D&D 5E So what exactly is Wizards working on?

[bmfrosty]

All the time.

I get in about 2 hours of 5e per week. You're getting in about how much per week?

 

[Sailor Moon]

I get in about 2 hours of 5e per week. You're getting in about how much per week?

I get in about 8 hours per week.

 

[bmfrosty]

I get in about 8 hours per week.

Ok. Good to know. Are you playing as a player or the DM, or a bit of both?

 

[Sailor Moon]

Ok. Good to know. Are you playing as a player or the DM, or a bit of both?

I do both. I run my own homebrew world of Darkmoor and I play in a friend of mine's FR campaign.

 

[Sailor Moon]

Because the release schedule is so sparse, you have to question does AL truly help Wizards and the FLGS. I could honestly see two things happening.

1: People don't buy anything. They come in for their game and go home. So the FLGS could end up out of pocket because they are having to keep their lights on longer and pay staff.

2: They buy non D&D products. This is good for the FLGS but not good for D&D. Unless you have a steady stream of different people coming to AL each time, everyone that comes is going to own the PHB and may not bother with the DMG and MM, or they may own all three.

 

[Zaran]

So the last Bamf podcast interviewed Steve Townsend and Robert Schwalb about their work on the DMG. I got the following impressions about WotCs take on 5e as a whole:

1) They decided that mechanics drags the game down. I'm on board with that. 5e doesn't need splat books to add more to the mechanics. I do think the game could use the occasional supplement and can easily see these being in online articles like Unearthed Arcana (but they should be developed just as much other parts of the game and not like I've seen so far).

2) That they didn't want to give GMs anything but the barebones guidelines to make their games. This I don't like. I'm always looking for help to flesh out my adventures so they are more than just a town with a general store and a dungeon. I love buying GM tools to help my game. I might not use everything. I might not use most of it. But I still buy the whole book.

3) WotC decided if a GM wants good adventures and settings that they can go to other editions. This just kills me. People from WotC (and freelancers like these two guys) have said that when they started working on 5e, they played all the editions and tried out adventures from each one. So why are we getting only these adventure paths? I want more stuff like the Lost Mimes of Col. Flanders. It's almost like they are saying that they can't make good settings and adventures like TSR did. But I know that's not true because Eberron was a WotC created setting. The Nentir Vale was a WotC creation. It boggles my mind that they aren't wanting to build on to what has been already made and put out new settings and smaller adventures. Not every GM has the time to make up their own stuff and those same GMs aren't going to want entirely canned campaigns as well. If that was the case, wouldn't they be playing Pathfinder? It seems like that's what Pathfinder excels in.

 

[DEFCON 1]

3) WotC decided if a GM wants good adventures and settings that they can go to other editions. This just kills me. People from WotC (and freelancers like these two guys) have said that when they started working on 5e, they played all the editions and tried out adventures from each one. So why are we getting only these adventure paths? I want more stuff like the Lost Mimes of Col. Flanders. It's almost like they are saying that they can't make good settings and adventures like TSR did. But I know that's not true because Eberron was a WotC created setting. The Nentir Vale was a WotC creation. It boggles my mind that they aren't wanting to build on to what has been already made and put out new settings and smaller adventures. Not every GM has the time to make up their own stuff and those same GMs aren't going to want entirely canned campaigns as well. If that was the case, wouldn't they be playing Pathfinder? It seems like that's what Pathfinder excels in.

Aren't you answering your own question? Yes... they put out the Eberron Campaign Setting. Yes, they created the Nentir Vale microsetting. And they proved to themselves that using those older materials (as well as the older adventures) works *just fine* with 5E. So why go through all the time, effort, and money to make MORE of them, when they can just angle people towards using the entire back catalog that's just sitting there waiting to be used? It's cheaper for them to do that... and it's cheaper for us players to do that.

They produce a series of episodic adventure spaces every 6 months to be used both for home games *and* for organized play, perhaps throwing in some new character creation choices, new monsters, new magic items etc... and everything else is left for DMs to use the tools that are already out there.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Because the release schedule is so sparse, you have to question does AL truly help Wizards and the FLGS. I could honestly see two things happening.

1: People don't buy anything. They come in for their game and go home. So the FLGS could end up out of pocket because they are having to keep their lights on longer and pay staff.

2: They buy non D&D products. This is good for the FLGS but not good for D&D. Unless you have a steady stream of different people coming to AL each time, everyone that comes is going to own the PHB and may not bother with the DMG and MM, or they may own all three.

And I can honestly see a third thing happening:

3) They buy other 5E D&D products that are available. They DO buy a DMG, a MM, some miniatures from WizKids, some spell cards from GF9. One of the hardcover adventure books to use in a game they decide to run at their own home in addition to what they are playing at AL Encounters events (which inspires those players to buy their own stuff too.)

And all that happens *regardless* of how sparse or not sparse their release schedule is. Because let's face it... even if they were to release more product quicker... your points #1 and #2 still would happen.

 

[Sacrosanct]

You know, now that it's been mentioned, I do recall people coming to play AL and buying only Magic. I wonder if that was intentional by WotC lol Use D&D to get them in, and then they see new decks to buy for Magic.

 

[Zaran]

Aren't you answering your own question? Yes... they put out the Eberron Campaign Setting. Yes, they created the Nentir Vale microsetting. And they proved to themselves that using those older materials (as well as the older adventures) works *just fine* with 5E. So why go through all the time, effort, and money to make MORE of them, when they can just angle people towards using the entire back catalog that's just sitting there waiting to be used? It's cheaper for them to do that... and it's cheaper for us players to do that.

They produce a series of episodic adventure spaces every 6 months to be used both for home games *and* for organized play, perhaps throwing in some new character creation choices, new monsters, new magic items etc... and everything else is left for DMs to use the tools that are already out there.

They can make a new setting. Even with the old settings, I don't want to have to convert them to 5e. That's stuff I expect WotC to do. If they can't make money doing that with books then do it with Magazines.