7 Years of D&D Stories? And a "Big Reveal" Coming?

There sure is a lot of speculation from two purposefully vague comments. There are plenty of things 7 years of stories could be, and and almost anything could be a "big reveal", rampant speculation at this time seems silly.

Hiya!

I think a quiet *meh* is in order. Seriously, I think the marketing guys at WotC now, with regards to D&D, are waaaaay off the actual mark here. It's like they all just got out of marketing school and think that because of X, then Y works for *everything*. I mean...do these "marketing guys" even play the freaking game? Regularly? For fun? Do they have such minimal knowledge of one of the MAIN THRUSTS of an RPG and the type's of people it attracts? I *seriously* doubt it.

RPG's aren't about reading a story, or reading a script pretending to be some character (like those "How to Host A Murder" type games they use to have a few years ago). RPG's are about the *players* and the *DM* creating their own stories. I remember when the Slave Lords modules were still being put out (original 1e productions; no reprints or compilations...the first printings back when they were, uh, printed). I had talked to some people in person and some online. One thing they all had in common, other than playing A1, A2, A3 and A4....each groups story was different. Some took over the slave lords operation, some went all murder-hobo on them, some went total mercenary. Each story was different, and many of them had completely different outcomes than what was expected. Those "old pre-AP modules" gave a framework but allowed for vastly different stories to emerge.

With the way WotC seems to be hinting, it's like they don't *want* anyone to create their own stories. They want everyone to just sit back and be spoon fed an "approved story for your enjoyment". They want people to accept this as a new standard for playing RPGs. Buy the first hardback adventure, then the second. And the supplement(s). And don't forget to pick up the novel for extra insight into what was really going on behind the scenes of the 'adventure' you just 'played'. While your at it, grab the video game or video game expansion and "unlock previously unseen story lines, NPC's and locales".

I really think that if they do try and stick to their whole idea of "one story, filtered through multiple media formats", they are going to shoot themselves in the foot. That would totally suck! I *really* like 5e and would love to see it continue as a "do it yourself" version of D&D that it seems to have a pretty good foothold on.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

There is nothing wrong with stories and modules but produce them in parallel with supplements so that you cater to those that like to play in modules and those that like to create their own games.

I think Paul has hit the nail on the head. Wizards seems to be going down this narrow road of one story and they want you to product hop in a straight line and if you don't want to do that then you are just SOL and won't really be getting anything new.

pming said:

With the way WotC seems to be hinting, it's like they don't *want* anyone to create their own stories.

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Or if could be that they completely understand that they can't produce story material for people who are making up their own stories. Because, you know... that's how making up your own stories works. You're making up your own stories. Ipso facto ANYTHING they produce that has story elements in it is not helping you because you have to strip those story elements out for the stories you yourself are creating.

Now... if you're going to tell me that as someone who is making up your own stories, you would prefer material with generic story because you believe it is easier to strip out generic story and insert your own, rather than stripping out setting-specific story and inserting your own... fine. I can buy that. Especially if the DM already has personal knowledge of the setting in question, and thus their mind reflexively sees how that story material fits in to *that* setting, as opposed to how it might fit into their own personal setting.

But I also do not believe that this inability or reticence to strip out setting material from a setting-specific product and use the information generically for a personal story is really that much better a reason to do so, than placing material in a setting-specific place, for all the players out there for whom an implied setting is a godsend. I mean... if you were to take the two Tyranny of Dragons books and replace all the setting-specific names and places and insert just made-up names and places... what does that actually gain you? Those of you who make up your own stories would still need to stripmine those episodes for parts, changing names and places for your own personal campaign... and those who don't now have an implied setting wherein these 15 episodes are all taking place. So why is having them all in a generic setting with no other prior history to refer to (for those who wanted it) better than having thousands of years and many books and websites of a setting that hundreds of thousands of people already know to refer to? I mean... a new player can see "Greenest" in the first episode of the book and at a barest minimum do a google search and get something new about that area to help flesh their game out if they wanted. And I don't see how that's ultimately a bad thing.

pming said:

Hiya!

I think a quiet *meh* is in order. Seriously, I think the marketing guys at WotC now, with regards to D&D, are waaaaay off the actual mark here. It's like they all just got out of marketing school and think that because of X, then Y works for *everything*. I mean...do these "marketing guys" even play the freaking game? Regularly? For fun? Do they have such minimal knowledge of one of the MAIN THRUSTS of an RPG and the type's of people it attracts? I *seriously* doubt it.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

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You do realize that Marketing doesn't dictate content and product line right? It's not like this is an Ad Sales Campaign involving Integrated Marketing.

pming said:

RPG's aren't about reading a story, or reading a script pretending to be some character (like those "How to Host A Murder" type games they use to have a few years ago). RPG's are about the *players* and the *DM* creating their own stories. I remember when the Slave Lords modules were still being put out (original 1e productions; no reprints or compilations...the first printings back when they were, uh, printed). I had talked to some people in person and some online. One thing they all had in common, other than playing A1, A2, A3 and A4....each groups story was different. Some took over the slave lords operation, some went all murder-hobo on them, some went total mercenary. Each story was different, and many of them had completely different outcomes than what was expected. Those "old pre-AP modules" gave a framework but allowed for vastly different stories to emerge.

Click to expand...

They're not planning out 7 years of stories because they want to nail down the next dozen or so APs. They're doing it to have the seeds of what they're going to feed to the video game developers and book writers and board game designers and (possibly?) movie executives to continue to build the idea of "D&D" as a franchise-able shared universe.

After all, who else plans out their story continuity 5 years or more ahead? Maybe, I don't know, enormous geek franchises like Marvel and Star Wars? While I have no clue if it's actually a good idea, I think the clues are there that they're aiming high, much higher than just the TTRPG.

pming said:

I really think that if they do try and stick to their whole idea of "one story, filtered through multiple media formats", they are going to shoot themselves in the foot. That would totally suck! I *really* like 5e and would love to see it continue as a "do it yourself" version of D&D that it seems to have a pretty good foothold on.

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Hopefully the "if" is the most important part of this.

There is still a lot of opportunity to make this work out really well.

But you may be exactly right.

pming said:

I mean...do these "marketing guys" even play the freaking game?

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Yes. WotC's brand team plays D&D.

One of the reasons WotC are currently focusing on their storylines is that D&D doesn't currently have a lot of marketable characters - there's Drizzt, and Strahd, and a few others, but not many. That doesn't give them a huge amount to hang future movies (novels, games, etc) on. So by creating their storylines they create recognisable characters that they can then sell. Eventually, they may hit on one that gains significant traction, and that will give them something to license out.

(Please note: "one of the reasons", not "the reason". )

TwoSix said:

They're not planning out 7 years of stories because they want to nail down the next dozen or so APs. They're doing it to have the seeds of what they're going to feed to the video game developers and book writers and board game designers and (possibly?) movie executives to continue to build the idea of "D&D" as a franchise-able shared universe.

After all, who else plans out their story continuity 5 years or more ahead? Maybe, I don't know, enormous geek franchises like Marvel and Star Wars? While I have no clue if it's actually a good idea, I think the clues are there that they're aiming high, much higher than just the TTRPG.

Click to expand...

One can argue Marvel is so far-thinking, judging from how their comic lines lurch around. (And before you think I'm bashing: DC is worse. See: Convergence and Secret Wars).