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"Dungeons & Dragons & Ponies: Friendship is Vancian Magic"
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D&D has been exploding in popularity. The bubble is going to burst, as it has before.
The last time I was in a local comics shop they had an old colorforms set, I think it was Batman, but the price tag was like $60. I was like no way. I loved those as a kid.I dunno why it made me think of this, but someone should bring back Colorforms...
I always loved Fuzzy Felt as a kid.The last time I was in a local comics shop they had an old colorforms set, I think it was Batman, but the price tag was like $60. I was like no way. I loved those as a kid.
I always loved Fuzzy Felt as a kid.
In Episode 1 Tanya learns the true meaning of heroism when the team put on a talent show to raise funds for the local orphanage.
If it doesn't have a Marlon Wayans cameo there's no point.Yep. Normies don't hold onto fads the way geeks do, and WoTC just was really bad at capitalizing on it, TBH.
I expect D&D One to fall flat on it's face. Same with the D&D movie it sounds like.
I want D&D Risk. Oh! Dragonlance Risk! I want it!
Did I miss D&D Life? Now that one could be an extremely easy adaptation.
Seriously far more interested in those than a new edition of D&D.
You and I both know that would sell like mad."Dungeons & Dragons & Ponies: Friendship is Vancian Magic"
The perfect time to bring back Birthright!I want D&D Risk. Oh! Dragonlance Risk! I want it!
Did I miss D&D Life? Now that one could be an extremely easy adaptation.
Seriously far more interested in those than a new edition of D&D.
I expect D&D One to fall flat on it's face. Same with the D&D movie it sounds like.
I don't agree with that. Looking back 4e D&D subscription provided a handy way to build and manage characters. When it died I was kinda screwed. PDF is a long term storage format. Apps are the flavor of the year.
Well they do first have to find out forums exist.... So we might be waiting a while..
But WotC is a big enough company that they have no excuse for not making a phone version of the PDFs if they decided to sell them. The phone version of Zweihander shows it is doable.I'm in the middle of these two POVs.
The rise - and maturation - of fancy content platforms like D&D Beyond or the various indie rules SRD sites IS a value add, for sure.
But there is no guarantee that any of those sites or services are going to be around in the long term.
Having the PDF is more valuable and secure for me.
In a magical world, publishers would be able to dedicate time and resources to phone/tablet-optimized PDFs along with the PDF version of the print book, but that's a bit wishful thinking.
This is not a zero sum issue. They could have had PDFs, the VTT libraries, and D&D Beyond. I would recommend to any publisher that the more platforms and formats you have your content on the better off you are. Assuming that individual platforms/formats are profitable i.e. the creation cost is low enough that you get a good return on the investment. With PDFs the additional cost is effectively zero since you already sell older products in PDF form, and you need to send PDFs to your printer.I agree they should have offered PDF. However they did offer multiple electronic formats for users. D&D Beyond isn't my thing but many seem to think it's we done. I don't think anyone can say which way would have generated maximum revenue.
I think it would be hard to make the claim that failure to offer PDF stunted 5e's success as a product.
I'd like pdfs. Might almost make me willing to buy a few WotC products again (the Bo9S errata and complete denial of any problem with it went in my personal book of grudges).The rise - and maturation - of fancy content platforms like D&D Beyond or the various indie rules SRD sites IS a value add, for sure.
But there is no guarantee that any of those sites or services are going to be around in the long term.
Having the PDF is more valuable and secure for me.
Yep. Don't disagree insomuch as they have the time and budget and capability to do it if they wanted...But WotC is a big enough company that they have no excuse for not making a phone version of the PDFs if they decided to sell them. The phone version of Zweihander shows it is doable.
I think 5e is behaving rationally. Just like 3e was rational. They are responding to requests from consumers about a product they want. I think a lot of us are not the consumers they are responding to. But that doesn't make it irrational. Likewise it can be rational and ultimately not successful/great design. 3e gave consumers what they wanted but it turns out when you put all that together it's heavily prone to character optimization and it's hard to GM.
I actually am a consumer of 5e. Whether I will be of D&D One remains to be seen. I bought most of 4e after the line ended at a steep discount but I also subscribed to D&D Online for most of the run. 6e will need to be a substantial change from 5e for me to buy in early on.That is one issue as far as us not being the consumers of 5e, yet as owners of the older IP it is an issue regardless for all of us.
WotC's whole 'playtesting' process is purely audience testing so they're certainly in the busines of giving their customers what they want. There's always the danger though that this could end up something like asking Homer Simpson to design a car.
They may not in the end. But the Advanced 5e that Enworld produced in response to all the most common forum complaints is definitely a Homer Simpson car.
Yeah, the only old guard who actually seem to have the ability to run a RPG company without pause are Steve Jackson (and we can argue whether he qualifies, as his big sellers aren't RPGs these days) and Kevin Siembada (who is lucky to have not bankrupted several time).Yup, even when AD&D was booming and Blume claimed the company was going to go on forever, the real business people were reading the articles in the business section and watching and snickering - what goes up must certainly come down.
It's not really something to defend I think. They can't revoke it whether they want to or not.OGL - It's questionable if WOTC can even defend the OGL as TSR allowed infringement in a lot of areas and the rules are now in the public space. Can't make your own game with Beholders in it because of copyright, well gee, my game has creatures called the Eyeballs Thingums in it.
The good old days of games for gamers died with the first time a RPG publisher chucked legal threats around. (Arduin Grimoire I think?)Whatever the reasons for WOTC leaving the table top of face to face, or even online face to face, this is now the boom times for everyone who makes game products. It is a niche and it is a now again a shared niche for the smaller producers to make good games.
WOTC made the Taco Bell/Adidas/Coke of RPGs. I want games made by gamers for gamers like in the old days.
Yes Please - no more WOTC.
Technically, they're trying to maximise shareholder profits. Putting out product their consumers want is the means to that, not the ends. But I agree. It may or may not work, but they're not acting irrationally. They're acting in the same way any publically traded corporation does.I think 5e is behaving rationally. Just like 3e was rational. They are responding to requests from consumers about a product they want. I think a lot of us are not the consumers they are responding to. But that doesn't make it irrational. Likewise it can be rational and ultimately not successful/great design. 3e gave consumers what they wanted but it turns out when you put all that together it's heavily prone to character optimization and it's hard to GM.
They're not going to use FASERIP.well, that's certainly true, if they came to me and decided to model 6th edition off of what I personally would want to see, the result would be insane and completely unmarketable.
I do think it's a mistake to think of all businesses as soulless cash generating machines. The need to generate revenue is also what allows them to keep employing people. I worked on a number of products back in the day that I could only say allowed the company to stay afloat and my coworkers not to be laid off back in the early 2000s. Staying "Pure" right up until the point youre insolvent isn't something to worship either.Technically, they're trying to maximise shareholder profits. Putting out product their consumers want is the means to that, not the ends. But I agree. It may or may not work, but they're not acting irrationally. They're acting in the same way any publically traded corporation does.
They're not going to use FASERIP.
I do think it's a mistake to think of all businesses as soulless cash generating machines. The need to generate revenue is also what allows them to keep employing people. I worked on a number of products back in the day that I could only say allowed the company to stay afloat and my coworkers not to be laid off back in the early 2000s. Staying "Pure" right up until the point youre insolvent isn't something to worship either.
Your both right and wrong here. For the shareholders the only thing that matters, is how much profit they can get. Most of them, if not all, don't care about the actual products the company they have shares in makes.
I'd play that.lol, no, Phaserip is mine! My version of D&D 6th edition would be based on the 1980's cartoon mixed with The Last Starfighter and Isekai anime, where you ....... And then, for the actual game you transport those characters to a gritty, highly-political GoT-esque fantasy world where you like are just insane invaders running around f-ing stuff up
Now some of the employees of said company, probably does care.
This is not accurate.