D&D General Why Enworld should liberate D&D from Hasbro

[Zardnaar]

I'd like to add that over the ages I've seen a lot of things that were designed to be consumed one way and actually used in a much different way. And that isn't restricted to D&D.

This.

Know thy target market as well.

 

[Umbran]

The newer 5.5 art style is.... a choice. Its also blander in content.

Eh. Yesterdays, cool, edgy, flavorful is today's trite, cliché, and trying too hard. The stuff you find flavorful can be boring and overdone to someone else.

Which means they likely have been replaced as the largest single demographic by a new group 18-24 year-olds so I'm not sure what the point is.

Yep, folks like my godkid. I taught them to play D&D using Lost Mine of Phandelver when they were younger - they then took off and got deep into Critical Role, started their own "magic school" game using D&D rules, and so on.

When they got to college, they left off D&D, and moved over into the Cypher-based Old Gods of Appalachia, which has a fiction podcast underlying it. When they leave college, that group of friends will probably mostly go their separate ways, and who knows what they'll play, or if they'll keep playing at all.

Sure as heck, the art that blew up gaming xitter is targeting folks like my godkid, who has exactly zero patience for homo- and trans- phobia.

 

[Umbran]

I'd like to add that over the ages I've seen a lot of things that were designed to be consumed one way and actually used in a much different way. And that isn't restricted to D&D.

Sure - like, I showed my godkid a bog standard dungeon expereince with Phandelver. What they went on to do was magic-school stuff, and not by buying anyone's magic-school supplements (this was years before Strixhaven was published), they just did it. Rather like we did in our day.

There seems to be this general assumption that folks will just play what is published, which is probably less correct than we may think. I think players today are just as strong creators as those who came before them.

 

[Zardnaar]

Eh. Yesterdays, cool, edgy, flavorful is today's trite, cliché, and trying too hard. The stuff you find flavorful can be boring and overdone to someone else.



Yep, folks like my godkid. I taught them to play D&D using Lost Mine of Phandelver when they were younger - they then took off and got deep into Critical Role, started their own "magic school" game using D&D rules, and so on.

When they got to college, they left off D&D, and moved over into the Cypher-based Old Gods of Appalachia, which has a fiction podcast underlying it. When they leave college, that group of friends will probably mostly go their separate ways, and who knows what they'll play, or if they'll keep playing at all.

Sure as heck, the art that blew up gaming xitter is targeting folks like my godkid, who has exactly zero patience for homo- and trans- phobia.

Its more about variety. Im not sure if it like my new DM screen.

PHB art varies same as every other edition.

The prettiest 5.0 books vary on when they came out so its not old vs new imho in that one.

Alt art infinite staircase I thought was stunning inside and out.

I buy the alt art or default depending on what one I prefer at any time. Alt art 2024 MM is best of the new books followed by the DMG alt art. Ymmv of course arts so subjective.
.
Looks better irl.

https://www.mightyape.co.nz/mn/buy/mighty-ape-dungeons-dragons-quests-from-the-infinite-staircase-exclusive-38785591/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22149322680&gbraid=0AAAAADqxfilvr1NxQYWQPnLj-qxWto9t5&gclid=CjwKCAjwu9fHBhAWEiwAzGRC_x7lq0qNlDoJ1a62ww2N2AMBpY87xhm85oEt0d6mkzgvVoJKgqTuUxoC1vAQAvD_BwE

 

[Umbran]

But they're not nearly old enough to be in the market for remakes and reboots of stuff that came out in the 70s or first half of the 80s, which is most of what WotC's content has been. There could be various explanations for that, but none of them are immediately obvious.

It seems obvious to me.

Remember that the flood of creative settings from TSR back in the day were part of a business model that failed. Having the flagship company produce and solidly support multiple setting lines didn't work. So, WotC isn't going to repeat that pattern.

But they still hold the IPs. So, a few lightweight, one-off products to get folks started in something they might like is fine. But they aren't committing to significant long-term support of any of them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yesterdays, cool, edgy, flavorful is today's trite, cliché, and trying too hard.

My leather duster and mirrorshades-wearing and katana and Desert Eagle-wielding Brujah street bike racer feels attacked.

 

[CleverNickName]

Its more about variety. Im not sure if it like my new DM screen.

It was all downhill from here.

 

[Remathilis]

Right. So the long needed adoption of many of these changes ended up being associated with poor balance decisions like the Twilight Cleric. If someone didn't want to use Tasha's, was it because they were a jerk or because that's a lot of temp HP?

Well that's the problem with DMs banning whole books carte blanche. I might not have liked the twilight cleric, but that was no reason to ban the necessary ranger updates, the better summon spells, and the lineage rules. But a lot of DMS toss the infants away with the dirty water.

 

[Kannik]

Seems like the things you ask for are things that third parties are easily able to step in and provide if there's enough demand. That seems to be part of WOTC's strategy and I don't see why it's an issue. Would it be better to go back to TSR days (joke acronym was They Sue Regularly) that tried to stop everyone else from publishing everything D&D related while they went bankrupt in large part because they flooded the market?

We are in the age of internet, and there aren't only profesional 3PPs but also fan-made contet easy to be found. We have too much crunch, and not only the lore about settings from previous editions but also we can use for our homemade worldbuilding fandom-wikis about speculative-fiction franchises.

Both the above, and also riffing off my earlier comment how, IME, the DM's of many moons ago seemed to view D&D as a core framework to adjust to their preference, WotC getting DMsGuild going was a great (and maybe under-valued?) boon as it provides as it provides a centralized location for people to both find and to put out things they want to tweak their game. Want something like the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, with tables to determine how much Bloodstone you pull out of your mine? Someone could write it up for their campaign (or just out of interest) and publish it there. Even if they don't want to sell for money it's a boon for people being able to finding your work vs the fickles of Google and your personal blog/spot.

(I will say though that I'm somewhat surprised that WotC themselves don't leverage DMsGuild more often with small snippets of material that would cost less than a full book to produce and thus be "viable" to Hasbro's metrics.)

 

[The Firebird]

Well that's the problem with DMs banning whole books carte blanche. I might not have liked the twilight cleric, but that was no reason to ban the necessary ranger updates, the better summon spells, and the lineage rules. But a lot of DMS toss the infants away with the dirty water.

Right. But I get it; it adds work for the DM to go through option by option, or to present the players with a long yes/no list, or to field questions about this or that specific option. Much easier to say "PHB + Xanathar".