I was responding to "I think people active on message boards and Twitter over estimate the impact of controversy on WotC" -- and the recent Dragonlance lawsuit, at least according to Weis and Hickman, makes it very clear that social media controversies have a very marked impact on WotC to the extent that they change their product plans, change their hiring policies, alter existing books, cancel trilogies of Dragonlance novels, back out of large licensing contracts, and more.
Some of the 3D virtual tabletops are getting pretty visually impressive these days. But given Disney's roots, probably the more likely approach for them would be something like Titansgrave - pre-recorded, edited down, and then with semi-animated visuals to enhance the experience. that would let them keep some of that tight control.
Can confirm. Personally I am the only member of the two RPG groups I am in that really follows forums/news. None of them are aware of the Dragonlance thing, former employee complaints, or any of the goings on at WotC this year. The market share is so much vastly larger than the people who care/follow these things. It is as it always is, twitter/forums/etc are the vocal minority.
OK, fair enough. I would take it a step further: when people complain loud enough, even in small numbers, it potentially has an impact on a lot of people, say, fans of Dragonlance. But the impact it has on WotC is largely up to them. I'm sure they have their reasons for whatever publishing choices they make, but it is a shame that fans of the game suffer for it, perhaps especially fans of one of the classic settings that hasn't seen a lot of love in recent years.
It's D&D, not the Simpsons. It's less niche than it used to be, but it's never going to be the Simpsons.
I believe "legacy-lite" is used in the meaning used by board games, not tabletop RPGs. The way I read it is that the game will have some mechanics to change how the campaign plays depending on player choice, but it won't be a permanent change - so no destruction of components, putting stickers on the board/other game elements, etc. I may be interpreting this wrong, of course, but out of the four games announced, only one is explicitly labeled as a tabletop RPG.
Heh. Critical Role, and now Darrington Press, is not a "vanity" project for the CR crew. It is a creative endeavor alongside their acting careers. Most actors do not make a lot of money, even relatively successful ones like the CR folks. None of these people are "Big Hollywood", they aren't struggling as much as they did when they first got started in Tinseltown, but they still need to keep the hustle going. The success of Critical Role has been a much needed boost in their careers, and may have possibly eclipsed their voice acting work in revenue and importance.
