D&D 5E If WotC is outsourcing official 5E material to 3PP, What is WotC working on?

[Mark CMG]

If WotC is outsourcing official 5E material to 3PP, What is WotC working on?

6E?

 

[Sir Brennen]

Mearls said that they were taking a break after the DMG was done, but they'd get working on things in the new year.

On their table, of course is the following:

1.) Legends & Lore columns for Battlesystem, races, and other cut material
2.) Fan-kit and/or OGL
3.) Coordinating the Elemental Evil storyline release in March
4.) The next set super-secret rule book (Forgotten Realms campaign guide, etc) for Gen-Con release
5.) Story Bibles for future adventure paths

They've also mentioned conversion guides should be coming shortly

 

[Mistwell]

WotC is a small operation these days, much smaller than what everybody think.

I keep hearing this, but it's actually BIGGER than many think. It's 15 people, half of whom are directly working on material. Compare that to most RPG companies, and you will find it's HUGE. People keep comparing it to Paizo, but that's not the only comparison one can make. Compare it to, say, Green Ronin, and you will find it's massive. Compare it to Monte Cooks company, and it's really quite big. Heck compare it to 13th Age and I think it's huge. 15 person teams are quite large for the RPG industry in general. I think it might be the second largest RPG team right now.

 

[Mistwell]

I have it on good authority WOTC is working on sharks. AND, they have frickin' lasers on their heads. So there's that to look forward to.

 

[Beleriphon]

I keep hearing this, but it's actually BIGGER than many think. It's 15 people, half of whom are directly working on material. Compare that to most RPG companies, and you will find it's HUGE. People keep comparing it to Paizo, but that's not the only comparison one can make. Compare it to, say, Green Ronin, and you will find it's massive. Compare it to Monte Cooks company, and it's really quite big. Heck compare it to 13th Age and I think it's huge. 15 person teams are quite large for the RPG industry in general. I think it might be the second largest RPG team right now.

It is large compartively to Green Ronin (with three full time staff) or Monte Cook (1 full time staff and a spouse). Compared to WotC D&D heyday its tiny. It used to be they had a D&D R&D department that was separate from the editors, that was separate from the writers, that was separate from everything else. They were pushing thirty or forty staff members as full time D&D nerds at one point, that's as much as some small businesses all on its own.

 

[Morrus]

It is large compartively to Green Ronin (with three full time staff) or Monte Cook (1 full time staff and a spouse).

I count 5 full time staff at MCG.

 

[Beleriphon]

I count 5 full time staff at MCG.

I stand corrected, last time I was checked it was just him and his wife (mind that might have been the 2006).

 

[Morrus]

I stand corrected, last time I was checked it was just him and his wife (mind that might have been the 2006).

Not that his personal life is any of my business, but his circumstances have changed somewhat since 2006.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Conventional wisdom is clearly wrong, since Paizo are making a mint off their adventure paths - to the point where company reps tend to respond to suggestions about changing them with "They're where we make most of our money, so we're very careful about not wanting to fix something that isn't broken."

You clearly can make money from adventures, you just need to do them right.

I also have to imagine that Paizo has very different finaical goals/situation then WOTC.

-Paizo is privately owned while WOTC isn't. Paizo is happy if they can keep the lights running and have a little extra to afford the finer things in life. WOTC is a part of Hasbro and has to rank in millions to be one of the cool brands in the company.

-The mechanics of 3rd edition are very heavy on the DM. What better way to help the DM then to have lots of adventures to buy?

-While adventures don't sell to the majority of players, they can sell forever. Splat can eventually overload a system but adventures are completely modular. You can make them FOREVER and people will keep buying them. The subscription model is also very helpful for them. It's like the magazines, but they charge the actual production price for their materials.

-I also heard that many people buy their paths not to play, but just to read! I'm sure about that part though. Then again, the last two points weren't refuting what you said, but explaining why I think Paizo is in a comfortable position to keep doing what they're doing. Some people will want to play 3rd forever and Paizo is more then happy to supply them the means to do so.

 

[painted_klown]

I also have to imagine that Paizo has very different finaical goals/situation then WOTC.

-Paizo is privately owned while WOTC isn't. Paizo is happy if they can keep the lights running and have a little extra to afford the finer things in life. WOTC is a part of Hasbro and has to rank in millions to be one of the cool brands in the company.

-The mechanics of 3rd edition are very heavy on the DM. What better way to help the DM then to have lots of adventures to buy?

-While adventures don't sell to the majority of players, they can sell forever. Splat can eventually overload a system but adventures are completely modular. You can make them FOREVER and people will keep buying them. The subscription model is also very helpful for them. It's like the magazines, but they charge the actual production price for their materials.

-I also heard that many people buy their paths not to play, but just to read! I'm sure about that part though. Then again, the last two points weren't refuting what you said, but explaining why I think Paizo is in a comfortable position to keep doing what they're doing. Some people will want to play 3rd forever and Paizo is more then happy to supply them the means to do so.

You raise some excellent points here IMO. I feel you are probably correct that if WOTC were to publish adventure paths/modules to play with the 5E core books, they could potentially continue to do so forever. As a new player, this sounds GREAT to me! HAHAHAHHAA!

Churn out high quality adventure paths/modules at a reasonable rate, so we can keep up with purchases. Then continue to do further printings of the core rulebooks, while fixing typos/errata updates, etc as they go along.

Not knowing the "business side", my guess is that WOTC printed a set number of copies for each of the core rulebooks (as opposed to printing as many as they can sell within a given time frame). Once that set number have all been sold, do an update with the typo/errata updates, and print another pre-determined amount of the three core books. Continue to keep players interested and playing with the adventures, and you have a potential endless game.

If sales are dipping, drop an occasional splat book (still not 100% sure what that term means to be honest), MM, etc to coincide with the latest printing of the three core books.

I am sure all of this sounds a LOT easier in theory (and I honestly have no idea of what I am talking about), but I am guessing that Paizo aren't working on PF2E. They just keep on keepin' on.

Having said that, as a new player, I was at a tossup between PF and D&D 5E. I went with 5E for the fact that PF simply has WAY too many rulebooks to deal with. As a n00b, I was turned off on the idea of trying to buy a bunch of books all at once, and then working to try to learn/absorb everything written in them.

I have seen that having too many rulebooks is referred to as "bloat" and I have also read that WOTC are saying they plan to avoid bloat with 5E. Put those things together, and I ran with D&D.