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General Tabletop Discussion
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Mechanics of Revived Settings; your thoughts?
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<blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 7394008" data-attributes="member: 7635"><p>At the risk of sounding corporate, there are a few concerns that need to taken into account in regards to settings.</p><p></p><p>Wizards is a giant in the realm of RPGs (a big fish in a small pond) so the return on their investment needs to be sizable. I vaguely recall their goal is like 50,000 sales to be considered a success. (I might be off on the number, its been a while). The more useful a book, the more people buy it, the more niche the book is, the less people buy of it. Consider: The Sword Coast Guide was one of the lowest selling books in 5e because it was of limited use to people not running in Faerun. A book like VGtM (which mixed lore, PC races, and monsters), XGtE (which mixed PC and DM rules) and MToF (which again mixes monsters and PC stuff) all sold better because it can be used by a multitude of players (far more than say, Monster Manual 2 or Complete Guide to Warriors would). Further, WotC only puts out one such book a year (so far, this may change in 2018). This means every release needs to hit maximum audience penetration. </p><p></p><p>Second, its worth noting what people like. <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-your-dd-character-rare/" target="_blank">FiveThirtyEight</a> famously determined the most played/popular classes and races in 5e, and well, a lot of iconics are popular as well. A setting that lacks elves (and by extension half-elves) is going to annoy a large chunk of the D&D population. sure, [MENTION=24049]Paul[/MENTION]_Farquhar might like it, but Wizards has to cater to more than just him; they have to sell that setting to a large swath of D&D players and a large swath of D&D players like their elves! </p><p></p><p>So with those two metrics in mind, does it REALLY make sense to produce setting-books for settings that remove popular options from the game? Your already creating a niche product (by producing a specific setting that may/may not interact well with supplements current and potential, by limiting the genre of fantasy to one players may/may not enjoy) it makes less sense to remove popular options from play. Your further limiting your potential sales when you tell paladin or elf fans they need not apply. </p><p></p><p>The safest play, IMHO, would be to follow Paizo's lead and create a single world that literally has every option they print found on it (Golarion); they have Faerun primed for that role already. The fact they are talking about anything revolving older settings is a calculated risk, and one I think WotC will hedge by making them as friendly to all players as possible. Its the biggest reason why I've expect a "Guide to the D&D Multiverse" rather than specific D&D campaign setting books for a while now; mitigate the risk that a Dark Sun player will skip the Ravenloft CS by bundling DS and RL in one book. </p><p></p><p>As to the more avante garde settings; this is exactly what the OGL is there for. A setting like Midnight (which resembles D&D mechanically but no where in terms of race, class, magic, monsters, etc) is perfect for a publisher with a lower sale threshold for success. Settings that radically change D&D assumptions are perfect fodder for small publishers, but poor choices for WotC. I'd love to see more settings like Primeval Thule or Tal'Dorei do things different than WotC can. I think those small, niche settings have a home there, because WotC needs to go big and going big means satisfying the biggest possible audience.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Remathilis, post: 7394008, member: 7635"] At the risk of sounding corporate, there are a few concerns that need to taken into account in regards to settings. Wizards is a giant in the realm of RPGs (a big fish in a small pond) so the return on their investment needs to be sizable. I vaguely recall their goal is like 50,000 sales to be considered a success. (I might be off on the number, its been a while). The more useful a book, the more people buy it, the more niche the book is, the less people buy of it. Consider: The Sword Coast Guide was one of the lowest selling books in 5e because it was of limited use to people not running in Faerun. A book like VGtM (which mixed lore, PC races, and monsters), XGtE (which mixed PC and DM rules) and MToF (which again mixes monsters and PC stuff) all sold better because it can be used by a multitude of players (far more than say, Monster Manual 2 or Complete Guide to Warriors would). Further, WotC only puts out one such book a year (so far, this may change in 2018). This means every release needs to hit maximum audience penetration. Second, its worth noting what people like. [URL="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-your-dd-character-rare/"]FiveThirtyEight[/URL] famously determined the most played/popular classes and races in 5e, and well, a lot of iconics are popular as well. A setting that lacks elves (and by extension half-elves) is going to annoy a large chunk of the D&D population. sure, [MENTION=24049]Paul[/MENTION]_Farquhar might like it, but Wizards has to cater to more than just him; they have to sell that setting to a large swath of D&D players and a large swath of D&D players like their elves! So with those two metrics in mind, does it REALLY make sense to produce setting-books for settings that remove popular options from the game? Your already creating a niche product (by producing a specific setting that may/may not interact well with supplements current and potential, by limiting the genre of fantasy to one players may/may not enjoy) it makes less sense to remove popular options from play. Your further limiting your potential sales when you tell paladin or elf fans they need not apply. The safest play, IMHO, would be to follow Paizo's lead and create a single world that literally has every option they print found on it (Golarion); they have Faerun primed for that role already. The fact they are talking about anything revolving older settings is a calculated risk, and one I think WotC will hedge by making them as friendly to all players as possible. Its the biggest reason why I've expect a "Guide to the D&D Multiverse" rather than specific D&D campaign setting books for a while now; mitigate the risk that a Dark Sun player will skip the Ravenloft CS by bundling DS and RL in one book. As to the more avante garde settings; this is exactly what the OGL is there for. A setting like Midnight (which resembles D&D mechanically but no where in terms of race, class, magic, monsters, etc) is perfect for a publisher with a lower sale threshold for success. Settings that radically change D&D assumptions are perfect fodder for small publishers, but poor choices for WotC. I'd love to see more settings like Primeval Thule or Tal'Dorei do things different than WotC can. I think those small, niche settings have a home there, because WotC needs to go big and going big means satisfying the biggest possible audience. [/QUOTE]
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