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!

 

[ShaneB]

A publishing strategy built entirely around "stories" holds little or no interest to me. Not that there aren't a place for those, but I am worried that is *all* we'll get -- one AP at a time with tie ins to the video games, novels, comics and board games with no smaller modules, no Dragon or Dungeon and no well detailed campaign setting publications. I mean, only time will tell, but the mention of "D&D stories" leans that way, I think.

Well the fact we already have how many years of well detailed campaign setting publications, that are easily transferable, is probably why they are not really bothering with those. I personally dont understand why everyone keeps going on about setting material when there is enough material out there to use.

 

[Slayyne]

I would be happy with some online tools and/or an allowance for people to make character generators.

 

[graves3141]

I'd be surprised if the "big reveal" is more than just the announcement of their next AP.

 

[Iosue]

Designed by Kobold Press and Sasquatch Studios respectively.

Precisely. So I don't see why people assume that working on stories that other companies will flesh out into product means WotC won't put anything else out there.

 

[procproc]

For many years people in the Magic the Gathering community insisted that WOTC could put $100 bills in Mtg packs and people would still complain. Then, when WOTC released Zendikar, people discovered WOTC did just that. And $500 bills. And $1000 bills. And even a few $5000 bills.

And people complained about it.

(Zendikar's initial release saw WOTC spike packs with cards from old sets, all the way up to and including Moxen and Black Lotus, which sell for thousands)

Do you have a source for the complaining bit? Zendikar was received overwhelmingly positively. I'm sure someone somewhere probably complained about it, but their "Hidden Treasures" promotion was incredibly popular across the board.

 

[Reynard]

Precisely. So I don't see why people assume that working on stories that other companies will flesh out into product means WotC won't put anything else out there.

There just aren't enough of them. For, what?, 8 people just early development and then following up with the subs is a lot of work. I don't think anyone is blaming the dev team for the release schedule. That's on Hasbro and/or WotC. And, as I have said previously, it might be the right decision for the company in its current state -- but that does not mean that we can't wish it were otherwise or even wish D&D was owned by a company that put TTRPG first. D&D becoming the property of a giant toy company was never likely to turn out well for fans of spending Thursday nights crawling through tombs in our imaginations.

 

[Dire Bare]

I stopped being excited about anything 5e months ago.

7 years of stories worked up, but they cannot produce a decent standalone adventure module for sale this year.

No. They most certainly could have produced a decent standalone adventure module for sale this year. They chose not to. Big difference. Just because somebody doesn't do what YOU want doesn't mean they are making bad decisions.

 

[Dire Bare]

Staffan, my point was actually that not everything published by WotC is made by WotC employees.

Aaaaaand . . . so what? What relevance at all does your point have? WotC used freelancers for the first two 5E adventures. WotC, and TSR before them, has a long history of using freelancers, and will likely continue to do so. WotC will continue to put out 5E products, some written by freelancers, others written by in-house employees. As has always been the case. So what?

 

[Umbran]

7 years of stories worked up, but they cannot produce a decent standalone adventure module for sale this year.

Not cannot. Choose not to. Or, to be really accurate - have not announced that they will do so. We don't know the future.

If their "big reveal" is a decent license, for example, then they probably don't have to do such work. The market will flood with adventures inside a month of such an announcement, I expect, and them doing it themselves would be kind of a waste.

Or, maybe in a few months they'll change the plan, and do adventures. Plans don't generally survive contact with reality - which is why I kind of chuckle at the "seven years" thing. Really? Unless that's a seven-year *movie* plan, I find it funny they think any plan of stories will hold up for that long.

 

[Nellisir]

No. They most certainly could have produced a decent standalone adventure module for sale this year. They chose not to. Big difference. Just because somebody doesn't do what YOU want doesn't mean they are making bad decisions.

It's yet to proven whether or not it's a good or bad decision. Personally, I think focusing on AP's, IF that's their plan, would be a mistake.