D&D 5E What is WotC actually working on?

[Mercurius]

Consider that:

1. The core rulebooks are done, or--in the case of the DMG--almost done. And
2. All known adventures and future books, out to March of 2015, are being outsourced.

This begs the question: What are Mearls & Company actually working on now? If the core books are done, if the online tools are being created and managed by someone else, if the adventures and known sourcebook(s) are being outsourced, what exactly is going on over there?

One thing that came to mind is that it is probably a mistake to assume that because we know about March products, there's nothing in-between. Those were originally leaked by an online store, I believe, so perhaps the relatively early announcement is due to that alone. But my point is, this doesn't mean that WotC won't be producing anything between after the DMG and when the Sasquatch books come out. There very well could be something planned for the currently empty four months between those two products.

Or maybe not? I suppose the big question is whether, or to what degree, 5E is going to recapitulate the classic secondary supplements - Manual of the Planes, campaign setting books, splat and theme books, etc. It would seem that something would be in the works for those four months, but one would think we would have heard something by now.

What do you think?

 

[delericho]

This begs the question: What are Mearls & Company actually working on now?

IIRC, Mearls said the next thing was a long overdue vacation.

 

[jgsugden]

Hopefully, Level 8.

Now is the time to gather feedback, assess what is working and figure out how to release new material that will make the game better. I hope they're devoting time to that.

 

[fjw70]

Well right now I would say the team is in a mad scramble to get the DMG off to the printers.


After that I imagine they will revisit the basic rules and update those and they are working on more story bibles for future story lines.


However, after the DMG goes out I imagine that will open up a lot of space in their schedule. Is the core team going to write some stand-alone adventures? They did mention that they want to use the 5e system for other games/genres. Could they be starting to work on a new Gamma World or Modern game? Maybe Rodney could develop a space opera game about celestial paladins that fight with laser swords.

 

[Jer]

This begs the question: What are Mearls & Company actually working on now?

Working with the third party licensees to approve their work and keep it on schedule. Working on non-RPG D&D stuff like board games. Working with the MMO people to integrate the Elemental Evil storyline into Neverwinter or DDO. Figuring out what the storyline after Elemental Evil will be and getting the third party license in place to do it and communicating it to everyone involved with it. Revising Organized Play.

My understanding is that the D&D staff at Wizards has been reduced down to a smaller group of people - that's why they've outsourced production of adventures and sourcebooks. And that the plan is to produce fewer RPG products total per year. It isn't that they're licensing more out so they can work on more themselves, it's that they have fewer people to do stuff and plan to do less stuff.

 

[Thaumaturge]

We know Mrs. [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION] is working on a baby, so that's his next big project.

The rest? Boardgames? Card games?

Thaumaturge?

 

[Sacrosanct]

I imagine a lot of cross-media work with the IP (video games, board games, etc), and focusing on Adventure League stuff (content, management, events, etc).

 

[Jer]

Could they be starting to work on a new Gamma World or Modern game? Maybe Rodney could develop a space opera game about celestial paladins that fight with laser swords.

I would actually love it if they could bring back Gamma World, Star Frontiers, and maybe Dark Matter and Urban Arcana as "D&D Worlds" like they tried to do with Gamma World a few years ago. I don't think that there's a chance of that happening - especially since Gamma World seems sadly perceived as a flop and the others are (intentionally) fairly generic - but it would be kind of neat.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Didn't you see Dangerous Dungeons? They're working on mastering real life magic.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

It's worth noting that, while they've outsourced the writing of the adventures, they've been creating the story bibles for each arch themselves. Last we heard, they were finishing up the story bible for the second adventure and were in the middle of the third. We now know that the second one was Elemental Evil.

It's after the story bible is written that they can go to outside sources to make adventures and material for the MMOs.