What if... WotC hadn't bought TSR?

[Kichwas]

Well I remember TSR no longer shipping product a few months before the buyout.

I remember being very glad about this, because I felt it would mean we could finally pull over some of those people to decent RPGs.

If WotC hadn't bought it, nor had anyone else, it would be dead. TSR was going under.

AD&D players would only have a slowly dwindling supply of older books.

Other RPGs would have suffered from a sudden shrinkage in the market, followed by a slow build up as one or more of them managed to take on AD&D's place in popularity.

I suspect the top games in that case would have been what they were shaping up to be right around that period:

RIFTS, Vampire, GURPS.

--- That's the order I heard they were selling in around the mid late 90s during the short period when they had better sales than D&D in some places.


I would have gone from rolling my eyes in frustration at the people who chose a bad system like AD&D, to rolling my eyes in frustration at the people who chose a bad system like RIFTS...

 

[William Ronald]

Henry, you make several good points. (By the way, do you have a link to Dancey's article?)

TSR ultimately failed because they did not listen to their customers. Quite literally, they were making products that had little or no market support. (Game store owners, such as thalmin: Did anyone ever buy a copy of the Buck Rogers game? The one that Lorraine Williams' was fond of -- probably because she and her family got royalty off of every copy.)

I think the D&D name would have languished in court until someone rescued it. Fortunately, Adkison and Dancey stepped in.

 

[Ranger REG]

TSR ultimately failed because they did not listen to their customers. Quite literally, they were making products that had little or no market support.

Actually, they were making too many products for a few audience. While all of TSR's customers are AD&D gamers, only a few like Al-Qadim, another group like Birthright, and so forth. So there is not enough revenue to maintain those product lines on their own.

(Game store owners, such as thalmin: Did anyone ever buy a copy of the Buck Rogers game? The one that Lorraine Williams' was fond of -- probably because she and her family got royalty off of every copy.)

Well, I'm not a store owner, but I have bought Buck Rogers XXVc RPG. I still have it.

 

[Super_Troll]

Then we'd be playing a far better concept called Rolemaster...

HEhehe...I just had to say it. Fire away!

 

[Samothdm]

I think that SKR was kidding in his post, but I'm 99.99% certain that Hasbro would NOT have bought TSR. The only reason that they bought Wizards of the Coast was for the Pokemon game, not realizing that little kids have a tendency to do this fickle thing where they turn their backs on the latest fad faster than they change their underwear.

 

[Monte At Home]

Sean wasn't kidding.

Hasbro was very seriously interested in TSR. We were all terrified of that eventuality because we knew that they'd be buying us simply for the intellectual property and the trademarks to use in other entertainment venues. Pretty well substantiated rumor had it that they would just fire all the employees and take the goods. Somewhat like what they did with Avalon Hill.

The reason that they didn't do this immediately when they bought WotC was because WotC was making a lot of money on their own (unlike TSR) in addition to having valuable properties.

Now, I don't know all the ins and outs of what's going on with Hasbro now (the management is indeed somewhat different), but one can imagine what one possible outcome when WotC stops making "enough" money and simply becomes a bag full of valuable properties might be.

 

[Samothdm]

Wow - thanks so much for the correct info., Monte and Sean. Sorry I spoke out of turn there. That is very, very interesting. It never even occurred to me that Hasbro would have been interested in TSR from that standpoint.

It really makes you think what may happen in the future...

 

[Ranger REG]

I don't know about you guy, but it only confirms my fear and concern of Hasbro's agenda. For some reason, I'm waiting for the other shoes to fall.

 

[Samothdm]

Well, I used to indirectly work for Hasbro (at one of their ad agencies) so I know that they're kinda weird. Specifically, I remember that we needed to get someone there to approve an advertising plan and the only way we could get her to listen to us was to follow her to her nail salon and present the plan to her while she was having her nails done. Clients are all crazy, no matter what industry they work in.

 

[William Ronald]

We will have to see what happens down the road. Fortunately, the OGL will help keep the hobby alive. (As for TSR, the many campaigns and games were a symptom of a company making things that its players did not want. If I can find a link to Ryan Dancey's article, I will post it here.)

Mind you, the game is far healthier today than in 1997. Back then, I feared it and RPGs might slowly die out. I am far more confident these days that it won't happen.

Monte and Sean, thanks for your insight. Another thing we have to consider is what if Hasbro decides to strictly focus on their core businesses. The question then becomes what happens to WoTC and who could buy the company, or parts of it. (Sometimes a company is sold in pieces if its owner believes that will generate the most revenue.)