Matt Colville weighs in.

[Jaeger]

Also why I lend quite a bit of credence to the rumors of the D&D and MtG universes merging. D&D is a lot of generic fantasy tropes with a handful of iconic monsters mixed in. MtG has a whole bunch of original, protectable elements. You add those to the D&D brand and suddenly it's a lot harder to make a knockoff.

I find the corporate logic of that entirely persuasive.

It would not surprise me in the least if those rumors all come true.

 

[Jer]

Also why I lend quite a bit of credence to the rumors of the D&D and MtG universes merging. D&D is a lot of generic fantasy tropes with a handful of iconic monsters mixed in. MtG has a whole bunch of original, protectable elements. You add those to the D&D brand and suddenly it's a lot harder to make a knockoff.

If Wizards decided that the way to make the "D&D brand" protectable was to merge it with MtG and bring over a whole lot of "protectable elements" into the game I would love to see what happened.

My prediction is that they would kill the brand hard by doing it. Because part of the reason that D&D is so successful is because it's such "generic fantasy". Anyone can project whatever they want into the game within the bounds of working with D&D's class system, which is also fairly generic.

I don't think it's a coincidence that 5e is the edition of the game that is the most generic and also the most successful. Or that it came as a reaction to an edition of the game that attempted to aggressively tie more story elements into the game and be less generic.

 

[Haplo781]

If Wizards decided that the way to make the "D&D brand" protectable was to merge it with MtG and bring over a whole lot of "protectable elements" into the game I would love to see what happened.

My prediction is that they would kill the brand hard by doing it. Because part of the reason that D&D is so successful is because it's such "generic fantasy". Anyone can project whatever they want into the game within the bounds of working with D&D's class system, which is also fairly generic.

I don't think it's a coincidence that 5e is the edition of the game that is the most generic and also the most successful. Or that it came as a reaction to an edition of the game that attempted to aggressively tie more story elements into the game and be less generic.

The irony of WotC repeating all their mistakes from 2008 times 10 is delicious as a 4e fan.

 

[Jer]

The irony of WotC repeating all their mistakes from 2008 times 10 is delicious as a 4e fan.

I know right? It's like "you realize you guys JUST did a smaller version of all of this not so long ago and it didn't work, right?"

But of course corporate execs can't learn from other people's mistakes (even though that's literally one of the things an MBA is supposed to be able to teach you to do). They have to touch that hot stove for themselves.

 

[raniE]

Absolutely true.

That is also the entire reason that wotc is going all-in on the D&D OneVTT.

WotC wants what Diablo Immortal has.

They are hoping to convert their current player network into a VTT money making machine.

And the haters can all eat cake...

Right, that seems clear to me. The question isn’t “do they want this?” It’s “do they have a hope in hell of succeeding?” Diablo Immortal is clearly making money. But not all video games do. I don’t see WotC’s position here as particularly strong.

 

[Staffan]

Don't! Just don't!

Wasn't there some RPG back in the day that was looseleaf format? Or am I just thinking of the 2E Monstrous Compendium, which effectively was.

One of the editions of Hârnmaster was.

 

[Remathilis]

The irony of WotC repeating all their mistakes from 2008 times 10 is delicious as a 4e fan.

To be honest, 4e was the logical answer to "how do we fix the problems of 3.x?" Every rule was designed as a reaction to a valid criticism of 3e, and the GSL was the natural response to the desire to take something that was open and want to close it up again. It is not surprising that Pathfinder 2e's attempt to answer the former question ended up with a lot of 4e DNA in it, and WotC's attempts to lean on brand recognition would reinvent the latter.

4e was prophetic, in the Cassandra sense of the word.

 

[Plokman]

I know right? It's like "you realize you guys JUST did a smaller version of all of this not so long ago and it didn't work, right?"

But of course corporate execs can't learn from other people's mistakes (even though that's literally one of the things an MBA is supposed to be able to teach you to do). They have to touch that hot stove for themselves.

Corporate minds have no imagination, example "Globotech" from Small Soldiers, what was the first thing the corporate said when learn (which the thing Irwin was talking about) as in find new stuff from the world and make something New was mentioned he automatically went to the "Kids love action" true but we also crave substance as a kid.

A.C. Gilbert would never of let go of his toy company were he alive in the 90s, he wanted to give kids tools to make their own world in miniature hence why he invented the Erector set. Toys lead to TTRPGs because when you have toys and play with friends you eventually develop games, and more it is developed the more it can branch out. Eventually it can lead to being a great crafter, writer, inventor you name it.

It all starts with imagination, the rest should and I do mean should always strive to build that fire. Stoke the flames of creativity and let that Steam Engine follow that railroad to your dreams, stagnate and the little pressure dollars give you will lead to your own scraping.

Also treat any legacy with respect (Disney I'm looking at you and you haven't gotten more cash from me by trying to fix what isn't broken with Star Wars, and I am also looking at Ken Penders, the man who killed Archie Sonic) you have a multiverse that has been brought up and loved, only to destroy the whole ideas that kept that series popular and loved. Anything after 2012 made for Star Wars I reject. Because it isn't Star Wars!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Why do you think that the highest tier of sub, assuming this info is even remotely legit in the first place, wouldn't include access to all official vtt assets?

Because literally nobody does that.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That's one possibility.

The other possibility is that you end up with Sigmarines.


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Honestly if WotC had tried to take out 1.0a in court I'm pretty sure the end result would be D&D 7E being full of Sigmarine/Duardin/Orruk/Aelf-type stuff.