Is D&D (WotC) flaming out?

[Bluenose]

It's innovative if you compare it to the adventure material WoTC has been putting out in Dungeon. Which to me is a sad thing. It seems, at least adventure wise, WoTC had a golden opportunity to learn from all Paizo did with Dungeon in print and with their Adventure Path material and decided that it was hard work, milk some old titles after the one adventure path they did do, and forsake higher level play and focus on adventurers that were almost entirely strung together encounters.

The boardgame Kill Doctor Lucky is probably Paizo's most innovative product.
Writing good adventures is hardly innovative.
Adventure Paths are hardly innovative.
Pathfinder is quite specifically not meant to be innovative.
Innovative is hard and risky; most innovations fail. People who follow on those innovations can identify the errors and make corrections, but the first time you try something it always has things wrong.

 

[D'karr]

The boardgame Kill Doctor Lucky is probably Paizo's most innovative product.

Funny since Kill Doctor Lucky is an "expensive" repackaging of the game designed by "Cheapass" Games.

Irony of ironies.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I have no idea if anything is flaming out but the 2011 release schedule keeps getting smaller and smaller.

Also, there has been no news of layoffs which is a good thing.

If we combine the lack of layoffs with an ever shrinking production schedule then it points to efforts being devoted to unknown projects.

 

[delericho]

I'm pretty sure the answer is "maybe".

No, because the plan for this year was always to focus on Essentials, which was a deliberate repackaging/clean-up of 4e (the same way 3.5e was for 4e, but without the same level of rule changes, and handled much better, IMO). Given its purpose, then, this year was always going to look like the creative well had run dry.

Yes, because RPGs don't sell all that well, and because vanilla ice cream sells best despite not being anybody's favourite. (It sells really well because although everyone prefers something else, they rarely agree. Vanilla is thus the acceptable compromise.) What this means is that WotC, in order to sell enough units to enough people, are forced to stick with the 'vanilla' path, deliberately avoiding more obscure variants. The problem is, we've long since reached the point where people have enough of that - how many people don't have enough game material to last them until the day they die?

(It's maybe worth noting that WotC did "Dark Sun" and "Gamma World", two of the most 'out there' variants, in the same year that they reaped the sales boost from a new packaging of the core rules. I would be very surprised if either sold anywhere near as well as, say, Forgotten Realms, or if they did well enough to sell as the setting in a 'normal' year.)

 

[ggroy]

If we combine the lack of layoffs with an ever shrinking production schedule then it points to efforts being devoted to unknown projects.

A conspiracy theorist would say, it's to produce a 5E D&D.

 

[Mercurius]

Ahh, but a truly good vanilla ice cream - say, Ben & Jerry's or Haagen-Dazs or even better, my homemade gelato - is the most exquisite and subtly delicious of all ice cream flavors. Sometimes simple is not boring; if it is done well, with richly complex undertones, it is the most fulfilling of all flavors.

 

[AllisterH]

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)

THIS

I'm one of those who actually WAS happy that there was a major shakeup of the fluff for 4E.

I've been playing since 1e, (Dming since 2e) and I think I had simply gotten tired reading the same material over and over again.

 

[CleverNickName]

I haven't read this entire thread, so take this with a grain of salt. When I read the OP's first post, the thing that resonated with me wasn't disappointment with WotC or the impending doom of our hobby; it was a desire for newer and fresher ideas. And I think everybody would like to see more of that.

I don't think anybody believes that WotC is running out of ideas. Some of us might not like what we've seen lately, but that doesn't suggest the Wizards have stopped creating stuff.

 

[delericho]

Ahh, but a truly good vanilla ice cream - say, Ben & Jerry's or Haagen-Dazs or even better, my homemade gelato - is the most exquisite and subtly delicious of all ice cream flavors. Sometimes simple is not boring; if it is done well, with richly complex undertones, it is the most fulfilling of all flavors.

Very true.

Innovation may be over-rated. Often, it's better just to give us something good!

 

[MrMyth]

I haven't read this entire thread, so take this with a grain of salt. When I read the OP's first post, the thing that resonated with me wasn't disappointment with WotC or the impending doom of our hobby; it was a desire for newer and fresher ideas. And I think everybody would like to see more of that.

I don't think anybody believes that WotC is running out of ideas. Some of us might not like what we've seen lately, but that doesn't suggest the Wizards have stopped creating stuff.

That's actually what puzzles me about this thread. The main issue with the WotC 2011 content, from what we've seen, is too much innovation, isn't it?

Instead of getting PHB4 and Divine Power 2, etc, we've got the Essentials line and Heroes of Shadow. Instead of getting the usual splatbooks, we've got Champions of the Heroic Tier with themes and more player options. Instead of MM4, we've got Monster Vault 1 and 2, which come with tokens, maps, adventures. Instead of more location books, we've got a Shadowfell boxed setting, and instead of another setting, we've got the Ravenloft RPG, which sounds like it will be both more D&D and something new.

Honestly, most of the complaints I've heard have been over the differences - that we aren't seeing the same stuff we've had for the last few years. And those complaints may well be valid - I'd love to see more of a balance amidst all the products, myself - but focusing on the lack of innovation seems rather strange given how many experimental new products seem on the radar for the coming year.