A solution to the "core books sell" problem?

[The Human Target]

I am all for WotC making their own games, and not calling them all D&D. 4E in particular should have been called something else. If it were, it would not be in the position of being tossed out in the edition churn, nor causing the shitstorm that it did.
It's annoying to see all this development go into new systems that are not actually D&D, and have the label slapped on them. This is why we have edition wars. Label confusion. D&D is already written and done. Do something else already.

What is authentically Dungeons & Dragons design* ends with 2E. The excellent games that follow are not that game. 3E has its home and renaming with Pathfinder - a much better name for that system. Maybe 4E will get re-christened with its own clone one day.

* fairly rules light & assumed mini-less (although accommodating to mini use).

Sell as many core books as you like, just stop with the schizophrenia already.

Ugh, so tired of this.

Way to be.

 

[MJS]

Ugh, so tired of this.

Way to be.

damn straight

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Moreover, when the core books are done, they normally release the designers of it to the wild, don't they?

Why not move them onto developing another project?

The one answer I can see is: Core books sell. But non-D&D core books don't sell as well as D&D core books.

I don't see other projects outselling D&D, the fantasy RPG will remain as the chief offering from Wizards, but I see a lot of potential for non-D&D games outselling "Complete Scoundrel" and "Magic of Incarnum". So, if WotC releases a weird space horror game between Complete Warrior and Draconomicon, it takes more time to arrive at "Draconomicon III: Gem Dragons", and more time between two editions of D&D. Obviously, this is all speculation of my part, but as I said before, other companies seem to thrive with their non-D&D games.

The real question is: while *we* may not be fans of how quickly they revise the game, is there evidence that the larger market cares?

I don't believe the larger market cares enough when new editions are more like small revisions, but by now I'm inclined to believe that the gap between the rules of different D&D editions has started to hurt the game. D&D Next is a strong evidence of that, I think; I see it as an effort to make the new edition of D&D a product that resonates with the overall D&D experience brought by the various editions.

Cheers,

 

[MichaelSomething]

If you want different RPGs, there are plenty of people all ready making them...

 

[Yora]

Making a new game that is not called D&D or a new game that is called D&D comes with the same costs for development or marketing. But a game not called D&D wouldn't make nearly as many sales as a new game called D&D.

And for customers, it doesn't really matter either. Either you get 50 releases for D&D 5th edition spread over 5 years and another 50 releases for 6th Edition for the following 5 years. Or you get 50 releases for 5th Edition and 50 releases for other games spread over 10 years.
The only difference is, that the second variant takes longer to release those 50 books. And since they are books, you can always buy them later and not right on release.

 

[delericho]

So, at some point, all next-related threads come to that same conclusion that, no matter how successful the game is, 6E will still be here sooner than we want it to...

Actually, I've seen surprisingly few references to 6e for the past year or so.

because WotC business is based in selling core rulebooks...

and I'm pretty sure this is outdated as well. It's actually not entirely clear what WotC's strategy for 5e is, but for the past few years they've made a huge amount of money from DDI subscriptions. Indeed, they're still making lots of money from DDI subscriptions, which is probably why D&D can almost stop producing new materials and not be cancelled.

I don't want to buy new D&D editions every year from WotC, but if they release one solid game every year or two, I see myself buying them most of the time, because I like having different games to play and I'd love to have more than D&D from WotC, because I really believe they have talented folks there whose ideas are worth my money. I don't need a D&D brand in every product I purchase from WotC; I love Star Wars Saga and d20 Modern, for example, and I'm ready for even more unusual offers.

The next problem is this: Core Rulebooks with the D&D logo sell better than anything else. It's worth noting that "d20 Modern" never got a new edition, despite being ripe for one. The "Star Wars" license was allowed to lapse. The new "Gamma World" had to be sold under the D&D brand, and did well enough that WotC never quite did another not-quite-D&D game in the same vein.

and before someone says that those games would compete with D&D and cause further damage to our community, we must remember that the market for non-D&D games is already here and thriving, WotC simply decided, up to this moment, to not make a profit from it.

Define "thriving". Because Hasbro have requirements of their various properties, that D&D can just about meet, and it appears that no other RPG can.

I'm sorry to pour cold water on your suggestion, but I'm afraid that that's the reality that we're dealing with. If it's not huge, Hasbro just aren't interested.

 

[variant]

I would love to see various RPGs using the base 5e ruleset. I would especially want a gritty medieval European RPG in the vein of the old A Game of Thrones d20 game. I also would like to see a d20 Modern with the new 5e rules.

 

[Grydan]

Actually, I've seen surprisingly few references to 6e for the past year or so.

6th Edition is so yesterday. It's all about 12th Edition now. Or is it 13th?

 

[Bluenose]

Especially if you don't assume that any of the games need regular, constant updates. Look at what (for example) Onyx Path is doing on what is surely a shoestring budget compared to what WotC has available.

Have you seen how D&D players react to their favourite settings not getting "regular, constant updates"? And now it's being suggested extending this to everything, including rules. It seems like people are remembering the glut of games under the D20 OGL, and forgetting how many of them died a death quickly.

 

[jeffh]

I would love to see various RPGs using the base 5e ruleset. I would especially want a gritty medieval European RPG in the vein of the old A Game of Thrones d20 game.

Even if they were to implement the basic suggestion of this thread - i.e. do several RPG lines instead of just D&D, using some of the resources that would otherwise go to D&D splatbooks - this is the single thing they are LEAST likely to do. They already have a medieval fantasy RPG that uses the D&D rules. It's called D&D. They would want their other projects to be much more distinct from D&D than this, which would be perceived as "slightly grimmer D&D" at best and "what's the difference between that and D&D again?" at worst.