WotC D&D Products Delayed Including Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel

WotC has announced that Journeys Through The Radiant Citadel will be delayed a month from June 21st to July 19th. The D&D Beyond version is being similarly delayed.

Due to production issues, two upcoming D&D products have been delayed:

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (digital & in stores) arrives July 19

Campaign Case: Terrain arrives August 16

Campaign Case: Creatures (7/19) & Spelljammer: Adventures in Space (8/16) are unaffected.

 

[Parmandur]

And yet there was a paper mill in BC Canada that closed in the last year citing "decreased paper demand" as the reason for closure. Something fishy there...

At some point, it can a vicious circle: prices rise, customers tap out of the market, demand drops, suppliers close, prices rise, customers tap out of the market, demand drops, suppliers close, prices rise...

 

[Undrave]

And yet there was a paper mill in BC Canada that closed in the last year citing "decreased paper demand" as the reason for closure. Something fishy there...

Depends on the paper grade they were making I guess? But also, probably because employee were getting too expensive so they shipped the job elsewhere. You know how it goes.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

And yet there was a paper mill in BC Canada that closed in the last year citing "decreased paper demand" as the reason for closure. Something fishy there...

This is the summary of the whole problem. The Covid pandemic made a lot of people (owners, investors) fear a recession, so they started closing all kinds of industries, incl. paper mills. But there was no recession, and in fact the economy (mostly) kept going full speed ahead. So, huge feedstock shortages happened. In addition, the container shipping is all messed up, because (1) companies don't want to haul empty containers, (2) some boat blocked the Suez for a week and (3) China closes entire port cities if there are a few cases of Covid. So, lack of feedstock and lack of transportation. And on top of that there is a massive lack of employees in many countries. None of that helps the supply chains. I expect the world's economy to be very volatile for a while to come. But paper shortages for printing are nothing compared to the grain shortages that we will see soon.

I'm curious what the "production issues" are. Shortage of paper? Ink? Shortage of printing facilities? People? Containers?

Hope our DM doesn't get inspired by all this. "Sorry, your wizard cannot copy that spell. While there's plenty of ink, the next shipment of paper and parchment only comes in 6 months from now, as there is no papyrus to make it, no crates to pack it in, no boats to ship it and no people to sell it to you. Maybe it's time for a side quest, where you set up your own logistics company in a tight labor market?".

 

[FitzTheRuke]

This is the summary of the whole problem. The Covid pandemic made a lot of people (owners, investors) fear a recession, so they started closing all kinds of industries, incl. paper mills. But there was no recession, and in fact the economy (mostly) kept going full speed ahead. So, huge feedstock shortages happened. In addition, the container shipping is all messed up, because (1) companies don't want to haul empty containers, (2) some boat blocked the Suez for a week and (3) China closes entire port cities if there are a few cases of Covid. So, lack of feedstock and lack of transportation. And on top of that there is a massive lack of employees in many countries. None of that helps the supply chains. I expect the world's economy to be very volatile for a while to come. But paper shortages for printing are nothing compared to the grain shortages that we will see soon.

I'm curious what the "production issues" are. Shortage of paper? Ink? Shortage of printing facilities? People? Containers?

Hope our DM doesn't get inspired by all this. "Sorry, your wizard cannot copy that spell. While there's plenty of ink, the next shipment of paper and parchment only comes in 6 months from now, as there is no papyrus to make it, no crates to pack it in, no boats to ship it and no people to sell it to you. Maybe it's time for a side quest, where you set up your own logistics company in a tight labor market?".

That's about the size of it. Excellent analysis of the whole situation.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

A magical component shortage could be a decent hook for an adventure. Imagine a bat guano shortage, "The Day the Fireballs Stopped."

Hope our DM doesn't get inspired by all this. "Sorry, your wizard cannot copy that spell. While there's plenty of ink, the next shipment of paper and parchment only comes in 6 months from now, as there is no papyrus to make it, no crates to pack it in, no boats to ship it and no people to sell it to you. Maybe it's time for a side quest, where you set up your own logistics company in a tight labor market?".

Can't say I'm surprised, but it is a bummer.

My one gaming group was discussing playing it next, and I'm kinda glad they didn't pick it now. Though at the rate they're moving through the final part of Rime of the Frostmaiden, we might have been fine anyway.

 

[Shardstone]

For those wondering what the issues are, a large part of it is in transporting product to distributors from China. For reference, having just ran into this problem with my own studio, the price it costs to air ship has increased several hundreds of percent, going even higher depending on the scale. Its basically almost impossible to do anything but shipping by sea right now, which is also very expensive and tacks on 30-45 extra days to getting the product.

It really is an apocalypse of shipping.

 

[Scribe]

Thanks Globalization!

 

[ART!]

And yet there was a paper mill in BC Canada that closed in the last year citing "decreased paper demand" as the reason for closure. Something fishy there...

At some point, it can a vicious circle: prices rise, customers tap out of the market, demand drops, suppliers close, prices rise, customers tap out of the market, demand drops, suppliers close, prices rise...

About 6 months ago I read (no time to find the link, but I work in printing so I'm kind of keyed into these things) that in the year or two prior to that about 200 paper and wood mills in China had closed.

We can't get one of our most common paper stocks anymore, from any vendor. Our production manager spends a fair amount of his time now just scrounging for stock.

 

[Undrave]

For those wondering what the issues are, a large part of it is in transporting product to distributors from China. For reference, having just ran into this problem with my own studio, the price it costs to air ship has increased several hundreds of percent, going even higher depending on the scale. Its basically almost impossible to do anything but shipping by sea right now, which is also very expensive and tacks on 30-45 extra days to getting the product.

It really is an apocalypse of shipping.

Yeah the price of shipping a container went up like ten fold if not more. Pretty bonkers.

 

[Undrave]

But paper shortages for printing are nothing compared to the grain shortages that we will see soon.

Should I be stocking some more rice then?