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.

 

[DongMaster]

Not irrelevant to me. When I get a good RPG, I want more good materials and play experiences for that RPG and that means decent management of the line and the community buying into it. If they do well with other media, like movies, but end up totally effing up the game, that will be a big disappointment since the game is what brought me (and still brings me) to the brand.

Again, the end product is what is important to me.

Not who makes it, writes it, publish it, or what people on the internet argue about (90% seems to be about rules anyway).

 

[Leatherhead]

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.

I doubt they would. Wal-Mart is the lowest common denominator (nicest way I can frame it) for shopping with a perk of being able to go get stuff 24 hours a day. Target has only a slightly higher price point than them, but follows similar philosophies.

Heck, you are lucky if you can walk into one of those stores and find a decent current computer game, let alone something like D&D.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Unfortunately, what's familiar to longtime & returning fans who loved AD&D or BECMI or even 3e, is not necessarily that accessible or appealing to players trying the game for the first time.

Wow, yet more non-4th Ed bashing, I'll give you one thing, well, two, you're consistent and relentless with your agenda.

 

[Hussar]

If you have a special store near you. I couldn't find one in Montréal.

Google is your friend. I found the Adventurers League Facebook page in about 1.5 seconds of typing "Adventurers League Montreal" into Google.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/adventurersleaguemtl/

There ya go.

 

[redrick]

Personally, I'm not too interested in the "stories" over at WotC. On the other hand, I've got nothing wrong with the stories over at WotC. And certainly nothing wrong with the brand management person from WotC talking about how the brand is being developed and marketed.

What I will say about those stories, though, is that they do seem to be working for bringing people into the game. I was at my local game store last night for the first night of the encounters season with Princes of the Apocalypse. There were something like 30 players there. The store had to round up an extra GM at the beginning of the night, and was at total capacity. Some of the players were almost totally new to TTRPGs, some had played D&D as a kid but only just recently picked it up again, and some had been playing consistently for many years and just moved over to 5e from Pathfinder, 3.5 or 4e. Some had been there for ToD (and seemed to have a blast), and others, like me, were trying organized play for the first time with PoA. Afterwards, I went out for a drink with several players and we started making plans to get a home campaign going.

And that's the single most important thing that Wizards can be doing for me, as a D&D player — bringing new people to the hobby and making it easier to find people to run a game with. Would some 5e-specific setting material be nice? Sure. Short modules that I could plug into a homebrew campaign? Absolutely. But, you know what, I'll take that army of new, eager players over good adventure modules or campaign setting guides any day. Because I can do the work to update old material, but I can only press-gang so many of my skeptical friends into pretending to be an elf on Thursday nights.

If Wizards doesn't want to focus on pulling more money out of me after the core 3, but rather bring in new players, I say amen.

 

[JeffB]

DELETE.

Thanks for all the personal insults in the pre-deleted version.

You are more than welcome to put me on your ignore list if I offend you so greatly with my opinion.

 

[Dire Bare]

I doubt they would. Wal-Mart is the lowest common denominator (nicest way I can frame it) for shopping with a perk of being able to go get stuff 24 hours a day. Target has only a slightly higher price point than them, but follows similar philosophies.

Heck, you are lucky if you can walk into one of those stores and find a decent current computer game, let alone something like D&D.

Target has carried D&D starter sets for 3E, 4E . . . . and I think 5E. Not a huge leap to them carrying the PHB and maybe the other big two. Hasbro licenses a big awesome movie? It'll definitely happen.

Walmart carries collectible tabletop games like Magic, Yugi-oh, and sometimes others. So, also a possibility, although less so than Target.

EDIT (due to NEWS): Looks like both Target and Walmart are carrying the 5E starter set in store. Neat!

 

[darjr]

If you have a special store near you. I couldn't find one in Montréal.

Not true. If you organize public play you can get access to them. No store required

 

[wedgeski]

Probably had a lot more to do with losing Dragon/Dungeon, no OGL at launch, and the toxic first version of the GSL. When presented with the choice of either continuing to use the OGL, or never being able to use it again and give WotC the right to torpedo your products at their whim, Paizo made the obvious choice.

One of. I said ONE OF. Jeez, people.

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

I kinda get the feeling WotC are trying to become "more Paizo". All this "release Stories regularly (read: AP) and make sure all the crunch matches the stories (read: Sourcebooks, audiobooks, hardcovers, miniatures and what-not following the current AP)".....