D&D 5E Wanting more content doesn't always equate to wanting tons of splat options so please stop.

[Corwin]

If he'd stopped at, "I like ponies," we'd be cool. But he didn't stop there, did he?

 

[Sunseeker]

I could go for a little more content. But hey if Wizards is okay with people spending $50/year on their materials, it just leaves room for me to buy other systems.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Usually when people say they want more content, they don't really want more content. What they want, is "only content that I find appealing, and done so in a way that I approve of, or WoTC sucks and I'm gonna start a thread complaining about it until they give me exactly what I want."

 

[jasper]

…I for one and fully interested in a source book on the Feywild made for 5th edition, as well as FR regional sourcebooks for areas that were never fully covered back in the day…… I for one don’t need Freddy Fortune telling me why I totally wrong on the FeyWild because the $45 Wild Fun of FeyWild has come out after I created my own version. And then have Freddy Fortune scream at me since it an official WOTC Fluff book, I have to use it. I have never needed an atlas, gps, and wikipedia write up of the whole known world.
Since they are ..20 settings of 2nd editon… Grab them of your wall of books and update them for 5E.
And I never ever allowed a fiction book tell me what happen in my world once I create it off the greyhawk/fr base.

 

[I'm A Banana]

But my opinion could also be what most D&D players want as well.

You make a speculation that he's in the minority. Now, what if this is actually the majority? Does that change your reasoning at all? I for one agree with his opinion, and I find a lot of the comments rebutting asks for any bit of new content, and citing prior edition extremism, is akin to Chicken Little mentality. Just my honest opinion.

It would! Ultimately, though, I trust WotC's market research more than I trust the amateur market research done by fans on the internet. If thirsty players were a majority, I think you would be seeing a more 3e/4e style splat release schedule. Much more likely, I think most people who engage with the D&D brand are very casual, running games very occasionally, and running very traditional games when they do run games. I think a lot of D&D's potential audience are lapsed players with fond memories of their old characters (who have no need for lots of options), or newbies just getting into the game (and so who are actively put off by too many options) .

Wotc has no way of knowing exactly what everyone wants, mostly new players because they don't know anything outside of the current. Giving them more content could be the best thing since sliced bread.

Historical data from 2e, 3e, and 4e suggests otherwise. It's possible, but there's no evidence behind your assertion. Rather, the evidence that we know of indicates that throughout 3e and 4e, each book after the PHB sold less and less until they rebooted the line in a .5e for a minor spike and then had to whip up the next edition in short order for a bigger spike. A feywild supplement costs more to produce than it'd draw in sales, since it only hits a very narrow selection of the audience.

Big companies do not let customers run the show. My company does surveys all the time but rarely does anything close to what the customers want unless it is in line with what the company already wants to do. This is called PR. It gives customers the illusion that their choices matter so they feel like they are in a bit more control.

I mean, if we're going to play Duelling Anecdotes, I could tell you about how seriously the company I work for takes our customer's needs and how much it costs us in terms of dollars and lost jobs when we ignore them. It sounds like your company doesn't really understand or utilize the value of listening to your customer base. This doesn't mean that this is the behavior of all or even most companies.

 

[Parmandur]

It would! Ultimately, though, I trust WotC's market research more than I trust the amateur market research done by fans on the internet. If thirsty players were a majority, I think you would be seeing a more 3e/4e style splat release schedule. Much more likely, I think most people who engage with the D&D brand are very casual, running games very occasionally, and running very traditional games when they do run games. I think a lot of D&D's potential audience are lapsed players with fond memories of their old characters (who have no need for lots of options), or newbies just getting into the game (and so who are actively put off by too many options) .





Historical data from 2e, 3e, and 4e suggests otherwise. It's possible, but there's no evidence behind your assertion. Rather, the evidence that we know of indicates that throughout 3e and 4e, each book after the PHB sold less and less until they rebooted the line in a .5e for a minor spike and then had to whip up the next edition in short order for a bigger spike. A feywild supplement costs more to produce than it'd draw in sales, since it only hits a very narrow selection of the audience.





I mean, if we're going to play Duelling Anecdotes, I could tell you about how seriously the company I work for takes our customer's needs and how much it costs us in terms of dollars and lost jobs when we ignore them. It sounds like your company doesn't really understand or utilize the value of listening to your customer base. This doesn't mean that this is the behavior of all or even most companies.

Joining the anecdata, my employer is deeply obsessed with customer feedback and data. Really nit sure why a company would waste resources on customer data-metrics to ignore them, but sounds like a recipe for failure.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think the lack the resources to produce more. No new splat after 2 years is a bit Meh but it's not the end of the world.

And I am using 3pm I got over using them a few years back with PF and OSR material.

 

[bleezy]

Some content is more splat-ish than others.

New wizard spells are very low splat (or spells for any class that learns only a finite subset of its full spell list)
New races and archetypes are low splat.
New classes and feats are high splat.
New cleric spells are very high splat (or spells for any class that knows all spells in its list)

Monsters, adventures, settings, and items are non-splat. DM options are medium splat, I would say.

I think in this respect the type of products released by WOTC are just about perfect. With the exception of the mystic, they haven't released anything that I would consider particularly splat-ish.

I would like to see more setting & monster material most of all, and in particular non-FR content.

 

[Shasarak]

Is it that time of week? I guess it is!

Sometimes, I like to sit down and have a good meal. The food is so good! And I keep eating, and thinking to myself, "Self, this food is amazing, I can't wait to eat more." So I keep stuffing that food down my piehole. Until, of course, there's the reckoning.

Much like Mr. Cresote, I don't quite know when enough is enough, until it's too much. And boy, it doesn't matter how crunchy and yummy and full of flavor that wafer thin mint was .... it was too much. Ohhhhhhh......

And then of course, I have to start all over. Because, you got it, I never learn.

Anyhoo ... what were we talking about again?

How to get fat in one easy step I think.

 

[Jester David]

Putting out reasonably more material will not cause D&D to become a bloatfest.

...

Wanting more content doesn't equal wanting mountains of bloat, it's wanting variety.

I agree.
But what I would consider "reasonable" and you would consider "reasonable" are likely different, hence the dispute.

How much extra content are we talking about? Please be specific. 10 pages of crunch a year? Twice a year? Once a month? Once a week?

Because 4e didn't start with 10,000 powers. It steadily built up over the course of month after month of content.
To avoid bloat you have two options: don't release options often, or release options and then stop. Which would you say is preferable? Getting all the options right away in one big burst of content and then not releasing anything more or spreading that counted out in small purchases over a few years?