What has Wizards been doing right?

[MrMyth]

I liked the concept of Essentials, and in execution, was a fan of the Monster Vault as a whole, the usefulness of the Rules Compendium, and the new character class builds in the Heroes books.

I really like the Dark Sun books, even if I haven't had the chance to play them.

Gamma World was excellent.

Castle Ravenloft was cool, and today's preview has me eager to see Wrath of Ashardalon.

Glad to see work proceeding on the VTT.

Looking forward to Champions of the Heroic Tier.

 

[Lancelot]

From my perspective...

• MM3 and Monster Vault are two of the best "monster manuals" I've bought for any edition, period.
• Dark Sun Campaign Setting and Creature Catalogue were fantastic. They had me hooked on a setting in which I had no previous interest.
• The entire concept of Essentials (simplified characters, deadlier monsters, faster gameplay) has been excellent. It has helped mitigate one of the few weaknesses of 4e for my group (long combat).
• The most recent DDM set (Lords of Madness) was one of the best.
• Gamma World is terrific. Great flavor, great gameplay.
• Honorable Mention to: Vor Rukoth, Underdark, the various "Planar" hardbacks, the Three Dragon Ante expansion pack, Castle Ravenloft.

A previous poster said it best... WotC has been coming through for me and my group where it counts: at the table. Yes, their marketing and PR could be better. Yes, I've found some of the bugs and shortcomings in Character Builder to be frustrating. But most of their actual products over the last 12-18 months have been amongst their best output in any edition.

Having said that, D&D Experience (i.e. the tradeshow) can't come soon enough. I couldn't care less about the three (bland, boring) books that they cancelled, but I'd like to hear that there are some new and exciting things coming out later in the year to make up for them.

 

[shadzar]

Ummm...finally letting people outside of WotC test the VTT on their own computers?

I question, because I don't really know what the beta I am hearing about involves. But being able to sit down and use your machine rather than watch someone else use it at a convention, is a good thing, if that is how the beta is working.

 

[dangerous jack]

* Tiles: Sinister Woods & the Wilderness Box are both excellent and will see a lot of use (I'm glad they're stepping away from 3D stuff, because it didn't work great for me in play and was a pain to set up and store)
* Books: Dark Sun Creature Catalog is absolutely inspired, and has seen a bunch of use in my non-DS campaign. MM3 & the Dark Sun Campaign Setting are also very good.
* D&D Encounters has been a lot of fun and allowed me to be a player (rather than a DM) for the first time in 16 years (sigh)
* Essentials: I haven't bought any of it because it seems to duplicate things I already have, but from the previews I've seen it appears to do exactly what I think 4e needs (simpler, yet more varied characters and monsters)
* Castle Ravenloft: looking forward to playing this as soon as the missing card deck arrives (missing from my box, but Customer Service has been great in responding to me and promising to mail it here asap)
* Gamma World: haven't played it, but reads really well

Basically 2010 was a great year, except that there was too much duplicated functionality in Essentials for me to go out and spend money on that product line (and my players didn't want to convert their characters enough either).

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Ummm...finally letting people outside of WotC test the VTT on their own computers?

I question, because I don't really know what the beta I am hearing about involves. But being able to sit down and use your machine rather than watch someone else use it at a convention, is a good thing, if that is how the beta is working.

A java application, not really local, it downloads from the server each time you launch. I have played with a little. It need a lot more work in my opinion but you can play a game using it. I have done so.

 

[Tilt]

What I Like from Wotc

I have really enjoyed the 4th Ed Monster Manuals. The concept of simplified stat blocks, cool/unique special abilities and various/many entries for a monster type/race. I want to have at my fingertips 10+ stat blocks for goblins of various power when I creat and run an adventure. I really wish the other game companies would adopt this form for all monster books.

I was really loving D&D miniatures. I enjoyed collecting bunches of them in themed encounter groups and always looked forward to new sets that would give me more options for these themed groups.

Dungeon Tiles are a great product and worth mention.

 

[Argyle King]

They've been doing a fantastic job of helping me to learn more about what I want out of a rpg, and what my interests are.

 

[pukunui]

They finished out the Star Wars Saga Edition on a high note, and before the line was really played out. All in all, SWSE was a stellar effort.

I have to spread some XP around before I can give it to you again, so:

+1!

The Unknown Regions is an excellent book, and the subject makes for a perfect bookend for the game. I would've loved to have gotten more books and more SW minis, but overall I'm pretty happy with what we did get (especially considering that WotC only ever had one fulltime employee working on SWSE - the one and only Rodney Thompson, who also worked on the 4e Dark Sun material that other people are praising).

And that's all I got.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I am hoping they do a lot right in 2011, and am waiting for DDXP to find out what it will be.

 

[TerraDave]

Crunch and fluff have gotten better, they have brought in a veteran editor for the two emags and there are signs of improvement after a long slide, the MV and RC were great products, my players have no end of charecter options they like, the compendium is still incredibly usefull. 2010 was actually a very good year.