D&D 5E D&D Next playtest post mortem by Mike Mearls and Rodney Thompson. From seven years ago.

[GMforPowergamers]

anemoia - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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I have a millennial cousin who got this from watching John Hughes movies. She was a prime target for Stranger Things.

A friend I have (that does play D&D but not with me) was born in 2003 and loves 80's music and stranger things... it's weird, I am old enough to be her dad (infact I think her mother is a year younger then me) but she loves what I grew up with.

 

[Hussar]

A friend I have (that does play D&D but not with me) was born in 2003 and loves 80's music and stranger things... it's weird, I am old enough to be her dad (infact I think her mother is a year younger then me) but she loves what I grew up with.

Given the HUGE amount of mining they're doing with the 80's in the last fifteen or so years, perhaps not all that surprising.

 

[Haplo781]

It's not so much nostalgia as simple name recognition. Lots of people have heard of Spelljammer, maybe seen a thing or two about it somewhere or other, and so, they see a new Spelljammer book and they already know, at least in very broad terms, what it is.

If I release something completely new there isn't any of that, and I have to start completely anew building that brand. Lots of people went to see the Pokemon movie who had never played the game nor watched the show. Heck, the MCU is entirely built on that audience - people who have never even seen a Marvel comic book, but, still, through cultural zeitgeist, know who Iron Man or Thor is.

It's not like the MCU isn't popular in places like China or Japan where Marvel comics and Marvel cartoons might as well not exist. But, people still have heard about these names, so they resonate.

The slow release schedule is absolutely meant to maximize profit. 100%. The fact that it has worked FANTASTICALLY well shows that it's not a bad way to go. Ten years in and we've still got less books for 5e than we had for 4e. Book of the Month style production just doesn't work. Took much chaff. And not enough time for people to adopt ideas and for those ideas to ground themselves in the general awareness. Look at @Minigiant's list of classes for 4e - that was released in what, over a 3 year period? Less? There's just no way anyone would be able to look at, much less play, even a fraction of that. It's totally overwhelming.

So, WotC goes back to the old names - Spelljammer, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, whatever - for that sweet, sweet name recognition. But, instead of shotgunning the market with book after book after book, each one cannibalizing the sales of the other, they make each one a BIG DEAL. Tons of marketing for each and every release. It really is rather impressive.

I just wish they'd revive Dragon and Dungeon magazines for people who want more first-party material.

 

[darjr]

I just wish they'd revive Dragon and Dungeon magazines for people who want more first-party material.

They did say something is in the works. Not sure what.

 

[glass]

It does.

4e Essentials was a vehicle to transition to 5e.

Exactly. 4e Essentials was an attempt to move the game in a direction of Mearls's preferences within the context of 4e. 5e was a step further that direction, no longer being restrained by that context. Supports my position, not yours.

Spelliammer doesn’t really have nostalgia for itself. If you’ve been paying attention it seems nearly nobody buying and exited for it now owned it back in the day.

Well of course. New players do not have any particular reason to know or care that it is Spelljammer-in-name-only. Players who liked it back in the day do and probably do.

 

[darjr]

Exactly. 4e Essentials was an attempt to move the game in a direction of Mearls's preferences within the context of 4e. 5e was a step further that direction, no longer being restrained by that context. Supports my position, not yours.


Well of course. New players do not have any particular reason to know or care that it is Spelljammer-in-name-only. Players who liked it back in the day do and probably do.

This white knuckling of Spelljammer dogma is hilarious.

 

[Minigiant]

Exactly. 4e Essentials was an attempt to move the game in a direction of Mearls's preferences within the context of 4e. 5e was a step further that direction, no longer being restrained by that context. Supports my position, not yours.

I never disputed that.

My point was the the plan was to transition. If 4e Essentials did not transition, Mearls and Co would have hated it as 4e Essentials ran through the Classics in just 2 years. Essentials got to "Late Stage D&D" extremely fast as it got to 20 classes in 2 years and 5 books.

If 4e Essentials didn't transition to 5e, they'd have to create 20 more classes in 2 years.

 

[Hussar]

Well of course. New players do not have any particular reason to know or care that it is Spelljammer-in-name-only. Players who liked it back in the day do and probably do.

What? Both of them?

I only half jest. The number of Spelljammer fans who played back in the nineties and still play is a realllllllly tiny number.

I’d be shocked if it measured more than a couple of thousand honestly.

Granted they might be very very loud. But I seriously doubt that their numbers are significant at all.

 

[glass]

This white knuckling of Spelljammer dogma is hilarious.

I have no idea what you are trying to say here (literally - thanks to Urban Dictionary I now have a couple of candidates for what "white knuckling" might refer to, and I recognise all the other words of course, but I do not see how they are applicable here). But I assume it was something uncomplimentary, right?

If 4e Essentials didn't transition to 5e, they'd have to create 20 more classes in 2 years.

Why? What classes was it missing?

I only half jest. The number of Spelljammer fans who played back in the nineties and still play is a realllllllly tiny number.

Well, that number is at least 1, because there is me. I have no way of knowing for sure whether there is anyone else, but I suspect there are more than one or two others.

 

[Oofta]

When it comes to revisiting old settings, I don't care much because I won't use any published campaigns even if I do occasionally get mods for ideas.

However, from a high level concept point of view there are only so many ideas out there. Obviously individual campaigns vary quite a bit, but Spelljammer is fairly unique from other setting with it's whole pigs elves in space theme. Why not recycle old ideas if they are different enough? Besides, a lot of people that have never played Spelljammer have probably heard of it which will draw some attention just out of curiosity.