ETortoise wrote:I don't think the dungeonology book really counts as a 5e product. It's a licensed book that will hopefully shift copies and create crossover appeal. The 'Ology books are pretty popular and often get racked face-out in the children's section of bookstores. It's a grab to expand the consumers of D&D material, rather than the players of the game. Similarly, Candlewick also published the Dungeons and Dragons coloring book that just came out.
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That isn't the point of bringing it up. After 2 years and 4 months, this is the 'product line' for 5e:
http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tableto ... g-products
you may have to hit (more products) a couple times to show them all
If you're feeling really generous you can go back to the 2013 preview adventure (Ghosts of Dragonspear) using the D&D Next playtest rules (which aren't really the 5e rules).
If you count the pre-release adventures, there are 20 5e products in just over two years:
3 pre release modules
3 core books (no idea why the PH is on the page twice)
1 starter set
2 DM screens
5 hard back modules
1 module supplement (supposedly there are actual player options here)
1 sword coast adventure guide (some reprints of website articles + a refluff of standard FR shit)
1 set of fake tarot cards for the NotGypsies of Ravenloft (which ties to the Curse of Strahd 'adventure')
1 seriously a coloring book
1 this young adults thing, part of a series rezzed for no reason
1 Volo's monster thing, which is a weird mix of old school fluff and stat blocks
And a fair amount of digging (looking at the back cover on amazon) will reveal that many of the modules and the Sword coast book weren't even produced in house. Which means that in the over two years since the launch of the new edition, the WotC D&D team has managed to produce maybe 7 books and two DM screens.
But wait, lets break those down
Curse of Strahd- actually done in house
Volo's Guide to Monsters- apparently in house
Storm King's Thunder- lacking other evidence, in house
SKT DM Screen- GaleForce9
Sword Coast Adventures, Green Ronin
Out of the Abyss, Green Ronin
Princes of the Apocalypse, Sasquatch Game Studio
Companion to PotA- not actually a product, but a free download
Rise of Tiamat, Kobold Press.
So actually, they manage to do 3 books and a DM screen. That is sum total of WotC products for 5e beyond the core books and starter set, and Curse, Storm King were earlier this year, and Volo's Guide comes out next month.
This really is vaporware edition- it has gotten less support and less product than anything since the original pamphlets. And I'm not even 100% certain about that.
Whatever marketing strategy or business plan they've got, it barely includes making products to sell, or developing 5e as anything. 1st and 2nd spammed the shit out of everything, BECMI had Mystara and the slew of gazetteers , 3rd was a complex web of products, licenses and spinoffs to drag people in. 4th burned really hot before it flamed out. 5e is basically.... nothing. No character, no support, no indication that anyone gives a shit. Instead they're recycling shitty ideas that didn't do well in the early 90s under TSR. Really, 2016 is going to be the year of Strahd, Volo and roughly the fourth or fifth attempt at a shitty 'tarot' card deck for D&D? Mearls and company should be amazingly embarrassed to even think that this would sell.
And that is the point, really. The existence of an actual business plan seems to be shrouded in mystery, if not non-existence. Weren't there supposed to be a shitload of modular options that would just plug into the ruleset? Yeah, it was obviously bullshit at the time, but they didn't even try. Just subcontracted some crap, then turned to recycling the failures of the 90s.