payn
He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...
No, but Birthright definitely would improve sales!
D&D General If you were made president of D&D, what would you do?
GrimCo
Adventurer
Yes, but thread premise is about hipotetical scenario in which D&D is separate and privatley owned company and how to make d&d profitable on it's own. Not how to make WotC profitable. If the topic was about how to make WotC profitable, well, it's profitable allready. It's just not growing enough for Hasbro shareholders. Which is another can of worms.
FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
Sorry I didn’t say ‘new separate entity d&d that was previously part of hasbro’s Wotc division’. I really do apologize for the lack of clarity.
So can you just replace my mentions of Wotc with the aforementioned ‘new separate entity d&d that was previously part of hasbro’s Wotc division’? Thanks!
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How do you make D&D profitable on its own? Just make D&D. If you need a template, look to Paizo and update for changes in technology.
But DarkSun nor Birthright nor Your Favorite Ancient Setting is going to do that. You need new things that appeal to GenZ and Millennials -- you know, the actual customers for D&D.
Meech17
Adventurer
So.. As someone who actually applied for the job, I'll give you my pitch. I've been having fun lottery winning type day dreams about this non-stop since the news broke yesterday.
First and foremost, I think what WotC needs to do is try to rebuild the bridge between them and the fans. People love the brands, but hate the company. I would spend a lot of time doing PR work. I'd try and talk to content creators. Admittedly I'd try and focus on ones I feel like would give me soft ball experiences. Focus would be on the fact that I'm a gamer, and I'm trying to steer the ship back into being a company that is made with gaming in mind. I'd call my initiative something dumb like "Fun comes First" or something. Get Chris Perkins to help me run a one-shot for the folks like Ginny D, Bob World Builder, Dungeon Dudes. I'd try to get on Shuffle Up and Play or Game Knights. (Obviously taking my Wyll, Blade of Frontiers EDH deck. Or another commander from one of the D&D sets.)
This would plainly look like a man-child using his executive power to live out all of his gamer dreams. While I would probably be the butt of a lot of jokes, I think that's fine. That's better than the current cold, all business image management current has.
Stock would likely slide early on, because hiring a former car salesman with no c-suite experience is insane. We'd try to claw back as much stock as possible through buybacks while the value was low.
Sadly I think 5.5e is too far along. I would have personally opted to go for a real 6e instead, but since 5.5e is where it's at, I'd be full send on it. I'd focus away from large, hardcover supplements, and go back to smaller, soft cover ones. I would start a new product line on how to be a dungeon master. Small, easily digestible booklets, with video supplements to go with them. Things like "Dungeon Master's First village" or something like that. Maybe even create a character that's like a baby lich, learning the ropes of killing players. Make Mad-Libs style work books that give aspiring DMs a foundation to work off of. Then get people like Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins to make videos filling them out prepping for games with them, and then turn those games into actual play videos.
I'd try and re-start Dungeon/Dragon magazine. Probably quarterly at first, and then ramp up. If it even gets close to breaking even we'd go monthly. I'd just do one magazine, and we'd print two small adventures in each one. One would be a stand alone adventure, and the second would be an on-going campaign, published one adventure at a time. If we went monthly the campaign would probably still only get published quarterly and then in months 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12 would be another stand alone adventure. I'd try and fill the rest of the magazine with articles written by people from D&D History, like Ed Greenwood, or Tim Kask.. People working on current D&D products.. And like I mentioned previously, content creators. I think having one article per issue by someone like Questing Beast or the like would help greatly. For one thing, they'd be pushing the magazine for us because obviously they'd want their issues to sell well. Another thing, while it may sound shady, I think it might help overall perception of the brand. These content creators might try and keep us in a positive light hoping to get a spot in a mag.
We're re-printing old product. We'll use the MTG Secret Lair system to print to demand. Offer runs of standard edition (Straight, word for word reprints.) and revised special editions. (New art, notes from people who worked on these projects in the past. Suggestions for using this content in a modern setting, etc.) Take pre-orders and print however much we need. Imagine the "War Chest". A giant set containing all of the boxed editions, and core books from each edition. Bundled together and sold in a mimic treasure chest. It'd be obscene and decadent. Probably costing something crazy like $2500. But it'd probably sell like crazy.
I'd also slow down the MTG train. There's too much product coming out too often. I'd go back to doing set blocks. Two or three sets, all connected to each other in theme and story. And this is going to be drastic, but I'd reboot the story as well. We'll set it hundreds of years after the latest Phyrexian invasion and ret-con it that the machines won. I love Jace, and Chandra, and the others, but they're all out. Their stories have been told. No one cares anymore.
I'd also try again with the 30th anniversary launch. Same product. Old, alpha/beta cards, original art, gold borders. Packs designed for drafting. And I'd print millions of them, and sell them at the standard pack price. I'm in favor of abolishing the reserve list, and I think it would be the right move to stay in line with our "Fun Comes First" MO. However, MTG finance is a huge seller of product, and just wiping out some of these collector's entire net worths overnight would probably be a bad move. With that said, I'd push to lower the price of standard decks. Cards that run like $80/ea on the singles market like Sheoldred would get reprinted in excess. I'd also try to follow the Pokemon model. We'd sell tier 1 Pauper decks for $10. We'd print the top 8 competitive standard decks each year and sell them as pre-cons. They wouldn't be as cheap, but they'd be well under $100. I'd try to position MTG to be as accessible as Pokemon is.
That's it for now. I need to go back to work but I may come add more later
First and foremost, I think what WotC needs to do is try to rebuild the bridge between them and the fans. People love the brands, but hate the company. I would spend a lot of time doing PR work. I'd try and talk to content creators. Admittedly I'd try and focus on ones I feel like would give me soft ball experiences. Focus would be on the fact that I'm a gamer, and I'm trying to steer the ship back into being a company that is made with gaming in mind. I'd call my initiative something dumb like "Fun comes First" or something. Get Chris Perkins to help me run a one-shot for the folks like Ginny D, Bob World Builder, Dungeon Dudes. I'd try to get on Shuffle Up and Play or Game Knights. (Obviously taking my Wyll, Blade of Frontiers EDH deck. Or another commander from one of the D&D sets.)
This would plainly look like a man-child using his executive power to live out all of his gamer dreams. While I would probably be the butt of a lot of jokes, I think that's fine. That's better than the current cold, all business image management current has.
Stock would likely slide early on, because hiring a former car salesman with no c-suite experience is insane. We'd try to claw back as much stock as possible through buybacks while the value was low.
Sadly I think 5.5e is too far along. I would have personally opted to go for a real 6e instead, but since 5.5e is where it's at, I'd be full send on it. I'd focus away from large, hardcover supplements, and go back to smaller, soft cover ones. I would start a new product line on how to be a dungeon master. Small, easily digestible booklets, with video supplements to go with them. Things like "Dungeon Master's First village" or something like that. Maybe even create a character that's like a baby lich, learning the ropes of killing players. Make Mad-Libs style work books that give aspiring DMs a foundation to work off of. Then get people like Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins to make videos filling them out prepping for games with them, and then turn those games into actual play videos.
I'd try and re-start Dungeon/Dragon magazine. Probably quarterly at first, and then ramp up. If it even gets close to breaking even we'd go monthly. I'd just do one magazine, and we'd print two small adventures in each one. One would be a stand alone adventure, and the second would be an on-going campaign, published one adventure at a time. If we went monthly the campaign would probably still only get published quarterly and then in months 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12 would be another stand alone adventure. I'd try and fill the rest of the magazine with articles written by people from D&D History, like Ed Greenwood, or Tim Kask.. People working on current D&D products.. And like I mentioned previously, content creators. I think having one article per issue by someone like Questing Beast or the like would help greatly. For one thing, they'd be pushing the magazine for us because obviously they'd want their issues to sell well. Another thing, while it may sound shady, I think it might help overall perception of the brand. These content creators might try and keep us in a positive light hoping to get a spot in a mag.
We're re-printing old product. We'll use the MTG Secret Lair system to print to demand. Offer runs of standard edition (Straight, word for word reprints.) and revised special editions. (New art, notes from people who worked on these projects in the past. Suggestions for using this content in a modern setting, etc.) Take pre-orders and print however much we need. Imagine the "War Chest". A giant set containing all of the boxed editions, and core books from each edition. Bundled together and sold in a mimic treasure chest. It'd be obscene and decadent. Probably costing something crazy like $2500. But it'd probably sell like crazy.
I'd also slow down the MTG train. There's too much product coming out too often. I'd go back to doing set blocks. Two or three sets, all connected to each other in theme and story. And this is going to be drastic, but I'd reboot the story as well. We'll set it hundreds of years after the latest Phyrexian invasion and ret-con it that the machines won. I love Jace, and Chandra, and the others, but they're all out. Their stories have been told. No one cares anymore.
I'd also try again with the 30th anniversary launch. Same product. Old, alpha/beta cards, original art, gold borders. Packs designed for drafting. And I'd print millions of them, and sell them at the standard pack price. I'm in favor of abolishing the reserve list, and I think it would be the right move to stay in line with our "Fun Comes First" MO. However, MTG finance is a huge seller of product, and just wiping out some of these collector's entire net worths overnight would probably be a bad move. With that said, I'd push to lower the price of standard decks. Cards that run like $80/ea on the singles market like Sheoldred would get reprinted in excess. I'd also try to follow the Pokemon model. We'd sell tier 1 Pauper decks for $10. We'd print the top 8 competitive standard decks each year and sell them as pre-cons. They wouldn't be as cheap, but they'd be well under $100. I'd try to position MTG to be as accessible as Pokemon is.
That's it for now. I need to go back to work but I may come add more later
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Cordwainer Fish
Imp. Int. Scout Svc. (Dishon. Ret.)
If someone were enough of a fool to put me in charge of WotC, I would run it into the ground for the plain reason that I don't know the first bleeping thing about bizniz. (And proud of it.)
FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
‘Look if we just print 10x as many books that’ll be 10x as much profit’. EZ.
payn
He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...
Seems legit.
GrimCo
Adventurer
Well, i wrote my opinion at length page or two ago. Basicly, focus on digital products ( lower cost for consumers, higher profit margins) and licensing established IPs up to wazoo. If they can sell dnd toiletpaper and company can get decent percantage on ip, do it. But main focus is stable revenue stream, not unatainable forever growth that Hasbro shareholders dream of.
Oh, and start targeting gen Alpha. They are future consumers. Time to capture them.
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