D&D General Ray Winninger on 5e’s success, product cadence, the OGL, and more.

[Iosue]

We certainly talked about it here at the time. I vaguely recall maybe a pre-release interview mentioning this strategy too.

@mearls talked about it in his Legends & Lore column back in 2011, before 5e was even announced. Unfortunately, the Legends & Lore articles are lost to the ether, taken offline when WotC rebuilt the D&D webpage a few years back.

In 2015, I did a retrospective thread on Mearls' articles, found here. The specific post looking at the article on the release schedule is here.

 

[michaeljpastor]

It wasn't. It was people in their 30s to early 40s. That's how old GenXers and Xennials were 11 years ago.

And those women were in their 20s reading fantasy novels produced by D&D, which I'm sure had a lot to do with bringing them into the fold.

 

[WinningerR]

The big issue is that, while Amazon takes 40%, I can sell the book elsewhere. The exclusivity and the fee together make publishing to the DMs Guild nearly untenable for a high quality product. Not being able to crowdfund it alone is a huge detriment.

I get it, if you’re using WOtC IP, this is really the only way to go. But there’s a ceiling on the quality of a product you can reasonably publish to the DMs Guild and it’s why you don’t see other small publishers there.

I know you know all this. I appreciate your response!!

All true. If you’re not using WotC’s IP, you’re better off using the OGL.

 

[Shardstone]

This was my theory.



Everything after was trying to clarify what cohort I was talking about. We know that it was returning players that gave 5E its initial boost, not new players. The new players came in afterwards, driven by CR and other streaming shows, and Stranger Things (which was a GenX nostalgia show, remember).

If it was returning players, that doesn't strictly relate to the claim that new players are mostly women. Returning Gen X and Xennial players may have given 5E an initial boost, but new players were largely younger women from their teens to 30s.

 

[SlyFlourish]

All true. If you’re not using WotC’s IP, you’re better off using the OGL.

Or the CC

 

[Scribe]

And those women were in their 20s reading fantasy novels produced by D&D, which I'm sure had a lot to do with bringing them into the fold.

So the scene was inclusive to women for well over 20 years, before 5th? Hmm.

 

[Dire Bare]

It is really the only place you can write a product based on their IP and its possible you might get better visibility on there than any other single platform, but you're essentially selling your product to WOTC. It's not really yours anymore. You can't Kickstart it. You can't make it a free product as part of a newsletter. You can't offer it up as a patreon feature. You lose all control over the work.

Even for new publishers, I'd recommend working on one's own IP and being able to publish it anywhere, reformat it, reshape it, and sell it lots of different ways.

Sure, but . . . not everyone publishing products on the DM's Guild comes from the perspective of "new publisher". Often, they are more "obsessed Greyhawk fan" excited to share what they whipped up for their home game anyway with a wider audience.

If you are just a fan who wants to share your work and contribute to your favorite game and/or setting, the DM's Guild is a great way to do that. Right now, currently.

If you have ambitions of being a pro or semi-pro publisher or creator . . . yeah, the DM's Guild probably isn't for you.

Note that quality is a completely different metric . . . plenty of "professional" game publishers put out crap product, and some of the "amateur" products on the DM's Guild are amazing.

 

[Dire Bare]

Amen to all of that. It’s also important to keep that 50% in perspective. Publishers typically give up 60% of MSRP on books sold through retail (online or B&M). That’s why WotC is now putting so much effort into selling printed D&D books direct-to-consumers via DDB; they want to claw back some of that 60% wholesale discount. Also, the DMsG doesn’t charge you an additional licensing fee to use WotC’s IP. On a property like Forgotten Realms, licensing fees would probably run another 10-15%. In other words, if Keith Baker was publishing his Eberron books and selling them through Amazon, etc, he’d keep much less than 50% of the sale price.

That said, there is certainly room to lower that 50% and we were looking at that when I left. One obstacle is that DMs Guild is operated by Roll20/DTRPG, so they need their cut (which is often 35% on DTRPG’s other sites) too.

That gets dropped a lot when folks complain about the 50% cut on the DM's Guild.

Independent publishers give up more than that in the supply chain from design-to-table, especially if they want to license IP like Greyhawk, Eberron, or the Forgotten Realms.

And, correct me if I'm wrong . . . the DM's Guild wasn't designed as a marketplace for independent creators like DriveThruRPG is, but more of a modern replacement for Dragon Magazine. Back in the day, if I got an article published in Dragon . . . I'd get paid pennies per word and give up all rights to TSR or WotC. Publishing something similar on the DM's Guild today, if it sells well, could bring in a lot more for me. Probably still beer money, but money for more beer!

 

[SlyFlourish]

Sure, but . . . not everyone publishing products on the DM's Guild comes from the perspective of "new publisher". Often, they are more "obsessed Greyhawk fan" excited to share what they whipped up for their home game anyway with a wider audience.

If you are just a fan who wants to share your work and contribute to your favorite game and/or setting, the DM's Guild is a great way to do that. Right now, currently.

If you have ambitions of being a pro or semi-pro publisher or creator . . . yeah, the DM's Guild probably isn't for you.

Note that quality is a completely different metric . . . plenty of "professional" game publishers put out crap product, and some of the "amateur" products on the DM's Guild are amazing.

I agree. I worry that new creators don’t realize what they’re giving up or how hard it is to make back ones expenses on the Guild.

 

[mamba]

Also, the DMsG doesn’t charge you an additional licensing fee to use WotC’s IP. On a property like Forgotten Realms, licensing fees would probably run another 10-15%.

WotC is charging you 20% for that, without that IP you could sell it on DTRPG for a 30% fee instead