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.

 

[bedir than]

Ray hasn't done anything on twitter or linkedin in three weeks. Also, his LinkedIn still lists him in his Wizards role.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

D&D stopped taking risks in 2012.

I laughed, and there is some truth in that, but what I'm saying is Winninger knew about taking risks, and doing interesting things with RPGs, even if he wasn't allowed to take too many with D&D.

This guy? Well even he only claims to have played D&D "in his youth" and "with his kids", and I doubt he's even heard of stuff like Underground. I think his vision of D&D is going to be pretty narrow and very much aligned with "D&D as lifestyle product" rather than "D&D as RPG".

If this has been going on for a while it would certainly explain a few things.

 

[overgeeked]

This is true. Frankly I'd be unsurprised if they simply sold out to Microsoft for many dollars, in a few years. MS is going very aggro on acquiring game companies. Once they've got Activision-Blizzard in the bag (still working on that) I'd be unsurprised if either Hasbro or a WotC snapped from Hasbro would be next up.

I’m continually amazed that there hasn’t been another D&D-based WoW RPG. If it’s not Blizzard or WotC, here’s to hoping it’s Warchief Gaming.

 

[OakenHart]

Hahahahahahahahahahaha

Why the laughing? It's already in the couple hundred million range. It may not be anytime soon, but it's not a ridiculous thing to aim for with D&D's current success.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I’m continually amazed that there hasn’t been another D&D-based WoW RPG. If it’s not Blizzard or WotC, here’s to hoping it’s Warchief.

I think WotC are pretty defensive about their IPs these days. I've seen their creatives get into online scuffles over stuff that was in the d20 WoW RPG (as recently as a couple of years ago, even), because for a short while, it seemed like that and WoW were very well-aligned, and then suddenly they weren't. So I suspect from their perspective, what was intended as a marketing tool ended up as more of a distraction.

And now Activision-Blizzard are being bought by MS so it's likely there will be nothing licensed this way until after that's done at the earliest, and even then, I suspect MS would be less likely to allow it.

I could easily foresee a situation where MS ended up owning both Blizzard and WotC though, and if that were the case...

 

[J.Quondam]

I could easily foresee a situation where MS ended up owning both Blizzard and WotC though, and if that were the case...

Ooh! I wonder if "blue screen of death" would become a high-level spell? Or maybe a warlock patron?

 

[Parmandur]

Winninger hasn't posted anything D&D relat3d since 9/1. My gut says that he is out, and may have been out for as long as a month now. Might be related to why the playtest got pushed back.

Ittoo bad, I liked Sinninger and the direction under him, though corporate sellout D&D is probably going to be exactly my Basic jam.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

though corporate sellout D&D is probably going to be exactly my Basic jam

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".

 

[Warpiglet-7]

What does it profit a player to gain digitial game but lose the soul?

Just kidding. If you print books and have dice the game shall ever live!

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

DnD is ridiculously big in the RPG scene... which is kind of a tiny market. So just throw a number out, it might be an accurate sales number!

An official VTT with official packs will be a great experiment to see. Likely with quite a few restrictions (so as to not devalue the official packs on sale), and it will likely just be too much hassle to run with the 3d models... but it'll be just so fascinating to see a corporate push like that.

 

[TheSword]

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.

 

[Sabathius42]

I usually like calling things by the names given by the creators or owners or holders of said name.

In my book it’s impolite to use some other name than the name holder wants to use.

5e and Next were synonymous in much the same way 6e and One are. I really don't see that as rude or dismissive until an official name is locked in.

 

[jasper]

Honestly I'd go a step further and say we got our evergreen edition in 2014 and that anyone expecting this update to drastically change 5e is in for a big disappointment. WotC didn't just buy D&D Beyond so that they could make the work already done in it null and void... at most we'll see the types of changes that can be done with relatively easy tweaks to the structure of DnD Beyond right now.

.....

Never underestimate the power of a manager to null and void six plus months of programming work.

 

[jasper]

They'll take a cue straight from Fortnight - all about the skins.

Player: "Look DM, I just bought a digital version of my PC in his new +1 chain mail!"

DM: "Hey look, he just found +2 plate!"

Player: "..."

Dammit Lidgar I now have to spend 99 cents to up grade him.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Freemium D&D is inevitable now.

 

[Jaeger]

...
It took me a long time to learn that you don't need to buy every book. Especially adventure books.
...

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

In the report 74% of their 1.3 billion in revenue ($962 million) was from tabletop games. What we don't know is what % is D&D vs MtG. To be clear, this does not include digital sales.

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

Because it's making more money than any other part of WotC, and WotC's making more money than other parts of Hasbro.

So we "need" a pure money-man in charge instead of some kind of filthy hippy creative (even though Winninger had some pretty serious corporate experience).

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.

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.

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...

 

[Haplo781]

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




Last time I saw someone break things it was about 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 talent in game design that's measurably better than someone like Kevin Crawford putting out RPG's as a side hustle...

I honestly, sincerely hope that 1DD falls far short of sales goals and Hasbro either sells the brand or demotes it to "we ain't making this a priority".

Either way would be better for the industry and for us.

 

[Joshua Randall]

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 talent in game design

100%

The guy who killed 4e and ran 5e for a while is the poster boy for those qualities.

 

[Haplo781]

100%

The guy who killed 4e and ran 5e for a while is the poster boy for those qualities.

Also the poster boy for enabling sex pests.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What does it profit a player to gain digitial game but lose the soul?

Just kidding. If you print books and have dice the game shall ever live!

Players aren't the ones looking to profit in this scenario.