D&D 5E Settings played in D&D: cause or effect?

sleypy · Nov 25, 2015

You can't blame 4e for FR seeming generic. Within the Realms, WotC only focuses on the most generic places, and those are the only places they make products.

Many of the potentially interesting places get a referenced now and again, but very rarely is an adventure set there. For example, 2e Al-Qadim has like a sentence in the opening chapter referencing Faerun, and another reference in the section for converting classes from outside of Zakhara.

aramis erak · Nov 25, 2015

I play in the FR only because I play Adventurer's League. It's not a setting I particularly like, I don't read the novels, and I don't care for the piles of lore. So, for me, the cause is "everything legal for AL is in FR, so I run in the FR."

pemerton · Nov 25, 2015

Corpsetaker said:
It's not a vendetta, it's just business.

The problem here is they want to use the Realms because of how established it is and because of characters like Drizzt and the video games. They are only interested in spending the minimal while charging more.

They have a cost saving strategy they want to implement and these surveys are a way of making people who don't agree with feel like they are in a minority which in turn causes them just to accept it and move on. It's what they call "go with the flow".

When you say "WotC is not giving the customers what they want", do you mean "WotC is not publishing material for which there is only little commercial demand?"

In the context of a commercial publisher, I tend to treat "material that the customers want" and "material for which there is significant commercial demand" as basically equivalent.

Mirtek · Nov 25, 2015

sanishiver said:
Did WotC ever make available a similar breakdown for 4th Edition?

For all it's worth, when they did abandon their three books per setting policy, it was to print more realms stuff

Corpsetaker said:
Do you have evidence of their information gathering techniques?

You mean besides FR dominating published D&D for about 25 years and counting?

Sure, you can make about all kind of excuses for why FR dominated all other settings for the last 2.5 decades other than the obviously unacceptable fact that the majority (as in more than any other settings can get behind it) of D&D players like FR the most and push for WotC to give them more FR.

aramis erak said:
I don't read the novels,

Another example. They really tried to etablish the Eberron novel line, but even during 3e it couldn't keep up with the FR novels (and not only the heavy weight like Drizzt and Elminster novels) and since the there are no more new Eberron novels while FR still gets 4-5 a year (unfortunately down from the good old days of 12 a year)

delericho · Nov 26, 2015

Mirtek said:
For all it's worth, when they did abandon their three books per setting policy, it was to print more realms stuff

Yep. It would be interesting to see how sales of the Neverwinter book compared with those of the Dark Sun setting books.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the FR book outsold all three DS books put together.

Maxperson · Nov 26, 2015

delericho said:
Yep. It would be interesting to see how sales of the Neverwinter book compared with those of the Dark Sun setting books.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the FR book outsold all three DS books put together.

Again, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. They have pushed FR down the throats of every D&D play in a major way since 3e. However, they did not do so with Darksun or the other well liked campaign settings of 1e and 2e. Of course the first time that they re-introduce the older settings they won't do as well. They've conditioned players to like and buy FR. That doesn't mean, though, that over time a new setting like Darksun won't grow in popularity to the point where even if it doesn't match FR, will still sell well.

JeffB · Nov 26, 2015

delericho said:
Yep. It would be interesting to see how sales of the Neverwinter book compared with those of the Dark Sun setting books.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the FR book outsold all three DS books put together.

The 4e DS guide is tough to find and/or goes for high prices on Amazon...Amazon itself has none, its all the private shops.

You can find the Neverwinter book easily and cheap, used or new.

delericho · Nov 26, 2015

Maxperson said:
That doesn't mean, though, that over time a new setting like Darksun won't grow in popularity to the point where even if it doesn't match FR, will still sell well.

But how much investment should WotC put in to Dark Sun, if they're pushing it in the hope that it might eventually sell well? It's just more efficient for them to continue to push FR.

Unless there's a point where FR is effectively "mined out", at which point having other popular settings would be a definite boon. But there's no real evidence that that's the case - or, at least, no more than there is for Eberron or Dark Sun.

JeffB said:
The 4e DS guide is tough to find and/or goes for high prices on Amazon...Amazon itself has none, its all the private shops.

You can find the Neverwinter book easily and cheap, used or new.

Huh. Maybe I would be surprised then.

Corpsetaker · Nov 26, 2015

delericho said:
But how much investment should WotC put in to Dark Sun, if they're pushing it in the hope that it might eventually sell well? It's just more efficient for them to continue to push FR.

Unless there's a point where FR is effectively "mined out", at which point having other popular settings would be a definite boon. But there's no real evidence that that's the case - or, at least, no more than there is for Eberron or Dark Sun.

Huh. Maybe I would be surprised then.

Dark Sun introduces something that the Forgotten Realms does not so it shouldn't be an either or decision.

delericho · Nov 26, 2015

Corpsetaker said:
Dark Sun introduces something that the Forgotten Realms does not so it shouldn't be an either or decision.

Unless WotC can produce an infinite number of books per year, it will always be an either/or decision: "shall we put out a Dark Sun book now, or is it better to put out another FR book?"

D&D 5E Settings played in D&D: cause or effect?

sleypy

Explorer

aramis erak

Legend

pemerton

Legend

Mirtek

Hero

delericho

Legend

Maxperson

Morkus from Orkus

JeffB

Legend

delericho

Legend

Corpsetaker

First Post

delericho

Legend

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