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.

 

[TheSword]

I'm talking about at the time of their release.

I haven’t seen evidence that this is the case but happy to be corrected.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Hmmh. Interesting, can you elaborate?

We for our part did no pulling. No raids. No instances. Did you?

The MMO reference is pretty clearly pointing to player characters and thier abilities, things like special class features that enforce a “role”, “tanks” being “sticky”, etc.

And encounter and daily powers do resemble clickies with recharge timers.

The ideas that the classes are the same, or that the superficial similarity makes 4e a tabletop MMO, are laughable, however.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

The MMO reference is pretty clearly pointing to player characters and thier abilities, things like special class features that enforce a “role”, “tanks” being “sticky”, etc.

And encounter and daily powers do resemble clickies with recharge timers.

The ideas that the classes are the same, or that the superficial similarity makes 4e a tabletop MMO, are laughable, however.

I knew that. I wanted to hear it from him.
But as I recall, clickies in MMOs have timers or mana use. A day is a bit much.
On the other hand, in the end, powers felt a bit like clickies. So I give him that point.

The roles however are older than MMOs.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The only prediction I will venture is that we are going to see a push into multimedia.

You mean that they’re going to ramp up the existing multimedia push?

Absolutely.

Eberron cartoon here we come!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I knew that. I wanted to hear it from him.
But as I recall, clickies in MMOs have timers or mana use. A day is a bit much.
On the other hand, in the end, powers felt a bit like clickies. So I give him that point.

How long the timer is doesn’t change that it’s a timer, though.

Then again, Neverwinter Online never felt remotely like 4e, because 4e is harder to translate into an actual MMO than 3.5, which ported over pretty smoothly, or 5e, which is slowly creeping in to DDO over time.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Hmmh. Interesting, can you elaborate?

We for our part did no pulling. No raids. No instances. Did you?

No, because you know what I mean and those same complaints are well documented since its release.

Go dig up those old posts and articles you seem to to have willfully dismissed. It's not like this is some new revelation. You are just nitpicking wording and meaning, I don't feel the need to engage further since again, its all well documented.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

How long the timer is doesn’t change that it’s a timer, though.

Then again, Neverwinter Online never felt remotely like 4e, because 4e is harder to translate into an actual MMO than 3.5, which ported over pretty smoothly, or 5e, which is slowly creeping in to DDO over time.

It is? That is interesting, I may have a look at it again. It has been a long time since I last played DDO

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Eberron cartoon here we come!

Warner Bros. Discovery didn't renew Young Justice for a fifth season, they should get in touch with Greg Weisman.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It is? That is interesting, I may have a look at it again. It has been a long time since I last played DDO

Yeah I mean it’s still very DDO in the end, but they’ve finally shifted fully to subclasses, among other things.

Warner Bros. Discovery didn't renew Young Justice for a fifth season, they should get in touch with Greg Weisman.

I don’t trust Warner bros. Even less now after binning Batgirl for the tax write off.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The MMO reference is pretty clearly pointing to player characters and thier abilities, things like special class features that enforce a “role”, “tanks” being “sticky”, etc.

And encounter and daily powers do resemble clickies with recharge timers.

The ideas that the classes are the same, or that the superficial similarity makes 4e a tabletop MMO, are laughable, however.

Superficial similarities are the first things people see, and often the last. If you don't want that, maybe don't have your entire character creation system superficially resemble an MMO.

4e is a pretty good game, if you buy into their design philosophy. The presentation very much did not do them any favors, however.