D&D 5E D&D Next will succeed or die on the basis of its digital apps.

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I'd say D&D Next will have the best chance of succeeding if you don't NEED digital tools just to play it effectively.

4e required a LOT of work to keep track of conditions, zones, status effects, expended powers, magic items, etc. Hopefully Next will have the core simplified enough that the players, at least, will be able to play without needing their smartphones to keep track of things. (If Dms can do the same, that'll be even better.)

 

[delericho]

Yeah, I know. Doubling or tripling their subscription rates was a total and complete failure.

I would be extremely surprised if more than a tiny number of people subscribe for the e-mags. For the most part, it will be the Character Builder and Compendium, with the DM tools (or is it just Monster Builder these days?) coming third. At best, I'd bet the e-mags are a nice-to-have.

Meanwhile, cancelling the magazines led directly to the creation of Pathfinder. At a stroke, WotC turned their biggest cheerleaders into their strongest competitors. And, because almost all existing subscribers were offered at least a few issues of Pathfinder 'free', and a great many of those subscribers took up that offer, Paizo were able to convert the Dragon/Dungeon subscriber base into the core of their customer base.

Every month, I used to look forward to the arrival of the two magazines. Even when I wasn't actively playing, it was a drop of new stuff, a means to stay connected to the community, and then something to come here and talk about (at some length). And it wasn't even the game content that was important (other than the "Shacked City" campaign, and a handful of other adventures, I never used any of it), but the fact that it was present... that was important.

And now, every month, I look forward to the arrival of my Pathfinder instead. I get it every month, I read it every month, and I enjoy it every month. And yet, I've never played Pathfinder. Where my loyalty was to D&D, now it is to Pathfinder (and Paizo), and that's because the magazines were cancelled.

(And, worst of all, if WotC had simply renewed the license and let Paizo continue, it's quite likely the magazines would have failed by now. The market genuinely was contracting, and if it had been WotC publishing them, the time to stop was indeed right. But it wasn't WotC publishing them, it was Paizo doing so, and taking all the risk. So... no Pathfinder, much stronger support for 4e, and then the demise of a licensee/competitor. And all WotC would have had to do is... nothing.)

Failing to renew that license was probably the single biggest mistake WotC (well, the D&D team) have made since 3.5e was published early.

Edit: But, of course, hindsight is always 20:20. There's no possible way WotC could have foreseen what has actually happened.

 

[DancingSatyr]

In my opinion, tech has always been more distraction than help at the table. I can't deny how helpful gaming tools have been in constructing adventures in the past, but when I run a game, I want to see faces. I don't want to see people rolling their dice on cutsy little apps, or cracking open the monster manual in secret while I'm conferring with another player. In my experience, it starts out well enough as a quicker reference look up (which is great) then descends into someone saying "Hey, have you seen this on Youtube?" Then I have to spend the next 15 minutes coaxing adults to "pay attention". I don't want WOTC to abandon updating it's tech options, but miniatures, dice, books and character sheets are all I need to create a world for you to conquer!

 

[Kye_Tyrad]

Judging tables at the conventions I have seen some players use both physical dice as well as an iPad with their character sheet on it. It actually worked out well and although I would rather see physical dice, paper and the traditional materials, if the digital is easy to use and in the right context it could make for a great addition!

 

[Ratskinner]

I suspect I will take more than a little flak for this, but from my perspective D&D Next will live or die on the basis of its digital apps (particularly iOS and Android).

Although having good digital apps would be a plus for those that use them, Next will succeed or fail primarily on the basis of its gameplay and value at the table. The best apps in the world won't save it if it's lousy, and I think it could do well even without apps. (Especially if they can license it out.) There's already VTTs out there that will probably be capable of handling it at launch.

If anything, a system that is so complicated as to make apps desirable for playing or preparing to play (on either the DM or Player side) will make it less likely to be a success. That's about the only strong relationship between apps and success that I can see.

 

[Garthanos]

I suspect an ever vanishing market for TTRPGs which you have to pay for, could be as much responsible for any version of D&D fading away.

 

[Blackwarder]

I agree with every thing said on this thread, good digital tools are a must, going all the way old school is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Here is what I want out of D&D, I want to have a game box called Dungeon&Dragons I want it to be self contained and have everything you need to play Basic D&D, this kind of product wouldn't need any digital support.
Next comes Standard D&D, I want this game to come in actual hardcover books (because I collect them) but to also have them out in an editable digital format so I can add house rules and notes just like we used to do in the good ol' days (mainly with yellow post it notes) and I want to be able to share it. Having a digital character sheet connected to the DM would be cool but the most important feature for the digital books would be their ability to interface with the various Advanced D&D various rules modules and seamlessly change alter the books.

When it comes to digital tools I want to have a single icone on my iPad for D&D, in it I'll have a dog octal store for all the books and a free copy of the rule book for Basic D&D (without all the goodies in the regular box) when I buy the the standard PHB it will seamlessly merge with the portions of the basic rules it correspond with, same goes to DMG and any kind of MM.

I also want to have Dungeon magazine and Dragon Magazine in there and I want to be able to buy the separately or subscribe to them and be able to add anything interesting to my books, and last but not least I want to have advantures, and game world books in there. I recently bought the Ankh-Morpork map for the iPad and OMG it's the best Gazeteer every, this kind of map with those details just make me want to run a game in Ankh-Morpok only thing missing is that I can't add notes of my own.

Bottom line, I agree that having laptops around the gaming table (except maybe for the DM) is a bad thing since it creat a barrier between the group members, I also agree that being able to play the game with a regular pen and paper is a must but I think that digital tools afford us a quality of life opportunities and are too good to miss out and that tablet computers are the wave of the future and will probably become a fixed feature in our daily lives so why not use them?

Warder

 

[Hussar]

Blackwarder, I think your final point there is probably the most telling.

Things like tablets and smart phones are becoming pretty ubiquitous, as is Wi-fi access. It would be a waste not to take advantage of this.

Paperless, mini-less, TTRPG's that you can play while sitting in a living room full of cats. That's a goal to pursue.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Iosue]

Imagine someone who is 20 years old when Next is released in 2014. They will never remember a time when there was no Internet. Cell phones have been cheap and texting since they were in elementary school. Smartphones have been around since they were in jr. high. Facebook, YouTube and/or other social media will have played a significant part of their teenage lives. Their friends will not simply be the other kids in their neighborhood, or in their class at school, but kids and adults from other parts of the country, other parts of the world. Their most favorite video and computer games are likely not the single person platformers that, say, my generation grew up with, but multiplayer online games. They simply won't have even the few reservations my generation has when it comes to social interaction over a Skype screen.

There will always be a market in gaming for books and playing at a table. But if that's all you're offering, you not offering something particularly enticing to those young folk in 2014. It's not something particularly relevant to their lives. So, yes, WotC should definitely provide books, and easy-to-print resources. But they also need to provide a great role-playing experience for the up and coming market who feel more comfortable with Kindle than print-matter. Who have a group of friends who love gaming together, but who are scattered all over the world.