D&D 5E Announcement coming February 6th

[Jester David]

According to the player survey years back, setting books we're the most requested, you drop a few needs unique mechanics for the setting, a few races, and so on and your golden.

Do you have a link for that survey?

And while campaign settings were the most requested, that doesn't mean they'll sell lots of copies of multiple settings. Again, you'll only ever use one or two for the entire lifespan of 5e. More than two settings is just releasing content you expect people to read and not actually use in their games. That's content for the sake of content and thus unnecessary.

If, as you say, all that is needed is a few unique mechanics and a few races, can't that be done through a small DMsGuild PDF? Or a small free book like they're doing for Magic the Gathering?

 

[Demetrios1453]

Unlike splatbooks where the entire table might make use of two or three different books, you're not going to run a game that uses more than one setting.

I've both played in and ran campaigns that spanned multiple settings. Homebrew -> Greyhawk -> Forgotten Realms -> Planescape, and Dragonlance -> Spelljammer -> Forgotten Realms respectively. Not that most of your post is pretty well correct, but the blanket statement that no one ever has campaigns that span multiple settings isn't...

 

[Parmandur]

I think that every time we think we know where the line is going we've been proven wrong.


The spring book has been a lower energy reprint the last couple years. Likely because making the big summer adventure takes so long, and is not made any easier by Perkin's convention schedule. As such, I doubt we'll see something dramatic: we could get another reprint adventure, or a freelancer heavy book, or an accessory. Especially given Mearls has teased that they may get away from two adventures a year, this could be something else.

The two adventures a year has been good, but they can really only properly support one with minis and side products. Focusing on the fall adventure makes the most sense. Plus, since the adventures take more than six months to run and more and more new people are getting into the game, there's a growing backlog of unplayed adventures. It makes sense to slow things down, and let people "catch up" than continuing to release adventures twice as fast as they can be consumed.

This is the irony of RPG game publishing. Once you get into a nice groove with products, you probably need to shake things up. The post-launch release schedule looks very different than the two-years-later release schedule which looks different from the five-years-later release schedule.
(You can look at something Paizo for an example of the alternative. Where they're still releasing adventure path after adventure path, but each takes a good eight months to run, so after playing two APs a third isn't played. After 20+ APs, even someone who started at the very beginning and never took a break, will now have a back catalogue of seven APs. Enough for four-and-a-half years of gaming.)


Back to WotC...
I doubt they'd release two PC splatbooks so close together. Xanathar's Guide to Everything is still selling really well, and they likely wouldn't want to cut into its sales with more class content so soon. And with that itch scratched, the second book won't sell nearly as well.

There has been a lot of planar content in Unearthed Arcana and on DragonTalk. So a Manual of the Planes style book would be a possibility. A Elminster's Guide to the Outer Planes or something, which would be exactly like previous Manual of the Planes but with small post-it notes written by Elminster...
I would so love a nice, hefty sized Manual of the Planes and Deities & Demigods for 5e, updating those classics with modern art and design.

I would quibble that Curse of Strahd was not really a low energy effort. Sure, it reprinted Ravenloft in toto, but Perkins put a lot of effort into the rest. He seemed a little broken after the 1-2 punch of CoS and Sky King's Thunder, so the transition away from 2 APs a year makes good business sense on a couple levels.

I think your analysis about PC options is good here, which is why I can see the May release being a Volo's Guide follow-up pretty easily: lots to do in terms of monsters, no overlap with XGtE. Then in November, maybe something with a few player options (such as the UA work from recently).

 

[Parmandur]

As it's most likely "just" an adventure, I'm not so excited.

Approximately no reason to suspect that Marathon is an adventure book that I can see...?

 

[Parmandur]

According to the player survey years back, setting books we're the most requested, you drop a few needs unique mechanics for the setting, a few races, and so on and your golden.

Well, they keep hinting that the 5E plan for settings is getting rolled out soon: a Manual of the Planes would be a likely candidate.

 

[Jester David]

I've both played in and ran campaigns that spanned multiple settings. Homebrew -> Greyhawk -> Forgotten Realms -> Planescape, and Dragonlance -> Spelljammer -> Forgotten Realms respectively. Not that most of your post is pretty well correct, but the blanket statement that no one ever has campaigns that span multiple settings isn't...

True. I've done some campaign hopping as well.
In my twentyfive-odd years of gaming I've run three homebrew worlds, the Realms once, Dragonlance twice, Ravenloft five and a half times, and Golarion. But, again, that's over two decades and four-and-a-half editions with five or six different gaming groups.

Really, most people play homebrew. While a campaign setting is a fun novelty and might be purchased (especially for neat options and variant rules) by their very nature campaign settings are going to appeal to a minority of players. Especially when they're only likely to be purchased by the DM.
The people willing to buy two or three campaign settings is an even smaller minority. The people willing to buy five is probably ridiculously small.

I would quibble that Curse of Strahd was not really a low energy effort. Sure, it reprinted Ravenloft in toto, but Perkins put a lot of effort into the rest. He seemed a little broken after the 1-2 punch of CoS and Sky King's Thunder, so the transition away from 2 APs a year makes good business sense on a couple levels.

Yeah, but to write both, he also took time off work. He spent his vacation times writing both, which isn't always viable and can lead to burnout.
And you can see the burnout in SKT. There's a lot of problematic stuff more time would have fixed and revised.

I think your analysis about PC options is good here, which is why I can see the May release being a Volo's Guide follow-up pretty easily: lots to do in terms of monsters, no overlap with XGtE. Then in November, maybe something with a few player options (such as the UA work from recently).

Maybe.
I think a planar book that's in line with Volo is a good choice. A couple races, a few new monsters, 90% fluff. That's nice and easy.

I highly doubt the fall release is going to be more class content. Twice in a row seems unlikely. Unless it's psionics, but those likely need more time. My money for the fall is still on a book of magic items, possibly paired with the artificer.
But they could do something completely unexpected just as easily... A book of delves and short adventures. A book of encounter locations. A hacker's guide full of customisation options and variant rules.

 

[Parmandur]

True. I've done some campaign hopping as well.
In my twentyfive-odd years of gaming I've run three homebrew worlds, the Realms once, Dragonlance twice, Ravenloft five and a half times, and Golarion. But, again, that's over two decades and four-and-a-half editions with five or six different gaming groups.

Really, most people play homebrew. While a campaign setting is a fun novelty and might be purchased (especially for neat options and variant rules) by their very nature campaign settings are going to appeal to a minority of players. Especially when they're only likely to be purchased by the DM.
The people willing to buy two or three campaign settings is an even smaller minority. The people willing to buy five is probably ridiculously small.


Yeah, but to write both, he also took time off work. He spent his vacation times writing both, which isn't always viable and can lead to burnout.
And you can see the burnout in SKT. There's a lot of problematic stuff more time would have fixed and revised.


Maybe.
I think a planar book that's in line with Volo is a good choice. A couple races, a few new monsters, 90% fluff. That's nice and easy.

I highly doubt the fall release is going to be more class content. Twice in a row seems unlikely. Unless it's psionics, but those likely need more time. My money for the fall is still on a book of magic items, possibly paired with the artificer.
But they could do something completely unexpected just as easily... A book of delves and short adventures. A book of encounter locations. A hacker's guide full of customisation options and variant rules.

Well, I could see it like this: a Planar Monster Manual in May, a Planar Adventure in September, and a Planar DMG/PHB type book in November (race options, Artificer if it is done, Gazeeter style info on the Planes and Sigil, etc.).

 

[Jester David]

Well, I could see it like this: a Planar Monster Manual in May, a Planar Adventure in September, and a Planar DMG/PHB type book in November (race options, Artificer if it is done, Gazeeter style info on the Planes and Sigil, etc.).

A planar Monster Manual is one option. But they purposely avoided doing a MM2. One of the strengths of Volo's Guide to Monsters was that it was only half a Monster Manual, so they could pick the absolute best 50-ish monsters (and monsters that were cut from the first MM) rather than having to pick 150 or 200 monsters where half of them would be lame filler.
I can probably think of a good two-dozen really cool planar monsters. But after that things quickly get lame or repetitive. Better to mix those into a Manual of the Planes style book that's 50-pages of monsters and and 150-pages of planar lore.

 

[Parmandur]

A planar Monster Manual is one option. But they purposely avoided doing a MM2. One of the strengths of Volo's Guide to Monsters was that it was only half a Monster Manual, so they could pick the absolute best 50-ish monsters (and monsters that were cut from the first MM) rather than having to pick 150 or 200 monsters where half of them would be lame filler.
I can probably think of a good two-dozen really cool planar monsters. But after that things quickly get lame or repetitive. Better to mix those into a Manual of the Planes style book that's 50-pages of monsters and and 150-pages of planar lore.

Well, I mean what I'm thinking of could have a name like Volo's to differentiate it, with Volo style chapters for Planar threats (Slaadi, Gith, Modrons, Devils, Demons, Yugoloth for starters), maybe with stat blocks for Devil Lord's and Demon Princes or high level Modrons. Easily enough material for 192 pages to mine there for monster fluff and Star blocks, before getting into Plane stuff particularly.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Well, I mean what I'm thinking of could have a name like Volo's to differentiate it, with Volo style chapters for Planar threats (Slaadi, Gith, Modrons, Devils, Demons, Yugoloth for starters), maybe with stat blocks for Devil Lord's and Demon Princes or high level Modrons. Easily enough material for 192 pages to mine there for monster fluff and Star blocks, before getting into Plane stuff particularly.

Hopefully some Celestials as well, as this edition has been hugely inadequate concerning them thus far...