Darksun TSR sales! From Benjamin Riggs.

[Zardnaar]

It seems that 3E started strong, but went downhill really fast, hence the rushing of 3.5.

Yeah that's been said before. It's sales were very front loaded similar to a lot of products here.

Without that 5-10 year tale off even reduced sales would have beefed up 3.0 numbers. In 8 years we got 3 phbs, star Wars d20 got 3 in 7 years.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah that's been said before. It's sales were very front loaded similar to a lot of products here.

Without that 5-10 year tale off even reduced sales would have beefed up 3.0 numbers. In 8 years we got 3 phbs, star Wars d20 got 3 in 7 years.

Pretty astounding when you.consider thst we arr just coming up on the 8 year anniversary of the 5E PHB, and they are only starting to talk about replacing it in two years.

 

[Zardnaar]

Pretty astounding when you.consider thst we arr just coming up on the 8 year anniversary of the 5E PHB, and they are only starting to talk about replacing it in two years.

More a retun to form. I get bored with an edition after about 5-6 years.

I've had 5 E 8 years active play is 6 due to Covid restrictions/life.

 

[Von Ether]

It seems that 3E started strong, but went downhill really fast, hence the rushing of 3.5.

3E could be a little bit of outlier due to the fact the first printings done in an economy of scale that made them dirt cheap to buy.

 

[Zardnaar]

3E could be a little bit of outlier due to the fact the first printings done in an economy of scale that made them dirt cheap to buy.

They probably hit saturation point fairly quickly.

 

[Reynard]

I missed the worst of it

While there is no doubt that both the industry and D&D were in abad spot in the mid to late 90s, i still think some of the best stuff was made for D&D in that era -- probably because the creatives were scrambling to find the thing that would turn things around. The Monstrous Arcana series were very cool, and we got stuff like the historical DM series of letherettes.

 

[Maxperson]

in 30 years we’ll be living in Dark Sun

Not if MIT gets its way.

MIT scientists think they’ve discovered how to fully reverse climate change

MIT scientists have proposed a new plan to reverse climate change that uses 'space bubbles' to shield the Earth from the Sun's radiation.

bgr.com

 

[darjr]

Darksun Novel sales

D&D General - Darksun novel sales! From Ben Riggs.

I have my Darksun novels sitting in the bookshelf right next to me now. Just took them out again, may read them. Actual! Dark Sun novel! Sales numbers! TSR alumni are cultural treasures and gaming icons. One point that a lot of TSR alumni have been making on my posts is that while setting sales...

www.enworld.org

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Same. TSR seemed a monolith that would always stand when I was younger. My gaming group had no idea that it was a series of bad business decisions barely held together with inspiration, talent, chewing gum, and duct tape.

I always find it a little weird (I don't know if that's the right word) when learning about the things that were happening to TSR as a company. Especially during the days that I was most actively gaming in high school. My group and I were just blissfully unaware of everything that was happening and just eagerly awaiting the next cool book.

I do wonder how I would have felt knowing what was going on at the time.

TSR could've been carved up, definitely. One wonders what D&D would look like today without the Forgotten Realms. Would we be complaining about why every adventure has to be set in the central Flanaess?

If TSR had completely fallen, that would've absolutely sent shockwaves through the gaming industry.

The other choice would have been to break up whatever IP assets that TSR had and sell them to different companies. IIRC before Adkinson showed up with a checkbook to suggest buying all of the assets outright Williams was starting to look into doing just that. I'm not a bankruptcy lawyer but I suspect it's very possible that the Forgotten Realms novels and video games would have gone one direction, the D&D name and game another, and the rest of the properties into the hands of whoever thought they might be worth a video game license.

I also strongly suspect that might have been the end of TTRPG publishing as a viable business model. At least for a while.

You make a point - it's unlikely that Planescape would've been the same had it not been created when it was, with a combination of creatives scrambling to keep the ship from sinking and business heads that just didn't care anymore.

While there is no doubt that both the industry and D&D were in abad spot in the mid to late 90s, i still think some of the best stuff was made for D&D in that era -- probably because the creatives were scrambling to find the thing that would turn things around. The Monstrous Arcana series were very cool, and we got stuff like the historical DM series of letherettes.

 

[Jer]

TSR could've been carved up, definitely. One wonders what D&D would look like today without the Forgotten Realms. Would we be complaining about why every adventure has to be set in the central Flanaess?

If TSR had completely fallen, that would've absolutely sent shockwaves through the gaming industry.

I think it's very likely that if TSR had been carved up and sold piecemeal there might not be a D&D game in print today. Without Peter Adkinson really liking D&D and thinking that the brand had intrinsic value that TSR had squandered it might just be locked up in someone's IP vault somewhere, broken out every once in a while to make another video game. I can't think of what other tabletop gaming company in 1996 would have had the money to bail TSR out of the financial hole they'd created, but I can think of a few computer gaming studios that might have.