D&D General Adventurers in Faerun-The Book of Low and Mid Level Adventures?

[Parmandur]

High-level adventures do not sell well.

D&D 5E (2014) Thread '5E Lifetime Sales in North American Big Box Stores Revealed'

Jul 26, 2023

Roll for Combat recently put up a video with guest Professor Dungeon Master, taking a look at professional book sales information they have access to as publishers. The data is limited to big box stores like Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, or Books a Million im the US only, so this is excluding any FLGS or Amazon or non-American sales.

Apparently with the numbers from hust these limited channels, the 5E PHB has sold over 1.6 million copies, and is selling 2000 copies a week currently. There was no effect on sales during the OGL fiasco, but Honor Among Thieves did lead to a sales surge...

• Parmandur
• Replies: 121
• Forum: *Dungeons & Dragons

• 
• 
• 

This 2023 post broke down sales for 5e books. When listing out what adventures sold, Curse of Strahd (one of the lowest-level range adventures) sold the best. The worst-selling?

Dungeon of the Mad Mage, the only adventure on the list that goes to level 20:

• Curse of Strahd with 147,244 copies sold
• Hoard of the Dragon Queen with 120,844
• Waterdeep Dragon Heist with 110,678
• Tales from the Yawning Portal with 106,942 copies
• Ghosts of Saltmarsh with 92,905 copies
• Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden with 83,308 copies
• Tomb of Annihilation with 81,903 copies
• Candlekeep Mysteries with 77,950 copies
• Out of the Abyss with 75,340 copies
• Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage with 74,750 copies

The truth is, high-level adventuring is not something the masses are really all that into. WotC has tried twice to make a high-level, up to 20 adventure book (Mad Mage and Eve of Ruin), and both times the books have largely flopped. There just is not money to be made in that space, at least not for mass publications.

With the caveat that rhw bookscan data is incomplete and partial, this does show something of the relative success of these books.

And WotC has explained the reason this doesn't sell: there are people who play high level, bit the Venn diagram overlap of the group people who actually play high level and the people who don't buy supplements and modules because they make their own stuff...is extremely high.

The market for Tier 1 and Tier 2 material is a much larger percentage of people who play at those Levels

 

[Reynard]

And WotC has explained the reason this doesn't sell: there are people who play high level, bit the Venn diagram overlap of the group people who actually play high level and the people who don't buy supplements and modules because they make their own stuff...is extremely high.

This is kind of a chicken and egg question, though, isn't it? If high level stuff is rare and often bad when it does get published, of course people who play at high levels are going to have to home brew.

 

[Parmandur]

This is kind of a chicken and egg question, though, isn't it? If high level stuff is rare and often bad when it does get published, of course people who play at high levels are going to have to home brew.

I don't think it is: TSR and WotC have made a number of tries, and it never worked. And WotC actually does professional market research, unlike the TSR dartboard approach to decision making, so am inclined to believe that WotC has solid information thst those who play high level are also in the third of their customer who homebrew everything past the core books. Those seem like personality traits that would be shared in one person commonly.

 

[GarrettKP]

Both time the adventures were just bad. Coincidence?

I've run Mad Mage. It is far from a bad adventure. Regardless, people do not go out of their way to buy higher-level books.

 

[Parmandur]

I've run Mad Mage. It is far from a bad adventure. Regardless, people do not go out of their way to buy higher-level books.

Vecna actually has a lot of great set pieces, even if the whole is disjointed. The Dungeon design is really solid.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

so am inclined to believe that WotC has solid information thst those who play high level are also in the third of their customer who

But you pretty much have to do that, as you have to tailor the encounters to the PC abilities. You can’t just write an adventure and expect it to work for any group of PCs of the same level. It doesn’t work like that.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Third party folks are selling high level adventures, for those that want them. And, as mentioned, that includes short, easily portable ones that you can slide into a Forgotten Realms or other WotC IP campaign world.

 

[Reynard]

Third party folks are selling high level adventures, for those that want them. And, as mentioned, that includes short, easily portable ones that you can slide into a Forgotten Realms or other WotC IP campaign world.

Do you have any that you would recommend?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do you have any that you would recommend?

For starters, I 100% recommend people check out One-Shot Wonders, which is a big book of modular adventures.

It looks like the excerpted versions on D&D Beyond only go from levels 1 through 8, but the big blue hardcover book has a chapter of legendary adventures, all level 9 and up and two for level 19. And all of the adventures have notes on how to scale them way up to be an even harder threat.

ENWorld Publishing also sells a book called High Level Adventures which includes adventures from levels 10 to 16.

And Elderbrain sells Torrents of the Spellhoarder, a nautical campaign for levels 16 to 20. And all Elderbrain books are ridiculously supported with additional material.

 

[Parmandur]

But you pretty much have to do that, as you have to tailor the encounters to the PC abilities. You can’t just write an adventure and expect it to work for any group of PCs of the same level. It doesn’t work like that.

Sure. It is difficult, and not commercially viable. A solid combination. That’s why nobody other than WotC is doing it, either, despite all the third party material.