Has WotC saturated the published adventure market or are the two latest adventures not very popular?

[robus]

Has anyone else noticed an apparent lack of interest in discussing the content in the latest pair of adventures?

In my memory the latest adventures get a flurry of threads and posts as people read through and find things to talk about, especially when it comes to running the adventure. Dragon Heist had some of that but it tapered off quickly, but Mad Mage has very little. (Perhaps I’m jumping the gun with this observation? )

My pet theory is that we’re all quite busy running any one of the other published adventures (or home brew) so there’s little attention remaining for these. But a close runner up is that a bunch of people are just not excited by them. (My enthusiasm for Dragon Heist cooled quickly for example and I’ve not bothered picking up Mad Mage as we’re deep in OotA and I’ve not interest in inflicting another underground adventure on my players anytime soon.)

What do you think?

 

[CydKnight]

For me, like you, my group is deep in OotA. I am thinking they will have a fear of the dark when it's all over so I probably won't be looking at Mad Mage for awhile. Dragon Heist is a real possibility but we are a long way away as we are only into Chapter 2 of OotA and the party is already talking about seeing this adventure through to the end.

Also, I tend to be at least a year behind on the official releases.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

For what its worth, the rating of the products on Amazon are quite low and even on the different sub-reddits the opinions arent that good. On the other hand, urban adventures and mega-dungeons are not for everyone's taste.

 

[akr71]

For what its worth, the rating of the products on Amazon are quite low and even on the different sub-reddits the opinions arent that good. On the other hand, urban adventures and mega-dungeons are not for everyone's taste.

I think that plays into it heavily (my bolding of your comments). I have not bought Mad Mage, but I do like mega-dungeons. I don't know when I'd get a chance to run it, so I'm holding off. I just started a sand-box style campaign with my family, so a mega-dungeon doesn't really fit. My other group is lost at sea, so there is no reason to buy or prep an urban adventure or mega-dungeon. Plus that group is a bit of a revolving DM chair. If they decide to settle in Waterdeep once reaching civilization again, it might be fun...

Given how long it takes to finish a published AP, I think we might have reached saturation - at least in the short term. I have bought HotDQ/RoT, OotA & TftYP and only run HotDQ/RoT.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think it’s a saturated market problem. A 1st-11th level campaign takes a LONG time to work your way through. My sister-in-law’s group hadn’t yet finished Curse of Strahd when the Waterdeep adventures were announced, and had already been planning to do Tomb of Annihilation after that. I want to run the Waterdeep adventures, but I had already got my players hyped for Yawning Portal, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense for me to buy the books until we’re a good way through YP and I’m ready to start planning my next campaign. That could easily be six months from now, and by then there will probably be a shiny new published adventure it won’t make sense for me to buy until we’re a good way through Mad Mage.

 

[Retreater]

I'm waiting for my copy of Mad Mage to get delivered, but I doubt I'll be playing it anytime soon. I have a group that meets about once a month going through "Forge of Fury" in "Tales from the Yawning Portal." Another biweekly group is about to enter the "Fane of the Serpent" in "Tomb of Annihilation" (so about the midpoint). Another biweekly group is taking a break from D&D to play one-shot games and board games while a player welcomes a new baby into her family. Another biweekly group is playing Paragon Tier in 4E (at the players' request).

I might work in Mad Mage after Forge of Fury ends (they'll be at 5th level). But I have to admit I don't think Dragon Heist is a good fit for any of my games. As you can tell, I am running many games, but none of them meet weekly. A lot of details get forgotten (by me and the players) from session-to-session, so an urban mystery adventure just doesn't fit us. Besides, we're all getting sick of low level play.

 

[Jester David]

I think the general audience is still digesting Dungeon of the Mad Mage, as it’s been in stores for a week and it’s a dense book.
I imagine some people wanted to wait to get both before starting play.

 

[Prakriti]

It's a combination of Adventure Fatigue and Official Release Fatigue. There were 4 official books this year (instead of the usual 3), and IMO that is too many. It doesn't help that 3 of those books were released within a short time frame. It's too much too fast.

 

[pogre]

We finished Dragon Heist and the players enjoyed it. We are diving into the big dungeon next week. Both have their flaws, but ultimately are usable.

I'm looking forward to running Dungeon of the Mad Mage, because it appears to require less adventure prep work out of me.

 

[ccs]

Could also be Holiday related. I assume there's more people like me who cut back on buying personal stuff in Nov/Dec.
1) Frees up $ for Christmas shopping.
2) I always put a few easy to get gaming items out there as XMAs ideas for my family. So if it's not something I need immediately gaming wise....
So, since the earliest I'll be reading DH is 12/26 (and Mad Mage not at all since a friend wants to DM that one next), I don't really have much to say about them - yet.

It's also possible that this time Wizards has simply put out an adventure or two that doesn't appeal to as many people.