat "Who Moved My Cheese," then a 3.5e book like "The Complete Warrior" or "Draconomicon," both of which sparked an entire series, should have at least made the list, right?

Let's take a look. Here's an archive for the list:

New York Times Best Seller List

The Complete Warrior was released in November of 2003. It was the first major supplement for 3.5e and is widely considered to be extremely successful- as evidenced by the conintuation of the Complete Series for the next five years.

I'm betting you can already guess where it is on the list.

 

[Glyfair]

What is "evergreen"?

An "evergreen" title is a title that will keep profitably selling overtime. Traditionally it applies to the core rules of a game in the RPG industry. Occasionally a few "almost core" books are evergreen.

Most RPG books sell a majority of their total sales in a very short period of time (I'm guessing the first month or two).

 

[kenmarable]

I think at this point Green Ronin and Paizo are at least as big as TSR was before the aquisition.

I have my doubts as well... well, at least taking into account that Green Ronin and Paizo aren't even remotely the same size as each other!

Now, comparing Paizo to late TSR, maybe. I don't have any numbers, but my gut feeling is that Paizo is still smaller than TSR, but at least in the same league. Green Ronin is very small. At it's height I doubt they had more than 5 or 6 full time employees - which, I have to say, looking at the quality of products they have is a real testament to how great and hard working they are.

 

[dm4hire]

Rumor has it they already have pushed 5e back due to current situations. At least that's what I've heard with the rumor being they were going to announce it in two more years.

As for Dancy, he has his reasons I'm sure but as mentioned even a broken clock is right twice a day. Sales are going to vary depending on location as has been mentioned. One store maybe selling consitently while others are stuck with glut.

 

[xechnao]

We just quit playing tabletop completely and all the dollars we spend on peripheral products or 3PP materials will just go to video games, or some other hobby altogether.

If you enjoy it so much why would you have to stop playing?

 

[dm4hire]

Double post

 

[xechnao]

The obvious conclusion then would be that many roleplaying books have made the list in the past, right? After all, if the PHB2 didn't sell that well and managed to only beat "Who Moved My Cheese," then a 3.5e book like "The Complete Warrior" or "Draconomicon," both of which sparked an entire series, should have at least made the list, right?

I would rather compare PHB2 to 3.5 PHB instead of "complete warrior".

I feel like these chart games we are having here are a bit stupid (my dad is stronger than yours or something like that)

 

[xechnao]

Rumor has it they already have pushed 5e back due to current situations. At least that's what I've heard with the rumor being they were going to announce it in two more years.

Is this a joke or not?