D&D 5E OK WotC, I've had just about enough of this...

[tuxgeo]

What are the chances that it's "lid-time in movie-city" -- as in keeping the lid on a movie project, by saying absolutely nothing about it?

There was that lawsuit by Hasbro against Sweetpea Entertainment; the case went to trial, then I heard no definitive outcome. If they reached an agreement out of court, it could be possible that one of the elements of such an agreement would be to divulge no information to the public.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

I mean I suppose it is possible that all we'll see for the rest of 2015 is Elemental Evil and Alice in Wonderland, but to be honest I'd be surprised - especially at the alleged runaway success of 5E.

And again, it isn't the next few months I'm talking about - as in "new few" being January, February, and March. I'm talking about after that. Elemental Evil is March but then there are nine months in 2015. That's a lot of time for only 1-2 books for Alice in Wonderland, which is why I'd be surprised if we don't see 1-3 more products sprinkled in there.

How far in advance do you expect them to announce new products? They announced 5E two and a half years before the PHB was released, but I think we can agree that won't be the norm going forward. Going off of Tyranny of Dragons and Elemental Evil, they're going with about a six month leadup from announcement to release.

If they stick to that schedule, we'll get concrete details for the next big product some time in late spring (assuming a fall release for the Alice in Wonderland products). I too think that there will be another product or two this year but I don't think they'll be out before June, mainly because if they were going to be they would have announced it by now already.

So if you're asking for a full product lineup for the next twelve months, you're going to disappointed - but I think they probably are giving us the next six months in advance and it's just that nothing else is scheduled to come out before June.

 

[Staffan]

It is not 1995 anymore. It was the cost of printing all those settings and supplements that killed TSR. There is still overhead for creative, to be sure, but awotC could produce multiple settings and release electronically and POD if they wanted.

Printing is not nothing, but it's a relatively small cost compared to the creative bits (writing, editing, art, layout, whatever).

At the time, Wizards folks said that a big part of what killed TSR was spreading out too much into separate product lines. Instead of doing a book you're trying to sell to 1.5 million potential customer (the approximate number of people who played D&D monthly, as estimated in a Wizards survey from the time), you make one you're trying to sell to 100,000 or fewer (my estimate at the number of people who were interested in any specific non-FR setting). Or even worse, you're making five different books, trying to sell each of them to 100k people, instead of making one book and trying to sell it to 1.5M people. Sure, each setting-specific book is probably catching a larger percentage of its potential audience (because Planescape players really like Planescape, whereas the generic D&D player kinda likes generic D&D), but not enough to balance out the smaller pool to begin with.

 

[Sailor Moon]

The one thing that WotC *is* getting by being silent is a lot less bitching and moaning. I mean heck... the caterwauling about Princes of the Apocalypse... a product we still have practically no information on and all complaints are basically about the boilerplate and what they *think* is going to be in it... is already greater than most of the other products we could talk about now. Why would WotC want to announce another product even further down the line when they aren't ready to give specifics, just so that people here could whine even longer about it?

Being silent will hurt the company in the end, especially at this point. People aren't going to sit there and twiddle their thumbs waiting on WoTc to act. It's a bit arrogant of them to think that.

Also, what exactly do they benefit by keeping their future products a secret? Nothing to be honest. What it would do is cause people to sit back and be patient because they would know something is coming out.

Keeping silent is just another way of saying they are struggling to come out with more products.

 

[DEFCON 1]

And what proof at all do you have on that? Besides which, people aren't "twiddling their thumbs", they're actually *playing the game*.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Jester David]

You've got the Elemental Evil story arc duology coming out in March and then...nothing. Nihilo. As if an Orb of Annihilation got loose in your office.

So what's next? Tell us something, anything.

(Or am I missing an announcement or two, having been only lightly following things over the last few months?)

So here's a question to generate actual conversation. I take it that everyone reading this knows little to nothing more than I do, and if you do you won't share. But for the rest, here's a question that we can speculate about a bit: Why do you think they haven't announced anything? I mean, we're talking about two months from now. In the past, if I remember correctly, WotC has had the product catalogue filled up six months and more in advance. This is just...odd.

A couple thoughts that come to mind:

1. 5E was more popular than expected, and they've decided to offer a heavier publication schedule but aren't sure yet how it is all going to play out.

2. They're scrambling to figure out what to put out, how to finish what they're working on, etc. All hell has broken loose in Renton -- dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

3. They're playing it coy to build up anticipation, a sense of mystery, yada yada yada.

What say you?
Or some combination of the two.

Keep in mind that they didn't announce the 5e core books until the last couple months before those dropped. The D&D team seems to be really focused on underpromising and not announcing things until they're in the can. And likely for good reason.

Yes, WotC has not said anything about Elemental Evil, has not confirmed the product, and does not have a product page up (that I remember seeing). But, no one goes to the WotC site for information on stuff like that anymore (and seldom ever did). They come to sites like ENWorld, which always get the information leaked sooner.
So why try and make a big release announcement that will *always* get scooped? They can be quiet until they're ready to do previews (the month prior) and let ENWorld handle the hype. And that way they need to update their website less often. Which works as they were never good at updating on time or reliably and their new site buries articles at the very bottom anyway.

In fairness, the actually staff making the RPG has been pretty silent.
We had been told that they'd tell us about the new OGL before the end of last year and release the licence sometime this year. They're two weeks late on that. They also said they'd have more articles on the D&D site including the Battlesystem rules and Legends & Lore. No sign of those after two weeks. And the surveys on the State of the Game are also absent.
But, by bringing that stuff up, I'm coming down on them for being late on a "promise". Which feeds the whole "underpromise" thing. And they're also trying to juggle all those balls while also manage the success of the game and interact with the WotC suits, and there's not all that many members of the D&D team left.

 

[Mercurius]

[MENTION=37579]Jester Canuck[/MENTION] and others, I'd like to clarify something. My OP was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, me semi-humorously whining about there not being any more stuff to buy. But while I'm also half-serious, I'm not irate or mad in any way. In other words, I'm not a disgruntled customer screaming, "Where's my stuff!?!" I'm more of a happy customer asking, "When will we get more?"

In other words, what I'm saying is in the spirit of goodwill and not meant to be taken as a complaint or expressing any kind of disgruntlement. I've really liked how they handled 5E overall so far, although I do wish they'd drop more bread crumbs about the road forward and beyond March. Even something like, "We're working on a few things for later this year, including a campaign setting book and the third story arc."

Hopefully my wish will be granted soon enough.

 

[Uchawi]

I believe however 5E treats the OGL, or if they will implement one similar to 3E, will have more impact on the game, versus a sparse release schedule. Although the latter will effect long term how many people continue to buy 5E products if they have a lethargic pace.

 

[Jester David]

Being silent will hurt the company in the end, especially at this point. People aren't going to sit there and twiddle their thumbs waiting on WoTc to act.

And yet here we are, all waiting and talking about what they might do next.

Also, what exactly do they benefit by keeping their future products a secret? Nothing to be honest. What it would do is cause people to sit back and be patient because they would know something is coming out.

They avoid a repeat of 2011 when they have to cancel four products (one released free online) and delay two other products. Plus they avoid undue excitement, such as the Ravenloft community being let down after the planned campaign product for that setting was cancelled due to 4e being reevaluated.

Keeping silent is just another way of saying they are struggling to come out with more products.

Talking lots doesn't mean they have lots of products either. Many companies are silent about development and plans until the big release. Apple never really talks about what they have in the pipe until a few months before it's in stores.