Neonchameleon
Legend
I don't believe it can be done.
Each given RPG is a one-time expenditure per player. Once you've bought the PHB, MM, and DMG, then what? A few players will go into splat-bloat. But only a few. You will get a few new players - but not an amazing number after the launch of the new edition and the publicity splurge. Someone who plays every week isn't worth a damn as far as the publishers are concerned if they only ever borrow the PHB and don't buy any books.
So there are two basic approaches. The 4e/Pathfinder approach the 5e approach.
Both 4e and Paizo managed to do the same thing in different ways - a Subscription Approach. Turn players into subscribers. Paizo has people subscribing to far more adventure paths than they will ever actually play, and even non-players subscribing in the same way people subscribe to Ideal Homes magazine. 4e had subscribers to DDI - and was successful enough that in November 2013 there were enough subscribers to make $6million annual income a year and a half after the final 4e book came out. Subscriptions soon mount up.
The 5e approach is the other possibility. It's the Mothballs Approach and is only possible for a minor product in a major company. Three core books are a huge injection of cash - but after you've made those you draw the productivity almost down to nothing. You've a vast back catalogue to publish as PDFs and those have a very low overhead (they really wouldn't be worth it as physical books but the unit cost of PDFs is tiny as is the warehousing costs). You drop your expenditure through the floor; you outsource as much of your development as possible and especially the low margin adventures so you aren't taking any risks. This also lets you keep the team even smaller and have less expenditure still. And whether you make a profit or a loss is almost irrelevant; your total costs amount to a rounding error on the parent company's bottom line so if they have any sort of affection for what you do (WotC do) and they aren't themselves in trouble (WotC are making vast quantities of money with Magic) no one's going to care enough that you aren't terribly profitable to want to bother you.
Each given RPG is a one-time expenditure per player. Once you've bought the PHB, MM, and DMG, then what? A few players will go into splat-bloat. But only a few. You will get a few new players - but not an amazing number after the launch of the new edition and the publicity splurge. Someone who plays every week isn't worth a damn as far as the publishers are concerned if they only ever borrow the PHB and don't buy any books.
So there are two basic approaches. The 4e/Pathfinder approach the 5e approach.
Both 4e and Paizo managed to do the same thing in different ways - a Subscription Approach. Turn players into subscribers. Paizo has people subscribing to far more adventure paths than they will ever actually play, and even non-players subscribing in the same way people subscribe to Ideal Homes magazine. 4e had subscribers to DDI - and was successful enough that in November 2013 there were enough subscribers to make $6million annual income a year and a half after the final 4e book came out. Subscriptions soon mount up.
The 5e approach is the other possibility. It's the Mothballs Approach and is only possible for a minor product in a major company. Three core books are a huge injection of cash - but after you've made those you draw the productivity almost down to nothing. You've a vast back catalogue to publish as PDFs and those have a very low overhead (they really wouldn't be worth it as physical books but the unit cost of PDFs is tiny as is the warehousing costs). You drop your expenditure through the floor; you outsource as much of your development as possible and especially the low margin adventures so you aren't taking any risks. This also lets you keep the team even smaller and have less expenditure still. And whether you make a profit or a loss is almost irrelevant; your total costs amount to a rounding error on the parent company's bottom line so if they have any sort of affection for what you do (WotC do) and they aren't themselves in trouble (WotC are making vast quantities of money with Magic) no one's going to care enough that you aren't terribly profitable to want to bother you.
