D&D will increase it's Cadence of Releases

[Gyor]

D&D will increase it's Cadence of Releases.

https://mobile.twitter.com/CHofferCB...65513579950091

Chris Hoffer was covering Hasbro's Investors meeting where Chris **** mentioned this.

I'm not surprised. I remember the D&D Live Panel with Ray Winnger last year where he was talking about his plans for D&D, more casual products, anthologies to increase their freelancer pool, working on 3 Classic settings, future D&D MtG Crossovers, and I'm thinking that is going to require an increased rate of releases.

So I think we can expect a lot more books and other products from now on.

[Unoriginal]

D&D will increase it's Cadence of Releases.

https://mobile.twitter.com/CHofferCB...65513579950091

Chris Hoffer was covering Hasbro's Investors meeting where Chris **** mentioned this.

I'm not surprised. I remember the D&D Live Panel with Ray Winnger last year where he was talking about his plans for D&D, more casual products, anthologies to increase their freelancer pool, working on 3 Classic settings, future D&D MtG Crossovers, and I'm thinking that is going to require an increased rate of releases.

So I think we can expect a lot more books and other products from now on.

Welp, that's bad news right here.

Let's hope this won't make them ditch the public playtest stage.

[Xervous]

Welp, that's bad news right here.

Let's hope this won't make them ditch the public playtest stage.

I expect full on kitsch, pandering and fan service. If it sells, why they’re just giving the fans what they want.

[EggKookoo]

I haven't read the full tweet conversation, but some of this is also non-D&D stuff, right? I mean didn't they announce a Transformers game, a GI Joe game, a Power Rangers game, and so on?

[Gyor]

Welp, that's bad news right here.

Let's hope this won't make them ditch the public playtest stage.

Didn't you notice the rapid turn-around stage on the Dhampyr, Hexborn, and Reborn UA?

So there will still be testing, but it will be alot shorter time frames so they can get products out faster.

Bigger pools of Freelancers and hiring even more full time folks is also likely.

They expect WotC to double its profitablity from 2019 to 2023 like it did between 2014-2018. That means way more MtG and D&D products and entirely new WotC products.

They also said the D&D movie starts shooting this Spring and that a D&D TV show is in the works.

[Gyor]

I haven't read the full tweet conversation, but some of this is also non-D&D stuff, right? I mean didn't they announce a Transformers game, a GI Joe game, a Power Rangers game, and so on?

The TF, Power Ranger, and GI Joe 5e games were announced before, its Renegade Studios doing them, not WotC.

The tweets were more about how well WotC has done and their plans for expanding things further then the TF, GI Joe, and PR games.

They did mention Universes Beyond, MtG sets of cards set in places like Lord of the Rings and Warhammer 40k, coming next year.

[PhantomSoul]

Welp, that's bad news right here.

Let's hope this won't make them ditch the public playtest stage.

My thoughts exactly. (Though really, the extent to which everything was playtested in recent publication seems mixed to begin with.)

Didn't you notice the rapid turn-around stage on the Dhampyr, Hexborn, and Reborn UA?

So there will still be testing, but it will be alot shorter time frames so they can get products out faster.

It's really not seeming promising for quality from the looks of things so far, but maybe quantity will at least give inspiration to homebrew!

[EggKookoo]

They also said the D&D movie starts shooting this Spring and that a D&D TV show is in the works.

The TV show better be a dark gritty remake of the 80s cartoon!

[Xervous]

The TV show better be a dark gritty remake of the 80s cartoon!

My bet is they aim for something that deals with serious themes but lacks the charm to be endearing. Obligatory praise from critics but panned by audiences.

[EggKookoo]

My bet is they aim for something that deals with serious themes but lacks the charm to be endearing. Obligatory praise from critics but panned by audiences.

I'm dreading to hear it described as "Game of Thrones meets..."

I'm not looking for a "serious" or "realistic" interpretation of the D&D mythos. I want something that communicates the spirit of the game.

[Xervous]

I'm dreading to hear it described as "Game of Thrones meets..."

I'm not looking for a "serious" or "realistic" interpretation of the D&D mythos. I want something that communicates the spirit of the game.

Why you see it is GoT, season 7 that is!

[Unoriginal]

The TV show better be a dark gritty remake of the 80s cartoon!

Hoping for a epic remake of that cartoon. I'd be disappointed if it was only dark and gritty.

I'm not looking for a "serious" or "realistic" interpretation of the D&D mythos. I want something that communicates the spirit of the game.

This, so much.

[anthon]

I expect full on kitsch, pandering and fan service. If it sells, why they’re just giving the fans what they want.

methinks they will do this instead of making a functional Psion class or restoring the Dark Sun setting.

[anthon]

I'm dreading to hear it described as "Game of Thrones meets..."

I'm not looking for a "serious" or "realistic" interpretation of the D&D mythos. I want something that communicates the spirit of the game.

which edition?

5e is almost 90% Forgotten Realms rehashed for reasons that discussing is not allowed according to the TOS subsection on politics.


i think when you want to discuss D&D mythos, you gotta go back to AD&D Spelljammer/Ravenloft/Planescape. Those systems took a bigger look at cross over worlds and interpreted them through a unifying lens. This goes back to the awkward publication of the Deities and Demigods, which was banned for copyright, then reprinted with redacted fewer pages as Legends and Lore. The way it was published didn't work correctly because it gave the reader the impression you could have 4-5 different pantheons interacting through the unified mechanic, when the background of each mythos was largely world defining, so you end up with God of Highschool crunchy roll anime. By 3e the rules had changed heavily and some of the old heroes had become gods. Many of the villains too. Over the decades tradition of defaulting other setting rules changes to Forgotten Realms became the popular trend with Wizards of the Coast, to the disconcerted realizations of non realms fans (like fans of dragonlance, dark sun, grey hawk, etc.)

I think what's really sad though, is a lot of amazing settings got umbrella corporationed (microsofted?) into forgotten realms then abandoned whole cloth (oriental adventures and al qadim for instance). Otherwise great universally useful rules sets like Netheril and so on were specific to Realms only. Spellfire rules were extensive but hyper limited to the realms novels and setting.

Then Diablo came along and people had diablo magic items.

honestly, Planescape was the safest bet. But then they did that stupid "lets destroy the factions" adventure and created 3rd edition. This didn't do the Genre of D&D any favors. I watched Lolth and Tiamat rise from minor quasipowers to full on gods, while many favored good guys like Aasimon and Phoenix got nerfed.

Tasha's is an attempt to fan service a desperate desire for mechanical content for players, and i think that desperation led to the Alcholic's Appraisal which basically means when you are desperate and thirsty for something, it tastes a whole lot better than it should.

This pattern is likely to repeat, with glut mechanical buffoonery appearing 1d6+1 products apart from Fan service and pop culture partnership swag.

[Theodoxus]

Eh, it's not hard to update 2E to 5E, they're pretty similar, really. The Darksun campaign setting ports very easily. Now, if you're wanting new crunch or an expanded setting, yeah, not much help there, sadly.

[EggKookoo]

which edition?

Personally I don't care, although I would expect if any edition is recognizable in a modern D&D movie it would be 5th.

When I say captures the spirit of the game, I mean I want the story to do things that speak to what it's like to play a tabletop RPG, even if that's not literally happening on the screen. I don't mean it has to work like CR or Dorkness Rising or the like, where we see players and characters independently. It can certainly be entirely within the fiction. What I mean is I'd like the story to unfold in a way closer to how games unfold, as opposed to the conventions and tropes of most narrative adventures. Things like, having two elf main characters without it being a plot point that there are two elves in the cast. Or the central hero being non-human. That the course of the story clearly derives from the decisions of the characters instead of how things are "supposed" to go in such stories. TTRPGs are all about player agency. I'd like a main theme of a D&D movie or tv show to be about character agency.

Some movies have shown this sort of thing. A Knight's Tale is an acceptable example. Pulp Fiction has the kind of "who cares whet the plot is supposed to be, the characters are doing this!" thing that I'm talking about.

[Tanarii]

If they keep releasing things the quality of Tasha's, it's not going to matter. When everything they make can be had for free by anyone with an internet connection, they need to make people want to give them money so they can keep making more stuff.

Of course, if they charge less, that's more likely. Volume sales of lower quality products for less profit margin per sale is a strategy.

[loki_ragnarock]

The TV show better be a dark gritty remake of the 80s cartoon!

Didn't they get in trouble for openly debating the morality of outright murdering the antagonist?

Where do you go from there for dark and gritty? Actually doing it? Making Uni eat the bodies?

Sigh. I don't really enjoy the superhero trope of letting the villains come back endlessly, but I'm also getting burnt out on gritty reboots.


Better, I think, to just make something new. Something that apes the framing device of The Princess Bride or The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, perhaps, flipping back and forth between the deeds of derring do from a fellowship of over the top high fantasy heroes and the real group of kids playing in their mom's basement set during the satanic panic of the 80s in season one, following them as they get older through college, careers, starting their families and the pains and joys of growing up.
That would do more capturing the themes of the game. At least to me; using it as a vehicle for exploring friendships.

No need to make it gritty at all. At least, not the real world parts. Over the top cartoon violence on the part of the heroic alter egos might be good for a season, a more mature political thriller in another, reflecting how tastes change over time... or on who's running the sessions this season. Heck, tie it to product placement to sell settings, have someone just straight run a prepublished module; what have you.

That'd be an interesting show to me.

[Gyor]

methinks they will do this instead of making a functional Psion class or restoring the Dark Sun setting.

Oh I have no doubt they will restore Darksun, it'd make too amazing and popular an MtG setting for them to resist. Darksun always had some amazing art/visuals, unique creatures/spells/items, ect...,

If fact I would not be surprised to see it next year.

[Theodoxus]

Sounds a bit like AFK, and I'd be all for that style of show. Really, I just want decent spell effects and not horrible monster CGI. No borrowed 80s tech like every other attempt at a D&D movie has used. And maybe at least 1 or 2 A List actors? Sure, have a budding new actor play the farmboy *** hero ala Mark Hammill, but give me some Vin Diesel as the Paladin and Scarlett Johannsson as the Elven Wizardess - or Artificer, even better! With a big cannon or a mechanical buddy...

[Nidgit]

Sounds a bit like AFK, and I'd be all for that style of show. Really, I just want decent spell effects and not horrible monster CGI. No borrowed 80s tech like every other attempt at a D&D movie has used. And maybe at least 1 or 2 A List actors? Sure, have a budding new actor play the farmboy *** hero ala Mark Hammill, but give me some Vin Diesel as the Paladin and Scarlett Johannsson as the Elven Wizardess - or Artificer, even better! With a big cannon or a mechanical buddy...

On the topic of Mark Hamill they should absolutely have him play some kind of crazy sorcerer BBEG. He'd do it too.

[Tanarii]

They won't be able to make a decent D&D movie. Even a TV show would be a stretch. D&D isn't really about telling stories, so it doesn't translate into good books or movies any more than books or movies translate into good sessions of D&D.

[Waterdeep Merch]

They won't be able to make a decent D&D movie. Even a TV show would be a stretch. D&D isn't really about telling stories, so it doesn't translate into good books or movies any more than books or movies translate into good sessions of D&D.

It's an adaptation of the trappings, really. Just like how the novels, comic books, and even video games can't really capture the spirit of a roleplaying session, neither can a movie. They're not really compatible with one another. But just like those other forms of media, you can absolutely capture the trappings.

I'm not exactly optimistic that they'll make a decent movie, but it's not entirely a fool's errand. So long as they prioritize making a good film over translating D&D to film.

(And thus is my pessimism...)

[MrStabby]

I think that D&D as a TV show would end up being a lot like some of the Star Trek series. The action is spread broadly amongst the cast, whilst some episodes will be more about one character than others most main characters will be in every episode, there will be a monster of the week with an occasional overarching plot, the double episodes will be the best and Patrick Stewart will be the best thing about it all.

[loki_ragnarock]

I think that D&D as a TV show would end up being a lot like some of the Star Trek series. The action is spread broadly amongst the cast, whilst some episodes will be more about one character than others most main characters will be in every episode, there will be a monster of the week with an occasional overarching plot, the double episodes will be the best and Patrick Stewart will be the best thing about it all.

I am very rarely tickled pink.

But the tittering that just burst from me unbidden means you managed it.

[Hael]

I'm not exactly optimistic that they'll make a decent movie, but it's not entirely a fool's errand. So long as they prioritize making a good film over translating D&D to film.

The things that make DND enjoyable make for pretty horrible movie material. I could see the dragonlance trilogy making an incredible set of movies, but that’s really the books that make it work. And precisely that epic feel makes it not work that well as a setting.

Faerun or Eberron material would be pretty horrible as a film setting.

[MaxWilson]

If they keep releasing things the quality of Tasha's, it's not going to matter. When everything they make can be had for free by anyone with an internet connection, they need to make people want to give them money so they can keep making more stuff.

Heh. If they keep making stuff at the same level of quality as Tasha's, https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/5e_Homebrew is going to give WotC a run for its money.

I made that text blue but I'm not really joking. What do people complain about most with homebrew, especially DAndDWiki? The balance, the power creep. Sometimes the blandness too. Tasha's subclasses and magic items were about the level of quality I'd expect from some random homebrew out on the Internet somewhere: wildly inconsistent, occasionally broken.

Eh, it's not hard to update 2E to 5E, they're pretty similar, really. The Darksun campaign setting ports very easily. Now, if you're wanting new crunch or an expanded setting, yeah, not much help there, sadly.

Speaking for myself: I'm tempted to upgrade my 2nd edition Darksun by grafting on rules from GURPS: GULLIVER and GURPS: Martial Arts, while keeping the AD&D magic system and the class/level/HP system intact, but I'm not really tempted to "upgrade" it to 5E because 5E is waaay too complex in all the wrong ways (mental busywork unrelated to the gameworld fiction: arbitrary rules exceptions piled upon special cases piled upon corner cases piled upon jargon).

There are some things 5E does that are genuinely more fun than the out-of-the-box AD&D way, but those are the same things that GURPS: Martial Arts does better than 5E, without 5E's complexity tax. (GURPS is complex but not as a tax.)

[PhantomSoul]

Heh. If they keep making stuff at the same level of quality as Tasha's, https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/5e_Homebrew is going to give WotC a run for its money.

I made that text blue but I'm not really joking. What do people complain about most with homebrew, especially DAndDWiki? The balance, the power creep. Sometimes the blandness too. Tasha's subclasses and magic items were about the level of quality I'd expect from some random homebrew out on the Internet somewhere: wildly inconsistent, occasionally broken.

I was going to comment on exactly that choice of colour...!

[Zilong]

Good thing I stopped buying “official” sources after theros

[Telok]

I'm dreading to hear it described as "Game of Thrones meets..."

Scooby Doo...

I'm dreading to hear it described as "Game of Thrones meets..."

The Muppets...

I'm dreading to hear it described as "Game of Thrones meets..."

Barney...

Hey, this is kind of fun.