WotC WotC general D&D survey just went live.

[Parmandur]

A cost I will happily pay, every time.

You, sure. Other people? Maybe less so. The evidence suggests otherwise.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You, sure. Other people? Maybe less so. The evidence suggests otherwise.

Plenty of fans of Level Up, with far less marketing power behind it. Where's the evidence that people actually want a simpler game?

 

[Mecheon]

Level Up did both.

Level Up is a fan project targeted at existing fans who know what they're into. The new D&D is inded to be sold to people new to the whole concept who's knowledge of RPGs as a whole is 'i can roll dice and fight a dude', with whatever pop-culture knowledge comes prior to that. And.... Half elves kind of aren't a thing in pop culture these days, and I'd make a statement that I don't think half orcs ever were

Different audiences. Those around for a while can appreciate the half elves, but, they not really in demand for people new to the game. Paper's best spent on stuff like Goliaths that adds in a new archetype (Giant) rather than two that are basically half and halfing on the other archetypes in play.

 

[Parmandur]

Plenty of fans of Level Up, with far less marketing power behind it. Where's the evidence that people actually want a simpler game?

The evidence is in what sells. And yes, Level Up has some fans, but it's not at the scale of D&D.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The evidence is in what sells. And yes, Level Up has some fans, but it's not at the scale of D&D.

I'd say D&D has a bit of a head start there. It's not a fair comparison.

 

[Parmandur]

I'd say D&D has a bit of a head start there. It's not a fair comparison.

Well no, of course it isn't, that's my point. A boutique hobbyist game aimed t the niche of people who think of 5E as being "not complex enough" isn't going to appeal to the broad audience WotC is aiming for when they try to treamline the game.

 

[JAMUMU]

My entries can be summarised thusly:

Birthright, Birthright, Box Sets, Loadsamoney but on Pathfinder.

 

[MNblockhead]

I know they do these surveys regularly, though I do not recall a recent D&D survey that asked about earlier editions, much less when the last time you played them.

What do people make of that? I'm wondering if this is coming up as part of deciding to put the earlier editions into CC or to test the waters for reprints for the 50th anniversary. On the 50th, I would imagine they have whatever they are going to release already planned, but who knows?

The last survey I took, before this one, did ask me what edition I started with and, IIRC, what editions I have played, but not when I last played anything other than 5e.

I'm guessing they want to compare preferences of fans who started with and have recently played older editions and to get numbers on them. They have to balance any changes to the game to appeal to newer fans who many not have experience with any edition other than 5e and those who have been playing for a while and are fans of older editions.

 

[Lanefan]

Sure. But it opens up the representation of a wider array of beings without creating a mechanical morass (which is undesirable), or limiting option to a few random yet mechanically distinct options (Half-Elves and Half-Orcs, also undesirable).

Neither of those options you list as undesirable is in fact undesirable.

If you're going to make half-species (or part-species, if one wants to break it down into quarters or eights) distinctive beyond mere appearance, you've got to have mechanics for each one. And yeah, if every species can be halfers with every other species that's gonna take a lot of bespoke mechanics to do well enough to be worth bothering with.

Either that, or limit the number of inter-species possitilities while still giving each one its own mechanics.

 

[Parmandur]

Neither of those options you list as undesirable is in fact undesirable.

If you're going to make half-species (or part-species, if one wants to break it down into quarters or eights) distinctive beyond mere appearance, you've got to have mechanics for each one. And yeah, if every species can be halfers with every other species that's gonna take a lot of bespoke mechanics to do well enough to be worth bothering with.

Either that, or limit the number of inter-species possitilities while still giving each one its own mechanics.

It undesirable to you, perhaps, but neither limiting the possibilities of hybridization nor creating a complex mechanical representation is desirable for WotC's business needs.