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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 2138466" data-attributes="member: 63">Mark, I want to adopt your children.  (I can't very well say I want to bear them, now can I?)As for marketing, what has worked for Magic?  Organized play, which encourages people to keep playing and to get the new stuff that comes out.  Magic releases 3 or 4 products a year, and people spend the whole year buying those products and playing around with them and with last year's products.  D&D releases a heck of a lot more than that, and it doesn't encourage people to all get the same stuff.3e had the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, a massive adventure lots of people got.  But it was just one big dungeon, which no doubt got boring for a lot of people (no offense, Monte).  City of the Spider Queen was better from what I heard.  There is no massive adventure for Eberron, which is a mistake, I feel.I think D&D should have three related adventures each year, three products that will be the flagship products of that year.  Each year's adventure is a campaign of its own, designed to work in either Forgotten Realms or Eberron, with conversion notes for the other setting and for homebrew settings.  Each adventure needs to work in new rules somehow, the same way expansions of Magic work in new mechanics.  Players will be encouraged to buy these new rulebooks.Example.In November 2010, WotC releases a new package of D&D books.  We're retooling things, and it's going to be a big change, so we might as well make it a new edition.  D&D 4th edition in November 2010.The rules are mostly the same, but they've got new layout, new art, and slight rewrites to emphasize the new 'yearly cycles' of D&D.  The 4e core rules are simpler than the 3e core rules, but most players won't want to just have the 4e core rules.  They'll want the expansion rules, the Expert Level material.Research & Development have determined that 2011 will be the year of Quests, and 2012 will be the year of Dramatic Combat.  Over the past two years, the playtesters have determined a few ways to fit the new rules expansions and the adventures together.  'Balance,' which was sort of a rallying cry for 3e at first, is now just a subset of 'Fun,' which is the chief goal for designing the game.  As long as the game is fun to play, people don't have to all be able to wail on monsters with equal efficiency.  The core rules are simple and flexible, because they'll need to support two significant additions of rules at a time without becoming clunky.December 2010 - Low Level Options.  A book of optional rules for low-level characters of all races and classes.  This is a Basic Rulebook expansion, meaning it's not very complicated.In January 2011, the Expert Level rulebook "Quests of Legend" is released.  It's a 160 page hardback book with new rules that pertain to players making characters who go on heroic quests. Things like * Rules to make traveling be more interesting than random encounter tables (and information on different forms of transportation, like sailing vessels, merchant roads, etc.).* Ways to gain power by traveling the world.* Rules for researching hidden secrets that you need to uncover on your quest* New spells, feats, and prestige classes that relate to travel.* Rules for doing legendary fantasy-style heroics at the climax of your quest (like figuring out how to defeat the villain by exploiting his weakness, rather than by hitting him enough times with your sword).* DM advice for creating quest-based campaigns (defined roughly as long journeys with an ultimate goal, involving many adventures along the way).* Setting information for the upcoming adventure.Most importantly, these rules will tie in with the super adventure that will be released in 2011, The Road of the Archmagi.Also in January 2011, The Road of the Archmagi adventure begins with the release of Pilgrim of the Two Winds - a serial adventure for 1st to 3rd level characters that is set primarily in Greyhawk/Forgotten Realms/Eberron, with guidelines for switching to other settings.  It is a huge event, and all groups are encouraged to try it out, either playing one adventure of the series, or doing the whole thing.The plot is that the party is escorting a young sorceress on a pilgrimage to different magical sites of wind power, so that she can gain the necessary magical skill to join her elementalist order.  Each site has its own adventure, and a few others are tossed in.  If you play them all, you discover (hopefully by late April) that an ancient elementalist from this order is trying to come back from the dead, and that you've been facing his minions this whole time.Also, minis for the adventure are released.In February 2011, a 100 page setting book for the coastal region the adventure takes place in is released - The Otdar Sea - going into greater detail of the places the PCs might go.In March 2011, Mid-Level Options is released, another basic rules expansion for levels of up to 10.In April 2011, book two of The Road of the Archmagi is released, The Amber Vessel, another series of adventures, connected to the last series but also just as easy to use stand-alone.  If you play them all, you discover what this ancient elementalist is up to, and where he is, and you save the mage you've been escorting from his attacks while defeating one of his lieutenants.  This adventure series runs from levels 4 to 6.In May 2011, The Tome of Magic is released in a nod to AD&D 2nd edition (which lots of gamers will be nostalgic for).  It has all sorts of magic rules, including a few that tie in with the adventure.In June 2011, another setting book is released - The Herethim Fane - detailing the realms ruled by Orcs that the party must travel through in book 2 of the quest series.In July 2011, it's convention season, so they focus on their digital releases, including an Xideon-Sphere console game based on the Road of the Archmage adventure.In August 2011, book three is released, Archmage of the Demon Wind, where the party must uncover the weakness of the ancient elementalist, keep his minions from reviving his ancient doomsday device, and travel to the plane of air to defeat him.  When the party finishes they should be 8th or 9th level, and the whole thing should have taken about 4 or 5 years in game time.  Minis are also released.September has the release of Dreadfall - The Book of Horror, a guide to scary games.October has the release of Orrery - A Guide to the Planes.November sees the release of the High-Level Options book, for when players finish the campaign.In December, they release compilations of the year's stuff, including variant ways to run this year's quest.  And they prepare to start next year's theme.</blockquote>

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