D&D General Dan Rawson Named New Head Of D&D

Hasbro has announced a former Microsoft digital commerce is the new senior vice president in charge of Dungeons & Dragons. Dan Rawson was the COO of Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Hasbro also hired Cynthia Williams earlier this year; she too, came from Microsoft. Of Rawson, she said "We couldn’t be bringing on Dan at a better time. With the acquisition of D&D Beyond earlier this year, the digital capabilities and opportunities for Dungeons & Dragons are accelerating faster than ever. I am excited to partner with Dan to explore the global potential of the brand while maintaining Hasbro’s core value as a player-first company.”

Rawson himself says that "Leading D&D is the realization of a childhood dream. I’m excited to work with Cynthia once again, and I’m thrilled to work with a talented team to expand the global reach of D&D, a game I grew up with and now play with my own kids.”

Interestingly, Ray Wininger -- who has been running D&D for the last couple of years -- has removed mention of WotC and Hasbro from his Twitter bio.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I won’t be sorry if Winniger is out. The last 1 1/2 years have been the poorest so far of 5e. Just lousy. Time for some new blood, though I don’t have high hopes.

Wow, I’m of just about the opposite opinion. I’ve loved the direction the last few years.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

WotC is absolutely banking on that - except, with like everybody...




Last time I saw someone break things down it was a bit better than 2:1 in favor of MtG.

Evidently Richard Garfield was an Alchemist that figured out how to turn slips of cardstock into crack cocaine...

Ohh - Found it: From my man gss000

WotC - WotC reported 50% growth over 2020!

Didn't Pathfinder only actually overtake 4e at the end of 2012, when development had basically stopped? There’s a thread by Morrus with sales figures going back a ways. Track that down and see. I don’t have a link handy.

www.enworld.org

MtG is still the number one money maker at WotC. Hands Down.

But for various reasons D&D is by far the more exploitable IP in terms of multi-media potential.




And when compared to some 3rd party product, their first few offerings weren't all that hot either. But hey, they were "official D&D".

If anything the recent display of mediocrity has convinced me that the "pro" RPG designers at WotC arrived at their present position mainly through politicking, drive, and persistence, rather than possessing any genuine talent in game design that's measurably better than someone like Kevin Crawford putting out RPG's as a side hustle...

For MtG all the digital games that weren't basically just folks playing the paper game digitally have all crashed and burned. I think Arena is the only one to be extremely profitable. The comics and novels do okay.

MtG has much, much less cultural pentration then D&D, its just that the type of collectable products generates alot more money, but CLB this years MtG set from FR made $100,000,000 despite certain issues with the set showing the profitablity of MtG isn't actually tied to MtGs settings.

 

[bedir than]

For MtG all the digital games that weren't basically just folks playing the paper game digitally have all crashed and burned. I think Arena is the only one to be extremely profitable. The comics and novels do okay.

MtG has much, much less cultural pentration then D&D, its just that the type of collectable products generates alot more money, but CLB this years MtG set from FR made $100,000,000 despite certain issues with the set showing the profitablity of MtG isn't actually tied to MtGs settings.

100 million

 

[Parmandur]

I unironically love the honesty here <3

EDIT - I think my concern at this point is we might not even get "corporate sellout D&D", but like "Basically mandatory digital elements D&D" or "If you don't have a subscription you'll basically be buying a non-playable coffee-table book D&D".

What can I say, I love beer, Pretzels, the MCU, and cheesy old video games and cartoons. I am very easy to please, but you are right, they can miss that mark.

Frankly, I have a literal lifetime of gaming material by now, so WotC succeeding in their corporate sellout is a "nice to have," not a "need."

 

[Maxperson]

He's an Executive Producer, not the Lich King.

There's no reason his position has to continue to exist or filled. Azeroth is not going to be consumed by undead because WotC doesn't an EP for D&D. Nor is Faerun, for that matter.

Yep. At the last corporation my wife worked at she was a Sr. VP of Operations. When the COO left, they didn't replace her and my wife simply ran all of operations as SVP.

 

[Parmandur]

Yep. At the last corporation my wife worked at she was a Sr. VP of Operations. When the COO left, they didn't replace her and my wife simply ran all of operations as SVP.

It does strike me as very possible thst they were looking to create a SVP, didn't think Winninger fit the role for whatever reason, and then found his EP role redundant with Crawford, Perkins, Wyatt, etc al. to actually run the TTRPG.

I mean, I like Winninger, and what has been coming out under his watch, but honestly I have no idea how he is as a manager or coworker. We only know the PR tinged tip of the iceberg of KPIs, offi e politics, and such.

 

[Haplo781]

For MtG all the digital games that weren't basically just folks playing the paper game digitally have all crashed and burned. I think Arena is the only one to be extremely profitable. The comics and novels do okay.

MtG has much, much less cultural pentration then D&D, its just that the type of collectable products generates alot more money, but CLB this years MtG set from FR made $100,000,000 despite certain issues with the set showing the profitablity of MtG isn't actually tied to MtGs settings.

If WotC can manage to tie the franchises together without honking off either player base you know they will

 

[JEB]

I won’t be sorry if Winniger is out. The last 1 1/2 years have been the poorest so far of 5e. Just lousy. Time for some new blood, though I don’t have high hopes.

I'm reasonably sure that if you didn't like the last 1 1/2 years under Winninger, you're going to like the next 1 1/2 years even less.

 

[JEB]

EDIT - I think my concern at this point is we might not even get "corporate sellout D&D", but like "Basically mandatory digital elements D&D" or "If you don't have a subscription you'll basically be buying a non-playable coffee-table book D&D".

Which would be a good way to create a serious split in the community, and create even more of an opening for a 5E Pathfinder analogue that's a fully playable physical product.

I still wouldn't be entirely surprised if Wizards tried it, though.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You're annoying and smug. Bye.

Mod Note:

You’re making it personal. Again. Bye.

EVERYONE, like the moderation staff has said innumerable times before: if you want to put someone on ignore, just do it. DON’T turn it into a Parthia shot.