D&D 5E What Wizards can do to make D&D Next successful.

[pemerton]

The consequence of the OGL may well be that "D&D" will live forever in the SRD, but that D&D itself dies.

I can't XP you twice in a row, so am posting instead to say that I think that you may well be right here!

 

[Starfox]

The likely consequence of this is that WotC can manage 4e-level sales, which would be eagerly jumped upon by any other RPG company, but may well never be able to do significantly better.

If they make a better product, it may not sell better initially, but will have better life-cycle sales, sell more supplements, and induce more new gamers. For new gamers, OGL or not really does not matter at all. I think that's the direction NEXT should go - be an entry-level game that old hands can still enjoy.

 

[ferratus]

I think it may in fact be time for WotC to retire D&D as a living, constantly evolving property. I also think it might be time to retire WotC as a company. It has got to be fairly frustrating for Hasbro, that has its business as toy and games, to have a seperate subsidiary to release just a couple games. There is so much loss of synergy with other brands and so much redundancy there. If the D&D and Magic brands weren't forced to support the infrastructure of an entire company, they could have a much more forgiving release schedule, and have greater opportunities for merchandizing.

Imagine a D&D product cycle that has a few well-structured games

Basic - a stripped down dungeon crawler, 4 races, 4 classes, random dungeon table.

Advanced - Old school 1e/2e/RC Basic polished up, but still playing homage to the classic D&D themes and tropes. In other words, lose the wonky/unfair rules, but keep the quirky charm. Place for adventurer-conquerer-king style gameplay as well.

Tactics - Feats&Powers version, for those that love their character builds and combat. We can finally admit now that 4e is dead that 4e was just 3e brought to its logical conclusion right? The powers system is just feats, spells, and substitution levels streamlined under a central cohesive mechanic, and pretty much everything else is the same. This would be the edition for what 3e and 4e fans love in common. Character builds and combat.

That's it. No splatbooks, no release schedule, rely on user generated content for adventures and "optional" rules and addons for content and community. I've never really seen much difference between "professional" and "amateur" quality of content anyway, except for production values (art, accessories etc.)

The tabletop community gets with the business of slowly dying out because nobody has time to play cooperative tabletop games anymore, and would survive longer if WotC and other companies don't keep selling new product to splinter and diminish the fanbase.

Then Hasbro, instead of trying to come up with the next biggest revolution in D&D to revive the brand every couple years, should just let it sit quietly and pull in consistent amount of revenue. But really, what will make them the money off this IP isn't the game itself, it is the merch. D&D T-shirts, toys, key rings, flash drives, etc etc. If you can't make it yourself, license it out and help sell the product on your website.

I have been, since the year 2000, continuously flaberghasted that WotC does not have a online store on their website. Paizo does, in which they sell not only their games, but products related to their brand, and even the products of their competitors that they think will sell.

So that's my plan for how D&D Next can succeed. Make a few game products to give enough rules for a DM to get started in their favoured style. Merchandize and license the brand. Use the fanbase for splatbook content. Sell old product in electronic form.

Then if you must tinker with the rules system again, pull a game designer team together from your stable at Hasbro (or hire a a team of freelancers) to do the job, and then put them on the next project instead of firing them at Christmas because D&D is all you do.

The way WotC is structured is probably the biggest reason D&D is having a hard time as a property.

 

[Evenglare]

I agree that D&D should just be a core simple game. The 3 handbooks and that's it. Keeping that in mind , it would need some extremely good fleshed out creative rules so people could create their own classes and races and all of that stuff.

 

[Sunseeker]

I agree that D&D should just be a core simple game. The 3 handbooks and that's it. Keeping that in mind , it would need some extremely good fleshed out creative rules so people could create their own classes and races and all of that stuff.

I don't these kinds of requests are realistic in the slightest.

You're asking for the game to stagnate. It may not always grow in your desired direction, but a game needs to grow to survive. Making D&D into a set of 3 books that never grow, never evolve, and never change is a good way to make D&D die 100x faster.

While I agree that D&D needs to take a heavier focus on it's core framework with a reduced emphasis on splat, I don't think never producing new or additional material is a good plan.

Look at all the successful products on the market, they all rely on a solid core product, fully-developed and supported by it's creators(something WOTC could strive harder to do), and then a long-running flow of add-ons. Some from the original manufacturer, some from third-party sellers, some from individual users. All ranging in price, function and quality.

Does anyone think the iPhone would benefit from no new software?

Does anyone think Windows would benefit from no software updates?(jokingly, yes, but realistically no.)

I do think WOTC needs to open up the DDN license to allow 3rd party products and producters to support and compliment their material. But by no means does allowing 3rd party producers to create content mean WOTC shouldn't create any content of their own. That's just silly.

 

[ferratus]

Does anyone think the iPhone would benefit from no new software?

Does anyone think Windows would benefit from no software updates?(jokingly, yes, but realistically no.)

D&D isn't a smartphone, it is a board game. At least, that's what Roleplaying games in general resemble most. Continually making new rules for D&D is like continuously making new versions of the rules (and making the old ones obsolete) makes about as much sense for it as it does for Monopoly or Risk.

I do think WOTC needs to open up the DDN license to allow 3rd party products and producters to support and compliment their material. But by no means does allowing 3rd party producers to create content mean WOTC shouldn't create any content of their own. That's just silly.

Sure they should create their own content. I'm just not sure if a few products a month and expecting it support a whole company division is something they should do.

 

[Sunseeker]

D&D isn't a smartphone, it is a board game. At least, that's what Roleplaying games in general resemble most. Continually making new rules for D&D is like continuously making new versions of the rules (and making the old ones obsolete) makes about as much sense for it as it does for Monopoly or Risk.

...so....you're telling me that there are no variant, modern, or alternate editions or rule-sets for Monopoly or Risk?

Nope, you're right, nobody's every come up with a new or unique way to play Monoply.

Nope, nothing new here.

Monoply is not one of the world's most popular boardgames on the grounds that there is only one version and one way to play the game.

I'll just provide a wiki link to the list of Risk variants to save page-space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_licensed_Risk_game_boards

Clearly, new rules and new materials for these games have no bearing at all. /sarcasm off.

D&D isn't a smartphone, but it could certainly stand to learn how to sell like one. Monopoly has, and it sure isn't hurting from it.

Produce a core game concept, a defined framework of rules, and then run with it. Modules, apps, 3rd-party content, variant rules, all of the compatible with the core game, but each providing something unique and interesting to the system. Where D&D should be even MORE awesome than a smartphone or Monopoly is that you are able to combine variant rules, modules, apps, and 3rd-party or secondary content into your own unique game.

Sure they should create their own content. I'm just not sure if a few products a month and expecting it support a whole company division is something they should do.

The structuring at Hasbro is stupid. No argument there. Personally I think WOTC, and D&D's biggest current failing is simply their inability to get with the times. Modern distribution methods to reduce costs, core-game material subscription services, 3rd-party content. WOTC seems to absolutely abhor these concepts, and it's damaging their product.

 

[timASW]

I totally agree. I think it would also be worth it for WotC to take it a step or three further.

Adventure modules and adventure paths would be very welcome, of course.

But what about more sandbox-style adventures, or even more sandboxes themselves? The Gloomwrought book, and Gardmoure Abbey were steps in the right direction, I think. Even the Neverwinter book, not really a full "campaign setting," but a terrific and inspirational sandbox.

More books that detail a city, or an event, complete with locations, NPCs (various allies and villains, alike), and sample encounters would be amazing.

So, not only books like these, but Next is ripe for introducing rules-bits into these products. Maybe not a splatbook, bit a "mystery adventure" series that introduces mystery-solving add-on rules modules, sample puzzle encounters, etc. Instead of rulebooks, embed new rules into the published adventure and sandbox books!

My hopes for 5e publishing, anyway.

Definately, one of the best purchases I've made in a while is the darkmoon vale books for pathfinder. I used it for true 20 as a setting when I first got it and now I'm going to use it as a starting setting for my Warhammer 2e game by putting in the mountains to the south of the empire.

A lot of their city settings for adventure paths and other location settings are great in that way. You can use them almost anywhere for almost any game.

 

[timASW]

The structuring at Hasbro is stupid. No argument there. Personally I think WOTC, and D&D's biggest current failing is simply their inability to get with the times. Modern distribution methods to reduce costs, core-game material subscription services, 3rd-party content. WOTC seems to absolutely abhor these concepts, and it's damaging their product.

I recently asked my gaming group is they thought 5e would be available on something like kindle, with editable sheets.

No one wanted to take the bet they would... I wouldnt have either though.

Side note, I'm buying some of those RISK games now, thx.

 

[Stormonu]

I think it would be cool if WOTC focused on updating the classic adventures of 1e and open license other adventure designers to make new games.

Ugh, no. While the "Return to..." series were okay, I ground my teeth to the reimagined "Expediton to..." series and passed on the latest 4E retreads/reimaginings. 5E's Caves of Chaos is somewhat passable because for the most part it just updates the stats without actually trying to change the original's configuration. I very much doubt they'd be able to resist "modernizing" those old modules without attempting to make significant changes to them - to which I say, "no, thanks."

I think it would behoof the D&D staff to make new adventures rather than further scrape the carcasses of old adventures. Although I wouldn't begrudge an item, monster or NPC reference to those older adventures.