D&D General Top selling 5E official non-core 3 books? / Why aren't adventure books catching fire?

[DarkCrisis]

Reading the new Dragonlance thread and seeing that "The DL adventure book didn't sale enough" and me thinking "No kidding, could it be because it was subpar?"

It's not like it really gave enough info to spawn further homemade adventures. It gives just enough fluff to get the premade adventure rollling and thats that.

Which to be fair it most of their adventure book output.

Has any of their adventure books caught fire except for Ravenloft which got a 2nd book. Spelljammer flopped? Planescape? More one and done products that are supposed to bring in the big fan bucks but....

Of course, there are the expansion books that add new races and classes and spells etc etc etc which everyone would want where as the adventure books are probably bought by only the DM. And I'm of the opinion that you don't NEED those expansion books. Everything you need is right there in the core 3 (plus whatever book has the updated Ranger).

It just seems really odd to hinge things on the sale of your one and done adventure book. Make a setting book. Everyone might buy a setting book. Not everyone is going to buy a 3/4ths adventure book with the barest mention of world building.

So yeah, any maybe have a 1-10 or 20 list of sales (that don't include the core 3)?

I'm going to repost this pic from the DL thread cause its funny and it fits.

 

[Burnside]

How D&D Sells and What It Means for the Hobby

How many copies do D&D's top products sell? We take a look at BookScan data and what it means for D&D and the hobby.

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The supplementary sourcebooks (Xanathar's, Tasha's, Volo's) definitely outsell setting books. But there's some evidence that setting books do slightly outsell adventures - kinda. The best-selling adventures outsell weaker-selling setting books, but the two best-selling setting books (Eberron and SCAG) outsell all the adventures except Curse of Strahd. Basically, setting book sales are on roughly on par with adventure book sales.

It should be noted that two of the under-performing products you mentioned (Spelljammer and Planescape) are primarily viewed as setting books, not adventures, which somewhat undermines your argument (also, Spelljammer did solid sales).

 

[Zardnaar]

The bog selling adventures basically have a Dragon or vampire on the cover.

The product line has mostly been sub par since Tashas. The best stuff since then is maybe a B or B+ at best.

Best WotC 5E adventures are the starter sets, CiS and ToA.

Outside LMoP they peaked quality wise 2017-19 maybe to Theros.

I've stopped buying product last one as Ravenlofy, Fizbans or Multiverse book (can't remember tge orderv I purchased them in).

No surprise they butchered Spelljammer and Dragonlance is a resounding meh.

I don't trust them with old setting or new ones that don't gave a MtG tie in (Theros and Ravnica not really my thing but I liked them)

 

[Burnside]

The product line has mostly been sub par since Tashas. The best stuff since then is maybe a B or B+ at best.

I kind of agree but IMO there have been pleasant surprises since Tasha's, namely...

Candlekeep Mysteries = great
Wild Beyond the Witchlight = very good
Keys from the Golden Vault = great
Book of Many Things = great

 

[Zardnaar]

I kind of agree but IMO there have been pleasant surprises since Tasha's, namely...

Candlekeep Mysteries = great
Wild Beyond the Witchlight = very good
Keys from the Golden Vault = great
Book of Many Things = great

Only own 2/4 of them. Candlekeep Mysteries and WBtW.

Need to read them more tried WBtW last week but the art/tone/style is a major turn off.

Candlekeep is fine I need to have a more thorough read.

Probably doesn't help I like Darksun/Game of Thrones/BG3 type stories.

 

[Laurefindel]

How D&D Sells and What It Means for the Hobby

How many copies do D&D's top products sell? We take a look at BookScan data and what it means for D&D and the hobby.

alphastream.org

The supplementary sourcebooks (Xanathar's, Tasha's, Volo's) definitely outsell setting books. But there's some evidence that setting books do slightly outsell adventures - kinda. The best-selling adventures outsell weaker-selling setting books, but the two best-selling setting books (Eberron and SCAG) outsell all the adventures except Curse of Strahd. Basically, setting book sales are on roughly on par with adventure book sales.

It should be noted that two of the under-performing products you mentioned (Spelljammer and Planescape) are primarily viewed as setting books, not adventures, which somewhat undermines your argument (also, Spelljammer did solid sales).

That should be the expected ratio however, even if adventures were really good.

Looking at my gaming group (6-7 people, 2-3 of which DM in rotation);

5 of us have a PHB. Having spells handy is handy.
4 of us have DMG and MM, even if at least one of us never uses them.
3 have Tasha and Xanatar
3 also have Eberron and SCAG
2 have the Curse of Strahd adventure
As for all other adventures, we only have single copie. Not because they’re not good, but because we never needed more than one.

 

[Burnside]

Need to read them more tried WBtW last week but the art/tone/style is a major turn off.

Witchlight is very much not for everyone but if it is for you, it does what it sets out to do if that makes sense.

 

[Burnside]

Probably doesn't help I like Darksun/Game of Thrones/BG3 type stories.

There's stuff in Candlekeep that you'll like. Check out "Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme" and "A Deep and Creeping Darkness."

 

[Hussar]

Reading the new Dragonlance thread and seeing that "The DL adventure book didn't sale enough" and me thinking "No kidding, could it be because it was subpar?"

It's not like it really gave enough info to spawn further homemade adventures. It gives just enough fluff to get the premade adventure rollling and thats that.

Which to be fair it most of their adventure book output.

Has any of their adventure books caught fire except for Ravenloft which got a 2nd book. Spelljammer flopped? Planescape? More one and done products that are supposed to bring in the big fan bucks but....

Umm, what? Hoard of hte Dragon Queen has been done, what 3 times now? Most of the WotC modules have stayed in the mid hundreds of all books sold on Amazon for years. Phandelver is quite probably the most sold D&D module of all time and just recently got an update.

Any single WotC module, fifteen years ago, would be considered a runaway success.

 

[Scott Christian]

I think it is worth noting that setting books are more appealing to players and DMs, whereas adventures have a smaller market, just DMs. I know it is not perfectly in line, but I think this fact has a few grains of sand to include in the pile.