D&D 5E Light release schedule: More harm than good?

[bmfrosty]

Okay so he runs 1 store. Does he have info for all stores out there that sell these products? Does he have the figures from Paizo's online store?

This is terribly rude of me, but I feel like the conversation in this thread is going as such:

 

[Nellisir]

I don't disagree with much in what you've written, but this part confuses me. What kind of "support" were you expecting in the two months since the DMG was released? If it's not an adventure (as your other posts indicate) what were you expecting?

To date, the official support for 5e from WotC has been significantly less than the support for 3e, considering only the first month's content in Dragon and Dungeon magazine, and not considering online support, since I don't have any kind of record for that.

Now, that's clearly a high bar to hit. In many ways 3e was the high water mark of D&D support. I don't expect 5e to reach that level. Or even a quarter of that level. Ce la vie.

So what sort of support could have been offered?

• An additional introductory adventure or two, for those who don't find the default adventure to their liking or don't want to reuse the same adventure but aren't comfortable crafting their own.
• A higher-level adventure or mini-adventure, to showcase elements of the system that aren't obvious at 1st-level.
• Guides to adapting adventures from earlier editions to 5e, to overcome the lack of the first two.
• A stronger guide to converting, adapting, or creating classes, subclasses, and/or races. Including prestige classes. For instance, there was a fair amount of criticism leveled at the preview of the DMG's variant races pages, with a number of people, including myself, suggesting that the pages were an incomplete preview and that more detailed examples/recommendations/guidelines would be in the DMG. I was wrong. The preview turned out to be the majority of the material.
• Ditto spells
• Ditto items
• The DMG spends a lot of time on creating monsters, so that's pretty well covered. Still, more info on templates?

That's just off the top of my head.

Given the lack of 3PP license or policy, I cannot consider any 3PP products (ie Fifth Edition Foes) to be "support", since WotC cannot control, rely, or plan on such products, their nature, or their quality. If 3PP release 100 products, and WotC releases 1, then WotC has 1 supporting product, not 101. Products developed for WotC by outside contractors (ie Princes) ARE official support.

 

[Nellisir]

You're missing the point though Nellisir. If producing the material that would interest you is a losing proposition for WOTC, then why would they do it? They've flat out stated, in no uncertain terms, that we are not going to see splats. You are not going to get a 5e version of the Complete Fighter or whatever. It's not going to happen. The stated reason for this not happening is because producing those splats leads to edition churn.

Can you point me to where WotC announced they'll only be producing two hardbound books a year, and those books will be adventures? Because that's suddenly become the default assumption, but I missed the announcement.

On the up side, knowing that there won't be any further Monster Manuals, and that everything will be prepackaged and tailored to fit a specific adventure campaign will certainly free up a lot of room for 3rd-party publishers to operate in.

*Also, I've never stated interest in the Complete Fighter, or any similar book. I've referenced monster manuals, spell/item collections, and campaign settings.

 

[Jester David]

Can you point me to where WotC announced they'll only be producing two hardbound books a year, and those books will be adventures? Because that's suddenly become the default assumption, but I missed the announcement.

On the up side, knowing that there won't be any further Monster Manuals, and that everything will be prepackaged and tailored to fit a specific adventure campaign will certainly free up a lot of room for 3rd-party publishers to operate in.

*Also, I've never stated interest in the Complete Fighter, or any similar book. I've referenced monster manuals, spell/item collections, and campaign settings.

They haven't said how many books they will release each year. And, really, I doubt they know for sure. Somewhere between 0 and 5. They haven't said.
We *do* know they aren't planning splatbooks. They've said so numerous times.

 

[Nellisir]

They haven't said how many books they will release each year. And, really, I doubt they know for sure. Somewhere between 0 and 5. They haven't said.

And THAT sounds like what I remember. Thanks!

We *do* know they aren't planning splatbooks. They've said so numerous times.

Is a Monster Manual a splatbook? Wilderness Adventurer's Guide? Adventurer's Vault? Campaign setting? Those are the books I'm seeing as most likely (OK, not the Wilderness Adventurer's Guide) in the future. Plus adventures.

 

[Jester David]

Is a Monster Manual a splatbook? Wilderness Adventurer's Guide? Adventurer's Vault? Campaign setting? Those are the books I'm seeing as most likely (OK, not the Wilderness Adventurer's Guide) in the future. Plus adventures.

They've said they want to focus on story. So adventures seem key.
A month ago I would have said they'd pair the adventures with an accessory, but then they cancelled the Adventurer's Handbook. So maybe... maybe not.

I don't foresee a MM2, as that'd be expensive (art be pricey) and not tied to a story. New monsters can fit into an adventure. Maybe a collection after a few years.
Wilderness/Dungeon Survival Guide might actually work well, if paired with an adventure storyline focusing on overland travel/ a megadungeon.

That might be hard though, as WotC needs adventures that make good minis, Neverwinter expansions, and Expeditions seasons. That means bosses and lots of minions and continents-wide threats. Non-standard adventures set in unusual places won't work as well.

 

[graves3141]

It's ironic that 5th Edition is one of the best, maybe even THE best, version of the Dungeons & Dragons game... yet, it may go down in history as the least supported one as well.

 

[Hussar]

Can you point me to where WotC announced they'll only be producing two hardbound books a year, and those books will be adventures? Because that's suddenly become the default assumption, but I missed the announcement.

On the up side, knowing that there won't be any further Monster Manuals, and that everything will be prepackaged and tailored to fit a specific adventure campaign will certainly free up a lot of room for 3rd-party publishers to operate in.

*Also, I've never stated interest in the Complete Fighter, or any similar book. I've referenced monster manuals, spell/item collections, and campaign settings.

Sorry, but, where did I say two books per year?

What I said the same as Jester C. says in the next post - you are not going to get a steady stream of books. 0-5 as JC says is about in keeping with everything they've said.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

It's ironic that 5th Edition is one of the best, maybe even THE best, version of the Dungeons & Dragons game... yet, it may go down in history as the least supported one as well.

I feel the same way, but the way I see it is this - the intention is for there to never need to be a 6E, or at least not for a very long time.

So we'll eventually see the full range of 100+ books they put out for, say 3.5, but on a 20 year timescale rather than a 4 year one.

 

[Gecko85]

It's ironic that 5th Edition is one of the best, maybe even THE best, version of the Dungeons & Dragons game... yet, it may go down in history as the least supported one as well.

Except, as I showed in another thread, so far it's on-par with 1e AD&D/BECMI release schedule.