Russ, dream a little here: if somehow Hasbro were to decide one day to drop the entire D&D franchise into your lap for you to keep and develop as you saw fit, what would you do with it, and why?
Hah! Well, first a caveat - I do not think I'd manage D&D well at all. That would be a terrible thing to happen, and would be a disaster for the game's popularity. But you asked, so here goes:
I'd move away from the
Forgotten Realms. I'd rather see new settings. I'd - to an extent - use EN Publishing own adventure path model, combined with the shorter length of Paizo's. So each AP would be set in its own world, it woud have a player's guide for that setting, a strong theme, and a great storyline. One AP might be gothic horor set in a Ravenloft-esque world, another might be a mystery set in a world akin to Victorian England, and so on. Some would be high fanatsy, others might be more historically-themed, some would be dark, some light, some gritty, etc. Each adventure path, with its accompanying world, would span about 6 levels, and then move on to the next one. Magazine-style content would then further supplement popular worlds for those who wanted to go beyond 6 levels (though the initial guides for each would have enough info for you to make your own stuff).
I would visit each of the classic settings, of course. You would get one AP and setting guide for each of the old worlds, but creating new stuff would be more important to me. For this, I would probably consider using the original creators of each, if they were willing.
I'd revisit the OGL. I'd do it slightly differently, but allow and - more importantly - encourage and support third party content. I believe that a game with lots of people making stuff for it is a thriving game.
I'd push for a
Dragonlance Chronicles TV show. Not a movie;
Game of Thrones would be the model. For a story like that, I don't feel a movie could do it well. TV allows for so much more storytelling.
I'd think along the lines of a living game rather than edition churn. I haven't fully thought this through, but errata and the like would be incorprated into electronic versions of the material. Getting around the "oh, I bought a hardback" issue is tough; like I said, I haven't fully thought it through.
I'd have DRAGON and DUNGEON back using my EN5ider as a model. Rules articles in that would have full official weight. This would be a primary crunch dispersal mechanism. Compilations would happen too, of course. (I'm very likely to do that with WOIN - articles rather than books, all official).
This may be unpopular, but I'd make the rulebook text slight dryer. That could just be nostalgia talking. I'd also have each sprayed with an old-book smell. Maybe not that last thing.
Phew. That's it for now, I think. I Like I said, I doubt the game would actually survive under my stewardship!