State of the RPG Industry

[Staffan]

While the number of Gamemaster's is smaller, they also tend to be the folks who are most "bought in" to the game and who are most likely to spend more money on it.

This is borne out by the marketing survey WOTC did in 1999 (http://www.theescapist.com/WotCsummary1.htm). For RPGs in general, the total outlay of the average player is $400, and the average DM spends a total of $2,000. When focusing on D&D specifically, the figures were $187 and $1,444 ($7 and $21 monthly). I have no idea how the figures have changed over the last four years, but the "four players for every DM" thing that often gets bandied about is a lot less relevant when DMs spend 3-5 times more on the game than players do.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Thus, I think one of the problems with adventures is that it's too easy for purchasers to dismiss them from 1 and 2 above.

"I make up my own adventures, I'll never use this."

"This adventure is for 9th level characters and my group is 2nd level."

And so on. While some adventures do come with source material to give them more utility, that material alone is unlikely to get someone to buy it.

So oftentimes, it devolves on #3: "I have no intention of running this but I want to read it."

I find myself often thinking: "I want to read Black Sails over Freeport but, until I'm absolutely certain I'm not going to be a player in it, I won't pick it up."

Still, modules is what gives a company profile. Green Ronin is those Freeport-guys.

 

[dimonic]

This is borne out by the marketing survey WOTC did in 1999 (http://www.theescapist.com/WotCsummary1.htm). For RPGs in general, the total outlay of the average player is $400, and the average DM spends a total of $2,000. When focusing on D&D specifically, the figures were $187 and $1,444 ($7 and $21 monthly). I have no idea how the figures have changed over the last four years, but the "four players for every DM" thing that often gets bandied about is a lot less relevant when DMs spend 3-5 times more on the game than players do.

Thank you for the link: fascinatingly, more than half the people who answered the "do you DM" question (47%) answered Yes.

This has ramifications for the whole "player vs. DM" purchasing situation. Another (perhaps) neglected part of this survey has to do with school age children and their parents. My school age kids have hardly spent anything on RPG products (the odd mini or dice), whereas I have spent 100s of dollars "on their behalf". If I wasn't into it, they wouldn't have it. "Buy in" by parents may be crucial to getting a lot of new gamers into the market. I see a tremendous role can be played by schools, with teachers and parent using RPGs as extracurricular activities.

Also, there is pressure on kids (peer groups) due to the remnant "geeky" reputation of DnD, which the recent DnD movie did nothing to help. Hopefully the new movie will dispel some of that. There is a unique opportunity here, where there are probably more parent-generation players than ever before. If marketers can focus on 2 separate focii: for parents and teachers, that there are social and educational benefits to role playing, and to kids, that role playing is cool, then this position can be leveraged tremendously.

 

[Arnwyn]

Yes, for you. However, I was generalizing.

I know... but it's generalizing on something that may or may not be true.

Why's that?

Because, as a consumer, it indicates that there's a good chance that my gaming needs won't be met by d20 companies. And obviously, as a consumer, that's scary. If I generally enjoy the hobby, but realize that my needs aren't being met, and after a while discover that that more books are have little to no utility to me (and my time requirements for the game increases)... well, the hobby may just be "moving on without me".

Adventures not selling well is the fact we have to deal with. The rest is just theorizing.

Believe me, I know - this concept has been drilled into my head enough. But (again, as a consumer) - I don't give a hoot. All I care about is what I need for my game to keep the hobby enjoyable and not "work". That's why it's scary.

(Further, I don't think that "liking modules" is such an aberrant behavior for a DM... but maybe it really is in this current D&D climate.)

 

[Mystery Man]

I'd like to see more books for DM's and DMing. Not so much for me but for the industry. Becuase there's so many books geared towards players, everywhere there's a ton of people who want to play the game. Its great but if you don't have anyone who wants to run it......

 

[Bards R Us]

The other and much better option is to expand the RPG market base. More players and more DM's means more books sold all around. I also see elements of this strategy in WotC's recent move to 3.5 and connecting the game to the minis market. This accomplishes several things. It allows WotC to sell both books and minis, cross-marketing their RPG products and their minis products and hopefully expanding the customer base for both products at the same time.

Also by focusing more on the tactical table-top wargame aspects of D&D, it allows WotC to appeal to the non-gamer. Let's face it, the image of a bunch of "geeks" sitting around, talking in funny voices, and playing "Dungeons and Dragons" is very negative image/stereotype that does not appeal to the mass market. But when you have something like minis and grid maps, suddenly things start to look much more like a fascinating and complex board game. And board games appeal much better to the mass market than the negative RPG stereotype does.

If WotC can sell minis to gamers, sell RPGs to minis players, and bring in new blood with either market or through the new D&D board game, they will be doing all of us a great service because they will be expanding the RPG market base. That means more customers for not only other d20 publishers, it also means more people getting into RPG's and higher sales for WW, Hero Games, etc.

Some things WotC should be doing right now: Get the D&D board game in major U.S. chain stores like Toys R Us and Wal-Mart, include ads and discount coupons for the D&D mini's game and for the core rulebooks within the box.

They should also go to Cartoon Network or use some of that Hasbro purchasing power to put out a FR cartoon show. Hasbro could even do action figures and stuff, in addition to the minis. Who wouldn't want to buy Battle Action Drizzt? Or Elminster with Kung-Fu grip? Other figures and accessories sold seperately!

Seriously, the amount of IP that WotC sits on and does nothing with just boggles my mind.

Excellent analysis

Regardless of one's personal opinion of 3.5 or the mini's line, I do think they help bring DnD out into the public spotlight and will lead more non-gamers into becoming acquainted with the brand and therefore bringing in new blood into the hobby. White Wolf is also doing something similar with their new Vampire CCG line.

And the new GE commercial showing a DnD phb will certainly a be a big boost.

 

[Ghostwind]

Despite the ups and downs of the RPG industry on the manufacturer's side, many of the "problems" fall into the retailer's ballpark. Too often a game store is run by the hobbyist and not the business man. As a result, the hobbyist owner tries to buy everything that comes out and is often stuck with shelves filled with d20 books that haven't sold. Because of this, at some point he becomes sour on d20, blaming it for his poor ordering decisions. On the other hand, the business man store owner tends to only stock the books from proven manufacturers that have a following (and the sales) in his area. This means the owner is likely to only stock those publishers that deliver consistent quality and product (such as Wotc, Green Ronin, Bastion, Fantasy Flight, etc.), special ordering all others as needed/requested. Unfortunately, the number of hobbyist stores outweigh the business minded stores by a considerable ratio. To combat this, gamers need to "train" their FLGS to carry the products they want to see and not the ones they don't want to buy.

The average print run of a 3rd party d20 publisher book is only around 2000 copies now. With over 5000 retailers in the US alone, if every store bought just one copy of a particular title, you would see much higher print runs and publishers who were quite happy. However, preorders for a title are only in the 500-700 numbers and total sales between 1000-1200 copies on the average. So, obviously stores are not ordering product like they once were because they have a lot of existing d20 stock in the case of the hobbyist owner...

This is why gamers need to get out there and begin telling their gaming stores exactly what they want to see. Game store owners tend to rely on the distributors to tell them what's hot and distributors only care about selling product, so they will say anything to make a sale (for the most part - there are some exceptions). If gamers can start educating the stores, you will likely see stronger sales in the products you want and in the publishers you want. A good example of this can be seen in a store near where I live. In the past, they have not done well with Green Ronin products and have been reluctant to carry them. After much ballyhoo and badgering, I finally got them to start carrying more. Lo and behold, the GR line is now selling quite well. If I had not done this, there would have been missed sales opportunities for GR products for that store. So start working with your LGS and get them on board with some smart decision making and you'll likely see a better and stronger upturn in the overall d20 marketplace.

 

[Sholari]

Don't know if I am the only one that notices this. But fewer and fewer people seem to want to run games. DMs seem to be burning out more quickly these days.

 

[dimonic]

Don't know if I am the only one that notices this. But fewer and fewer people seem to want to run games. DMs seem to be burning out more quickly these days.

I myself go through cycles. I DM'd for several years, and then became burnt out. It was mostly power-hungry players, (or one player), who pushed and pushed for more and more, who cheated behind the scenes (fudged his character's numbers), made a stink every time a rule went against him, criticized his fellow players, or was generally a bad sport in every regard. We all owe it to the DM to help make the game session as smooth as possible. If we don't like the way the game is run, we can discuss it like gentlemen _after_ the game, or quit the game.

I have played for a while, and now I feel the itch to DM again. The oddest thing is that two things give me the itch to DM:

1) Bad DM'ing! When I play in a poorly run game, or a badly contrived scenario, or have the DM lead us by the nose through his pet module, or have him "house rule" a character's most significant capabilities into oblivion I think: hhhmmm: I could do sooo much better. Then the creative juices start flowing, and before you know it I am up and running.

and

2) Good DM'ing! When I play in a good game, I get all fired up about new ideas that I can add to the game, include cool stuff the DM is doing, then the creative juices start flowing, and before you know it I am up and running.

I think one thing that could be done in terms of marketing, is addressing the popular conceit: "I could do better". Many of us cannot in fact do better. It takes a lot to put together a great module/campaign world/class/rules/whatever. However, I love the Dragon magazine, because it allows and ecourages me to take little snippets from all sources, and put together my own whole.

World building, city building, dungeon building articles are among my favourites. More "howto" books on these things are in my christmas list, but there are not enough trustworthy reviews of books like these. Too often, the reviewers seem to be teen or twenty somethings with a love of Yugi-Oh style superpower/zappo-blam type mechanics, and they will pan something which is just perfect to me, or the reverse. I rely on my local game store to stock the product, and I have to thumb through several books, taking my time before I can commit to a purchase.

 

[WizarDru]

Don't know if I am the only one that notices this. But fewer and fewer people seem to want to run games. DMs seem to be burning out more quickly these days.

My experience is exactly opposite to yours. More and more folks that I know actually want to run games than I've seen in the last 15 years. In the past, at best, I had one other DM...now I have three potential people, all running or working on their own games.