Yep, me too, my Basic/1st/2nd Ed stuff is all looking very useable with 5th Ed.
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D&D 5E Adventures
- Thread starter Iosue
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Yep, me too, my Basic/1st/2nd Ed stuff is all looking very useable with 5th Ed.
I think this is an important point here. When converting between 3e and 4e modules there is a certain type of encounters that really doesn't work in one edition that works in the other. The 4e modules are in many ways too specific when it comes to encounters and in my opinion use too much room on the mechanical aspects of an encounter. It sort of railroads the DM into thinking there is only one way this is going to pan out. I much prefer encounters where the basic behaviour has been explained, which leaves the specific handling of the encounter to the DM.
Quickleaf
Legend
If 5e is going to be adventure module-driven, I wonder how D&D will make the sort of money that Hasbro execs want. Their main book sales have been splat books, apparently. So does this mean they'll be relying on *something else* to make up the difference?
A new marketing campaign? A revamped digital initiative? Games like Neverwinter?
A new marketing campaign? A revamped digital initiative? Games like Neverwinter?
I think I heard D&D got demoted to a more peripheral product-line for Hasbro, nowhere near Magic, and others.
Which could be the best thing to happen, actually.
Quickleaf
Legend
Really? If that's true I agree it's a good thing!
Li Shenron
Legend
Might be... let's hope so!
I am just a customer among hundreds of thousands, and I don't know what is best for WotC, but I know (or think I know) what I would buy and what I wouldn't.
I've never actually bought any published adventure, but that could have been because I had other DM friends who collected shelves of D&D/RPG books, so it was always easy for me to borrow from them. Plus there were free short adventures on the WotC website during 3e years, and of course I also like making my own adventures.
I guess the main selling point for a published adventure for me would be the price... I don't mind paying rulebooks a premium price. That's because I don't really collect them, but rather cherrypick rulebooks that I think I'd like to keep and use repeatedly, so it hardly makes a difference if it's 30e or 50e. OTOH knowing that I am only ever going to use an adventure once, makes me feel skeptic of spending more than 10e for an average-sized adventure.
In a way, I've always thought that an essential part of RPGs is the DIY work... making up your own character material, adventures, world settings, and sometimes even custom rules, it's all part of the RPGing experience and fun. And this in a way makes it harder to have a large business for it, because a lot of gamers realize that there is not so often a real need for buying books.
As for edition-bound vs edition-free adventures, I am still undecided. On one hand, it would be great to have adventures that you'd buy because of the story, maps, artwork, characters, but could then use in different editions. However, ready-to-use stats are also one reason for buying it, and if you had to stat everything yourself, you'd be tempted to think it's not worth spending the money. It depends on what is more difficult or tedious for you, writing the adventure or writing the stats?
A different thing for campaign settings. In this case I'd much much prefer to have edition-free campaign setting sourcebooks, meaning the first MAIN book about a setting. A book that would remain in print forever, or be reprinted every few years with only slight editing. Such book would have all the stuff that doesn't and shouldn't really change with editions: the world layout, the history, the maps, the description of cities and kingdoms, the characters stories, the religions, the groups of power, the creatures existing in the world... all the parts that don't need stats (yes, monsters need stats, but unless they are unique to the settings, you'd find their stats in the Monster Manual of your favourite edition anyway).
Then campaign supplements could be divided between edition-free fluff books detailing specific regions, and edition-specific books with NPC character stats, monster stats, spells/feats/whatever, magic items...
It's not going to happen, because WotC will always prefer selling mixed fluff/crunch books so that those who want the fluff will also have to pay for the crunch and viceversa. But as I say I can only speak from my own customer's point of view, not a business point of view, and personally I know that if e.g. the FRCS and all Forgotten Realms regional books were edition-free, you could easily buy ALL of them ONCE in your lifetime, and then use them with whatever system you prefer, instead with the current edition-specific publishing habit you'd have to buy them again at every edition, and furthermore you'd have to eat up whatever butchering they do to the setting each time, exactly because they need to push unnecessary changes to the fluff and setting in general in order to follow the rules changes of a new edition.
There really shouldn't be need to do like this... if "Planescape" is a great setting, it doesn't need to be re-designed just because the rules of D&D get a new edition! They just need to reprint older Planescape books. If the setting worked, change is only going to split the fanbase. Eventually, it would make more sense to re-design settings that originally failed to become popular, and see if they can fix them, instead those get dropped, while settings that succeeded get changed...
But back to adventures, this is less of an issue. Take the famous "Temple of Elemental Evil", it should be a piece of cake to publish a 5e version of it, where the only thing that changes are the NPC and monsters stats, while the story remains the same.
Now think of what would happen if instead they changed the story significantly, remove some NPC and add new ones, change the temple layout, modify the plot, replace magic items with new ones... would it be the same adventure? Thus why they have to do this with campaign settings?
Scrivener of Doom
Adventurer
I think you might be right.
Mike Mearls replaced Bill Slavicsek but got a lesser-sounding title - and I know titles are a HUGE thing in US corporate life - so it could reflect a downgrade of the department.
And, yes, that would be one of the best things that could happen to D&D other than being sold to private owners.
Hussar
Legend
I think that the DDI and subscription models are exactly what you're going to see. Easy to see it now. Even without producing a single new book for the next couple of years, other than reprints, WOTC's still sitting pretty decent just floating on DDI money.
I've believed all along that Hasbro doesn't give a rat's ass about any specific part or section of the Dungeons & Dragon brand. Hasbro has HUNDREDS of brands across all their toy and game lines... I don't think they have the time nor inclination to look at individual parts of individual lines-- especially not when they have a subsidiary company like Wizards of the Coast (who actually manages the brand) to do it for them.
So it is the height of our own fancy to think that the RPG part of the D&D brand has any impact or meaning to the big wigs in the Hasbro offices. I don't think it actually happens. What does happen is that Hasbro looks at WotC as a whole... and only listens or concerns itself when WotC as a whole is having problems meeting levels and such. Then they might ask for restructuring or redistribution of capital within the company or whatnot.
So let's stop worrying about what the Hasbro overlords are thinking in regards to the D&D RPG... because that facet probably has about as much importance to them as the Electronic/RC division of their Tonka brand. IE - none.
So it is the height of our own fancy to think that the RPG part of the D&D brand has any impact or meaning to the big wigs in the Hasbro offices. I don't think it actually happens. What does happen is that Hasbro looks at WotC as a whole... and only listens or concerns itself when WotC as a whole is having problems meeting levels and such. Then they might ask for restructuring or redistribution of capital within the company or whatnot.
So let's stop worrying about what the Hasbro overlords are thinking in regards to the D&D RPG... because that facet probably has about as much importance to them as the Electronic/RC division of their Tonka brand. IE - none.
According to Ryan Dancey, this isn't the case, or at least it wasn't when Hasbro first took over. Due to the way the deal was structured, Hasbro viewed each product line within WotC as a separate brand, and the word came down to focus on "core brands," which were defined as "$50 million with a path to $100 million." The D&D product line was around $25 to $30 million, and 4E suffered tremendously from the pressure to bring it up to the "core brand" benchmark. Everyone knew it was a pipe dream, but they had to pretend it could be done and design a semi-realistic plan to do it. They ended up charting a course that involved using DDI subscriptions to get to $50M and, in the long run, transitioning to a D&D MMO to reach $100M.
I don't know what the long-term plan is for D&DN, but it's clearly going in a different direction, and thank Pelor for that.
As regards adventures, to me the biggest problem with published adventures is the requirement of substantial prep work to get them ready to run. I've considered switching to published adventures to reduce the DMing workload, but I've heard a number of DMs say it takes as long to prep a published adventure as it does to homebrew one! As far as I'm concerned, that defeats the point. I don't mind reading through the adventure, but if I have to spend hours banging on it to get it game-ready, I might as well write my own. If D&DN can find a way to make adventures that are truly "ready to go," it will be a huge accomplishment.
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