D&D 5E (2014) OK WotC, I've had just about enough of this...

[Trickster Spirit]

I always called BS on this to. So I stopped and did the math myself.

If you compare the peak years of TSR when they were putting out the most D&D content and accessories (the mid '90s) with last year from Paizo, the latter released more (and will again this year). Even if you include the Forgotten Realms in the mix - fair since a third of Paizo's material is specific to their campaign setting - then Paizo is producing more.
Except... it stops working if you add Dragon and Dungeon to the mix. That was still published by TSR at the time and adds a staggering amount of pages to this mix. And so much of Pathfinder (the monthly APs and Player Companion volumes) are what they used to do for the magazine.

See, that's what I'd like to see more than anything else - new issues of Dragon and Dungeon. Electronic versions at least since we're never going to see them in print except possibly in compendium format again.

Seriously, with half the D&D staff dedicated to licensing stuff, putting out two full-size magazines a month is more than enough to keep the remaining staff occupied year-round, especially since they also have to oversee the third-party products, play test new material and also work on stuff like story-bibles, living ruleset changes and campaign setting write-ups.

 

[Jester David]

Thing is, being silent results in rumours and speculation and if you are silent long enough, people begin to believe those rumours and speculation.

And if they tell us what they have planned for 2015 and even 2016 the speculation will stop? Or will the speculation suddenly move to "what's the fifth storyline in fall 2016??"

They don't need to release anything. TSR didn't. Not for 1e. It was years between splatbooks. Other than reprinting tournament modules. And WotC is doing that digitally with Expeditions.

 

[Jester David]

See, that's what I'd like to see more than anything else - new issues of Dragon and Dungeon. Electronic versions at least since we're never going to see them in print except possibly in compendium format again.

Seriously, with half the D&D staff dedicated to licensing stuff, putting out two full-size magazines a month is more than enough to keep the remaining staff occupied year-round, especially since they also have to oversee the third-party products, play test new material and also work on stuff like story-bibles, living ruleset changes and campaign setting write-ups.

It'd be tricky given the design of the website. It's not really laid out for articles the same way as the last few iterations, and getting to older articles is a pain. I wouldn't want to consume regular content on the site.

New magazine content would be cool, but it was a heck of a lot of crunch that wasn't really well playtested. Switching to quarterly might work though, and focusing less on new mechanics.

 

[Mercurius]

I always called BS on this to. So I stopped and did the math myself.

If you compare the peak years of TSR when they were putting out the most D&D content and accessories (the mid '90s) with last year from Paizo, the latter released more (and will again this year). Even if you include the Forgotten Realms in the mix - fair since a third of Paizo's material is specific to their campaign setting - then Paizo is producing more.
Except... it stops working if you add Dragon and Dungeon to the mix. That was still published by TSR at the time and adds a staggering amount of pages to this mix. And so much of Pathfinder (the monthly APs and Player Companion volumes) are what they used to do for the magazine.

Call me surprised. Now let's take a look at what Paizo published for Pathfinder in 2014. I'm just going to use Amazon in the "Pathfinder Game" category under books and then sort by publication date and then I'm visually sorting by publisher and sticking to Paizo. I'll also double-check the Paizo web-site, but there is probably some margin of error here.

BOOKS
Hardcover Rule Books (3): Monster Codex, Advanced Class Guide, Inner Sea Gods
Campaign Setting sourcebooks (7): Ships of the Inner Sea, Undead Unleashed, Technology Guide, Numeria, Occult Mysteries, Inner Sea Combat, Osirion
Adventure Path (12): Iron Gods 1-4; Mummy's Mark: 1-6; Wrath of the Righteous 5-6
Player Companion (12): Ranged Tactics Toolbox, Advanced Class Origins, Champions of Corruption, People of the Stars, People of the River, Blood of the Elements, Harrow Handbook, Alchemy Manual, Undead Slayer's Handbook ,Champions of Balance, Bastards of Golarion, People of the Sands
Modules (3): Plunder & Peril, Emerald Spire Superdungeon (hardcover), Tears at Bitter Manor

OTHER STUFF
Flip-Mat (lots): Red Light District, Tech Dungeon, a bunch more....hard to tell which year they were made.
Map Pack (1+): Starship Corridors; see above
Tales: Nightblade, Reign of Stars, Crusader Road, Skinwalkers, Dagger of Trust, Redemption Engine
Adventure Card Game Class Decks: Wizard, Bard, Cleric, Sorcerer, Ranger, Rogue, Fighter
Adventure Card Game: Skull & Shackles 2 and 3
Pawns: Bestiary Boxes 3 and 4, Wrath of the Righteous

So yeah, that's a lot of stuff. Just counting actual print books, that's a total of 37 - or 3/month. Now of course those 37 aren't all created equal, and one of the things I like about what Paizo has done is that they "only" come out with about 3 big hardcovers per year. Compare that to the 10+ of the 3E/4E era. Of course those 10+ included setting material and some adventures, but still. Didn't someone count a total of 100 hardcovers in the 3E era?

In the end it doesn't matter to me how much product comes out, as long as there is some and as long as it is good quality. I won't buy everything but I would buy more than what is presumably planned.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

It'd be tricky given the design of the website. It's not really laid out for articles the same way as the last few iterations, and getting to older articles is a pain. I wouldn't want to consume regular content on the site.

New magazine content would be cool, but it was a heck of a lot of crunch that wasn't really well playtested. Switching to quarterly might work though, and focusing less on new mechanics.

Yeah, I'd want play-tested content presented via PDF to subscribers rather than individual articles on the site.

I'll echo pming above and say that what I hope they're doing is playing D&D exhaustively, to the exclusion of anything else, just so that hopefully when they do open up the flow of monthly magazine content they're well familiarized with the system and how it'll interact with any new rules they've tacked onto it.

 

[exile]

I think what we are seeing is the Magic: the Gathering model applied to D&D. Each new release (or pair of releases) is like a new block of Magic cards. We won't know much about the release until it hits; but when it does, it will define the way the game is played until the next release-- at least for those lucky/unlucky enough to get to/to be forced to play in stores.

 

[Jester David]

The D&D team might have also planned on waiting until they saw the reaction of 5e to decide their next move.
If there was a huge negative reaction that would change their tactics, and if people didn't like the storyline style it might change how they designed and planned future products. If the game sold poorly and there was heavy staffing changes, that would also impact future products; no use planning too far in advance when your department is getting the axe.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Maybe the guy we normally hear from (Mike Mearls) has something else on his mind... (New baby)

 

[Staffan]

According to his Twitter, he seems to have been back at work for two weeks. At least he tweeted something then along the lines of "Thank you, me-from-X-weeks-ago, for cleaning your desk before going on paternity leave."

 

[HobbitFan]

The way I'm thinking about it is sorta like this: WOTC is like a family member that has had a terrible wreck and really trashed a car(i.e 4E). With the 5E core books it looks like they have the car fixed but I'm still waiting to see if its safe to drive with them.
That's one reason I'm curious to see how they are going to handle support for 5E. I want to see their driving basically.