D&D 5E State of D&D

[Raith5]

I am in two minds (partly because I play with two groups). With regards to good old fashioned dungeons crawls then 5e is great and there is enough material there to make a wide range of choices of PCs (but more monsters are needed urgently!) and have fun. But with regards to a more high fantasy style I think there is a lot of space for more complicated options. Despite its flaws I think 4e opened a few doors that have made me permanently rethink what martial characters can do/ what combats can be like for one thing.

 

[Uchawi]

Debating the validity of surveys or polls is an entire separate discussion. Overall the impression I have for the state of D&D is they have minimum staff and the type of releases will focus more on story than crunch. So you will continue to see adventure paths or an alternative, but crunch will never compare to 2E, 3E, or even 4E. Unless we have the same discussion 10 years from now. They will be content to allow a DM to buy any of the previous edition material and convert over the options and/or crunch they want. The focus of 5E is to remain relevant so they can sell the license, or branch out in other media like movies, books, etc. The emphasis is support the brand, versus just the RPG.

Overall, where 5E does not meet my preferences for crunch is supporting the martial classes. The majority of classes in 5E use magic. If they had a mechanism for maneuvers (similar to spells for casters) and more detailed combat (where martial classes excel) then I would be happier. Now it is just a wait and see for options to expand martial classes. Even if they have to release it as another handbook with updated martial classes for a specific setting.

 

[bedir than]

[MENTION=6802212]lobo316[/MENTION]

http://www.dndclassics.com/ is a store that has PDF and sometimes other options, for modules and other things from earlier editions. None are built for 5th edition, but you don't need to spend too much time converting. Most of the 1st, 2nd stuff is just taking percentile and converting to d20. DCs tend to go down a bit, add some more HPs in, lower AC. Basically done.

I just noticed that the Elemental Evil Players Guide is on their as a free PDF download as well as some softcover versions. I'll probably be buying it.


An anecdote - I'm in a tiny tourist town in central Washington this weekend. It's German themed and done up in holiday lights. Nestled inside one of the larger buildings is a comic book store. That store had one shelf of their RPG rack dedicated to 5th edition, a mix of spine and full cover frontings for each official book. It also had a regular Wednesday night DnD drop in session.

It's a town of less than 2000 people. It subsists off of tourism. Yet, they host DnD sessions and sell DnD stuff. And I'm certain that didn't happen in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s or the aughts. People that grew up playing DnD can now fund their passion in ways that teenagers cannot. They can get business loans. Their hobbies are aren't just passion projects, but money makers.

That's why DnD is stronger than ever. There are even 3rd generations playing it as a college kid in the late 70s has kids that are in their late 20s now and their kids are old enough to play as well.

 

[dracomilan]

class books (like Marital Power)

I missed that! I hope I've still got time to have my wife buy me that for xmas!

Seriously - I think 5e is doing extremely good 'because' of its publishing strategy, not despite it.

 

[Corpsetaker]

I think saying 5th edition is doing really well isn't revealing the overall picture.

They've managed to minimize their costs and put out very few books. They are in a position to just sit back and let what few they have put out make money.

Overall I would say Wizards hasn't spent a lot of money on D&D.

I think putting out more optional crunch books would be a true test to how well 5th edition is doing.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Well, that's kind of the definition of doing well. Minimizing cost and maximizing profits.

Let's just look at the anecdotal evidence. Superior reviews of the game and core books. People who haven't played /bought a "modern" D&D book in decades are playing the game. People who dropped out of the hobby are now back with their kids. Those previously unable to play now playing online, every night at my FLGS has some 5e game going. My DM is converting our Pathfinder homebrew to 5e. Just listen to the people on the forums and it seems to be going pretty well.

 

[darjr]

How long was play testing? Public play testing where there was little to nothing except free play test material? That was probably a huge investment.

 

[BryonD]

Seriously - I think 5e is doing extremely good 'because' of its publishing strategy, not despite it.

I think this is a false option. It is "doing extremely well" because it is still the "new shiny" with the superstar brand name on it.
To be clear, IMO it is a great game. But doing well is both completely relative and heavily influenced by what is going on around it.
It is pretty much "doing great" by default, having cleared the first hurdle of being a solid base game.
Keep in mind that at this point in the 4E life-cycle nobody was predicting where we would be today.

For sake of argument I'll accept that low output is helping (for the record, I don't buy that at all, I just think it is about WotC's funding plan). But if the sales were gangbusters at the level of return that WotC sees on other investments, they would change the plan and invest more. That doesn't mean in any way that it is hurting at all. It just means that even a "best in class" TTRPG is not worthy of much investment in WotC's eyes right now.

 

[darjr]

There is a difference in investment and production of splat. That investment could be in the form of spending more to bring in folks like the creator of adventure time and more time in longer more in depth play testing than in churning out books.

 

[Hussar]

For those looking for more material, there are over a hundred modules already and at least two complete settings out there. Check out the publishers forum here at En World and use the 5E tag and you'll soon see there is a ton of material out there.

Kickstarter is another great place to start looking as well.