D&D 5E Why I Think D&DN is In Trouble

[Morrus]

D&D brand name carries a lot of weight in the general public. Its known as the name that attaches to sword and sorcery game of imagined adventure with your friends. Most people in their 30's and 40's that is the name they associate to roleplaying games. Its the brand that is in pop culture.

Likewise, D&D has a strength that none of the other systems have, its settings. Planescape, Dark Sun, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Greyhawk, Dragonlance...

Those carry weight. If supported right, they will bring people back.

From a branding point of view, yup - D&D includes sub-brands which are stronger than most games' main brand. That said, branding isn't the be all and end all of sales; the tabletop gaming market is a very focused niche market witha high percentage of knowledgable customers on whim the branding isn't needed.

 

[fjw70]

4e did have a new setting (the. Nentir Vale/Points of Light setting). It just wasn't supported very much. Which is fine with me. I don't need a lot of support for a setting, but I probably would have bought whatever they put out for it.

Most of my 4e games have taken place there.

 

[willvr]

On the point of old TSR stuff leading to OSR I am not so sure.

Personally I have been getting some of the old modules to read them for nostalgia reason. But others I have been running basically out of the box with DnDN rules.

Depends what you want I suspect. Those people already interested in DnD Next; will do it for this. Those that are still in older editions will use them as is; or with conversion for later editions. I'm not sure that the ability to use them for DnD Next makes it anymore likely for someone to buy them though.




Points of Light wasn't really a setting like older edition settings was. From memory it was deliberately set up to be 'not a setting'; to be slotted into anyone's already existing Campaign World. Nentir Vale also had it's birth in 3.5 with Red Hand of Doom.

 

[Rygar]

That's one thing 4E failed to do that all other editions had done, and that's to have at least 1 signature setting for the edition. Basic had Mystara, 1E had Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, and Dragonlance. 2E had Planescape, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, and Birthright. 3E (well, 3.5) had Eberron. 4E had nothing new.

It seems like 5E will once again use the Realms as a base (hence the Sundering), but maybe a new setting is something that would be in their best interest to develop to at least compliment the Realms for those that want something different. (New is shiny.)

There's an interview out there with Jim Butcher who indicates that WOTC had approached him about rebooting Dragonlance for 4e. He indicates it was derailed by sales concerns with 4th edition that they hadn't expected. I get the impression the intention was there to support settings like they had in previous editions, but judging from what Butcher said it sounds like there was some major event that caused WOTC to go into emergency mode.

 

[NewJeffCT]

4e did have a new setting (the. Nentir Vale/Points of Light setting). It just wasn't supported very much. Which is fine with me. I don't need a lot of support for a setting, but I probably would have bought whatever they put out for it.

Most of my 4e games have taken place there.

Points of Light wasn't really a setting, though. It was more like a generic take on where the heroes start. And, I thought Nentir Vale came long later in the Essentials days?

 

[willvr]

Nentir Vale was mentioned in the Dungeon Magazine's 'Scales of War'; as a sequel to Red Hand of Doom. It may have clarified it more later on (I'd stopped following 4E by that point) but it was mentioned at pretty much the launch.

 

[Sage Genesis]

And, I thought Nentir Vale came long later in the Essentials days?

Not quite.
https://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4hook/20080916a

Nentir Vale was, however, smaller than a typical setting would be and received far less attention than is typical of a setting. The observation that 4e didn't really have a big setting all its own does have a core of truth.

 

[fjw70]

I would call the Nentir Vale a mini-setting. It was originally in the DMG. Many of the 4e adventures were set there (H1-3, P1 and HS 1-2 were just outside of the valley), the Conquest of Nerath board game expanded the world map and presented major nations of the known world, and the Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale gave more info. So there was quite a bit of info in total but it was all spread around. Oh, I forgot the Hammerfast and Vor Rukoth supplements.

Not as much info as other settings have received but enough for a mini-setting IMO.

 

[willvr]

Mini-setting is possibly right. But I think the original post about it was really talking about a full-blown Campaign Setting.

 

[Warunsun]

The Nentir Vale was in the original three core books for 4E so it was there from the beginning. It is actually similar to the situation with Mystara and Basic D&D. Mystara was originally just the Known World and was described in very small portions a bit at a time in products. The Nentir Vale was delivered to us the same way—perhaps even in greater detail to start.

So fourth edition does have it's iconic world even if it wasn't popular.