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.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I;m glad 5e is doing well. I'm glad there's no PHB 2 on the horizon.

I WANT THAT PIRATE ADVENTURE!!! Bring it out devs!!!

 

[Remathilis]

Parsing the juicer bits...

"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."

It seems everything going forward is going to be colored by the storylines. I figured this was the case. I'll discuss it more below, but this first part really doesn't say anything I wasn't expecting.

In honesty, this is very akin to Paizo's APs. The current AP colors a lot of material, including the supplemental material released around it (Such as the Tech Guide and Iron Gods). Even Paizo's minis, dice, battle mats, and card games revolve around the power of their IP, so its little surprise.

"I wouldn’t be surprised if we do some books here and there that pick up things that the fanbase wants in between stories, because of the feedback we’re hearing. But by and large everything we’re delivering is supporting that annual story –and there’s zero plans for a Player’s Handbook 2 any time on the horizon."

Translation: There will be books unrelated to APs, but don't expect many and almost none will be "Player Builder" material.

Which is good, depending on what those "books here and there" are. I'm 100% convinced Psionics is the poster child for this expansion; its more complex than a power booster for players and too much for the back of an AP. I'm sure there might be other areas that such books are useful (color me surprised if we don't see another monster book).

That said, there really isn't a lot needed. Character options (races, feats, spells, classes) are Player Companion fodder (yay free PDFs), Environmental/Genre books (Stormwrack, Heroes of Shadow) work with an appropriate AP. (Isle of Dread, Ravenloft). Not sure if it will work, but its a good start.

"we’re going to stay in the Forgotten Realms for the foreseeable future."

Yeah, I figured. Neverwinter, SCL, the Adventurer's League all pointed to that. Realms is now WotC's Golarion.

I suspect some settings might see support via a good AP: Al-Qadim and Kara Tur seem like easy pickings for expansion via an AP, and I'm sure a planar excursion AP can fill in a lot of Sigil/Planescape. And Ravenloft likewise has an "easy in" from the Realms to make perhaps an appearance. What ISN'T getting support is the strange prime worlds: Athas, Krynn, Eberron, anything that needs mechanics to make it work or doesn't have a connection to Toril. Those settings are probably going to see some form of UA support and perhaps an article, that's alll.

"Dungeons and Dragons stopped [just] being a tabletop game years or decades ago."

Inserting the missing word. Sure, D&D has had cartoons, movies, CDs, board games, T-shirts, and a variety of other material to coincide with the game. Nothing new here.

"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."

If they can find good partners, I hope so too. D&D is ripe for use if Hasbro can see it, but despite its "geek cred" its not a strongly nostalgic commodity like Transformers is. A good solid product (AAA game, movie, TV show) could change that, but I'm not holding my breath.

All in all, it re-iterates what we already knew. I wish it went into more details as to what kinds of books or APs we'll be expecting, but WotC isn't a big fan of "announcing" things until they're ready to ship these days.

 

[werecorpse]

More monsters are always good, and we do sorely need more traps (I should prioritize a traps blog for my website).
And I did find the absence of alternate magic item treasure tables to be an oversight of the DMG.

But more class features? While it's nice to have sorcerer x and sorcerer y to have different class features to differentiate them, you could have two or three dragon sorcerer's with very different stories. Roderic Faklstaff of the Dummocton Fallstaffs third in line for the Fallstaff fortune is going to potentially have a very different story that Clump the spellslinger of Dungy Marsh. Even if the two have identical spells and feats.

All true, but if I want to tell a story about a sorcerer who is linked to something other than dragons or wild magic ( like say the elements, a storm giant ancestor or the shadow realm) the character paths aren't there. I liked the sorcerer variations of bloodlines from Pathfinder for example.

I would be happy with a few more character paths for each class than currently exist in the PHB. Not a heap more, just a few.

 

[Zaran]

I'm the opposite. I don't want the same material retrod over and over again - repetition bores me. I want new settings, not endless reruns of old ones.

To tell you the truth, I want both. I would even buy a new forgotten realms setting. I use that stuff for inspiration in my own games. I don't even mind the adventure paths but don't want them to be the only thing available.

The more I think about it, I wonder if they are waiting for a digital tools partner. Then they could release stuff in Dungeon and Dragon style articles with a pay per article model much like how Enworld is using Patreon.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't mean to be a downer here, but are D&D stories really any good? I have only limited experience, but all the pre-made stories I've seen come out of WotC, including lost mine of Phandelver, are cheesy as hell.

Are any D&D stories good? Sure, lots of them. Just retreading hallowed ground gives you Against the Giants, Slavers, Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Keep of the Borderlands, Isle of Dread, Ravenloft, Dead Gods, A Paladin in Hell, the Asharadon saga, Red Hand of Doom, and the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Can WotC capitalize on these stories? That remains to be seen. RHoD and ToEE have already been tapped, we'll see what else does.

 

[Dire Bare]

If those settings would not be out of date ingame. And an AP taking place in a subregion of a setting is actually targeting an even small niche of the customer base.
And then you'd need a Dale Lands Gazetter, a Cormyr Gazetter, a Amn Gazetter, and in the end you haven a FRCS split into 20 smaller softcover

Nope. I see no need for a Dales gazetteer, an Amn gazetteer, or a Cormyr gazetteer. I could see an adventure set in the Dales that includes updated information on that area, same for Amn or Cormyr. But otherwise, no, I don't need a sourcebook for any of those areas.

If I were king of D&D, I'd release a Sword Coast Gazetteer partnered with something, the video game or another adventure path or "story arc". Later, I would release a Zakhara Gazetteer, again partnered with another release. Maybe a Maztica sourcebook down the road, also with an AP. Other areas of the Realms aren't distinct or important enough to warrant a sourcebook, or the need for a whole-campaign sourcebook.

All IMO, of course.

Heck, I'm not sure I'd release any of these really, except for the Sword Coast Gazetteer. I like that idea for some reason.

 

[Henry]

In your opinion, perhaps. I not only liked Lost Mines, but was impressed with it. I'm really enjoying my read through of Princes right now. Tyranny of Dragons gets trashed a lot on these forums, but I've seen plenty of glowing reviews and heard some direct (anecdotal) reports from friends that they liked the adventure.

WotC (and TSR before them) has published a LOT of adventures over the years. Some of them were okay, some of them sucked, some of them were incredibly awesome. Which is which is up for debate, as we all have different tastes. But negative folks on teh interwebs sure do like to trash WotC often and loudly, so take all that "WotC makes crappy adventures" talk with a huge grain of salt. Loud does not equal "that's how most fans feel", not by a long shot.

And I feel fairly comfortable that WotC knows that and doesn't give much attention to the whiners. There's nothing they could do to please those folks anyway.

As much as I want to celebrate 5e's success, I really havent been very impressed with tyranny or the Princes stories. In the past year, Paizo's Iron Gods and Giant slayer stories have blown the doors off of WotC's storylines, for quality of NPC development, interesting locations, plot twists, and maturity of subject matter. I swear I had to slog through the first few pages of the Princes of the Apocalypse intro to get intot he story, because that "Elemental Evil is this, Elemental Evil is that" plot monologue was written so awkwardly that it just felt like the first draft of some 13-year old's campaign notes.

The rest of the AP was decent, and the cultists actually had good characterization notes, but by comparison, Giantslayer invokes the feel I got from Steading of the Giant Chief and it isn't even a third done yet! iron Gods is about stopping a nascent GOD from apotheosis! I would rather WotC should add more depth of character to their stories, and a slightly darker maturity level, because if I want to convince people to play more 5e, I'm thinking I'm better off using Paizo APs or classic AD& D modules, rather than the tools offered. I want more 5e APs more to give me better alternatives than because they arent fast enough.

 

[Grimstaff]

I for one am still happy with the no-bloat business model, but for those that aren't, I'd remind them the traditional level of job security at WotC. Those calling the shots today are, for better or worse, highly unlikely to be calling the shots 3 or 5 years from now.

Articles like these serve well to remind me that what drives book sales and what drives internet discussion are two very different things. While we may like to dissect the rules in forums, we seem to be a very small percentage of who is actually playing the game. Anecdotally, out of the 7 people i regularly game with, I'm the only one who goes on EnWorld, and there's one other guy who frequents the Paizo boards.

Also anecdotally, the game shelf at my local B&N has been emptied of 5e and restocked several times in the last few months.

 

[God]

Love the 5E mechanics, mostly ok with the rate of expansion (though I would like to see some psionic rules and more class archetypes/domains sooner than later). But I've reached a point that I just hate, hate, hate Forgotten Realms. Would happily fork over my money for products placed anywhere else (or nowhere) but I'm not going to give them any monetary encouragement for products set in the FR.

 

[HobbitFan]

I for one am still happy with the no-bloat business model, but for those that aren't, I'd remind them the traditional level of job security at WotC. Those calling the shots today are, for better or worse, highly unlikely to be calling the shots 3 or 5 years from now.

Articles like these serve well to remind me that what drives book sales and what drives internet discussion are two very different things. While we may like to dissect the rules in forums, we seem to be a very small percentage of who is actually playing the game. Anecdotally, out of the 7 people i regularly game with, I'm the only one who goes on EnWorld, and there's one other guy who frequents the Paizo boards.

Also anecdotally, the game shelf at my local B&N has been emptied of 5e and restocked several times in the last few months.

That's a good point Grimstaff.
It's anecdotal but in my local area (Nashville), forum involvement, etc. is very common amongst Dungeon Masters and pretty common amongst regular players, just not so much amongst the casual crowd.