D&D 5E Mike Mearls interview - states that they may be getting off of the 2 AP/year train.

[Mistwell]

Laugh Mistwell laughed "with" this post.

I wasn't laughing in the post so who exactly are you laughing with?

I thought you were being sarcastic?

 

[pukunui]

I guess part of the problem then is it's not terribly transparent what sort of "adventure chunks" are easily portable out of the AP into another campaign.

Let's see ... the Tyranny of Dragons adventures are the least modular, but they do have a few set pieces you could reuse, including a ruined castle in a swamp, a mummy lord's tomb, a white dragon's iceberg lair, and a tower protected by a magic hedge maze.

Princes of the Apocalypse has heaps of stuff. Aside from all the setting info for the Dessarin Valley region, it's got a whole detailed starter town (Red Larch), four detailed fortresses, a massive ruined dwarven city (divided into four pieces), a large mad god's underground fane, and four sizable elemental nodes, among other things. All of these are fairly easy to drag 'n' drop into an existing campaign. There are also a number of side quests for a whole range of levels, ranging from defending a ranch against orc raiders to meeting with a shadow dragon to finding lost dwaven relics in a dwarf king's tomb, that could be of use to anyone. On top of that, the book includes all of the spells from the Elemental Evil Player's Companion, plus the genasi race rules, plus some new (mostly elemental-themed) magic items and stats for elemental myrmidons.

Out of the Abyss contains general rules for traveling through the Underdark, including random encounter tables and various types of flora and fauna. It also includes a duergar city, a kuo-toa city, a drow city, a drow prison, a myconid colony, a deep gnome city (that's in the middle of being reclaimed and rebuilt), a secret trading post where various underdark races mingle, a library run by stone giants, and an underground labyrinth. There are also some encounters with things like beholders, plus an ooze temple, a troglodyte lair, and a hook horror lair. There are some new magic items, some new creatures (derro, ixitxachitl, plus more duergar) and full write-ups for the main demon lords. Also some generic NPC stats you can copy and use as needed.

Storm King's Thunder includes another little starter town (Nightstone), a low-level goblinoid cave, two well-detailed towns (Bryn Shander, Triboar) and an agricultural fortress (Goldenfields), a hill giant lair, a frost giant lair, a fire giant lair (including a yakfolk village), a stone giant lair, a floating cloud giant castle, an underwater storm giant lair, and a whole bunch of sites sacred to evil barbarians. There's also a giant temple and a blue dragon's desert lair. It's got an airship and several boats, complete with deck plans. Some new magic items, including rune magic. New creatures (including a new titan and a flying cat), and a bunch of ready-to-use NPCs.

I might spend $50 on a book that was explicitly a collection of locations, together with adventure hooks and maps, as long as I could see a detailed lists of what those locations are and judge whether they fit in my campaign.

Have you not got a FLGS you could go to in order to browse through the books?

 

[wedgeski]

Also, Mike Shea (sly flourish) is putting out a book of fantastic locations.

http://kck.st/1OACSRi

Ooh! I didn't know about this.

 

[Remathilis]

I thought you were being sarcastic?

Dungeons and Dragons. Serious Business.™

 

[Shasarak]

I point out that D&D is small fish to WotC compared to Magic, yes. But they're not either/or. It isn't "equal to CCGs or crap!" Something can be doing great sales and be a huge hit in its market and still not touch MtG. It's possible for 5e to be a runaway success that is better than any edition since the mythical heyday of 1983 and defying all expectations AND not to sell as much as Magic....

OK, so it is big when you want it to be big and small when you want it to be small.

Fair enough.

 

[Jester David]

OK, so it is big when you want it to be big and small when you want it to be small.

Fair enough.

I don't see how this is hard to understand.

D&D is big when compared to other RPGs but small when compared to other WotC products. D&D is selling amazing when you compare it with other recent editions of D&D, and when talking about the RPG industry D&D is doing huge. But when talking about hobby gaming in general D&D is small.

The movie Storks from last year made $180 million dollars in theatres.
If you compare that to other Warner Brothers films that year, like Fantastic Beasts or Batman vs Superman it's pathetic. But if you compare it to the grosses of smaller films or art house films it's a staggering sum of money.

 

[Shasarak]

I don't see how this is hard to understand.

D&D is big when compared to other RPGs but small when compared to other WotC products. D&D is selling amazing when you compare it with other recent editions of D&D, and when talking about the RPG industry D&D is doing huge. But when talking about hobby gaming in general D&D is small.

The movie Storks from last year made $180 million dollars in theatres.
If you compare that to other Warner Brothers films that year, like Fantastic Beasts or Batman vs Superman it's pathetic. But if you compare it to the grosses of smaller films or art house films it's a staggering sum of money.

Its OK, no one is saying that it is hard to understand. Mark Twain and statistics and all that jazz

 

[Jester David]

Its OK, no one is saying that it is hard to understand. Mark Twain and statistics and all that jazz

I don't understand the point you're trying to make.

 

[Henry]

I don't understand the point you're trying to make.

He's callin' you a liar, bro!

More seriously, it's not hard to grasp. 5e is selling, well enough that WotC and Hasbro seem to be pretty happy with it. Paizo can be happy, too, they have a smaller, but dedicated, market that will buy more products with more complexity. It's not like the person who gets tired of Pathfinder will automatically switch to D&D5, or vice versa. Hell, I play and run both, and have for two years now because they scratch different itches TOTALLY.

It's funny because some of the most die-hard PF players I know actually broke out into a conversation about finding new appeal with 5e (mind you, is being into the second hour of a combat between our 13th level characters and their CR 14 & 15 enemies). As the phrase goes, I wanted to check the sky for Ragnarok or Judgment Day.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

He's callin' you a liar, bro!

More seriously, it's not hard to grasp. 5e is selling, well enough that WotC and Hasbro seem to be pretty happy with it. Paizo can be happy, too, they have a smaller, but dedicated, market that will buy more products with more complexity. It's not like the person who gets tired of Pathfinder will automatically switch to D&D5, or vice versa. Hell, I play and run both, and have for two years now because they scratch different itches TOTALLY.

It's funny because some of the most die-hard PF players I know actually broke out into a conversation about finding new appeal with 5e (mind you, is being into the second hour of a combat between our 13th level characters and their CR 14 & 15 enemies). As the phrase goes, I wanted to check the sky for Ragnarok or Judgment Day.

Ragnarok is easy. Watch for news reports sensationalizing a "new ice age", then, the reports become less sensational, because winter never seems to end. The world begins to freeze. The sun and moon seem to disappear.

Then, the wolves come. Something stirs in the deep. The wealthy nations have been exploring the idea of deep sea cities where the heat vented from beneath the earth's crust can keep us warm and help us grow food, and first one, and then another, and then another of the test "colonies" to quiet.

Final transmissions are at first dismissed. Something terrible is coming, they warn us, moments before their last, futile, panicked screams. "Dear god! What is that!? Control, can you see this? Oh god no it's coming toward us! It's bigger than...nothing can be that big!"

Silence. The oceans roll and churn as if boiling.

The space stations in orbit go silent next. And the satellites. We can't tell if the moon is gone, or if it's just the impenetrable cloud cover, the constant storms. One night, the sun seems to be gone. There is no sunrise. We know it must still be there, or we'd all already be dead.

For a few years now, people have been reporting sightings and attacks by giant wolves, and night terrors where giant men made of fire and earth and living ice march across the sky.

Finally, the dead rise. The few remaining stable governments try to study them, find a cause, anyhing, but it's isn't biological. Bashing their brains does nothing. There is nothing to be done.

In the last waning hours of human civilization we learn the truth. The secret is revealed, and the questions answered.

Humanity learns that the gods are real, just in time to see them die.

Humanity dies, or goes into hiding.

The world burns.

It's over.