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

[Sailor Moon]

Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Rise of Tiamat, and -in a couple week- Princes of the Apocalypse. All in eight months. With the DM Screen, they're just shy of one product a month.

While WotC may not have written the Tyranny of Dragons adventures, they were still the publisher. It's not *that* different from the dozens of other books principally written by freelancers published in the last dozen years.

It does matter when Wizards doesn't actually do them. When the design team isn't the ones working on it and they just slap the D&D logo on it, you have to wonder what they are doing. Once again, AP's aren't something a lot of people use so I wouldn't call them support.

 

[Reynard]

Right now, for this year, support is low.
If they release one hardcover accessory every year, after 2-3 years the game will be very well supported. After 5-6 years there will be a very acceptable amount of content. After 10-11 years things will start to feel a little bloated. But that's a decade from now.

Short term pain for long term gain.

I agree: you could likely produce one rulesy hardcover a year for 5E and that would be plenty for rules support. But then you could add an annual setting hardcover (FR one year, then Eberron, then Planescape, etc...) and quarterly setting gazetteers. Throw in bimonthly self contained modules and a monthly periodical ( print or digital) and it would be just about right. Bloat only happens with rules, and only then if they are incorporated into the larger publishing strategy. Everything else is an option.

 

[darjr]

The echo chamber that is this niche forum

I don't think so. The very reason there are so many posts is probably because it isn't an echo chamber. For instance, I think I'd be just fine if nothing was released at gen con.

 

[Reynard]

It does matter when Wizards doesn't actually do them. When the design team isn't the ones working on it and they just slap the D&D logo on it, you have to wonder what they are doing. Once again, AP's aren't something a lot of people use so I wouldn't call them support.

I don't think this matters much. Subcontractors are common in many industries. Lots of sequel video games are produced by different developers than the original, for example. That WotC wants to reduce overhead through subbing to smaller studios should result in a more robust support schedule, not a thinner one.

 

[Sailor Moon]

I don't think this matters much. Subcontractors are common in many industries. Lots of sequel video games are produced by different developers than the original, for example. That WotC wants to reduce overhead through subbing to smaller studios should result in a more robust support schedule, not a thinner one.

You would think so. If you have another company doing things for you, then you would think the in house people would be putting stuff out as well.

 

[Reynard]

You would think so. If you have another company doing things for you, then you would think the in house people would be putting stuff out as well.

The staff is very small. They probably spend a lot of time working with the subs.

 

[Sailor Moon]

The staff is very small. They probably spend a lot of time working with the subs.

They may be small but they aren't newbies.

 

[bmfrosty]

It does matter when Wizards doesn't actually do them. When the design team isn't the ones working on it and they just slap the D&D logo on it, you have to wonder what they are doing. Once again, AP's aren't something a lot of people use so I wouldn't call them support.

Could you get more insulting?

 

[Sailor Moon]

Could you get more insulting?

Where's the insult?

 

[bmfrosty]

Where's the insult?

That you can't see it is another problem.

You just suggested that the D&D team does nothing but slap D&D labels on products developed by others. That's massively insulting.