D&D 5E How Do You Feel About the Rate of New WotC Game Content for 5E DMs?

[Parmandur]

I guess people disagree with your estimation, otherwise they would / should not be complaining

It is a free country, people can be wrong.

 

[Parmandur]

not sure how true that theory is, I can see the ratio per buyer drop, but that is not the same as overall. There is a lot of middle ground between the 2e and 5e days.

Chances are WotC will keep their pace though, it has worked pretty well for them so why experiment / rock the boat

There is definitely an ideal middle ground to make the most people feel able to buy the most...and arguably WotC has found it the past decade.

 

[tetrasodium]

Adventures are ok enough but as a GM I don't really get anything out of new player options or more magic items in an edition with math designed to kick me in the teeth while proclaiming "MagicItemsAreOptional". Having one book/year with dm stuff (monster book like volos & mords/player facing with a thin GM section like xge or tashas) is leagues away from rining the bell to reach a point of being merely "dissatisfied". When it comes to GM support it feels like if GM support written for GM needs were to be placed on that mother ignores kid drowning in a pool meme it would need to add a third panel somewhere less prominent than the second panel skeleton in order to accurately represent that support.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't think the norm is that people buy everything, at that point this is probably the right rate, but if someone only is interested in every other book then they have some room

Oh no, you're right - very few people buy everything, but that's not entirely what I meant, either. This is the rate at which most people can keep up with what they want. Sure, if you don't like much of what they're selling, you'd want there to be "more" (or more correctly, you'd want there to be "other") but if you're generally happy with what's on offer (not everything, but it's a feature, not a flaw, to have books that you can feel that you can skip) then the vast majority of people can, if they choose, keep up.

And sure, some people can buy everything. I have a few of those.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh no, you're right - very few people buy everything, but that's not entirely what I meant, either. This is the rate at which most people can keep up with what they want. Sure, if you don't like much of what they're selling, you'd want there to be "more" (or more correctly, you'd want there to be "other") but if you're generally happy with what's on offer (not everything, but it's a feature, not a flaw, to have books that you can feel that you can skip) then the vast majority of people can, if they choose, keep up.

And sure, some people can buy everything. I have a few of those.

Not even counting rhe DMG and PHB, I have bought as many D&D books in the past 6 months as I did for the first decade I played...

 

[Blue]

D. Wish there was some.

I 100% homebrew, so WotC has put out next to nothing for me as a DM. There's some extra rules in Tasha's & Xanathar's, and some subsystems you can rip from things like infernal war machines or I believe Saltwrack had sailing rules. But they don't seem to even want to support me as a DM by providing DM-focused material that isn't premade adventures or monsters.

 

[mamba]

Not even counting rhe DMG and PHB, I have bought as many D&D books in the past 6 months as I did for the first decade I played...

doing so from your allowance is kinda limiting, isn't it

 

[Parmandur]

doing so from your allowance is kinda limiting, isn't it

I mean, I'm talking from about 18-29 years old I only bought the 3E (or 3.5? Not sure, we weren't careful about that at the time) and 4E PHBs.

 

[Hussar]

It also depends on how you define pace. Sure, WotC is putting out a fairly slow rate of releases, and fairly predictable books - two AP's and another book a year plus maybe a bit more - which are meant for everyone. OTOH, as soon as you open up your mind and wallet to stuff that isn't WotC, you're absolutely spoiled for content.

If I go into DM's Guild and type in Spelljammer, there are literally hundreds of titles to choose from. Now, a lot of that seems to be image packs, fair enough, but, there's at least 3 1-20 level adventure paths on there too - I know because I own two of them. There's just a MOUNTAIN of material there.

I will never understand the complaint about the lack of material for 5e. There's just SO MUCH.

 

[Parmandur]

It also depends on how you define pace. Sure, WotC is putting out a fairly slow rate of releases, and fairly predictable books - two AP's and another book a year plus maybe a bit more - which are meant for everyone. OTOH, as soon as you open up your mind and wallet to stuff that isn't WotC, you're absolutely spoiled for content.

If I go into DM's Guild and type in Spelljammer, there are literally hundreds of titles to choose from. Now, a lot of that seems to be image packs, fair enough, but, there's at least 3 1-20 level adventure paths on there too - I know because I own two of them. There's just a MOUNTAIN of material there.

I will never understand the complaint about the lack of material for 5e. There's just SO MUCH.

It made more sense in, say, early 2016, when it wasn't clear what WotC was up to (despite their clearly stating it in public) and the third party ecosystem hadn't built steam yet. Now, WotC is continuing to chug along while keeping their backlog in print (the new DMG directly points to tons of 5E books by name) and ghr third party world is huge and, vitally, rooted in Creative Commons now.