yeah ravenloft should always be its own setting and different domains can offer challenges to different levels...the mists also connect to other settings so can pluck and return them at some point. I like faerun but not everything has to revolve around it.
Thats my main complain with WotC, they sometimes act like if Forgotten Realms is the only setting.
yeah ravenloft should always be its own setting and different domains can offer challenges to different levels...the mists also connect to other settings so can pluck and return them at some point. I like faerun but not everything has to revolve around it.
Thats my main complain with WotC, they sometimes act like if Forgotten Realms is the only setting.
It's a deliberate business stratagy. With the decline in popularity of DnD they only have the resources to support one campaign setting.
Probably right too. Trying to support too many campaign settings caused problems in the early 90s.
With the decline in popularity of DnD they only have the resources to support one campaign setting.
The decline in popularity of D&D had very little to do with the business decision. It has a lot more to do with 'Rebranding'. Every so often a company will 'Rebrand' their franchise such that they can revitalize and invigorate sales. A new realm means new books and rules and characters and background, in essence more merchandising.
Focusing on the new realm/brand doesn't mean that they don't have the resources to maintain the original. However, continuing to maintain the old realm has the effect of splintering the market and giving the consumers the option to not adopt into the new material and therefore not spend more money on the new merchandise. Selling two products that compete with each other in the same market space but with one having a lower price point (effectively since they wouldn't be buying the new reference material) is not generally a strong market strategy. Companies generally don't want to short their own market that way.
Still, i wonder what caused the decline of D&D. Videogames? 4th edition? Boring game sessions and rules? The bad movies?
Moral panic in the 80s, campaign setting bloat in the late 80s and early 90s, then CRPGs and MMOs.
4th edition + Pathfinder was a deathblow, but the decline had set in long before.
I don't think that MMOs in particular had anything to do with the 'Decline of D&D'. By and large the target market for MMOs is not "Role Players". Even in the early days when MMO was MMORPG, there were very few actual RPG elements in these types of games. They also targeted a much wider audience with intent to generate socialization (and hence merchandization) for more social and casual gamers. Gamers would not migrate away from D&D to go to MMO style games. If anything it gave a greater visibility that there were those types of games out there.
And while there was some "Moral panic" in the 80s (just check out "Mazes and Monsters" with Tom Hanks), that was more a passing thing and wouldn't have killed the game by itself. In some ways that actually stimulated interest from certain segments. And once it became passe to knock D&D as 'Demon worship', things got back to normal more or less. Now, admittedly companies like the current iteration of Hasboro are still almost pathologically sensitive on the topic but that is more company perception rather than a decline in market.
"Campaign setting bloat" is another red herring. Most of the games that I played in the 80s were custom made campaigns and the realm would have made little or no difference. it would be more accurate to say that the company wasn't making as much money, not that the game itself was going under, as a result of the campaign. But then "Rebranding" happened.
CRPGs definitely didn't help because it allowed gamers like myself who's groups had scattered to the four winds due to jobs and families, to reconnect with D&D. And younger gamers who were already enamored by graphics and video gaming and who might, a few years prior, been sucked into PnP games, went the way of video games.
"Campaign setting bloat" is another red herring. Most of the games that I played in the 80s were custom made campaigns and the realm would have made little or no difference. it would be more accurate to say that the company wasn't making as much money, not that the game itself was going under, as a result of the campaign. But then "Rebranding" happened.
Yeah, it wouldn't be fair to say that the glut of campaign settings directly damaged popularity, but it hurt the publisher in their pocket by having competing rather than complementary products, leading to lack of funds for marketing, and eventual rebranding.
yeah agree alot of the points above and always wondered if the rebranding and just pumping out marketing on every campaign setting was too much instead of fine tuning the products that were pushed out....lead to focusing on FR and almost dumping the other campaign settings like Ravenloft, DL, Greyhawk etc better to go back to the roots like theyre doing and take the best from that campaign (they have a lot of good stuff) and try to incorporate slowly by refining it and not just pushing it out half done...bad movies, MMOs, also dont help and so many movies n games take alot from D&D lore and have been successful which is a shame.
I had a look at this in a shop. It is an expanded and very glossy revamp of the original I6 Ravenloft adventure, but it looked very nice for 5th edition players.
I had a look at this in a shop. It is an expanded and very glossy revamp of the original I6 Ravenloft adventure, but it looked very nice for 5th edition players.
A review by ''Jester'' Dave Gibbons(the biggest Ravenloft fan) said they changed Strahd's story a bit.
Comments
Probably right too. Trying to support too many campaign settings caused problems in the early 90s.
4th edition + Pathfinder was a deathblow, but the decline had set in long before.
Focusing on the new realm/brand doesn't mean that they don't have the resources to maintain the original. However, continuing to maintain the old realm has the effect of splintering the market and giving the consumers the option to not adopt into the new material and therefore not spend more money on the new merchandise. Selling two products that compete with each other in the same market space but with one having a lower price point (effectively since they wouldn't be buying the new reference material) is not generally a strong market strategy. Companies generally don't want to short their own market that way. I don't think that MMOs in particular had anything to do with the 'Decline of D&D'. By and large the target market for MMOs is not "Role Players". Even in the early days when MMO was MMORPG, there were very few actual RPG elements in these types of games. They also targeted a much wider audience with intent to generate socialization (and hence merchandization) for more social and casual gamers. Gamers would not migrate away from D&D to go to MMO style games. If anything it gave a greater visibility that there were those types of games out there.
And while there was some "Moral panic" in the 80s (just check out "Mazes and Monsters" with Tom Hanks), that was more a passing thing and wouldn't have killed the game by itself. In some ways that actually stimulated interest from certain segments. And once it became passe to knock D&D as 'Demon worship', things got back to normal more or less. Now, admittedly companies like the current iteration of Hasboro are still almost pathologically sensitive on the topic but that is more company perception rather than a decline in market.
"Campaign setting bloat" is another red herring. Most of the games that I played in the 80s were custom made campaigns and the realm would have made little or no difference. it would be more accurate to say that the company wasn't making as much money, not that the game itself was going under, as a result of the campaign. But then "Rebranding" happened.
CRPGs definitely didn't help because it allowed gamers like myself who's groups had scattered to the four winds due to jobs and families, to reconnect with D&D. And younger gamers who were already enamored by graphics and video gaming and who might, a few years prior, been sucked into PnP games, went the way of video games.