D&D 5E Where We've Been and Where We Might Be Going (or, What I Think WotC Is Doing)

[teitan]

But it's not new setting, which is what had mislead people, he should have said a new adventure.

That aside, I suspect like Wildemount this won't "count" as any kind of slot as it would mostly have been crafted by the CR team with assistance from WotC.

It actually sounds like one of the coolest adventures in 5e, but I'm holding off for now.

It is because it is Marquet.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

It is because it is Marquet.

Which isn't a new setting, it's a new region of an already existing setting that is already mentioned.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

No it points Greenwood, Cunningham, Kemp, Evans, and some others as having hit a million+ novels (and even a novel hitting 10,000 to 100,000 is very profitable if published internally).

I get what you're trying to say here, but . . .

So what? So what if they have historically sold tens of millions of copies? So what if 30 years ago Drizzt was super popular and sold millions of copies? So what if Ed Greenwood's novels have sold millions of copies across . . . how many years exactly? Because I'm certain that it is more years that Critical Role has existed, which is the main point.

Critical Role is popular now. Exandria is a huge deal now. Nostalgia for the first few Drizzt and Forgotten Realms books is not a huge factor anymore. Just look at the new Dark Alliance game. How many people are still playing Drizzt clones? How many people still care about Elminster or Laeral Silverhand versus the characters of the Critical Role campaigns? How much money have Drizzt and Elminster made in recent years compared to how much Critical Role has made from Twitch alone in the past 2-3 years? How well are the FR adventures and SCAG selling compared to Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and the upcoming Critical Role Adventure book? I fully expect Call of the Netherdeep to be the single best selling D&D 5e adventure in about a year's time. Critical Role is that big of a deal.

So what if the D&D movie is taking place in the Forgotten Realms? That was expected, the FR is the base campaign setting of D&D 5e. It's been around forever. Just because it's getting a movie doesn't mean that it's still as popular as you say it is. Dragonlance used to be super popular, but it isn't getting a movie (probably because it's not really that popular anymore). Popularity gradually fades. Critical Role and Exandria are popular here and now, and I fully expect it to surpass the popularity of the Forgotten Realms in the near future, if it hasn't already.

Critical Role is a huge deal. It's probably the most important reason why 5e is as popular as it is now. It wasn't the Forgotten Realms that boosted 5e to its current unprecedented levels of popularity and presence in the mainstream.

If Exandria isn't already the most popular D&D setting to date, it will be soon, and I fully believe that WotC has realized this. This is the third official D&D 5e book that Matt Mercer has worked on (Dragon Heist, Wildemount, and now this), and I don't expect WotC to let go of this cash cow anytime soon. They know how big of a deal Critical Role and Exandria are. This is the first D&D 5e adventure book that doesn't take place in the Forgotten Realms (ignoring the Witchlight, because it's still heavily tied to FR lore), and it's no coincidence that it is.

 

[Staffan]

Yeah no it wouldn't, people over state the power of CR brand. FR books have tens of millions of dollars in revenue generated per month, CR has 9 million from twitch over 3 years, I think Drizzt novels along do more in sales then that alone.

That's 9 million from Twitch alone, and doesn't count other revenue streams. They also had a Kickstarter for an animated series that raised $11 million (and then they got a deal with Amazon to distribute and make more of it) – sure, that's money that goes to production costs and mostly not to the Critical Role folks themselves, but it still shows that people are willing to spend money on it. There's merch out the wazoo. There are not just one, but two setting books (one for Tal'Dorei published by Green Ronin, and one for Wildemount published by Wizards), and who knows how much those sold. There are even comic books!

 

[Parmandur]

That's 9 million from Twitch alone, and doesn't count other revenue streams. They also had a Kickstarter for an animated series that raised $11 million (and then they got a deal with Amazon to distribute and make more of it) – sure, that's money that goes to production costs and mostly not to the Critical Role folks themselves, but it still shows that people are willing to spend money on it. There's merch out the wazoo. There are not just one, but two setting books (one for Tal'Dorei published by Green Ronin, and one for Wildemount published by Wizards), and who knows how much those sold. There are even comic books!

And Funko Pops! It's coming close to being a mainstream media franchise.

 

[teitan]

Which isn't a new setting, it's a new region of an already existing setting that is already mentioned.

Hair splitting but sure, revisited fits.

 

[teitan]

SO excluding new releases that are coming and adventures, yes, WIldemount is the no. 3 setting with Ravenloft, a newer release outselling it. The Scag would be no. 5, being beaten by Theros and Eberron. Ravenloft is the no. 15 book on AMazon for D&D, Eberron is 17, Wildemount is 18, Theros is 23, Ravnica is 31, SCAG is 43. Now SCAG is a very early 5e book and most of the materials in it have now been updated and it is wholly inessential to the adventures published for FR. By the logic in this thread Eberron is more popular and important to today's gamers than FR but almost all the adventures are FR related that outrank these books. These are a common reference points for modern gamers, much like Greyhawk back in the 80s.

Amazon Best Sellers: Best Dungeons & Dragons Game

Discover the best books in Amazon Best Sellers. Find the top 100 most popular Amazon books.

www.amazon.com

 

[glass]

Well, how would you call it ? I have called it a revision twice in that post, is that the word that you were looking for is it something else ? Because call it what you will, it does not change the basic facts...

I would call it 4e, because that is what it was. It was not a new edition, or even a revision, because it was 100% compatible with what came before and what came after.

More specifically, what Essentials was was complicated, which is why WotC struggled to market it effectively (and therefore rather than giving 4e's fortunes a boost it shot them in the head). It was a line of supplements for 4e, but it also included alternate core books so you could play it without a PHB1 (etc) if you wanted.

TLDR: It was a marketting cock-up, not a new edition.

_
glass.

 

[Malmuria]

Shawn Merwin and Mike Shea had an interesting discussion on the Mastering Dungeons podcast recently. They discuss how wotc is massively hiring people for the dnd digital team, speculating on whether they are trying to make some sort of dnd beyond, vtt, dms guild in house digital platform. And the possible motives behind that move (corporate greed) and its potential for failure.

They also discuss Level Up at 9:38, and how they are surprised that it doesn't have more backers (!)

 

[overgeeked]

Hold on...it’s all of Salvatore’s books combined that have sold 30 million copies. Not just the Drizzt books. That’s still a lot. But considering his website lists 130 books...and yes, you can bet the sales from every edition of every book is included so the translations, soft covers, and hard backs all count as separate books...that’s 230,770 per book if evenly divided. Considering he’s written some Star Wars novels those likely account for a huge portion. Definitely larger than the Drizzt books individually, perhaps even collectively.