Too Many Books. . .?

Also, compare the releases of 2005 versus the releases of, say, 1994. When you total up all the product lines being produced back then, that was an Unbelievable amount of material. I remember an old thread where someone totalled all product releases by year, and the release speed really shocked me.

I don't mind the release speed as-is, because the entire world moves faster now, not just WotC. If we don't have new products in months of time, rather than years, then it's too slow for the general public. This goes in everything from Television, food, to cars, to movies, etc. Anybody remember how long a movie to VHS tape cycle used to be 15 years ago?

Henry said:

Also, compare the releases of 2005 versus the releases of, say, 1994. When you total up all the product lines being produced back then, that was an Unbelievable amount of material. I remember an old thread where someone totalled all product releases by year, and the release speed really shocked me.

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Do you have a link for that?


glass.

Pulling out Dragon #200 (December 1993), I find the following products announced...

December 1993
MC16 Monstrous Compendium "Ravenloft" - $10.95 (64 pages)
Volo's Guide to the North - $9.95 (240 pages)
PG2 The Player's Guide to the FR Campaign - $15.00 (128 pages)
War Against the Han (A Buck Rogers High Adventure boxed set) - $18
1993 Collector Cards Factory Set - $24.95
AC1011 Poor Wizard's Almanac - $9.95 (240 pages)
DSM3 Marauders of Nibenay (Dark sun adventure) - $14.95

January 1994
PHBR11 The Complete Ranger's Handbook - $15 (128 pages)
RM4 Dark of the Moon (RL module) - $10 (64 pages)
AM5 Galactos Barrier (Amazing Engine universe book) - $18 (128 pages)
DLT2 Book of Lairs (Dragonlance) - $11 (96 pages)

##
Inflation means that $10 then means $14 today; $15 then is $20 today; $18 then is $23.50 now.

Cheers!

3catcircus said:

An *easier* way than this (as a player) is to (except for the 3 core books) type the relevant information and print it or scan the relevant pages and print them. Assemble them in a logical manner in a 3-ring binder.

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We did something similar. We xerox'ed the tables, feats, and/or rules we'd use and bundled them.

JoeGKushner said:

Now they stick with two settings and a lot of 'generic' material. More importantly, they've started moving back into adventurers because I think somewhere along the lines they realize that people simply can't afford to keep up with $100 of 'official' books a month.

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But, even separating out the product lines, TSR produced lots more supplements in a short amount of time. If you were a fan of just Planescape or the Realms, let alone some of the core material, you were buying just as much or more.

WotC's 2005 releases were:
Complete Adventurer (2005)
Dungeon Master’s Guide II (2005)
Fantastic Locations: Fane of the Drow (2005)
Fantastic Locations: Hellspike Prison (2005)
Heroes of Battle (2005)
Heroes of Horror (2005)
Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations (2005)
Maelstrom (2005)
Magic of Incarnum (2005)
Races of the Wild (2005)
Sandstorm (2005)
Spell Compendium (2005)
Stormwrack (2005)
Weapons of Legacy (2005)

That's roughly one hard-bound release a month, not counting the two map/setting supplements. Of those, virtually ALL of them are options. Only the DMG II or the Complete Adventurer would be considered NEAR-core.

TSR, in 1996, released the following as unspecified:

A Hero's Tale (1996)
Den of Thieves (1996)
Eye of Doom (1996)
Eye to Eye (1996)
Monstrous Compendium Annual, Volume Three (1996)
Player's Option: Spells & Magic (1996)
Rod of Seven Parts, The (1996)
Sages & Specialists (1996)
Wizard's Spell Compendium, Volume One (1996)
World Builder's Guidebook (1996)
Birthright:
Player's Secrets of Halskapa (1996)
Sword of Roele, The (1996)
Dark Sun:
Defilers and Preservers: The Wizards of Athas (1996)
Mind Lords of the Last Sea (1996)
Psionic Artifacts of Athas (1996)
Forgotten Realms:
Netheril: Empire of Magic (1996)
Undermountain: Maddgoth's Castle (1996)
Warriors and Priests of the Realms (1996)
Monstrous Arcana:
Eye of Pain (1996)
I, Tyrant (1996)
Planescape:
A Guide to the Astral Plane (1996)
Doors to the Unknown (1996)
Hellbound: The Blood War (1996)
On Hallowed Ground (1996)
Planewalker's Handbook (1996)
Something Wild (1996)
Uncaged: Faces of Sigil (1996)
Ravenloft:
Death Unchained (1996)
Requiem: The Grim Harvest (1996)
Other:
Blood Wars: Warlord's Tactical Manual Reference Guide (1996)


That's not including other material, Spellfire, Dragondice, novels, comics and games that aren't AD&D-based. And the previous year, they'd had two more settings on top of these.

MerricB said:

Are you talking about this article?
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr5

If so, you're misremembering it.

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No, I remember that article (and thought it was very good at describing what makes a card "bad") but I'm specifically talking about the early sets featuring cards far better than expected because they thought that only by seeing great cards will the players learn what makes a great card.

Alas, it was many moons since I played Magic properly: though I did teach my girlfriend this year, and she's started buying new cards. :> I cna't rememebr if it was a Duelist article, or a website piece, or just an illusion of my fettered imagination. :>

The Backpack Principle:

Sales will decline once there are enough options of books for the average player to fill a backpack and carry it comfortably.

This is because the game being at its heart a social game, must, in some way be portable.

The average player of D&D is not one that collects all the books. He is not a hobbyist. He would be just as happy doing somthing else. He does not go on the internet looking for new news of the new book, he might visit his game store quarterly and maybe buy a new book.

That means that the typical DM will have the three core rule books plus a few adventures and a Campaign setting. That is if he did not write them himself. He may throw a few things in to the mix to make it interesting, but chances are he won't go over 7 books.

The typical player will have maybe the PHB, PHB II, a couple of complete books and maybe a hero book. This fellow will not own more than 5 books.

Keep in mind this is the casual player,

Henry said:

I remember an old thread where someone totalled all product releases by year, and the release speed really shocked me.

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Um, that might have been me. Here's a graph indicating the number of (A)D&D products released by TSR/WotC each year since the game's inception. Notice the interesting dips in 1988, 1997 and 2002. This seems to indicate that a significant drop in the number of annual releases heralds either a new edition or bankruptcy.

I recommend reading Chris Chinn's comment on what Mearls said about this here on ENWorld.

I find myself somewhat on the fence. There's certainly way more product being produced by WotC than I will ever use, but I don't know if the expectation is that everyone will buy every book. And it's certainly true that their release schedule is pretty tame in comparison to TSR.

Still... I find myself looking at my game shelf and wondering why the heck I need all these books. I'd be interested to see WotC produce fewer, but longer, even better-produced books.

Echohawk said:

Um, that might have been me. Here's a graph indicating the number of (A)D&D products released by TSR/WotC each year since the game's inception. Notice the interesting dips in 1988, 1997 and 2002. This seems to indicate that a significant drop in the number of annual releases heralds either a new edition or bankruptcy.

Click to expand...

So, basically, we're at exactly the same point we were in the early 80's, as far as production schedules, which most herald as the high point in the DnD's history. Interesting.

Of course, that does ignore the fact that WOTC's offerings are a fair bit meatier than what was beign flogged at the time.