The Crazy Way Wizards chooses Products to make

 So my characters went to Neverwinter and it got really sandboxy very quickly which I like, which they like, it's all good. The problem is we're playing Roll20 and you really need battlemaps. I found a nice map of Castle Never, and another of the Moonstone Masks location. Other generic maps worked for what I needed. But it made me think, Neverwinter has been around for a few decades now and there isn't a proper product with interior maps of the major buildings (same with Waterdeep). Back in the day they had books of generic battlemaps, why not have a book full of Neverwinter maps? Another book of Waterdeep maps. I don't even care if you include Factions or an adventure, just a book of maps. 

Now we are in the world of VTTs I bet they'd sell a lot of that sort of thing. Back during 4E when combat sort of needed a Battlemap I bet they'd sell a lot of that sort of thing. But you can't sell it if you don't make it. 

Thoughts on Alignment

Sort of continuing from Friday's Best of the Web post, part of the Wizards of the Coat policies was to suggest a change in alignments so that these races are not always evil. I've always ignored Alignments for Player Characters but find them occasionally useful for NPC and monsters, still I'd never noticed the alignments changed over time.

Baddie Alignment Through the Editions

Race	1E	3E	5E
Drow Elves	CE	Usually NE	NE
Dueger Dwarves	LE	Often LE	LE
Goblin	LE	Usually NE	NE
Hobgoblin	LE	Usually LE	LE
Ogre	CE	Usually CE	CE
Orc	LE	Often CE	CE

I find it especially interesting that 3E added Usually and Often to a number of alignments. I don't know if I read it somewhere or if I was just a rebel as a kid but I'd always assumed a race wasn't gonna be 100% all one alignment.

New Head of D&D RPG Team?

According to Nerd Immersion WoTC now has put Ray Winninger in charge of the D&D design team. As far as I can tell nobody else is reporting this so who knows. Anyway Ray Winninger is the guy that did the Dungeoncraft essays for Dragon Magazine. I don't remember being blown away with anything unique or creative in those essays. I'll have to reread I guess.

Nerd Immersion would create a 5.5 version of the game repackaging class and monsters into a new players handbook and a new monster book. Not a bad idea to tidy up the product line but it makes me think of Avalon Hill's RuneQuest in which they repackaged RuneQuest products from just a year before and it felt like they had nothing new for a year or two. They lost momentum. Still the idea isn't bad if it didn't take to long or too many resources but I'd keep that on the back burner.

So what would I do? Nothing extreme. 5e is popular, don't fix what isn't broken but two ideas do pop into my head.

1. I'd move heaven and Earth to make a 5E version of Greyhawk and that Greyhawk would be far more Gonzo Sci-fi fantasy to differentiate it from Forgotten Realms or whatever worlds WoTC is selling now. I'd create scenario packs for that setting. Combinations of old modules sold under one title the way they are doing it now, but I'd put them together sandbox style. Start with the Keep as a base of operations and drop a dozen modules (with backstories rewritten as necessary) within range and include notes on how to properly use story hooks and let the players have some agency in selecting where they want to adventure. This would hopefully set it off from the pseudo-adventure paths they've been doing and really show a different style of play. Oh, and I'd get Errol Otus as the lead artist to ensure Greyhawk visually stood out from the vanilla Realms.
2. I'd put together a book on House Rules, Reskinning, and DIY advice. This really is the heart of D&D to many and I don't think TSR or Wizards has ever directly addressed it. They should encourage DIY. I don' think it'll rob sales, in fact it might do the opposite. Right now you don't buy this or that because you'll never use it, but with a DIY attitude you might buy it knowing you can pick it apart to get interesting NPC, borrow the map for something else, and borrow bits of that backstory. DMs pick this up on their own, it's somewhat natural if you've got a long campaign campaign and you have to feed the creativity but Im sure the designers at Wizards have ideas that might be worthwhile.

Beyond that I don't know.