D&D 5E Am I no longer WoTC's target audience?

[Parmandur]

You honestly think the D&D core books are being aimed at kids and families? That's not my sense at all. I'd be shocked if even 10 per cent of the core books were being sold to or bought for kids under 16. Just as I'd by shocked if anything more than a tiny portion of the audience of Critical Role was 6 and 8 years olds.

The core books are being marketed to teens and twenty-somethings, and precocious preteens. The ABC and 123 books are being marketed for little children, and Jim Zubs Young Adventurers line is for 8-12 years old. The current Core is way more family friendly than 1E.

 

[Reynard]

The core books are being marketed to teens and twenty-somethings, and precocious preteens. The ABC and 123 books are being marketed for little children, and Jim Zubs Young Adventurers line is for 8-12 years old. The current Core is way more family friendly than 1E.

Happy meals exist for a reason. WotC is looking for lifelong gamers, as they should be. Maybe D&D will retreat back into the basement, but if not it becomes a mainstream activity and they sell some variant of RPG material for the next several decades (although I expect there to be an eventual move toward cheap, casually purchased and played materials).

 

[jayoungr]

The overwhelming amount of content on the DM's guild is amateur, and it looks and reads amateur. One of the values WotC (and a handful of other RPG publishers) brings to the table is professional layout, editing, and document design.

Basically, employing professional full-time staff to edit, design, and lay out your books is the hallmark of a professional publisher.

I'd like to follow up on this a little because I feel like there's a small contradiction here, at least potentially.

If you outsource layout, editing and design duties, then you could have professional-looking work, which I thought was the main concern expressed in your earlier post. Now you're saying that the publishing house itself must employ full-time staff to do these jobs or else they're not professionals. The first post focuses on the product, and the second focuses on the process.

So my question is, do you think it's possible for a book to look professional even if the publishing house that produces it isn't "professional"?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You should remember +30 players don't want so many dungeon crawling but they start to would rather other genres as horror or urban fantasy, for example World/Chronicle of Darkness and Call of Chulhthu. Then why not more tittles of Ravenloft? They are just working about since time ago, but I guess the metaplot is suffering a retconing. They want to use the written work and adding new things to create the "Song of Ice and Fire" of the Gothic Horror.

 

[Parmandur]

Happy meals exist for a reason. WotC is looking for lifelong gamers, as they should be. Maybe D&D will retreat back into the basement, but if not it becomes a mainstream activity and they sell some variant of RPG material for the next several decades (although I expect there to be an eventual move toward cheap, casually purchased and played materials).

Exactly! WotC isn't trying to exclude anyone, but newer players are the commercial focus, and per WotC, most of the people playing D&D now are in their teens and twenties. I'm relatively young for these parts at 34, but I'm definitely moved out of their "target" demographic now, and my kids aren't there yet: WotC hasn't gone out of their way to alienate me, and they are doing a good job paving the way for the next generation, but the teens are where the main interest happens to be. That's just the progression of things.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I don't regard some of those outfits as professional. They're labours of love by part-timers and hobbyists, and the quality of the product reflects that. For instance, I find the layout and presentation of Frog God books to be so awkward and ugly that I've stopped buying them.

Kobold Press, especially they're newer stuff, is extremely professional. Not as professional as Wizard's of course, but I'd say they match Paizo.

 

[generic]

Kobold Press, especially they're newer stuff, is extremely professional. Not as professional as Wizard's of course, but I'd say they match Paizo.

The Kobold Press adventures are bland and boring IMO, and their crunch is overpowered, especially their Deep(?) Magic series, the one which details Clockwork magic, Blood magic, etc.

The Tome of Beasts is nice, however, and their pamphlets which contain race rules are balanced and fun.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

The Kobold Press adventures are bland and boring IMO, and their crunch is overpowered, especially their Deep(?) Magic series, the one which details Clockwork magic, Blood magic, etc.

The Tome of Beasts is nice, however, and their pamphlets which contain race rules are balanced and fun.

I was speaking more to the quality of their art, layout and design, not the actual quality (which is always subjective).

I've perused Courts of the Shadow Fey, it seems like the best module for the Feywild for 5e available anywhere.

EDIT: And their setting Midgard seems to be the most popular 3rd-party setting, at least on this forum.

 

[Parmandur]

The Kobold Press adventures are bland and boring IMO, and their crunch is overpowered, especially their Deep(?) Magic series, the one which details Clockwork magic, Blood magic, etc.

The Tome of Beasts is nice, however, and their pamphlets which contain race rules are balanced and fun.

That may be so, but they are at least designed by professionals. Dan Dillon actually works at WotC as a Designer now, even.

 

[generic]

I was speaking more to the quality of their art, layout and design, not the actual quality (which is always subjective).

I've perused Courts of the Shadow Fey, it seems like the best module for the Feywild for 5e available anywhere.

Oh, on that basis, then yes, I am inclined to agree Kobold Press does release nicely-formatted products.

I have not yet read Courts of the Shadow Fey, perhaps I will pick it up.