Is Starfinder from Paizo going to scratch that itch? Or is it 5e D&D in space that's required?
I doubt it. Spelljammer is fantasy in space. Starfinder is science fantasy.
Also I still wonder how long Paizo is going to hold out before they update some of their old APs for 5e OGL - if the 5e market is as huge as people are saying then it seems silly for them to not try to take some of that share?
I've wondered about that. It should be easy to reprint and convert or just publish PDF conversion documents. Or even do a 5e version of their monsters or their campaign setting. Perhaps a system neutral reprint of their campaign setting.
I think Paizo wants to do their own thing. They've been a 1st party publisher for so long I think it feels like going backward to become a 3rd party publisher again. Plus, I don't think they want to encourage anyone to convert from PF to 5e and potentially lose fans.
There's likely also some pride. They used to be the #1 RPG company and now they're #2 again. And increasingly a distant #2.
If Starfinder isn't a massive hit that is able to help sustain the company, they might have to go with a Pathfinder Revised or bite the bullet and release content for 5e.
Huh. Guess their advertising to fill at least one of those positions on Wizards.com is a fluke, then.
That's sarcastic, but it's true: There's a store rep job open now in Germany.
If it's a WotC store rep job the guaranteed it's about Magic.
90% of Wizards of the Coast's employees are focused on MtG, which brings in a ridiculous amount of money and sells at far more stores than D&D.
That does need reps, not only discussing future products and sales but also tournaments and weekly events. But I imagine it's done over the phone.
Not at the stores I've been to in the past two years. They've got plenty of configurable shelf space, as well as the human assets to rearrange product. It requires the stores to not deliberately screw up their feng shui, and instead learn how to actually conduct a retail store instead of a tarted-up spot where they can play Warcraft. Especially if they also sell comics!
What you've got there is a lame excuse, not a reason. That's not to say stores won't use it. But that's what it is.
The catch is, D&D is often vestigial to these stores. They're about board games or card games or comics with RPGs on the side. D&D is shelved wherever they have space, tucked away in a corner or off to the side.
It's an outright bad business decision to rearrange the shelf to sell D&D, because that's not what keeps the business afloat. It's not what the store actually sells.
It'd be nice for us gamers for them to have fancy front facing D&D displays, free organized play space, dice, and the like. But it'd also be nice for them to match Amazon prices. While I'm dreaming I'd also like a unicorn-pony that poops diamonds.
(Also, many game stores are run by people who are gamers first and small business owners second. A large percentage are
not run well.)
Of course they have no control over the stores. No manufacturer does. It's always gambling sales. That's why you fight for prime shelf space, with shelf-talkers, end-cap space, and all that. Hasbro knows all about it.
Hasbro is also different company.
Hasbro owns WotC and collects the profits, but WotC runs itself on a day-to-day basis. If Hasbro wanted to micromanage WotC they'd have amalgamated it and made it a division of Hasbro rather than keep it as a subsidiary with its own management and CEO.
I never said there wasn't. I said there are no Wizards-generated modules like Ye Olde Tymes.
The funny thing is, the Ye Olde Tymey modules were likely made that way due to the limitations of small publishing back in the '80s. Gygax probably would have loved to go glossy pages with richer blacks or even full colour. Maybe larger adventures. He leapt at the chance to go big with the
Temple of Elemental Evil.
The old adventures were limited by the budgets and printing technologies of the time. The cheap production values have a benefit in that you could write on the books without feeling bad, or pull apart the books. But that was a side effect not the intent, and they still *looked* cheap.
Lacking the associated nostalgia, I'm not sure many modern gamers would want a cheap little game book that looks like it was done print-on-demand or hammered out at the local Kinko's. Paying $10 for 32-pages of adventure is steep when you can probably get twice as much adventure of similar quality from the Guild and then fire off a print copy on your home printer.
After all, I can get a 96-page perfect bound black-and-white book from Lulu.com for $6 plus S+H. And it will look
better than anything from TSR.
If WotC does get back to small modules, it'd probably be best done via DriveThru's print-on-demand service.
