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]

And yet, there's still shared lore. If you tell someone that your homebrew campaign is about trying to survive on Falx, the planet of the Tarrasques, they understand you. If your PCs meet a weird, stringy chimpanzee-faced gaunt warrior with yellow skin and a greatsword, and one of them says, "It's a githyanki! Run!", all of your players (not PCs) are benefitting from the shared setting. Squid-faced illithids, eye tyrants, mimics, ropers, spelljamming, the planes... all of these setting concepts can support a homebrew campaign just as easily as a published campaign.

What's my point? I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. But I think it might be that D&D stories are best supported with tropes (if "beholders and illithids" can be considered a trope) and not with campaign settings or novels per se; although novels and campaign books are one potential way to introduce and popularize a D&D trope.

So anyway, we'll see what they do with "story, story, story."

Absolutely agree. I know several other folks with home brew settings. For those of us who enjoy such a thing, comparing implementations of the same tropes (and how we spun some of them) is just as entertaining as reliving certain characters/events that happened in those settings. Even the guy who runs Greyhawk can get into the mix, because there's still room for interpretation. That's one of the big things that makes D&D, well, D&D. It's also why I'm so adamant that D&D ceases to be D&D if it becomes synonymous with Forgotten Realms.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Maybe, but from the interview it seems current new players are less than a fifth of those who are playing have been playing for less than five years.

'Started with 5e' would be an interesting new-player metric. 20% new players translates to 25% growth - which'd be huge if it had all come since the 5e release, and still not terrible if it were spread out over 5 years.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Saying Mearls is good with words and is convicing is an insult now?

Oh come on, goldomark... stop treating us like we're idiots.

We know just like you do that your use of the phrase "sweet talking" was not meant to be a synonym for "good with words". "Sweet talker" is almost always used is a less than complimentary fashion... so unless YOU'RE the idiot who just doesn't know what the connotation of "sweet talking" is... yes, you were trying to be somewhat insulting to Mike.

So unless you want to admit you had no idea what "sweet talking" actually implied... be a man and own up to your attempt to chide him.

 

[Kramodlog]

Yes, because you would obviously be perfectly content to see Mearls appear on EN World regularly and only discuss existing mechanical elements and whatnot of 5e. I'm sure you would be fine with that right?

Why not?

 

[Kramodlog]

'Started with 5e' would be an interesting new-player metric. 20% new players translates to 25% growth - which'd be huge if it had all come since the 5e release, and still not terrible if it were spread out over 5 years.

Yeah, five years is a long time. Of that 20% I'm betting maybe 20% just started playing D&D. So that would be 4% of people who are playing. Playing doesn't mean buying either. So cattering to old foggies and new players is a more rational option.

 

[Kramodlog]

Oh come on, goldomark... stop treating us like we're idiots.

Heh. I didn't know I was talking to you too. All I did was paraphrase Jeremy Crawford and someone made a strawman out of that. Blame the strawman maker, not me for correcting him.

Before you get emotional about this response, here is what Crawford said:

"Mike [Mearls] argued very eloquently to the executives for the time to make the best version of D&D and the best books possible. We gave very frequent reports. The whole company took a gamble on whether the idealistic version of D&D could succeed. It was a risk, and it's possible that it wouldn't pan out, but we are very happy that it actually worked.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...emy-Crawford-Co-Designer-and-Editor-of-Dung.3

Eloquent sure seems like someone good with words.

 

[Shasarak]

Seriously, "Sweet Talker" is an insult now?

 

[Halivar]

Seriously, "Sweet Talker" is an insult now?

"To coax or cajole with flattery" is not a positive spin to put on it.

 

[Shasarak]

Seriously, "Flattery" is an insult now?

It is really is Turtles all the way down.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

'Started with 5e' would be an interesting new-player metric. 20% new players translates to 25% growth - which'd be huge if it had all come since the 5e release, and still not terrible if it were spread out over 5 years.

Another interesting metric might be "came back with 5E." I hadn't played D&D since the 1990s, until 5E. One of the two groups I play with is likewise composed of mostly-lapsed AD&Ders newly-migrated to 5E.