D&D 5E Announcement coming February 6th

[darjr]

The Great Mrodron March is in the new year new campaign sale at The DMSGuild.

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/17302/The-Great-Modron-March-2e?affiliate_id=182934

I don’t know if it means anything at all.

Note that’s my affiliate link.

 

[Parmandur]

The Great Mrodron March is in the new year new campaign sale at The DMSGuild.

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/17302/The-Great-Modron-March-2e?affiliate_id=182934

I don’t know if it means anything at all.

Note that’s my affiliate link.

I'm inclined to think probably not, since WotC has over 300 products on sale.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I really think that Takes from the Yawning Portal was intended to be the film-related Undermountain AP, and tie into Xanathar's Guide. The Warner Bros. movie, for whatever reason, fell through, and WotC decided to switch to one AP a year. So my read, which I am also willing to bet no more than cookies on, is that Undermountain lost it's place in the rotation for the time being, particularly with ToA filling the Megadungeon niche to some extent. I think we'll see it in 5E by 2024, but I don't think 2018 is that time.

Not sure what all this is referring to, as I have not seen any news that said it fell through, but rather just last month the D&D movie shifted from WB to Paramount and was given an official release date of July 23, 2021. I am not sure how or why it got moved from WB to Paramount, though Paramount seems to do all the movies based on Hasbro properties, so that was involved somehow.

 

[Parmandur]

Not sure what all this is referring to, as I have not seen any news that said it fell through, but rather just last month the D&D movie shifted from WB to Paramount and was given an official release date of July 23, 2021. I am not sure how or why it got moved from WB to Paramount, though Paramount seems to do all the movies based on Hasbro properties, so that was involved somehow.

What's being worked on at Paramount is, quite certainly, a different movie from a different team now. The Roy Lee production at WB was looking to get a Greenlight for shooting a long while ago, which never came. The rights appear to have reverted to Hasbro based on time, and that means back to square one. We know literally nothing now about the upcoming D&D movie, so an Undermountain connection is not a given (or likely...?).

 

[Jester David]

I think that every time we think we know where the line is going we've been proven wrong.


The spring book has been a lower energy reprint the last couple years. Likely because making the big summer adventure takes so long, and is not made any easier by Perkin's convention schedule. As such, I doubt we'll see something dramatic: we could get another reprint adventure, or a freelancer heavy book, or an accessory. Especially given Mearls has teased that they may get away from two adventures a year, this could be something else.

The two adventures a year has been good, but they can really only properly support one with minis and side products. Focusing on the fall adventure makes the most sense. Plus, since the adventures take more than six months to run and more and more new people are getting into the game, there's a growing backlog of unplayed adventures. It makes sense to slow things down, and let people "catch up" than continuing to release adventures twice as fast as they can be consumed.

This is the irony of RPG game publishing. Once you get into a nice groove with products, you probably need to shake things up. The post-launch release schedule looks very different than the two-years-later release schedule which looks different from the five-years-later release schedule.
(You can look at something Paizo for an example of the alternative. Where they're still releasing adventure path after adventure path, but each takes a good eight months to run, so after playing two APs a third isn't played. After 20+ APs, even someone who started at the very beginning and never took a break, will now have a back catalogue of seven APs. Enough for four-and-a-half years of gaming.)


Back to WotC...
I doubt they'd release two PC splatbooks so close together. Xanathar's Guide to Everything is still selling really well, and they likely wouldn't want to cut into its sales with more class content so soon. And with that itch scratched, the second book won't sell nearly as well.

There has been a lot of planar content in Unearthed Arcana and on DragonTalk. So a Manual of the Planes style book would be a possibility. A Elminster's Guide to the Outer Planes or something, which would be exactly like previous Manual of the Planes but with small post-it notes written by Elminster...
I would so love a nice, hefty sized Manual of the Planes and Deities & Demigods for 5e, updating those classics with modern art and design.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Maybe one of them could be a setting specific monster manual? I just started a 4e game and use my old Threat to the Nentir Vale manual, which has info on the specific enemies of major adversarial factions or places, giving a small bunch of monster/NPC statblocks for each. Its an interesting format for people who love a setting's twist to some classic creatures. I think something like a ''Threat to the Sword Coast'' or ''Threat to Sigil'' manual could be a low-energy product or freelancer book that could sell well without consuming too much resources.

 

[gyor]

I think that every time we think we know where the line is going we've been proven wrong.


The spring book has been a lower energy reprint the last couple years. Likely because making the big summer adventure takes so long, and is not made any easier by Perkin's convention schedule. As such, I doubt we'll see something dramatic: we could get another reprint adventure, or a freelancer heavy book, or an accessory. Especially given Mearls has teased that they may get away from two adventures a year, this could be something else.

The two adventures a year has been good, but they can really only properly support one with minis and side products. Focusing on the fall adventure makes the most sense. Plus, since the adventures take more than six months to run and more and more new people are getting into the game, there's a growing backlog of unplayed adventures. It makes sense to slow things down, and let people "catch up" than continuing to release adventures twice as fast as they can be consumed.

This is the irony of RPG game publishing. Once you get into a nice groove with products, you probably need to shake things up. The post-launch release schedule looks very different than the two-years-later release schedule which looks different from the five-years-later release schedule.
(You can look at something Paizo for an example of the alternative. Where they're still releasing adventure path after adventure path, but each takes a good eight months to run, so after playing two APs a third isn't played. After 20+ APs, even someone who started at the very beginning and never took a break, will now have a back catalogue of seven APs. Enough for four-and-a-half years of gaming.)


Back to WotC...
I doubt they'd release two PC splatbooks so close together. Xanathar's Guide to Everything is still selling really well, and they likely wouldn't want to cut into its sales with more class content so soon. And with that itch scratched, the second book won't sell nearly as well.

There has been a lot of planar content in Unearthed Arcana and on DragonTalk. So a Manual of the Planes style book would be a possibility. A Elminster's Guide to the Outer Planes or something, which would be exactly like previous Manual of the Planes but with small post-it notes written by Elminster...
I would so love a nice, hefty sized Manual of the Planes and Deities & Demigods for 5e, updating those classics with modern art and design.

I agree about the two Adventures per year being too much at this point with the caveat that not every adventure will be interesting to everybody, none of the adventures so far have got me interested, a bit for different reasons.

I think the obvious solutions are campaign setting guides instead of one of the adventures, starting with FRCG and moving on to Darksun, Eberron, Mystara, Spelljammer, Planeescape, Birthright, and so on.

 

[ZickZak]

Indeed, my friend. Indeed. We should restart the hype train.

As it's most likely "just" an adventure, I'm not so excited.

 

[Jester David]

I agree about the two Adventures per year being too much at this point with the caveat that not every adventure will be interesting to everybody, none of the adventures so far have got me interested, a bit for different reasons.

That is the catch with reducing the number of adventures: it's also reducing the number of potential adventures people want to play.
Regardless, not everyone event wants to play pre-published adventures. So mixing it up with more products and relying on the back catalogue for new players is sound.

I think the obvious solutions are campaign setting guides instead of one of the adventures, starting with FRCG and moving on to Darksun, Eberron, Mystara, Spelljammer, Planeescape, Birthright, and so on.

The catch is you only every need one or two published campaign settings. Unlike splatbooks where the entire table might make use of two or three different books, you're not going to run a game that uses more than one setting. A single setting has material for multiple campaigns, years and years of play. And since they're not going to go out of print, they'll just end up competing against each other on the shelves.
The first setting will sell well. The second will sell significantly less as fewer people need it. The third will likely be ignored unless it's something radically different.

One campaign setting is a good idea. More than one is redundant and unlikely to be used.

The further catch is that campaign settings don't really have a strong audience. The new players (and man is there a lot) have zero affection or preference for any of the settings published twenty to thirty years ago. The established fans of the settings already have the books and aren't guaranteed to buy it again.

Plus... there's already a best selling 5e campaign setting in stores: the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting. WotC will have a hard time competing with that.

 

[gyor]

That is the catch with reducing the number of adventures: it's also reducing the number of potential adventures people want to play.
Regardless, not everyone event wants to play pre-published adventures. So mixing it up with more products and relying on the back catalogue for new players is sound.


The catch is you only every need one or two published campaign settings. Unlike splatbooks where the entire table might make use of two or three different books, you're not going to run a game that uses more than one setting. A single setting has material for multiple campaigns, years and years of play. And since they're not going to go out of print, they'll just end up competing against each other on the shelves.
The first setting will sell well. The second will sell significantly less as fewer people need it. The third will likely be ignored unless it's something radically different.

One campaign setting is a good idea. More than one is redundant and unlikely to be used.

The further catch is that campaign settings don't really have a strong audience. The new players (and man is there a lot) have zero affection or preference for any of the settings published twenty to thirty years ago. The established fans of the settings already have the books and aren't guaranteed to buy it again.

Plus... there's already a best selling 5e campaign setting in stores: the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting. WotC will have a hard time competing with that.

According to the player survey years back, setting books we're the most requested, you drop a few needs unique mechanics for the setting, a few races, and so on and your golden.