Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
AP vs CS: change in philosophy or marketing strategy?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6563198" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>I assume that by CS you mean Campaign Setting? If not, my answers below are nonsense. Or, perhaps, even more nonsense. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>4e had two Adventure Paths: the nine published adventures that started with "Keep on the Shadowfell" and the "Scales of War" path that appeared in eDungeon. Neither was terribly well received, so thereafter they mostly stuck with standalone adventures.</p><p></p><p>That said, I believe there were some hints of 'storylines' in that they had several eDungeon adventures that were grouped under a banner (I forget what it was called) but which weren't a path as such.</p><p></p><p>But, really, this change of focus seems to have come about with 5e. I don't believe anything 'happened' as such - it's just a change in direction.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>My feeling is that it's actually more about licensing. D&D, despite having 40 years of history, actually doesn't have a lot of recognisable characters. There are a few - Drizzt, Strahd, Lord Soth - but only a few. That makes it harder for WotC to license D&D out for movies, video games, etc than it would be if they had such things.</p><p></p><p>And so they're focusing on 'storylines' - which is not just an AP but also includes a season of Adventurer League adventures, NWN tie-ins, possibly novels, etc etc. This (hopefully) generates some of those iconic characters, plus scenes, locations, and plotlines, and thus gives them IP that they <em>can</em> license out more easily.</p><p></p><p>At least, that's the theory (I think).</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I don't think we've changed. Rather, I think they've finally recognised that the biggest group of players buys nothing at all, the next biggest buys just the PHB, the next buys just the Core Rulebooks, and then smaller groups buy PHB+splatbook or Core Three+campaign setting or Core Three+adventures, or whatever. Beyond that, there's a fairly tiny group that buys deeply into the line, and we're just not numerous enough to justify lots of releases.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 6563198, member: 22424"] I assume that by CS you mean Campaign Setting? If not, my answers below are nonsense. Or, perhaps, even more nonsense. :) 4e had two Adventure Paths: the nine published adventures that started with "Keep on the Shadowfell" and the "Scales of War" path that appeared in eDungeon. Neither was terribly well received, so thereafter they mostly stuck with standalone adventures. That said, I believe there were some hints of 'storylines' in that they had several eDungeon adventures that were grouped under a banner (I forget what it was called) but which weren't a path as such. But, really, this change of focus seems to have come about with 5e. I don't believe anything 'happened' as such - it's just a change in direction. My feeling is that it's actually more about licensing. D&D, despite having 40 years of history, actually doesn't have a lot of recognisable characters. There are a few - Drizzt, Strahd, Lord Soth - but only a few. That makes it harder for WotC to license D&D out for movies, video games, etc than it would be if they had such things. And so they're focusing on 'storylines' - which is not just an AP but also includes a season of Adventurer League adventures, NWN tie-ins, possibly novels, etc etc. This (hopefully) generates some of those iconic characters, plus scenes, locations, and plotlines, and thus gives them IP that they [i]can[/i] license out more easily. At least, that's the theory (I think). I don't think we've changed. Rather, I think they've finally recognised that the biggest group of players buys nothing at all, the next biggest buys just the PHB, the next buys just the Core Rulebooks, and then smaller groups buy PHB+splatbook or Core Three+campaign setting or Core Three+adventures, or whatever. Beyond that, there's a fairly tiny group that buys deeply into the line, and we're just not numerous enough to justify lots of releases. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
AP vs CS: change in philosophy or marketing strategy?
Top