WOTC's 3-5 year plan

[Gizzard]

Well, remember that Hasbro doesnt want to sell 40 "units" of stuff, they want everything to sell more like the Core books at 70-100 "units".

Some people are going to buy every D&D thing that comes out, but how many people are going to buy a new campaign setting every year?

I'm not saying that churning campaign settings every year or two isnt Hasbros plan right now (because I fear it is), but I suspect it wont be their plan in 3-5 years. ;-)

<edit>:
I think some of the mass-mass market ideas other people floated like licensed TV shows and other spin-offs is what Hasbro is *excited* about doing. Again, we'll see whether they have any success in this area over the next couple years.

 

[Sinistar]

Hmm. Combine a few of the ideas on the board.

Mature Themes...

Seven Sisters Dolls...

Probably best not to put those together

I worry about the Setting expansion pack idea. Turning D&D into a Magic The Gathering concept with collectable rules sets just doesn't appeal to me...

 

[NeghVar]

Hi all!

Lets look at some possible 'major' projects:

New (Pushed) Campaign Setting with perhaps a number of satellite projects.

Legends & Lore

Unearthed Arcana

Deities & Demigods 2 (touted)

Mass Combat Rulebook

(someone mentioned) D20 Future

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (where they introduce a set of logical rules to test the water for 4th Edition)

Greyhawk (given back to Gary Gygax as long as its D20?)

Planescape (Epic Campaign setting?)

D20 Superheroes (with at least Marvel License)

Smaller Projects:

Epoch Books (Myriad setting rules for different periods of history. eg. "The Sun & the Rune" 96 pages of Egyptian and Norse setting material)

City Builders Guidebook

Anyone suggest any others?

UK...

Add the DMG 2 to that list. I recall Monte speaking about the possibility of one some time ago.

Later!

 

[Lady Dragon]

Some possiblitities

Arabian Adventures

survival guides

Book of Exalted deeds

One new campaign setting per year(one shot)

One old campaign setting per year(ex. Dragonlance)to be turned over to Third party.

d20 Sci-fi

New campaign setting long term to replace FR

one mega adventure per year

One FR realms Hardcover per year

Total of 6 hardcovers,4 softcover per year total

Several total surprises.

 

[Wolf72]

Ok commrads, maybe I should have put into the original post. "Jokes about communism need not apply.

sorry! the temptation was to great ...

back to 3e: ... um okay I have absolutely no constructive comments right now ... so ... um ... bump!

 

[johnnype]

I'm fairly sure they will come out with a "revised" 3rd edition D&D sometime in the next couple of years. I believe I remember someone mentioning that.

Other than that, we know that right after D20 Modern a setting by the name of Future Arcana will come out fleshing out the info included in the D20M rulebook.

Other than that I am praying for a D20 future setting. I know it won't be out for another year and a half at least but I'm willing to wait.

 

[AmerginLiath]

A revised 3e would suck in terms of having to replace the stuff already in play -- better they resurrect the old 1E UNEARTHED ARCANA, with its Player and DM portions to include expansions on the rules that complement the game. I'd rather it not be required, but be a nifty asset, combining some of the best from previous supplements as well as new things...

 

[Katerek]

If they revise 3e, which I believe is inevitable, they should greatly expand both core books, which I am sure we will all have to remortgage for anyway, and add all the superfulous class/DM books, or at very least alot of the content.

I am all for Dieties and Demigods 2, if it doesn't have all the cheesey earth dieties in it, I want NEW shyte!

Historical Settings...blahbity blah blah. Hated 'em. DnD is about fantasy.

Mature Themes...hell yeah, but not goofy stuff. I seem to recall a certain lycanthropic miniature line wherein a specific mini was wielding a revolver with a grossly enlarged phallus. That was dumb.

As far as new settings, one a year should do. The liscensing theme is good.

Something else, remember the Monstrous Manual Annuals? They could do Monster Manuals each year, full size, that collected not only previously printed stuff, but concievably OGL stuff along with New stuff, that would rock.

 

[herald]

One of the things I thought they should do is come out with a line of minis that reflected the core classes with all the core races both male and female. The wouldn't all have to be sold together. All they would have to do is flesh out thier current line.

I also feel thet they should continue to put out more mini's. They don't have to put out a chainmail line, but I would like to have more from them.

The one year licence idea for campaign settings is a good idea, I hope they keep it up.

A new Unearth Arcana....I like it. (Perhaps it should be redone as a pure Prestige Class Book.

I wouldn't mind a Gazateer book describing the rest of Oerth (Greyhawk). It doesn't have to be fleshed out like FR, but anything would be nice.

I hope that further expantion of E-tools fits into their plans. And here is how I would like to see it evolve after the initial release.

1) create a class editor, something that would allow you to create a brand new class concept as well as imput classes that a someone would want from any source he chooses.

1a) If one is imposible, create a line of updates that include all the classes from the class books, Psionic handbook, Epic level handbook, Dieties and Demigods, Manual of the Planes, Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, ect.

2) A map maker, one that makes really good maps, but a klutz like me can use.

3) Character management tools.

Alright, enough about that. I don't want to hijack this tread to talk just about e-tools.

I would like to see some d20 settings that weren't Medieval fantasy or Science fiction.

What about Steam Punk, or Reniassance. Most of the things that have kept me away from these is a that most setting designers ditch what was interesting about D&D, Magic. Don't scale back the magic when you create new games in different genres. Dragonstar shows that it can be done.

 

[Lady Dragon]

What I would really like to see in a year or two is Corebook 4 (they can call it Unearthed Arcana if they want).And the purpose of this book would be twofold.

First is would include the best of all the non-corebooks that have come out thus making it corebook legal.Things like the system for divine rank and Deities stats in D&Dg or the basic stuff in ELH and PsH.Even a few key things from OA or MotP.

The second half of the book would be all new. The problem as I see it is D&D is a changing evolving game,always has been.The rules and feel at the beginning of 1st and 2nd editions were considerably different than at the end of their runs. 3rd edition is the same way but they have limited themselves to only talking about things listed in the three core books in all of there supplements and there comes a time when you need to add new material to the corerules without doing a complete revamp or heaven forbid 4th edition.

I don't think asking people to buy 1 book every 2-3 three years is unreasonable to stay current with the hobby,and people who really care tend to buy a number of books anyhow.