D&D 5E Are D&D sales declining? Teos Abadia takes a look.

[Zardnaar]

There's another reason for slightly softer sales on recent releases as well: Many of them have not reviewed particularly well (Spelljammer probably being the worst) and are a bit of a departure from the norm (like Tales from the Golden Vault). Phandelver is more "normal" AND is doing pretty well (but it's early yet for that project, AND it's 1/3 reprint, which probably negatively effects it, even if it's reprint of something much loved). This and the increase to MSRP, which effects sales negatively when it's first introduced, but will eventually "feel" normal as time goes on.

Hopefully Planescape will review well.

What's the deal with Golden Vault? It's in shrink wrap at mah store.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

What's the deal with Golden Vault? It's in shrink wrap at mah store.

No idea. Do you mean that they have discounted it? It's likely if that's the case, that they over ordered it and are blowing out a few copies to get down to whatever numbers they want to stock. If you just mean they've shrink wrapped implying sensorship or something, then I don't know. I've read it. Seemed fine if not overly exciting by comparison to some other D&D books.

 

[Zardnaar]

No idea. Do you mean that they have discounted it? It's likely if that's the case, that they over ordered it and are blowing out a few copies to get down to whatever numbers they want to stock. If you just mean they've shrink wrapped implying sensorship or something, then I don't know. I've read it. Seemed fine if not overly exciting by comparison to some other D&D books.

How is it a departure from the norm?

 

[Reynard]

The scale of D&D is entirely different than for other RPGs. Whether they stick or not is important to the other RPGs, not to D&D. Some for sure did, some for sure didn't, but nothing in the data shows an impact - as expected.

I'm not sure what your point is. I was asking about Pathfinder.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

How is it a departure from the norm?

Sorry, what? Polybags? I mean, some stores have a polybag sealer and like to go nuts with it. They might just be trying to stop people from dog-earing it when they flip through. If it's regular priced and just bagged, they either think it has some content they don't want people flipping through (unlikely in a D&D book) or they just want to keep it finger-print free for discerning customers. Or they're just enjoying their new bagging toy.

Mine aren't bagged.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

How is it a departure from the norm?

Oh wait - you mean how I described it in an earlier post? The format of the adventure. It's a bunch of short adventures like Candlekeep and Radiant Citadel as opposed to an adventure path like most of the books, but it's also got a somewhat unusual for D&D "magical technology"-type slate thing which gives very sci-fi-looking maps to the "heists". I honestly think that this product was created in response to all the disappointment that Waterdeep Dragon Heist didn't have a heist in it, but they also didn't want to make the party necessarily that immoral (there's a lot of pressure to make sure that - nearly - everyone plays "heroes" in modern D&D) so they came up with a heist-book, "but you're really the good guys, honest!"

I like it well enough, but I think it was a bit unusual for a lot of customers. I really REALLY like the idea of the book that's full of multiple adventures, and Tales from the Yawning Portal is a good seller in spite of being (almost) all reprints, but I'm not sure that they understood what made it work when they tried to repeat that with Candlekeep, Radiant Citadel, and Golden Vault. They're various degrees of good, but I think their main problem is trying to fit in a few too many adventures. Seven would, IMO, be better than Candlekeep's 13 (cut to the bone, according to at least one of the writers).

 

[FrogReaver]

With an upcoming 2024 release, I'd be very surprised if sales didn't slump before that.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

I thought the adventure anthologies would be more popular since a lot of people were asking for them, but of the last couple Radiant Citadel veered pretty far from meat and potatoes D&D into a magical realism inspired set based on a city in the ethereal plane, while the Golden Vault offered a bunch of heists run by a specific organization with a magitech vibe. Even if you are plundering them for set pieces to recycle, they all offer a very specific flavor

I think that a lot of DMs are probably just looking for a book of low level to midlevel adventures that can quickly fill into their Forgotten Realms or generic homebrew world campaigns such as rescuing some villagers from a goblin cave, stopping the orcish raiders, clearing out the local cemetery from the undead that rise at night and killing a dragon and taking its hoard. Don't even provide the adventures a link together into a campaign, just make them so generic and standalone they will fit into almost any campaign. I think a lot of DM's just looked at the past couple of anthologies and just didn't think they were good fits for the tone of their campaign and type of adventures they run. I know at least one DM that was similarly put off by the "each adventure revolves around a book" and the library at the hub of the Candlekeep Adventure since that was a bit too civilized for the type of adventure his players liked even though I think quite a few of them could be repurposed with minimal efffort.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh wait - you mean how I described it in an earlier post? The format of the adventure. It's a bunch of short adventures like Candlekeep and Radiant Citadel as opposed to an adventure path like most of the books, but it's also got a somewhat unusual for D&D "magical technology"-type slate thing which gives very sci-fi-looking maps to the "heists". I honestly think that this product was created in response to all the disappointment that Waterdeep Dragon Heist didn't have a heist in it, but they also didn't want to make the party necessarily that immoral (there's a lot of pressure to make sure that - nearly - everyone plays "heroes" in modern D&D) so they came up with a heist-book, "but you're really the good guys, honest!"

I like it well enough, but I think it was a bit unusual for a lot of customers. I really REALLY like the idea of the book that's full of multiple adventures, and Tales from the Yawning Portal is a good seller in spite of being (almost) all reprints, but I'm not sure that they understood what made it work when they tried to repeat that with Candlekeep, Radiant Citadel, and Golden Vault. They're various degrees of good, but I think their main problem is trying to fit in a few too many adventures. Seven would, IMO, be better than Candlekeep's 13 (cut to the bone, according to at least one of the writers).

And, hey look, Ghosts of Saltmarsh is also a best-seller with 7 Adventures and some great DM tools and info.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

And, hey look, Ghosts of Saltmarsh is also a best-seller with 7 Adventures and some great DM tools and info.

I knew I had missed something!