D&D 5E Here's a (great) product idea for you, WotC

[fuindordm]

Of all the "Wishful Thinking" products that have been proposed on ENworld...

I would RUSH to buy a hardcover book "Worlds of D&D" with ~32 pages of conversion notes per setting for FR, GH, Eberron, Athas, Planescape, Dragonlance, Al-Qadim, and whatever else they decide to throw in--even Spelljammer.

I would RUSH to buy a MM2 if it is in the same styles as the MM1.

I would probably, eventually buy a hardcover reprint of classic adventures updated for 5E.

I might buy a PH2 or Unearthed Arcana compilation, if its reviews are good.

Among real products, the only one so far that tempts me in the Lords of Madness adventure path--and I'll wait to see reviews.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Were the S and A series' reprinted for 5e? as books? for sale?

For 5E specifically... no. They were reprinted and bound in hardcover form, and you could download conversion docs for D&D Next playtest rules off the website I believe. But the adventures themselves were not re-edited to include the conversions directly, and certainly not for the finished 5E rules.

 

[delericho]

So *if* you were to do a G series reprint but included a conversion doc in the book *and* had the cover be in the same style as the other current 5E books, there's a chance it could do better than the S or A series, if only because more people would think it was directly compatible to 5E.

All true. I'm reasonably sure WotC know, with pretty good accuracy, how many units of such a product they could expect to ship - they're pretty good at that stuff. So if we haven't seen it that suggests it's not worth it. Or, at least, that they think they can do better with some other product instead. And given how well 5e seems to be doing, can we really argue with that?

 

[delericho]

I would RUSH to buy a hardcover book "Worlds of D&D" with ~32 pages of conversion notes per setting for FR, GH, Eberron, Athas, Planescape, Dragonlance, Al-Qadim, and whatever else they decide to throw in--even Spelljammer.

Alas, I wouldn't. I'd much rather that if they're doing a setting that they do it 'properly'. Which means a full-blown setting book or no sale (to me).

I would RUSH to buy a MM2 if it is in the same styles as the MM1.

Yep.

I would probably, eventually buy a hardcover reprint of classic adventures updated for 5E.

Depends very much on which adventures, but I'd probably buy some.

I might buy a PH2 or Unearthed Arcana compilation, if its reviews are good.

This one is probably an insta-buy for me. The existing PHB gives pretty good coverage of the classic D&D experience, but I got a little burned out on that by the end of 2nd Ed (indeed, I was actually kinda bored before I even got to the end of the PHB, never mind actually playing 5e). It's a good game, but I want more.

So, yeah, I'd buy this one.

 

[Morlock]

I don't want to shoot this idea down, because I think it's a good one. But frankly, I think the way to do this is to publish the relevant, condensed, conversion stats and numbers as free PDFs. Meaning, it wouldn't be profitable to put too many man-hours into it.

Otherwise, the gnashing of teeth and the rending of clothes would be epic.

 

[Morlock]

I really, really like the PoD suggestion. Have for some time. I think Wizards should be all over this, like white on rice. They keep production costs down not just by using PoD, but also by converting old material, keeping the process pretty straightforward. People get to select their old favorites, given a facelift and 5e mechanics, and Wizards takes a cut, with low overhead. They can limit risk by sticking to the fan favorites, until (and if) the model proves itself.

ETA: the Ultimate Way would be to allow us to construct our own hardbacks, by selecting the modules we want to include. That would be pretty cool.

I would RUSH to buy a hardcover book "Worlds of D&D" with ~32 pages of conversion notes per setting for FR, GH, Eberron, Athas, Planescape, Dragonlance, Al-Qadim, and whatever else they decide to throw in--even Spelljammer.

Indeed, this would make more sense as a hardcover than reprinting facelifted old modules for 5e, because it would have more replay value, as the kids say.

Alas, I wouldn't. I'd much rather that if they're doing a setting that they do it 'properly'. Which means a full-blown setting book or no sale (to me).

It's kind of an apples and oranges thing, IMO. One is a full-blown setting. Another is the crunch from a bunch of old settings, coverted to 5e, allowing folks to (much) more easily use that old setting material in 5e (as an aside, I'd be for leaving out a lot of the less important crunch, like, say, non-VIP NPCs).

 

[Staffan]

2e had some adventure anthologies, like Well of Worlds for Planescape. I wonder how well they sold compared to regular adventures?

 

[DEFCON 1]

All true. I'm reasonably sure WotC know, with pretty good accuracy, how many units of such a product they could expect to ship - they're pretty good at that stuff. So if we haven't seen it that suggests it's not worth it. Or, at least, that they think they can do better with some other product instead. And given how well 5e seems to be doing, can we really argue with that?

Absolutely. Agree with you 100%. I just wanted to at least extend a slight branch towards those who might think it could be done that in fact it hasn't completely been proven as of yet. As mentioned to halfling rogue... no old modules made specifically for 5E have been shown to not make money, so it's still all speculative at this point. We just seem to think there seems to be a hell of a lot of evidence to indicate no one at WotC seems to think it worthwhile.

 

[doctorhook]

I don't hate this idea (I'd probably buy it), but it's not a priority product for me. As some other said, they rereleased a some of those modules in hardback already just a couple years ago; more would be cool, but it's not "building the brand" to rely so much on old content.

 

[doctorhook]

I would really love to buy a proper 5E hexcrawl setting. Something like Dessarin Valley or Nentir Vale in size (or bigger, whatever), but heavily Points of Light-oriented. Have one or two major settlements detailed out as starting points, and have a plot framework giving the story some direction. After that, lots of blank hexes with random (and semi-random) encounter tables, wherein the encounters are detailed and include lots of potential for noncombat interaction. Maybe have the plot arc towards a geopolitical conflict or the establishment of a new kingdom or something. That could be a cool campaign.