D&D 5E Thinking about 5E releases...
- Thread starter HobbitFan
- Start date
halfling rogue
Explorer
Actually, the ENWorld contest did have WotC's blessing.
well that's cool. I say we do it again, now that the rules are all out.
but my main point was that it be a WotC directed thing (not that I care which way it comes from...my point was in line with thinking what WotC could do...a contest sprung to mind)
Jester David
Hero
Of course, a lot of those were just republished tournament modules. TSR was just recycling content, often unchanged with the scoring still included.
And one 256-page adventure has the same page-count as 8 32-page modules. So, this year alone, WotC is publishing the equivalent of 16 adventures plus Adventurer's League.
Jester David
Hero
Hopefully, after a couple years, those will become more public. Once the old ones are a couple seasons out of date they might just throw them on DnDClassics.com
pming
Legend
Hiya!
Definitely yes. For examples, go look at some really good books, or some really really good graphic novels. Now go look at the "Movie based on the book/graphic novel". 98/100 times the movie will be "not as good" (if you're very lucky), or outright "wtf was that?!??!" (most common result).
I think WotC's desire to make an adventure "multi-media compatible" will basically dumb down or otherwise force each and every one of their AP's to play out with the exact same formulaic style. I think as soon as something 'hits big' with regards to non-RPG offshoots...say a movie, TV mini-series, video game on-off, etc... the gods from Mount Hasbro will latch onto it and basically force WotC to use that as a basis for ALL their foreseeable things. Case in point; the whole Drizz't aspect from the new "Against the Demons" AP thing they're (or whomever they hired) working on.
They will fall into the same endless pit that hollywood and video gaming has fallen into; "if we're gonna spend X dollars, we want the most guaranteeable return". A big blockbuster movie nowadays costs hundreds of millions of dollars to make; and that's why they all fall into the same, repeatable plots and expectations. The backers don't want to "risk" anything so they stick to what's worked in the past...even when it hasn't. Case in point, look at the new Fantastic Four movie coming out from Fox. Go on. I dare you! ( http://news.moviefone.com/2015/04/20/fantastic-four-trailer ). They took what was a solid, long-time, beloved quartet and "fixed it" so that it had a broader appeal to a younger, more hip, crowd. Don't even get me started on what they did to Dr.Doom! *fume*
Prepare to be inundated with all things Drizz't and Elminster in the coming years (e.g., welcome back to the bad-old-days of 2e!). *sigh*
PS: Yeah, I'm still on my first cup o' joe this morning and I'm a bit more cantankorous and/or grognardish than normal. Sorry.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
Definitely yes. For examples, go look at some really good books, or some really really good graphic novels. Now go look at the "Movie based on the book/graphic novel". 98/100 times the movie will be "not as good" (if you're very lucky), or outright "wtf was that?!??!" (most common result).
I think WotC's desire to make an adventure "multi-media compatible" will basically dumb down or otherwise force each and every one of their AP's to play out with the exact same formulaic style. I think as soon as something 'hits big' with regards to non-RPG offshoots...say a movie, TV mini-series, video game on-off, etc... the gods from Mount Hasbro will latch onto it and basically force WotC to use that as a basis for ALL their foreseeable things. Case in point; the whole Drizz't aspect from the new "Against the Demons" AP thing they're (or whomever they hired) working on.
They will fall into the same endless pit that hollywood and video gaming has fallen into; "if we're gonna spend X dollars, we want the most guaranteeable return". A big blockbuster movie nowadays costs hundreds of millions of dollars to make; and that's why they all fall into the same, repeatable plots and expectations. The backers don't want to "risk" anything so they stick to what's worked in the past...even when it hasn't. Case in point, look at the new Fantastic Four movie coming out from Fox. Go on. I dare you! ( http://news.moviefone.com/2015/04/20/fantastic-four-trailer ). They took what was a solid, long-time, beloved quartet and "fixed it" so that it had a broader appeal to a younger, more hip, crowd. Don't even get me started on what they did to Dr.Doom! *fume*
Prepare to be inundated with all things Drizz't and Elminster in the coming years (e.g., welcome back to the bad-old-days of 2e!). *sigh*
PS: Yeah, I'm still on my first cup o' joe this morning and I'm a bit more cantankorous and/or grognardish than normal. Sorry.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
tom.zunder
Explorer
I am loving the model and the slow burn.
Jester David
Hero
Honestly, WotC is in a pretty bad position here.
They want to put out adventures. And they want to set them in the Forgotten Realms to tie the stories to a setting so they're not super-generic adventures set in places people don't care about. This also lets them tie it into Organized Play and their video games. However, they can't make the adventures too Realmsian because the setting turns off all the people who want other settings supported. So even though they're using a rich world full of story hooks and characters they can't touch any of those. So we end up with a Dragonlance story and Greyhawk story forced into the Realms. And next they're going to one of the most iconic locations in the Realms (the Underdark) and cramming a generic demon invasion in there because... I dunno what the Underdark has to do with demons...
It's tricky.
Plus, there's Encounters. Which was the big OP program for a long time and is now the ugly forgotten older child of Expeditions. Encounters would really benefit from material designed just for it rather than uncomfortably adapting the published adventures. Setting up Encounters to be the prequel to the published tales would work fine. So you play for 12 weeks and can continue in the official books or move to Expeditions.
This might chance though. They might be going generic at the start so non-Realms fans have something they can use before they launch into more setting-centric adventures. A Realms fan can play in the last two adventures, but a storyline that takes people to Thay to overthrow the Necrocracy there can't be played by non-Realmsers. In a few years it might be fun to alternate between types of adventure, shifting between setting-specific ones steeped in lore and ones that are just D&D adventures in Faerun locations.
I just hope the stories get better. The story of Princes of the Apocalypse was ass. Given WotC's stated goal is "focusing on the story" Elemental Evil was a disappointment.
They want to put out adventures. And they want to set them in the Forgotten Realms to tie the stories to a setting so they're not super-generic adventures set in places people don't care about. This also lets them tie it into Organized Play and their video games. However, they can't make the adventures too Realmsian because the setting turns off all the people who want other settings supported. So even though they're using a rich world full of story hooks and characters they can't touch any of those. So we end up with a Dragonlance story and Greyhawk story forced into the Realms. And next they're going to one of the most iconic locations in the Realms (the Underdark) and cramming a generic demon invasion in there because... I dunno what the Underdark has to do with demons...
It's tricky.
Plus, there's Encounters. Which was the big OP program for a long time and is now the ugly forgotten older child of Expeditions. Encounters would really benefit from material designed just for it rather than uncomfortably adapting the published adventures. Setting up Encounters to be the prequel to the published tales would work fine. So you play for 12 weeks and can continue in the official books or move to Expeditions.
This might chance though. They might be going generic at the start so non-Realms fans have something they can use before they launch into more setting-centric adventures. A Realms fan can play in the last two adventures, but a storyline that takes people to Thay to overthrow the Necrocracy there can't be played by non-Realmsers. In a few years it might be fun to alternate between types of adventure, shifting between setting-specific ones steeped in lore and ones that are just D&D adventures in Faerun locations.
I just hope the stories get better. The story of Princes of the Apocalypse was ass. Given WotC's stated goal is "focusing on the story" Elemental Evil was a disappointment.
Zaran
Adventurer
I think the solution is to stop producing a single product that is supposed to be the answer to everything.
But the inverse of that is 'Produce Thirty Products That Are The Answer To Thirty Different Things'.
Now sure... the next logical point someone would take to my statement would be "You don't need to do 30... just do X"... where 'X' is some number they themselves feels is about right. But the rebuttal I'd come back with is "Everyone is going to have a different answer to 'X', so it doesn't matter what WotC does... 95% of the people are going to disagree with it and think they are doing it wrong."
So if that's the case... at least by them focusing on ONE story, they at least *can* tie it into the board games, roleplaying games, miniatures, video games etc. for design, development, and marketing purposes. Sure, it ain't ideal and it's guaranteed to piss off 95% of the player base... but 95% of the player base would be pissed off if they had released '4' or '10' or '25' products of varying size and quality too. So keep the focus narrow and keep the costs down. Makes a lot of sense to me, even if it's not my preferred method. But hey... it's not like my desires are the perfect method either.
Jester David
Hero
Given 3 of the 3 adventures were written by non-WotC studios, I think it's very likely they ARE producing something else.
Tyranny of Dragons being a different company. That made sense, as they were waist deep in the Core Rulebooks. Elemental Evil, sure as they likely wanted some work done while the DMG was still in flux. But Rage of Demons? At this point they have to be doing something else to justify another company making the book.
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