D&D 5E Future format of books that mimic SCAG: Will you buy them?

[MechaTarrasque]

It seems like Ravenloft, Planescape, and that "Journey to the Center of the Earth" setting whose name I can't remember (it has been one of those days) are "Realms plus" instead of "alternatives to Realms", so you could do those without changing the focus out of the Realms. Also, all are meant to function with players not knowing much when they enter the setting, so a players' guide would fit. That (slightly) self-serving explanation is just to say I would buy a SCAG book for any of those settings, preferably with a little higher crunch to fluff ratio (and some more summonable/animal companion/familiar critters).

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[BrockBallingdark]

I'll only buy at $24 on Amazon, I would not pay $40. I'm just waiting when it's Eberrons turn in a couple of years (hoping).

 

[Mistwell]

Feel free to switch out the single word "Hasbro" for "WotC" in my post if you must.

My point still stands.

It's a pretty meaningful difference in my opinion. WOTC is a lot more agile in reacting to the marketplace than Hasbro. If they feel D&D is selling well, they can allocate resources almost immediately to address the market. And they've done just that - hirings have quietly gone up at the D&D department of WOTC over the past year. We always hear about firings, but almost never about the hirings. But if you look through LinkedIn, you will see a lot more people have been hired since the start of 5e. They've essentially doubled their staff. This does not tell me they're in a holding pattern. It appears to be a growth area for WOTC right now.

Which begs the question, "what are all these new people working on?" And I do not have an answer to that question.

 

[PMárk]

Errr, I'm a bit biased, because overall, I like the writing and the crunch too in the book. However, I'm not convinced in the format.

-will other FR regional books be? If no the content regarding the regions aside the SC are not enough. If there are, will they repeat the generic stuff? Or I'll have to buy the SCAG for the purple dragon knight, when cormyr is in the heartlands book? The whole situation is messy. I would be happier with a generic player's guide and additional, more detailed regional splats.
- this is also strenghtens the FR-centrism. I like FR, but I like to get a RL book. And not just a Barovia book.

 

[delericho]

This would be more convincing if Forgotten Realms was enormously popular as opposed to being a setting that only interests a small minority of D&D players (a larger minority than other D&D settings, but still only a minority).

It was obviously a while ago, and so things might have changed, but it certainly used to be the case that the overwhelming majority of D&D players used no published setting at all (and, of course, very few ever used more than one). That's why, for example, the 3e FR books were sold at a higher price-point than the equivalent book would have been had they 'just' been labelled as D&D books - there was a price premium for the FR sub-brand.

Because of that, I've found 5e's focus on the Realms somewhat odd. (Sure, it's just one of several settings mentioned in the core, but it's also the 'native' home of all the published adventures so far, and now of the one and only non-adventure supplement.) That would seem to be a way to unnecessarily lose a bunch of sales from people who see the FR-ness and immediately check out.

It's an odd strategy... if the focus of the strategy is on maximising RPG book sales.

But that's the thing: it's pretty clear that that's not the focus - WotC have been pretty clear about their cross-media strategy. And one of the problems that gets raised in every discussion of the D&D movie is that D&D doesn't have a natural 'story' of its own. Well, now they have three: Tyranny of Dragons, Elemental Evil, and Rage of Demons.

I strongly suspect that it will be easier for them to sell a D&D movie (or TV series, or whatever) to people who don't know what it is if D&D = FR and vice versa. That's got to be less confusing than "well, FR is D&D... but D&D is also Eberron, and Dark Sun, and..."

So I'd expect the focus on FR to continue for the foreseeable future, because it's almost certainly easier to sell that way. (Though I would also expect to see appendices on transplanting the material to continue, except where that material is especially tied to FR (like OotA).)

Oh, and I certainly don't expect to see FR swallow Eberron, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, or anywhere else. Because there's just no need, and no good reason to weather that backlash.

 

[GameOgre]

Just looking at the numbers it seems most people are fairly happy with what they bought and will buy so again.

 

[fjw70]

DING! I can't justify the asking price for that page count.

That is why Amazon is your friend.

I would by future AGs but I hope they will be available in PDF.

 

[Dargrimm]

Totally yes.

Honestly, I find the crunch section somewhat lacking in number of options, but overall I think it is a really good player's guide.

I hope they release more regions of the Realms and a DragonLance or Dark Sun book would be sweet too.

 

[Parmandur]

This would be more convincing if Forgotten Realms was enormously popular as opposed to being a setting that only interests a small minority of D&D players (a larger minority than other D&D settings, but still only a minority).

I dunno, do we have any numbers on that? Wizards does, and they have not shared them, but do report the FR being far and away their most popular setting.