D&D 5E Sell Out: Hasbro and the Soul of D&D

Scribe · Mar 2, 2021

Paul Farquhar said:
It's not art, it's a product.

And even when it is art, if no one wants to buy it it doesn't make it great, it usually means it's crap.

The SRD, is (arguably) just a product. If you want to argue that the various things which make up the IP are not art, I guess that's fine.

Not a position I would take.

Bravesteel25 · Mar 2, 2021

I just don't buy the premise that D&D is really in danger from becoming big. First, as others have said, the SRD exists. Secondly, if the SRD is only not enough for you if you need something official from the corporate source. I love official stuff, but I don't NEED it. D&D won't be dead because it is no longer being produced, or it "sells out" in a direction you dislike. Paizo has proven that there are other avenues, again thanks to the SRD.

I say,

Bring on more D&D toys in Walmarts.
Bring on D&D themed birthday plates, napkins, and wrapping paper.
Bring on the D&D TV shows and movies.
Bring on the explosion of D&D clubs and stores.

I have no problem with the commercialization of something as long as the market can bear. Being a Socialist doesn't mean I can't enjoy buying things.

Zaukrie · Mar 2, 2021

Paul Farquhar said:
The labourer deserves his wages. It's stupid ideas like making money from something is "selling out" and therefore somehow wrong that gets socialism a bad name.

100 percent this. Seriously.

Paul Farquhar · Mar 2, 2021

Scribe said:
The SRD, is (arguably) just a product. If you want to argue that the various things which make up the IP are not art, I guess that's fine.

Not a position I would take.

"Art" is a label pretentious people put on crap in order to sell it to idiots.

[Note this is hyperbole and not intended to be taken seriously, but when Gygax put his original version of Chaimail up for sale he did not think "I am making art" he thought "can I make some money from doing what I enjoy?"]

Snarf Zagyg · Mar 2, 2021

Charlaquin said:
Boomers charted the course to financial stability and handed Gen X the map, but they complained that they didn’t want to follow it. Milennials tried to pick it back up, but it caught fire right in our hands. Now Gen Z is desperately trying to recover something from the ashes of the map Gen X so casually tossed away. That’s why the concept of “selling out” is so bizarre to us - to proudly reject as beneath you something that the rest of us would probably kill for, because the alternative is starving.

Oh boy. This might be the funniest thing I've read in weeks. Thank you.

Okay, then. But this isn't about politics- it's about D&D, and this isn't the forum for it.

(I have to admit, someone blaming Gen X for destroying the economic future is pretty entertaining, but I'll just leave the post as is.)

Charlaquin · Mar 2, 2021

Snarf Zagyg said:
Oh boy. This might be the funniest thing I've read in weeks. Thank you.

Okay, then. But this isn't about politics- it's about D&D, and this isn't the forum for it.

(I have to admit, someone blaming Gen X for destroying the economic future is pretty entertaining, but I'll just leave the post as is.)

Oh, no, I’m not blaming Gen X for destroying the economic future. I’m 100% blaming the Boomers for it. I’m just expressing jealousy that Gen X had the opportunity to gain a modicum of financial stability before the economy imploded, and consternation at their holier-than-thou attitude about “selling out”

Umbran · Mar 2, 2021

fearsomepirate said:
At some point, you realize most musical plot devices are about on the same level as, "Well...what if you just didn't explore the scary, abandoned house where the serial killer is rumored to have killed his last victim?"

You know a plot has issues when the whole thing could be resolved in 15 minutes if people just sat down and talked about it like mature adults.

In Rent, they have a whole song about how they aren't mature adults

jmartkdr2 · Mar 2, 2021

I'm not worried, for one very specific reason: Hasbro (not "some dudes", but this exact company) has tried this before. With DnD. About 12 years ago. And it was... not a good move from an accounting standpoint.

Corporations don't have long memories in general, but they remember failures for a long time. They know that the heart of DnD, not just as a product but as a brand, is the ability to make it your own, to run it the way you want to, and to not be tied down to anyone else's vision. To tell your own stories.

Other lessons learned: My Little Pony proved that letting your fans do their thing doesn't hurt. Transformers (and MLP) demonstrates (no, really, it does) that giving content creators the lead makes better (or at least more profitable) content, which is ultimately better for the brand. And the... mistakes with Star Wars proves that letting go of an IP is almost never a good idea.

Hasbro is more than comfortable selling you the tools to make your own stories. They are, after all, a toy company first and foremost. And what are dolls and action figures for, in the end?

Yeah, I'm not worried.

prabe said:
I wasn't thinking of Mr. Yankovic (or any specific artist) but he mostly fits the bill--though he has perhaps had more instances of success than I was thinking.

I thought of Duran Duran, myself.

prabe · Mar 2, 2021

payn said:
Another way to look at it is D&D is the instrument, the user is the artist. WizBro just sells new products and accessories. They aint the band themselves.

So, TSR didn't want to be Duran Duran, they wanted to be Roland?

That makes some amount of sense.