D&D 5E On rulings, rules, and Twitter, or: How Sage Advice Changed

[tetrasodium]

I mean I wouldn't be opposed to a blog for that purpose, but I don't especially care what platform it's on, nor do I think it should replace a collection of the straightforward clarifications. Leaving that to twitter just makes it harder to find specific rulings.

That kind of thing would actually be very useful, perhaps moreso than the SA itself. That goes for both for 5e & gearing up for an eventual 6e theory someone raised earlier . If you look back at the old 2e & 3.x DMGs there was a ton of pagespace devoted to giving DMs insight into the rules & understanding of both the reasons, things to be aware of, & structure of the gears themselves so they can confidentially use or modify those rules. For whatever reason 5e is pretty much completely lacking in that kind of stuff.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

That kind of thing would actually be very useful, perhaps moreso than the SA itself. That goes for both for 5e & gearing up for an eventual 6e theory someone raised earlier . If you look back at the old 2e & 3.x DMGs there was a ton of pagespace devoted to giving DMs insight into the rules & understanding of both the reasons, things to be aware of, & structure of the gears themselves so they can confidentially use or modify those rules. For whatever reason 5e is pretty much completely lacking in that kind of stuff.

Hey ya know if “6e” is mostly just 5e with consolidated errata and some patch fixes based on SA as a vehicle to figure out what isn’t working with the player base, I’d be fine with that.

 

[el-remmen]

They should have stuck to this format for rules questions:

 

[tetrasodium]

Hey ya know if “6e” is mostly just 5e with consolidated errata and some patch fixes based on SA as a vehicle to figure out what isn’t working with the player base, I’d be fine with that.

I'd be surprised if it was all that much more significant than the jump from 3.5->3.75/PF unless there is some kind of bomb that somehow reshapes ttrpgs & the people who play them or something. That doesn't mean minor changes & a bunch of well developed optional bolt on systems wouldn't make for a huge improvement to folks wanting styles of games different from whatever the OneTrueWay is

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'd be surprised if it was all that much more significant than the jump from 3.5->3.75/PF unless there is some kind of bomb that somehow reshapes ttrpgs & the people who play them or something. That doesn't mean minor changes & a bunch of well developed optional bolt on systems wouldn't make for a huge improvement to folks wanting styles of games different from whatever the OneTrueWay is

I would probably ditch D&D if it was half as much of a jump as 3 to 3.5. At least in terms of following the game and buying new products.

I’d abandoned D&D for most of 3.5 already, only coming back for 4e.

I doubt I’d be in the majority, but there’d be enough other people who lost interest that it would be quite a risk, especially any time before sales have stagnated and other strategies have failed to work.

I’ll be genuinely shocked if we see anything that can reasonably be called a new edition any time before 2030.

I’d say you’d need at least most of; a full year or more of stagnant or failing book and digital sales, failure of other strategies to turn it around, a drop in licensed merch sales, failure of D&D shows and movies, and a plateau of other RPGs growth.

What we may see in that time, instead, is for licensed products to leverage the D&D brand to the point where brand stability is more important than book sales to the profitability of Wotc.

Most new gamers aren’t really going to care if there is one new book a year, when there are multiple video games, shows, movies, and whatever else.

The whole dynamic people imagine, where the point of a D&D movie is at all to get more people playing D&D, is, IMO, not a thing.

 

[Parmandur]

The whole dynamic people imagine, where the point of a D&D movie is at all to get more people playing D&D, is, IMO, not a thing.

I mean, they sure don't hope that the movie will cause fewer people to play.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I mean, they sure don't hope that the movie will cause fewer people to play.

Absolutely, but increased play isn't why the movie is being made, which I have seen people claim, and make arguments about what the movie needs to be or will be based on that premise.

 

[Parmandur]

Absolutely, but increased play isn't why the movie is being made, which I have seen people claim, and make arguments about what the movie needs to be or will be based on that premise.

For sure, the movie is being made because Hasbro likes money from Paramount, and Paramount wants butts in seats. Pretty basic. Any positive interaction with other stuff is pure gravy. I bet Hasbro is as interested in the possibility of not having to pay Disney for toy rights for a Summer blockbuster as anything.

 

[Krachek]

It’s a little late to whim on Sage advice.
The compendium is pretty stable, Xanathar has only add few drops, and Tasha guide don’t seem to generate questions and bugs.
Most questions about the phb and the core rules have been answered, and the designer get better at making clear new material. For what I see now in sage advice are questions on setting, news, and cool information. So we can keep as it is the actual compendium and play for a couple of years. I think we enter in a stable period for ruling, there have been a hype before Tasha guide, but finally the hype deflated quickly, and we are far away from a 6ed or even a 5.5Ed.

 

[Jaeger]

What we may see in that time, instead, is for licensed products to leverage the D&D brand to the point where brand stability is more important than book sales to the profitability of Wotc.

I agree.

Because:

The whole dynamic people imagine, where the point of a D&D movie is at all to get more people playing D&D, is, IMO, not a thing.

Yes.

The whole point of all the videogame, Tv series, and movie initiatives Hasbro is doing; is to make "D&D" as a brand profitable independent of RPG sales.

Magic is still the big money maker for WOTC but for various reasons D&D is the more exploitable IP.

With D&D riding a all time high of popularity, Hasbro is trying to strike while the iron is hot and Leverage D&D to an evergreen Brand like The Transformers.

Hasbro wants to make the "D&D" brand big enough that the RPG side of the franchise will be incidental to the bottom line.