D&D (2024) So what happened to the new and classic campaign settings? (and what's next?)

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The irony is, most people called "Boomers" today are actually Gen X. You know, the allegedly "naughty word the system" garage band skater punks who were flipping off The Man and smoking pot while being juvenile delinquents and teen parents.

That generation is now the "I demand to speak to the manager" generation, amongst other far more concerning patterns of behavior.

Terrible behavior knows no generation.

 

[Desdichado]

I bet there are fantasy fiction youtubers that make more than her.

What a world we have wrought.

No kidding. And maybe Gen Z really is the near future of D&D, but if so, WotC probably has to be an order of magnitude more innovative to figure out how to monetize them.

EDIT: Of course, the other possibility is that Jemisin's success is manufactured and fake. There's a lot of manipulation by publishers of the bestseller's list that's pretty well documented. Brandon Sanderson certainly seems to legitimately make real money, for instance.

Not to throw that word in their faces, but you know what I mean. It isn't just the setting that needs to be updated. It's the whole concept of how content is created and distributed and consumed.

No, Generation Y is what the Millennials were originally called by demographers before the generation got old enough to call themselves something and marketers got on board and ran with Millennials.

No, Generation Y and the Millennials were originally two distinct generations. Again, I was there in my marketing MBA classes in 1998 or so reading about them in professional and academic marketing periodicals. The conflation of the two as a single generation was a later development.

As for Gen X's title, I somehow always assumed Billy Idol was ultimately the source, but I never cared to find out how the term was somehow coopted for the entire generation.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No, Generation Y and the Millennials were originally two distinct generations. Again, I was there in my marketing MBA classes in 1998 or so reading about them in professional and academic marketing periodicals. The conflation of the two as a single generation was a later development.

I don't think marketers should be the authority here over demographers, but I understand why you might feel differently.

I suspect the answer is that they're talking about slightly different things -- one about the big piles of people on the birth rate distribution charts, the other clumps of people with similar traits that we can sell stuff to -- but are unhelpfully using overlapping terms.

 

[Desdichado]

I don't think marketers should be the authority here over demographers, but I understand why you might feel differently.

I suspect the answer is that they're talking about slightly different things -- one about the big piles of people on the birth rate distribution charts, the other clumps of people with similar traits that we can sell stuff to -- but are unhelpfully using overlapping terms.

That may be true. Either way, "Millennial" for someone born up to nearly twenty years before the Millennial turnover doesn't make much sense. Nor does Gen Z following Millennial without a Gen Y to follow Gen X. The original designations all made sense, the current formulation is super wonky. But again, as long as everyone agrees that, for example, the Millennials is really two separate groups, and older and a younger half that have a different experience and are at a different point in their life now, I suppose I don't care that much what they're called.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's worth pointing out that these "fantasy bestseller charts" are relative not absolute, and fantasy bestsellers sell only a fraction of what they did a couple decades ago.

My original post was in response to "how has fantasy changed in the past 10 years." Even if fewer books are selling overall, if a decent chunk of it is cozier and more diverse, that's the change I was responding to.

N. K. Jemisin, by her own admission, can't live off her income as a fantasy author, and she's a three-time Hugo winner and supposed best-seller.

Tim Powers -- the inspiration for multiple RPGs, as well as someone whose books have been repeatedly adapted for movies, etc. -- has to teach fiction at a college despite cranking out a great novel every year or so.

Fiction writing is a bad full-time gig unless you can rocket up to the Neil Gaiman level, but even he makes a lot of his money from ancillary activities like speaking engagements, being the narrator for his own audiobooks and his many, many movies and TV shows. I suspect DC Comics is also cutting him a big check for Sandman every month in perpetuity as well.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Terrible behavior knows no generation.

Oh, most certainly. It's just hilarious to me what has become of them. Like, if you were to travel back in time to when they were 20 and show most of these folks their behavior at 55, they'd openly and unabashedly hate what they've become. It is an IRL "no, I won't do it, I won't betray my friends!"/"Oh, but you already have..." trope, literally becoming what you hate.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh, most certainly. It's just hilarious to me what has become of them. Like, if you were to travel back in time to when they were 20 and show most of these folks their behavior at 55, they'd openly and unabashedly hate what they've become. It is an IRL "no, I won't do it, I won't betray my friends!"/"Oh, but you already have..." trope, literally becoming what you hate.

There's a reason "hope I die before I get old" is such a resonant lyric.

 

[overgeeked]

My original post was in response to "how has fantasy changed in the past 10 years." Even if fewer books are selling overall, if a decent chunk of it is cozier and more diverse, that's the change I was responding to.

I'm not sure book sales are down. I think book sales are shifting. Traditional publishing isn't doing great, so tracking their numbers and using those as a stand in for the whole of publishing is a bad idea. Indie publishing is doing great. But those numbers aren't tracked that well. More accurately, it was doing great until people started dropping "AI" written books left and right. But the shift is also content, not method of publication. Take Dark Horse Comics as an example. Manga is 1% of their output, but 66% of their sales. Yes, you read that right. The kids are reading manga and light novels and watching anime. That's where the money is.

Fiction writing is a bad full-time gig unless you can rocket up to the Neil Gaiman level, but even he makes a lot of his money from ancillary activities like speaking engagements, being the narrator for his own audiobooks and his many, many movies and TV shows. I suspect DC Comics is also cutting him a big check for Sandman every month in perpetuity as well.

It depends entirely on your speed of writing, style, and what you're willing or able to write. Certain styles sell better. Certain genres sell better. Etc. If the only thing you'll write is cat romance, you shouldn't be surprised it doesn't sell well. If all you manage to do is write one novel every few years, you shouldn't be surprised you can't make ends meet. Quite a few indie authors are doing just fine.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The kids are reading manga and light novels and watching anime. That's where the money is.

And thus we return to Obojima and Ryoko's! The circle remains unbroken.

 

[Desdichado]

It depends entirely on your speed of writing, style, and what you're willing or able to write. Certain styles sell better. Certain genres sell better. Etc. If the only thing you'll write is cat romance, you shouldn't be surprised it doesn't sell well. If all you manage to do is write one novel every few years, you shouldn't be surprised you can't make ends meet. Quite a few indie authors are doing just fine.

Apparently, Bigfoot pr0n is a huge seller. What a world we live in.

Meet The Stay-At-Home Mom Who Makes $30K Per Month From Her Bigfoot Porn Novels

Although even that story is ten years old now.