Mike Mearls Talks (er, Tweets) About the Industry

Other than the speed of release, I can't see why they would change the way they have done things. Generic books covering martials, arcane, and divine always sell well. Setting specific books also do well if the setting is popular. Extra monster books do well. Extra magic item books. I can see a slower release schedule, but I think we'll get similar books to previous editions. Generic material works for everyone and can be integrated into any setting including homebrew settings.

I figured they're planning their release schedule. We'll get plenty of usable material for everyone in due time.

mearls said:

Hey all,

Silence on our part is not some weird scheme. We're actually just adjusting our PR plans and marketing to better fit games as a whole. If you look at video games, they generally don't announce a new expansion for a game until the last one has launched. We're working on a similar path, to keep things focused and more importantly coordinated with all our partners.

When we work with a licensee on a video game, part of that work focuses on marketing, social media, and so on. If we all have a consistent focus, it really helps D&D as a whole.

I think part of 5e's success in bringing in new and lapsed gamers is due to that focus. It has helped create a critical mass that has yielded a lot more media coverage than we'd receive in the past.

Click to expand...

You bought me back to D&D because you created a really fun edition of D&D. It now replaces CRPG gaming again as my primary hobby.

However I do get that you're trying to get more focused when it comes to branding and marketing - you also have to keep all your product storylines in sync as a result of this. I think that probably helps bring people over/back, but I don't think it's due to that. See my first point.

mearls said:

I think part of 5e's success in bringing in new and lapsed gamers is due to that focus. It has helped create a critical mass that has yielded a lot more media coverage than we'd receive in the past.

Click to expand...

I can see that. When D&D revolves around an "event" like the upcoming storyline that has tie ins with Legends of the Sword Coast, Neverwinter, Adventurer's League, and Out of the Abyss, it allows you to issue a press release about the "big" upcoming event and how people can participate in various ways.

I think this thread, however, is more concerned about when they'll see another book with new material or IF they'll ever see one. A lot of people just don't like being in the dark. I understand that even if you had something planned, you wouldn't want to announce it if it was scheduled after Rage of Demons in order to make sure the focus stayed on the next big event. I can understand how hard that can be.

Shasarak said:

Making a Transformers PHB does not take a year of writing either. It is the same game with Transformers names like Transformers Monopoly is the same game with different names.

Click to expand...

It took a year to write 5e into a playtestable state and two more to playtest the game.

A Transformer game could use the same base rules but the text would need to be rewritten for a modern setting rather than a fantasy one. The races, classes, backgrounds, customization options, and equipment sections would need to be entirely rewritten and the rest just heavily revised. Half the damn PHB would need to be cut (plus the spell section).
They'd need to come up with all new mechanics for Cybertronians. The classes/occupations for the robots, the races and type of bot, backgrounds, etc. Plus rules for transforming, picking a new shape, vehicle combat, and the like. They'd need to brainstorm how humans would interact with the system and if they should be playable or not. And then new monsters would need to be written since this would likely be an all-in-one product including opponents, because while it's nice to be compatible with the Monster Manual, most Transformer players will want to fight decepticons. Oh, and lore, since it'd also be a setting book.

So, they'd likely have to write 200-250+ pages from scratch. For two people that's a three-four months right there. But after being written it would need to be playtested, rewritten, and retested. It needs to be thoroughly edited and laid out, the later alone can take a solid month. Possibly longer since they need all new art assets for the pages and borders which have to be designed.

Even if this is a project written by just two people and laid out by the same it's easily six months. Minimum. Longer if any real playtesting is to occur. The total cost in manpower is $70,000, plus art costs and such.

mearls said:

Hey all,

Silence on our part is not some weird scheme. We're actually just adjusting our PR plans and marketing to better fit games as a whole. If you look at video games, they generally don't announce a new expansion for a game until the last one has launched. We're working on a similar path, to keep things focused and more importantly coordinated with all our partners.

When we work with a licensee on a video game, part of that work focuses on marketing, social media, and so on. If we all have a consistent focus, it really helps D&D as a whole.

I think part of 5e's success in bringing in new and lapsed gamers is due to that focus. It has helped create a critical mass that has yielded a lot more media coverage than we'd receive in the past.

Click to expand...

Here is my issues.

I am not interested in video games and boardgames. I am interested in the current D&D ruleset but not in the current storylines. I want more tools in order to create my own stories and adventures. Right now the game is starting to feel a bit stale to myself and my group and we want to see more support for the actual table top game. I understand you want to avoid bloat but playing it too close to the chest can cause just as much damage as can overload. To be quite frank, I really really enjoy this edition of D&D and I want more but at the same time, I want a game that actually feels supported. Video games, movies, action figures, and boardgames are all great but isn't support for the actual table top game, just the brand.

I also disagree with the assessment that this successfully brings in new and lapsed players. I also wouldn't say this strategy helps with the media aspect, I would say it's gaining great media coverage because of the sheer fact that we live in a highly media moving society via Facebook and Twitter.

Corpsetaker said:

Right now the game is starting to feel a bit stale to myself and my group and we want to see more support for the actual table top game.

Click to expand...

I don't question your perceptions, but I'd like to examine them: when you gather around for another sessions, how does the game specifically feel stale? Are you creating characters so often that you've seen most/all the possible character types in play? Have you played through the adventures WotC is offering? Have you used the races from the PotA guide? Are you using fan material or creating your own new stuff?

I ask because this experience is much different than my own. I've had a pretty high character turnover, and I've only personally experienced four characters, and no character has broached the 11-15 tier yet. I'm running my first short adventure in 5e now. There's a LOT of game left for me to experience, and "stale" isn't a word I'd use to describe my perspective!

So I'd like to find out what might be different in our perceptions/experiences.

I also disagree with the assessment that this successfully brings in new and lapsed players. I also wouldn't say this strategy helps with the media aspect, I would say it's gaining great media coverage because of the sheer fact that we live in a highly media moving society via Facebook and Twitter.

Click to expand...

I think there's a lot to be said for being able to kind of dominate the media sphere for a while - a lot of folks pay attention when you have a BIG CROSS-PLATFORM TRANSMEDIA RELEASE EVENT that wouldn't give two fig leaves about the next month's newest splat. That's another opportunity to blast to the people who don't have a weekly game "Hey! Remember this pretty cool thing? It's still pretty cool, you should check out what's going on there!"

Media moves fast these days, which is why something big and meaty can stick in the pipes for a bit longer than "Oh, they're releasing another book like they've been doing, NEXT."

Kamikaze Midget said:

I think there's a lot to be said for being able to kind of dominate the media sphere for a while - a lot of folks pay attention when you have a BIG CROSS-PLATFORM TRANSMEDIA RELEASE EVENT that wouldn't give two fig leaves about the next month's newest splat. That's another opportunity to blast to the people who don't have a weekly game "Hey! Remember this pretty cool thing? It's still pretty cool, you should check out what's going on there!"

Media moves fast these days, which is why something big and meaty can stick in the pipes for a bit longer than "Oh, they're releasing another book like they've been doing, NEXT."

Click to expand...

I don't understand what 'media sphere' Mike is referring to here. D&D has zero presence in the general media. There was some note of the release of 5e and the idea that 2014 was the 40th anniversary of the release of D&D, but beyond that it sunk back into obscurity like every other edition of the game has since the end of the days of the religious wing-nut thing in the 80's.

Now, if they can actually release a notable mainstream movie with the D&D name on it? That would garner some attention to the brand, and clearly you'd like to coordinate that with the release of material for the game, video games, etc so as to get maximum impact. So, fair enough, but I'm not sure I see how that relates to no indication whatsoever that there's really even any rules material in the pipeline.

Clearly if the D&D house starts to look dark and boarded-up people will move on. Its great that a big surprise bash will be thrown there sometime, maybe, but people won't wait around. There's such a thing as anticipation too.

AbdulAlhazred said:

I don't understand what 'media sphere' Mike is referring to here. D&D has zero presence in the general media.

Click to expand...

That's not really true - Forbes and USA Today are hardly niche media, and sites with a more "Dorknet" focus such as the Escapist and Boing Boing have. Not to mention the fact that D&D video games pop up in the video games sites (there's a love for the game there) and D&D books pop up on the books sites (The NYT bestseller list can't keep Salvatore off of it!) - that's kind of one of the big strengths of "transmedia marketing" - all of these places are talking about the same thing, at the same time, and you own the biggest chunk of the news cycle that you can.

There was some note of the release of 5e and the idea that 2014 was the 40th anniversary of the release of D&D, but beyond that it sunk back into obscurity like every other edition of the game has since the end of the days of the religious wing-nut thing in the 80's.

Click to expand...

"Beyond that?" It hasn't even been a year since the game was released. If you're keeping up, you should be knee-deep in Princes of the Apolcaypse (which just came out TWO MONTHS AGO) and/or playing the Neverwinter MMO and/or the Elemental Evil board game. PotA and Elemental Evil have been chatted about on the Dorknet sites. That's not "zero," and it's quite a bit more than Heroes of the Feywild or Complete Champion got!

Clearly if the D&D house starts to look dark and boarded-up people will move on. Its great that a big surprise bash will be thrown there sometime, maybe, but people won't wait around. There's such a thing as anticipation too.

Click to expand...

From a media perpsecive, it looks like we're all playing PotA over here in pen-and-paper land. If PotA should take a normal table nearly a year to go through, why would things look boarded-up? We're playing the game. Our svirfneblin and our goliaths are unearthing the deception as we speak.

mearls said:

Hey all,

Silence on our part is not some weird scheme. We're actually just adjusting our PR plans and marketing to better fit games as a whole. If you look at video games, they generally don't announce a new expansion for a game until the last one has launched. We're working on a similar path, to keep things focused and more importantly coordinated with all our partners.

When we work with a licensee on a video game, part of that work focuses on marketing, social media, and so on. If we all have a consistent focus, it really helps D&D as a whole.

I think part of 5e's success in bringing in new and lapsed gamers is due to that focus. It has helped create a critical mass that has yielded a lot more media coverage than we'd receive in the past.

Click to expand...

Hello Mr. Mearls.

I can't speak for the rest of the community, but I can speak for me. When you mention the "silence", its not that we are waiting for the next event after Rage of Demons is going to be, we want to know "what else?"

What about other, non-module books? What about other settings like Eberron or Athas, will they see support? What about the OGL? What about the "fan permission" thing? What about those conversion guides? None of that is tied to the next story, and in light of the "we can't cancel something that's not been announced", we feel you aren't giving us a clear vision of what D&D support will be. Is the table-top support only going to 2 megamodules per year? If yes, many of us would like to know. Is an update to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting forthcoming? Are you looking at support other settings or are we going to have to rely on fan conversions? Is psionics getting a full treatment or a subclass stuck in the back of the next Megamodule? THAT is the silence we care about. We don't need to know when ("soon" or "never" is good enough), but we want to know IF.

During the run-up to D&D 5e, we got regular Legend's & Lore columns. Nearly all of them were full of "this is what we're thinking." About game design, about game play, about expansion, about the future. Since the DMG came out and L&L stopped, we stopped hearing what you guys thought. I miss that. I liked knowing where you saw D&D in 2, 3, or 5 years. I liked when you came out and said "We thought about X, but now we changed to Y, here's why." It was open and transparent. Now, it feels like we are being given a sales pitch rather than information. Dragon+ should be chalk full of news about the game, gaming, and the like, but reads as a giant ad for your electronic games with little for the table top game. I get you were burned by the Dungeoneer's Handbook and Codename: Morningstar debacles, but I hope that doesn't mean we will never know about what is coming next until the press release 3 months out.

In short, I think the problem is some people (myself especially) who love D&D as a table-top game don't want it see it left behind in the mass marketing blitz. I get that Sword Coast Legends and Neverwinter and Attack Wing are all important elements of the D&D franchise, but so is the core RPG. I want to see things for it beyond two tie-in modules to the storyline of the year, and right now I'm not seeing much. And that worries me.

Hear, here!

Well said, [MENTION=7635]Remathilis[/MENTION].