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

[TiQuinn]

I don’t think we have data on this, but for starters they make 20% more from every sale. Being on DMsG therefore needs to result in higher sales compared to DTRPG to be worth it.

Whether it is probably depends largely on whether you can do a similar product without their IP, as I doubt the DMsG gives you that extra visibility to get you those additional sales.

So if you want to make a D&D adventure, make it generic instead of setting it in Phandalin or wherever. If you make supplements specifically for a WotC adventure or setting, then you have no other option than DMsG however.

And my thought is that I know there is some segment of the supplement/adventure buying public that wants stuff they can put directly into their Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Dragonlance, etc campaign, and are not necessarily interested in putting in the work to take something generic and use that instead. It doesn't matter if Strahd Von Zarovich is Dracula with the serial numbers filed off, or how easy using another product in an existing D&D setting is - some people just won't do it.

There are designers who have sold their stuff on multiple platforms including stuff they've written separately for DMsGuild, and based on the dates they were added to the catalog, they were writing for products for both. My assumption is that there has to be some value for these designers to write stuff for the DMsGuild. I don't know if that's a difference between they write early products for DMsGuild for the name recognition, and then migrate away when they can sustain completely independent products under their own banner or what.

 

[Chaltab]

Serious question: couldn't you have done your spelljammer book just by "filing the serial number off"? Then you would own it.

Eh.. not really. I was specifically trying to bring a lot of elements from 2E Spelljammer forward and adapt them to fit the 5E Spelljammer revamp. Updating the old TSR lore was the point for me.

 

[Reynard]

Eh.. not really. I was specifically trying to bring a lot of elements from 2E Spelljammer forward and adapt them to fit the 5E Spelljammer revamp. Updating the old TSR lore was the point for me.

Gotcha. That makes sense.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Serious question: couldn't you have done your spelljammer book just by "filing the serial number off"? Then you would own it.

There's a ton of Spelljammer-with-the-numbers-filed-off products that have funded on Kickstarter in the past year, presumably selling to people frustrated with the WotC take, for what it's worth.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Eh.. not really. I was specifically trying to bring a lot of elements from 2E Spelljammer forward and adapt them to fit the 5E Spelljammer revamp. Updating the old TSR lore was the point for me.

I think those products are in a different category. And yeah, they're a definitely good use case for DMs Guild.

But there are so many "here's three subclasses, here's a level 2 adventure" products that are absolutely not using any protected IP.

 

[Reynard]

There's a ton of Spelljammer-with-the-numbers-filed-off products that have funded on Kickstarter in the past year, presumably selling to people frustrated with the WotC take, for what it's worth.

I don't actually care about Spelljammer*. I was just thinking about how one could have their cake and eat it to.

*For the record, the right answer is PlaneJammer and that is what WotC should have done -- based mostly on the 4E cosmology.

 

[Chaltab]

I don't actually care about Spelljammer*. I was just thinking about how one could have their cake and eat it to.

*For the record, the right answer is PlaneJammer and that is what WotC should have done -- based mostly on the 4E cosmology.

Hah, that's actually what my second book was about. If you're going to use the Astral Sea as the inter-stellar medium instead of the Phlogiston then give us something to actually do there!

 

[eyeheartawk]

Hah, that's actually what my second book was about. If you're going to use the Astral Sea as the inter-stellar medium instead of the Phlogiston then give us something to actually do there!

What do you mean? You can go up to another ship with your ship and hit people with swords. What else would you possibly do?

 

[bedir than]

Also, if you're running something at PWYW or for a dollar, or whatever, that can go on DTRPG it can almost certainly be posted to a website you own and you don't have to give OBS the money they take.

If you don't have a website that accepts money and you're creating regularly you should get a website that accepts money.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I feel like you're kind of leaning hard on a false dichotomy. It's not like you publish one thing to DM's Guild and are subsequently forever bound to only using it; you can publish stuff on DMs Guild if it requires WOTC ip like my Spelljammer books or the Doomed Forgotten Realms series and publish stuff that doesn't to any of those other suggestions.

Sure. It's not a false dychotomy. Of course you can write other stuff elsewhere. But that work you put on the DM's Guild can only ever be published there – forever.