D&D 5E A Board Game style Release Schedule

[Shasarak]

Yes, some versions of D&D have more in common with some board games designed to emulate some version of D&D than they do with some versions of some RPGs that are designed to not emulate some versions of D&D. This seems intuitive.

It is amazing how similar DnD is to the Castle Ravenloft Board Game.

 

[darjr]

I don't think churning out other content alone could support the staff needed to do it. Not for a WotC or Hasbro. Rules content for players sells the most AFAIK and that is bloat.

 

[Manchu]

It's frustrating to see PDFs of products from older editions brought up in a discussion of the 5E release schedule.

 

[Reynard]

It's frustrating to see PDFs of products from older editions brought up in a discussion of the 5E release schedule.

Constantly. dndclassics.com is not 5E support (except 4 adventures from an incomplete 5E iteration).

 

[scruffygrognard]

It's frustrating to see PDFs of products from older editions brought up in a discussion of the 5E release schedule.

Would it be as frustrating if WotC were to offer converted classic adventures for use with 5th edition? I'd be pleased with this BUT would prefer to see new adventures as well (as long as they aren't mega-adventures like we've been seeing so far).

 

[Eric V]

Maybe if D&D limits its expansions, a single edition of the game will last 20 years.
1e was one of the longest lasting editions and it had sparse expansions.

To be fair, 1e had less competition though, right? It certainly didn't have a Pathfinder-like direct competitor and wasn't also competing with MMOs, and a plethora of other video games that offer a type of RPG experience.

 

[Eric V]

Would it be as frustrating if WotC were to offer converted classic adventures for use with 5th edition? I'd be pleased with this BUT would prefer to see new adventures as well (as long as they aren't mega-adventures like we've been seeing so far).

I would just like more adventures.

Or even micro settings like City of Thieves released for 2e.

 

[Jester David]

To be fair, 1e had less competition though, right? It certainly didn't have a Pathfinder-like direct competitor and wasn't also competing with MMOs, and a plethora of other video games that offer a type of RPG experience.

It still had a LOT of competition. Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, Traveller, Runequest, Palladium and so many more.

There are lots of RPGs that have robust release schedules and lots that do not have robust release schedules. Some are more successful than others, but there is not necessarily any corollary between success and release schedule. You mentioned World of Darkness above, which has quite a robust release schedule (almost 300 products in its catalog), actually emulating, say, 2nd Ed D&D with all its myriad settings in WoD's various monstrous subtypes and campaigns. DTRPG lists almost 300 FATE Core products, 18 of which are from Evil Hat. FATE Core was published in 2013. Your argument does not really stand up to scrutiny.

World of Darkness is a good example. It had a couple robust release schedules that led to two versions, one being a major reboot, and is now no longer a major force in RPGs. They basically released themselves into irrelevance.

FATE is another good example. There's a lot of official content on DriveThru, but most of that is campaign settings and worlds. There's only a single real accessory, and that's pretty much the DMG.

Other systems are equally sparse. 13th Age has a couple accessories beyond the core book and bestiary after 18 months. Numenera has a similar amount of content after a comparable length of time.

The only game approaching D&D and Pathfinder is Star Wars, and that's only because it's doing 96 page class and world books. And they're still only releasing one of those every three or so months. If D&D release a 200-page book every six months, it's almost tying Star Wars for content.

ADnD was getting monthly expansions in the form of the Dragon magazine.

5e is getting "sparse" expansions.

Dragon wasn't particularly heavy in crunch support or expansion. There was a lot of fluff, editorials, advice, and stories. The weekly articles provide a heavy amount of content.

1E had adventures and Dungeon magazine later on.

And 5e isn't? We're seeing regular RPGA adventures and the twice annual storylines. Assuming they maintain for a decade, they'll easily keep even with 1e's release schedule.
Even releasing a single splatbook a year will put 5e ahead of 1e in content in a very short length of time.

 

[Manchu]

Why would TSR's business practices be relevant? Or any other RPG for that matter? D&D has been published by WotC for 15 years now. The current release schedule is anomalous by comparison to what the relevant company has done with the relevant property in the past.

... well, except for how WotC handled D&D between 2010 and 2012, when the property was comparatively neglected as a RPG in favor of a series of board games. Nowadays, WotC isn't even responsible for said board games. 5E did not come along to much fanfare. WotC did very little to usher in the newest edition at GenCon last year. They didn't even have a presence in the vendor hall. But of course, what could they sell at that point? IN point of fact, they had a little booth set up outside of their OP area with some GF9 miniatures and the PHB. Pathetic stuff.

Beyond the rate at which stuff is coming out, there's hardly any communication. Since the topic is comparing D&D to board games, contrast WotC's poor performance with FFG's promotional articles. It just seems like WotC does not care about 5E past just getting a D&D branded book on the shelves next to Pathfinder stuff.

 

[Jester David]

Here's the thing, ads and all, the first issue of Dragon Magazine was 30-odd pages. Including adds, silly comics, not D&D content and illustrations. If you include the five articles on the WotC website released in February and a couple of the previews, it's also about as much pages.

So we're seeing exactly the same amount of content for 5e as we saw for 1st Edition AD&D. And, if you look back at what was in Dragon in those days, the content is a heck of a lot better.
Even including just Tyranny of Dragons and the Adventurer's League adventures (and not the pre-launch 5e adventures), we've seen a comparable about of adventure content, the equivalent of six 32-page adventures. And we're going to see even more in the next month, between Princes of the Apocalypse and the free content PDF.

It's very likely 5e will blow 1e out of the water in terms of content per year. And that's before you consider that we saw all three Core rulebooks in the same year rather than once a year.

And the second WotC releases an OGL, there'll be a flood of content that will likely dwarf the content of 1e and even likely 2e. That's excluding all the stuff fans are already putting out.

5e only has a slow release schedule when you compare it to 3e and 4e. Which is like saying the Appalachians are small when looking at the Rockies.

--edit--
I thought I'd take a closer look at the numbers.

As a comparison, take at look at what TSR released for adventures during 1978*, the middle year of the AD&D rollout:
B1- In Search of the Unknown
D1 - Descent into the Depths of the Earth
D2 - Shrine of the Kuo-Toa
D3 - Vault of the Drow
G1 - Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
G2 - The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
G3 - Hall of the Fire Giant King
S1 - Tomb of Horrors

(*1978 was the prolific year. Content in both 1977 and 1979 was much more sparse)

Ostensibly a nice mix. It was a year of classics. But, when you look closer, it's really a 1-3 adventure and then an 8-15 superadventure. Only 128-pages of adventure (including the art booklet from Tomb of Horrors). The Tyranny of Dragons adventures contain more adventures and 64-pages of extra content. And once Princes of the Apocalypse drops, there'll be another 120-odd-pages of content above and beyond that.

Quite frankly, after just six months, 5e is kicking 1e's ass in terms of pages. After a year, it'll be no contest.