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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mouseferatu" data-source="post: 1728841" data-attributes="member: 1288">BelenUmeria, you're making a lot of assumptions that simply aren't true.1) That 15-year-olds learn to play D&D from 3rd-party products.Even today, a large portion of the market doesn't even know what D20 is. Anyone who wants to play D&D starts with D&D, period. While the other companies migth be able to assist, the only company truly in a position to expand the market is WotC. Other companies' best-sellers, don't sell as well as WotC's worst (with very few exceptions).2) That adventures will drive more people to buy sourcebooks.That simply hasn't proven to be the case. Why do you think the Serpent Amphora trilogy was the only series of adventures published for Scarred Lands? It's not because we didn't have ideas for others, believe me. The fact is that the adventures simply weren't profitable to make it worth it, either throgh direct sales or any observable ripple effect on other products. And we just had Mike Mearls telling us that selling such an adventrue through Malhavoc wouldn't be profitable, so AU isn't an exception either.3) That D20 companies can afford to publish modules as a "cost of doing business."RPGs are a very low-profit-margin business. A lot of your favorite companies are one book away from going under. Everything published must bring in a specific level of income, or they'll lack the funds to do the next book. Even the larger companies aren't rich enough to put out a product that they believe won't sell. And with a very few exceptions (Necromancer, for instance), modules simply don't sell very well. That's one of the reasons MonkeyGod is leaving D20. Even if modules has a confirmed impact on sale of other books, many companies couldn't afford to publish them--and, as I mentioned above, they do not have such an effect, at least not in most cases.4) The fact that WotC is doing it means others should.WotC is the only company that can afford to print/sell something they know won't sell, considering it as "advertising" for other products. Plus, because WotC has much larger sales volume than other companies, a "failed" product for them is still far more profitable than one from another company.5) That modules can easily be included as part of a larger work.Sometimes, that is indeed the case. But the larger the book, the higher the cost, and after it reaches a certain price point, small publishers can no longer be certain of a new book selling in what is, at the moment, a glutted, depressed market. Including an adventure in a sourcebook necessitates leaving something else out, and many people would prefer additional source material to adventurers.6) That new players should be the target audience.This is the trickiest one, but the realities of doing business come into play here. The average D20 company simply cannnot afford to market to anyone other than their core audience. Publishing a book geared toward pulling new people into the hobby probably won't appeal to the experienced player--and experienced players are the ones who spend money. Again, only WotC can afford to do this sort of thing, and hopefully the upcoming Basic set will accomplish some of it.None of this is guesswork on my part (or Mearls, or several other industry people who have commented). I know you're passionate about your theory, and I respect that, but market realities simply don't support your contention.</blockquote>

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