In WotC's defense, the Volo's and Xanathar's Guides have some tasty bits for DM's to add to their games.

But I have found the AiME Loremaster's Guide to be a really excellent aid to DMing. The monster-building section alone beats out the DMG's.

I picked up the first 3 books that came out for 5E and wasn't impressed with them at all. I guess they've gotten better but $50 is a lot to ask compared to the old modular system. I still prefer the old ways but I guess this new process is working.

My biggest beef is the move to TELLING STORIES with the games that happened with 2E.

Quote from: Robyo;1035064In WotC's defense, the Volo's and Xanathar's Guides have some tasty bits for DM's to add to their games.

Volo's is excellent.

Quote from: Robyo;1035064In WotC's defense, the Volo's and Xanathar's Guides have some tasty bits for DM's to add to their games.

I concur, Volo, Xanathar and even Sword Coast are the books Wizards made that are most applicable to home campaign. The thing to keep in mind is the pace of their publishing schedule. Compared to past editions it has been measured and slow.

Also unlike past edition there is the DM's Guild which can use any or all the published works that Wizards have released. So the Haffrung's point may not be even relevant due to the changes how material with official blessing is distributed.

Quote from: Haffrung;1035063The thing WotC isn't providing is support for DMs who run their own settings and campaign worlds. The DMG includes a lot of good advice on creating a world and running your own homebrew campaign. But since they published the DMG, they've provided nothing. And I'm not talking about shorter adventure modules, which as  you point out, 3rd party publishers have covered. I'm talking about DM aids. Lairs, NPCs, organizations, inns, ships, caravans, mercenary groups, bandit gangs, wizard guilds, maps of ruins, support for exploring forests, deserts, or underwater. Stuff that inspires and takes the load off a DM running his own campaign. Because at this point, a DM has the choice of A) running an entire campaign in a book, or B) making up everything himself. I think a lot of DMs want something in the middle.

Honest question:  how did you acquire this sort of stuff prior to the Internet community?

Sword Coast is a terrible book for anyone to use in play regardless of style.  It's part game book, part coffee table tour of the Realms.  It was so bad that I still haven't quite been willing to pull the trigger on Volo, despite a better rep.  Xanathar's is much better constructed and delivered.

The Forgotten Realms is the worst campaign world TSR/WoTC have and it totally sucks that it's the default for 5E. I still don't understand why Greyhawk is ignored.

Quote from: Ulairi;1035091I still don't understand why Greyhawk is ignored.

I think because they tried to use it as the at-least-theoretically-default setting for 3e and it didn't even land with a big wet sickening thud so much as a resounding indifference from their base.

Quote from: KingCheops;1035082Honest question:  how did you acquire this sort of stuff prior to the Internet community?

Official Releases, Third Party Releases (diminishing after the early 80s), and above all magazines like Dragon, White Dwarf, Dungeoneer, Judges Guild Journal, Pegasus, etc. By the mid 80s we had Dungeon magazine.

If you were involved in the right area at the right time with the right people, you could get stuff through fanzines and handouts. For example Lee Gold's Alarums and Excursions. Which I didn't know existed until the 90s and the early internet.

Depending on what you found and had the time for, early computers got a serious workout for random generation of stuff. I still have a printout of a 1,000+ village made with a program found in Dragon Magazine (I think #42). There was some AD&D 1st edition disk for DOS that one could buy.

My usual procedure until the Internet grew big enough was to use the yellow pages to find all book stores, model shops, and comic stores in a town. Go to them and see what magazine and product was available. Then use that to send for catalogs. That how I found Tim Kask's magazine Adventure Gaming in a store in Pittsburgh.

Quote from: KingCheops;1035082Honest question:  how did you acquire this sort of stuff prior to the Internet community?

Lots of published material. The Book of Lairs (1, 2, and 3). Castle Book. Rogue's Gallery. Dungeoneer's Survival Guide. Dungeon Master's Campaign Guide.

And I didn't have as much need back when I could devote 10 hours a week to D&D. I'm older now, with less time and more money. WotC would get more of my money if they made more material that helped me run my game.

Quote from: Haffrung;1035101And I didn't have as much need back when I could devote 10 hours a week to D&D. I'm older now, with less time and more money. WotC would get more of my money if they made more material that helped me run my game.

Definitely this.

What if WotC is content to take a cut of someone else doing the work and selling it through a separate distributor so WotC literally just has to sit there and collect money (plus protect its IP)?  DM's Guild has TONS of content that WotC literally spent nothing on and they get a cut of it.

estar mentions about fan magazines -- is that not replaced by blogs, websites, and podcasts these days?  I personally really like Dyson's Dodecahedron and Elven Tower for maps.  I like Down with D&D and DM's Deep Dive for podcasts.  Sly Fourish (Mike Shea's blog who's the guy who does the Deep Dive) is great along with PowerScore (Sean McGovern also makes pretty good material for the DM's Guild).  Check out https://campaignwiki.org/1pdc/ for a bunch of one page dungeons.  Matt Colville's youtube channel is great.

Honestly the old model of buying those books you mention was pretty shitty.  I equate it to buying albums when a single wasn't available.  You buy the album and find out there's only like 2 songs you like (the single you wanted and another radio friendly one that will likely be released shortly) and the rest aren't good.  What we have right now in D&D is like the listening stations back in the late 90's.  You still had to expend the effort to go the store, find the album, and listen to it in the store.  Now we have curated playlists on various internet music stations/stores.  All that's missing for D&D are curators.  I think the Dragon+/Youtube/Guild Adept program is the first step towards that.

Honestly, as someone who has a full time job and two toddlers, the real problem you're complaining about isn't lack of content.  It is lack of time.

Oh snap I completely forgot about Tribality in my list.  Lots of great stuff there.  I'm just so used to their articles popping up in my Google+ feed that I glossed over them.

Quote from: Haffrung;1035063I'm talking about DM aids. Lairs, NPCs, organizations, inns, ships, caravans, mercenary groups, bandit gangs, wizard guilds, maps of ruins, support for exploring forests, deserts, or underwater. Stuff that inspires and takes the load off a DM running his own campaign. Because at this point, a DM has the choice of A) running an entire campaign in a book, or B) making up everything himself. I think a lot of DMs want something in the middle.

Volo's Guide, and the upcoming Mordenkainens Tome of Foes, cover most of this I believe.

Quote from: Haffrung;10349341) The D&D experience these days is promoted as an epic story with ongoing stories and villains. Paizo's adventure paths and WotC's campaigns in a book provide that.

This is true about the promotion, but the reality is that for most gamers, play is casual, people come and go, pick up games and put them down. The same 4-6 people in a weekly campaign that lasts for several years is often dreamed of by DM and player alike, but is, for better or worse, rare. I did a survey on rpg.net ages ago, it was less than 20% of respondents. The typical "campaign" was 6-12 sessions, and I use the quotation marks because a campaign implies a beginning, middle and an end, yet many didn't reach a conclusion of the story, the game or group fizzled out in some way. And while I said, "include the one-session fizzles", people excluded them, so the true average is lower.

The Wizards marketing speaks to the dreams of players, not the reality. This may be deliberate, since gaming is a luxury we buy with our hearts not our heads.