The Actual Table of Contents for Xanathar's Guide to Everything

A lot of good stuff there.

Of course, on the DM side, a lot of stuff is not there, but I like what I see.

Actually, one of the most useful things will be the appendix of sample names.

 

[Azzy]

True, I don't think I would be too bothered by only being able to use the Realms or Ravenloft, I think you can provide content that can fit a multitude of settings. Is there anything that prevents someone from putting a "If you want to use this Adventure in [Insert Campaign Setting Here]" type of text box?

Unfortunately, I have no idea.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

Do folks think there's a market for a fanzine in the light of the old Dragon mag?

No.

People are complaining about the cost of this book. As has been pointed out, RPG material is already grossly underpriced for the amount of work, time and cost of production. To do a decent amount of work every month for the quality of content, layout, art, etc. in those magazines you end up paying people so very little that anyone doing the work is doing it more for name recognition than anything else, all because RPG players aren't willing to pay for it.

 

[gyor]

I'd definitely agree with you here, WoTC has turned into being a brand manager rather than a brand producer. I'd be very happy with the current release schedule if they put out a Dungeon and Dragon magazine on alternating months, but as it stands they are leaving it to their customers to generate content and taking a nice cut on top of it. That's brand licensing if I ever saw it.

They produce just enough content for appearances and then licence deals drive the real D&D business.

 

[gyor]

No.

People are complaining about the cost of this book. As has been pointed out, RPG material is already grossly underpriced for the amount of work, time and cost of production. To do a decent amount of work every month for the quality of content, layout, art, etc. in those magazines you end up paying people so very little that anyone doing the work is doing it more for name recognition than anything else, all because RPG players aren't willing to pay for it.

They could start adding more setting building and player content via Dragon + for minimum addiction cost if they sold advertising.

 

[gyor]

One of my favorite parts of their current publication strategy is how little of it they are doing: I've bought as many D&D books this year (2) as I did from the time I started gaming till 2014, and it looks like I will go 50% past that number. I can keep up now, and it's great. A few reprinted pages is no biggie to me.

Would adding 1 setting book per year upset that?

I would suggest FRCG 2018
Another setting 2019
Another setting 2020 and so on.

Although I'm realistic enough to know they can't, they simply din't have the Staff and budget for even the FRCG never mind other settings.

 

[Parmandur]

Would adding 1 setting book per year upset that?

I would suggest FRCG 2018
Another setting 2019
Another setting 2020 and so on.

Although I'm realistic enough to know they can't, they simply din't have the Staff and budget for even the FRCG never mind other settings.

It's not a staffing issue, it's demand: it seems they find greater success mixing setting material with adventures than as specific setting material: make a big sandbox, like OotA, SKT, CoS or ToA, for DMs to expand.

I like setting books, but that doesn't appear to butter the bread. If they had more staff, I doubt they would do a setting book, aside from maybe something like the Magic world art books.

 

[Kobold Boots]

I'm guessing the vibe with setting books is that a lot of people don't necessarily have time to home brew an adventure night, but everyone makes time to play if they can. So the logic then becomes, sell an adventure chain that has a setting.

Speaking from my own experience, I had a big group at a table when I got promoted beyond my capability to do my work and prep adventures, so I ended up buying a lot of the EnWorld adventure lines. Worked like a charm.

 

[DM Howard]

Magazines, as a rule, are dead.

We'll agree to disagree here, I suppose, as I do not think magazines are dead at all. Newsstands across the world continue to do well on physical magazines and newspapers. That being said, I think a digital magazine would suit D&D's purposes quite well, but perhaps I am in the minority of RPG players and I am willing to pay what a product is worth.

 

[Kobold Boots]

We'll agree to disagree here, I suppose, as I do not think magazines are dead at all. Newsstands across the world continue to do well on physical magazines and newspapers. That being said, I think a digital magazine would suit D&D's purposes quite well, but perhaps I am in the minority of RPG players and I am willing to pay what a product is worth.

Sorry for starting the side thread. I asked the question because I've made my living as a writer/artist before and find myself without a gaming group. Therefore the best option for me right now is to develop good content after finishing a deep dive on the rules system. Asked the question as less of a financial one and more of a demand one as I have no need to sell anything anymore, but I've got a creative itch.

Of course, if you build it and no one reads or uses it .. definition of loss unless your creativity is merit enough.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[gyor]

Back on the topic itself, I've been comparing the contents to the forge cleric prèview, in order to figure how where the bits of fiction they taked about in the Warmage video would go and it must be in the class intro part.

Like for example Sorcerors its Sorcerors 48, Sorceror Origins 50, Divine Soul 50, Shadow Magic 50, Storm Sorcery 51.

So Sorceror on page 48-49 must have the fiction bits, Sorceror Origins is just an sentance or two like cleric domains, then Divine Soul is most of page 50, with the last bit having the Shadow Sorceror which continues into page 51, with what is left of page 51 to 52 going to the Storm Sorcery.