Chris Cocks says to expect more D&D crossover products

Chris Cocks says that more crossover products are coming from the D&D team. Speaking with GamesRadar this week, the Hasbro CEO confirmed that more D&D crossover products were in the works, citing the success of Magic: The Gathering. "I don't want to take away any headlines from the D&D team," Cocks said, "but I think you can definitely expect more crossovers inside of D&D. I mean, we've had such a fantastic experience with [crossovers] with Magic: The Gathering. D&D is a fantastic play system that I think is very open ended. You already have a fairly wide spectrum with things like Spelljammer to Curse of Strahd. So you already kind of have the DNA for it handled inside the system. So, yeah [...] You should expect more of those."

Wizards has dabbled with crossover products in the past, with multiple Magic: The Gathering campaign setting books, a Critical Role adventure campaign and setting book, and boxed sets featuring Stranger Things and Rick & Morty. While Magic: The Gathering has a more robust crossover lines called Universes Beyond, most of the IPs involved already have bespoke tabletop RPG games of some kind, so looking to that line might not be a firm indicator of what's coming for D&D. We'll note that Hasbro recently entered into a licensing deal with Harry Potter and has also dabbled with the ultra-popular Fourth Wing romantasy franchise, so those could be where D&D could be looking for future crossover products. However, that's pure speculation on our end.

 

[Benji]

I loved reading this interview becuase he sited the fact they had a vast array of settings to plunder stuff from. Then site spelljammer as if to say 'look we already made space combat rules, it would be easy to adapt them'. To which I say 'he didn't read that book'. If that's an example of the depth they going to adapt settings, then it's going to all be awful.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

WotC, don't do so many weird outside crossovers. Just give us the Magic worlds that scratch subgenre itches the official D&D worlds don't scratch, like Kamigawa, Bloomburrow, and Edge of Eternities!

I love the idea of a Bloomborrow crossover, but the one I really want is Duskmourn, a plane sized 80s style mtg megadungeon of megadungeon, with Valgavoth as the final boss.

 

[ZeshinX]

Realms wasn’t D&D until it was.

It's my understanding the Realms was Ed Greenwood's homebrew setting for his home D&D campaigns. So, it's always been D&D, it was simply a homebrew setting that TSR bought and made into an official campaign setting.

Do I know that as fact? Absolutely not and I'm quite open to being corrected if my understanding is in part, or entirely, in error.

My distaste for crossovers doesn't stem from not liking the non-D&D IPs at all, it's simply a personal preference to "not cross the streams" with IPs that are not D&D. That's all.

 

[Parmandur]

It's my understanding the Realms was Ed Greenwood's homebrew setting for his home D&D campaigns. So, it's always been D&D, it was simply a homebrew setting that TSR bought and made into an official campaign setting.

Do I know that as fact? Absolutely not and I'm quite open to being corrected if my understanding is in part, or entirely, in error.

My distaste for crossovers doesn't stem from not liking the non-D&D IPs at all, it's simply a personal preference to "not cross the streams" with IPs that are not D&D. That's all.

Interestingly enough, no, that's not the case. Ed Greenwood created the Forgotten Realms, in some detail, when he was a child in the 60s before D&D existed. The point was to create a Setting where he could write pastiche fan-fiction for his favorite fantasy stories.

Then, in College, he discovered OD&D...and used his already handy fictional crossover Setting as a DM.

 

[Reynard]

Do I know that as fact? Absolutely not and I'm quite open to being corrected if my understanding is in part, or entirely, in error.

I am always fascinated by statements like this. The "facts in question" are things you can easily check. Why not do so?

 

[ZeshinX]

Interestingly enough, no, that's not the case. Ed Greenwood created the Forgotten Realms, in some detail, when he was a child in the 60s before D&D existed. The point was to create a Setting where he could write pastiche fan-fiction for his favorite fantasy stories.

Then, in College, he discovered OD&D...and used his already handy fictional crossover Setting as a DM.

Ah, cool.

 

[ZeshinX]

I am always fascinated by statements like this. The "facts in question" are things you can easily check. Why not do so?

I did, by engaging the community here, and Parmandur was kind enough to give me a summary.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

About a crossover product I see two options, one fro true D&D players, and hooks to get new players. If the title is a starter pack, this should be limited because a saturation could cause a fall of sales.

If Hasbro has got deals with Dark Horse publishing maybe there are crossover comics. How would be the characters of the fantasy comedy "Ghosts" playing D&D? Or Disney could produce some special animated show. An animated show of LEGO: D&D would be perfect for a family-friendly parody of isekai fantasy.

A sci-fi franchise can be mixed with D&D if we are talking about the isekai subgenre "VRMORPG". This could work for example with Blizzards' Overwatch.

Bloomborrow isn't a bad idea but there the sentient species can be radically different sizes and we are used to play medium or small humanoids. In that plane the size gap may be too serious to be playable.

 

[aiouh]

Adding in UB (Universes Beyond) cards to your deck can certainly be competitive and effective . . . but is not necessary to be competitive and effective.

Without wanting to sound dismissive but how much competitive (competitive rules enforcement level) tournament magic have you played either at regional tournaments or online ladder? This is just not true.

 

[Reynard]

I did, by engaging the community here, and Parmandur was kind enough to give me a summary.

Fair enough. I still don't get it, but you do you.