WotC's Nathan Stewart: "Story, Story, Story"; and IS D&D a Tabletop Game?

Forbes spoke to WotC's Brand Director & Executive Producer for Dungeons & Dragons, who talked about the 5th Edition launch and his vision for D&D's future. The interview is fairly interesting - it confirms or repeats some information we already know, and also delves a little into the topic of D&D as a wider brand, rather than as a tabletop roleplaying game.

In the interview, he reiterates previous statements that this is the biggest D&D launch ever, in terms of both money and units sold.

[lq]We are story, story, story. The story drives everything.[/lq]

He repeats WoTC's emphasis on storylines, confirming the 1-2 stories per year philosphy. "We are story, story, story. The story drives everything. The need for new rules, the new races, new classes is just based on what’s going to really make this adventure, this story, this kind kind of theme happen." He goes on to say that "We’re not interested in putting out more books for books’ sake... there’s zero plans for a Player’s Handbook 2 any time on the horizon."

As for settings, he confirms that "we’re going to stay in the Forgotten Realms for the foreseeable future." That'll disappoint some folks, I'm sure, but it is their biggest setting, commercially.

Stewart is not "a hundred percent comfortable" with the status of digital tools because he felt like "we took a great step backwards."

[lq]Dungeons and Dragons stopped being a tabletop game years or decades ago. [/lq]

His thoughts on D&D's identity are interesting, too. He mentions that "Dungeons and Dragons stopped being a tabletop game years or decades ago". I'm not sure what that means. His view for the future of the brand includes video games, movies, action figures, and more: "This is no secret for anyone here, but the big thing I want to see is just a triple-A RPG video game. I want to see Baldur’s Gate 3, I want to see a huge open-world RPG. I would love movies about Dungeons and Dragons, or better yet, serialized entertainment where we’re doing seasons of D&D stories and things like Forgotten Realms action figures… of course I’d love that, I’m the biggest geek there is. But at the end of the day, the game’s what we’re missing in the portfolio."

You can read the full interview here.

 

[Mercule]

Thats an opinion, but for those like you there are thousands of grognards like me who love the FR, (check out Candlekeep forum). FR is why Ive stayed with D&D and its almost become synonymous with the brand. Like the article mentions, it lets the design team do just about anything in terms of creating stories.

And this, despite my personal distaste for the Realms, is why I accept that it will remain a major factor. So long as D&D (and D&D supplements) don't become Realms, Realms, Realms, I'm comfortable with using that setting to pay the bills.

My frustration at this interview -- and pretty much all the speak that's come out of Wizards -- is that the Realms is taking over everything.

 

[Sunseeker]

You can go to Barnes & Noble to get the books.

There is no Barnes&Noble for over 180 miles from where I live. I live in the 2nd largest city in my state. The town I lived in prior, after Borders shut down there wasn't a major book retailer for over 400 miles. Barnes and Nobile simply does not have the same sort of presence that WalMart or even Target has. Both of those retailers could carry D&D books with little trouble.

 

[Umbran]

Next time you want to casually insult someone, at least be right.

Folks, so you are aware, "Harry Dresden" is an alt of a serial jerk, trying to get around his (or her) permaban. Please pay this user no mind.

 

[DEFCON 1]

DELETE.

 

[SilverfireSage]

ICv2 rankings. And I'm not talking about sells, but support. By stillbirth I ment the support the edition gets, not sells, althought they are tied. D&D came back from the dead with the launch of the 5e core books. The launch wasn't perfect, but it had lots of goodwill and momentum. Gamers were looking forward to it, there wasn't any notable division. Then came the cancellation of the Adventurer's Handbook and a bunch of interviews from designers.

They have released 7 products in 10 months. Frog God games has released an additional 4 books for it. That's over a book a month, and these aren't counting the small guides like the Spell Cards, the DM's Screen, the free Players supplements, the free basic rules supplements, etc. We haven't even gone through an entire year of having this product out yet, and you're already calling it stillborn because they released the Adventurer's Handbook for free.

People are realizing that D&D, the RPG, won't get much support. This lack of support is not a sign of an edition that is alive and kicking, that maintains the initial enthusiasm. Seems more like a legacy product. If gamers aren't enthusiastic with an edition, they won't play/buy much of it. Those who do seem happy with the current release schedule are those who say they are tired of books being published. Not that there is anything wrong with it. I doubt they would have bought much products in the first place. So, WotC is cattering to gamers who wouldn't of bought its books in the first place. Weird.

By "People" I'm assuming you refer to yourself alone? Because there's nothing that supports that notion that it won't get any more releases. Why are RPGs, the one game dependent on players being able to use a single product for years, held up to a higher standard than any other medium for product releases? A video game in a single series releases once a year or once ever several years, but an RPG must have more support than a book a month or its dead in the water? I see more enthusiasm for this edition than any other, and that's with the current release schedule. I just don't see any evidence for what you're saying.

 

[SilverfireSage]

How many 5e players actually run the published adventures? I'm curious. Has Wizards taken a survey, or just done a comparison of sales?

I'd rather have products that help me make my own adventures (NOT stories ... pre-plotting is bad). Not splat books, but rather game elements for adventures. Think Book of Lairs, Ready Ref Sheets, Monster and Treasure Assortment.

To be honest, I'm fairly certain the amount of people that buy adventures far exceeds that of those that buy stuff like assortment sheets and books of single use dungeons.

 

[SilverfireSage]

To be 100% honest, I'm not sure I'd be as annoyed if it wasn't the Realms getting the attention. Talk about a dead horse. It's the most thoroughly developed setting for D&D, probably any game system. I'm not sure Tolkien did as much work on Middle Earth as we have available for the Realms. The fact that I've always found the setting... less than interesting probably doesn't help my position.

If the goal is to avoid retreading, it would be more honest to do a "one and done" AP for each existing setting. Better yet, come up with APs that call for worlds built around them. Don't do a full-on campaign setting book, but make the AP slightly thicker and have it stand on its own entirely. For bonus points, when you have something like Eberron that offers special classes/races/feats (thinking Dragonmarks), include that in the book, too. Or... that might be a player's guide that would sell itself.

Really, PoA almost has enough information to be stand-alone, rather than Realms-based. It's not the whole world, but doesn't have to be. If the next adventure path was pirate-themed, you have a coastal region. Those may or may not exist in the same "implied setting". Something like the "Age of Worms" AP adds even more info.

Isn't this what they're already doing? PotA comes with twenty pages of references of where to put the adventure in other campaign settings. Yes, Tyranny of Dragons was pretty much Faerun exclusive, but they've said that the game itself is setting agnostic.

I compare a lot of this stuff to video games, but that's only because its a good analogy. Forgotten Realms is the only well known setting that Wizards owns. It has famous video games based off of it, famous characters, best selling books, comics, forums, etc. People may have heard of Dragonlance, but they have almost certainly never heard of Eberron or Dark Sun. And I'm guessing that as of now, Wizards doesn't really care about us people that have played the game for years. They already won most of us over with the ruleset, and I would be just fine and dandy playing with the three core books for years. They want new players, teenagers, kids, young adults who only play Call of Duty or Destiny all day long. It's the same problem that companies like Nintendo have in the gaming industry, where people complain and complain that they're retreading old ground with Mario and Zelda. But Nintendo doesn't care, because they know that their primary customers are those that have never played a Mario game or a Zelda game, but have heard of them through their parents and older siblings. Forgotten Realms, as hated as it seems to be on these boards, is the only thing they can rely on for people to have heard about. Why would they even think about trying to sell a new game based on an unknown setting?

 

[CapnZapp]

I don't understand why this is making everyone cheer. They basically said that we aren't getting anything to use in MY stories. Just stuff I have to steal from theirs. I don't want their stories. I want tools for making my own.

It's great that they want to give us video games but it doesn't do anything for my home game.

Video games = money.

Hasbro probably want to bring dnd over to a more profitable market than tabletop rpgs.

(which pretty much is all other markets)

 

[halfling rogue]

Personally, I could care less about the setting they fix themselves to for the long haul. For me and any group I've played with, we've never delved too deep into the intricacies of a setting as a whole. Our stories center around our characters rather than where our characters play. I do see why some folks cringe though.

What I'd like to see more than anything is some shorter (and cheaper) adventures. Some one-shots or maybe just a small little sandbox centered around a town/wilderness/dungeon. I imagine they could come up with a few nifty 'side' adventures that could be released alongside (or before/after) one of their big AP storylines. I think it would be great if they decided a couple big adventures per year as tentpoles, but maybe alongside those release, say, 4-6 shorter adventures per year (heck, call em modules), that perhaps could tie in thematically, and sell them in a softcover format, like the cardboard of days of yore, or the magazine format like Lost Mine. To be honest, unless some story just kicks the door down and explodes with awesomeness, I'm not buying it for $50. Some of us don't have the ability to sustain a long campaign, but I think many (if not all) gamers could benefit from a zany one-shot or a short module. I would buy the heck out of them. It would at least give another option for folks and far from compromising your overall goal of major arching storylines, it actually supports it. If story story story is the motivation then more stories seems like a good thing.

Also in this way you can free yourself up (as the publisher) to have a bit of fun and variety. You can take one short module and give it a pulpy vibe, take another and do a detective type mystery, another could be horror, another could be high cinematic adventure, etc. And all of that can be plugged in with your story theme de jour. I really don't see a drawback to a handful of cheaply produced adventures per year, especially ones that thematically connect to the overarching story. Can you see any drawback to it?

EDIT: upon a quick reflection, it does seem like they are doing 'mini' stories via Adventure League. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about books on store shelves and for purchase.

 

[Mistwell]

I'm not calling the guy a liar. It is just that metrics can be spinned and interprated in various ways to create a desired perception.