Taylor Navarro Joins Wizards of the Coast as D&D Designer

mamba said:

huh, what lawsuit, what are they suing over?

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Mournblade94 said:

Magic the Gathering being used to boost quarterly sales. Claimed to be fraudulent. I was very dubious because I come here for gaming news and I couldn't find or missed the information. But my wife who controls our stocks confirmed it. And its mainstream news now.

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The lawsuit alleges that Hasbro has a fiduciary responsibility to uphold the value of cards on the secondary market. It's an absurd claim.

Mournblade94 said:

Magic the Gathering being used to boost quarterly sales. Claimed to be fraudulent. I was very dubious because I come here for gaming news and I couldn't find or missed the information. But my wife who controls our stocks confirmed it. And its mainstream news now.

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I guess I do not understand how this is fraudulent, unless its the reporting of profits/revenue that was done in a way to mask the weakness in the business (Hasbro core, D&D) with the power of MtG?

Mournblade94 said:

It was Mardi gras, cooking?, and far outside the pseudo medieval identity of D&D. There are plenty of RPGs that cover this. Of course that's easier on my wallet because it doesnt look like the new roster of designers have worked on anything I'd be vaguely interested in. Yes I've read Radant citadel as a shared resource on D&D beyond. So its not just the Mardi Gras art turning me off.

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I'm surprised you don't like Ghostfire Gaming's very dark, depressing tales that are quite traditional

Mournblade94 said:

I see a TON of Radiant Citadel in my FLGS. They never reordered it. I have never met anyone offline with a vague interest in exploring it. Every Barnes and Noble around me has 2 copies at least on the shelves.

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That kind of thing only indicates that it is selling worse than the person who ordered it expected it to, not, in fact, that it is selling poorly.

I see this all the time, owning a comic book store. Sometimes a book comes out that some folks seem to think is "Hot!" because most stores "Sold Out!" of the... six or seven copies that they ordered of it, while another book is seen as "Not Hot!" because we only sold sixty-two of the eighty copies we ordered, and therefore have eighteen still on the shelf.

I'm not saying that this is the case with your FLGS, and it absolutely DOES mean that it's not doing well there, if it isn't living up to the expectations of whoever ordered it, but it's also possible that whoever ordered it just got carried away. It's also possible that your B&N sells them regularly and just keeps putting two more on the shelf, having gotten two more. It's not hard to get more when you sell them. That's how I do it.

My point is more, not to argue with you, but to say: It's hard to tell what's happening from your angle. I wouldn't form too strong of opinions about it, based on what you've seen.

Mournblade94 said:

No corporate entity with shareholders like Hasbro could survive on that revenue. Its extraordinarily niche within a niche.

The current kickstarter is massively successful relatively. It needed 18K and got over 200K. That is not in the league of D&D.

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Relevancy doesn't require WotC-level revenue. If that were the case, there would literally be only one relevant tabletop RPG. I'm sure there are people who believe that, but those people hold a silly opinion.

Mournblade94 said:

Magic the Gathering being used to boost quarterly sales. Claimed to be fraudulent. I was very dubious because I come here for gaming news and I couldn't find or missed the information. But my wife who controls our stocks confirmed it. And its mainstream news now.

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I would LOVE to "stick it to" Cox for his terrible handling of MtG and his horrible treatment of both us FLGSes and our MtG customers (I can't say I give two farthings for the shareholders themselves, but for once, I am partly on their side), BUT... I don't think that they are going to be successful with this lawsuit.

Parmandur said:

Like some of the other behind the curve 5E products (thinking Waterdeep Dragon Heist here), a lot of the problems also come from genuine attempts to innovate and try something bold and new.

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I've run Dragon Heist twice, and while it has some structural issues, I think that it's pretty good. I think that the thing that it has going most against it, when it comes to how it's reviewed, is the simple fact that you don't get to steal any dragons. The titular heist happened before the adventure starts, doesn't have anything to do with actual "dragons", and is something that 9/10, the PCs are expected to UNDO, rather than participate in. It's a shocking letdown for most people, I think.

FitzTheRuke said:

I've run Dragon Heist twice, and while it has some structural issues, I think that it's pretty good. I think that the thing that it has going most against it, when it comes to how it's reviewed, is the simple fact that you don't get to steal any dragons. The titular heist happened before the adventure starts, doesn't have anything to do with actual "dragons", and is something that 9/10, the PCs are expected to UNDO, rather than participate in. It's a shocking letdown for most people, I think.

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Yeah, that is fairly minor. For me, the thing that makes it a real mess structurally is trying to give four entirely different possible Antagonists...whichis also interesting and clever! But it makes sense they didn't try that again. I do think given the sheer number of low level Dungeons, and how they give several multiple different kwyings, it is a great resource for low level urban Shenanigans...bit it definitely has some assembly required.

I tend to suspect Strixhaven's Campaign might also work if given a fair shake, but it is also messy and half-baked in its originality.

I'm famous for being an WotC curmudgeon on these boards. Even I was slightly interested in Radiant Citadel to use for the occasional one-shot.

Scribe said:

I guess I do not understand how this is fraudulent, unless its the reporting of profits/revenue that was done in a way to mask the weakness in the business (Hasbro core, D&D) with the power of MtG?

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The shareholders claim the products that are not MTG are not being reported correctly and that MTG is being devalued. We shall see.