D&D 5E What of the already done settings do you think WotC is revisiting for a Setting Book?

[Nikosandros]

Monster trucker, I recreationally listened to Mozart on the way to buy groceries today, get real. Great music is more accessible than ever.

Yep. I also listen to Mozart and (pre-Covid), when I went to the Auditorium in Rome to listen to Mozart's music live there has always been an audience quite diverse in age.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You don't count none official settings.

No, obsessive fanbois who want biased results don't include non-official settings. I can include whatever I like. The truth is non-official settings are far more popular than anything WotC puts out, and the majority of D&D games are set anywhere other than the Forgotten Realms.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Actually, most of the money WotC makes on Magic is from dabblers who buy packs aa an impulse whim in line at Target or Walmart once in a while: the enfranchised super fans who spend serious money are an overwhelming minority. Magic has been rocketing in popularity and profit, and after the pandemic is at an all time high (Target and Walmart remained open throughout the lockdowns in the U.S.).

I'm aware pretty much all card games are going through the roof in the pandemic. My point is precisely that if this sells well, that's likely the major factor. As for the "incidental randos make us more money than whales", I'd need to see a cite before believing that, as it runs pretty hard against the history of TCGs and similar products (which started out with that being true, but then that changed).

If it brings in at the low end 1 in 10 TTRPG D&D player fans and 1 in 20 FR fans (ones that say just read the novels or pkay the video games), that will be a huge boost in profits for MtG.

That's not "low-end" for a conversion rate. That's extremely high. We're more likely to be looking at sub-1% figures, and breaking 1% would be good. Breaking 10% would be absolutely bananas. I can't take you very seriously when you think a 10% conversion rate is "at the low end". Bloody hell mate. And 5% for the novel readers lol? Come off it. You're not going to get 1%. Likewise the videogame players.

The internet isn't the real world or reflective of it

It absolutely is reflective of it when it comes to people under 40 and thinking otherwise is being ridiculous.

It might not be a 1:1 correlation, but there's no such thing as a trend among 20 or 30-somethings IRL which isn't also a trend on the internet. It just doesn't happen. 50 or 60-somethings? Maybe. But that's a different question. And the FR isn't a setting people in that age group are excited about, generally speaking. They don't hate it or anything - it's hard to outright hate the FR - but it's not something people are keen on, and that's the fault of WotC to a significant extent. But it's also in part because the FR is a 1980s setting which has never been conceptually or thematically updated, despite multiple ludicrous overhauls.

"Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is Magic's take on the most popular Dungeons & Dragons setting"

Yeah it's their most popular SPECIFIC setting. The one that they sell. Their most popular setting in 5E, though, as they've said, is HOMEBREW not the FR. But they can't sell or merchandise homebrew. There's no question the FR has moved the most product over the last three decade, albeit for complex reasons. It used to be a setting I liked a lot, but I haven't seen any material with any real verve for it for a long time.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

No, obsessive fanbois who want biased results don't include non-official settings. I can include whatever I like. The truth is non-official settings are far more popular than anything WotC puts out, and the majority of D&D games are set anywhere other than the Forgotten Realms.

How the **** is this biased? how do they revisit a home brew setting they've never visited before? Again home brew settings aren't a single setting, they are countless. FR is the single most popular official setting.

Again "Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is Magic's take on the most popular Dungeons & Dragons setting" so if I'm biased then so it WotC.

Really bias doesn't mean what you seem to think it means.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I wouldn't exactly call Exandria generic fantasy. Wildemount definitely not, Tal'dorei? Sure yeah it's right on that cusp of generic but they offer things that FR and Greyhawk do not. Tal'dorei is very much D&D, it's got all the classic tropes but lifts up out of that generic sandtrap with the organizations, how it implements those classic tropes and the depth Mercer and co. provided. Wildemount is almost the opposite of the D&D trope. It embraces dark fantasy and wears it like a glove while also violating the classic tropes in how it approaches races, monsters and the lore of the 4e gods and other expectations and very much has a vibe all its own. It's one flaw is not developing dunamancy enough. We really DO need more materials for it, its a setting screaming for development like we used to get in 3.x era.

I mean, I admit I'm not an expert, but I've seen nothing at all about Exandria that is outside the bounds of what would be called "generic fantasy".

It's not ultra-generic, like Mystara, say, but it's generic. It's a just a high-quality modern generic that's a lot more interesting to modern people. Like the Forgotten Realms was in the 1990s, frankly. That's what Exandria really reminds me of - 1990s FR, back when stuff was actually moving and was surprising and new and so on.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

How the **** is this biased? how do they revisit a home brew setting they've never visited before? Again home brew settings aren't a single setting, they are countless. FR is the single most popular official setting.

They don't, I was talking about overall popularity, not which setting is likely to get another book. And overall, people prefer to make their own stuff, looting setting books for spare parts.

Again "Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is Magic's take on the most popular Dungeons & Dragons setting" so if I'm biased then so it WotC.

Of course they are biased! They want to talk up their own product and talk down the competition. It's called running a business!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I haven't seen any material with any real verve for it for a long time.

It will be interesting to see if the movie blows up the setting (again). It would make narrative sense to have most of continent fall under the sway of an evil empire (e.g. Thay) with Waterdeep and Neverwinter the last hold-outs.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It will be interesting to see if the movie blows up the setting (again). It would make narrative sense to have most of continent fall under the sway of an evil empire (e.g. Thay) with Waterdeep and Neverwinter the last hold-outs.

Something like that is probably what the setting needs to give it a bit of a kick in the pants. I mean, what it didn't need was the 4E idiocy, but more of a metaplot to give it some shape/form and to actually change some places - which might anger purists, but like, any change does that, and the big problem the FR has sort of walked into is that it has gradually seemed sleepier and sleepier.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Something like that is probably what the setting needs to give it a bit of a kick in the pants. I mean, what it didn't need was the 4E idiocy, but more of a metaplot to give it some shape/form and to actually change some places - which might anger purists, but like, any change does that, and the big problem the FR has sort of walked into is that it has gradually seemed sleepier and sleepier.

It would be more realistic too. All those small countries with shared land boarders can't possibly be a stable situation. Faerun should resemble the Balkans.

It needs a good war to shake it up. A conventional one, without gods, omnipotent wizards and rearranging landmasses.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I'm aware pretty much all card games are going through the roof in the pandemic. My point is precisely that if this sells well, that's likely the major factor. As for the "incidental randos make us more money than whales", I'd need to see a cite before believing that, as it runs pretty hard against the history of TCGs and similar products (which started out with that being true, but then that changed).

That's not "low-end" for a conversion rate. That's extremely high. We're more likely to be looking at sub-1% figures, and breaking 1% would be good. Breaking 10% would be absolutely bananas. I can't take you very seriously when you think a 10% conversion rate is "at the low end". Bloody hell mate. And 5% for the novel readers lol? Come off it. You're not going to get 1%. Likewise the videogame players.

It absolutely is reflective of it when it comes to people under 40 and thinking otherwise is being ridiculous.

It might not be a 1:1 correlation, but there's no such thing as a trend among 20 or 30-somethings IRL which isn't also a trend on the internet. It just doesn't happen. 50 or 60-somethings? Maybe. But that's a different question. And the FR isn't a setting people in that age group are excited about, generally speaking. They don't hate it or anything - it's hard to outright hate the FR - but it's not something people are keen on, and that's the fault of WotC to a significant extent. But it's also in part because the FR is a 1980s setting which has never been conceptually or thematically updated, despite multiple ludicrous overhauls.

Yeah it's their most popular SPECIFIC setting. The one that they sell. Their most popular setting in 5E, though, as they've said, is HOMEBREW not the FR. But they can't sell or merchandise homebrew. There's no question the FR has moved the most product over the last three decade, albeit for complex reasons. It used to be a setting I liked a lot, but I haven't seen any material with any real verve for it for a long time.

Its not nearly as reflective of young people as you think, just certain subsets of them, mostly university educated or those headed towards that goal.

Homebrew isn't A setting, its an endless series of settings, and doesn't count when one is concidering what the most popular official setting is.

Again in WotCs own words "Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is Magic's take on the most popular Dungeons & Dragons setting". WotC conciders FR its most popular setting.

And even at 1% of the D&D and FR fandoms your looking at nearly half a million new customers. Hell 0.5% is 250,000 new customers. That is easily enough with current customer base for MtG to make it both the most popular and profitable MtG set ever. Amazon.com is already sold out of everything AFR except the Commander decks.

Heck even if it convinces 1000 D&D players new to MtG to buy a bundle, that allow would push it to the most popular set inconjuction with current demand. And I believe its going to be way, way more successful then that.