D&D Has the Biggest Playerbase, So Why is it the Hardest for 3rd Party to Market Too?

[Ancalagon]

Incidentally, this situation also makes me go "why bother " when publishing something, that adventure will only be lost in a sea of content. It's not like I have an "online following" or anything...

 

[jaelis]

I guess my point is that, in terms of net 3pp support, I would guess that 5e gets more in absolute terms than any other system. I don't really know, but I don't see anything to say otherwise.

I would also guess that in terms of 3pp support per player, 5e gets a lot less than many other systems. Because I bet a much larger fraction of the 5e players are probably pretty casual and aren't looking for anything beyond the core books.

 

[HorusZA]

I'm willing to bet that most D&D players around the world will either have no idea or only have a vague notion that 3pp content even exists.

There is a natural tendency for "super-fans" (such as those frequenting these boards, people going to conventions, etc.) to think that the rest of the hobby is just like them.

In my experience, most D&D players are casual players. They get together, play the game, have fun, laugh and drink and when finished go home. They don't sweat the rules, worry about character-balance, optimizations or any of the zillion things that we think are so important. What is so great about 5e that you don't need to do any of that and still have fun.

This, I believe, lies at the heart of the apparent success of 5e and which also explains (a) WotC's release schedule/strategy and (b) why third-party publishers are perhaps not getting much reflected glory: they cater to us, the super-fans and not to the vast multitudes that make up the majority of the market.

 

[CapnZapp]

If what WotC said in the recent article about how they have 12-15 million players in NA is true, then they are way more massive then what 3rd party success would lead one too believe. On a lot of forums outside of EnWorld (and sometimes, even on EnWorld), 3rd party material is always treated as a last resort and very rarely pulled from. After all, when you have a playerbase of 12-15 million, those 100-500 backers on Kickstarter suddenly don't seem like so many. Even if each backer represents a full party of 5 eagers players, that's still less than 1% of the D&D market.

Thoughts?

To me that sounds entirely reasonable.

Having the products you buy be officially vetted with the exposure that entails (such as discussion on these very forums) is a strong plus.

Apparently 99% of gamers agree with me that 3rd party products are too much of a crap-shoot quality-wise and with far too little of a common discussion?

 

[TwoSix]

Between Patreon, DMs Guild, and Unearthed Arcana on Reddit, I have access to so much more third party material than I could ever need. I have enough material saved that I've personally reviewed for my own (idiosyncratic) sense of balance to replace the PHB two times over.

 

[Dausuul]

You just linked a record breaking 100% outlier kickstarter. I'm afraid I can't accept this as the norm, because in every possible way, it is not. What other D&D (SPECIFICALLY D&D) kickstarter has broke 1 million, let alone 2 million?

Name any other RPG which has even one million-dollar Kickstarter for a tabletop product specific to that RPG.

 

[TwoSix]

Name any other RPG which has even one million-dollar Kickstarter for a tabletop product specific to that RPG.

7th Sea was 1.3 million, but that was for the core game, and I feel like you're asking about supporting products.

 

[jasper]

"waaaaa! I haven't even used all the monsters from the 1E monster manuals" cried Sally.
1. 40 years of stuff to convert on your own.
B. Lots of Casual players.
* Ease of play makes ease of self creation.
4. Online sites have lots of stuff
E. Some material has been recycled and updated, and why trust a 3rd party.

 

[Dausuul]

7th Sea was 1.3 million, but that was for the core game, and I feel like you're asking about supporting products.

Yes, sorry - we are obviously not talking about the core game itself. This is for third-party supplements.

 

[zedturtle]

Well... perhaps because it's *too* easy?

I've been toying with the idea of publishing something for a while. In the old days, there would have been serious obstacles. Finding a publisher. Dealing with printing and distribution. Money. Etc etc.

Now the main obstacle is time and laziness. On the DM guild, thousands are publishing! It's very easy.

The creation of the DM’s Guild was a brilliant move. It gives folks who want to produce something as a fan a way to make something that’s ‘legit’, gives a sandbox to play in that’s much bigger in many ways than the OGL provides, and prevented (IMHO) another D20 glut. Because ~18 years ago, there was a ton of 3PP material released, some of questionable quality, and it took a while for it to all shake out.

This time, a lot of folks who want to get their personal vision of 5e out can publish there very easily and there’s been success stories along the way. But for a lot of people, just getting their class/race/monster/magic item out there is enough.