CharlesRyan said:
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Compare that to a typical adventure: A creative, talented author with a good idea, a solid grasp of D&D, and a few thousand bucks can put out a really good adventure--perhaps as good or better than anything we can do. Aside from our brand, all of our competitive advantage is neutralized in this category.
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The key to a healthy gaming marketplace is a diversified portfolio--a range of products offered to the consumer that cover all of his or her needs, with just enough duplication to ensure healthy competition. The d20 community, as a whole, hasn't delivered. (And again, this isn't a slam on any company that is delivering!) That results in A) a hole that WotC is now going to fill, and B) a d20 industry that's really struggling. Which is what I said in my original reply to Merric.
Okay, I have several comments for a thread that is probably close to getting closed soon based on some of the posts I have scanned through.
First, WotC IS the big kid on the block. They have the best sales, distribution, production values (in terms of printing, printing materials, etc.) and best name with retailers. Those of you that want to argue that there are "better" 3rd party products can do so. This is a business, WotC is in first place and, while there are others in the game, second place is pretty far back. I don't know many freelancers that would turn down an opportunity to work on a product for WotC, I know I wouldn't. Keep in mind that however large you believe the ENWorl community is, it is a tiny fish in a big ocean. The opinions here are NOT representative of the product-buying whole.
Second, "
Aside from our brand, all of our competitive advantage is neutralized in this category." Re-quoted from above. Charles, you let Necromancer Games slap the official "Dungeons and Dragons" logo on our next adventure and let us help you determine how much that "brand" is really worth. I am thinking it can only increase our sales by say, 25-100 times the usual.
The DnD logo is HUGE. After some companies (that don't exist anymore) put out some horrible adventures it got REALLY difficult to get picked up by retailers and distributors. You have the DnD logo, distributors will carry you and bookstores will pick up the book and customers will buy it simply due to the logo.
3rd party companies with a focus on adventures have several problems.
First, we can't compete with Dungeon magazine for short adventures, plain and simple. Dungeon prints 4-color, uses quality color art (even though I don't like all of it) and has quality material (for the most part).
Second, distribution; it is hard to get picked up by distributors. Guys like Joe Goodman (who does this full-time) have to spend lots of time making certain retailers and distributors pick them up. He also does a number of other books that help maintain a good relationship with distributors and retailers. Retailers want books large enough to have the title on the spine, this means at least 96 pages. They simply don't have retail space to display you cover out after the first week-3weeks of release.
Third, the reason that many 3rd party companies focus on other material is that for the same effort as creating an adventure, other supplement material can make you more money and sell more books.
Notice my 3rd point. It isn't that adventures DO NOT make money, it is simply the fact that other material makes MORE money for the SAME effort. If you are running a business and employing people full-time (like Mongoose and Green Ronin as two examples), you have an obligation to your employees (and probably your family as well) to focus on the products that are going to earn more money. Notice that both of these companies are publishing (or planning to publish) adventure material, it simply isn't the main focus of either. I am sure people are going to argue with the idea of feeling obligated to earn as much money as possible, run a business and employ people dependant on your business for the $ to feed their families (not just your own) and you might have a different perspective.
Finally, I would agree that some d20 companies are "struggling" but I am not certain I would extend that to the whole market nor even to RPGs as a whole. One of my LGS's has told me that they have had higher sales on RPGs the past 6 months than anything else they sell in the store, something that hasn't happened since 3e first came out.
Patrick (one of those other Necromancer Games' Guys)
Only if you just turn the glossy colorful pages and look at the pretty pictures. If you _read_ the material, a slightly less condescendingly rosy picture emerges, much more of a mixed bag.
