Chris Perkins: Reintroducing Settings in Ways that Surprise People

WotC's D&D Story Manager, Chris Perkins, was the subject of an interview by a chap called Chris "Wacksteven" Iannitti. One of the topics covered is campaign setting books; Perkins says that they want to reintroduce settings in "surprising" ways, and that they're not guaranteed to be books. (thanks to Mistwell for the scoop)

The video is below, but if you can't watch it right now, here are the highlights as listed by pukunui on WotC's website:

• He can't talk about products that haven't been announced yet
• They value all of their worlds, as each one has "tons of fans"
• They are focusing on specific areas within settings to detail and "codify" via their story bibles
• Their goal is to "challenge people's expectations" re: sourcebooks
• They're "not interested in releasing books for the sake of releasing books anymore"
• They want book releases to be events that will "surprise and delight people"; they also want to put out books that people will actually use rather than books that will just get put on a shelf to "stay there and slowly rot"
• "One of our creative challenges is to package [setting] material - reintroduce facts and important details about our worlds - in a way that we know that DMs and players are going to use, that's going to excite them, that's actually going to surprise them. We may get that content out, but I'm not going to guarantee it's going to be a book. I'm not going to guarantee that it's going to be anything that you've seen before. But it will be something."

[video=youtube;alnwC34qUFs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alnwC34qUFs&feature=youtu.be[/video]
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[Jeff Carlsen]

The current low release schedule seems to make people who do not want to spend money on D&D happy. Those who want to spend money are disappointed. How is cattering to those who do not want to give you money a good business move? Seems reminiscent of 4e who turned away people who liked a more "traditional" D&D to catter to other gamers.

You're focusing on extremes. The greatest return is catering to those who want to buy a product occasionally. I think it's likely that most players aren't willing to buy a book more often than once or twice per year. So it makes sense to wait until they're hungry.

So far, most of the products have been focused on getting people playing. That is wise at this point.

When a new product does get released, they want it to be useful. Thus Perkins's comments on campaign settings. Sadly, we don't know what that means, but I agree that a plot point model like Fifty Fathoms would be a great idea.

 

[Hussar]

DefCon1 you are making quite a few assumptions about other board members and their reasons for posting in your post. You make it sound like you think complaining is more important to people than playing the game.
I find that more than a little offensive.

You don't know me nor how much I play/DM compared to my posting habits. And I seriously doubt you have that information for anyone else on the forums.
Instead of calling people out, why not engage in discussion?
Read back over your post and think about what you are saying about other posters on this thread.
Then please think about what you saying that says about you.

I think it might have been better for you just to have said something like: "I don't understand or enjoy the complaining I am reading on this thread. "

Oh please. There's been MONTHS now of this same line of complaining. "The sky has been falling on D&D" for more than a decade now. It certainly seems like complaining is more important than playing. I mean, in this thread alone, we have someone cancelling their order for a product because they don't know the release schedule. Why on earth would you choose not to buy something because of what might come out later down the line? It ridiculous.

What discussion is there to engage in Hobbitfan? Seriously? What more can be said? We've had several months now of (roughly) the same half a dozen or so people talking about how the release schedule is dooming the game and how they (apparently) are so disappointed with WOTC because of the lack of communication. Ok, fine. Great. So what?

It's time to either pee or get off the pot. We know, and have known for over a year, what the release schedule is going to be. It's not going to change. It's been this way for several years now. So, exactly what are you trying to accomplish? I asked [MENTION=55961]goldomark[/MENTION] exactly this question in another thread and never got an answer. So, I'm asking you. What is it you are trying to accomplish?

Knowing that the release schedule will be very slow, AND knowing that WOTC is not going to tell you anything about the release schedule until the last minute, what do you propose to do about it?

Me? I shrug and go back to gaming. They don't want to tell me? Fair enough. I simply don't care enough to get worked up about it.

So, bottom line boys and girls, what do you hope will be the result of constantly complaining about WOTC's release schedule?

 

[HobbitFan]

Oh please. There's been MONTHS now of this same line of complaining. "The sky has been falling on D&D" for more than a decade now. It certainly seems like complaining is more important than playing. I mean, in this thread alone, we have someone cancelling their order for a product because they don't know the release schedule. Why on earth would you choose not to buy something because of what might come out later down the line? It ridiculous.

What discussion is there to engage in Hobbitfan? Seriously? What more can be said? We've had several months now of (roughly) the same half a dozen or so people talking about how the release schedule is dooming the game and how they (apparently) are so disappointed with WOTC because of the lack of communication. Ok, fine. Great. So what?

It's time to either pee or get off the pot. We know, and have known for over a year, what the release schedule is going to be. It's not going to change. It's been this way for several years now. So, exactly what are you trying to accomplish? I asked [MENTION=55961]goldomark[/MENTION] exactly this question in another thread and never got an answer. So, I'm asking you. What is it you are trying to accomplish?

Knowing that the release schedule will be very slow, AND knowing that WOTC is not going to tell you anything about the release schedule until the last minute, what do you propose to do about it?

Me? I shrug and go back to gaming. They don't want to tell me? Fair enough. I simply don't care enough to get worked up about it.

So, bottom line boys and girls, what do you hope will be the result of constantly complaining about WOTC's release schedule?

I can't speak for anyone else in saying this but I can clarify things vis-a-vis me.
Why discuss further? Because you have fundamentally misunderstood me, sir that's why.

I don't have a goal to achieve, at least not one I'm consciously aware of. I've merely been joining in conversationsI thought sounded interesting and sharing any thoughts that occured to me on the same.
No plan, no agenda more complicated than interest in other people's thoughts and sharing my own. In doing so I hoped to gain a better understanding of WOTC's behavior, which I've found confusing.

I'm sorry that the complaints have irritated you. It is ultimately your job to manage your responses to what other people type though.
I don't believe you have any authority to make a "crap or get off the crapper type of statement".
You have every right to leave the conversation at any time if it bothers you and are free to say why when you do so.
I would suggest you handle further issues via Pm conversations with whomever or contacting Morrus or a moderator.

I am done being a target. So I'm out.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

If some were are around for 1st Ed, they would have been severely disappointed. Even the core 3 books were staggered over a few years, whole years where no books came out at all, but somehow it was not only supported, but at the height of its popularity.

There is some odd new breed of vulgarly entitled D&D players these days. The game is not complete or supported until they release a Compete Gnome Cobbler's Handbook!

 

[DongMaster]

There are a lot of repeat buttons in this thread...

 

[transtemporal]

There are a lot of repeat buttons in this thread...

Bit like an MMO. Set up some macros, hit your rotations and go get a coffee.

 

[Umbran]

The thing that perplexes me about this whole thing is not WotC's strategies, nor their release schedules... but rather the numerous posters here on the boards who seem to not want to play the game unless they know ahead of time a list of products that are coming out, and that they are kept "in the know".

Such a position is reasonable for many GMs when considering adventure support - in which 5e is pretty darned slim. Not everyone has the time, energy, or desire to do their own adventure creation, and if a game doesn't have a sufficient string of adventure products in the works to keep them rolling, they have a legitimate reason to not engage with the game.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Don't be sorry for me. I'm not the D&D PnP RPG.

So, you're what?

 

[Jeff Albertson]

As I said on other thread, there is this vulgarly entitled sense of new player to do with D&D…I hate them…they are silly…why: 1st Ed: years went by without your precious Complete Gnome Cobbler's Handbook coming out, and the game was fine, it is nothing more than daft, childish people who think splat, exhale, super, la-la…please, these are the people who have brought the game down to the ridiculous path it has been on since 2000…scream me garbage…

 

[DongMaster]

Adventure support slim?

Maybe you mean one off adventures but considering the time elapsed between the two campaigns, there should be plenty of adventuring. True, they might not be to everyone's cup of tea, but the same could be said about single adventures. Or maybe you mean something else?

To me so far I have far more than a year of gaming with both ToD and PotA.