You've just taken over WotC, what do you do?

[Micah Sweet]

1. Release all the WotC SRDs to the CC, unaltered.

2. Release all owned D&D settings to the DMsGuild for the public to produce content.

That's it. I don't care what else they do anymore.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Funny, instead of implementing a bunch of changes when I suddenly take over, I would take the time to understand the inner workings of the company and listen to the people who work in the "trenches" before doing anything...

 

[ssvegeta555]

-Release 3.0, 3.5, d20 Modern SRDs into CC but also 1e, 2e and 4e (and OGL for the new ones).

-Add all 3.5 content (minus IP of course) to the 3.5 SRD.

-Add them all to ORC as well because why not

-As for my pet project, get in contact with those who designed and wrote Fiendish Codex 1 and 2 for 3.5 to see if they can or know someone who can write the 3rd entry in the series detailing the Yugoloths. All this will be done for 3.5 of course.

-Get a new CRPG game in the works using 3.5 rules. It'll be realtime with pause but with the option to switch to turn based like the Pathfinder CRPGs. Best of both worlds.

As for 5e and 6e/OneD&D/5.5 eh... hire someone to manage that and yeah whatever. Don't care. I'll just stay in my 3.5 bubble and pump out more sourcebooks for that. Maybe a Celestial codex? That'll be fun.

 

[mamba]

Funny, instead of implementing a bunch of changes when I suddenly take over, I would take the time to understand the inner workings of the company and listen to the people who work in the "trenches" before doing anything...

you care too much about keeping the job and too little about your D&D pet project

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Reprint every MTG card from the reserved list and sell them for 1ct a piece.
And allow proxies to be played at unlimited tournaments.

Entry fee of 50k to play a game is dumb.

 

[Bagpuss]

I'm not seeing a huge number of actually profitable suggestions here. In fact a lot of the suggestions will lose money rapidly.

WotC is a company not a charity. Half the suggestions here the company will be backrupt within a year and not producing anything after that.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I'm not seeing a huge number of actually profitable suggestions here. In fact a lot of the suggestions will lose money rapidly.

WotC is a company not a charity. Half the suggestions here the company will be backrupt within a year and not producing anything after that.

I thought that was the point of this thread... or the whole OGL and MTG thing. People don't want WotC to make money.

 

[Bagpuss]

I thought that was the point of this thread... or the whole OGL and MTG thing. People don't want WotC to make money.

I think most people want to see the products they love and enjoy stewarded well, even a company run as not-for-profit have to make money to cover their overheads. There is a difference between just seeking to gouge your customers, like the MTG Anniversary set, and running the company into the ground, with say..

Reprint every MTG card from the reserved list and sell them for 1ct a piece.

or

Bring everything ever officially printed for D&D up to snuff re: text, layout, etc, i.e. no more bad scans, aka go back and re-typeset the lot.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think most people want to see the products they love and enjoy stewarded well, even a company run as not-for-profit have to make money to cover their overheads. There is a difference between just seeking to gouge your customers, like the MTG Anniversary set, and running the company into the ground, with say..



or

I could not see the second quote. But the first one started as a joke and then I thought: why not? The number of happy people would far outweight the upset ones...

 

[Velderan]

A few things off the top of my head:

• Proceed with the 1D&D planned release, sticking to it being completely compatible with all things 5e.
• For 1D&D, I'd release 1 legitimate setting book per year with a large adventure book to support it. Bring in the original setting designer(s) as consultants for those projects if possible. Release a Xanathar's style book each year with new player and DM options. Release a creature book each year for a total of 4 hardcover books per year.
• Release smaller 1 shot adventures for each setting through D&D Beyond, maybe 2-3 per setting. Speaking of D&D Beyond..
• Open up D&D Beyond as a 3rd party marketplace. Work on licensing deals with the major VTTs to give a discount on material on those VTTs if purchased on D&D Beyond. No idea how much WotC currently gets if you buy a book on Roll20 for example, but basically waive that amount if the book is already in a customer's D&D Beyond account.
• Release the 3D VTT when it's ready, no subscription needed for a bare bones experience. If you buy an adventure on D&D Beyond, you get all the assets needed to run the adventure in it and can use those assets to homebrew your own material. Microtransactions would exist, but it would be stuff like $10 for a bunch of monsters or premade maps. Good value for the money stuff, nothing predatory like $1.99 for a costume. A subscription would also exist that unlocks some stuff each month to help you build out your library of assets and share material with your table.
• For the 50th anniversary, take a page out of Blizzard's playbook and launch a D&D Classic line of products. Unsure if I'd go with B/X or AD&D 1e but release the core material with a couple of the most famous adventures. Minimal changes to the material, fix typos and such. If they do well, continue to release old material and if demand is there design new adventures. Release a SRD for D&D Classic to CC.