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

[Dire Bare]

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.

Oh yeah. I see plenty of products on the DM's Guild that DON'T utilize WotC's IP in any way . . . so why are they there and not on DriveThruRPG? Could be a newb creator making a misstep, or perhaps they feel the potential increased exposure is worth it.

Being an artist or creator certainly has a learning curve to it! I appreciate your calling attention to such issues on your podcast and on the forums, even if I feel you go at WotC a little to hard sometimes!

 

[Shardstone]

Guilds biggest flaw is not having a way to allow for crowdfunded projects.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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.

The stuff that's not using WotC IP that is nevertheless on DMs Guild always concerns me.

 

[Mistwell]

The stuff that's not using WotC IP that is nevertheless on DMs Guild always concerns me.

It's because that's where most people go. You can get things cheaper than Amazon often, but people go to Amazon because it's a central shopping stop. Same as DMs Guild. Many people simply don't look elsewhere.

 

[Chaltab]

Aside from setting IP, publishing on the DMs guild lets you referrence and quote every published 5E book that's not a tie-in like the Critical Role books... so even if it doesn't clearly use one of the WOTC settings it may be using things not allowed for a DTRPG product.

 

[Joshua Randall]

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

The plural of anecdotes are not data, but I can say that when 4e’s organized play program (Living Forgotten Realms) exploded out of the gate, it brought in FAR more women players than past versions. At the FLGS where I was benevolent LFR dictator for life as well as all other FLGS’s in my area where I had contacts.

 

[Stormonu]

The stuff that's not using WotC IP that is nevertheless on DMs Guild always concerns me.

It is nice to have as much of the compatible stuff all in one area though, rather than trying to hit a dozen different web sites and publishers hoping you know they exist.

 

[Reynard]

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.

Was WotC still publishing novels in 2014? I don't even know.

 

[darjr]

@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.

This is a lot of why I fret over the health of this site. Thank you!

 

[michaeljpastor]

Was WotC still publishing novels in 2014? I don't even know.

I was referring to GenX females who read the 90s novels, who became mothers to 5e children.