7 Years of D&D Stories? And a "Big Reveal" Coming?

When asked what he was working on, WotC's Chris Perkins revealed a couple of juicy tidbits. They're not much, but they're certainly tantalizing. Initially, he said that "Our marketing team has a big reveal in the works", and followed that up separately with "Right now I'm working on the next seven years of D&D stories". What all that might mean is anybody's guess, but it sounds like there are plans for D&D stretching into the foreseeable future! Thanks to Barantor for the scoop!

 

[Kramodlog]

Okay, but what are we talking about here? Are you suggesting that no one who has ever worked at WotC can write a good adventure? That they are all somehow tainted? Because that knocks a lot -- and I mean a LOT -- of RPG companies out of the running, including the folks behind both Pathfinder and 13th Age.

Nah. All I'm saying is that subcontract doesn't mean WotC gets to escape its reputation with adventures, because the guys writting it are from WotC and WotC is overseeing the whole thing.

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying.

It was sarcasm. What you said didn't boost confidence.

To quote Stuart Bloom from The Big Bang Theory, "Okay, if you're gonna question the importance of an actor's signature on a plastic helmet from a movie based on a comic book, then all of our lives have no meaning!"

Dungeons & Dragons is Dungeons & Dragons. That's not to say that there can't be original thought in D&D products, but without the recurrence of certain themes, original fantasy is just original fantasy, not D&D, and some of us, at least, are here because we are /fans of D&D/. Not fans of fantasy roleplaying, but fans of D&D.

I can and often do develop my own fantasy stories and gaming supplements that have nothing to do with D&D lore, but why on Earth would I want to buy a product like that from someone else? I'm here for the themes. Remove the themes and it's just someone else's fantasy setting, and while I'm sure you are all brilliant people, out there in ENWorld, for the most part I could care less about your ideas. It's not personal, it's just that I'd rather use my own.

But D&D, like any other entertainment brand, is different. It has 40 years of history, stories, characters, and worlds that are a shared experience among its fans. Furthering those concepts to increase the volume of material available to those fans is not a sin. It's not even recognizably flawed as a strategy.

And what's more, and what I think Wizards is finally starting to realize, is that fandom is to some degree self-sustaining. Capitalize on that shared experience, and it brings new blood in on its own. Geeks are curious, and as they pursue the answers to their questions they become fans.

Not sure this is what they are doing by rehashing Tharizdun so sooon after the last rehashing (Abyssal Plague), and the previous one... To be honest, I was actually enthousiastic with the Abyssal Plague's premise of cross-setting novels/adventures. It just didn't have traction. Now I'm meh.

What D&D is about is sword and sorcery/fantasy. Why not further those concepts? The most iconic thing that comes to mind is PCs ended up on Earth in 1918 fighting Rasputin to free Baba-Yaga. That is some new iconic material right there with some familiar faces. Tharizdun, Tiamat, Lolth, Castle Ravenloft, Undermountain, they've been done. Give them a rest.

 

[Kramodlog]

The Encounter season for PotA is from March to August, so the next storyline will be then.

There were a few months between the begining of the current Encounter and the end of the previous one, if I am not mistaken.

Even in 2013, when 4e had been dead for over a year, they still managed to have a physical release at GenCon. They're almost certain to have a big book of crunch released in and around then.

Maybe. Maybe not. Remember, too many books hurt D&D. Maybe one AP is a year is more than enough and nothing has been announced, so it all can be non-cancel.

 

[Bugleyman]

Hopefully it's pdfs of their 5e products. Or some non-cloud based electronic version of the books.

If only. I'm pretty sure that is never going to happen...though in this case I'd love to be proven wrong.

 

[Halivar]

Nah. All I'm saying is that subcontract doesn't mean WotC gets to escape its reputation with adventures, because the guys writting it are from WotC and WotC is overseeing the whole thing.

That doesn't seem to be hurting Paizo or Monte Cook Games.

 

[Jester David]

There were a few months between the begining of the current Encounter and the end of the previous one, if I am not mistaken.

The Hoard of the Dragon Queen Expeditions accessory puts that season from August 20th to March 11th. The Elemental Evil one puts the season March 2015 to August 2015.
So there's no real gap.

Maybe. Maybe not. Remember, too many books hurt D&D. Maybe one AP is a year is more than enough and nothing has been announced, so it all can be non-cancel.

Too many books is bad. One big splatbook per annum isn't likely to be too many. Especially if they stop after a couple years.
But if they want to just release the next AP and give us a free PDF, I'm cool with that too. More room for me to design my own stuff.

 

[BryonD]

Wow. Considering the lengths you go to complain about others putting words in your mouth, that's pretty brutal.

But the direct quote from you comparing Paizo to WotC was that it was a smaller pond. And I clearly said "if you both think".

If you DON'T think that, please clarify and I'll happily retract.

If you do think that, do you have the honesty to retract your complaint about putting words in your mouth?

The rpg market has shrunk over the last five to ten years. The market was pegged at 30 million per year and is now pegged at about twelve. At least that's what's been stated.

So after saying I was "brutal" to put words in your mouth, you are putting those same words in your own mouth. Ok.

You're confusing correlation with causation.

I'm not even saying it is true. So how could I possibly be proclaiming anything about causation?

But it is beyond amusing that you insist on no evidence whatsoever that Essentials and 3.5 may only possibly have one matching causation and then say this when it isn't remotely true of me.

Again, you clearly have yourself wrapped in knots.

 

[Fildrigar]

GAMA Trade show just started today. Wizards is a Cosponsor. ( They're higher on the marquee than any other publisher. ) They have a two hour block of time in a room today, 7-9pm. They have an entire room tomorrow, 11am-7pm. I expect news to begin to trickle out pretty soon. Furthermore, I'm sure they're readying a public announcement of their plans over the coming year. Just a little more patience.

 

[BryonD]

"Strawman" is overused in online discussions. Too often it's just used as an excuse to just ignore what someone said (for right or wrong), only while drawing attention to the fact you're ignoring it rather than just not replying or cutting that part out of your reply. I always have to fight not to just ctrl-W when I see "strawman" pop up. But that's my baggage...

So don't use strawmen.
Bad use of the term doesn't mean correct use does not exist. And pointing at bad use of the term doesn't excuse using straw men.

You described one hardback a year in the post following the one I was replying to. I hadn't read that yet.

You quote me saying that in the same reply. Clearly you read it before you clicked "submit".

But that aside, when did I at any point say anything to justify you emotionally charged "eating disorder" claims?
You should have known what I meant if you were paying attention and being thoughtful instead of knee-jerk reactionary.
But at best you simply had no idea.

How about, oh, Basic D&D?
You had levels 1-3 from 1977 to 1981, then 4-14 until '83, 26-36 in '84, and 36+ in 1985. Some revisions in 1991 and that lasted until Basic ended in 2000 with 3e. Two or three rules accessories for 23 years, with only minor revisions to the ruleset. Almost everything released for Basic was either an adventure or related to the world of Mystara.

Funny how you dropped "modern market" from the conversation in a hurry.
And funny how you don't count all the continuations of basic.
And funny how you ignore that Basic was being crushed in market presence by the flooded (to the point of oversaturation) alternative of AD&D.

Six years is nothing. I've purchased new rulebooks books too many times in the fifteen years. 5e was my last. It's simple enough that it'll make a good first RPG for my son (in 6-8 years) but classic enough to be D&D and introduce him to the hobby. If we see 6e in 2021 I'm so done.

First, I've heard the "I'm done" from a lot of people before. We saw 5E in less than 6 years from 4e. Why are you not done already?

That said, I don't know if a 5E drop would bring on 6E or just push D&D into a few years of dormancy. So I can't predict much on that.
But I can predict that if the 5E release schedule stays aligned with the currently publicized rate, the market presence will have shrunk very notably in far less than 6 years.
(And I think that the release schedule part of that will change quickly before we get there)

You asked how long is long term? I think at least a decade is good. If not more.
If ever, really. I'll happily accept some small revisions (ala the Basic changes or even 4e to Essentials), some reprints with errata and small tweaks. But I don't see why we really *need* a new edition. They got this one right. 1e and 2e were full of warts, 3e had some balance issues, 4e was... divisive. But 5e is just right. I don't think we *need* a new edition so much as a revision or reprinting with minor tweaks. D&D isn't a game console where the tech keeps changing and you need to upgrade. While game design evolves over time, 5e's mix of modern and nostalgia keeps it timeless and its modularity should make it easy to accommodate new innovations in gaming.
I wonder if people think we'll see a 6e only because we've seen edition changes before so it's accepted. We *think* editions need to change and so we accept 6e as inevitable.

But this is likely off topic, or worthy of its own thread.

Agreed that this is a different topic.

But, ultimately, if they don't go up to some level of minimal "splat" type support, it will hurt the market presence (by which I mean how many people are playing) of the game.

 

[Jester David]

So don't use strawmen.
Bad use of the term doesn't mean correct use does not exist. And pointing at bad use of the term doesn't excuse using straw men.

Aaaaand we're done here. Good day sir.

 

[bmfrosty]

GAMA Trade show just started today. Wizards is a Cosponsor. ( They're higher on the marquee than any other publisher. ) They have a two hour block of time in a room today, 7-9pm. They have an entire room tomorrow, 11am-7pm. I expect news to begin to trickle out pretty soon. Furthermore, I'm sure they're readying a public announcement of their plans over the coming year. Just a little more patience.

That is very exciting. I'll cross my fingers for some sort of announcement.