D&D General Is DnD being mothballed?

[darjr]

This is really frustrating IMO. It's been ten years now. DM's Guild has authors on it that have dozens of publications. Heck, @M.T. Black has a whole bunch of FANTASTIC adventures - there's a pretty good reason he's a columnist here. He does great stuff.

This isn't the days of Web supplements. The DM's Guild stuff, or if that doesn't float your boat, Kobold Press, and various others, have years of experience with the system. It's not like 5e is that tight of a system that a couple of pluses one way or another is going to matter that much. It really does a disservice to everyone to not check out what's available. There are lots of fantastic short adventures.

I just ran Rats of Waterdeep three times this year with three different groups. Unbelievably fun.

Yes this. There is a lot of cruft on DMsGuild. There is also a lot of fantastic things there too. And they are not that hard to find. The above post will lead you to many of them, for instance.

 

[darjr]

Math says you are wrong. Very, very wrong. There is in fact, and it an absolute fact, a huge middle ground between the release rate of 5e and the release rates of 3e/4e.

First, there is no proof of that. WotC has never tried the middle ground. Second, adventures and settings =/= crunch books. It's apples and oranges.

There's a difference between raising prices and/or selling setting books with little to no setting in them, and releasing a book on crunch.

They have increased the rate. And they do get feedback both in the sales channel and from customers. Just see our fellow retailers comments about how even the modest increase has made a change to the purchase behavior at his store. Statements that match what I’m hearing from other retailers. @FitzTheRuke

 

[darjr]

Speaking of short adventures on DnDBeyond

https://www.enworld.org/threads/adventure-atlas-the-mortuary-a-new-adventure-on-dndbeyond-and-a-wotc-video.700471/

Edit: it’s more a supplement than adventure.

 

[Velderan]

Speaking of short adventures on DnDBeyond

https://www.enworld.org/threads/adventure-atlas-the-mortuary-a-new-adventure-on-dndbeyond-and-a-wotc-video.700471/

Edit: it’s more a supplement than adventure.

Pretty much exactly what I was saying I would have liked to see more of.

I agree with you and @Hussar that there's a lot of quality stuff on DM's Guild. I've bought some of it. There's also a lot more poorly made stuff, which unfortunately I've also bought some of. I think I'd have less of an issue with the platform if it had something like Steam's refund policy where it's VERY easy to buy something you're not sure about, give it a quick try, and decide this is pretty bad and get your money back no questions asked. This is obviously ripe for abuse with PDFs, so I can understand why they can't do that.

Heck, maybe they do and I just didn't find it. Admittedly I didn't spend much time looking since the price was under the threshold I was willing to make a big deal about.

 

[Velderan]

They have increased the rate. And they do get feedback both in the sales channel and from customers. Just see our fellow retailers comments about how even the modest increase has made a change to the purchase behavior at his store. Statements that match what I’m hearing from other retailers. @FitzTheRuke

Yep, @FitzTheRuke posted that story about his experience selling comics which rings pretty true with my own experience collecting things. If I like something, I'll typically buy everything but I only have finite money to spend and once you've crossed the threshold that I can't continue to buy everything, I start being a lot more picky and only buy what I'll likely use.

This year will be interesting for WotC if you think about it. While they haven't released a lot more books, what they have done is condensed it down to a smaller release window due to whatever delays they experienced from the rough release schedule they announced last summer. While I'm sure some fans did think "ok, I'll need $200 for the books I want to buy" and saved accordingly, I'd wager a lot of people just spent their money like normal and didn't plan for a new book coming out more frequently than we've see. Basically, from WotC's perspective it could be looked at as a test run for "we released 4 books in 4 months and sales didn't plummet so perhaps we can release more".

 

[darjr]

Pretty much exactly what I was saying I would have liked to see more of.

I agree with you and @Hussar that there's a lot of quality stuff on DM's Guild. I've bought some of it. There's also a lot more poorly made stuff, which unfortunately I've also bought some of. I think I'd have less of an issue with the platform if it had something like Steam's refund policy where it's VERY easy to buy something you're not sure about, give it a quick try, and decide this is pretty bad and get your money back no questions asked. This is obviously ripe for abuse with PDFs, so I can understand why they can't do that.

Heck, maybe they do and I just didn't find it. Admittedly I didn't spend much time looking since the price was under the threshold I was willing to make a big deal about.

Oh! That’s a good idea about refunds.

I seem to vaguely recall something along those lines. I’d have to look to confirm. But yea, they do need this.

Oh and you bet WotC is paying attention to the sales of these bunched up releases

 

[Maxperson]

Yes this. There is a lot of cruft on DMsGuild. There is also a lot of fantastic things there too. And they are not that hard to find. The above post will lead you to many of them, for instance.

Is there a good 200-300 page hardcover book of non-creature crunch?

 

[Velderan]

Oh and you bet WotC is paying attention to the sales of these bunched up releases

It's also easy to write off a drop in sales as "we have the revisions coming out next year, so perhaps some people are waiting to see what those end up looking like before they buy more books". I could see it being looked at a few different ways for sure.

 

[darjr]

Is there a good 200-300 page hardcover book of non-creature crunch?

It was a response about short adventures?

 

[Maxperson]

It was a response about short adventures?

The increased release rate desires are about crunch books, though.