Might I suggest checking out the 5e adventure
Deadly Delves: Rescue from Tyrkaven from Jon Brazer Enterprises, my company.
I can't seem to get the preview to work - my browser says it can't connect to the server. I'll check again, though.
OK... Why do people find it difficult to create their own material, like adventures, with the core rules???? Its all there.
A few folks have already answered this, but I'll say again that it really comes down to time.
Funny thing, before 4e's official announcement, I remember Scott Rouse coming on these board and asking that if you were in charge of D&D's fluff division, what would you do. One popular idea in that thread (IIRC, I argued for it as well) was for yearly campaign settings. And that was exactly what they did with 4e. It did not turn out well. IMO, it was the execution that killed it. I did not figure that Wizards would treat the Forgotten Realms in that way. I thought it would be their one setting that would get support every year. I also suggested (IIRC) that after their first year, the settings should be licensed off to D&D Compatible publishers to continue their support after the highest profit period for that setting was over, which didn't happen. Instead we got a campaign setting book, a short adventure, and either a player's guide or a monster book (in dark sun's case). We got generic supplements, but all in all the campaign settings themselves did not receive much support. So it is down to an execution problem, not an idea problem.
I very much agree, and I worry that decisions are made in reaction against such situations, as if conflating execution and idea. As I think you imply here, what the Realms (or any setting, imo) needs is more usable, smaller parts. If I were WotC, I might not even start with a full campaign guide, but rather start with a Sword Coast hardcover. The first fifty pages or so could be an overview of the Realms as a whole, but the rest would be a detailed presentation of the Sword Coast, then with an even more detailed focus on a specific region that could be used as a starting area for a Sword Coast campaign. Then maybe in another year you could do the Dalelands, a year after that Thay and the Unapproachable East, and so forth. Alongside each region book you could publish a story arc that brings it to life. But unlike prior editions, you don't need to do every corner of the Realms - because there is a financial diminishing returns the further you go from core, archetypal D&D - which is best represented by the Sword Coast and Dalelands.
Finally, each book could have an appendix describing products from past editions, sort of like an annotated bibliography - or maybe that would be online, a PDF file with hyperlinks to dndclassics.com.
When people argued for a long campaign, I don't think that they meant for that being the only support the game gets. I think those that argued for it felt that their campaigns should be the focus point for a series of supplements: a campaign setting book for the general area for game masters (that can also be used to make your own adventures), player's supplement(s) that may or may not have anything to do with the campaign, and a number of short adventures that could be used with that particular campaign if it went off the rails or could just as easily be used in someone's home campaign.
So again, we come down to execution, not the idea. Elemental Evil's Player's Companion is a great start for the player's supplement, but more is desired.
I agree with you, although personally think where past editions got derailed was too much player material. But the real missing link, imo, is the lack of short adventures and setting materials.
I don't think there's a question that more is desired. I think the question is about how much more they can give and still avoid the edition treadmill problem. It is pretty clear that WotC is not interested in a boom-and-bust cycle, so putting out as much as people are willing to buy at the moment is not really an option.
Yes, I agree. And it seems that they clearly reduced to a skeleton crew, just enough to guide this minimalist approach. But what I find odd is that we've heard that 5E is a smashing success, more so than expected even, yet we haven't seen any ramping up. I would have thought that this success would at least lead to a slightly expanded minimalist approach. I don't expect or even want the glut and treadmill of past editions, but there's a huge spectrum between the minimalism that we've seen and the excesses of 2E, 3E, and 4E.
I have no idea what is financially viable, but if I were running the show I'd go for something like this, per annum:
*One big Pathfinder-esque hardcover splat - e.g. Manual of the Planes, Unearthed Arcana, etc.
*One Monster Manual or Fiend Folio in hardcover form.
*One new region book for the Realms (or focus setting of choice).
*One story arc for the region book.
*One big box set with a theme setting booklet, book of adventures, and story arc (e.g. something like Night Below).
*Two or three shorter one-off adventures.
*One or two miscellaneous products - probably softcover (e.g. Book of Lairs, new or classic setting gazetteers, possibly to be expanded later, etc).
That's 4 hardcover products, 1 box set, and 3-5 softcovers - so 8-10 products overall. Hardly a glut, but far more satisfying and diversified than what we see now. Alternately, or additionally, they could have an OGL and reduce some of the product above, like the one-off adventures, and produce only 5-8 books per year.
