Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
So why no PDFs? Is their fear of piracy -that- bad?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6405484" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>True, but at the end of the day, they were in the business of making D&D and related games. So if they did poorly they were incentivized to do better.</p><p></p><p>However, WotC's primary purpose is selling Magic cards. That's their business and they can be excellent at that and it doesn't transfer to being good at D&D as the product lines are so very different. And there's very little incentive to be better as the money D&D brings in is pretty much insignificant. The money D&D makes in its best year is a tenth what Magic brings in during a slow quarter. There's no reason to bother working hard to learn the business of D&D, because every hour spent making an extra dollar could be spent making ten times as much via MtG. </p><p></p><p>MtG is apparently doing very, very well. It's a good time to be a MtG player, and most gaming stores I know rely on that card game money. But that doesn't transfer to knowing how to publish a Tabletop RPG any more than that skill would transfer to publishing a board game or a mobile app. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Disney/Marvel is pretty much a good comparison. You think any Disney executives care at all about what makes a good comic book? About keeping the comic book fans happy? </p><p>That business is peanuts. It's insignificant. It's an audience of 250,000 people that makes a few dozen million each year, compared to the billion dollar franchises. The comic companies can run around doing their own thing and so long as they don't lose money no one really cares. Most Disney, even the ones that have dealings with Marvel, very likely have few ideas of the nuances of actually publishing a comic or what makes a good comic versus a bad one. (And given the state of the comic industry, this kinda shows.) And Marvel only has one business (selling comics) compared to WotC's multiple divisions. It'd be like if 95% of Marvel was dedicated to comics and 5% was dedicated to, oh, postcards. Even if there were people who were really invested in learning the business of comic books, they might not extend their knowledge base to the secondary department of postcards. </p><p></p><p></p><p>PDF sales make be a "drop in the bucket" but they're still a source of revenue. D&D needs all the money it can get. And they're useful for the players, which keeps the fans happy. </p><p></p><p>I'm always using my Pathfinder PDFs. Continually. I'm reading APs at work during my break, or preparing for an adventure, or writing some homebrew content. Even if I don't have my iPad, I have them on Dropbox so any PC becomes my gaming library. </p><p>And I'd probably do that with 5e as well. I'm doing a 5e Ravenloft update, so it'd be handy to reference the books anywhere, so I can do a few minutes or race design or subclass balancing whenever I have some free time, not just at home with my books beside me. Being able to ctrl-F to search for a phrasing, or the frequency of a saving throw, or counting how many monsters have a fear effect, etc. </p><p></p><p>Really, the only thing Hasbro executives care about D&D is the IP it brings to the table. Again, like Disney, which doesn't care about comics but wants the characters. They don't even really need the TTRPG any more than they need the mini game or the character builder program. That could be licenced just as easily. If WotC thinks it can save money by doing the RPG out-of-house it will layoff all of the remaining half-dozen D&D brand team and keep the licensing people on staff to manage that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 6405484, member: 37579"] True, but at the end of the day, they were in the business of making D&D and related games. So if they did poorly they were incentivized to do better. However, WotC's primary purpose is selling Magic cards. That's their business and they can be excellent at that and it doesn't transfer to being good at D&D as the product lines are so very different. And there's very little incentive to be better as the money D&D brings in is pretty much insignificant. The money D&D makes in its best year is a tenth what Magic brings in during a slow quarter. There's no reason to bother working hard to learn the business of D&D, because every hour spent making an extra dollar could be spent making ten times as much via MtG. MtG is apparently doing very, very well. It's a good time to be a MtG player, and most gaming stores I know rely on that card game money. But that doesn't transfer to knowing how to publish a Tabletop RPG any more than that skill would transfer to publishing a board game or a mobile app. Disney/Marvel is pretty much a good comparison. You think any Disney executives care at all about what makes a good comic book? About keeping the comic book fans happy? That business is peanuts. It's insignificant. It's an audience of 250,000 people that makes a few dozen million each year, compared to the billion dollar franchises. The comic companies can run around doing their own thing and so long as they don't lose money no one really cares. Most Disney, even the ones that have dealings with Marvel, very likely have few ideas of the nuances of actually publishing a comic or what makes a good comic versus a bad one. (And given the state of the comic industry, this kinda shows.) And Marvel only has one business (selling comics) compared to WotC's multiple divisions. It'd be like if 95% of Marvel was dedicated to comics and 5% was dedicated to, oh, postcards. Even if there were people who were really invested in learning the business of comic books, they might not extend their knowledge base to the secondary department of postcards. PDF sales make be a "drop in the bucket" but they're still a source of revenue. D&D needs all the money it can get. And they're useful for the players, which keeps the fans happy. I'm always using my Pathfinder PDFs. Continually. I'm reading APs at work during my break, or preparing for an adventure, or writing some homebrew content. Even if I don't have my iPad, I have them on Dropbox so any PC becomes my gaming library. And I'd probably do that with 5e as well. I'm doing a 5e Ravenloft update, so it'd be handy to reference the books anywhere, so I can do a few minutes or race design or subclass balancing whenever I have some free time, not just at home with my books beside me. Being able to ctrl-F to search for a phrasing, or the frequency of a saving throw, or counting how many monsters have a fear effect, etc. Really, the only thing Hasbro executives care about D&D is the IP it brings to the table. Again, like Disney, which doesn't care about comics but wants the characters. They don't even really need the TTRPG any more than they need the mini game or the character builder program. That could be licenced just as easily. If WotC thinks it can save money by doing the RPG out-of-house it will layoff all of the remaining half-dozen D&D brand team and keep the licensing people on staff to manage that. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
So why no PDFs? Is their fear of piracy -that- bad?
Top