D&D 5E (2014) WotC 5e products, published or announced, as of end of 2015?

[Morrus]

Cool it please, folks.

 

[Winterthorn]

While I don't understand WotC's sparse business plan, I'm not going to kvetch too much about it. There is plenty of third party material one can buy, and homebrew ideas are perculating everywhere, and older edition conversions to 5E are offered/ongoing works, so I can't see anyone suffering other than perhaps WotC's profits. Furthermore, I'm happy to renew my efforts to update my own campaign world from it's 2E version, so ultimately I can wait for a while

Besides, I have to save some $ for another hobby: LEGO. :-D

 

[Jester David]

Damn, so nothing announced?

Maybe they should just sell D&D to someone who wants it.

Hasbro doesn't sell Intellectual Property. They just shelve it in case they need it in the future. There's a good dozen recognisable 80s brands that had cartoons and everything that have been ignored for decades.

They're trying to be more reactive, changing their plans as needed in response to audience desires (and likely what licence partners are working on and able to release). They're not doing the big announcements anymore where they announce the next year of products and then set them in stone, as then people get upset if products get delayed or cancelled.

They like to announce the next product a month or two in advance. Because that's long enough to keep people excited and regularly tease content. It's hard to maintain enthusiasm and excitement for four or five months. They want people to be focused on the current content for a while, to give it time in the spotlight. There was a weird overlap in 3e/4e where they'd stop hyping a product right before it was released (or just when the Encounters season was reaching its climax) because the next product had to start being hyped.

 

[ccs]

Damn, so nothing announced?

Maybe they should just sell D&D to someone who wants it.

And why would Hasbro ever do that?
Even if they never published another D&D book the brand is more valuable to them in mothballs than if some other company had it.

 

[BoldItalic]

The next thing that appears will be something that, as far as WotC can tell by actually asking, a lot of people will want. This seems to me like a good strategy.

Of course, you can't please everyone all of the time, but if you please most of the people most of the time, that's pretty good.

I hope the next book isn't too soon, though. I haven't played all the new class options and backgrounds in SCAG yet

 

[MerricB]

Hasbro doesn't sell Intellectual Property. They just shelve it in case they need it in the future. There's a good dozen recognisable 80s brands that had cartoons and everything that have been ignored for decades.

They do license things out, though. And occasionally they do things that quite surprise you.

A few examples:
* The recent availability of Up Front as a Print-on-Demand game through Wargamevault (RPGNow/DriveThruRPG/etc.)
* Netrunner was licensed to FFG a few years ago and is doing very well - much better than when Wizards bought it
* Advanced Squad Leader has been licensed to MMP for the last couple of decades
* They sold back the rights to Legends of the Five Rings to AEG.

Cheers!

 

[bedir than]

I hope the next book isn't too soon, though. I haven't played all the new class options and backgrounds in SCAG yet

This forces me to ask, who has played every race/class combination in the game and used every monster in the manual in the less than two years the game has been out?

What's this demand for new and more driven by at the table.

 

[MerricB]

Although Wizards themselves aren't producing a mountain of D&D products, there are quite a lot from 3rd-party publishers - in particular, Necromancer Games are starting to look at producing setting material (after their initial adventure/monster/spell books), Sasquatch Games have Primeval Thule and its adventures, and Kobold Press are producing rules supplements and campaign material.

And, of course, the long list of 3rd-party adventures.

Then there's the licensed material. Gale Force 9 have just released their latest spell card decks, and have announced a new D&D board game (designed by the people at Wizards). Not sure what's happening with WizKids at present, though.

The next announcements as to the storyline and future Wizards products are likely to occur in mid-January, possibly about a week before Winter Fantasy or at the convention...

Cheers!

 

[Jester David]

They do license things out, though. And occasionally they do things that quite surprise you.

A few examples:
* The recent availability of Up Front as a Print-on-Demand game through Wargamevault (RPGNow/DriveThruRPG/etc.)
* Netrunner was licensed to FFG a few years ago and is doing very well - much better than when Wizards bought it
* Advanced Squad Leader has been licensed to MMP for the last couple of decades
* They sold back the rights to Legends of the Five Rings to AEG.

Cheers!

True, but other than the Core books, all the 5e stuff has been done under licence. They've pretty much just licenced out the Tabletop RPG, but on a book-by-book basis rather than all at once.

Which really means more books for us, since there's only so many books a licencee can release at a time and they're unlikely to end their other product lines and campaign settings.
If Green Ronin or Kobold Press was given exclusive D&D rights we'd be lucky to see two books a year, and they'd likely be Kickstarted.

 

[Staffan]

This forces me to ask, who has played every race/class combination in the game and used every monster in the manual in the less than two years the game has been out?

What's this demand for new and more driven by at the table.

Because not all the material in the core books (and now the SCAG) is interesting to everyone. If I'm not interested in being a caster, there aren't that many options in the PHB for example (barbarian, non-Eldritch Knight fighter, monk, non-Arcane Trickster rogue). In addition, people miss some of the options available in older editions (for me, that list mostly consists of Martial Adepts a la Tome of Battle, psionics, and a proper treatment of Eberron mechanical material).

True, but other than the Core books, all the 5e stuff has been done under licence. They've pretty much just licenced out the Tabletop RPG, but on a book-by-book basis rather than all at once.

They haven't been done under license. They've been outsourced, which is a completely different thing, and freelancers aren't exactly a new thing in RPGs.

Onyx Path Publishing has a license from White Wolf. They think up things to do within that license, and check with their licensor if that thing is OK. When they're done, they also check with the licensor if what they've made match their expectations, and finally publish it. The book is sold by Onyx Path Publishing, who presumably pay White Wolf for the license.

Wizards of the Coast outsources production of certain books to outside companies. Wizards thinks up a thing they want done, and then pays another company to do that thing. That company then delivers the agreed-upon product to Wizards. Wizards polish things up (I'm not sure how much of the editing/layout stage and such is done at Wizards and how much is done by the production company), and then publish it. The book is sold by Wizards of the Coast, who have presumably already paid the production studio for their work (though there may be royalties or something involved - I find it unlikely, but ultimately the exact contract is none of my business).

If the adventures/sourcebooks were done under license, even a book-by-book license, they would be sold by the production company instead of by Wizards of the Coast. This is pretty much how it works with the miniatures and spell cards, for example.