DM's Guild: One Week In - The Best & The Worst

The Dungeon Master's Guild has been around for about a week now, and in that time nearly 500 player-created products have been uploaded to the website. It can't be denied that the thing is spurring a blast of creativity. Anyhow, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the most popular items on offer, as well as the highest rated items, which include new archetypes, an Epic Level Handbook, some Forgotten Realms background material, and various monsters and feats.

UPDATE: Three of the items listed below have been removed from the store. I've noted them accordingly.

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[h=4]Most Popular Items[/h]
The ten most popular items are as follows. I've listed the price in the last column, and where an item is Pay What You Want (PWYW), I've noted the average contribution. I've no idea what the actual sales figures of these items are, but it's interesting that the first two by Matthew Mercer have 40+ ratings, while the third drops to 7 ratings. Of course, Mercer's work was on there from launch.

[TABLE="width: 80%, align: center"][TR][TD]1[/TD][TD]Gunslinger Martial Archetype for Fighters[/TD][TD]Matthew Mercer[/TD][TD]PWYW ($1.64)[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]2[/TD][TD]Blood Hunter Class[/TD][TD]Matthew Mercer[/TD][TD]PWYW ($1.57)[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]3[/TD][TD]Extra Feats (5E)[/TD][TD]Igor PhoenixRion[/TD][TD]$1[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]4[/TD][TD]DnD 5e Epic Level Handbook [since removed][/TD][TD]Gerard Shore, Mark Altfuldisch[/TD][TD]PWYW ($1.63)[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]5[/TD][TD]Blood Magic (5E)[/TD][TD]Joshua Raynack[/TD][TD]PWYW ($1.25)[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]6[/TD][TD]New Feats[/TD][TD]Andrew James Woodyard[/TD][TD]$1[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]7[/TD][TD]D&D Denizens: Drow & Driders[/TD][TD]Scott Holden[/TD][TD]$0.99[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]8[/TD][TD]Swordmage Class[/TD][TD]Juan Marcano[/TD][TD]$0.99[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]9[/TD][TD]D&D Citizens[/TD][TD]Scott Holden[/TD][TD]$2.95[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]10[/TD][TD]D&D 5th Edition Spell Cards [since removed][/TD][TD]Matthew Perkins[/TD][TD]PWYW ($2.30)[/TD][/TR][/TABLE][h=4]Highest Rated Items[/h]
For highest rated items, I have not included items with fewer than 5 ratings. Most items only have 1-2 ratings, so that took some pecking and hunting!

[TABLE="width: 80%, align: center"][TR][TD]1[/TD][TD]The Food Fight - An Acquisitions Incorporated Sidetrek [since removed][/TD][TD]Daniel Sweatman[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]2[/TD][TD]3 for 1$ DiBastests's Archetypes #04 - Druid[/TD][TD]Diego Bastet[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]3[/TD][TD]Troll Trouble[/TD][TD]Gary Whicker[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]4[/TD][TD]15 New Backgrounds - World Builder Blog Presents[/TD][TD]James Introcaso[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]5[/TD][TD]Adventure Template For OpenOffice/LibreOffice[/TD][TD]Dale Robbins[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]6[/TD][TD]Catastrophic Dragons - World Builder Blog Presents[/TD][TD]James Introcaso[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]7[/TD][TD]Gunslinger Martial Archetype for Fighters[/TD][TD]Matthew Mercer[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]8[/TD][TD]Kobold Triggerer - Fifth Edition Monsters #01[/TD][TD]Igor Moreno[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]9[/TD][TD]Races Revived: Slythe[/TD][TD]Dylan Serra[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]10[/TD][TD]The High History of Impiltur[/TD][TD]George Krashos[/TD][/TR][/TABLE][h=4]Lowest Rated Items[/h]
It'd be a bit mean to highlight the less well thought of items on the site (so I guess I lied a bit in the article title), but talking in general terms there are 10 1-star items there, and 33 2-star items. That's not too bad out of a selection of nearly 500 products, and implies that the quality on DM's Guild is reasonable. I count 171 items with more than 3-stars, which - when you consider that a lot have not been rated at all - puts the average item above average in quality.

One of WotC's stated aims for DMsG was to spot upcoming new writers. From the above lists, James Introcaso has two items in the top-10 rated list. I'm already aware of him from the excellent Round Table podcast, as well as some of the 5E articles he's written for EN5ider. Scott Holden has two of the most popular items on DMsG, and so could be worth following.

 

[Miladoon]

Oh, you mean like if I stumble onto a website of organized authors reserving specific products for release to DMsGuild?

Okay, I will let you know.

 

[Morrus]

Oh, you mean like if I stumble onto a website of organized authors reserving specific products for release to DMsGuild?

Okay, I will let you know.

No, not that. Don't worry about it. It's not important.

 

[Miladoon]

Well it sounds more interesting as a NaNoWriMo project.
[MENTION=467]Reynard[/MENTION] Essentially it is a prediction for rain in the desert met with no way cuz it has not rained in the desert for 16 years.

 

[dave2008]

Well it sounds more interesting as a NaNoWriMo project.
[MENTION=467]Reynard[/MENTION] Essentially it is a prediction for rain in the desert met with no way cuz it has not rained in the desert for 16 years.

That is not it at all. Morrus is asking you why you think it will rain in the desert. So far your answer is essentially: because it could happen. If you don't have a reason for why now, fine, but continuing to say "because it could" is not helpful or insightful, it would be better to say you don't have a reason - just a hunch or whatever.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Well it sounds more interesting as a NaNoWriMo project.
[MENTION=467]Reynard[/MENTION] Essentially it is a prediction for rain in the desert met with no way cuz it has not rained in the desert for 16 years.

It is not "no way cuz it has not rained in the desert for 16 years" at all It is "Please give me a reason it would it start raining in the desert now when it hasn't for the past 16 years?"

To use your metaphor, an answer like "Because there are storm clouds on the horizon" or "There is different atmospheric pressure in the region" is more what Morrus is looking for.

 

[EthanSental]

Can this thread topic be a monthly or quarterly thing going forward so we can keep up with the good stuff? Sorry if this was already answered earlier.

 

[MerricB]

The number one thing that irritates me about products on the DMs Guild? People who miscategorize their products. Monsters are not Adventures. ARGH!!!!!

Cheers!

 

[Jraynack]

The number one thing that irritates me about products on the DMs Guild? People who miscategorize their products. Monsters are not Adventures. ARGH!!!!!

Cheers!

Yeah, I agree - it's a bit frustrating.

 

[Giant2005]

One of the issues with reviews is that with 'pay what you want', I believe someone who decided to pay $0 for it can give a review.

In theory that sounds like a significant issue, but in practice it most assuredly isn't.
My most popular product on there was listed as "pay what you want" and had over 1,300 downloads at the last update. It had 7 reviews.
Just because people can easily leave a review doesn't mean that they will, and as long as people keep choosing to not review things, then this is will continue to be a non-issue.

 

[MwaO]

In theory that sounds like a significant issue, but in practice it most assuredly isn't.
My most popular product on there was listed as "pay what you want" and had over 1,300 downloads at the last update. It had 7 reviews.
Just because people can easily leave a review doesn't mean that they will, and as long as people keep choosing to not review things, then this is will continue to be a non-issue.

I was referring to something which actually happened to me. My worst selling product PWYW in terms of overall average selling price was given a 2* review before it had even made a paid sale. No explanation and within an hour or so of it going up.

I'm not 100% certain that they didn't pay for it. But I'm reasonably certain that the review influenced things. Since then, it has averaged a 4, but there's an initial window where if a product is going to get popular compared to your average sales, it has to generally happen right near release when the maximum number of people can see it.