Dear WotC,
Hi, remember me? Well, probably not, but let me refresh your memory. I’m that guy who used to buy a lot of your products during previous editions, but doesn’t anymore. It’s been a while since we last spoke, but I felt like writing you.
I know we parted on rather bad terms. I didn’t like the new direction you were taking, and questioned the wisdom of a lot of your decisions. You didn’t seem to think I was giving your new edition a fair shake. A lot of things were said, and at the end of the day we just couldn’t see eye-to-eye anymore. But WotC, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about what happens to you; even if it’s only for the sake of all the fun we used to have together, I don’t want you gone.
That’s why I’m writing you now – lately, it seems like you’re in a bad spot, and I’m worried about you. Maybe it’s just my overactive imagination, or I’ve been listening to too many naysayers, but you really don’t seem to be doing so well. Hopefully, things aren’t really so bad, or if they are you’ll turn them around, but in the meantime, I wanted to offer you some thoughts about what I think would be good ideas. I know the worst vice is (unsolicited) advice, but please, hear me out.
1) Don’t Fragment the Game – Remember what it was like when BD&D and AD&D were being published at the same time? Or how 3.5 really took the wind out of 3.0’s sails? It really seems like that all over again now, with 4E, Essentials, the Red Box, etc.
Okay, I know the situations aren’t exactly the same, but WotC, I’ve still been keeping up with what you’ve been doing even if I don’t play Fourth Edition and even I think things have become confusing. Rulebooks with huge lists of errata which make the various printings different (assuming the new printings incorporate errata; I’m not sure), Core Rules that have expanded to eight books or so now – with the later ones introducing not-insignificant changes and redesigns of concepts from earlier books, Essentials vs. 4E; the Red Box vs. the Essentials rulebook, etc. There’s just so much that I’m having trouble figuring out where to go if I ever did want to play this edition.
Just imagine how it must feel to someone with little knowledge of the components of the game…someone like the people you want to start playing it!
WotC, you need to make the “Core” of the game unambiguous. No starter sets that are made superfluous by the “real” books. No different iterations of the same edition being published at the same time. No large collections of multiple books that are all part of the Core Rules. No different printings that have major differences due to incorporated errata. Just one plain and obvious product that is the center of the game, so that even someone who has never played a tabletop RPG will understand that this book is where they should go if they want to start.
How do you do that now, with the messy situation you’re in? Well…yeah, that’s a tough question. It’s tempting to say that you’ll need a new edition, but I don’t know if you want to go that far this soon. Maybe it’d be worthwhile to create a new, single Core Rulebook that (alongside a Core Monster Book) has everything the players need, and phase out the other Core 4E and Essentials materials.
I know that sounds painful, and I don’t deny that you’d have to make some tough decisions. You’d have to pick parts of mainstream 4E and Essentials to merge into this “Final Fourth Edition.” No more having magic missiles that might or might not hit existing alongside those that always hit. No more having two breeds of fighter. Instead, just pick one (don’t worry, if you really can’t choose, you can make a rulebook with alternate class features later on for whichever variant doesn’t get chosen – we just won’t call that it’s own version of D&D). But really, it’ll be better for everyone if the game isn’t so confusing right on the product shelves.
2) Don’t Sell Us Rules; Sell Us Adventures – Okay, this sounds crazy, right? After all, conventional wisdom tells us that adventures only sell to the DM’s who run them, but everyone wants new rules.
Except, as Paul McCartney once said, “I look around me and I see it isn’t so.”
Paizo (yes, I mentioned them, please don’t get mad) sells many, many adventures…across three different product lines, in fact, and they’re doing just fine. Goodman games sold a large series of adventures, and to hear Joe Goodman tell it, they did great. Necromancer Games didn’t put out many adventures, but they were instant classics when they did.
On the flipside, this way you can very quickly avoid the rules-bloat that seems to keep plaguing you. I’m not saying you’re not doing a better job controlling it now, but it’s even easier to deal with when you keep the new rules to a relative few – such as the occasional new monster or new magic item or two in an adventure – and leave the big, thick hardcovers of new rules to only one or two releases a year. This way, you can really sink a lot of development into these books to make them the best that they can be.
Adventures, on the other hand, are the lifeblood of the game. We’ve seen the Tomb of Horrors get re-released in every edition now, from massive boxed sets to free PDF-only releases, because we all remember the great adventures that give us an avenue to use those new rules you put out. Now, that was also a top-quality adventure, and that’s the level of quality we’d need you to turn out regularly to make this idea work, but you know what, WotC? I think you’re capable of delivering on that level of consistent quality…you’ve done it before, you can do it again.
3) Have a World of Your Own – Campaign worlds can be a tricky thing, I know. Too much – whether in the number of campaigns published, or how developed one campaign gets – and it becomes stifling. Too little, and we’re not having a campaign so much as playing a tactical skirmish war-game. But WotC, there is a happy medium here.
Pick a campaign world – a single world – and develop it. Develop it with good writing that showcases various locations, people, and adventure hooks that flesh out a given area of the world. Don’t make it an excuse to add new rules; remember, you’re saving those for the annual hardcovers you’re making (say it again: rules-bloat is bad!). These location sourcebooks won’t be hardcovers either; they’ll be sixty-four or ninety-six pages of flavor text, keeping costs down and making them easily-accessible.
And once a given sourcebook is out, leave that city/country/region that it details alone. Oh, you can set some adventures there, maybe even ones that tie-in with the local gazetteer, but they can’t alter or obviate what’s in the gazetteer. Beyond that, once you’ve developed a region, it’s time to move on. Don’t worry, the world is a big place, and you won’t run out of areas to cover any time soon.
4) Other Companies Aren’t Your Enemies; Other Hobbies Are – I know you may see other tabletop role-playing game companies as your competition, WotC, and I can understand why you feel that way. But you know what? They’re not, not really. Many, maybe even most, people who play tabletop RPG’s play multiple systems; after all, the basic idea of how pen-and-paper RPGs work is the same across all the different games. Getting people to sit down to play is an accomplishment no matter what game they’re playing, because even if they’re not playing your game they’re now much closer to it than if they’re doing something else entirely.
So please, WotC, stop treating the third-party companies sharing the marketplace with you as your enemies. It was nice of you to keep a third-party license option open, but you could make it a little friendlier. Perhaps nix that clause that says that if you pull the GSL, companies that publish under it must remove all products published under it? Yes, a lot of licenses have kill clauses like that, but we all remember how generous you were with the OGL, and a nod in that direction would be met with a lot of goodwill.
Let the GSL be perpetual, and maybe update it to take into account some of your newest releases. Despite how tough things seem to be for you now, I’ve heard a lot of your fans talk about how great some of your recent books were. Wouldn’t it be great if the third-parties could build off those and keep their popularity alive even longer? These other companies want to work with you, WotC, so please try and work with them in return.
5) The Past Is Your Friend – While I don’t know what your future looks like, you’ve got a great past behind you, WotC. The previous editions had so many spectacular products, from sourcebooks to adventures to campaign settings. Why ignore that when you can make it work towards your benefit?
I know you’re worried about pirate PDFs, but piracy is like shoplifting from brick-and-mortar stores; it’s not something you can ever stamp out. You just anticipate some level of it, and work around it. Bring back the legal PDFs; there are so many people who want to pay you for your old works, it’s a shame you won’t let them. This market may be small, but once you upload the files to an online vendor, you just have to sit back and let the money come in. People lose their old books and need replacements, newcomers become interested in the history of the game, an electronic copy is bought as back-up; there’s a lot of reasons why people want your old products. Let them pay you for them.
And you know what? If you’re really that worried about PDF piracy, what about a print-on-demand option for older books? Yes, it’d take some work to set up, but you’d command higher prices, have less options for piracy, and quite probably see a marked upswing in sales too. I bet a lot of people would love to have the option to have print copies of your classic materials, WotC – you’d be taking back all the profits that go to used-game retailers!
6) Bring Back the Magazines – Dragon and Dungeon magazines were staples of the game, and losing them hurt you as much as it hurt us. I know that people say print is dead, but you know what? They’ve been saying that for years, and the print industry is still booming.
Bring back the magazines, WotC, if not exactly as they were then in some form. Was it not cost-effective before? Well, sit down and figure it out then. Maybe streamline the content and release just one magazine; Dragon did fine on its own for a long time. Or maybe reduce how often it comes out; Dungeon was bi-monthly for quite a while and nobody seemed to mind.
I’m not saying the online offerings aren’t nice; they are. But the same way people like print books alongside the DDI compendiums, print magazines would serve better than blog-like articles that seem to go up at almost-random times. It’s a win-win, since you could easily narrow the focus of the DDI to more practical concerns like the character generator, while letting the magazines deal with the new crunch and more flavorful content. Remember how I said to de-emphasize crunch in your book releases? Having new mechanics alongside quality writing in the magazines will keep them fresh and exciting for your fans, drawing them back month after month.
7) Outsource Where Necessary – It seems like you’ve been trying to go it alone a lot lately. That’s certainly admirable, but there’s no shame in admitting that there are some things you’re not good at, and could use some help. Yes, you’ve been burned in the past, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try again.
Are you having trouble making that new virtual tabletop program? Is the character generator not as cross-platform as you want it to be? WotC, you’re not a computer company, don’t try to act like one. Instead, find one and work with them. Do some research, talk to some people, figure out whom you want to work with, and then sit down and have a discussion with them. There are a lot of companies out there that can make (or improve upon) the programs you want at reasonable prices. Heck, you could even make a deal with companies that have already put out great pen-and-paper RPG computer programs now.
You were willing to make an official D&D CD soundtrack with an outside group, so why not look for outside help again?
8) Give Us the Occasional Nostalgia Cookie – We gamers love nostalgia, and it’s pretty obvious you know that. From recycling that classic Erol Otus art to having “Return to” adventures, you make sure to feed that need of ours. But while I think you should focus more on making things that will become tomorrow’s nostalgia, there’s no reason you can’t keep playing to days past.
In fact, I think you can do one better in this regard. Remember that old Silver Anniversary boxed set from 1999? The one that had a new (or rather, recently-uncovered) First Edition adventure as part of it? Releasing an older-edition product was a great move then, and it would be now, too.
I’m not saying you should start an entire line devoted to older editions; that’s counterintuitive. Just release the occasional product devoted to yester-year. It doesn’t have to be often; once a year would be more than enough. But oh, WotC, imagine how many fans would flock to such a product. You could even combine it with older campaign settings to make it doubly-attractive to your lapsed fans.
Are you worried that it’d confuse sales and dilute Fourth Edition? Don’t be – you don’t have to sell it in stores. It can be PDF-only, by direct sales, or even as part of that crazy print-on-demand idea I mentioned before. Are you worried that you can’t remember older editions clearly enough to write such a product well? Don’t be – there are plenty of freelancers who love those editions who could do you proud. Erik Mona, for example, is pretty busy these days, but I bet you could convince him and Rob Kuntz to put out another level of Maure Castle for 3.5. Maybe John W. Mangrum would love to come back and finish his 2E Ravenloft adventure Death Undaunted. And I bet that somewhere among the OSR, you’d find someone who’d love to make a BECMI product set on Mystara.
Your long history with the fans of D&D is your greatest advantage, WotC. If you reach back into that past, even just a little, we’ll all sit up and take notice.
9) Talk To Us More – Your fans are always interested in what you have to say, WotC. Especially when you say it on our terms and in our venues. I remember how Scott Rouse always came onto the forums I visit and spoke with the fans; he was a great guy, and even though I don’t like Fourth Edition, I did like him. He was great because he knew to keep an open, civil, two-way dialogue flowing with the people who were interested in your game.
This doesn’t mean you need to tell us everything that’s happening with you. We know that you’re a company and there are some things you can’t, or shouldn’t, tell us. It doesn’t mean that you need to respond to every single person individually; we understand that that’s impossible as well as impractical. We just want to feel like you care about our input, even if that caring is nothing more than a person who takes part in some of the conversations we have among ourselves.
Gamers are a community, and we want you to be a part of our community, not just some entity that feeds it.
Beyond all of that, I don’t know what the future holds for you, WotC, but I sincerely do wish you the best. I hope you find some of these ideas interesting, if not helpful, and that you turn a corner in the near future. And hey, who knows? Maybe we’ll even reconcile someday, and you’ll be back at my weekly game table.
Yours Truly,
Alzrius
