D&D 5E Why I Think D&DN is In Trouble

[billd91]

I thought the scuttlebutt was that Monte left because WotC forbid its employees to do outside projects.

That is a guess as far as I understand it, but it's my guess as well considering that was similar to Stan!'s reason for turning down a full position there in a similar timeframe. The quick appearance of the Numenera kickstarter also suggests that reason.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

What amount of Internet talk would the op think would be enough?

How long should they announce a product ahead?

Did any of you read mike mearls saying what a great year last year was in L&L last Monday?

 

[Mistwell]

I thought the scuttlebutt was that Monte left because WotC forbid its employees to do outside projects.

Yup, that appears to have been a major factor.

 

[jodyjohnson]

I thought the scuttlebutt was that Monte left because WotC forbid its employees to do outside projects.

Given the Numerera Kickstarter in August 2012, I expect this is true. Having Bruce follow him a year later for the same reason.

April 25, 2012 announcement from Monte
http://montecook.livejournal.com/251404.html

In articles at the same time he hints about a project in the works (Numenera). In hindsight it is pretty obvious that his plans for Numenera explain his "differences of opinion with the company".

 

[Morrus]

I thought the scuttlebutt was that Monte left because WotC forbid its employees to do outside projects.

They don't forbid them, but their employment contract claims ownership of them if you develop them while working for WotC.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

They don't forbid them, but their employment contract claims ownership of them if you develop them while working for WotC.

Makes sense to me..

 

[fjw70]

What amount of Internet talk would the op think would be enough?

How long should they announce a product ahead?

Did any of you read mike mearls saying what a great year last year was in L&L last Monday?

What are you saying? Arbitrary standards on why something has or will fail are meaningless? You sir just lost your internet card.

 

[Gadget]

Having come into 3E with no prior experience in roleplaying, I was not aware of the existence of Greyhawk until well into that edition's cycle. In fact, the only ties the core books have to Greyhawk are the pantheon list and the proper possessives on some of the spell names. Contrast with 4E, where many of Nentir Vale's features were assumed in places like the Shadowfel and the Feywild.

Note that I prefer the setting agnosticism of 3E. Fitting 4E into my homebrew worlds required some shoehorning of the two other planes.

I find this quite contrary to my experience. The default setting for 3e was Greyhawk. The Nentir Vale was 4e's attempt to get away from a default setting with some minimal example settlements. I think you are confusing cosmology with setting, in which case core 3e was tied quite tightly to the Great Wheel and all it's smörgåsbord of planes and politics. I found 4es cosmology to be a breath of fresh air compared to the Great Wheel and and the weight that went along with it, especially for homebrews.

 

[steeldragons]

I think 5e is in trouble because there is profusion of people believing them to be in trouble.

The "all things to all people" ideal has been proven to be utterly impossible, however admirable, as a goal. The divergent playstyles of today's gaming community have thoroughly made themselves [not the game, mind! we gamers have done this to ourselves...willingly!] mutually exclusive.

It is in trouble, no doubts.

 

[jodyjohnson]

4. Attack of the Clones. Since 2008 there has been an OSR revival. There is no OSR Pathfinder as people are playing around 20+ clones and retro games but the major ones seem to be Dungeon Crawl Classics and Castles and Crusades. Gygax magazine under a new TSR has been launched as well and it out sold Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle on rpgnow.com. The big selling PDFs on D&Dclassics.com are all TSR era adventures. It is hard to say how big the OSR community is but they are producing more content than Paizo and someone is buying the adventures.

Most of the "OSR Revival" stuff seems to be generated by the RPGNow.com rankings. As RPGNow is the "The Leading Source for Indie RPGs" it is not surprising that Indie companies dominate the charts there.

Their rating system is Popular Pick and a Metal/Medal Rating (Plat, Gold, Electrum, Silver, Copper).

When you go to DrivethruRPG.com the top games look substantially different as that's the site for "The Largest RPG Download Store!". People go here to buy the mainline RPG products (in 2008-April 2009 Wizards sold their PDFs here).

Their rating system is Best Sellers and a Metal rating.

And then DnDClassics.com is only WotC/TSR. Their rating system is also Best Sellers and a Metal rating.

The rankings of products differ significantly depending on which site you are on.

The two available Next products are doing pretty well for being Adventures and not Core Rulebooks or Magazines. (Yes GoDSC contains the rules that almost 200,000 players downloaded for free but the rules are hardly the draw).

Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle: Copper Popular Pick on RPGNow, Electrum Best Seller on DriveThruRPG, and Electrum Best Seller on DnDClassics.

Vault of the Dracolich: Copper Popular Pick on RPGNow, Silver Best Seller on DriveThruRPG, and Electrum Best Seller on DnDClassics.

The best selling DnD product per DnDClassics is the Moldvay Basic Book.
D&D Basic Set Rulebook (B/X) Moldvay: Electrum Popular Pick on RPGNow, Gold Best Seller on DriveThruRPG, and Platinum Best Seller on DnDClassics.

Rules Cyclopedia: Popular Silver Pick on RPGNow, Gold Best Seller on DriveThruRPG, Electrum Best Seller on DnDClassics.

The only products on DnDClassics ahead of the 2 modules are 4 products up for nearly a year and that were offered free for a period in the last year (B/X Basic book. B/X Expert book, B2 KotB, and T1-4 ToEE).

What analysis of the 3 PDF portals tells us is that: 1) the rating systems are not equivalent across the 3 sites, and/or 2) Each product is only rated relative to sales on that site.

I assume that the rating system of Popular Picks and Best Sellers are not equivalent (Best Sellers represent much higher sales) and that each product is only rated relative to sales on that site which is obvious to me when I compare B/X Basic and Rules Compendium.

Which only says that people looking for indie games are buying less WotC product and people looking to buy DnD use the storefront dedicated to DnD.

And nothing against Gygax magazine as the main quarterly general 'D&D' magazine available.