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

[Staffan]

That's a good point - one of the discussions around the Dragon archive was that a lot of the contracts involved simply weren't available any more, as TSR had disposed of or lost them.

As I recall, it wasn't that the contracts themselves were lost - they were stored on disks.

However, said disks were of the 8-inch variety, and they no longer had computers who could read those disks.

 

[Parmandur]

I think what this thread (and others) really indicates is that, regardless of the content, be it old or new, the real hole right now, and a real demand right now, is the shorter adventure. The module. Something that spans something like 3 to 5 levels a pop. Give us something retro or give us something brand new, give us 32 or 64 pages, whatever, just so long as you give us something.



That's what I'm hearing. (Though, that's also what I've been saying so maybe I just see it more?)



I mean, why not hire 3rd party if need be and release a year's worth (like 4-6?) of modules? You're already hiring outside help to write one big AP, why not do the same for something more bite sized? Or if AP is the only way you want to go, why not let one or two modules serve as satellites to the major AP? Or for the love of all things, why not just make public your AL encounters for home play?



Maybe we should start beating the drum. I feel like we have in a sporadic way via forums and off the cuff survey remarks, but something more organized might get heard.

I'm sure WOTC is aware that there is a market; they just aren't interested in that segment for ROI.

 

[MerricB]

I think what this thread (and others) really indicates is that, regardless of the content, be it old or new, the real hole right now, and a real demand right now, is the shorter adventure. The module. Something that spans something like 3 to 5 levels a pop. Give us something retro or give us something brand new, give us 32 or 64 pages, whatever, just so long as you give us something.

There are quite a few shorter adventures currently available, and there are more on the way. They're just not being published by Wizards.

http://merricb.com/2014/08/03/the-great-list-of-dungeons-dragons-5e-adventures/

Although we'd prefer an OGL to be sure of the legal status of things, that isn't stopping Necromancer Games, Goodman Games and a host of other publishers from releasing shorter adventures.

Cheers!

 

[machineelf]

I don't see a huge market for this.

When they release something new, even if it's a sequel, they have a potential market of everyone who buys adventures for 5e. That's "X".
If they release a conversion, then they lose people who already have that adventure and don't need a second copy, and anyone who likes to convert things themselves. That's "Y".
So the audience is always going to be X - Y, making it smaller than just X and thus reducing potential sales.

I don't think the OP was saying they should do this instead of releasing new content. I think he was saying they should do this in addition to releasing new content. The work required to do it should be considerably less than creating something entirely new.

 

[aramis erak]

There needs to be some sort of collection of short adventures that take 1-3 sessions and can easily be dropped into any campaign.

My preference would be to bring back Dungeon Mag in electronic format and then publish an annual collection as a hardback. But...if WotC took the trouble to publish a hardback collection of 80s adventures converted to 5e and reformatted to look a little more up-to-date, I'd buy it.

They have a stockpile of (mostly) decent ones... but they're not releasing them to the general populace. It isn't hard to alter most of the Adventurer's league DDEX series for non-Forgotten Realms use. A few, however do rely upon certain key tropes of the locations.

 

[delericho]

I mean, why not hire 3rd party if need be and release a year's worth (like 4-6?) of modules? You're already hiring outside help to write one big AP, why not do the same for something more bite sized?

Two reasons:

- Larger products give much better bang for the buck - it costs more to produce a 256-page book than to produce a 32-page one, but it doesn't cost 8 times as much. That means you can get the one for $40 or the other for $15, which means that the big book sells more, which further cements its superiority.

- WotC aren't actually interested in doing D&D adventures, even Adventure Paths. What they're doing are "storylines", where the TTRPG product is only one of several products produced in a multimedia approach - you also get minis games, boardgames, video games (or expansions), card games, clothing, or whatever else the marketing bods come up with. Basically, each storyline is an event meant to sell the brand, with the TTRPG product being only one part of that multi-pronged approach.

(As for why they don't produce a couple of standalone adventures to go with the big AP product... presumably, they feel that that one AP product is enough to fill the TTRPG niche in the overall line.)

Or for the love of all things, why not just make public your AL encounters for home play?

That one is definitely a bit of a mystery.