D&D 5E D&D Head Talks Future Plans (Sort Of)

WotC has launched a new design blog. The first edition is written by D&D head Ray Winninger, and he talks a little about future plans.

"Later in the year, Chris will return with our big summer adventure, James Wyatt will deliver a substantially improved version of a concept that I initiated myself, and Amanda Hamon will close us out with a project that was jointly conceived by herself and several other studio members. As usual, Jeremy Crawford is working with all of our leads, overseeing mechanical content and rules development.

In addition to these five major products, look for a couple of additional surprises we’ll unveil in the months ahead."

You can read the full blog here:

Who We Are & What We Do | D&D Studio Blog | Dungeons & Dragons

The first of many design blogs, direct from your friends at the Dungeons & Dragons Studio!

dnd.wizards.com

He also mentions that a D&D book takes 12-14 months to make, and half the projects developed don't make it to market. Winninger describes the structure of WotC's 'D&D Studio':

"The D&D Studio itself is organized into four departments: Game Design, Art, Production, and Product Management, each led by a department head. Game Design is responsible for the developing game mechanics and stories. Art establishes the “look and feel” of Dungeons & Dragons by creating visual concepts, directing our freelance illustrators, and creating innovative graphic designs. The Production department manages our project schedules, interfaces with manufacturing experts, and generally handles administrative matters for the studio. The Product Management department interfaces with sales, marketing, and market research. They also own our long-term product roadmap and look after the D&D business."

The studio has five Product Leads: Jeremy Crawford, Amanda Hamon, Chris Perkins, Wes Schneider, and James Wyatt.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't understand your thinking here. There are a bazillion un-updated monsters from older editions, but you think a MM2 will only be reprints of monsters already in 5e?

That would be really disappointing.

There are a bazillion un-updated monsters, but how many of them are all that good or useful in a general context? The best stuff is already out there, although it's scattered through books.

And other stuff is really specific. I love the tasked genies of Al-Qadim, but I'm not sure how many people are hankering for a winemaking genie in their games, or can't handwave it themselves.

As the Extra Life booklet of Fiend Folio monsters showed last year (or maybe the year before -- time is weird now), most of the remainders aren't terribly exciting. (When the flail snail is already converted, that suggests the stuff that isn't is not that compelling.)

I would bet on the MM2 compiling the monsters scattered through various books, especially the ones that aren't terribly popular or go out of print.

Otherwise, I'd say the next biggest hunk of good "missing" monsters will be in Van Richten's Guide. If we get a Manual of the Planes style book, that'll cover most of the rest of the good stuff, IMO.

 

[Nellisir]

There are a bazillion un-updated monsters, but how many of them are all that good or useful in a general context? The best stuff is already out there, although it's scattered through books.

I'll wager that most of the creatures in the 5e Monster Manual appeared in the 1e Monster Manual. Not MM2 or the FF, just the MM. You can certainly claim that MM had almost all the good monsters, and nothing need ever change again, but...it's a bold claim.

And other stuff is really specific. I love the tasked genies of Al-Qadim, but I'm not sure how many people are hankering for a winemaking genie in their games, or can't handwave it themselves.

Gah. What about asian monsters? Other (non wine-making) middle eastern monsters? Native American or African monsters? Too specific? There's a lot of weeds to get into there.

As the Extra Life booklet of Fiend Folio monsters showed last year (or maybe the year before -- time is weird now), most of the remainders aren't terribly exciting. (When the flail snail is already converted, that suggests the stuff that isn't is not that compelling.)

There were what, 16-18 Monstrous Appendixes for 2e? Certainly 1 each for GH, Mystara, and FR...2* for RL & DS; 2 or 3 for PS; 1 for AQ; 1 for Oriental Adventures; 2 for Spelljammer. Oh, and there were...5 Annuals?
3e had...five hardbound Monster Manual books? Plus various themed books.

Considering that the page to monster ratio in 5e actually isn't very high, that's a very very small subset that you've decided is compelling.

*2e RL had 3 Monstrous Compendiums, I believe, but the third was basically unique NPCs and doesn't count.

I would bet on the MM2 compiling the monsters scattered through various books, especially the ones that aren't terribly popular or go out of print.
Otherwise, I'd say the next biggest hunk of good "missing" monsters will be in Van Richten's Guide. If we get a Manual of the Planes style book, that'll cover most of the rest of the good stuff, IMO.

It seems like you're happy with a small, curated selection, which is fine and great for you. I like a broad, expansive one. Now, that's definitely at odds with WotC's current approach, which is to present focused, curated products that are essentially "ready to run" right out of the box. The tradeoff is reduced active support for "homebrew" gamers. (And before someone gets all het up about Tasha's, yes, WotC has devoted page space to "how to customize your ..."; I said REDUCED and ACTIVE, not "eliminated" or "all". Toolkit products are out; large campaign settings are out.)

Can I take WotC's current products and modify them? Sure. I can also take older products and modify them. I can take products from an entirely different game system and modify them. I can write the whole thing from scratch and don't need WotC at all.
But I'd rather not. I'd just like a nice, big, bunch of official WotC monsters to play with.

And honestly, even if I don't use all of WotC's fluff, they've done a really excellent job of recasting the lore behind a lot of the monsters and making uncool ones cool. So I think they're up to the task of redeeming some of your unredeemables.

Maybe not the winemaking genie, though. That is wicked niche.

 

[Nellisir]

I hear what you are saying @Nellisir . It would be nice to have another book that was a broad selection of just monsters, without more than a page of background information per monster type. Something like Creature Codex.

Ayup, and Tome of Beasts I & II. EXACTLY.
Given how MANY monster books have come out over the years, I think it's safe to say they sell reasonably well. Probably a good sight better than adventure paths. And while I love Creature Codex and the Tomes, there is an undeniable cachet to WotC in-house material. (I have a friend who absolutely swears that every third-party D&D product is nothing more than a WotC reject and not worth having.)

As I note above, I think it has a lot to do with current WotC current market approach. I think that may loosen in the next year or two, but it might not. It certainly keeps consumers focused on WotC if all their examples of adventures are in 250-page campaign books. (And yes, DMs Guild, etc, etc. I don't think most new consumers are very aware of or use that, or explore older edition material.)

We'll see!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'll wager that most of the creatures in the 5e Monster Manual appeared in the 1e Monster Manual. Not MM2 or the FF, just the MM. You can certainly claim that MM had almost all the good monsters, and nothing need ever change again, but...it's a bold claim.

Whew, good thing I didn't make that claim.

The 5E Monster Manual actually has a fair amount of monsters from other sources as well. I was a late convert to 5E, having gone to Castles & Crusades instead of 4E, and was surprised by the diversity of sources in the 5E MM.

Gah. What about asian monsters? Other (non wine-making) middle eastern monsters? Native American or African monsters? Too specific? There's a lot of weeds to get into there.

I don't recall a whole lot of Native American or African monsters in previous editions of D&D, waiting to be updated to 5E.

I would rather WotC holds off on messing with their Oriental Adventures back catalog until they can get the appropriate folks to work on that material. Given the baby steps they've made with the Vistani, I'm not sure they're ready to dive into the deep end of the pool yet.

There were what, 16-18 Monstrous Appendixes for 2e? Certainly 1 each for GH, Mystara, and FR...2* for RL & DS; 2 or 3 for PS; 1 for AQ; 1 for Oriental Adventures; 2 for Spelljammer. Oh, and there were...5 Annuals?
3e had...five hardbound Monster Manual books? Plus various themed books.

Considering that the page to monster ratio in 5e actually isn't very high, that's a very very small subset that you've decided is compelling.

*2e RL had 3 Monstrous Compendiums, I believe, but the third was basically unique NPCs and doesn't count.

Yep. I had most of those. Most of those monsters are forgettable or were space fillers. Stuff like the Greyhawk Dragon or other dragons to fill out the color wheel were filling imaginary niches, not created to fill a real need. Now, there were a lot of neat monsters in late 3E and later in 4E, but I don't know that many of the missing ones were what anyone would think of as iconic.

And I think the best way to bring in missing 4E material, including a Marshal base class, would be in an Nentir Vale setting book, not in a Monster Manual 2.

It seems like you're happy with a small, curated selection, which is fine and great for you. I like a broad, expansive one.

With third party publishers, many of them run by former TSR and WotC folks, there's probably more quality monster books out now than ever in the history of the game. (3E had more third party material overall, but a lot of it was Atari glut level stuff.)

I have Cawood Publishing's Monsters of the City book right beside me as I type, and they're up to four monster books now. There's also Kobold Press, Monte Cook Games, the resurgent Scarred Lands books and much, much more. Sandy Petersen seems to put out a new monster book on Kickstarter every other week.

Most of those books are broad and expansive books, although they typically have hooks for their company settings.

But I'd rather not. I'd just like a nice, big, bunch of official WotC monsters to play with.

And honestly, even if I don't use all of WotC's fluff, they've done a really excellent job of recasting the lore behind a lot of the monsters and making uncool ones cool. So I think they're up to the task of redeeming some of your unredeemables.

You may get your wish. In the last earnings call, Hasbro said there's going to be increased D&D output from here on out. They may get to the point where straight monster books make sense for them.

 

[tetrasodium]

They go into it a bit in the DMG, but Mike Mearls really spelled out on his old Happy Fun Hour show that the basic unit of measurement in 5E is hit points: Spell slots are worth a given amount of hit points (there's a table in the DMG that gives the numbers), and that is how they judge Class abilities and Feats as well.

That table is a hardcore example of garbage in garbage out and it shows in the completely bonkers math when you start analyzing non damage things that hook off it and no spell damage that intersects or runs parallel with it

 

[Faolyn]

I'll wager that most of the creatures in the 5e Monster Manual appeared in the 1e Monster Manual. Not MM2 or the FF, just the MM. You can certainly claim that MM had almost all the good monsters, and nothing need ever change again, but...it's a bold claim.

There are a lot of good monsters that haven't been updated. However, there are a lot of redundancies as well--monsters that were basically just goblins or nymphs or merfolk or giants or whatever, but slightly different.

What WotC needs to do is either completely revamp those redundant monsters (like how they've apparently taken the gremishka from Ravenloft and given them some weird reaction to magic, which they never had before) or only convert the truly unusual and interesting creatures from the old MCs to 5e and leave the redundant monsters behind.

 

[Nellisir]

I have Cawood Publishing's Monsters of the City book right beside me as I type, and they're up to four monster books now. There's also Kobold Press, Monte Cook Games, the resurgent Scarred Lands books and much, much more. Sandy Petersen seems to put out a new monster book on Kickstarter every other week.

I've never even heard of Cawood Publishing. I'll look it up. Kobold Press I have. I have issues with Monte Cook that go back a while, so I don't support him any more. I didn't realize he was doing 5e material, but it doesn't really surprise me...oh, wait. He was redoing Ptolus?
Is Sandy Petersen Legendary Games? They've got a lot of stuff out. Not sure I've seen larger monster books though. I'll look. The 15 monsters for $19.99 softcovers really don't do it for me.
No, apparently that's Jason Nelson & Co? Sandy Petersen is Petersen Games? The website is...not helpful. No 5e material indicated, no monster books? A lot of Cthulu stuff; not really my bag, like IK. And most of Monte's stuff.

Cawood looks...possible. Printed book price is pretty good via DMG. I'm not sure why these didn't pop up for me before; not like I haven't searched for monster books on there before... Thanks!

All that said, it's still nice to have WotC material when I'm writing fan material. We can probably get permission to reference Tome of Beasts in the Oerth Journal, but it seems like something that'd be legally kinda weird and a significant chunk of the readers won't have it, so I either accept they'll miss out, or reproduce the whole creature - which is also legally iffy. (The Oerth Journal has permission from WotC to be in print & sold via Patreon, as long as the pdf is free. It doesn't use the OGL because it/we don't own the copyright.)

 

[teitan]

Releasing a new edition because it is an anniversary makes almost no sense. You already have an edition that is by far the most successful financially for your company, and has maintained double-digit growth year over year. There is essentially no reason to try and screw that up by releasing a new edition; if your current strategy is churning money, you don't change your strategy. It's a classic "if it 'aint broke, don't fix it."

I'm pretty sure that the conception of 4E, that fractured the playerbase and birthed D&D's biggest competitor Pathfinder, still puts fear into these designers of making a new edition.

That said, I suppose making "Anniversary" versions of the 3 core rulebooks with edits and some additions, but not really changing the overall design much, makes a tad bit of sense. I wouldn't really call this 5.5 though, and definitely not 6E.

Yeah that's my prediction, maybe a refresh of the books next year or the year after with popular subclasses and the races adjusted to the new rules with alignment called out as optional. Very little in tweaks to maintain 100% compatibility and the current approach to races in the PHB being called out as the optional element. Then special editions for the anniversary like leather covers and new art galleries. They aren't going to do anything to ruin their bottom line right now and will focus on compatibility with any changes they make.

My one hope is that they really, really emphasize that the DM's role is to define the game world and has the right to say no to different and varying options in a much more called out way because right now it's getting pretty toxic with regard to the player vs DM dynamic and players demanding and telling DMs what to do for his campaign. I know it's already stated but really needs to be shouted from the roof tops that Homebrew isn't kitchen sink and a DM has final say on what is being used.

 

[teitan]

I really don't need WotC to do more monsters. Kobold Press, the Scarred Lands monster book, Iron Kingdoms monster book, and the deep dives by Nord Games, not to mention the stuff on Drivethru and DMsGuild are great. Frankly, other than the common experience, I'm not sure what I need WotC to do at this point.

Kobold Press is my favorite 5e publisher! Their monster books and lair books are amazing.

 

[tetrasodium]

Yeah that's my prediction, maybe a refresh of the books next year or the year after with popular subclasses and the races adjusted to the new rules with alignment called out as optional. Very little in tweaks to maintain 100% compatibility and the current approach to races in the PHB being called out as the optional element. Then special editions for the anniversary like leather covers and new art galleries. They aren't going to do anything to ruin their bottom line right now and will focus on compatibility with any changes they make.

My one hope is that they really, really emphasize that the DM's role is to define the game world and has the right to say no to different and varying options in a much more called out way because right now it's getting pretty toxic with regard to the player vs DM dynamic and players demanding and telling DMs what to do for his campaign. I know it's already stated but really needs to be shouted from the roof tops that Homebrew isn't kitchen sink and a DM has final say on what is being used.

I think hat I agree with a lot of what your saying & would add that it needs to be made more clear that the gm isn't some kind of monster just because they want to add their own rules even if those rules lower the power scale on players to achieve a certain style of campaign... but I'm not sure what you mean by "homebrew isn't kitchen sink".