Dragonlance and Manual of the planes sales, from Ben Riggs

[darjr]

Yes that's right. The summary bar charts are the totals of the data that is shown in the other charts.

But I caution anyone against using these numbers as indications of anything other than "here is how D&D products were selling" over the course of time. Especially using them to show settings competing with each other in popularity. The trends on these graphs show that the most important factor in how well a setting sold was when in TSR's timeline it was released - prior to '86 sales were really, really good. Post 1992 sales were really, really bad. There's far too much correlation with the general sales trends of the core books and across the lines to really use these graphs as evidence of anything other than maybe either TSR's mismanagement or to point to where the D&D fad ended and the business of D&D became getting the same small group of dedicated gamers to buy multiple products instead of trying to get more people to play the game.

I think you’re making as many assumptions as you warn us against.

 

[Jer]

I think you’re making as many assumptions as you warn us against.

Perhaps I am. But I'm eyeballing these graphs with my statistician hat on and the thing that keeps popping into my head is "wow - look at how those graphs are changing over time in exactly the same way". I'd love to have the spreadsheets for myself so I could do a deeper analysis, but I don't have the time to turn the screenshots into csv files.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

If I remember correctly, the DragonLance Adventures book came out shortly after they finished the main story line of the DL series - it was basically a reorganized DL5 and basically the campaign book for DL. By the time of the DL box, Ansalon had been put to one side where Taladas was the new hotness. I, for one, took the DL box as a reprint/expansion of the Adventures book, and already having it, wasn't in a hurry to pick it up. I imagine many others just skipped it altogether.

I suspect the Tales of the Lance box set exists because the Taladas box set didn't sell either. I honestly think that post 1st edition adventures, Dragonlance never sold well ever again. But the novels skyrocketed and thats how most fans became acquainted with it.

 

[Reynard]

Yes that's right. The summary bar charts are the totals of the data that is shown in the other charts.

But I caution anyone against using these numbers as indications of anything other than "here is how D&D products were selling" over the course of time. Especially using them to show settings competing with each other in popularity. The trends on these graphs show that the most important factor in how well a setting sold was when in TSR's timeline it was released - prior to '86 sales were really, really good. Post 1992 sales were really, really bad. There's far too much correlation with the general sales trends of the core books and across the lines to really use these graphs as evidence of anything other than maybe either TSR's mismanagement or to point to where the D&D fad ended and the business of D&D became getting the same small group of dedicated gamers to buy multiple products instead of trying to get more people to play the game.

An interesting point of comparison would be a chart on RPG sales in general. it might give some insight into whether it was Vampire biting into D&D sales, or if all RPGs were down effectively equally because of CCGs or other factors.

 

[Stormonu]

An interesting point of comparison would be a chart on RPG sales in general. it might give some insight into whether it was Vampire biting into D&D sales, or if all RPGs were down effectively equally because of CCGs or other factors.

If anything, I would suspect it was primarily CCGs. Shortly after MtG came out, at cons I couldn't find anyone who wanted to play D&D (they were all doing MtG tournaments, or to a lesser degree LARPing). In previous years, I couldn't find game space because all the tables were RPGA games or folks would just come up to me out of the blue and ask to play a D&D game (even with no tables free, it was just a "play in the hall" thing). That didn't pick back up until 3E dropped, but even then it was only a brief surge and nowhere near like the years prior to MtG.

 

[Alzrius]

it might give some insight into whether it was Vampire biting into D&D sales

I see what you did there.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

If anything, I would suspect it was primarily CCGs. Shortly after MtG came out, at cons I couldn't find anyone who wanted to play D&D (they were all doing MtG tournaments, or to a lesser degree LARPing). In previous years, I couldn't find game space because all the tables were RPGA games or folks would just come up to me out of the blue and ask to play a D&D game (even with no tables free, it was just a "play in the hall" thing). That didn't pick back up until 3E dropped, but even then it was only a brief surge and nowhere near like the years prior to MtG.

I remember Magic really taking off 93-94 which seems to be when TSR cratered for good.

 

[darjr]

I suspect the Tales of the Lance box set exists because the Taladas box set didn't sell either. I honestly think that post 1st edition adventures, Dragonlance never sold well ever again. But the novels skyrocketed and thats how most fans became acquainted with it.

I do appreciate an eye towards good faith skepticism.

 

[Reynard]

I see what you did there.

I was hoping someone would.

 

[Reynard]

If anything, I would suspect it was primarily CCGs.

Probably, but the data would be nice to see.