New adventures from Wizards - policy reversal!!!

[AdmundfortGeographer]

The "many buckets" theory is a powerful analogy - but it's a vast over-simplification of the market.

I agree, especially since it presumes that whatever raindrop falls into a bucket can't also fall in another bucket. Quite simply, I was a TSR/WotC whore, I bought almost everything they put out eventually. I own everything in the Dark Sun, Al-Qadim, Red Steel/Savage Coast, Mystara/Known World, Hollow World, Greyhawk, Spelljammer, and Birthright settings. The "many buckets" analogy would mean I could have never dipped into all of these buckets out there, but I did!

Regards,
Eric Anondson

 

[Keith F Strohm]

As a not-so-impartial participant in this discussion, I also believe that the need for adventures makes Dungeon magazine a valuable and desirable product for DMs and for players who enjoy high-quality official D&D adventures.

Getting three high-quality official D&D adventures (Low, Mid, and High level) every month for $6.95 is one of the best values in gaming!

Someone else mentioned Sunless Citadel, and I wanted to say that SC sold exceptionally well when it released and paved the way for a successful Adventure Path. I have no idea how those products held up on backlist multiple years after their initial release, but they certainly didn't suffer from poor initial (or even mid term) sales.

Keith Strohm
COO & Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

"Check out our new updated website at paizo.com"

 

[Steel_Wind]

You got that right!

Dungeon remains the best value and my favorite product in all of gaming.

 

[kilamanjaro]

In the "Ask Rich Baker" thread over on the WotC boards someone asked if there were going to be more super-sized Realms adventures any time soon. Rich said that there will be new FR adventures next year.

 

[Sir Elton]

YES! MY HOPES HAVE BEEN FUFILLED!

With WotC revitalizing the Adventure Market, this is the turn around I've been hoping that will come to pass. I can write adventures and no body will think I'm crazy.

I can even get them published. With WotC turning around to Adventures, this could revitalize everything for the next 2 years. One can only hope. Of course, I'm going to pursue a movie career for a while so that I can get through school. I hate being unable to get a job without a Bachelor's degree, or to have my dream beyond me.

Just drop me and my wife by Loch Ness and I'd happy happy for ten years debunking all the false Loch Ness Monsters so that the truth maybe found. But I'm so happy! Maybe I can show off my particular talent for Adventure Writing.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

There's a lot of talk about adventure modules not being profitable for WOTC, and that is probably true...

However...

I think that Wizards may have come to the conclusion that adventures are like "loss leaders" in regular retailing - the things that are offered at a low price to get the customer in the door. Even if you lose money on the loss leader, so the theory goes, that person buys enough other stuff to make it worthwhile - in this case driving the sales of PHB's etc.

3rd party products were supposed to fill that role. However, they've learned more or less what WOTC did - that they don't sell enough to be profitable. BUT - they still can serve a purpose - to drive sales of the core books.

That means that the only people who really have an incentive to produce adventures is Wizards.

 

[Nightfall]

So far I think it's just the fact people are scared when they use a Necromancer Game mod. Why? Cause it's TPK all over the place! Ah. The joys of fear and despair from players. Makes me shiver with joy.

Anyway small rant on the goodness of at least ONE company to make a profit (somewhat) doing great mods. Cheers to the Necro guys!

 

[Glak]

I think Wizards is running D&D almost as poorly as TSR did. The "big bucket" strategy does not work. There bucket is not big enough to catch me. I have only purchased the three core 3.0 books (use the SRD for 3.5). I very nearly bought UA and d20 Modern but I have no funds.

What I would buy are books on how to be a better DM. 2e books such as the Complete Book of Villains, Creative Campaigning, and Catacombs Guide are what I am looking for.

I am also willing to purchase a campaign world that is sufficiently creative. FR is the exact opposite of what I am looking for. Ebberon isn't close either. Dark Sun now, yeah that's a top quality product. I would buy something like that.

Marketing Research has shown that most campaigns last under a year. I want interesting campaign worlds, and I am willing to buy material such as adventures to go with them. The obvious solution is to release a new world each year, produce a new adventure every month, and then let the world die at the end of the year. If a world is particularly popular they can rerelease it when 4th edition comes out, this time with a different adventure arc.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

I'm sort of in the same camp with RFisher. I think that, if adventures were tailored to different niches of the market, then they would work out better. WotC's main modules, the Adventure Path, are a good example. Sunless Citadel was very popular, a good leader that mixed dungeon crawl, roleplaying, politics, and all kinds of different challenges. Then there was Forge of Fury, a standard dungeon crawl. Then Speaker in Dreams, a city adventure with mostly smaller encounters that sort of tied together.

See where I'm going with this? These were all different types of adventures, which should have been meant for a different type of audience. But they weren't presented that way- they were all part of the same series, and it was just assumed that people would buy them all, regardless of adventure type and theme. I don't think this was the case, because different groups like to play different sorts of adventures.

For example, I dislike dungeon crawls. I'm also getting fed up with the endless amounts of demons, undead, and evil humanoids that are appearing in modules- they're just generic villains with no motivations at all, other than half-baked Bond villain schemes. As a result, I don't buy that many D20 adventures. I especially don't buy Dungeon magazine. But that's just my particular demographic- it's obvious that there's a lot of people out there who like and have a use for what Dungeon is doing. I'm simply not one of them.

I think that WotC could do a good series of modules if they seperated them by theme, rather than by brand or setting. For instance, there could be a "D" series of modules that are just dungeon crawls- Goodman Games has had great success with these (even I, dungeon-hater that I am, have bought a couple). Then there could be a "U" series for urban adventures, and perhaps an "L" series of drop-in locations with smaller adventures (such as Standing Stones or the Whitethorn series).

So, to sum up, I think there's a lot of potential for generic adventures that are marketed to play styles, rather than cramming a bunch of different play styles together under a setting label. If Wizards were to put out a line of modules that worked for my game, I'd probably buy them all. As it was with the adventure line, I only bought three (and only got Bastion because I happened to need a nasty red dragon encounter).

 

[Duncan Haldane]

It's fascinating to see how the RPGA has been reorganised: as there are no fees, Wizards must be funding all of this out of their sales (most likely of the miniatures. )

Cheers!

Actually, the cost of the RPGA is all an advertising expense. It's a really good idea. When they charged for membership the costs couldn't be deducted as advertising, now it is. So WotC are able to improve RPGA facilities while reducing the cost to the users.

And now because it's free people from all around the world who couldn't afford the fee (especially in other countries), or didn't have the ability to make the payment (eg no credit card) can be members.

Duncan