D&D General Does D&D (and RPGs in general) Need Edition Resets?

[Vaalingrade]

So after reading all this it's

1. tiny little updates dribbled out every two or three years.

2. lot's of updates or what I call the 3rd edition model.

3. reinvent the wheel every 5 to 10 years.

We still haven't come up with anything that hasn't already been tried.

Abandoning the IP to leave it as a beatific corpse for the people who like it just the way it is and want nothing more?

 

[Thomas Shey]

I am not sure why you equate crunch and material or sales. If whoever publishes three books of crunch in ten years, they match 5e. There is no need for several books of crunch every year, I’d even argue they would be detrimental

It kind of depends on who you're trying to sell to. If you're only aiming at GMs you might be right, but classically, players don't buy adventures and rarely buy non-crunch sourcebooks.

 

[payn]

So after reading all this it's

1. tiny little updates dribbled out every two or three years.

2. lot's of updates or what I call the 3rd edition model.

3. reinvent the wheel every 5 to 10 years.

We still haven't come up with anything that hasn't already been tried.

Doing it digitally.

 

[mamba]

It kind of depends on who you're trying to sell to. If you're only aiming at GMs you might be right, but classically, players don't buy adventures and rarely buy non-crunch sourcebooks.

Most products are bought by DMs, so I’d focus on that. If anything, going digital will increase that, as the DM can share their products with the table.

Too many player facing crunch books just drive players away, no one wants The Complete X all over again

 

[nevin]

Abandoning the IP to leave it as a beatific corpse for the people who like it just the way it is and want nothing more?

done that 3 times already. <sort've>

 

[Thomas Shey]

Most products are bought by DMs, so I’d focus on that. If anything, going digital will increase that, as the DM can share their products with the table.

Too many player facing crunch books just drive players away, no one wants The Complete X all over again

I'm not sure that actually is true. My observation has been that players are often happy to get new options. GMs are a more mixed bag.

 

[nevin]

Most products are bought by DMs, so I’d focus on that. Too many player facing crunch books just drive players away, no one wants The Complete X all over again

that possibility died the day Hasbro bought them.

 

[nevin]

I'm not sure that actually is true. My observation has been that players are often happy to get new options. GMs are a more mixed bag.

I'd say 40 to 50% of products I've seen over the years were in GM libraries. some players buy a lot too but I think at least 1/2 of players buy nothing or just a book or two.

 

[mamba]

And they are restarting with the 2024 version.

yes they are, compatible or not, this is a replacement for the PHB from 2014

I mean which settings are left for 2025? They did all the easy ones.

they haven’t really done many settings books, FR has plenty of room to explore, Dragonlance had one adventure with a bit of setting tacked on.

They can certainly publish many more adventures in the FR, or really any other setting

Either WOTC is going to hit all the 2014-223 setting again or create new ones. And I'm very skeptical of the latter.

oh, I am counting on them hitting the settings again, no reason to only have one adventure in Dragonlance, Eberron, or Ravenloft, etc

 

[mamba]

You can churn the market (that is to say gain new customers as old ones fade away) but that's not the same as growing the market. It'll allow you to have a long tail, but its not going to allow you to expand your original sales. That's just not going to happen.

5e pretty much disagrees with all of this