D&D (2024) You own D&D

[Vaalingrade]

And to talk about making money:

A line of D&D themed choose your own adventure books and a phone app that does the same.

A new flagship setting with a book line and actual support like in the good old days. Full setting book and everything.

D&D comics on webtoonz.

Dungeon and Dragon magazines back as apps.

DM Advice App with curated advice on recruiting players, Session 0, dealing with interpersonal group issues, advice on running and adjudicating edge cases, fun activities to do when the group os down people instead o pitching a fit.

Also promotional stunts with Mountain Dew and GFuel.

And because I own them now -- bring back old school plainswalkers. Not D&D, but you asked what I'd do.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

And to talk about making money:

A line of D&D themed choose your own adventure books and a phone app that does the same.

A new flagship setting with a book line and actual support like in the good old days. Full setting book and everything.

D&D comics on webtoonz.

Dungeon and Dragon magazines back as apps.

DM Advice App with curated advice on recruiting players, Session 0, dealing with interpersonal group issues, advice on running and adjudicating edge cases, fun activities to do when the group os down people instead o pitching a fit.

Also promotional stunts with Mountain Dew and GFuel.

And because I own them now -- bring back old school plainswalkers. Not D&D, but you asked what I'd do.

DUDE... that sounds like you would print money....

 

[Voadam]

1 Put out a revision to the OGL that is the old OGL with added verbiage to make it explicitly irrevocable so future IP holders cannot take it away and OGL creators can rely upon it as a safe harbor again.

2 Put out more fuller srds, with content from each edition. OD&D to 5th. All spells. All Monsters. All class options.

3 Delegate to someone else to run stuff from there. I didn't buy it to run it day to day.

4 Maybe sell and cash out.

 

[Jolly Ruby]

- Solve the license mess, wada wada, you know how and my lawyers would know too.

- Reboot Forgotten Realms to 1358 and publish a remastered Grey Box + Savage Frontier book, with better organization, modern sensibilities, and compatible with the current ruleset. Maybe it can have tieflings and dragonborns, but I'm not sure about it. I would let Ed have more creative control of FR, for good or for whores worse.

- Make beholder public domain, as they should be.

- Animations, a lot of animations.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

- Reboot Forgotten Realms to 1358 and publish a remastered Grey Box + Savage Frontier book, with better organization, modern sensibilities, and compatible with the current ruleset. Maybe it can have tieflings and dragonborns, but I'm not sure about it. I would let Ed have more creative control of FR, for good or for whores worse.

Oh god I would kill for a redo from grey box...

 

[Lanefan]

Let's say you won that 1.5 billion lottery and bought D&D. What do you do with it?

Funny, I was thinking about this just last night. Very vague 5-year plan, with neither intent nor expectation of turning a profit:

1. Stop 5.5e in its tracks, carry on with 5e for now as is, and leave the OGL alone.

2. Take a few years to develop and release in parallel three different versions of the game - one a 5e variant, one a 3e-4e mashup variant, and one a 0e-1e-BX variant; for simplicity I'd just call them 5, 3, and 1 but they'd all be called D&D. There would be elements common to all three e.g. initiative rules, magic item values, the six core stats, etc. yet each would play quite differently at the table and (ideally) appeal to different types of players and DMs. The general themes would be:

--- 5 is the entry-level relatively-simple version but still has more than enough heft that many tables might never need anything else
--- 3 is the tactical more gamist-leaning version with lots of rules, considerably harder to play (well) than 5
--- 1 is the grittier more simulationist-leaning version, considerably harder on the characters than 5

Were I in charge I'd probably want to do a fair bit of the design for '1' myself, and get others (including some from these forums if they were willing) to do most of the design for '3' and '5'. Monsters and adventures would each be statted for all three versions to avoid forcing duplicate purchases.

Each version would have three books of its own: a PH, a DMG, and a book of DM-side optional extras. There'd be one overarching (but probably multi-volume) MM.

3. Develop and release a couple of new settings in tandem with the new games while retiring some legacy settings. Nothing new for FR, Greyhawk, etc. The new settings could be used with any version of the game and intentionally would not be version-specific. Adventures, however, would in some cases be setting-specific.

4. Make all three rules versions irrevocably open-source while retaining IP rights to the settings.

5. Go into non-exclusive partnership with an existing-at-the-time VTT operator to provide a preferably-zero-cost virtual-play option for all three versions.

6. Using something like Game of Thrones and the '1' rules system as a starting point, explore ideas for movie/TV tie-ins.

 

[gamerprinter]

If I'd won $1.5 billion, I wouldn't buy D&D, I'd start my own game, hire all the big guns, try to make a product that at least breaks even, and proliferate it with as many books, and online support possible. Someday it could be profitable, but that wouldn't be my initial goal, rather get out there everywhere, and create continuous content for it: maps, settings, adventures, etc. D&D has too much baggage.

 

[Blue]

There was a web comic a decade or two ago called Angst Technology. It was about a game studio, and the owner was independently wealthy and a game aficionado. THIS is what I want the stewards of D&D to be like:

 

[payn]

Immediately launch Buck Rogers 2E.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think, I'd start 6e and only have a single class: the bard. All other classes will be subclasses of said bard.
I'd also replace the OGL with a version that is irrevocable and disallows creating any other class. And you need to publicly sign that the bard class is your favourite.