| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
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| #1ClinthulhuOct 13, 2014 9:10:07 | If anyone from WotC reads this I hope you take at least a few of these suggestions to heart... There isn't anything real specific here just ideas from someone who has played the game for over 20 years and has dozens of friends and business owners who support your products. All of these things are topics that I've heard a number of gamers talk about over the years.
1. Support/Relaunch/Reprint something other than Forgotten Realms... Dragonslance, Ravenloft, Darksun, etc... Go back and take a look at all the amazing stuff you had in the AD&D days and do somethin with them. I've seen more than one person post about Greyhawk on the forums here. Re-do Greyhawk for gods sake... People are buying the old TSR box set on eBay and spending hours converting them to your new rules. That should be telling you something... People still want to play in these worlds... people still BUY these products!
2. Modules are great and all but give us some tools and resources beyond that... What happened to books like Creative Campaining or the Dungeon Builders Guide? D&D used to release all kinds of resource books like this and for those of us who don't run modules and it was great. Plug and play NPC's, Towns, Gear and stuff that you could tweek here and there to fit your needs. Need some help? Look at what Chaosium does with the Call of Cthulhu RPG setting. Heck look at what TSR used to do and give us some more of that.
3. Not everything has to be a $35.00+ hard cover book... Remembers the old modules? They were a 20 page saddle stitched booklet with a removable cover that had a map on it. You didn't have to take a loan out to get them. One of the biggest problems most people had with 4th Ed was that it was a money sink... Don't pump out 12 Players Handbooks... Put out some products that you can buy on a whim... I would buy a module a week if it was $9.99 or around that price point... I don't need color pictures or amazing graphics for everything. Sure it looks nice but if it's going to cost me 19.99 just give me a black and white map and a few drawings to give the players an idea of what they are seeing. The same format or a similar one could be used for books like "The Complete Fighters/Rogues/Wizards Handbooks" Those weren't hardcover books and everyone I know has them. I would pay $19.99 for those books or even $24.99... I have a good job and make good money and even I cringe when I see $39.99 for a module.
4. Miniatures are great... I love having miniatures in my games (within reason) but you know what kills me... If want to run a combat senario that has 12 Goblins/Kobolts/Skeletons in it... I have to spend half a years income to buy random boxes of minis to get 12 skeletons... Yes I know that this works out great for you guys. But for players it just makes us hate you... So why not come out with something like a Bag-O-Skeletons/Goblins/Kobolts... Monsters that you generally fight more than one of at a time. These can be made of the same crap plastic that little green army men are made of... I don't care... Just give me like 10 or 20 cheap plastic minis that I can use for mobs of monsters. I don't need a Bag-O-Beholders... I am more than happy to buy the boxes of minis to find stuff like Beholders and Displacer Beasts and such but for trash mobs why not throw us (the players) a bone. Then I don't have two skeletons minis and seven pennies on the table to represent the rest of the mob.
5. Personally I miss the box sets from AD&D... The books for the campaign settings are nice and all but there was something about getting a boxed set that made you really feel like you were gettins something awesome. A big world map and then maybe a map of a major city or town. The DM book and then a smaller Players book that let them read about the world they lived in and gave them character classes and build ideas... All of that was good stuff. I would pay for something like that.
I think WotC are on the right track with 5th Edition... It's a great mix of old school gaming and updated rules and ideas. Going back to forumal and dumping all the things that didn't work is great but you don't need to completely re-invent the wheel. Look to the past and see some of the things that players want... Things that players still want and still buy from other sources like eBay. Profits are nice... thats what makes your company sucessful. But loyal customers who are invest in your product and dedicated to you because you give them what THEY want will keep you successful for years to come. |
| #2mbeacomOct 13, 2014 19:22:54 | I'll second some of these and add my two cents.
1. Greyhawk. Holy jeebus this seems like a no brainer. I live in both worlds, of loving the new products and really loving the classic stuff. I hang out on a lot of OSR sites and the desire for Greyhawk is nearly universal in that community. If you're branding this edition as the edition to rule them all, you can't just ignore Greyhawk. Including some of the pantheon is a great first step, but if you could (and this links to his #5) release a nice Greyhawk box set, I think it would do very well in a limited run.
2. Modules are awesome. And no, I don't need super high production values. I see the PFRPG adventure paths that are essentially $25 magazines and I cringe. First, they're too much money. And second they're too long. I want a module that I can run in 2-4 play sessions. Basically, if you can make a module $10 and I can get a months gaming out of it, I'll buy every one you release. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
3. Miniatures. I don't care about miniatures, but if you want to make green army men quality mobs for the swarms, go for it. I'll probably buy a bag just because green army kobolds would be hilarious.
4. Now something I personally really want to see. First, let me say the 5E monster manual is pretty rad. There's a ton to like about it. But as someone who appreciates the lethal adventuring style of early editions, I feel like a lot of the monsters seem a little underwhelming. I understand they work within the 5E framework. But lets be clear. Lots of us are now using 5E to play our old school sessions. I'd love love LOVE to seem some sidebars for monsters with a short paragraph of how to make them more lethal, or showing how to make a monster work like they used to work. Like a sidebar for allowing Rust Monsters to eat magical metal with a saving throw. Or a short snippet on how to run a medusa that is save or die. Givea warning before hand not to do it unless you know what you're doing, but at least give some tips on how to recreate that old school feel of scary as all get out monsters that you honestly never want to run into.
So, yeah, I guess what we're saying is that we trust you with the big hardbacks. You've shown you're the best game in town for high production value stuff. But we want smaller scale support too. Soft covers. Saddle stitched.Perfect bound. Box sets. And support for old school playstyles. Lets do this right. Lets make this a robust edition that covers all the fans and all the price points. |
| #3ClinthulhuOct 14, 2014 8:42:11 |
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| #4CriswellOct 16, 2014 8:51:31 | You guys are aware of inflation, and the disproportionate rise in printing costs in specific, right? All books are way more expensive than they used to be. |
| #5Guest1790093391Oct 18, 2014 16:48:08 | My goodness Clinthulhu .... you read my mind!!!
Especially when it comes to the miniatures. I'd even be happy if they ONLY did a bag o' skeletons, kolbolds, goblins, orcs. For example, like the skeleton package comes with 8 skeletons with swords, and 4 skeleton archers. THAT'S IT!!! NOTHING ELSE. We don't need mats or rules for miniature play ..... that's it. I could possibly keep the cost low. Then, if I want a death knight, necromancer, vampire (Strahd,) or lich to lead them, then I wouldn't have a problem buying the random booster pack to try and get one.
(I hate to be the one to bring this up, but starting at the beginning of 2015, Pathfinder is going to start releasing pre-determined, fully painted mini packs of they're iconic characters from the Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, etc. The support for this has been very vocal and positive, and LOUD!! Clinthulhu has really tapped something here that shouldn't be ignored. If WoTC did this with the above mentioned monster fodder..... the support would probably be overwhelming.)
And in my humble opinion ... GREYHAWK, GREYHAWK, GREYHAWK, GREYHAWK!!! |
| #6Grand_Theft_OttoOct 21, 2014 10:28:20 |
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| #7biotech66Oct 21, 2014 17:45:35 | If we're spitballing here, WotC please embrace the internet. You've made friends with Drive Thru RPG. Keep up with that! I want PDFs. Drop a product every other month thats about 10-20 pages at a cost of ~$5, and I'll give you all my money. |
| #8TherosOct 22, 2014 7:11:56 | I really like the new mini’s but I agree wholeheartedly that we could do with some stock monster boxes. I must have dropped over $200 in 5e boxes, but in all that I only got one dragonborn and not enough kobolts to run even one encounter.
If I had my way I’d prefer something like a huge DM primer kit. A large box with 48 mono colored dungeon fodder mini’s. Goblins, men at arms, undead, and orcs. I’d pay $60 or more for something like that.
The Heroes Quest board game had some great mini’s. Cheap and durable. |
| #9arnwolf666Oct 24, 2014 6:25:29 | I want nicely bound hardback books. And I am willing to pay for them. That is what I loved about 3.x I don't like softcover at all, but I do buy them if they have good content. Content is the main thing. |
| #10biotech66Oct 24, 2014 12:07:42 |
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| #11ellivaaOct 24, 2014 12:22:50 | Every idea in this thread is amazing and I support all of them. My money is itching to be given to WotC for these products.
As far as the $10 module goes, I think the important thing here is that us grognards are really saying "look, do whatever it takes to get the price down, all B&W, minimal art, 15 - 20 pages in length, etc." On the other hand, you COULD do a $10 module with some advertising inside as a removable insert.
Greyhawk please. See my other thread on this subject. |
| #12ClinthulhuOct 24, 2014 13:11:55 |
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| #13BRJNOct 24, 2014 18:48:14 |
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| #14BRJNOct 24, 2014 18:58:38 | Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Eberron sourcebooks: +1 (each)
cheap minis for disposable swarmers: +1
I also like some little modules I found in my public library, about 20 pages each, detailing a night (or two) worth of plot and materials and some setting. For the low price of $5 (early 1990s) get a months' enjoyment; both prep time and play time. What a deal !
Reprint some of the 3.5 campaign background books that can be used regardless of Edition. (Charlemagne, Ancient Egypt, Vikings, Camelot, Aztecs.) It's not just the characters, it's the world around them. I also have a few Testament (Biblical background) characters I want to convert to v5. |
| #15h347h50Nov 01, 2014 20:40:53 |
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| #16fildrigarMar 08, 2015 16:15:25 |
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| #17FinarvynMar 10, 2015 5:46:17 | This is a great thread, and it already addresses many of my frustrations and/or suggestions.
As to the $10 module, Goodman Games is doing it. They have two 5E modules out already and two more on the "coming soon" list. But those can't be a fluke because they also have a dozen or more DCC RPG modules at a similar cost. Instead of hardbacks, I'd rather have smaller modules. Hoard of the Dragon Queen is composed of 8 "episodes" and I'll bet it could have been split into four $12 modules and folks would have bought them all the same. (Maybe even eight $10 modules?) The advantage of the little module is the map. HotDQ has wonderful maps in the book, but I'd rather have them be on the inside of a module cover so I could actually use them in play.
Just no more hardback modules, please. |