D&D 5E Legends & Lore 6/16/14

[GravyFingerz]

Bringing a Game to Life

 

[doctorhook]

Bringing a Game to Life

I don't know how much of this was actually news that hadn't already been implied, speculated, or outright confirmed, but I like the hell out of this.

Seriously, I've had some misgivings about setting my first 5E game in FR, but damn does this ever sound cool.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm not sold on this aspect entirely, but I do look forward to seeing what lies in store.

 

[The Hitcher]

I have no particular interest in either the MMO or the minis, but this is such a smart approach from Wizards, and I'm totally on-board for ToD now. There are only a small number of nerds who will get excited about a new rules release, but you can sell a good story to anyone.

I'm also not in love with FR, but I'll deal. They will be MY Realms, after all, so their flavour will change to suit my game (rather than the other way around).

 

[MerricB]

The latest D&D Encounters season is proving extremely successful at our store - we've had 19-21 players (including DMs) participating these last few weeks.

There's going to be a challenge when the new style of Encounters starts at Wizards, because if you've got a home group playing Tyranny of Dragons, you don't need to play in D&D Encounters. Likewise, if you play through all of Encounters, you'll have a 5th lever character ready to play through the rest of Tyranny... but 13 weeks later (or thereabouts).

I really like the integration of the Tyranny of Dragons that Mike is talking about, but I'm struggling a little with how we'll be running OP once it starts.

Cheers!

 

[Mistwell]

"The most exciting part about our new approach to stories is what lies ahead. We already have our next story bible completed and partners toiling away on bringing that story to life. By the end of the year, we'll have two more story bibles completed and a third in development. "

That seems new.

 

[MerricB]

"The most exciting part about our new approach to stories is what lies ahead. We already have our next story bible completed and partners toiling away on bringing that story to life. By the end of the year, we'll have two more story bibles completed and a third in development. "

That seems new.

Nicely spotted!

Here's the thing: D&D Encounters looks like *only* being the beginning of each new story-arc, but it only generally runs for 13 weeks. (Longest so far is 20 weeks, and that was too long). Will each new Encounters season dovetail with a new story arc? Or are they doing something else?

Cheers!

 

[RedShirtNo5.1]

We already have our next story bible completed and partners toiling away on bringing that story to life. By the end of the year, we'll have two more story bibles completed and a third in development. The approach we're taking with

Tyranny of Dragons—create a single campaign-style adventure and support it in the TRPG, in our digital games, and in our accessories—is something that will be a key part of D&D going forward.

​So, 'campaign style adventure' certainly sounds like an adventure path. If one bible is done and two more will be done by end of year, target is likely about 3-4 adventure paths per year. Could dovetail with Encounters.
In terms of 'module' sales, on the one hand, it seems unlikely that many groups would need that much content. On the other hand, Pathfinder shows theres a market for folks who buy even if they dont play the modules. And on the grasping hand, while price for individual book is higher than pathfinder AP, if wotc keeps with the two book approach, total cost is lower. Not sure on page count comparison with pathfinder AP.
I also wonder if wotc will be putting out traditional site based or shorter adventures, or if part of the overall strategy is to let licensees handle that demand.

 

[MerricB]

​So, 'campaign style adventure' certainly sounds like an adventure path. If one bible is done and two more will be done by end of year, target is likely about 3-4 adventure paths per year. Could dovetail with Encounters.

I also wonder if wotc will be putting out traditional site based or shorter adventures, or if part of the overall strategy is to let licensees handle that demand.

Paizo put out 2 APs a year. I'm trying to get clarification on how long Encounters seasons will be. I'm getting the feeling they may be a little longer than normal, which would probably translate to 3 APs per year if my assumptions are right.

"Regular" size adventures (32 pages) are something that have been abandoned by Paizo. They've cut back to two-monthly 64 page adventures. I sort of expect that publishing shorter adventures just isn't economic. However, pdf-publishing that size (either through Dungeon magazine or through dndclassics) seems possible.

Cheers!

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Paizo put out 2 APs a year. I'm trying to get clarification on how long Encounters seasons will be. I'm getting the feeling they may be a little longer than normal, which would probably translate to 3 APs per year if my assumptions are right.

This is a good question. Everything I've seen so far says that they'll have an Encounters Season dedicated to the story arc of the year. Then they will have Expeditions adventures that explore the area around that story arc with an Epic to kick of the storyline.

The idea appears to be that people will play through the first 5 levels of Tyranny of Dragons then they will either go back to their home groups having bought a copy of the adventure and want to finish it or they will play in a bunch of Expeditions adventures.

Certainly, the implication is there won't be a new storyline until the beginning of next year. Which would mean a 5 month long Encounter Season. However, if they want to kick each storyline off with a new Epic, it sounds like it would make sense for the new storyline to begin at a major convention next year. Which kind of means Winter Fantasy, Origins or Gen Con. I guess Winter Fantasy would make sense. Then they could premiere another storyline at Gen Con as well.

It seems it would make the most sense for WOTC to do 2 APs a year.