WotC Which releases do you own?

[Parmandur]

Eh. I find the setting stuff ... unhelpful, and I was kinda surprised that for a setting based on M:tG there were so few spells (none, IIRC). I'll drop the occasional monster in, and I'll use the one subclass I wanted from Ravnica. I'm not entirely sure I'm getting my money's worth from the book, but that doesn't mean it's wrong for someone else to find it as complete as you do. Horses, meet courses.

There are one or two spells in there. They were making a concious effort to use as much straight D&D rules as possible, to make it "D&D in Ravnica" not "Magic RPG."

But, yeah, I love that sort of thing, so it works for me.

 

[Maxperson]

The line is somewhere, and 2019 was pushing it. They released 4 major products in 2018, and I bought 4. They released 7 major products in 2019, and I bought 4.

There weren't 7 major products released. Adventures are not major releases. There were Wildmount, Acquisitions Inc. and Eberron as major releases.

 

[Parmandur]

What is too many? 63? I think so. 53? 43? 33? 23?

And I don't think the line is as fine as you think it is. 3e didn't start to collapse after it got it's first 10 or 20 books. It didn't really start to get super cumbersome until 30 or 40. Then they started having to stretch for ideas to release and the releases become more unbalanced.

Per Nate Stewart (in some talk or another), somewhere around more than 1 product per Quarter is where the line is. And he is the one in a position of knowledge.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

There weren't 7 major products released. Adventures are not major releases. There were Wildmount, Acquisitions Inc. and Eberron as major releases.

Wildemount was 2020.
The major releases of 2019 were:

1. Stranger Things Box Set
2. Saltmarsh
3. Acq. Inc.
4. Descent into Avernus
5. Essential's Kit
6. Eberron
7. Rick and Morty

That's 7.

 

[Parmandur]

There weren't 7 major products released. Adventures are not major releases. There were Wildmount, Acquisitions Inc. and Eberron as major releases.

Yes, they are. That which is easily asserted, can be easily dismissed. Multi-hundred page books looking to sell hundreds of thousands of copies are indeed major releases.

• Stranger Things box set
• Ghosts of Saltmarsh
• Essentials Set
• Descent into Avernus
• Acquisitions Incorporated
• Rick & Morty box set
• Rising from the Last War

Seven major products.

 

[darjr]

What is too many? 63? I think so. 53? 43? 33? 23?

And I don't think the line is as fine as you think it is. 3e didn't start to collapse after it got it's first 10 or 20 books. It didn't really start to get super cumbersome until 30 or 40. Then they started having to stretch for ideas to release and the releases become more unbalanced.

That’s the point amid a fine line, no one knows. Sometimes not until AFTER you’ve crossed it.

And that is the dilemma. How close do you dare? What’s the wise move? Definitely NOT to let greed to drive you to release more and more books just to eat your seed corn.

 

[Maxperson]

Per Nate Stewart (in some talk or another), somewhere around more than 1 product per Quarter is where the line is. And he is the one in a position of knowledge.

Okay. 24 quarters and 5e only has 6 books of crunch. That's one book every 4 quarters, and includes the core 3. Compare that to 3e where they had 63 books of crunch during the same 24 quarters.

Adventures don't count. They didn't cause bloat or issues for 1e, 2e, 3e, or 4e. They aren't going to cause issues for 5e.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The thing is, WotC knows better than us what amount of products is the best. They're not publishing more than 5 books a year, showing that they are being cautious.

 

[Maxperson]

Yes, they are. That which is easily asserted, can be easily dismissed. Multi-hundred page books looking to sell hundreds of thousands of copies are indeed major releases.

• Stranger Things box set
• Ghosts of Saltmarsh
• Essentials Set
• Descent into Avernus
• Acquisitions Incorporated
• Rick & Morty box set
• Rising from the Last War

Seven major products.

I'd bet you that each of those things sold far fewer copies than Xanathar's or Volo's. Crunch sells more than those "major releases."

 

[Maxperson]

That’s the point amid a fine line, no one knows. Sometimes not until AFTER you’ve crossed it.

And that is the dilemma. How close do you dare? What’s the wise move? Definitely NOT to let greed to drive you to release more and more books just to eat your seed corn.

There is also risk that a slow release schedule will cross another fine line in the other direction and cause the edition to stagnate.