D&D 5E 5E: Ten Years Later

[Jeff Carlsen]

First, I would try to determine what "complete" version of the game would look like. I'd consider what products or sets of products would really add to the game. For me, those are:

Advanced monster books organized by monster type.

• Draconomicon (dragons),
• Lords of Madness (abberations)
• Libre Mortis (undead)
• Book of Monsters (monstrosities)
• Natural Threats (beasts, plants, and oozes)
• Book of People (giants and humanoids)
• Book of Outsiders (fiends, celestials, elementals)

Advanced Race Books

• Complete Common Races (dwarves, elves, halflings, and humans)
• Complete Exotic Races (everything else)

Campaign Style Books

• Heroes of Battle (war campaign)
• Heroes of Horror (horror campaign)
• Heroes of Intrigue (political campaign)
• Oriental Adventures
• Psionics Handbook
• Epic Level Handbook

Campaign Settings
While I'm not certain that each setting needs the same treatment, the default model I would use includes three books for each setting. One would contain the history, economics, culture, deities, and player options for the setting. One would be an atlas, and the last would contain all the factions, monsters, and other DM specific material. Something like this:

• Forgotten Realms: Adventurer's Handbook
• Forgotten Realms: Atlas of Faerun
• Forgotten Realms: Factions and Foes

Release Schedule

I like the concept of the big storylines. Two each year sounds great, though I'd like to see a variety, where sometimes the adventure is a big level 1-15 path, and sometimes its a collection of thematic adventures. I would also release one book in support of each storyline. Once per year it would be a monster book, and the other would be a campaign style book. Thus, one year you could have an undead themed sourcebook and adventure, and then a war themed book and adventure.

I'd also put out a new campaign setting every other year. During one of the off years, I'd release the two race books. The total would be about 4-7 books per year, including the adventures.

Finally, I'd bring back the magazines, though in a different form. Probably as online articles with quarterly print compendiums (softcover). A subscription would be offered, but stores could get them in as well, so they regularly have something new to sell.


In Ten Years

The total number of books in 2025 would include 3 core books, 15-20 sourcebooks, up to 15 campaign setting books, 20 adventure books, and 40 quarterly compendiums.

 

[Redthistle]

Contents:
1: Core Rulebooks
2: Campaign Worlds; World, Regional, and City Maps
3: The online 'zines: Dragon and Dungeon
4: Third-Party (OGL)
5: Other media

Disclaimer: As I do not work in the industry my knowledge of the cost-benefit considerations such as those that led to the recent staff reductions may make some of what follows impractical. One of those considerations is balancing the cost savings of online vs. printed material in the face of maintaining working relationships with brick-&-mortar stores, an issue that is certainly not exclusive to the world of RPGs.

I do offer my sympathy and condolences to both those who were let go and the staff who remain. Although the latter still have the boon of a regular paycheck, it is nevertheless hard to see co-workers they care about have to deal with their newly straitened circumstances.

1) I agree that the number of core rulebooks should be kept to a minimum, with an online errata compilation that can be expanded as needed. The number of Monster Manuals should be kept to just a few [see 3b) below].

2) As to the canon campaign worlds (Blackmoor, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Mystara, DragonLance, Dark Sun, Eberron), might the previous editions' published information about them be abridged and printed as collections in a few-volume set? Then a periodical issuance of historical updates for those worlds could be put out once every year or two [see 3a) below].

2a) How about an atlas of the collected maps for all of the above game worlds? This should not include small-scale maps for specific encounter locations, but world maps, regional maps, and city maps would make a wonderful addition to the coffee table.

3) Optional rules, classes, races, feats, etc., might be printed originally in the online Dragon and Dungeon magazines, with a regularly updated index on the website as to which issues they can be found in. Perhaps once every two-three years a printed "Best of" collection could be published. The policy guidelines for article and adventure submissions in the past were good, imho; I would like to see those and any updated information about submissions offered asap.

3a) The prior practice of announcing given themes ahead of time should be continued. Perhaps establishing a regular schedule for which month of the year would concentrate on a given game world (this would work better for Dragon's 12 yearly issues than for Dungeon's 6) with the remainder of the issues including only non-campaign-specific material.

3b) New monsters appearing in the online magazines could be collected as the basis for one of the additional Monster Manuals. A separate volume for game-world specific monsters might also be one of the additions to the Monster Manual series.

3c) How about bringing back the short stories that used to get published in Dragon? Or maybe start a third online magazine just for fiction? This could maybe also include selected fan-fic that's also out there.

4) OGL: as this doesn't pertain directly to what WotC will be doing in-house, I got nothing.

5) Movies, TV, books. Where novels are concerned, I'm just asking that you keep them coming. For screens large and small, the inter-related concerns of cost and quality content loom in gloom, but when cannier folk than I find a way through the murk, I'll be willing to queue up to see the result. I would love to see published adventures such as The Red Hand of Doom made into a TV series or Strahd von Zarovich coming to a theater near, well, me! Existing works provide such a rich treasure trove for either cinema or television that, if the financing can be arranged, there's a problem of having too many choices to sort through.

Thanks to all the other commentators on this thread, too. A lot of good ideas out there. Even Mark CMG, whose remark was more funny than helpful.

 

[Jester David]

Imagine you were tasked with laying out a ten year plan for this edition. What would it look like? What's your reasoning? Which products would you release early? What about in the later years? And finally, what would a complete D&D bookshelf look like in ten years?

Wow... its hard to choose between wish fulfilment and realistic goals.

Okay, I like the idea of two storylines a year with one accessory product around GenCon for the second storyline. Possibly a lore or world expansion, or a PC/GM expansion. There should likely be a "classic" storyline, which is a safe product, and something different.

2015
Adventure - Elemental Evil. Dungeons and elementals.
Adventure - Feywild adventure. Lots of fey and archfey and wackiness. Players are strangers in a strange land. Dash of Island of Dread.
Accessory - Manual of the Planes The big book on the cosmology, with planar PC options, reprinting some of the stuff from the cancelled Adventurer's Handbook, but with elements and fey and shadow. And a few extraplanar monsters. But 70% fluff/ planar tour.

2016
Adventure - Keep on the Borderlands/sandbox adventure. Exploration through a wilderness and caves. Maybe some mass combat at the end. Defending towns and then leading armies to defeat a growing population of humanoids.
Adventure - Intrigue in Waterdeep. A big urban adventure with intrigue and merchant wars, thieves' guilds, and politics with some trips to the sewers and Undermountain. Dash of Assassin's Knot.
Accessory - Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting

2017
Adventure - Journey to a jungle with lots of old temples. Lost City meets Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan and Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Accessory - Planar adventure - to Sigil and back, with trips throughout the other realms. If only to allow future storylines to easily move between realities/campaign settings. Plus some classic elements like the Blood War, fighting demons & devils, and the like. Orcus and Demigorgon and others.
Accessory - Fiend Folio Effectively the Monster Manual 2, with a focus on higher level play.

2018
Adventure - Pirates on the Sword Coast. Arrr.
Adventure - Underdark adventure, with far realms taint. Lots of mind flayers, aboleths, and beholders and the like.
Accessory - Psionic Handbook A powersource book, with a new class and some new subclasses. Plus descriptions of places where psionics can be found, like the Underdark or Dark Sun.

2019
Adventure - Megadungeon. Tomb of Horrors meets White Plume Mountain.
Adventure - Holy War in the Realms. Religious conflict.
Accessory - Deities & Demigods Expanded information on gods and religions from various settings and Mythologies. Information on divine characters and PCs with a religious slant.

2020
Adventure - Castle Ravenloft/ horror campaign. More an adventure than campaign setting, but might be optional rules for being pulled into the Mists.
Adventure - Arabian Knights. Journey to Al Qadim for a 1001 nights style adventure with genies and dervishes and flying carpets.
Accessory - Al Qadim sourcebook. Includes details on the region as well as variant class options. Equal parts new campaign setting and expansion to the Realms.

2021
Adventure - Barrier Peaks/ Tale of the Comet adventure Fantasy meets tech.
Adventure - Rod of Seven Parts adventure. Find and assemble the MacGuffin.
Accessory - Tome of Magic. New spells and magic items. Kinda like the Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium, pulling content from adventures and online articles (and the best of other books) into one resource with some new stuff. Maybe some alternate magic systems or variant rules from the Unearthed Arcana articles.

2022
Adventure - Drow. It'll have been several years since the last Underdark adventure, and the Rise of the Underdark/War of the Spider Queen stories. Time for some more dark elves.
Adventure - East meets West. Journey to Kara-Tur with some wuxia.
Accessory - Kara Tur book. Effectively Oriental Adventures with campaign guide. Again, presented equally as FR expansion and new campaign product

That's only 9 years. Definitely not sure of some of the settings/storylines, but they make sense.


Meanwhile, I expect GaleForce9 to continue to put out overpriced accessories. I expect more DM screens, maps, and "collectible" resin minis.
WizKids to churn out a couple miniature sets per year. Knowing WizKids, I expect the quality to drop around 2017, but WotC will likely be less on the ball than Paizo (less aware of the fan response and less willing to make a fuss) and we'll see more sets with declining quality and dropping sales. I imagine that line will be cancelled in 2019. There'll be a few more board games and the like as well.

 

[Zardnaar]

I would imagine 7E would have just come out or maybe no D&D at all.

 

[Nebulous]

Not many actual books beyond the core 3. Maybe another MM, but that's it. Lots of adventure modules, with plenty that were setting generic where you could plug and play into any setting you wanted.
Get a goddamned cartoon already. It's not like Hasbro owns the HUB channel or anything....
Diversity in computer gaming. Not only the action/rpg that's so big right now, but also introduce some turn based RPGs. I refuse to believe that genre is dead...
Work out whatever deal you need with what's his face to get the rights to do an actual movie. Not a half assed low budget Sci-Fi movie either. Take a page from Marvel. Once they got past their crappy superhero movie phase and actually did a big budget one, look that happened for the brand.

I pretty much agree with this. Get a damn cartoon series again, or better (or both) a tie-in cartoon movie with a series spin off. Give us Icewind Dale 3 or Baldur's 3 or just start a brand new place, like The Trollmoors or Kryptgarden Forest or freaking Kara-Tur crpg for a completely different spin (that would be awesome). And yes, really, really plan a series of movies that have thought-out sequels with over arcing plots, not haphazard stuff slapped together with a Scifi channel budget.

 

[Jester David]

6th edition will be on the shelves, and we might be speculating about 7th at that point.

I would imagine 7E would have just come out or maybe no D&D at all.

Lord I hope not. Rapid edition turnover has not been good for the game, dividing the audience and causing edition wars. A Revised Edition of the Core Rulebooks with some errata and tweaks might be fine after 5 years, and a second Revision after 10, but another edition would just be bad.

Getting me to move from Pathfinder to 5e was already a hard sell. I don't know how they could convince the majority of the audience to switch. Especially when the old standby reasons of "bloat", "power creep", and "imbalance" are less egregious.

 

[Quartz]

With a whole 8 people on the D&D team, I think Hasbro should concentrate on licenses, quality control, and percentages. Remember the explosion of talent when 3E was released? They should try to repeat that. With a little more control. If someone wants to do a book on Dragonlance or Greyhawk or Dark Sun or Mystara or whatever, they should be willing to talk. They really need to restart Dungeon magazine: quite a few people got their start that way.

 

[Jester David]

With a whole 8 people on the D&D team, I think Hasbro should concentrate on licenses, quality control, and percentages. Remember the explosion of talent when 3E was released? They should try to repeat that. With a little more control. If someone wants to do a book on Dragonlance or Greyhawk or Dark Sun or Mystara or whatever, they should be willing to talk. They really need to restart Dungeon magazine: quite a few people got their start that way.

Agreed.
I think WotC should licence out settings to other publishers. Give Planescape to Monte Cook Games, Dragonlance to MWP, Eberron to whomever is willing to hire Keith Baker, etc. Maybe Onyx Path is willing to take Ravenloft.

OR let the fan communities have the settings. Give athas.org Dark Sun to play with.

 

[Zardnaar]

Lord I hope not. Rapid edition turnover has not been good for the game, dividing the audience and causing edition wars. A Revised Edition of the Core Rulebooks with some errata and tweaks might be fine after 5 years, and a second Revision after 10, but another edition would just be bad.

Getting me to move from Pathfinder to 5e was already a hard sell. I don't know how they could convince the majority of the audience to switch. Especially when the old standby reasons of "bloat", "power creep", and "imbalance" are less egregious.

Well their record for an edition is 5 or 8 years depending on how you want to look at it.

 

[Jester David]

Well their record for an edition is 5 or 8 years depending on how you want to look at it.

Their record was 5 or 8 years.
The rapid turnover of editions in the last decade and a half has NOT been healthy for D&D or the hobby as a whole. The 3.0 to 3.5 transition stucky hobby stores with product they could not give away, the 3e to 4e transition splintered the audience and gave rise to potent competition, and the 4e to 5e transition gave rise to a wealth of smaller games and direct competition.
Changes are hard on the dwindling number of game stores and hard on the already small audience, and they make it awkward to get into the game by increasing the likelyhood of getting into the hobby immediately before an edition change.
And has it made D&D healthier and more successful? No. The D&D team at WotC has shrunk every year, whether by layoffs or not replacing outgoing employees.

Rapid edition changes have not worked in D&D's favour. Continuing short editions would be a mistake.