D&D 5E Amazon US book sales rank.

[Parmandur]

That's a good point. The 4e DMG remains one of my favorites for including a great sandbox setting and a complete adventure.

My dream scenario would be getting Hommlet and environs written up as a sample starting town, along with the moathouse as a sample starter dungeon.

Say, two short scenarios to go from level 1 to 3, then the moathouse and Lareth as the grand finale for 3rd level PCs.

Yeah, as @UngeheuerLich says, the DMG has 5 full sample Advebtures and a campaign set-up based in the Free City of Greyhawk, including a gazateer for the Flannaes. Still, they haven't fully detailed that yet, so what that really looks like isn't yet clear. I think this year is intended as a bit of a soft launch as they finalize the modular core rulesbooks (aince we can use the PHB with Quests from the InfiniteStaircase and the older MM and DMG), with the new big Keep on the Borderlands Starter Set next year acting as the big entry point that will indicate the big core rules set.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm finding Dragon of Stormwrack Isle is really good.

LMoP is better adventure but DoSI might be the better newbie adventure.

It didn't impress me at first but when I thought about newbie focus rereading it it's a lot better.

I think Stormwrack Isle is more exciting for new players, especially if they are young.

Lost Mines feels like just another day at the office for adventurers, and more likely to appeal to veterans (even if they are new to the edition).

 

[SteveC]

Yes. Checking my Amazon orders, I paid $29.97 (before tax) for the PHB I pre-ordered on July 20, 2014.

I think there must have been some kind of a special. My book that I bought from my FLGS still has the receipt and they did that same price. It's been long enough that I sure don't remember it at the time.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think Stormwrack Isle is more exciting for new players, especially if they are young.

Lost Mines feels like just another day at the office for adventurers, and more likely to appeal to veterans (even if they are new to the edition).

I'm noticing that.

Lost Mines is fairly formulaic and adventures like it have been done since mid 90s.

 

[Queer Venger]

I feel like, in this case, exposure to online negativity probably caused the industry to skew conservative in their ordering (and probably also WotC when choosing the print run of the Store Exclusive Cover). My distributor was telling me that some stores ordered, for example, 40 copies, and then reordered 60 more.

In 30 years of retailing, I don't think I've ever underestimated a demand by anything like that (unless you're talking something where I ordered ONE and turned out to need THREE). I didn't personally undershoot by that much, but I DID underorder (though part of that was because I thought that I'd be able to always get more if I needed them, which would have happened if the distributor hadn't needed to fill double-sized reorders).

But my point is - I think those stores that under ordered by that sort of margin were probably overly influenced by online apathy, negativity, and rage.

I remember a similar vein of negativity in 2014, look at where we are now.

 

[Zardnaar]

I remember a similar vein of negativity in 2014, look at where we are now.

There's always negativity online.

My advice is ignore it when it's coming from the usual suspects.

When it crosses over into not the usual suspects there's usually a bit more going on.

This applies to movies, TV, D&D, geekdom etc.

It's not negativity I would worry about with 2024 more apathy.

Either way we won't even be able to accurately guess for a year or so.

A fairly typical expectation would be a loss of 30-50% of the customer base. If they retain more than that or even grow the base that's a good to spectacular result.

If they lose 50% of the playerbase they have the second biggest selling D&D of all time. Losing 80% is probably a problem and 90% is an outright disaster.

 

[Hussar]

In terms of poor decisions, really the OGL and the handling of it along with the other issues that seem to crop up on a quarterly basis.

In terms of a product plan, I really wish that there was an adventure designed with it in mind that I could run right now. There's no single, specific play experience that is bringing everyone together. That feels very off to me. Combat is a lot more fun and dynamic now, especially on a grid. Something like an adventure bundled with a few poster maps, like the 4e ones, would be ideal.

Otherwise, I think the community would have a very different view of the update if we had seen more rules-focused actual plays, especially ones featuring the design staff. I'd love to see the designers build a few PCs to show off the new stuff and then run a game to show it all in action.

I'm sorry, but, 4e modules as a model? You mean some of the worst written, most poorly received adventures in D&D? Those modules? And, I say that as a huge 4e fan. While I'd love to see 4e stuff make a come back, Keep on the Shadowfell is certainly not one of them.

The book has been out for less than a week. We still don't have the other two books. You don't think they might wait until all three books are in the wild before dropping modules? Before needing to start dropping rules-focused actual plays?

Let's not forget they are still selling out the 5e 2014 books right now too. Presumably they want to sell as many of those as they possibly can. But, the point I'm trying to make here is, how much better do you think they can be doing? If stores are selling out their orders in the first week isn't that a huge success for a roll out? Stores are doubling their order sizes for their second orders? Again, isn't that an enormous success by any metric?

It's been a week.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I think that ties back into the marketing issues. The new PHB is very clear on how to use old subclasses with the new stuff, and it's really simple. Why not just make a video showing someone making a character with a 2014 subclass and a 2024 core class? It would be easy and clear to everyone.

I don’t think the 2024 D&D PH actually says how to use old subclasses, does it? Did I miss it?

 

[mearls]

I'm sorry, but, 4e modules as a model? You mean some of the worst written, most poorly received adventures in D&D? Those modules? And, I say that as a huge 4e fan. While I'd love to see 4e stuff make a come back, Keep on the Shadowfell is certainly not one of them.

The book has been out for less than a week. We still don't have the other two books. You don't think they might wait until all three books are in the wild before dropping modules? Before needing to start dropping rules-focused actual plays?

Dude, 2014 released with:

• The starter set - level 1 - 5 adventure
• The first part of Tyranny of Dragons - level 1 - 5 adventure, with 6 - 10 released soon after
• A half dozen or so Adventurers League scenarios

In terms of streaming, the staff regularly ran games online. A group played through Lost Mines. We played A1 and the Lich Queen's Beloved on streams before the game came out.

The D&D design team is more than capable of making great content and fun adventures. I think that, in this case, the business leadership opted for a different path.

I guess I just don't see the benefit of not releasing adventures.

 

[mearls]

I don’t think the 2024 D&D PH actually says how to use old subclasses, does it? Did I miss it?

It's in there!

Each level 3 "You get a subclass" feature ends with:

For the rest of your career, you gain each of your subclass's features that are of your <CLASS> level or lower.

That's quite an elegant solve, IMO. I can use any 2014 subclass by just back collecting any features I may have missed. At a quick glance, it looks like the math works out.

The only issue I see is that when making content, it's easier to build for 2014 and let this rule solve for 2024. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to handle in my work, but in my eyes this is the kind of thing that supports backward compatibility.