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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Trickster Spirit" data-source="post: 7664271" data-attributes="member: 6701829">Might as well make my predictions here, feel free to mock me in a year or two when I'm proven wrong!I actually am expecting them to (well, hoping) put out one non-adventure hardcover product, if only because I'm skeptical that that all they're doing right now is supervising the third party publishers working on the adventure path (that seems like it would require less than the whole team of 8).I'd be very surprised to see two such books, and will be firmly "wrong" if they release anything more than that in 2015.  We're still far enough out from next year that I can't really predict whether or not they'll up the release schedule in 2016, but March 2015 Trickster Spirit will go on record as saying he thinks the cap will still be two non-adventure path supplements (that is, a max of two non-"Players' Companions" books). Future Trickster Spirit might change his views based on WotC as we get closer to next January.I don't have any ideas as to what this hypothetical 2015 supplement might be, though if I have to share a wild guess I'd put my money on a Forgotten Realms Campaign setting. No idea if that's the case - they could pull a fast one and release a non-Forgotten Realms setting, or put out a Monster Manual instead. To be honest I really don't see any evidence to indicate they're releasing anything this year that's not an adventure path or an accompanying player's companion, but hey I'm as subject to wishful thinking as much as the next guy so I'll say 1-2 products this year. With a six month announcement lead time that gives us until the end of June before my hopes start sinking. If the "big reveal" in the works is an announcement of several non-adventure path products in 2015-2016, I'll eat crow.I will say yes, though let me clarify - what I am actually saying is that Wizards doesn't care about ICv2 ratings whatsoever and isn't pursuing a strategy towards saying at the top of those charts. That said, even with only the core books and adventure paths I personally suspect D&D has recaptured the top spot for some time.So I will be solidly wrong about my personal assessment on the relative size of D&D's customer base vs. Pathfinder's, but right about Wizards interest in the tabletop publishing arena. Now if Pathfinder takes the top spot and Wizards reacts by putting out more product to reclaim it, I will have been proven fully wrong, since in that situation I would expect Wizards to stay the course - my actual position is that tabletop book sales are mostly irrelevant to them, and that they'd rather invest in and earn the profits from things like "Sword Coast Legends" than they do pen and paper splatbooks, and that 5E will be a nominally supported "token" RPG line to center the brand around.Didn't really see any of the aforementioned words ("riotous", "fanboy", "outrage") as particularly insulting, just descriptive - some folks are clearly emotionally invested and upset over what Wizards is doing ("outraged"), and those folks happen to be the hardcore devotees of the game ("fanboys", or to be more gender-inclusive, "fanchildren", a title I'll happily apply to my own self), who are being extremely vocal ("riotous") about Wizards perceived botching of the game line and being neglectful of their customers' desires.I don't really think that my point - that if Wizards isn't planning on selling further products to those customers (making them ex-customers), they'd probably do best to ignore them and not take their criticisms into account when deciding on how to grow the brand - was as insulting towards those critics as some of those critics were being towards Mike Mearls personally, whom many of the WotC-critics have said seems like a nice guy who shouldn't be taken to task for what WotC executives decide to do with the product line.Well, an adjustment has to occur somewhere. Either Wizards has to start living up to those customers' expectations, or those customers have to realize that their expectations are faulty.Since I've seen no indications that WotC is about to release a steady stream of supplements, I'm leaning towards the latter.The recreational material, in the form of the core books, has already been sold to the public, and seemed to have been very well received (by tabletop RPG standards).The new material they're looking to sell to the public are the Adventure Paths. What lofty standards do they need to achieve to sell adventure paths? They've got a pretty good organised play system set up at various FLGSs, and folks'll be able to buy it at stores or from online retailers. Arguing that they need to sell more product for 5E to be a success is using an outdated definition for success (the 3E/4E business model). Everything we've seen so far leads me to believe that 5E just needs to make a modest profit from core book sales and the adventure paths every year to be a "success" in WotC's new model. I've used Monopoly as the model before, but Monopoly is kind of notorious for releasing tie-in editions so it's not the best comparison. Battleship or Clue would be a better fit. Neither need supplementary extensions, expansion decks or new mechanics to make a profit. People buy the game, and the transaction is complete. Maybe you lose some pieces or the box gets ruined in a flood or you like the Star Wars version so you go buy another one, but there is no dependence on Parker Brothers' behalf you being an ongoing Battleship or Clue customer.The fact that they've not announced any supplements so far, and don't have the staff to produce more than one or two a year, if any, means that they're not viewing those supplements as critical to 5E's continued success under their revised metric for success. They're putting out adventure paths for perplexed players who just purchased the game and are wondering now what do they do with it, but that looks to be all the "recreational material" they're interested in putting out and they seem to be on track to sell it just fine.</blockquote>

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