Is D&D (WotC) flaming out?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I was surfing Amazon today looking for a way to burn up a new gift card. I haven't bought any new D&D books in a year or so, and figured there would be some great and intriguing new products out there. Much to my disappointment, it seems like the majority of recent WotC publications -- Dark Sun aside -- are essentially repackagings of existing material. Looking ahead, the only item in the next year's worth of projected publications that caught my eye as interesting/original is the Neverwinter Campaign Setting.

That may just be my perception, of course, but it did lead to this question: is WotC (and by extension, D&D itself) flaming out? We're three years into the current edition, and if we're already reaching the point where much of the official publication is repackaging/reimagining rather than truly original exciting material, I don't think it bodes well. Particularly as it seems the cycle has accelerated compared to the flame out/reboot times of the prior couple of edition cycles. (Note: this is not intended to be and edition war comment as I'm not comparing the edition content but rather the publishing cycles).

Or have I just become an old(er) grognard?

 

[Nebten]

Begun the Flame War has.

 

[ggroy]

Let the madness begin!

 

[Cyronax]

Interesting debate. I haven't heard this type of debate on ENWorld since before *mumbles*.

WotC: D&D 3.0-3.5 - 3 years.

TSR: AD&D 2.0-2.5 (Player's Option) - 6 years. AD&D1.0-1.5 (Uneartherd Arcana, etc) - 6 years.

What can that mean for our dear hobby?!!? How does Pathfinder factor into the release of Essentials?!!?

 

[JeffB]

essentially repackagings of existing material. ?

TSR and WOTC have been regurgitating materials since the mid to late 1E days. every edition does- demon books, planes books, psionic books, setting books, magic items book, splatbooks for PCs, high level/epic level boosk, etc etc.

In 3.x we got even got a few double doses of this stuff thanks to the rules changes.

EDIT- heck- regurgitation since BEFORE 1E- which was just a regurgitation of the LBBs & supps plus some added material from TSR & TD magazines.

It never ends- it was one reason I was glad to see *some* re-writing/re-imaginings of (stereo)typical D&D isms in the latest edition (e.g. the planes/cosmology)

 

[Carbon]

Shhhh go to sleep.

In your dreams the world works exactly as you want it to work!

Unless your mental control is poor, that's when the nightmares take over.

 

[ggroy]

In 3.x we got even got a few double doses of this stuff thanks to the rules changes.

Sword and Fist -> Complete Warrior
Tome and Blood -> Complete Arcane
Defenders of the Faith -> Complete Divine
Manual of the Planes -> Planar Handbook
Psionics Handbook -> Expanded Psionics Handbook

 

[Cyronax]

Sword and Fist -> Complete Warrior
Tome and Blood -> Complete Arcane
Defenders of the Faith -> Complete Divine
Manual of the Planes -> Planar Handbook
Psionics Handbook -> Expanded Psionics Handbook

I'm also concerned about WotC's consistent reuse of product titles from the 1970's and 1980's.

Rules Compendium
Manual of the Planes
Unearthed Arcana

heck ....

Player's Handbook
Dungeon Master's Guide
all of the monster books

Why not create rather than reuse. Even, World of Warcraft is more innovative then WotC!

Or worse still, they didn't put Dark Sun or Eberron through a Realms Shattering Event like they did for Forgotten Realms!

I mean why on earth would I want to play in a Dark Sun world that hasn't changed since the early 1990's?!?!

There, Christmas is ruined.

 

[DaveMage]

The D&D design team at WotC split into two groups earlier in the year. The fruits of that change should be evident late next year.

I think it's premature to say D&D as a whole is flaming out, but essentials re-imagining came out less than 2.5 years from the June 2008 release of 4E so it's certainly a shorter cycle than in the past.

On the other hand, if they have truly created the evergreen D&D baseline with essentials, then the edition may pretty much already be all its intended to be. In this case the new design teams may take the brand in directions it has never gone before - which may invigorate it. I think 2011's Gen Con (if not D&D Experience) will go a long way towards showing D&D's future.

I think the D&D RPG model as we have known it is pretty much done (for WotC - not for Paizo). I'll be interested to see what a new model brings for WotC. I would not be surprised to see a re-imagining (or at least alternative) of the way to play the game.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

WotC: D&D 3.0-3.5 - 3 years.

TSR: AD&D 2.0-2.5 (Player's Option) - 6 years. AD&D1.0-1.5 (Unearthed Arcana, etc) - 6 years.

I've always sort of considered 3.0-3.5 to be essentially the same edition, repackaged, for an 8-year cycle total (5 years for 3.5 alone), but with a lot of re-use throughout internally. That repeat/reuse was frustrating then.

I don't take as much issue with cross-edition repackaging ... after all, you do want to bring core elements up to whatever the new mechanical baseline is. 4E had a lot of innovative changes, so it seems reasonable to expect to update/re-write a lot of prior mechanical material into the new mechanics. But much of the Essentials line looks like a repackaging internal to 4E. I suppose that's like a 3.5 without a 4.5 label.

Got it on all the business reasons to continue to sell products ... but where are the new innovative products? Is the answer to shop Paizo for Pathfinder?