D&D 5E (2024) DnD 5e designer [Mike Mearls] explains how INDIE RPGs are taking over

[Saracenus]

@mearls I rewatched your vid with Questing Beast and I know you briefly made the aside that you failed with 4e D&D. And you are right in the sense that it did not ignite the D&D fanbase the way that previous editions or 5e have.

And with that metric it was a failure at WotC, however, I was running weekly games of D&D Encounters at my FLNGS (shout out to Guardian Games) that had 7 tables and I had to turn people away. 4e was an entry point for quite a few people in Portland.

I will say that 4e Dark Sun was quite frankly the best version of that campaign world we have seen so far (IMHO). My buddy Teos made an Organize Play campaign out of it.

4e was also the version that I discovered @SlyFlourish and his ever helpful DM advice. He certainly would not have the name he uses on his blog without it.

And finally I don't think Flee Mortals or Draw Steel by MCDM (@mattcolville) would be the same thing or potentially exist at all without it.

So by that metric, I don't see your work on 4e as a failure. There was plenty of work in 4e that has inspired designers and players alike today.

 

[Zaukrie]

@mearls I rewatched your vid with Questing Beast and I know you briefly made the aside that you failed with 4e D&D. And you are right in the sense that it did not ignite the D&D fanbase the way that previous editions or 5e had.

And with that metric it was a failure at WotC, however, I was running weekly games of D&D Encounters at my FLNGS (shout out to Guardian Games) that had 7 tables and I had to turn people away. 4e was an entry point for quite a few people in Portland.

I will say that 4e Dark Sun was quite frankly the best version of that campaign world we have seen so far (IMHO). My buddy Teos made an Organize Play campaign out of it.

4e was also the version that I discovered @SlyFlourish and his ever helpful DM advice. He certainly would not have the name he uses on his blog without it.

And finally I don't think Flee Mortals or Draw Steel by MCDM (@mattcolville) would be the same thing or potentially exist at all without it.

So by that metric, I don't see your work on 4e as a failure. There was plenty of work in 4e that has inspired designers and players alike today.

4e is the best DND version.

 

[GrimCo]

Was 4e best version? Yes, no, maybe. Depends who you ask and what they want out of game. Was it best designed from perspective of heaving focused vision, intended play style and rules that supported that style very well? Hell yea. At it's heart, it's mmo style tactical skirmish game. If that style is your jam, 4e is game for you. Personally, i don't like 4e at all from player side, but out of all previous editions, as a DM, if i was force to choose one and run it, i would pick 4e because it's so DM friendly.

Now, onto some things from video. D&D is international brand. D&D to ttrpgs is same as Kleenex, Coke or Golf. Product that defines category. With that in mind, revenue stream coming in, from books and sets, in tens of millions of dollars, isn't that big of a stretch. Taking into account just "western market", we are looking at 1.2 billion people ( US&Canada, Europe, Australia&NZ), if we add Japan and Korea to the mix, it's 1.35 billion people. 500m as complete d&d revenue (books, subscriptions, licensing rights etc) isn't that far fetched number. But there is also another factor, online digital direct sales. No more shipping costs that are sometimes higher than book costs. It's flat price. It makes global market availability even higher. So hitting 9 digits in book sales revenue on global 7 billion people market is feasible, cause those revenue from digital books is higher than physical ones.

 

[cranberry]

I don't know how this could be accomplished, but it would be helpful for other games if somehow D&D wasn't the default when people think of TTRPGs.