The Actual Table of Contents for Xanathar's Guide to Everything

A lot of good stuff there.

Of course, on the DM side, a lot of stuff is not there, but I like what I see.

Actually, one of the most useful things will be the appendix of sample names.

 

[gyor]

Anyone notice how many knightly subclasses there are between Fighter and Paladin?

Elderich KNIGHT, Purple Dragon KNIGHT, Cavalier (which is a type of Knight), and Samurai is like a Japanese Knight, with some differences. All Paladin are concidered Knights, it has Oath of Vengeance (Dark Knight), Oath of Ancients (Green Knight/Feyknight/Hornknight), Oath of Conquest Knights Tyrant/Hell Knights).

I'm just saying that I think future Fighter subclasses will avoid Knights, they drunk the Knight to the less and being a Knight isn't seen as intrisic to the class, like it is for Paladins.

 

[gyor]

It's not a staffing issue, it's demand: it seems they find greater success mixing setting material with adventures than as specific setting material: make a big sandbox, like OotA, SKT, CoS or ToA, for DMs to expand.

I like setting books, but that doesn't appear to butter the bread. If they had more staff, I doubt they would do a setting book, aside from maybe something like the Magic world art books.

No, they don't have the staff for it, look at how unsatificatory Tomb of Anniliation was as a setting book, fine adventure, but it's simply no subsitute for a proper full setting book.

But they can't offer more, you've just to stop taking what WotC says at face value and look at how it acts, operates, and what it's been actually doing, put all the peices together.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

WotC has actually been working hard at spotlighting the best Dams Guild products in Dragon+ and social media, particularly the DMs Guild Adepts program.

Well that intrigued me so I looked through Dragon+. It just seems like a long aggregation of WotC press releases and ads for their social media content and podcasts, which I'm really not interested in wading through to find a few hidden gems. I did see the list of people in the Guild Adept Program, and I'll check out what they wrote---I have seen Monica Valentinelli's work before and she's good---but of course, there's this little gem found here: If you want to get involved, there is no time like the present. While there is no sure-fire recipe for becoming a GUILD ADEPT, the best way to get our attention is to A) play in our sandbox and explore creative expansion to storylines that D&D is releasing; ... My possibly erroneous translation is: "Add to our storylines or we don't really care." Am I missing something? Once I got into the issues there appear to be a bit more substance than just WotC press releases and more links to their web page, but only a bit, nothing like the old Dragon. They do have nice featured modules, which is worthwhile.

DMs Guild not having print on demand is another issue. Things that are electronic only just never seem to get used at the table, except maybe some monsters, and having to print everything myself means I would walk around with stacks of highly non-durable printouts. There will be a few sample pages but that's not really enough to get a solid feel for the material. It feels like microtransactions or going to a tapas restaurant, meanwhile WotC takes its cut for doing nothing along the way. Then there's the issue of substantial opposition towards third party content, particularly for character options (archetypes, spells, etc.), a point I can very much understand.

Am I just getting old and, more broadly, tired of the social media hype and constant cross-marketing? Probably. You kids get off my lawn!!!!

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

It's not a staffing issue, it's demand: it seems they find greater success mixing setting material with adventures than as specific setting material: make a big sandbox, like OotA, SKT, CoS or ToA, for DMs to expand.

Seems like they're running through print runs just fine or more than fine: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-uncanny-resurrection-of-dungeons-and-dragons

But the issue with demand is that they don't actually know what would sell the other way because they don't provide anything but APs.

 

[Parmandur]

No, they don't have the staff for it, look at how unsatificatory Tomb of Anniliation was as a setting book, fine adventure, but it's simply no subsitute for a proper full setting book.

But they can't offer more, you've just to stop taking what WotC says at face value and look at how it acts, operates, and what it's been actually doing, put all the peices together.

They seem to have no problem putting together three books a year: really see no reason to engage in conjecture of what is "really happening" when a perfectly reasonable explanation has been provided consistently for many years now.

 

[Parmandur]

Anyone notice how many knightly subclasses there are between Fighter and Paladin?

Elderich KNIGHT, Purple Dragon KNIGHT, Cavalier (which is a type of Knight), and Samurai is like a Japanese Knight, with some differences. All Paladin are concidered Knights, it has Oath of Vengeance (Dark Knight), Oath of Ancients (Green Knight/Feyknight/Hornknight), Oath of Conquest Knights Tyrant/Hell Knights).

I'm just saying that I think future Fighter subclasses will avoid Knights, they drunk the Knight to the less and being a Knight isn't seen as intrisic to the class, like it is for Paladins.

I honestly don't see much room for further Fighter archetypes moving forward, though I'm sure there must be something they could squeeze in.

 

[Parmandur]

Well that intrigued me so I looked through Dragon+. It just seems like a long aggregation of WotC press releases and ads for their social media content and podcasts, which I'm really not interested in wading through to find a few hidden gems. I did see the list of people in the Guild Adept Program, and I'll check out what they wrote---I have seen Monica Valentinelli's work before and she's good---but of course, there's this little gem found here: If you want to get involved, there is no time like the present. While there is no sure-fire recipe for becoming a GUILD ADEPT, the best way to get our attention is to A) play in our sandbox and explore creative expansion to storylines that D&D is releasing; ... My possibly erroneous translation is: "Add to our storylines or we don't really care." Am I missing something? Once I got into the issues there appear to be a bit more substance than just WotC press releases and more links to their web page, but only a bit, nothing like the old Dragon. They do have nice featured modules, which is worthwhile.

DMs Guild not having print on demand is another issue. Things that are electronic only just never seem to get used at the table, except maybe some monsters, and having to print everything myself means I would walk around with stacks of highly non-durable printouts. There will be a few sample pages but that's not really enough to get a solid feel for the material. It feels like microtransactions or going to a tapas restaurant, meanwhile WotC takes its cut for doing nothing along the way. Then there's the issue of substantial opposition towards third party content, particularly for character options (archetypes, spells, etc.), a point I can very much understand.

Am I just getting old and, more broadly, tired of the social media hype and constant cross-marketing? Probably. You kids get off my lawn!!!!

Really, having flipped through some older Dragons/Dungeons...the more things change, the more they stay the same. Ad copy and utilizing fan's work.

 

[Parmandur]

Seems like they're running through print runs just fine or more than fine: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-uncanny-resurrection-of-dungeons-and-dragons

But the issue with demand is that they don't actually know what would sell the other way because they don't provide anything but APs.

They've provided three non-AP books past the core books: Mearls has specifically stated that SCAG won't see any setting book follow-ups, because it works better for people in APs.

 

[Demetrios1453]

They've provided three non-AP books past the core books: Mearls has specifically stated that SCAG won't see any setting book follow-ups, because it works better for people in APs.

Although I wonder if that will be fully true in the future, now that the Spring release isn't going to be a traditional AP as it has been before. I wonder if we'll see some sort of setting/adventure hybrids, something along the lines of SKT and ToA, but with smaller adventure sections, and expanded detail on the "sandbox" around...

 

[jmucchiello]

I think there is. The problem with the Gygax Mag, IMO, is that you could only purchase it in paper format (Not sure on that though!) and the magazine was more of a general roleplaying magazine from what I could tell.

I'd pay good money (~$15 per issue) for a well put together D&D 5E magazine that not only has articles on adventures and player options, but also has other D&D interest articles such as "How to Start a Group" and "10 Ways to Get Your Store to Support D&D" etc. EN5ider is great, but it is just a collection of material rather than a fully curated magazine with all that entails.

Aren't there dozens of Youtube channels that give this kind of advice?