D&D 5E What's Next for D&D's Campaign Settings? (And an idea/suggestion for WotC!)

[Bluenose]

Most FR presentations go the opposite direction for me: too much detail of every little thing. There's a lot of room for a balanced approach between those two extremes.

Part of the problem for me was that there was a huge amount of trivia, of detailed information about "little things", but also a lack of information about larger subjects. There are parts of the Realms where it's easy to find out about inns and taverns, but information about the government (how it works, what it wants, why it can't always have that) is vague at best. Trivia is nice, but not when it comes in place of more basic information.

 

[Nellisir]

It's pretty smart to combine adventures with mini-settings, because you can steadily expand a setting by describing many, many small parts of the setting. And you can sell those mini-settings by bundling them with adventures, and you can sell adventures by providing mini-settings in the packet. It seems like a win-win situation. Everyone can pick their favorite mini-settings and can incorporate it into their home worlds or their Forgotten Realms.

This is an excellent way of making sure I almost never buy one of these products. I don't use prepackaged adventures much, so why would I pay for something I only use half of? If they're taking inspiration from 2e, more story does not mean all adventure modules - it means more story in the mechanics. As other posters have said, I like reading the campaign setting info; it inspires my own homebrew. I stopped buying the 3e FR stuff when they began combining adventures & settings because they weren't that much fun to read.

 

[YRUSirius]

For guys like you there would be the standard campaign setting guide. People who need very detailed information would get the mini-settings with an adventure included. If you don't use premade adventures as written, you could still use bits and pieces of it to flesh out your campaign. And if not, you could sell the little 32 page adventure paperback separately on ebay.

And maybe, just maybe, the adventures and stories will be so good that you might even use them.

Oh, and remember: The future 5E adventures (with settings included) could be used as the basis for upcoming D&D Encounter seasons, as it is already being done right now. Seems like a solid foundation for a steady cashflow through adventure products, while strengthening the group-event character of adventures like the old classic adventures ("What did you do in the Caves of Chaos?").

-YRUSirius

 

[Nellisir]

And maybe, just maybe, the adventures and stories will be so good that you might even use them.

I've run two premade adventures in twenty-five years, both from Dungeon. Don't hold your breath.

Oh, and remember: The future 5E adventures (with settings included) could be used as the basis for upcoming D&D Encounter seasons, as it is already being done right now. Seems like a solid foundation for a steady cashflow through adventure products, while strengthening the group-event character of adventures like the old classic adventures ("What did you do in the Caves of Chaos?").

Nothing. Never played Caves of Chaos, never ran it. I get that you think it could be a "solid foundation for a steady cashflow"; I'll point out that a) nothing in that paragraph appeals to me, and b) WotC has never found adventures to be big drivers of sales. DMs buy adventures. Players and DMs buy accessory books. There are roughly 4 players to every DM. Which do you want to sell to?

 

[YRUSirius]

I want to friendly point out that you might not be the majority of the players (I don't know if the majority uses pre-made adventures or not). I do know though, that WotC is not going to focus on rules supplements with 5E, they said as much.

So how does the current RPG market leader earn money? Paizo sells mainly adventures, right? In the past WotC made money mainly by selling rules (3E, 4E) and less adventures. This didn't work out in the last 5 to 8 years. It might be that the RPG departement is now small enough to be able to afford to make money with adventures (sounds like a paradox, I know): Because of lower production costs of adventures and bigger revenues by selling a high quantity of adventures.

Everything what was said and hinted about the future focus of 5E points to a shift of WotC's selling strategy: More story, less rules - which implies the selling of more adventure content than rules content.

You might not have a need for the format personally, but I want to point out that they might have observed that Paizo is selling adventures and making money out of it and are trying to repeat their success with their own spin (D&D Encounters).

-YRUSirius

 

[Plageman]

Not all campaign settings should be treated equally. IMHO what brought TSR to its knees is not that they had too many settings, it's that they wanted to publish scores of material for all of them. What WotC could do is keep a couple of settings as "ongoing" and some other "limited series" with something like 5-6 products at all, much like what White Wolf did with the nWoD.

Also if they don't want to publish about some minor settings, why not outsource them to other publisher like what they did with Ravenloft or Dragonlance during the 3E era ?

And finally not all products should be an on-the-shelf product, they could take advantage of the POD and offer some PDF + POD for some of them.

And btw I feel that having a true and better supported in house magazine would really help. The 4E version of the iconic Dungeon and Dragon were less interesting than what had been published for 30 years...

 

[Nellisir]

I want to friendly point out that you might not be the majority of the players (I don't know if the majority uses pre-made adventures or not).

Oh, I'm well aware that I'm in the minority in many ways. However, there was at least one poll (and I'd love to link, but it was so long ago that I think it was TSR that ran it) that indicated something like 80% of the people (an overwhelming majority) bought Dungeon magazine to read, not to play. At 64 pages and 3-5 adventures for $5, Dungeon was a much better bargain than what you're suggesting.

You might not have a need for the format personally, but I want to point out that they might have observed that Paizo is selling adventures and making money out of it and are trying to repeat their success with their own spin (D&D Encounters).

I'm not sure I've ever seen a breakdown of Paizo's income stream separated into Adventure Paths, stand-alone adventures, setting accessories, setting hardcovers, and rule books. The adventure path modules offer more than just a mini-gazetteer and an adventure each issue, but I'll admit they still don't really tweak my interest. Kingmaker maybe.

Anyways, I suspect we're both in minorities. You think bundling adventures & setting material is "pretty smart"; I don't. Ultimately, neither of our opinions matter much.

I will say this. I think cloning Paizo's strategy is a very bad idea for WotC. WotC has a lot more intellectual property to leverage than Paizo, and ultimately, a different market. D&D has market penetration and awareness that Pathfinder only dreams of. WotC can certainly learn from Paizo, but outright copying? Good way to be #2.

 

[Plageman]

Well TSR jumped on the player splatbook train early on with the Complete book of ... series yet yet when 3E came out they promised they wouldn't follow that path again.

Now aboutthis whole "let's sell to players first", I don't think it's a good way to do it as from experience still only one guy at the table will have a specific splatbook and share it with the other players.

Mixing adventures with setting nuggets is nothing new but it is a good way to attract more audience especially for busy DM who might not have the time to prep their sessions.