I am quite surprised that so many people bought modules/adventures that they never intended to use in actual play. That is actualy the reverse for me. Every single module/adventure has been played out dozens of times with many different groups and heavily modified to fit groups, editions and even level.
From B2 set as a high level adventure in 3.5 ed (15th level or so) to a Test of the warlords (CM1) reduced to level 5 to 7 (instead of level 15+) in 4ed. I have played and modified published adventures to suit my needs and the needs of my players. I have incorporated published adventures within my own campaings and they were going toe to toe with my own designed adventures. A kind of filling the gaps. Sometimes the published adventures were the main plots. Sometimes they were just a filling the role of a nice change of pace from the main campaing. The only one I have never used was the Dungeon of death. It was a nice read but a module bent on destroying the world...
Any ways. I am really surprised that so many do not use and modify these adventures a lot more.
It kind of doesn't though.D&D has a collection element.
It was an explaination not a popularity contest.It kind of doesn't though.
I mean, yes, people do collect D&D products (or other game products). But that is not because it is part of the nature of the D&D game to be collected, it is because there is significant overlap between the groups of people who find collecting enjoyable and the groups of people who find D&D (or other game products) to be enjoyable.
So while there are a significant number of people that have humongous collections of D&D products, and usually also have other collections whether they are board games, action figures, video games, stamps, minerals or something even less typical, there are a significant number that never even consider buying a D&D product that they don't intend to use.
I think the non-collector D&D fans actually outnumber the collector D&D fans, but that is because of the couple hundred folks I've personally gamed with, only a handful are collectors to any degree, and one of them (myself) has become a non-collector in recent years for various reason (namely a hurricane, the cost to replace what was lost being staggering, and realizing while working to rebuild the collection that I really didn't feel like I was missing anything important)
I'm thinking that is probably not the case, given how much WotC has talked about trying to make each book they release one that actually gets used at the table, rather than just sitting on the shelf.Those collectors though probably make up a decent % of sales.
That's not a great phrasing. It seems like you might be saying "casuals" as a pejorative. Especially since you are implying that it is how many D&D items one has purchased, rather than actually playing the game that determines whether one is a casual D&D player or whatever the other team you created in your mind when calling others "casuals" happens to be called.I probably have more D&D items than 50 casuals.
I'm thinking that is probably not the case, given how much WotC has talked about trying to make each book they release one that actually gets used at the table, rather than just sitting on the shelf.
That's not a great phrasing. It seems like you might be saying "casuals" as a pejorative. Especially since you are implying that it is how many D&D items one has purchased, rather than actually playing the game that determines whether one is a casual D&D player or whatever the other team you created in your mind when calling others "casuals" happens to be called.