Why We Should Work With WotC

[raniE]

WOTC benefits but I believe it waxes and wanes heavily and cant be relied on unless you reset the system (new edition) every 10 years.

Once an edition get long in the tooth, WOTC runs out of widely marketable product. WOTC can't compete with 3PPs for niche products.

I disagree. The current edition was bringing in tons of players. A lot of them would eventually buy at least the PHB, and possibly more of the core books. The core books are always the core, they're what makes you money. The same is true for as far as I know every game company.

 

[Ashtagon]

I still maintain the OGL was never designed to make direct competition to WotC's game, it was designed to supplement it. WotC assumed people wouldn't reinvent the wheel and make a SRD PHB....

One of the key design goals for the OGL was to enable D&D to continue with a 3PP flag-bearer in the worst-case event that WotC went belly up or otherwise got caught up in entanglements (legal or otherwise) that prevented it from publishing.

I'm not sure how that goal could have been met without also enabling a 3PP to create a full RPG around that SRD.

 

[Minigiant]

I disagree. The current edition was bringing in tons of players. A lot of them would eventually buy at least the PHB, and possibly more of the core books. The core books are always the core, they're what makes you money. The same is true for as far as I know every game company.

Agin its not about if it sells but how much.

5e is hitting year 9. Nothing major happened lastyear. Sales have slowed.

 

[Minigiant]

One of the key design goals for the OGL was to enable D&D to continue with a 3PP flag-bearer in the worst-case event that WotC went belly up or otherwise got caught up in entanglements (legal or otherwise) that prevented it from publishing.

I'm not sure how that goal could have been met without also enabling a 3PP to create a full RPG around that SRD.

I mean that's the whole point.

That someone could make a whole SRD RPG if WOTC dies or shuts down D&D.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Agin its not about if it sells but how much.

5e is hitting year 9. Nothing major happened lastyear. Sales have slowed.

I mean, if we aren't operating on corporate brainrot logic here, sales were going to slow because we were largely out of the pandemic. 2020 and 2021 may have set too unrealistic a pace. Did Spelljammer do particularly bad or something?

 

[Minigiant]

I mean, if we aren't operating on corporate brainrot logic here, sales were going to slow because we were largely out of the pandemic. 2020 and 2021 may have set too unrealistic a pace. Did Spelljammer do particularly bad or something?

According to rumors yes.

So with copro brainrot logic, books bad microcontractions good

 

[raniE]

Agin its not about if it sells but how much.

5e is hitting year 9. Nothing major happened lastyear. Sales have slowed.

We don't have a full annual report for 2022 yet. We do have one for 2021. During 2021, WotC and digital gaming revenues increased 42% over 2020.

 

[Maxperson]

What 5e and PF 2e proves is that the main RPG holder can only be profitable with adventures or core books, not both. No one has done both and stayed big yet.

Do we have numbers showing 5e adventures as not profitable?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

According to rumors yes.

Trouble is, the reason Spelljammer did bad, if it did, isn't because people didn't want more D&D books, but because they didn't want that super-weird format, and Spelljammer was always the "Snakes on a Plane" of D&D internet discussion.

What do I mean by that? That people loved to talk about Spelljammer, because it was meme-tastic, and I say this with love - kind of idiotic in a fun way - but like Snakes on a Plane (or Morbius for that matter lol that re-release!), as much as people like to talk and meme about Spelljammer, people weren't actually that excited to buy a new version.

So the format + the Snakes on a Plane factor probably lead to WotC anticipating significantly better performance for SJ than they actually got (assuming this is true).

 

[Remathilis]

One of the key design goals for the OGL was to enable D&D to continue with a 3PP flag-bearer in the worst-case event that WotC went belly up or otherwise got caught up in entanglements (legal or otherwise) that prevented it from publishing.

I'm not sure how that goal could have been met without also enabling a 3PP to create a full RPG around that SRD.

Perhaps they thought it wouldn't happen while D&D was still alive? I don't pretend to know exactly what Dancy and co were thinking, but I can't imagine "let's make our own competition" was top of the list. I think they thought the D&D brand name would keep them on the top of the pile. That worked until it didn't.

The far slimmer 5e SRD is testament to the fact they wanted to make sure they didn't face another Pocket PHB or Pathfinder Core Rulebook again. You could never rebuild the PHB using it; it's missing far too many spells, subclasses, feats and backgrounds (not to mention magic items and monsters). The even slimmer than that CC offerings proves they consider Pathfinder a mistake due to over generosity.