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Haufenweise neue Infos zu D&D

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Selganor [n/a]:
Dank ENWorld hier mal eine Kopie einiger offiziellen Infos zu D&D von der "D&D Experience":


1) As previously mentioned, D&D 4th Edition was not announced - "Its going to come at some point. It's a long ways away. You'll get an announcement when that happens, but it's a long ways away. We have a lot of good stuff coming out through 2008"

2) Pauper on hordelings.com reports on WotC's comments regarding 2006:
"2006 was the best year ever for D&D; while not every product has been an overwhelming success, there have been many successes and some that even surprised the WotC folks. For instance, the Player's Handbook II is already in its third printing; other books like the Spell Compendium, Complete Mage, and Expedition to Castle Ravenloft were what were called 'instant reprints', in that they all quickly sold their initial print runs."

"Though about 50% of D&D 'books' are sold through larger chains, WotC remains committed to the independent game store; though the big stores are an efficient way to get lots of books into the market channel, game stores provide a lot of 'value add' in that they frequently give more personalized service, including the ability to recommend additional products that fit a player's or DM's needs and preferences. Organized play on-site is also seen as a big advantage for independent retailers."

And on Greyhawk:
"During the Q&A follow-up, there was something of a rant from a Greyhawk grognard who was upset at the number of Realms and Eberron products previewed while only one Greyhawk-specific product previewed was the Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk. The response came in two parts: first (and I'm paraphrasing here, but this was the sense I got), he noted that while WotC knows there are thousands of Greyhawk fans out there - WotC does as much market research as any other company of any type out there - there are tens of thousands of Eberron and Realms fans, so 'deal with it'. At the same time, he also pointed out that the company is looking at the Expedition to Castle Greyhawk as a 'feeler' product: if it does very well, it absolutely suggests a greater demand for Greyhawk-specific material and would certainly motivate people within WotC to produce more of that kind of material."

3) MerricB's D&D Miniatures website has a whole lot of information on that subject.

4) On the subject of the RPGA, the official messageboards contain some reports, summarized tidily here by MerricB.

5) Hordelings.com has a copy of the slideshow from D&D XP presented by the Wizards R&D team. Here's a summary, again by MerricB (thanks Merric!):
Dungeon Survival Guide - October 16th
* Aimed at non-D&D players who enjoy the genre
* Explores D&D's greatest dungeons, from the Tomb of Horrors to the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
* Lavishly Illustrated

A Practical Guide to Monsters - August 28th
* How do you trick a troll? Do vampires sleep? Why worry about the yuan-ti?
* Discover intimate details about the habits of over 50 beasts
* For fans of fantasy of all ages

Dungeonscape - February 13th
* Aimed at players and DMs
* Dungeon survival gear and kits
* Traps, traps and more traps

Drow of the Underdark - May 15th
* The definitive drow sourcebook
* Aimed at players and DMs
* Erelhei-Cinlu revisited

The Forge of War - June 19th
* Chronicles major events and engagements of the Last War
* For campaigns set during and after the Last War
* Aimed at players and DMs

Monster Manual V - July 17th
* New monsters (you don't say!)
* Ready-to-play variations of some classic D&D monsters
* New stat format - as seen in Monster Manual IV

Dragons of Eberron - October 16th
* Your guide to the Draconic Prophecy and the continent of Argonnessen
* Introduces some of the dragons of Khorvaire, Sarlona and Xen'drik
* Ready to play dragons with lairs, encounters and plot-hooks

Expedition series
* Nostalgic, with a few surprises
* New tactical encounter format
* DWP: April 17th
* UM: June 19th
* GH: August 14th

Dungeon Tiles series
* 6 double-sided cardstock sheets of tiles
* Dungeon, wilderness and cavern tiles - oh my!
* Low price
* DT 3: February 17th
* DT 4: May 15th
* DT 5: September 19th
* DT 6: December 12th

Inn Fighting: The D&D Game of Tavern Brawls - October 16th
* Play combines dice rolling and card play for 2 or more players
* Stand alone play or incorporate into RPG sessions
* By Rob Heinsoo, designer of Three Dragon Ante

Bunch of other pictures from upcoming products are shown

6) Abyssal Maw's Q&A information from the "What's Up With D&D?" presentation has a few juicy bits and pieces:

Why the name of the convention changed from Winter Fantasy: They wanted the show to be bigger and focus exclusively on D&D. Something the equivalent of MACworld for D&D fans. D&D has millions of players, but not as many convention goers as they would like. So this is part of a promotional effort.

On 2006:
"2006 was the biggest year in terms of revenue for D&D than it has been since the 30th anniversary". "D&D is stronger than ever". Several sold out products that were instant reprints. Which is good.

PHB 3.5 hit 128 on the New York Times best Seller list. Just authorized third reprint.

Goes over some changes, taking some risks: Tome of Battle (9 Swords) and Tome of Magic were namechecked as expereiments with the baseline assumptions of D&D.

New stat block format.

Dungeon Tiles were hugely successful.

D&D Miniatures in 2006 had it's best year ever.

On marketing and events for players:
* "Expand Your Role" Grants - $20,000 for D&D clubs at colleges
* Search for Best D&D University
* Saluting the Dungeon Master- some special perks for DMs will be promoted by WOTC. "A program that will recognize great DMs"
* D&D Fan Film Fest

* D&D Experience (where we are right now)
* DDM Pre-release Tournaments (Wizards would love if these got to be as big as Magic Tourneys)
* D&D Game Night - Some kind of promotional program to sponsor gamenights at hobby game stores.
* Worldwide D&D Gameday (distributed enough kits by request in 2006 for 30,000 people to play D&D. Next Worldwide D&D Game Day is November 1st )2007.


On the 2007 product lineup: "WOTC will focus on: Adventures, DM Tools, Player Aids, Miniatures, Accessories. "Products that enhance play."

Onto the Q&A after the presentation itself:

Q: How will the Rules Compendium be used?"
* Incorporates the most current and problematic rules and situations and breaks them out into easy to handle chunks. Encyclopedic format.
* "One rule per page"
* Also incorporates stuff from the FAQ and the Sage
* Sidebars from the designers on some of the rules.


Q: What are thoughts about a fiend compendium:
A: "It's on the invisible table"

Q: Any chance of printing the little trade paperback PHB?
A: It's in a product call the Players Kit. They won't otherwise do that, because once a trade paperback version of a book comes out, the hardbacks are returned to the manufacturer by the bookstores.

Q: Repeat of previous gripe aout lack of an electronic tool.
A: Exploratory stage of the Digital Gaming Initiative.

Q: From an HR and marketing stance: is there going to be a continuing education and training program for GMs to deliver continuity of the D&D experience?
A: "That may be the future of D&D- training and maintaining our DMs. We have 5 customer profiles. DMS are the most important- theyre the glue that holds the game together. Wizards will be working with meetup.com...."

Q: The Drizzt Scenario Pack.
A: Includes the gargantuan White Dragon "Icing Death". They have the proof in a glass case on display here, and it looks like a really nice sculpt- a little better than the blue dragon. The scenario pack also contains promotional figures of Drizzt, one other guy (some orc king? I forgot the name already), A two-sided map, and a scenario booklet. It also includes a promotional first chapter of the latest RA Salvatore novel.

On maps: "Maps are just unprofitable because they cost so much to print at a usable size. We could do a "book of maps" but it wouldn't have much use- because the pages aren't big enough to set minis down on. We could do a "map pack", but the price breakdown would be too much. It would be expensive and you wouldn't get very many maps. So right now, with maps, the best bet is Fantastic Locations, which are dual use miniatures and D&D products."

Q: Is d20 Modern going away?
A: No.


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