"Tabletop D&D Has Lost Its Way" Says Pathfinder Video Game Exec

Feargus Urquhart, one of the execs from Obsidian Entertainment, which is behind an upcoming Pathfinder-themed video game, told Polygon why the company chose to go with Paizo rather than WotC for tabletop fantasy inspired games. "One of the reasons we actually went with Pathfinder was ... how do you say it? I'll just say it: We were having a hard time figuring out how to move forward with Dungeons and Dragons." The issue, he says, is that "D&D is a part of Wizards of the Coast and WotC is a part of Hasbro" and that he would "love to see D&D be bought by someone and become what it was before... Become TSR again."

Of course, TSR went bankrupt, so I'm not sure wishing that on somebody is a kindness.

Urquhart is a long-time D&D video game exec, having worked on games like Neverwinter Nights 2; he points out that "I'm probably one of the people who has one of the most electronic D&D games that they've worked on". Now, of course, his company has moved on to Paizo's Pathfinder.

The upcoming Obsidian video games will be based on the Pathfinder games - specifically a tablet game based on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, due in the next few months. The studio is, of course, known to tabletop RPG fans for D&D games like Neverwinter Nights 2. Urquhart did hint at non-card-game based projects, saying that "We're thinking about how can we take traditional RPG stuff and put it on the tablet. No one has solved it really."

You can read the short interview here.

​

 

[billd91]

A lot of beloved settings came from TSR days. People are clamoring for Planescape, Dragonlance, Spelljammer and Al Qadim. I seriously doubt the fall of TSR was entirely because they put out too much.

I don't think anyone with hard data has ever said it is "entirely" any single thing. But the conclusion of people in the know is that green-lighting too many products without enough analysis of the cost (divided market, boxed sets priced too low to recoup production costs, and so on) left the company vulnerable to the critical cash flow problems that led to them being unable to pay their printers and, ultimately, being bought by WotC.

No doubt most of those settings were awesome. Al Qadim is one of my favorites. But they did crank out a lot of loss-leading materials (and let's face it, they sold boxed sets like loss leaders - setting the prices at what they thought people would pay and not what it cost them to make) that only the most diligent of us (and either wealthy or increasingly debt ridden) could buy. So, like most customers, I expect, I focused on a few of those lines like Al Qadim and Oriental Adventures. That meant that each of those lines could really only expect an increasingly small fraction of the D&D market and it just wasn't sustainable in the long term.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

Given Obsidian Entertainment is these days known for their buggy, low-quality games and problems solving coding issues that even I, with my amateur level of coding skill, have learned how to solve just by reading the textbook... This strikes me a lot as a spiteful statement by a company that was turned down on licensing and had to go with someone else.

Plus, Obsidian Entertainment has napalmed a lot of the bridges they once had. If the company keeps this up, they'll end up bankrupt simply because no one will be willing to work with them.

 

[qstor]

A lot of beloved settings came from TSR days. People are clamoring for Planescape, Dragonlance, Spelljammer and Al Qadim. I seriously doubt the fall of TSR was entirely because they put out too much.

check out Ryan Danceys article about his trip to TSR

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I don't think anyone with hard data has ever said it is "entirely" any single thing. But the conclusion of people in the know is that green-lighting too many products without enough analysis of the cost (divided market, boxed sets priced too low to recoup production costs, and so on) left the company vulnerable to the critical cash flow problems that led to them being unable to pay their printers and, ultimately, being bought by WotC.

The point at which your new campaign line is cannibalizing sales from your other campaign lines rather than bringing in more than miniscule additional sales, probably comes very quickly. Most DMs will have one or two (or zero) favorite campaign lines and ignore the rest. Optimism in the wake of a surge of sales from the box set you are losing money on helps hide the problem.

 

[SteveC]

You say that as if it were a bad thing. Who did not love Snails?

So my old boss found a short clip on Youtube of Snail's last scene. He played it whenever he was in a bad mood and it really picked him up. Strange boss.

 

[DMZ2112]

And the currently running D&D games are either on life support (DDO) or are losing a lot of customers (Neverwinter as mentioned in PerfectWorlds financial report).

That's a shame. Neverwinter is actually a fun ride. I encourage anyone who hasn't to give it a fair shot.

A lot of beloved settings came from TSR days. People are clamoring for Planescape, Dragonlance, Spelljammer and Al Qadim. I seriously doubt the fall of TSR was entirely because they put out too much.

check out Ryan Danceys article about his trip to TSR

Was it Dancey who said WotC briefly considered paving a courtyard with all the Dragon Dice TSR had stockpiled?

 

[Shasarak]

I would love to see WotC produce a DnD game that was actually based on the DnD rules.

 

[Derren]

That's a shame. Neverwinter is actually a fun ride. I encourage anyone who hasn't to give it a fair shot.

The problem with Neverwinter is the lack of content and the downright insulting prices of the in game shop. Basically at level 60 there is only one thing to do and it is bugged and frustrating (Tiamat raid). What worse is that there are groups of players out there who blame WotC for that by reasoning that WotC demanding expansion releases to come simultaneously with their adventure releases they prevent Cryptic from delivering quality content and to perform much needed overhauls.

 

[Umbran]

"Man with vested interest in Pathfinder disses WotC"

Unprofessional (IMHO), but about as surprising as discovering that water is wet.

 

[DMZ2112]

The problem with Neverwinter is the lack of content and the downright insulting prices of the in game shop. Basically at level 60 there is only one thing to do and it is bugged and frustrating (Tiamat raid). What worse is that there are groups of players out there who blame WotC for that by reasoning that WotC demanding expansion releases to come simultaneously with their adventure releases they prevent Cryptic from delivering quality content and to perform much needed overhauls.

Rather than derail the thread I'll just state that I disagree with you on all points, and would reaffirm my encouragement to potential Neverwinter players.