Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 6618144" data-attributes="member: 6680772">Here's my own personal take.I came up with D&D in the 80s and early 90s, so if you asked me in 2014 what I wanted in terms of product support from 5e, I would have said, "Two more Monster Manuals.  A Dungeoneer's Survival Guide and Wilderness Survival Guide with both some new player options and campaign advice and tools for the DM.  A series of 32-page adventures, some standalone while others could be linked into an Adventure Path.  A campaign setting book for each major past campaign setting, with maps available online."  But to be honest, I would have expected to homebrew my own campaign setting, using some of the adventures in that setting, while creating my own as well, and probably only buying an MM II and the DSG and WSG.  I'd only suggest APs and campaign settings in consideration of other folks who would be more inclined to use that then me.But you know, that'd really only work for me if I had the time and opportunity to play that I did back in the 80s and 90s.  Right now I'm playing in a semi-weekly game, but there can be months when I can't play that at all.  I'm running an internet game for my old group back in the States -- we try to get together every week, but there are times when our schedules don't sync for weeks.  I've just started running another local game -- we're going to try for a monthly game, but scheduling looks like it will be irregular.  And one thing I've found is that, between work, family, and other commitments, I have no time for prep for any of these games, no time to come up with new adventures of my own, or really design a campaign world.  Even creating my character and leveling him up for the game I'm a player in often ends up being a last minute affair.  Really, I think I'm at my limit with the current schedule, and I really agonized about starting up the irregular monthly group.So I have more reliance on published adventures, preferably ones that can last a while.  In that sense, the APs WotC is putting out is working better for me.  I'm not a big Realms fan, but it's a generic yet flavorful enough setting for my purposes.  And the release schedule is working out perfectly.  Come September I'll have to start thinking about new adventures for the groups I'm running.  Out of the Abyss initially didn't really interest me, but seeing the concept art has gotten me intrigued.  So there's a decent chance I'll get it.  As a matter of fact, while I initially considered simply only ever using the Basic Rules, I've ended up buying every product WotC's put out for 5e so far.  They're simply putting out the kind of material I need, at the pace and price that works for me.I consider myself on the hardcore side of casual, since I'm involved in 3 games and participate on RPG related forums.  But I'm by no means a completist, and am actually averse to purchasing more player options, since my character preferences are heavily informed by B/X.  I can no longer afford to buy books that will see little actual use.  If WotC actually went with the plan I imagined above, they would have gotten very little money from me relative to the money spent to develop those adventures and campaign settings.  With the plan they are implementing now, they have nearly perfect ROI as far as I am concerned.I suspect that the D&D customer base is a normal distribution, with people for whom RPGs are their primary hobby on the far right, and people who only infrequently play on the far right, and a big ol' hump of folks in the middle.  I'm probably on the right side of the middle.  If I had to guess, I would say the basic D&D customer is someone who only plays or DMs in one regular game, who does not have great investment in exploring the intricacies of the game, but likes getting together with their friends or family for role-playing hijinks.  It's a hobby, but not their major one.  Their spending is going to be sporadic.  For pure players, it's pretty much going to start and stop with the PHB.  For player/DMs, the Core Three, and then maybe some published adventures they can use right away.  So to target them, adventures are what's needed.  But if WotC puts out a lot of short, 32 page adventures, some will be bought by some people, others will be bought by other people, and only the folks well on the right side of the distribution are going to buy most or all of them.  So APs give WotC the best ROI.  Hardbacks are a good investment for them because its how they can compete against smaller companies putting out similar material.In the end, RPGs are games that least need expansion products, because the essence of the game is that it allows infinite variation just with the core rules.  They tried relying on short adventures to keep the game bringing in revenue, but that didn't work, so they tried campaign settings and splats.  That didn't work so they tried a Core Book planned obsolescence model.  But that hasn't worked, so they're trying something new: big adventures released so that one comes out just as the previous one gets wrapped up in play.  I don't know if it will ultimately work, but I am surprised how well it's been working for me.</blockquote>

Verification