"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.

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[Coredump]

Hasbro has listed DnD as one of its top-earners, even beating out a few other flagship products.

As far as Hasbro is concerned, DnD is probably golden right now. It's making enough money to help cover for profit losses in other product lines.

So, when Hasbro looks at their bottom line, they see DnD is a product that is making them money where other products failed. DnD isn't even on the list of products to meddle with right now.

QUIET YOU!! Everyone knows that Hasbro is the problem, and everything would be better if that big nasty corporation would just sell it to 3 guys working in their garage.

Sometimes people here sound so "well informed" that they must be getting all of the Hasbro/WotC emails copied to them....

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

QUIET YOU!! Everyone knows that Hasbro is the problem, and everything would be better if that big nasty corporation would just sell it to 3 guys working in their garage.

Sometimes people here sound so "well informed" that they must be getting all of the Hasbro/WotC emails copied to them....

*quietly hides the Hasbro emails I've got sitting in my inbox*

Yeah, I could see how it might seem that way...

 

[Jer]

"love to see D&D be bought by someone and become what it was before... Become TSR again."

Become a failed company that time and time again failed to expand their product line out of the one game that made them money, and then proceeded to take that one game and drive it into the ground to where even it wasn't making them enough money to keep them afloat?

Yeah, no. Nobody should be looking back at TSR and thinking "you know, THAT'S the way to to it!" You can argue that Hasbro/WoTC isn't doing what they could be doing with the property, but if you're going to hearken back to the days when TSR owned it you're not being serious.

 

[variant]

Become a failed company that time and time again failed to expand their product line out of the one game that made them money, and then proceeded to take that one game and drive it into the ground to where even it wasn't making them enough money to keep them afloat?

Yeah, no. Nobody should be looking back at TSR and thinking "you know, THAT'S the way to to it!" You can argue that Hasbro/WoTC isn't doing what they could be doing with the property, but if you're going to hearken back to the days when TSR owned it you're not being serious.

What he really means is he wishes the D&D license was cheap with no expectations of quality like it was back when Interplay published D&D games.

 

[ninjayeti]

I think when you read the full interview it is pretty clear that he is not crapping on 5E, just expressing concern that D&D is owned and controlled by a company that really doesn't care about RPGs other than as a revenue stream - and it is one of their smaller revenue streams at that.

 

[Shasarak]

I think when you read the full interview it is pretty clear that he is not crapping on 5E, just expressing concern that D&D is owned and controlled by a company that really doesn't care about RPGs other than as a revenue stream - and it is one of their smaller revenue streams at that.

That is true, the DnD Staff are a very small percentage of WotC.

 

[keterys]

I really don't know the relevant bits of lore. I can say that I wish there was a gold box equivalent for D&D 4E, and that it was a shame that not a single computer game came out for that edition while the edition was alive. At least if it was going to be derided for imitating CRPGs, there could have been any at all to compare to

It does sound like I should check out Mask of the Betrayer. Thanks, I'll do that. I enjoyed the hell out of the gold box games back in the day, and Planescape Torment, but I really wasn't that impressed by many other options that have been popular, like Neverwinter Nights or Temple of Elemental Evil. NwN did have a lot more going for it after the community had a lot of time for it, but I just didn't find the gameplay itself very compelling. ToEE just had too many bugs (many of which were fixed much later), though did feel more like I was playing a good D&D game.

I'll admit, I have hit a point where I've realized that too many of these CRPGs involve waves of "delve and fight stuff non-stop for a couple hours" followed by "explore every inch of town to get all the stuff and talk to 100 NPCs for a couple hours" and I kinda tap out on one or the other at some point. Apparently I need more varied pacing / don't have the patience of youth anymore.

 

[Sailor Moon]

The goldbox games, Dragonlance, the Ravenloft games, Menzoberranzan, and the Eye of the Beholder series will always be my favourite.

 

[BoldItalic]

D&D hasn't lost its way. It's found its own way, but it's not the computer games way.

Computer games are fun, but they are limited by the imagination of the programmers. Players can only do what the programmers have anticipated. There are no "none of the above" options.

D&D is all about imagination and creativity of people around a table. The players and the DM, between them, create a unique and original story. There's no algorithm for that. Computers can't do that. (Yes, I know all about AI and it doesn't come close).

The things that can be done to make a computer game fun, are different from the things that can be done to make D&D fun. You can make a computer game with goblins and elves and magic swords, and you can make a D&D game with goblins and elves and magic swords, but they are not the same kind of game. It's not the goblins &c that define the game. They can be elements in a story, but the difference is, that in a computer game the story has already been programmed whereas in a D&D game the story is created spontaneously.

In 5e, especially.

For a computer game designer, 5e had indeed gone away. But that doesn't mean it is lost and wandering in the wilderness. It might mean that he is, though.

 

[Parmandur]

Speaking as someone who has only ever known D&D as a Hasbro brand, I cannot fathom why people are nostalgic for TSRs business practices. Everything I have ever seen indicates an incompetent company with some weird management issues.

Small is not always good; big is not always bad.