D&D 5E D&D Head Talks Future Plans (Sort Of)

WotC has launched a new design blog. The first edition is written by D&D head Ray Winninger, and he talks a little about future plans.

"Later in the year, Chris will return with our big summer adventure, James Wyatt will deliver a substantially improved version of a concept that I initiated myself, and Amanda Hamon will close us out with a project that was jointly conceived by herself and several other studio members. As usual, Jeremy Crawford is working with all of our leads, overseeing mechanical content and rules development.

In addition to these five major products, look for a couple of additional surprises we’ll unveil in the months ahead."

You can read the full blog here:

Who We Are & What We Do | D&D Studio Blog | Dungeons & Dragons

The first of many design blogs, direct from your friends at the Dungeons & Dragons Studio!

dnd.wizards.com

He also mentions that a D&D book takes 12-14 months to make, and half the projects developed don't make it to market. Winninger describes the structure of WotC's 'D&D Studio':

"The D&D Studio itself is organized into four departments: Game Design, Art, Production, and Product Management, each led by a department head. Game Design is responsible for the developing game mechanics and stories. Art establishes the “look and feel” of Dungeons & Dragons by creating visual concepts, directing our freelance illustrators, and creating innovative graphic designs. The Production department manages our project schedules, interfaces with manufacturing experts, and generally handles administrative matters for the studio. The Product Management department interfaces with sales, marketing, and market research. They also own our long-term product roadmap and look after the D&D business."

The studio has five Product Leads: Jeremy Crawford, Amanda Hamon, Chris Perkins, Wes Schneider, and James Wyatt.

 

[darjr]

Spelljammer confirmed!

Planescape and Spelljammer

I doubt it. Those are mixed into everything at this point. Well spelljammer anyway.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I thought the consensus was that it turned into Candlekeep Mysteries?

I doubt that now. Welch mentioned writers like Deborah Ann Woll and Marisha Ray, and neither are involved in Candlekeep Mysteries.

 

[Parmandur]

I doubt that now. Welch mentioned writers like Deborah Ann Woll and Marisha Ray, and neither are involved in Candlekeep Mysteries.

Yeah, and based on the timeframe Winninger provided compared with when Welch left the company (and even more, when she leaked the product), and the knowledge that they don't finish half of what they start...I think that book is gone, too.

 

[darjr]

How far does half get though? Just the fleshed out pitch stage?

 

[Zaukrie]

Yeah I'd honestly be shocked if they hadn't. They seemed to be gearing up to do DS, then all that stuff petered out and three psi-archetypes went into the random bucket of Tashas.

I really think they've boxed themselves in on psionics at this point. They seem unwilling or unable to break the current concepts of magic/casting. Not sure I typed that exactly clearly.....but I just think 5e's design principles are hindering a truly different system for psionics, which is what psionics' fans want (though others may not).

 

[Parmandur]

How far does half get though? Just the fleshed out pitch stage?

I would wager probably most get up to half-way through the timeframe that Winninger cites, before they have to make the call about whether they will actually send something to the printer. That would be one big, major reason they don't tell us about products until a few months advance, if they always are preparing two products in mind for each time slot until the end.

 

[R_Chance]

I would wager probably most get up to half-way through the timeframe that Winninger cites, before they have to make the call about whether they will actually send something to the printer. That would be one big, major reason they don't tell us about products until a few months advance, if they always are preparing two products in mind for each time slot until the end.

Sounds like a cage match. And can you imagine how much angst and anger there would be if everyone's favorite / pet product was known to have been canned in favor of another.... it would make our current political situation look tame and polite!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I really think they've boxed themselves in on psionics at this point. They seem unwilling or unable to break the current concepts of magic/casting. Not sure I typed that exactly clearly.....but I just think 5e's design principles are hindering a truly different system for psionics, which is what psionics' fans want (though others may not).

Oh definitely! The point I've always made is that if you subjected any existing 5E full-caster to the "approval process" they put the Mystic etc. through, they'd be roundly rejected. Bards would basically be shot out of a cannon, but even Wizards would be "OP". They shouldn't be using UA for stuff like that because the 70% approval threshold just won't be met by most classes (I'm not sure many of 5E's core class designs and archetypes would have met it, frankly, if presented in isolation - Rogues maybe, but a few posts on reddit and other sites about how it was "too easy" to get SA - even though that was the design intention - and they'd have had massive bad feedback).

And yeah they take into account the wants of people who in another breath will happily say they don't want Psionics at all and/or wouldn't allow them with the same weight as people do and then say there's confusion, well duh guys, you created that confusion out of whole cloth.

It's particularly bad as I strongly suspect that if there was any kind of spell-point-based caster properly woven into 5E they'd be extremely popular (Sorcerer ain't it).

But I suspect they'll do a better job in 6E. I mean, if they don't, I may just skip it lol, given we seem to be heading BACK TO THE NINETIES (time-travel voice) in terms of diversity of "good RPGs" by the standards of the time (and those standards are much higher today).

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Spelljammer confirmed!

Jakandor confirmed!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Sounds like a cage match. And can you image how much angst and anger there would be if everyone's favorite / pet product was known to have been canned in favor of another.... it would make our current political situation look tame and polite!

You make an excellent point. I'd say you'd need to be in the next edition and at least four-five years clear of any such cancellation before you could even vaguely safely discuss it. And even then there'd be grudges held for decades, just quieter ones. Like if I heard they'd mostly developed Planescape and dropped it... I'd be pretty frustrated... if they'd got DiTerlizzi back to do the art and the Factions were back and they'd dropped it... holy naughty word I will not lie, I'd hold a grudge for a very long time.

So I guess that sort of stuff is probably staggeringly important to NDA to hell and back.

How can we convince WotC to implement their version of an FOIA request lol?