You are in charge of what WOTC puts out for DnD.

[Greg K]

UA II
- more class variants
- bring back the remaining 2e specialists
-medium saving throw category
-class based defense made to work w/armor for low magic item campaigns
-guidelines for altering the game to fit different play styles/campaign styles
- section highlighting some of the best ogl mechanics

Deities and Demigods: using either SKR's recent Greyhawk Deity material from Dragon or 2e Faiths and Pantheons as the basis for approach.

More Environment books

Oriental Adventures 3.5
Greyhawk Campaign setting Book
Darksun 3.5 Campaign Setting Book

 

[Pants]

2) Fix the friggin' Star Wars line already.

I think I'm sensing a pattern...

Wait, wait... I got it... Damn, just lost it

 

[Umbran]

Tsk. D&D owes a great deal to its past, and the old settings are still popular, and I don't think there's anyone saying Planescape wasn't an original idea when it debuted.

We are, of course, going into a business discussion here, rather than "name your pet projects"...

How much you owe to your past should not determine how much you should continue to do the same things as in the past. The old settings are still popular - among message-board readers, perhaps. But are those customers enough to support the brand as a whole? How much new material are they likely to buy? Are these settings as attractive to a new generation of players?

As you note - there is a great deal of good logic in "don't split your market" - splitting the players among multiple settings tends to reduce the amount of profit from each of them, due to loss of economy of scale. You tend to get better return from keeping them all on the same product line. So why split them off into nostalgia settings?

Not just settings, but entire product lines. TSR was competing with itself, essentially. So, don't publish them any support material, and you should be fine.

If you don't plan to do support material, that makes the thing markedly less attractive. You surely can't cover all the old Planscape stuff in one product, right? So, I'll get a taste of the old made new, and then I either have to set about converting all the rest myself, or let it stagnate at limited depth? Why bother?

Selling to fulfill nostalgia can get you quick cash, but it isn't a long-term supportable business plan - you sell one round of these, and then their dead. Your R&D people can do this, or do something that'll have follow-ons that'll continue to generate revenue for a decade to come.

 

[Shade]

• Fiendish Codex III (yugoloths, demodands, and others)
• Expanded Epic Level Handbook
• Feats Compendium (cull together the best of the best, and improve some of the rest to PHBII power levels to make some of them actually worthwhile)
• Campaign Classics as a single large volume, with a chapter dedicated to each defunct setting. Include exhaustive lists of what already exists in 3E, and focus on what really sets the setting apart from the rest. Release further supplements as demanded.
• An environment book on space. D&D needs rules for traveling between Material Plane worlds, not just too other planes. Include spelljamming as an option, but not the only option. Include things like gates, world-hopping spells, etc.
• Fiend Folio II: I'd like to see about the same ration of updated old monsters to new monsters as the original Fiend Folio, and the same level of quality and design structure. I don't want to see another MMIII style monster book.
• A monster series book on Giants, including some truly gigantic giants.

Things I would avoid like the plague:

• Any attempts at changing the core system to "rules lite".
• Any sweeping changes that make later books bear little resemblance to the core books and really should wait until 4E (i.e. new stat block format for monsters, new prestige class format, powered down archfiends, etc.)
• Launching any new (not updated) campaign settings
• Padding monster books with existing monsters with class levels
• Letting a new design element take up a massive portion of a book, unless that book is focused solely on introducting new design elements (Tome of Magic = good, planar touchstones taking up 1/4th of Planar Handbook = bad).

 

[qstor]

Ok, you are in charge for the next two years of putting out DnD produts. What will you have put out in that time? The only rules are ignore novels and no new edition.

Dark Sun and Greyhawk hardbacks with both new fluff and crunch, 5 FR products a year, a fey and giant themed monster book ala Libris Mortis and a forest books ala Sandstorm.

Mike

 

[NiTessine]

If you don't plan to do support material, that makes the thing markedly less attractive. You surely can't cover all the old Planscape stuff in one product, right? So, I'll get a taste of the old made new, and then I either have to set about converting all the rest myself, or let it stagnate at limited depth? Why bother?

Selling to fulfill nostalgia can get you quick cash, but it isn't a long-term supportable business plan - you sell one round of these, and then their dead. Your R&D people can do this, or do something that'll have follow-ons that'll continue to generate revenue for a decade to come.

Not all of Planescape could fit into a 320-page book, you are right. However, you could fit Sigil, the factions, and the gate towns, and short descriptions of the planes. I think that between Manual of the Planes and Planar Handbook, they're covered pretty well already. Add to that the usual sprinkling of feats, monsters, races, prestige classes and magic, and you've got yourself a book. It's about covering the key points, the most important things in the setting to capture its feeling and flavour. Again, I point at the FRCS for an example.

I am not talking about supporting an entire brand, but making a single book profitable. Well, several single books. Less risk involved. And I know I'd buy them all. Besides, the R&D is already doing one-shots that create quick cash and then they're dead. Magic of Incarnum, Weapons of Legacy and Tome of Magic would seem to be such products.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Inexpensive mini terrain in a premium module format.

Greyhawk Campaign Setting: A 3.5 core version of the core setting similar but with better organization (and 3.5 compliant) to Forgotten Realms. Includes PrCs, regional feats, substitution levels for widely known popular organizations, the best of the Living Oerth journal and other bits and two mini-adventurers.

Heroes of Tomorrow: Thundar the Barbarian, Barrier Peaks, Sheen, and other bits have always toyed with magic and technology. Here’s the 192 page book to incorporate them and more.

Races of the Mind: Substitution levels, feats, PrCs, organizations, racial deities, magic items, etc…

Expanded Oriental Adventurers: Too much good stuff to let sit under the ‘shame’ of 3.0. Updated to Kara-Tur.

Al-Qadim: Done up similar to OA with generic material and setting towards the back.

Tales of the Outer Planes: An anthology of adventurers not necessarily Planescape in tone for taking adventurers to the Outer Planes.

Feat Compendium: Discussion on how to craft your own feat, notes on feats that have similar feats and to either eliminate/reduce/rename them so that they’re all under one category with sub-names to qualify for other feats/Prcs. For example, the various Servant feats from Book of Exalted Deeds could go under “Divine Servant: Choose one pantheon/ethos to serve.”

Expanded Arms & Equipment Guide: The original had some very weak parts. Part compilation of old material and part update of semi-new material.

PrC Compendium: All the fluff parred down with no example classes. Pure crunch.

Merchant Kings: Bringing information on how to run a business through hook and crook into the game.

Complete Campaign: A look behind the rules to show how to customize things like CR when comparing your campaign level of magic and spellcasting with the assumed standard. Various methods of speeding up combat including feat elimination/monster reworking when taking out things like attacks of opportunity or using different basis for face/reach. Campaign nodes on how to increase feat acquisition, ability score increase, etc… ala Spycraft.

 

[Aus_Snow]

other than things already slated:

Epic rules done right. . . D&D would then finally be playable using the RAW from levels 1 to 100, maybe more

Planescape 3.75
Fiendish Codex III: Neutral Evil and looking for a fight
Al-Qadim 3.75 (or Arabian Nights, or whatever)
Dark Sun 3.75
Races of Faerie, or Races of the Fey, or something like it
Races of the Mind
Oriental Adventures Reloaded
Unearthed Arcana II: Even Less Earthed This Time
more environment books - forest? swamp? mountain? island? no, wait. . .
Complete and Utter Chaos
Truly Lawful
Tome of Magic II
advantures a go go

 

[The_Gneech]

I think I'm sensing a pattern...

Wait, wait... I got it... Damn, just lost it

Well, I was doing my best to be subtle. So no wonder it's obscure!

-The Gneech

 

[Brian Compton]

- The FR book Underdark introduced a companion tome to the Books of Vile Darkness and Exalted Deeds, this time for (morally) Neutral characters. I would turn this into a supplement similar to the other two, because of all the alignments that need RP support (not necessarily crunch, but HOW TO PLAY THEM AT ALL) the Neutral ones are it.

- Maybe turn around and do books on Law, Chaos, and (ethically) Neutral characters, though those might simply be one book in total. Chaos and Neutral need some RP support so that players don't turn them into do-nothings or annyoing pricks.

- Gather all the RPGA material on Greyhawk and publish it so everyone can use it.

- FR books on (in this order) Sembia, Cormyr, and the Dales. I would gage interest in the Sembia book, though; many FR gamers may like "their" Sembia too much to want it centralized by WotC. Cormyr most certainly needs an update, and the Dales haven't changed too much, but certainly 3.5ing all the old material would be good.

- After doing the core areas, FR books on the Western Heartlands and Sword Coast. Possibly try to incorporate material from the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights games.

- Do everything possible to avoid RIFTS-esque power creep with every new book. New races and classes shouldn't be better than the core ones, just alternatives to them. Tailor things more for setting and other factors than just "kewlness."