D&D Brand Manager of Fluff

[Rystil Arden]

... I'm wondering if everyone posting here is really following the guidelines of the exercise.

I mean ... the scenario is that you are Brand Manager ... it's your job. If your selections result in abysmal sales, you lose that job.

Some of the answers seem to be along the lines of "8 books I'd really like to read" rather than "8 books I think will be good and profitable."

As I said in my entry above, I'd really like a Fey Book over a Giant Book. But I'd approve the Giant Book first, because it would sell better IMO.

Also, keep in mind that the books are supposed to be released in a one-year timeline. If all 8 books follow a single theme, be it monsters, planes, or campaign settings, the very best fan reaction you can hope for is "too much, too soon" or "too much of a good thing."

I guess what I'm really saying is: roleplay as what your character the Brand Manager would do, not what you as a consumer would want.

I'm convinced that a Fey book would sell better. If ENWorld is any indication, we had a poll a while back with huge support for a Fey book. I think a lot of people know that Fey are cool and know that we can do a lot more with them but some of them are really looking for help on that, and you just don't get that help from the current D&D monster books.

Personally, I've come up with fey-related plots and adventures on my own, but I'm always happy to see more stuff, and to those others, a Fey book is more useful than a Giant book because it is very easy to run a giant-based adventure vis-a-vis running the Fey in an evocative way. Giants are the quintessential combat brutes, after all, whereas Fey are limned in mystery, illusion, and enchantment.

Anyway, we could have a bet. Scott can help us by getting WotC to publish both of the books. Then we see which one sells more (I heard he likes to eat Morruses--if you bribe him with one, maybe he'll get them to release your book around a holiday so it'll spike )

 

[Scott_Rouse]

One thing I would do is introduce teh concept of "One-Shot Campaign Settings". Be upfront and put out a camaign setting that all customers understand at the outset are, by design, a single product with no further support. The idea being to put out something that, by design, is intended to have all future development conducted by the indivdual DMS. I'd tie that into the Gleemax site with specific areas for individual fans to post additional material.

Would these be new settings or current but fallow settings? For example would a 300 page Planescape, Ravenloft, or Dark Sun setting book be enough for everyone?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Would these be new settings or current but fallow settings? For example would a 300 page Planescape, Ravenloft, or Dark Sun setting book be enough for everyone?

No, No, and HELL YES.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Would these be new settings or current but fallow settings? For example would a 300 page Planescape, Ravenloft, or Dark Sun setting book be enough for everyone?

Honestly? The fans will want more than that, but they'll be grateful for whatever they get. Joe Gamer, particularly those who may have never been exposed to those settings, should be able to get a large amount of mileage out of just the 300 page setting book. And of course, if you run a line of those and one of them turns out to become a big hit, you could capitalise on that with a follow-up. As the faux Fluff Brand Manager, I would say that each of those settings also cries out for a cool introductory adventure (fortunately, we do have Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, and Demonweb Pits is out there too, but nothing for Dark Sun yet), possibly contained within the same book, but as a fan, I would want the whole 300 pages for fluff and details, and as someone who remembers Mysteries of the Moonsea's relative success, or lack thereof, I would be wary of another adventure/fluff mixed book, so I might release the adventure separately.

 

[Particle_Man]

Paladins Make them cooler. Also, spell out, in terms that are unambiguous and explainable to a 4 year old, exactly what does and does not cause a paladin to lose paladinhood (spell out when this is "temporary but curable" and when this is "permanent"). Look to all the "Paladin" threads in gamer boards for ideas on particular situations that should be addressed. Also, what "associating with evil" means, for example, with Paladins of Wee Jas (whose followers often go a rather necromantic route). Detail more about where they special mounts are coming from, and what they are doing when they are *not* summoned.

Rangers Make them cooler. Spell out what it means to have a favored enemy - does this mean "I hate them!" or does it simply mean "I have a talent for dealing with these guys" or could it be either? Maybe tips on roleplaying animal companions.

Monks Make them cooler. I wanna hear more about monasteries and such, and Ancient Masters, and oaths, and great secrets.

Half-Orcs Make them cooler. Please get away from the whole "descendant of a rape" thing and give them some interesting backgrounds.

Illusions Give some (1000?) ideas on what to do with illusions. Help people out with ideas to pump their imaginations.

Evil minions In a universe with objectively provable horrible afterlifes for the bad guys (and great afterlifes for the good guys) explain why the smarter bad guys don't wise up and join Team Good ASAP, since there are magical means to detect this stuff.

Chaotic Neutral What does this mean? What do these beings want? What do pure chaos outsiders want? How are they different from the Far Realms?

Lawful Neutral What does this mean? What do they want? What do pure law outsiders want? How are they different from Contstructs. Speaking of which, bring back the Modrons, Goddamit!

Also, whatever fluff you have, don't have it contradict the rules. Case in point, the Warlock's Baleful Utterance uses a word of Dark Speech in the fluff, but before, speaking a word of Dark Speech had specific rules implications.

 

[Kaodi]

Complete Guide To Scott Rouse's Sinister Methodology & Dastardly Plans

Just sayin', .

I kind of like the idea of one-off campaign settings. Ghostwalk was in this vein, no? It's a way to introduce a little variety without derailing the Forgotten Realms/Eberron Engine by introducing fully supported settings. Of course, there may still be some of that risk involved.

 

[der_kluge]

Would these be new settings or current but fallow settings? For example would a 300 page Planescape, Ravenloft, or Dark Sun setting book be enough for everyone?

Absolutely - Al Qadim was awesome with just one book. It started to suck after tons of boxed sets got released for it.

How about:

India (6-armed, elephant headed scimitar wielding dudes!)
Ancient Greece
Al-Qadim redone

 

[Monkey King]

Core Books (5)
Unseelie Courts: Fey and changlings. I'm sure this is more popular than giants. Amazing potential for both player and DM use, if it's done right.
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks: A new take on the classic adventure. Plus hey, killer robots and lasers.
Age of Worms Hardcover: Lots of pent-up demand for this. Why not give the people what they want?
Complete Steampunk: A crunch/fluff book of all that piston-driven awesomeness, lots of drawings, some artificer tie-ins, backstory on constructs, and maybe a machine organization or society. Could also be the Big Book of Constructs, though that might push it into heavy crunch. How do tech and magic come together in D&D?
The Far Realm: Bruce Cordell's take on Lovecraftian madness is a huge favorite and has a come a long way in just a few years. Work it.

Setting-Specific (3)
Eberron: Maybe something discussing warforged, the dragonmarked houses, and artificers in more detail. Get some crunch and a lot of stories, politics, and discussion of the machines of war.
Eberron Rising Nations seems like a good book for DMs, a little less so for players.
Sigil: The ultimate planar city, an add-on usable in many campaigns, but also a Planescape book. Lots of distinctive NPCs, massive hooks, new planar lore, bigshot planar movers and shakers. Not your average city book. Builds off In the Cage and the Faces book.
Forgotten Realms: The Dales. Or the Savage North. I'm no Realms expert, but I get the sense that there's lots of great 2E fluff that has never been updated. Maybe review the 2E sales to figure out what FR to revisit?

I'd love to say the Greyhawk corebook should be on this list, but I'm fairly sure that expanding the core setting doesn't align with the brand philosophy. Would be awfully cool, though. Likewise an Arabian/Elemental book would be amazing, but it's probably a crunch book of classes and spells, not a fluff book at all.

 

[drothgery]

The only 'fluff' D&D book I can think of that I'd like to see and hasn't already been suggested is

Flamekeep: Citadel of the Silver Flame , i.e. a big city book for a place that's not they hyper-cosmopolitan center of the world, and as part of the who's who inherrent in a city book, fills out some important parts of the Church heirachy

 

[SPoD]

A lot of this has been said, but:

1.) Book of Giants. A no-brainer.

2.) One-shot campaign setting, brand new. Find something completely out there, but that could combine with existing campaigns the way Ravenloft and Planescape sort of did.

3.) Heroes of Mystery. This would need a lot of fluff regarding how to deal with divination and how to devise classic whodunits.

4.) Heroes of Comedy. A book that tells me how to run a campaign as silly as Order of the Stick without it falling apart at the seams!

5.) Book of Prophecies. Talks about incorporating foreknowledge, prophecy, and time travel without breaking the game or railroading the players.

6.) Planes of Eberron. Detail the other planes, since we only know stuff about them through the novels.

7.) Something Forgotten Realm-sy. I don't actually use FR at all, but I would have to be a fool not to put something out for it.

8.) Book of Law and Chaos. There may not be enough for a book on each, but a Law/Chaos companion to BoVD/BoED would be nice.