Ilbranteloth
Explorer
Aside from the content on the website, the 25 page book, and the hardcover adventure, they also announced that there are 16(!) adventures set in Mulmaster and the surrounding region for the Adventurer's League for this adventure cycle. I think there were 12 for the Tyranny of Dragons arc.
Plus whatever content is planned for the next arc, whatever unannounced projects are in the works, compiling and then responding to the survey (and the next one) - not just the response online, but designing new stuff as a result. They may also be responsible for approving licensed products (not necessarily the T-shirts, but designs for new minis, DM screens, spell cards, etc.).
It's like any other job (and I'm assuming that even the most critical people here have jobs). Most jobs have a lot of responsibilities and no matter what people think, you really don't know what else those are. I'm sure that in addition to developing (and selling) their business model/plan to whoever they report to, they also have to track/report the success of that plan, make adjustments, etc. I don't know how involved they are in the actual production - managing deadlines, proofing, working with the printers, distributors, selling (as in to new dealers, distributors, etc.), or any of the other processors that come with a business like this.
It also seems like there is a fair amount of in house playtesting. So maybe converting a bunch of spells isn't that much work (although I'm finding that all of the conversions I'm doing not only take time to convert, but to document even if only copy/pasting and modifying. Then testing, testing, modifying, and testing again.
And that doesn't include the discussions and development of things that aren't released. I would have to imagine that a fair amount of material is proposed, each of which requires a write-up of some sort, and occasionally something that is initially approved may end up being pushed to a later date for various reasons and then you start developing something else.
Are they responsible for approving novel plots and maintaining world consistency? I don't know, but if so that's more work. What about the video games?
I, for one, am extremely happy with what I've been seeing. Sure, I'm not using everything. I looked through the Eberron stuff on Unearthed Arcana, and basically found nothing that I'll use in my Forgotten Realms campaign as is, there are still some things I can take from it. Plus I'm sure there were plenty of other people that really loved the material. They aren't producing this stuff just for me.
I also think that the current trajectory makes a lot of sense. I like that the focus has been more focused on rules than campaign material. Even the Eberron writeup in Unearthed Arcana focused on rules to bring it into the 5th edition, rather than updating the lore.
The idea of releasing new rules supplements in a series of free online releases, whether in articles on the webpage, or more formal digital publications to tie in to the adventures is pretty cool too. The published books can than have more actual adventure content, and when they do start working on publishing campaign setting material, it can also focus more on the lore and locations.
They have noted that they are experimenting with finding what will work, and what will work long term. That takes time, but I think the innovations are pretty cool. Would I like more material? Of course. I love the 5th edition, and would love a weekly update with rules and lore (actually practically daily). I think we will see more content added for weekly and monthly online updates, and that in a year we'll start to see some of the campaign publications working their way into the schedule too.
It's easy to question it from out here. But it's also pretty likely that the power-that-be are expecting better performance from each published (physical book), and it's pretty clear that they feel a part of the problem is too many releases. From out here it might look like they've gone too far the other way, but from a business standpoint it's far too early to tell what impact that decision has had.
Ilbranteloth
Plus whatever content is planned for the next arc, whatever unannounced projects are in the works, compiling and then responding to the survey (and the next one) - not just the response online, but designing new stuff as a result. They may also be responsible for approving licensed products (not necessarily the T-shirts, but designs for new minis, DM screens, spell cards, etc.).
It's like any other job (and I'm assuming that even the most critical people here have jobs). Most jobs have a lot of responsibilities and no matter what people think, you really don't know what else those are. I'm sure that in addition to developing (and selling) their business model/plan to whoever they report to, they also have to track/report the success of that plan, make adjustments, etc. I don't know how involved they are in the actual production - managing deadlines, proofing, working with the printers, distributors, selling (as in to new dealers, distributors, etc.), or any of the other processors that come with a business like this.
It also seems like there is a fair amount of in house playtesting. So maybe converting a bunch of spells isn't that much work (although I'm finding that all of the conversions I'm doing not only take time to convert, but to document even if only copy/pasting and modifying. Then testing, testing, modifying, and testing again.
And that doesn't include the discussions and development of things that aren't released. I would have to imagine that a fair amount of material is proposed, each of which requires a write-up of some sort, and occasionally something that is initially approved may end up being pushed to a later date for various reasons and then you start developing something else.
Are they responsible for approving novel plots and maintaining world consistency? I don't know, but if so that's more work. What about the video games?
I, for one, am extremely happy with what I've been seeing. Sure, I'm not using everything. I looked through the Eberron stuff on Unearthed Arcana, and basically found nothing that I'll use in my Forgotten Realms campaign as is, there are still some things I can take from it. Plus I'm sure there were plenty of other people that really loved the material. They aren't producing this stuff just for me.
I also think that the current trajectory makes a lot of sense. I like that the focus has been more focused on rules than campaign material. Even the Eberron writeup in Unearthed Arcana focused on rules to bring it into the 5th edition, rather than updating the lore.
The idea of releasing new rules supplements in a series of free online releases, whether in articles on the webpage, or more formal digital publications to tie in to the adventures is pretty cool too. The published books can than have more actual adventure content, and when they do start working on publishing campaign setting material, it can also focus more on the lore and locations.
They have noted that they are experimenting with finding what will work, and what will work long term. That takes time, but I think the innovations are pretty cool. Would I like more material? Of course. I love the 5th edition, and would love a weekly update with rules and lore (actually practically daily). I think we will see more content added for weekly and monthly online updates, and that in a year we'll start to see some of the campaign publications working their way into the schedule too.
It's easy to question it from out here. But it's also pretty likely that the power-that-be are expecting better performance from each published (physical book), and it's pretty clear that they feel a part of the problem is too many releases. From out here it might look like they've gone too far the other way, but from a business standpoint it's far too early to tell what impact that decision has had.
Ilbranteloth
