D&D 5E Am I no longer WoTC's target audience?

[Parmandur]

I’m sure the shareholders disagree.

The shareholders care about the value of a movie or other merchandising.

 

[Parmandur]

The primary audience they are aiming for are Middle Schoolers, High Schoolers and College students: the rest of us are nice to have as customers.

 

[M.L. Martin]

5E lost me, Curse of Strahd (the only 5E product I've bought) alienated me to the point I'm planning to sell it ... yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm not the target audience anymore.

 

[tetrasodium]

I'm reading about Mercer's new campaign sourcebook coming out from WoTC, and I've decided that I'm no longer WoTC's target audience. Maybe that puts me in the minority of gamers, and I would imagine that WoTC knows exactly what they're doing with some of the books and supplements they've come out with recently.

I've been gaming since high school, like many people here, and high school for me was around the late 80s. So, that puts me starting with 1st as a player, GM'ing 2nd edition, and then moving (gladly!) into 3rd, skipping 4th, and absolutely loving 5th. I make my own campaigns, so campaign modules are not of interest to me. I'm also a huge fan of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. It's literally more campaign world than I could ever possibly use, so I don't need any more. I loved Xanathar's Guide, and I LOVED Volo's guide. One of the best books WoTC's ever created. I was lukewarm on Mordenkainen's, since many of the monsters I'd never use (and really, who needs a dozen demon lords, anyway?).

But I keeping seeing things like Acquisitions Incorporated, and a Rick and Morty module, and I can't help but think those are probably popular products - for someone... but not for me. I've no interest in that stuff. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here anxiously awaiting a follow-up to Volo's so I can snatch that, maybe a Monster Manual II, or something that gives me a ton more magical items that I can use, or something else that will add value to my game. I'd even settle for a version of Tales of the Yawning Portal that didn't actually suck (I wanted to like it, I really did, I just couldn't).

Am I alone?

Those aren't a new trend. Think back to the d20 days when there was a stand alone d20 sourcebook for anything & everything TSR could make a marketing connection with. It's ok to look at a book and say "not my thing". a good chunk of Rising from the last war falls into the sorts of things you mention though, it adds a lot of new & really useful subsystems & tools that could have been in the core books.

 

[Prakriti]

5E has been a veritable love letter to the history of D&D and long-time fans.

I6 and Ravenloft
The Temple of Elemental Evil
Acererak and the Tomb of Horrors
White Plume Mountain, Against the Giants
The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, The Isle of Dread
Mordenkainen, Volo, Xanathar
Waterdeep, Underdark, Demon Lords
Undermountain, Halaster Blackcloak, Baldur's Gate
The list goes on and on.

Honestly, if you can't tell you're being catered to, then I don't know what to say. WotC has been chasing after you as desperately as a
teenage boy chases after the girl in an 80's romantic comedy.

 

[Ovinomancer]

The primary audience they are aiming for are Middle Schoolers, High Schoolers and College students: the rest of us are nice to have as customers.

The primary audiences for a luxury hobby are the ones with little to no disposable income? Interesting business model; not sure you could get a loan for that, though.

 

[pogre]

I'm old. Play history is similar to yours, if a bit more extended. However, I like 5e. I'm the target audience for the game - just not every book. And that is OK.

 

[schneeland]

The primary audience they are aiming for are Middle Schoolers, High Schoolers and College students: the rest of us are nice to have as customers.

I tend to say, it also includes people right out of college (who have more disposable income, but no children yet), but other than that, you are probably right. It hasn't been that different with previous editions (except that now I, and many others here, are no longer part of that age cohort).

 

[Azzy]

Just because several books don't interest you, doesn't stop you from being part of the target audience--they're casting a wider net, now, to get more than just us oldtimers onboard.

And keep in mind, 2e was the same (at least for me)--there was a glut of products (for me: Dark Sun, Planescape, Spelljammer, etc.) that not every player was going to be interested in. The difference here is that there's a slower release schedule. You might not be interested in some of the products (like I haven't been interested in the adsventure, AI, this new book, or the starter sets), but there may be a future product you may be interested in (like I'm curious where they're going to put all these subclasses they're playtesting).

 

[Mistwell]

I have a memory of them saying something like that. I also remember them saying they were going to make Next very modular, so you could make 5e play exactly like an older edition of D&D. As you can see, that didn't exactly happen. That was one of the biggest selling points of 5e for me, being able to use my 2e stuff with no problem with 5e.

We recently finished a 2e adventure in 5e. It was no problem. The DM had no trouble at all adapting it to 5e, I think on the fly even. Have you tried to use 2e stuff in 5e and found it to be a problem to adapt?