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!

 

[DMZ2112]

They still propose the stories, edite the adventures and publish them. They have WotC stamp all over them. Heck, all the guys at Sasquatch Games are ex-WotC employees. At Kobold Games, it was ex-WotC employees with good rep that screwed up Tiamat.

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.

It certainly boost confidence in WotC.

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

Or when you do not know what to do anymore. Look at Hollywood and all the remakes.
Actually, a TV series is the medium like the is the medium. The X-Files is the adventure, the theme if you prefere. Doing a X-Files reboot only shows how much they can't innovate and just recycle stuff.

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.

 

[Manchu]

(And, conversely, it's WotC who will get much of the credit should they produce a new classic somewhere along the line. It does cut both ways.)

That said, I'd love to own the design studio that created a beloved 5E AP. Best advertising ever.

 

[neobolts]

If D&D had two so incompatible segments of their audience, they've have big problems. (And, arguably, this is what they're doing by releasing the board game and minis along with the RPG products.)

Diversifying might acutally work out. A portion of my disposable income is going towards both board games and video games. Got a hunch that's pretty common overlap.

 

[Jester David]

Diversifying might actually work out. A portion of my disposable income is going towards both board games and video games. Got a hunch that's pretty common overlap.

That's my thoughts. Different pools of disposable income, even when the same people are in play.

 

[Kramodlog]

Actually, we don't know that. All we know is what they have confirmed - we won't know if they have a second parachute until the first fails to deploy.

It takes about a year to produce and release a book? If APs do not work, it is not like plan B is right around the corner.

 

[Prism]

They still propose the stories, edite the adventures and publish them. They have WotC stamp all over them. Heck, all the guys at Sasquatch Games are ex-WotC employees. At Kobold Games, it was ex-WotC employees with good rep that screwed up Tiamat.
.

Having just had a quick look, Princes of the Apocalypse is looking much more open than HotDQ. Plenty of hooks, chose which to follow in any order etc. Maybe you are being a bit harsh since I would say Wotc have only released one adventure path so far so its hard to judge yet. Even then some liked it while others didn't so not a complete fail as you suggest

 

[Kramodlog]

Princes of the Apocalypse was written and edited (and likely laid out and more) by Sasquatch games, which is an independent company from WotC.

Yeah, I know. But all the guys who work at SG are all ex-employees of WotC, I believe. I made a mistake when I said employees. They are ex-employees.

Different audiences (kinda). There's overlap but people who play the MMO and board game might not play the TTRPG. They're not focusing on a single group of people, which is problematic.

I'd be curious to see how much overlap there is. I mean they could have continued with the boardgames even when 4e wasn't being printed. If they didn't need the RPG, why not continue? If they need the RPG has a sort of train that pulls the rest, well, it means there is more overlap than we might think. But then, three books or an adventure, a boardgame and a MMO at the same time, twice a year, what is the difference saturation-wise?

It is AP for now. More stuff will be coming, almost certainly in August for GenCon. That we don't know what is is doesn't change that it's coming.

The info that random house (I think it was random house) released said that 8 products were beign released in 2015. Difficult to know what is a product. We know it included PotA and the Adventurer's handbook. Did they count the three novels that are being released this year? That would make five products. Did they count the spell cards and the DM deluxe screen and the minis? If not, well it could some space for another AP and a companion plus one mysterious product. But since none of them have been announced, they could all be non-cancel by now.

WotC isn't going to risk missing the con. Even when 5e wasn't ready they had product for the con.

They could announce something instead of releasing something. at GenCon If they release something in October it would put six months between PotA and the new AP. They could always announce something for 2016. Too many books hurt D&D, right?

 

[delericho]

It takes about a year to produce and release a book? If APs do not work, it is not like plan B is right around the corner.

Assuming they don't have two of their eight people working on it right now. It seems they have a very small team, but when you consider the list of things we know they're working on, that actually still leaves some leeway. Maybe.

 

[Jester David]

They could announce something instead of releasing something. at GenCon If they release something in October it would put six months between PotA and the new AP. They could always announce something for 2016. Too many books hurt D&D, right?

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

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.

 

[Staffan]

They also seem to be working with considerably less lead time than in the past. I mean, they announced a delay of the DMG by a couple of weeks, after the MM was released, because they still had tweaking to do.