Maybe I'm thinking too small, but I think it would be cool if they'd release stuff in seasons.
Each season would have a box set for it, and each adventure module released that year would be related. Maybe not as direct sequels, but you can expext for the Spelljammer season to all be Spelljammer.
Understandable, but that might increase pressure on the creative staff of "they" to not only get stuff cranked out on a regular, scheduled basis, but it now all has to jibe with the season's theme. Anything's doable with enough people and money, but it would likely take more of both for "them" to meet this new goal.
Speaking as a writer who admittedly cringes under high stress environments and deadlines; who loves building worlds and lore, but couldn't describe the back alley I'm staring at if I knew the polished product had to make it to editing tomorrow.
The problem with thematic is if someone doesn’t like it, they tune out for a year, and maybe drift away to a different game. If you like it, it’s a great year for you, if not, there’s nothing keeping you engaged. Once people tune out, it can be hard to get them to tune back in.
And I gotta wonder if a company would release things based on high sales dates (X-Mass, etc.) as well as hitting the quarterly profit reports that are so important to investors. Hasbro is publicly traded, after all. Pretty much all companies do it this way and for that reason.
Seasons sort of presume consumers are subscribers, and I'm guessing outside places like D&D Beyond forums, most D&D consumers actually aren't subscribers. For a game that holds as myriad possibilities of play and theme as D&D tying an entire year's, or quarter's product to one theme ... that's a risk. D&D's business model seems to be "we'd love for you to buy it all, but you don't ever need to buy it all." And I think that approach has made the game successful.
That said, if you want sustained support or engagement with a given release, DMsGuild has a range of fan and pro creator releases attached to pretty much every official release (some are even content that was designed for a particular release but was left on the cutting room floor). I think that's the closest we'll ever see to Season support to a product, and I think that's a good thing. I want to say Adventurers' League also has content that ties into release, eventually available to regulars on DMs Guild if you're not plugged into AL.
I don't want to shoot your idea down in flames, it could work for another game, but for D&D I'm not so sure. I'm already unimpressed by the quality of WotC's writing and presentation lately, and having to wait an even longer time for a big helping of something I can quite easily leave doesn't tickle my fancy. Spelljammer's part of the reason why I can't see it happening, given how average at best that box set was. The only thing they could do with spending a season with it is to add very basic, necessary but meaty content to them; what would happen though is we'd get more and more books of the same quality which fix nothing and add little else more to tide people over until the next season.
Seasons could work if WotC would develop on the things they've made. I'm talking about the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide for the 'default' Forgotten Realms setting, or Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, a complement to Curse of Strahd. If there was a Baldur's Gate season, I'd want adventures in Baldur's Gate rather than a cameo in the adventure that takes place in Avernus. If there was a Feywild season, I'd want to see Wild Beyond the Witchlight's two elements - the adventure and the player material - split and developed upon as if seperate 200-page books, and then have more stuff. Seasons only really work if they're packed with goodies that will last the season, and there's mounting evidence that would not be the case.
To borrow experience from video games, which admittedly are a lot more cutthroat when it comes to user retention and recurrent spending than the tabletop, Halo: Infinite is currently in its second season and is floundering. Its players are miserable with progression systems being undercooked, cosmetic rewards not worth time investment to earn, and I personally am sick of the desync that makes Halo's fairly pedestrian gunplay unplayable more often than not. Its players have to hope that will change in March 2023, upon the release of its third season. In the 10 months between May 2022 and March 2023 players have only two new maps, two King of the Hill modes (they're bog standard to anyone who knows shooter games), and a substandard Battle Royale mode to keep them in the game. This was once upon a time Microsoft's flagship title, and as you can probably tell seasons are not a model that work for them. I would hope no such problems befall anyone else undertaking the seasonal model, but Infinite is a visible lesson in how not to do them.
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Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
I don't want to shoot your idea down in flames, it could work for another game, but for D&D I'm not so sure. I'm already unimpressed by the quality of WotC's writing and presentation lately, and having to wait an even longer time for a big helping of something I can quite easily leave doesn't tickle my fancy. Spelljammer's part of the reason why I can't see it happening, given how average at best that box set was. The only thing they could do with spending a season with it is to add very basic, necessary but meaty content to them; what would happen though is we'd get more and more books of the same quality which fix nothing and add little else more to tide people over until the next season.
Seasons could work if WotC would develop on the things they've made. I'm talking about the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide for the 'default' Forgotten Realms setting, or Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, a complement to Curse of Strahd. If there was a Baldur's Gate season, I'd want adventures in Baldur's Gate rather than a cameo in the adventure that takes place in Avernus. If there was a Feywild season, I'd want to see Wild Beyond the Witchlight's two elements - the adventure and the player material - split and developed upon as if seperate 200-page books, and then have more stuff. Seasons only really work if they're packed with goodies that will last the season, and there's mounting evidence that would not be the case.
To borrow experience from video games, which admittedly are a lot more cutthroat when it comes to user retention and recurrent spending than the tabletop, Halo: Infinite is currently in its second season and is floundering. Its players are miserable with progression systems being undercooked, cosmetic rewards not worth time investment to earn, and I personally am sick of the desync that makes Halo's fairly pedestrian gunplay unplayable more often than not. Its players have to hope that will change in March 2023, upon the release of its third season. In the 10 months between May 2022 and March 2023 players have only two new maps, two King of the Hill modes (they're bog standard to anyone who knows shooter games), and a substandard Battle Royale mode to keep them in the game. This was once upon a time Microsoft's flagship title, and as you can probably tell seasons are not a model that work for them. I would hope no such problems befall anyone else undertaking the seasonal model, but Infinite is a visible lesson in how not to do them.
Yeah, since they've started work on 1DD, their quality has plummeted. It really feels like they're trying to squeeze out some big names (ultimately killing good faith in 5e and those big titles like Spelljammer) before the 4e-like die off of 1DD... so I don't feel like you've shot the idea down without merit.
It also implies an artificial experation of the edition once you get through one season of Darksun, Planeshift, Spelljammer, Blackmoor, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and the Far Realms... even if you do stagget a generic settings with funky ones... and that entire implied life-span is bad for anything coming in Season 8.
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Maybe I'm thinking too small, but I think it would be cool if they'd release stuff in seasons.
Each season would have a box set for it, and each adventure module released that year would be related. Maybe not as direct sequels, but you can expext for the Spelljammer season to all be Spelljammer.
Understandable, but that might increase pressure on the creative staff of "they" to not only get stuff cranked out on a regular, scheduled basis, but it now all has to jibe with the season's theme. Anything's doable with enough people and money, but it would likely take more of both for "them" to meet this new goal.
Speaking as a writer who admittedly cringes under high stress environments and deadlines; who loves building worlds and lore, but couldn't describe the back alley I'm staring at if I knew the polished product had to make it to editing tomorrow.
The problem with thematic is if someone doesn’t like it, they tune out for a year, and maybe drift away to a different game. If you like it, it’s a great year for you, if not, there’s nothing keeping you engaged. Once people tune out, it can be hard to get them to tune back in.
And I gotta wonder if a company would release things based on high sales dates (X-Mass, etc.) as well as hitting the quarterly profit reports that are so important to investors. Hasbro is publicly traded, after all. Pretty much all companies do it this way and for that reason.
Seasons sort of presume consumers are subscribers, and I'm guessing outside places like D&D Beyond forums, most D&D consumers actually aren't subscribers. For a game that holds as myriad possibilities of play and theme as D&D tying an entire year's, or quarter's product to one theme ... that's a risk. D&D's business model seems to be "we'd love for you to buy it all, but you don't ever need to buy it all." And I think that approach has made the game successful.
That said, if you want sustained support or engagement with a given release, DMsGuild has a range of fan and pro creator releases attached to pretty much every official release (some are even content that was designed for a particular release but was left on the cutting room floor). I think that's the closest we'll ever see to Season support to a product, and I think that's a good thing. I want to say Adventurers' League also has content that ties into release, eventually available to regulars on DMs Guild if you're not plugged into AL.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Oh man, I love the AL stuff on DM's Guild! And I think you're right about it being too close to a subscription.
I don't want to shoot your idea down in flames, it could work for another game, but for D&D I'm not so sure. I'm already unimpressed by the quality of WotC's writing and presentation lately, and having to wait an even longer time for a big helping of something I can quite easily leave doesn't tickle my fancy. Spelljammer's part of the reason why I can't see it happening, given how average at best that box set was. The only thing they could do with spending a season with it is to add very basic, necessary but meaty content to them; what would happen though is we'd get more and more books of the same quality which fix nothing and add little else more to tide people over until the next season.
Seasons could work if WotC would develop on the things they've made. I'm talking about the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide for the 'default' Forgotten Realms setting, or Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, a complement to Curse of Strahd. If there was a Baldur's Gate season, I'd want adventures in Baldur's Gate rather than a cameo in the adventure that takes place in Avernus. If there was a Feywild season, I'd want to see Wild Beyond the Witchlight's two elements - the adventure and the player material - split and developed upon as if seperate 200-page books, and then have more stuff. Seasons only really work if they're packed with goodies that will last the season, and there's mounting evidence that would not be the case.
To borrow experience from video games, which admittedly are a lot more cutthroat when it comes to user retention and recurrent spending than the tabletop, Halo: Infinite is currently in its second season and is floundering. Its players are miserable with progression systems being undercooked, cosmetic rewards not worth time investment to earn, and I personally am sick of the desync that makes Halo's fairly pedestrian gunplay unplayable more often than not. Its players have to hope that will change in March 2023, upon the release of its third season. In the 10 months between May 2022 and March 2023 players have only two new maps, two King of the Hill modes (they're bog standard to anyone who knows shooter games), and a substandard Battle Royale mode to keep them in the game. This was once upon a time Microsoft's flagship title, and as you can probably tell seasons are not a model that work for them. I would hope no such problems befall anyone else undertaking the seasonal model, but Infinite is a visible lesson in how not to do them.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
Yeah, since they've started work on 1DD, their quality has plummeted. It really feels like they're trying to squeeze out some big names (ultimately killing good faith in 5e and those big titles like Spelljammer) before the 4e-like die off of 1DD... so I don't feel like you've shot the idea down without merit.
It also implies an artificial experation of the edition once you get through one season of Darksun, Planeshift, Spelljammer, Blackmoor, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and the Far Realms... even if you do stagget a generic settings with funky ones... and that entire implied life-span is bad for anything coming in Season 8.