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!

 

[delericho]

At launch, 4e out sold the number of PHB 3.x sold during its entire 8 years of existence? According to a post [MENTION=22424]delericho[/MENTION], 3e or 3.x sold 700k copies, if I remember correctly.

I believe it was the 3.0e PHB specifically, so the vast majority of those sales would have been before 3.5e came along. But it's important to note that that figure did not come from WotC.

Having said that, Ryan Dancey has said the 3.0e PHB sold 300k of those sales in the first 30 days or so.

 

[Kramodlog]

If Wizards marketed it right, the AP could easily outsell. It has legs far beyond die-hard FR fans.

I doubt it. WotC isn't known for APs and has a bad rep with adventures. Their first AP for 5e wasn't that well received and some of their Adventure League modules are worse. Producing adventures only is a risky bet, as they appeal only a fraction of gamers.

 

[Kramodlog]

I believe it was the 3.0e PHB specifically, so the vast majority of those sales would have been before 3.5e came along. But it's important to note that that figure did not come from WotC.

Having said that, Ryan Dancey has said the 3.0e PHB sold 300k of those sales in the first 30 days or so.

Ah, thank you.

 

[bmfrosty]

I had an idea earlier about a revival of Dungeon. A PDF product monthly, with a quarterly collected softcover (call it a kickstarted quarterly). I found a company that does small print run magazines. I specced out a 192 page magazine on glossy paper. In color it was about $10 an issue shipped to WotC. In B&W it wasn't a whole lot cheaper.

I guess the end point was that having these printed isn't as cheap as one might assume.

Here's a link to play with if you want to understand some costs associated.

http://www.printpelican.com/magazine-8-11.html

 

[DMZ2112]

I doubt it. WotC isn't known for APs and has a bad rep with adventures. Their first AP for 5e wasn't that well received and some of their Adventure League modules are worse. Producing adventures only is a risky bet, as they appeal only a fraction of gamers.

Yeah, I hear that a lot. If it were that black and white I think Paizo's model would look a lot different and Goodman Games would not have had the capital (financial or otherwise) to be pitching their own RPG these days. But that's neither here nor there.

An AP is not a module. It's a cross-demographic product. Part module series, part gazetteer, part lore expansion. I'll grant you that Wizards needs to do better with Elemental Evil than they did with Tyranny of Dragons but that was kind of my /point/.

Properly marketed, fans would buy PotA because they are interested in D&D. Properly marketed, fans are still only going to buy an FRCS5 if they are interested in FR.

 

[Kramodlog]

Yeah, I hear that a lot. If it were that black and white I think Paizo's model would look a lot different and Goodman Games would not have had the capital (financial or otherwise) to be pitching their own RPG these days. But that's neither here nor there.

An AP is not a module. It's a cross-demographic product. Part module series, part gazetteer, part lore expansion. I'll grant you that Wizards needs to do better with Elemental Evil than they did with Tyranny of Dragons but that was kind of my /point/.

Properly marketed, fans would buy PotA because they are interested in D&D. Properly marketed, fans are still only going to buy an FRCS5 if they are interested in FR.

Reputation is big in this. Paizo had a good rep, and still does, when it comes to APs and adventures. WotC starts with a bad one, even before 5e was released. They are putting all their eggs in a pierced basket.

Also, WotC is just recycling adventures. We saw the theme of elemental evil/Tharizdun a couple of times before. Heck, Tharizdun was not too long a go at the center of the Abyssal Plague, a cross-setting set of adventures and novels during 4e's reign that didn't generate much enthousiasm. Now they just set the same adventures in the Realms and do not even bother with previous cannon. The issue goes beyond marketing and having some crunch a bit of fluff in their AP.

 

[delericho]

Reputation is big in this. Paizo had a good rep, and still does, when it comes to APs and adventures. WotC starts with a bad one, even before 5e was released. They are putting all their eggs in a pierced basket.

Yeah, but if they don't continue to produce adventures, they'll never be able to improve their rep.

(Of course, the other part of that is to make sure they produce good adventures.)

 

[the Jester]

Reputation is big in this. Paizo had a good rep, and still does, when it comes to APs and adventures. WotC starts with a bad one, even before 5e was released. They are putting all their eggs in a pierced basket.

Also, WotC is just recycling adventures. We saw the theme of elemental evil/Tharizdun a couple of times before. Heck, Tharizdun was not too long a go at the center of the Abyssal Plague, a cross-setting set of adventures and novels during 4e's reign that didn't generate much enthousiasm. Now they just set the same adventures in the Realms and do not even bother with previous cannon. The issue goes beyond marketing and having some crunch a bit of fluff in their AP.

Did they have any adventures involving the Abyssal plague? I was curious at the time what the deal was, but thought it was all novel tie-ins and stuff like that. I saw absolutely nothing, outside a few references about the Abyssal plague in Monster Vault 2, that indicated that it had anything to do with, well, anything, really.

 

[DMZ2112]

Reputation is big in this. Paizo had a good rep, and still does, when it comes to APs and adventures. WotC starts with a bad one, even before 5e was released. They are putting all their eggs in a pierced basket.

It's worth noting that Wizards is not actually writing these adventures, and that anyone with enough investment in the history of the game to know about Wizards' past failings is also going to know that. I apologize if that sounds dismissive; it's not my intention to suggest you don't know what you're talking about. I'm just trying to make a point. I'm sure we both know and respect some of the names behind Sasquatch just like we both know and respect some of the names behind Kobold Press. I feel like Wizards has recognized their shortcomings and made a good faith effort to overcome them.

Also, WotC is just recycling adventures. We saw the theme of elemental evil/Tharizdun a couple of times before. Heck, Tharizdun was not too long a go at the center of the Abyssal Plague, a cross-setting set of adventures and novels during 4e's reign that didn't generate much enthousiasm. Now they just set the same adventures in the Realms and do not even bother with previous cannon. The issue goes beyond marketing and having some crunch a bit of fluff in their AP.

I really don't want to be in the position of defending Wizards on this because I do feel that they are hiding behind FR and it pains me greatly to see lore from other established settings sucked into FR without even the barest attempt at justification beyond, "The forces of Elemental Evil tried to invade Oerth and failed, so now they're giving Toril a try." That's not an acknowledgement of the D&D multiverse; that's what we call not having the strength of your convictions.

I have every confidence that we will eventually see APs from other established D&D settings, but in the interim it's clear that we're going to see a lot of core fluff -- material that, for instance, would have found its way into Nerath in 4th Edition -- absorbed by the ravening gelatinous cube that is WotC's Forgotten Realms. And of course the real tragedy there is that once a product is produced you're obviously not going to see that same product produced for another setting. So the move is permanent, at least until D&D6. Disappointing.

With that little rant complete...

What Wizards is doing is not recycling adventures. They are recycling /themes/, which is exactly what you do when you have a strong brand like D&D. You wouldn't find it unusual for a future iteration of the Transformers franchise to have a story involving the All-Spark or energon, and you wouldn't find it unusual for an X-Files reboot to involve black oil or feature a mysterious power player who chain smokes cigarettes. I may take issue with how they are doing it, but what they are doing makes good sense.

Saying that this is recycling adventures is like saying every adventure to feature an orc horde -- or a lost temple, or underdark dungeoneering -- is the same adventure.

 

[Manchu]

If somebody points out WotC didn't design these APs in-house, someone else will come along to post that WotC still puts in a lot of work on them (usually to answer the point that WotC doesn't invest enough in 5E). But if somebody points out that WotC's reputation for APs will suffer because their APs are no good, someone else will come along to post that WotC didn't design them. Who designed the AP isn't the only thing that matters. WotC either rubber stamped it or approved it after consideration. Either way, WotC deserves a share in being criticized for any bad APs they publish.