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!

 

[jayoungr]

Personally, I'm expecting all the new modules/APs will have free PDFs. HotDQ and RoT both did, and PotA is continuing the trend.

The content of the free PDFs will probably vary in amount and variety, though.

 

[DMZ2112]

I was implying that Paizo and MCG, being stacked with ex-WotC employees, are disproofs of your assertion that ex-WotC employees have a Curse of Doom reputation.

Heh, that is not what I said. Better check the posts again.

If it's not what you said, you did a pretty terrible job of saying what you did say.

 

[Kramodlog]

If it's not what you said, you did a pretty terrible job of saying what you did say.

Me: WotC has a bad rep with adventures.
Others: WotC is subcontracting.
Me: WotC is supervising/editing and the freelancers hired are ex-WotC employees.
Others: You saying ex-WotC are a Curse of Doom reputation!
Me: Not what I said. lol.
You: Nuh-huh!
Me: Me: WotC has a bad rep with adventures.
Others: WotC is subcontracting.
Me: WotC is supervising/editing and the freelancers hired are ex-WotC employees.
Others: You saying ex-WotC are a Curse of Doom reputation!
Me: Not what I said. lol.
You: Nuh-huh!

 

[DMZ2112]

Me: WotC has a bad rep with adventures.
Others: WotC is subcontracting.
Me: WotC is supervising/editing and the freelancers hired are ex-WotC employees.
Others: You saying ex-WotC are a Curse of Doom reputation!
Me: Not what I said. lol.
You: Nuh-huh!
Me: Me: WotC has a bad rep with adventures.
Others: WotC is subcontracting.
Me: WotC is supervising/editing and the freelancers hired are ex-WotC employees.
Others: You saying ex-WotC are a Curse of Doom reputation!
Me: Not what I said. lol.
You: Nuh-huh!

Hm. Okay.

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.

Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...t-Big-Reveal-quot-Coming/page27#ixzz3UfrLGYfd

For what it is worth, I believe that you do not think ex-employees of WotC have a "Curse of Doom reputation." I can get that much from your tone. But make no mistake, you are failing to communicate that point in text, even in your entirely self-manufactured back and forth dialogue at the top of this post. I hope that is clear. I'm not accusing you of anything beyond poor rhetoric.

Neither Halivar nor myself can be faulted for assuming that your opinion is exactly what you state it to be.

 

[Kramodlog]

For what it is worth, I believe that you do not think ex-employees of WotC have a "Curse of Doom reputation." I can get that much from your tone. But make no mistake, you are failing to communicate that point in text, even in your entirely self-manufactured back and forth dialogue at the top of this post. I hope that is clear. I'm not accusing you of anything beyond poor rhetoric.

Neither Halivar nor myself can be faulted for assuming that your opinion is exactly what you state it to be.

What is clear is that people are trying to make me say what I didn't say.

 

[Dire Bare]

I'm not really seeing people asking for a "rapid release schedule".

I do. Most folks don't seem to be asking for a return to the full volume of the 2E - 4E era, but certainly a more rapid release than we are getting now. Of course, what the "correct" volume of product is, changes with each fan.

1) To have some fairly solid idea as to what is coming out (as in the nature of the product, not just a vague name) and when. Why wouldn't hurt, either.

I do think a lot us, even those of us who aren't complaining, would love to see more information about WotC's release plans, that much is obvious. I certainly would. But we do not have a "right" to this information, and we can go on living our lives and playing our D&D games in a happy and healthy manner without it. The folks who are just cranking out the whine, the complaints, and the "WotC is stoopid" vitriol have become more than irritating. Move on, worry about something real for a change.

2) For those books to not just be attached to some WotC-decided "D&D story", but rather to support us telling our own stories.

Eh, YMMV. Different fans want different things. WotC's marketing is pretty top notch, and I think they do a pretty good job of giving the fanbase what it wants and needs. If they had more resources, we would probably see more product volume (although, not a lot more), with more variety. And the "quality" of the work produced is always subjective, lots of complaints that Tyranny of Dragons is awful, and also lots of kudos that Tyranny of Dragons is awesome. As usual, again, YMMV.

I also personally feel like there's a desire for any splatbooks/rules expansions to be a bit more, well, solid, than the free one. I mean, fair play, it was free, but had someone tried to sell me that, in hardback, for say, £15 or more, I'd have been very irritated. If future splatbooks will be similarly lightweight but actually charged for? Yikes...

"I won't complain about free stuff, but here's my complaint about the free stuff."

If we had got a hardback Elemental Evil Player's Guide, it would have been more meaty. It may not have been more crunchy, but it would have been a full book. And I suspect I'm not the only one who thinks the amount of elemental crunch we got is PERFECT. Avoiding bloat is not just about a high volume of splat products, but also limited the crunch in the products you do deliver.

 

[jayoungr]

Me: WotC is supervising/editing and the freelancers hired are ex-WotC employees.

As a non-involved outsider reading this thread, my question from this summary is--what is the significance of the freelancers being ex-WotC employees, if you're not saying that ex-WotC employees have a Curse of Doom? I believe you when you say that's not what you mean, but it's hard to see why you bring it up if that's not meant to suggest that ex-WotC writers make the adventures worse somehow. And if you do think it makes the adventures worse, I'm not sure in what way. So ... can you clarify?

 

[Kramodlog]

As a non-involved outsider reading this thread, my question from this summary is--what is the significance of the freelancers being ex-WotC employees, if you're not saying that ex-WotC employees have a Curse of Doom? I believe you when you say that's not what you mean, but it's hard to see why you bring it up if that's not meant to suggest that ex-WotC writers make the adventures worse somehow. And if you do think it makes the adventures worse, I'm not sure in what way. So ... can you clarify?

Sigh.

Why I said that matters.

I said: WotC has a bad rep when it comes to adventures.

The response to what I said was this: Yeah, but WotC isn't designing the adventure. Outsiders are.

My response to that can be read as: They aren't really outsiders. They are ex-WotC employees. They aren't bringing an outsider's perspective to WotC's adventure. Notice, and it will be mind blowing when you'll read it, that I never said that ex-designers, or current ones for that matter, have a bad rep! Very complex obviously. Word used mean what they were ment to say and not some nefarious subtext bashing your favorite brand of RPG! I also added that WotC is involved in the process, so that is another argument to defend my original point that WotC's bad rep is still a concern.

 

[Hussar]

Goldomark - it is not the responsibility of the reader to try to read your mind. More than one person has told you directly that they are reading what you are saying a certain way. That you didn't mean that doesn't really matter. What it means is that your intended meaning is not clear and you need to step back, and try to clarify or reiterate your point in another manner.

It is the responsibility of the speaker to be understood, not the listener's to try to second guess what you mean. If you think people are putting words in your mouth, then obviously there's been a breakdown in communication somewhere and it's up to you to fix that.

--------

And, sure, we'd all love for WOTC to be more forthcoming. But, guess what? After the past four or five years, do you think there's the slightest chance of that happening? Really? After the crucifying that people did of WOTC during 4e over every perceived slight? Heck, look at the whole Morningstar debacle. Morningstar approaches WOTC (not the other way around) to do some sort of electronic character generator and rules package. Morningstar announces what they are doing and engages with the fans quite extensively - posting here on En World, talking about the product, background on the developers, and then a beta test of the system. Fans are all excited.

Then something goes sideways. We don't know what. But, now the product is cancelled. You get several passive aggressive "fanfic" style communications from the Morningstar team basically putting all the blame on WOTC and, now, what, six months later, people are still bitching about it.

Note, at no point in time did WOTC actually say or do anything. Yet the failure is blamed on them. They didn't announce this product. They didn't hype it. They didn't try to build up anything. Yet, when it went sideways, they take the blame and we get cries of "Vaporware" and "WOTC can't do electronic products!" over and over again.

So, again, do you really think it's in their interests to be 100% transparent with fans who will make no attempt whatsoever to be reasonable? That no matter what WOTC does, unless it's precisely what that group of fans wants, that group of fans will rabidly attack WOTC endlessly? I mean, good grief, you've got a 30 page thread right now bitching about what WOTC's doing. Imagine how bad it would be if they actually DID start saying things.

Honestly, you don't have to imagine. All you have to do is surf back to the 4e days of En World and you'll see exactly what happens when WOTC actively engages the fandom in an attempt to be transparent.

 

[Hussar]

And, in case anyone's going to start jumping on me for white knighting WOTC, I'll point to you exhibit A: At Least 4 Months for Conversion Documents

Here we have WOTC being forthcoming and explaining why we don't have a conversion document. Fair enough, this is exactly what people have been asking for - more clarity. And here's a selection of responses:

wouldn't it be easier to just pass the work onto someone who doesn't have jury duty? this seems more like PR lies to me than anything.

If it were someone who only needed authority and not actual D&D knowledge, I would think they could pass it over or up to someone else to get it done. This is the edition that was supposed to bring everyone back home. So, one would think that having a conversion doc in place was a priority at some stage. On the other hand, since the concern has been on the back burner this long already, I'm guessing it holds little importance to WotC to get it done. Either having it in a timely manner simply has never been a priority or it runs counter to other priorities.

It's two weeks early for April Fools Day.

So I guess they are just sitting around the office looking at all the empty cubicles playing solitaire and working on their home campaigns until the boss comes back.

See how fans come together and are understanding when WOTC actually does try to engage?