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

[Jester David]

I imagine they outsourced the first couple Storylines as those products needed work while they were working on the Core books. So I imagine they might be free to work on the second Storyline adventure for 2015. Or another accessory/ campaign setting.

But, really, we have no idea. Maybe they were just bracing for layoffs or the department closing, and didn't want to plan on working on books that'd be cancelled.

 

[Staffan]

If sales are dipping, drop an occasional splat book (still not 100% sure what that term means to be honest),

It's a generic term for sourcebooks focusing on one of the game's options. The term was popularized back in the 90s, where D&D had Class books (Complete _______'s Handbook), Vampire had Clan Books, Werewolf had Tribe books, and so on. That evolved into *-books (where * is used as a "wild card" symbol in many contexts), and then people started calling the asterisk a "splat." Hence, splat books as a generic term.

 

[Rygar]

I imagine they outsourced the first couple Storylines as those products needed work while they were working on the Core books. So I imagine they might be free to work on the second Storyline adventure for 2015. Or another accessory/ campaign setting.

But, really, we have no idea. Maybe they were just bracing for layoffs or the department closing, and didn't want to plan on working on books that'd be cancelled.

More likely WOTC finally figured out it is more economical to contract a company to work on X modules than it is to do a recruiting search and hire someone to then lay them off after X modules are written. Laying someone off, at least in many states, often means you're either paying out a compensation package or paying 6 months to 12 months of unemployment. It's just more cost effective to contract non-essential work.

Plus, I'd imagine people in the Industry are hesitant to take a job at WOTC given their tendency to lay people off at Christmas time, that kind of thing tends to give you a reputation.

 

[pukunui]

Plus, I'd imagine people in the Industry are hesitant to take a job at WOTC given their tendency to lay people off at Christmas time, that kind of thing tends to give you a reputation.

Speaking of which, does anyone know if any of the D&D team got laid off this Christmas? It would be a nice result for them if the game did well enough that they all managed to retain their jobs.

 

[Jester David]

More likely WOTC finally figured out it is more economical to contract a company to work on X modules than it is to do a recruiting search and hire someone to then lay them off after X modules are written. Laying someone off, at least in many states, often means you're either paying out a compensation package or paying 6 months to 12 months of unemployment. It's just more cost effective to contract non-essential work.

Plus, I'd imagine people in the Industry are hesitant to take a job at WOTC given their tendency to lay people off at Christmas time, that kind of thing tends to give you a reputation.

Freelancing has been common in RPGs for years. Entire products were written by freelancers during 3e. Just not edited & illustrated.

 

[thalmin]

It's a generic term for sourcebooks focusing on one of the game's options. The term was popularized back in the 90s, where D&D had Class books (Complete _______'s Handbook), Vampire had Clan Books, Werewolf had Tribe books, and so on. That evolved into *-books (where * is used as a "wild card" symbol in many contexts), and then people started calling the asterisk a "splat." Hence, splat books as a generic term.

It's my understanding that "splat" is a printer's/typesetter's term for the asterisk, or *.

 

[thalmin]

WotC is working on the Adventurer's Guide for the Elementals adventures.

 

[DragonBelow]

When Monte Cook went underground to work on Ptolus (does anybody remember how big that book was?) , he hired Mike Mearls to do Iron Heroes, and Wolfang Baur to do the book of roguish luck, etc. He planned things so he would be free to work on the big book while his company continued producing stuff.

The 5e books already have more reviews in amazon than the Pathfinder corebook, which has been out for 5 years already (as good as it is, Paizo rocks too), D&D is still D&D and the brand carries a lot of weight, I think WotC is working on something big, I just want to know what it is .

 

[Jan van Leyden]

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.

Problem is that reasonable rate is a highly subjective term. Perhaps some important figure in Seattle thinks that one AP or adventure duo per year is reasonable at least according to their brand strategy.

While lots of gamers frequenting these boards are clamoring for more, more, more! material, my personal agenda is quite different. For my group, we would need an AP maybe every five years or so. So when our current 4e campaign ends in two or three years we could select from three or four different APs for our first 5e game. That's more than enough!

I realise that we are probably an exception but calling anything reasonable without numbers to support the claim isn't a valid argument. And, on top of that, we can't be sure the primary goal of WotC's management is making us - the people wo play RPGs as a (serious) hobby - happy.

 

[aramis erak]

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.

There are several companies with relatively large teams, tho' not all team members are full-timers.

FFG appears to have more than 15 people... they've got about 20 in the credits amonst the 9+ lines (EotE, AoR, F&D, DH, RT, OW, BC, DW, End of the World) being supported (in 3 engines - Star Wars, 40K, and their new end of the world line).

AEG has a sizable team (tho' I've not checked the current edition) for L5R. Not certain how many are full time, but it's a long list. Looking on RPGG's entry, 15 production staff, 4 designers, for L5R 4E core (tho' that was a few years ago; I'm not checking supplements).

Mongoose has about 5-6 in the office (not all full time, I suspect), plus a bunch of recurring freelancers.

Palladium has a stable of a dozen freelancers that Kevin rewrites and then gripes about... but he still pays them...

So, Wizards isn't unique in a large team. They are unusual amongst the bigger teams in having them all in-office and apparently all full-time. But, by the same token, WotC's D&D side isn't a pure RPG team, either. They are a pure D&D team, but they work on the RPG and the related board games.