D&D 5E The Printers Can't Handle WotC's One D&D Print Runs!

One of the reasons why the three new core rulebooks next year will not be released together is because D&D is such a juggernaut that the printers can't actually handle the size of the print runs!

Jeremy Crawford told Polygon "Our print runs are pretty darn big and printers are telling us you can’t give us these three books at the same time.” And Chris Perkins added that "The print runs we’re talking about are massive. That’s been not only true of the core books, but also Tasha’s Cauldron. It’s what we call a high-end problem."

 

[Hussar]

Well, made it through the thread.

I have a confession to make: The first time I read this headline my thought was that this will dovetail nicely with their strategy for pushing folks to go with the electronic version of the new game.

Conspiracy theory nonsense? Perhaps, but you have to admit Hasbro has earned this initial distrust.

I don't think it's conspiracy theory nonsense at all. They are going all in on the digital experience.

Frankly, it's about time. It absolutely astonishes me how little RPG companies have actually tried to make the digital experience a major source of income. We've got, right now, hundreds of thousands of players playing on digital platforms. And this has been true for the better part of a decade. Even going all the way back to the early 2000's, platforms like OpenRPG had tens of thousands of users.

A consistent audience for your game that has shown willing to adopt the platform? Why one earth would you not take full advantage of that as an RPG company? Good grief, Magic has been doing it for almost a decade now to massive profits. But, for some bizarre reason, RPG companies just absolutely refuse to adopt to digital. Cutting edge for an RPG product is a bloody pdf. Most of those aren't even hyperlinked - they're just a copy of the print version.

It's never, ever made any sense.

 

[Plageman]

I don't think it's conspiracy theory nonsense at all. They are going all in on the digital experience.

Frankly, it's about time. It absolutely astonishes me how little RPG companies have actually tried to make the digital experience a major source of income. We've got, right now, hundreds of thousands of players playing on digital platforms. And this has been true for the better part of a decade. Even going all the way back to the early 2000's, platforms like OpenRPG had tens of thousands of users.

A consistent audience for your game that has shown willing to adopt the platform? Why one earth would you not take full advantage of that as an RPG company? Good grief, Magic has been doing it for almost a decade now to massive profits. But, for some bizarre reason, RPG companies just absolutely refuse to adopt to digital. Cutting edge for an RPG product is a bloody pdf. Most of those aren't even hyperlinked - they're just a copy of the print version.

It's never, ever made any sense.

Well... Depends on who you will talk to. We tried playing through a VTT for a couple of years but our different groups vastly prefer playing in person. If WotC pushes a digital only experience we'll not play that version. But I don't think they'll drop the printed products for now

Btw I think that the digital+print option exists only for the English language version of DND. I'm not aware of anything similar for the local translations.

Now about that pdf not being the state of the art, it all depends on what you want them for. Printing some cheap, black and white excerpts to be passed at the table is quite inexpensive. Wikis are pretty good options for a game srd when it exists but if it works well for a single point of rule, it starts to break if you want to parse a whole "chapter".

Different uses, different products. Let's keep everyone happy

 

[codo]

Frankly, it's about time. It absolutely astonishes me how little RPG companies have actually tried to make the digital experience a major source of income. We've got, right now, hundreds of thousands of players playing on digital platforms. And this has been true for the better part of a decade. Even going all the way back to the early 2000's, platforms like OpenRPG had tens of thousands of users.

A consistent audience for your game that has shown willing to adopt the platform? Why one earth would you not take full advantage of that as an RPG company? Good grief, Magic has been doing it for almost a decade now to massive profits. But, for some bizarre reason, RPG companies just absolutely refuse to adopt to digital. Cutting edge for an RPG product is a bloody pdf. Most of those aren't even hyperlinked - they're just a copy of the print version.

It's never, ever made any sense.

RPG's are a table top game, they don't require a computer at all, and lets be honest up until a few years ago trying to play remotely online, really sucked. There were virtual tabletops like fantasy grounds and roll20, and while they worked, they were all really tedious and complicated to use. Not to mention that video chat has vastly improved in the last few years of the pandemic. I remember trying to make a Skype call 10 years ago. It was a laggey, choppy mess.

It is really only in the last few years that the technology has improved enough that a group of normal, not particularly tech savvy players, can just sit down and start playing online with out a huge amount of hassle and preplanning.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

RPG's are a table top game, they don't require a computer at all, and lets be honest up until a few years ago trying to play remotely online, really sucked. There were virtual tabletops like fantasy grounds and roll20, and while they worked, they were all really tedious and complicated to use. Not to mention that video chat has vastly improved in the last few years of the pandemic. I remember trying to make a Skype call 10 years ago. It was a laggey, choppy mess.

It is really only in the last few years that the technology has improved enough that a group of normal, not particularly tech savvy players, can just sit down and start playing online with out a huge amount of hassle and preplanning.

I remember running a hybrid in-person/online game about 12 years ago. We had multiple people that worked in IT in the group and it was still always a pain to get the online portion running each time.

 

[codo]

I remember running a hybrid in-person/online game about 12 years ago. We had multiple people that worked in IT in the group and it was still always a pain to get the online portion running each time.

When we tried playing online with roll20, a couple years after 5e came out, I think my group spent dozens of hours trying to get it to work smoothly, and we had several programmers and IT professionals in the group.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

When we tried playing online with roll20, a couple years after 5e came out, I think my group spent dozens of hours trying to get it to work smoothly, and we had several programmers and IT professionals in the group.

Oof! It's easy to take for granted how simple running online can be now.

 

[Hussar]

I’m sorry but really? I’ve been gaming online since 2002. I’m certainly not tech savvy. Like at all.

But that is largely my point. The rpg companies have never invested anything in online. And it shows.

Again, Magic has been online and incredibly profitable for about a decade. It’s not like Magic isn’t a tabletop game.

 

[codo]

I’m sorry but really? I’ve been gaming online since 2002. I’m certainly not tech savvy. Like at all.

But that is largely my point. The rpg companies have never invested anything in online. And it shows.

Again, Magic has been online and incredibly profitable for about a decade. It’s not like Magic isn’t a tabletop game.

There is a big difference between playing Magic online and playing D&D. Magic online is basically just an online card game, while D&D requires half a dozen people to simultaneously live stream video. We have had reliable online card games for literally decades. Live streaming video requires exponentially more processing power and internet bandwidth. It is really only in the last couple of years that video chat has improved enough to reliably play d&d without constant lag and speaking over each other. Video chat has really come a long way in the last few years thanks to the pandemic.

I think you are vastly overestimating how cheap it would have been for d&d to move into the digital space. Software development is incredibly expensive, and quite frankly until the recent explosion in the number of players with 5e, tabletop rpgs never really earned enough money to make the expense worthwhile.

WotC did try with 4e, but to make it cost effective they did it on the cheap, and suffered horrible results due to a murder/suicide. It wouldn't surprise me Wotc spend more buy DnD beyond than they ever earned from 4e.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

It wouldn't surprise me Wotc spend more buy DnD beyond than they ever earned from 4e.

On April 13, 2022, Hasbro announced its acquisition of D&D Beyond for $146.3 million. And we know that WotC tried to hit 50 million annual revenue with DnD4, because that's what Hasbro wanted from its core brands, and we know they didn't make that.

So, this looks like hyperbole, but...

 

[mamba]

On April 13, 2022, Hasbro announced its acquisition of D&D Beyond for $146.3 million. And we know that WotC tried to hit 50 million annual revenue with DnD4, because that's what Hasbro wanted from its core brands, and we know they didn't make that.

So, this looks like hyperbole, but...

well, 4e was around for 6 years and never got to the 50M revenue, so the chances of it turning a 150M profit over those 6 years seem to be slim to none…