WotC 2020 Was The Best Year Ever For Dungeons & Dragons

[Sacrosanct]

Well, GoS isn’t strictly old modules. There are modern and newer stuff in that book as well. So it’s conceivable they could have released it regardless of making old school players happy. I mean, if that was their main goal, there are better adventures to choose from, like a remaking of Lost City or UK1/UK2 sentinel/gauntlet.

 

[SkidAce]

Well, I do grumble. It's just that the things I grumble about are the things, that, according to some, as an older player I should love.

Really, they only thing old men have in common is a tendency to grumble. Their pet hates are all different (although they labour under the delusion that all right thinking people agree with them).

I haven't seen anyone with a sense of reason and capacity for coherent thought who doesn't agree with me...

/wink

 

[darjr]

This is ridiculous. See person #85. Guess who? That book made him cannon in Waterdeep.
Also I was at Gen Con in 2016 when CR did their live show with Green Ronin and they were turning back CROWDS of people who couldn't physically fit on the floor or in the BALCONIES!. I know because I was in that crowd being turned away. WotC new right then and there, if they didn't already know.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist came out in September of 2018. Matt Mercer contributed a lot the that book, WotC approached him to collaborate with him on that book's villains and adventures. They almost definitely would have started on WH before the Tal'dorei campaign setting came out, so they knew well before that book even came out that Critical Role was a huge success and that it was bringing a lot of new players into the game

Knowing Matt Mercer was someone they wanted to work with and knowing Critical Role was a huge phenomena that would double the audience of the game are two different things
They could enjoy CR and want to work with Mercer in early 2017 for DRAGON HEIST and still not realize how big an impact CR would have or how it would change the game

How could they? Nobody expected CR to steadily increase in popularity the way it did
Even the people in the show were blown away by it's popularity in 2018 and 2019

They would have been working on that book in the same time period that they were working on Ghosts of Saltmarsh, so they both a) knew that Critical Role was a huge success and bringing a bunch of players into the game and b) were creating an adventure compilation book with older editions' adventures being transported to D&D 5e, both at the same time. We also know that about half of the book ideas that get floated end up getting shut down for various reasons, even some well into their development phase, we even have specific examples (like this book that's never come out, and the Adventurer's Handbook).

Marisha Ray and Deborah Anne Woll almost certainly pitched adventures for CANDLEKEEP MYSTERIES that didn't make the cut

If they didn't care about older players once they knew newer players were coming into 5e in droves (like you've been asserting), why did they make and publish Ghosts of Saltmarsh? They could have just cancelled it, and could have done so early enough that they wouldn't have lost more money than they could make up by replacing the book with one more geared towards newer players. They didn't do that, though, which proves to me that they do care about pleasing older players.

Because then they wouldn't have had a book in Spring 2019?

While they probably wanted to change gears for 2019 by the time they realized D&D was having such a renaissance it was too late to do a new book. There's a point when they are committed and don't have time to start development on a whole new book
GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH will likely be the last reprint we see. Future anthologies will likely be more like CANDLEKEEP MYSTERIES as a way of testing new freelancers and increasing diversity in DnD. The nostalgia adventures will be handled by Goodman Games instead

 

[Parmandur]

Knowing Matt Mercer was someone they wanted to work with and knowing Critical Role was a huge phenomena that would double the audience of the game are two different things
They could enjoy CR and want to work with Mercer in early 2017 for DRAGON HEIST and still not realize how big an impact CR would have or how it would change the game

How could they? Nobody expected CR to steadily increase in popularity the way it did
Even the people in the show were blown away by it's popularity in 2018 and 2019


Marisha Ray and Deborah Anne Woll almost certainly pitched adventures for CANDLEKEEP MYSTERIES that didn't make the cut


Because then they wouldn't have had a book in Spring 2019?

While they probably wanted to change gears for 2019 by the time they realized D&D was having such a renaissance it was too late to do a new book. There's a point when they are committed and don't have time to start development on a whole new book
GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH will likely be the last reprint we see. Future anthologies will likely be more like CANDLEKEEP MYSTERIES as a way of testing new freelancers and increasing diversity in DnD. The nostalgia adventures will be handled by Goodman Games instead

I wouldn't bet money on that conclusion.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

This is ridiculous. See person #85. Guess who? That book made him cannon in Waterdeep.
Also I was at Gen Con in 2016 when CR did their live show with Green Ronin and they were turning back CROWDS of people who couldn't physically fit on the floor or in the BALCONIES!. I know because I was in that crowd being turned away. WotC new right then and there, if they didn't already know.

Knowing something is popular at GenCon tells them nothing
All those people are gamers. They're already part of the audience
WizCo could film a room like that as well (And they did in GenCon 2012)

It was CR spreading to non gamers and people starting to play DnD because of it. That changed everything and that came later
When CR started doing live shows outside of cons
And the sheer number of people brought in by streaming games is still surprising. Even in 2017 or 2018 it would have been hard to believe

Prior to the infographics released in 2020 would YOU have believed almost half the audience was under 30? That people 45 and up were less than a fifth of the player base?

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

I wouldn't bet money on that conclusion.

Well find out in two years then...

 

[billd91]

GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH will likely be the last reprint we see. Future anthologies will likely be more like CANDLEKEEP MYSTERIES as a way of testing new freelancers and increasing diversity in DnD.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh was a good product, but future anthologies featuring new freelancers and increasing diversity sounds like a good thing to me too. I’m on board for it. After playing for 40 years, I don’t want too many reboots and nostalgia products. I want new ideas too!

 

[Sacrosanct]

Knowing something is popular at GenCon tells them nothing
All those people are gamers. They're already part of the audience
WizCo could film a room like that as well (And they did in GenCon 2012)

It was CR spreading to non gamers and people starting to play DnD because of it. That changed everything and that came later
When CR started doing live shows outside of cons
And the sheer number of people brought in by streaming games is still surprising. Even in 2017 or 2018 it would have been hard to believe

Prior to the infographics released in 2020 would YOU have believed almost half the audience was under 30? That people 45 and up were less than a fifth of the player base?

Yes, because those demographics aren’t exactly secret. We can see from convention attendance (there is a lot of overlap between ttrpgers and other geek hobbies and fandoms) that younger participants are a huge chunk of the base. And even outside of convention demographics, there have been plenty of surveys over the years.

I would be shocked if WoTC didn’t know the age demographics every year for years. That’s literally the job of their marketing dept

 

[Older Beholder]

Every single preview is about the changes the made
Not the domains they kept the same or found ways of tweaking
Just the ones they completely rewrote

If the advertising mostly focused on the changes/ updates, wouldn't that suggest it's aimed at older players/ fans of the original?
What interest would the changes have for new players who'd never heard of Ravenloft?

I'm getting the feeling that your main issue is that you perceive the new edition as a criticism of the past, rather than an actual issue with anything in the book itself.
The reason people are arguing with you is that this attitude is doing yourself a disservice by not checking it out.
Ignorance can be bliss, but sometimes ignorance is just ignorance.