All things D&D (favourite setting in D&D, best D&D edition, and more)
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This discussion was created from comments split from: All you wanted to know about the next Beamdog's project.
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So my type would be: Luruar a.k.a Silver Marches. It's something new, but somewhat familiar, Beamdog could place in the game massive references for the old BG, IWD and NWN fans, ale future expansions could explore places like Anauroch, High Forest, Savage Frontier, Spine of the World, Kingdom of Many-Arrows or even whole Frozenfar (
I'm really hoping that the new game, at this point, isn't a D&D-based game. Because Wizards of the Coast likely would want a game set in Forgotten Realms (and not any parts that are unique or interesting, like Thay or High Imaskar or Dambrath). The Forgotten Realms is a setting that is so overdone and so boring at this point.
Besides, all that is really required to make a location feel fresh is distinctive art direction and music. For example you could look to real world hansiatic cities like Amsterdam to give Waterdeap a distinctive look.
2) Chult has already been done (as an expansion to NWN2, for your cRPG fans). In fact, that adventure has already been done in a prior version of D&D. Where do you think the Tomb of Annihilation adventure came from? It's a direct rework of the old Tomb of Horrors (the old Gygax-desinged adventure); WotC even admitted as much.
3) I don't want "fresh locations", set in FR, that are rehashes of old work. That's just putting an new coat of paint on an old house. It doesn't make the old house "fresh".
I have very little confidence in WotC's management of 5th Edition or of D&D in general. The 5th Edition system is a solid system, but the storylines are either copies of old storylines OR absolute trash. (Trying DM'ing or reading the module for "Princes of the Apocalypse" if you don't believe me about their new storylines being garbage. Oh, and THAT adventure is a reskin of "Temple of Elemental Evil".) Beamdog is a solid company, but I really am hoping that Beamdog branches out and does a non-D&D-based game.
It isn't new but have potential to explore something different like Anauroch (I think). My idea is to go from something that is familiar to something that is new, so I think that Silver Marches would be the best.
Personally I'd rather see Maztica, or even better, Malatra for a full-fledged jungle main campaign setting. It would be rather fun to have an Abeir-Toril CRPG without Faerûnian pantheons for a change. Especially since it allows to break the usual "stranded adventurers on exotic shores" trope.
IT'S also the fact that 5th Edition hardcovers are horrible. Nostalgia doesn't sell as well as people think in D&D. Why? Because you can convert a module from an old edition to a newer edition, which is what a LOT of people do. So, in other words, the folks who like 5th Edition as a system are also (generally) the same folks that hate the published 5E modules. People want new content, not rehashes and reskins.
Do you think Starfinder (which officially released on the 17th), which a lot of folks are dubbing "Pathfinder in Space" (despite the different rules/design), ALREADY outsold D&D 5th Edition release sales, because people love what D&D 5th Edition is doing? NO! A lot of folks are choosing to try out Starfinder because D&D 5th Edition is letting them down. 1) We had D&D 3.X for about 8 years. 5th Edition was released in 2014 and there's no indications they're looking to swap editions.
2) IF WotC doesn't actually create a 6th Edition, then they will, sooner or later (probably sooner rather than later) decide to stop supporting 5th Edition.
As for the popularity of 5e, I can say it is currently taking off big time in Surrey, UK, and the hardback adventures are very popular (most of my group are too young to have exprienced the originals) I suspect Hasbro's mistake was not pushing the international market in the first place. It's easy to write new content, I churn it out by the bucket-load myself, so it is straigic thinking (right or wrong), not lazyness that has caused them to look to older modules for inspiration.
It wouldn't really matter if Hasbro stopped producing 5e - the hobby is self sustaining, and it would eventually be revived, like Call of Cuthulu and Star Wars d6.
Do you have any hard D&D sales states @rapsam2003 ? I couldn't find any, but I gave up fairly quickly.
WotC doesn't release the sales numbers... But this post from Giant in the Playground shows that 5th Edition hasn't outsold other editions over time: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19446159&postcount=15
A Mystara game is what they need. Journey into the Hollow World!
Arguably, AD&D2 was the best sold edition. Then, TSR went out of business in 1997, as tabletop RPGs at the time were eclipsed briefly by CCGs.
Point is, while this is not a valid comparison, this does give us some insight. What's happening now is, there's a surge in tabletop gaming, but a lot of that is for smaller developers (indies and such). And WotC is not happy with D&D 5th Edition sales, from what I can tell. They've had two editions that didn't reach the popularity of their predecessors (especially if we consider that AD&D2 sold 270,000 units supposedly in the first year alone).
There i said it >.>
As for the numbers, just what constitutes a 'unit'? I couldn't find a definition. Regarding successfulness of d&d, its more about how big the profits are. You can have tons of sales and poor profits if you under-charge, but again, data is scarce.
"I cast Cure Wounds, then I can Fireball as my bonus action". (Do note that Fireball requires an action, and you only get 1 action per round. In this example, "Cure Wounds" was the action.)
But everyone handwaves it, because "we're having fun".