Who Makes WotC's Adventures?

There are now three large hardcover adventures for D&D 5th Edition. There's the two-part Tyranny of Dragons campaign produced by Kobold Press; there's Princes of the Apocalypse, from Sasquatch Game Studios; and there's the imminent Out of the Abyss, from Green Ronin publishing. All of these are official, hardcover adventures produced for WotC by third party companies. But how does that actually work? What is the relationship between the company producing the products and the company publishing them? WotC's Jeremy Crawford told me yesterday that the term "outsourcing" is innacurate when it comes to describing this arrangement.

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If we go back a bit to when I asked Kobold Press' Wolfgang Baur about the process, he told me that "the 5E adventures are produced as a combination of studio work and WotC oversight." He went on to describe it in a little more detail, highlighting a to-and-fro between the companies -- "we'd do some portion of the work, then we would get feedback from WotC on Realmslore, or story beats, or mechanics. Then we did more of the design, and got feedback from swarms of playtesters. Then we turned over another version for feedback on the art and layout. And so forth. It was iterative..." So collaboration clearly takes place all the way through the process.

He describes Kobold Press role as "the heavy lifting in design, development, and editing" with WotC having "crucial input and set the direction for what they wanted".

Moving ahead to now, WotC Jeremy Crawford observes that "It's bizarre to see a few posters on ENWorld mistake our [D&D 5E] collaborations as outsourcing. Each book has been a team effort." The input from WotC isn't just greenlighting the book at various stages; as Jeremy tells us "Our reviews are deep. We create the story & the concept art. We write portions of the books. We design mechanics. Etc.!" As he also points out, the credits page of each book tells us who contributed to each.

So there we have it. These books aren't outsourced to third parties in any traditional sense of that word; the books are written as a collaborative effort with writing and more done by both companies.

 

[arjomanes]

Sometimes fans can be the worst to the people who make the things they love.

I think it was cool to get a little glimpse behind the scenes from Jeremy Crawford, and I think a lot of fans are being unnecessarily harsh to him and WotC.

Working with an established, trusted team of freelancers is a great idea, and certainly part of the reason the new modules have been great!

 

[Fildrigar]

Sometimes it's best not to know how the sausage is made.

 

[Galendril]

Sometimes it's best not to know how the sausage is made.

Agreed! I just know it tastes delicious!

 

[Shasarak]

And this, ladies and gents, is why WotC prefers not to ever say anything.

But is that not the advantage of doing your announcements by using 140 characters or less?

 

[Hussar]

OUTSOURCING
verb (used with object), outsourced, outsourcing. 1. (of a company or organization) to purchase (goods) or subcontract (services) from an outside supplier or source.

2. to contract out (jobs, services, etc.): a small business that outsources bookkeeping to an accounting firm.

Neither of these definitions fit with what WotC is doing though. The second one is right out because it does not cover collaboration. The first might work if you squint but again the connotation us that outsourced work is completely done by the subcontractor.

Why not say WotC collaborates with other companies to produce material? Wouldn't that be more accurate and remove the negative connotations of outsourcing? Or do you require the negative connotations?

 

[Uder]

The fact that you term it "calling them on it" certainly speaks to the answer.

Edit: Nevermind. Morrus, you have a great knack for shutting down conversation on your own forum.

 

[jinnetics]

It may not be accurate, but it's not "bizarre" at all to think of it as outsourcing.

 

[Celtavian]

Not quite.
That's freelancing and WotC did a bit of it during 3e and 4e. In those cases, the company hires the writer and assigns the work and then gets the rough draft turned in, which they edit, format, layout, and then print. They also handle the art orders and the like. In this situation, they're licencing the entire work and paying the other company to not only write the words, but also edit, order maps and art, layout the book, and more.

WotC is just offering oversight. They're managing the process. What Crawford is saying is "they could not have done the project without our expert management and advice". In much the same way they're offering constant feedback and approval on the Sword Coast Legends video game and likely had oversight over the Temple of Elemental Evil board game.
Okay, admittedly, it's a little more robust of support. Since they're pitching the story, offering concept art, and giving feedback throughout. But it's a much, much different process than freelancing or what Paizo does.

It's similar enough to not matter. It's a common practice in the industry. I don't see the issue with it. Seems much ado about nothing.

 

[Jester David]

It's similar enough to not matter. It's a common practice in the industry. I don't see the issue with it. Seems much ado about nothing.

It doesn't matter. Not really.
I don't really care who I buy adventures from. I buy and run 3rd Party adventures. It's mostly an issue for people who equate anything not done in house as inherently inferior.

It does mean that WotC isn't really writing adventures, but letting another company do the work. But that's no biggie, as they don't really have the staff to handle four or five books each year anymore. And their staff isn't really made up on adventure writers, so the quality will be better than if not outsourced.

I just like to give credit where credit is due. The WotC team did an effing amazing job with the core rulebooks and should feel super proud. But I'm not going to praise them for books they only had a partial role in creating. You don't praise the editor of a novel or the producer of a movie. Whenever a film tries to advertise itself as "from the Studio that brought you..." it's almost a joke. This isn't that different.

I'm sure there's a Dilbert strip somewhere about managers taking responsibility for hired worker's efforts...

 

[Maggan]

I'm sure there's a Dilbert strip somewhere about managers taking responsibility for hired worker's efforts...

We produced an educational game for a large client some 15 years ago. When one of the upper management dudes got wind of the finished product, he stopped it because he hadn't been involved. We got green light after adding "Produced by X" first thing in the game.