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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
The Monetization of D&D and other Role Playing Games
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8717937" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>All the evidence I can see is that heavy monetization produces a product-centric approach that really doesn't produce better games.</p><p></p><p>Pretty much all the "WOW!!!" RPGs I've bought and played in the last two decades were fairly small-press or totally indie (4E being the obvious exception), and most of the really game-changing stuff (like PtbA and BitD) has come straight out of the indie realm, not out of the "publisher" realm. Stuff like Spire is slightly in the middle, but Rowan Rook and Deckard aren't really a publisher in the normal sense, they're more a highly organised indie.</p><p></p><p>We saw this in the '90s where a lot of games started just pumping out products rather than looking at what was good for their game, and stuff like Spelljammer being two-thirds (or less) the page count, double the cost, much higher production values than other settings really screams "lifestyle product, not intended for actual play". I'm sure plenty of people will play it, realistically, but ten years from now when we're looking at whatever evolved from that approach, I feel like "play" may well be an entirely vestigial concept.</p><p></p><p>The big concern for me is the OGL. Uni talks about creativity and stuff, but if we're talking in relation to 5E, that can only happen with the OGL, and my suspicion is that as D&D progresses towards being a lifestyle brand, it's going to want to lock things down a bit more, and will either do a new edition which doesn't have the OGL, or more likely just gradually get more hostile to OGL-licenced stuff - it's already less friendly now, I'd say than it was a few years ago. Notice how hostile Beyond has been to third party stuff, and how it's been accepting then suddenly hostile - all signs suggest this was WotC kicking them under the table. I expect them to be more solidly hostile now WotC owns them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 8717937, member: 18"] All the evidence I can see is that heavy monetization produces a product-centric approach that really doesn't produce better games. Pretty much all the "WOW!!!" RPGs I've bought and played in the last two decades were fairly small-press or totally indie (4E being the obvious exception), and most of the really game-changing stuff (like PtbA and BitD) has come straight out of the indie realm, not out of the "publisher" realm. Stuff like Spire is slightly in the middle, but Rowan Rook and Deckard aren't really a publisher in the normal sense, they're more a highly organised indie. We saw this in the '90s where a lot of games started just pumping out products rather than looking at what was good for their game, and stuff like Spelljammer being two-thirds (or less) the page count, double the cost, much higher production values than other settings really screams "lifestyle product, not intended for actual play". I'm sure plenty of people will play it, realistically, but ten years from now when we're looking at whatever evolved from that approach, I feel like "play" may well be an entirely vestigial concept. The big concern for me is the OGL. Uni talks about creativity and stuff, but if we're talking in relation to 5E, that can only happen with the OGL, and my suspicion is that as D&D progresses towards being a lifestyle brand, it's going to want to lock things down a bit more, and will either do a new edition which doesn't have the OGL, or more likely just gradually get more hostile to OGL-licenced stuff - it's already less friendly now, I'd say than it was a few years ago. Notice how hostile Beyond has been to third party stuff, and how it's been accepting then suddenly hostile - all signs suggest this was WotC kicking them under the table. I expect them to be more solidly hostile now WotC owns them. [/QUOTE]
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