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We were selling a lot of Starter Sets and Essentials Kits through mass market stores like WalMart and Target. Short story is that Starter Set was old enough that both outlets were talking about no longer carrying. We didn't want to lose the shelf space so we agreed to produce a new version of...

WotC hasn’t released a single D&D product after my departure that wasn’t initially planned by my team. (That will finally happen toward the end of this year.) We planned four years out, and those plans included long range forecasts that were reviewed by the print production team, among many...

The vast majority of (English language) D&D books were printed in the USA throughout the entire 5E era (and earlier!). Boxed products were typically manufactured in China. While Chinese printing is often cheaper than US printing in isolation, there are lots of factors that dictate the final...

My point was that it was physically impossible for WotC to print as many copies as they needed in the time to meet their schedule. That was certainly not the case with the 4E PHB. The print run for the 2024 PHB was much, much larger than that of the 4E PHB.

The PHB went to a second printing within a quarter of its release because WotC couldn't print as many PHBs as quickly they wanted, despite engaging multiple printers.

In the year or two before the release of the new PHB, WotC made quite substantial changes to the way the D&D business operates, making it very difficult to apply what we know about earlier eras to figure out what's happening now. WotC now sells books direct-to-consumer and incentivizes purchase...

When you upload to DMsG, you sign an agreement with Roll20/OBS, not WotC. (For some reason, I can’t find the actual agreement online.) I’m sure WotC approved that agreement at some point, but—during my time anyway—that relationship was more hands-off than you might imagine. It also true that...

That's incorrect--the combined company is known as Roll20 LLC.

OBS is owned by Roll20.

DMsG creators sign an agreement with R20, not WotC.

Has anyone probed the limits of what DMsG’s “perpetual exclusive right to publish your content” actually means? Can I, for instance, publish an OGL “mass battle system” on DTRPG and simultaneously publish a subset of that system that includes army lists for proprietary D&D settings like...

Great comment! I just want to point out that I agree the 50% can and should come down. I made the B&M comparison only to put the issue into perspective and illustrate that while 50% is high, it’s not crazy. Apps based on licensed IP distributed through Apple’s App Store (the closest comp to...

I'll try. First, be careful about using the final total raised by a Kickstarter to judge its success; you also have to look at the rewards they're offering. Some Kickstarters juice up their numbers by throwing in custom minis, tchotchkes, additional books, and the like. The number of...

All true. If you’re not using WotC’s IP, you’re better off using the OGL.

Amen to all of that. It’s also important to keep that 50% in perspective. Publishers typically give up 60% of MSRP on books sold through retail (online or B&M). That’s why WotC is now putting so much effort into selling printed D&D books direct-to-consumers via DDB; they want to claw back some...

That was great fun. Thanks for listening everyone.

The document that most people are familiar with (someone linked to it upthread) is a judge's ruling on various pre-trial motions in the second lawsuit. It was basically a mixed bag with a couple of rulings in favor of TSR and a couple of rulings in favor of Mayfair. In essence, the judge found...

Not true. Mayfair published a series of unlicensed AD&D adventures. TSR sued. As the case neared trial, TSR's lawyers decided that they were unlikely to win. As long as you observe a few reasonable restrictions, there's nothing in the law to stop you from producing supplements compatible with...

Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed them. I don't really have any ideas on how to recruit new players on an individual level. But on the publisher level, the market could really use a strong intro product right now. I understand that WotC has a new intro product in the pipeline. I'm very...

Glad to be here, thanks. It's certainly possible that the macro economy has had an impact on RPG sales, though I think there are more significant factors. Think about the internet, for instance. It's hard to imagine today, but back in the late 80s and the early 90s, places like EN World or...