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]

You don't think that the D&D design team is interested in selling to its existing customers? If that's true, this Spelljammer and Dragonlance stuff seems misguided.

I suggested nothing of the sort.

 

[bedir than]

That's what I'd say, too, if my sales numbers were down and someone was asking me to explain myself. It's the same sort of tactic that gives us the "Funded in twenty minutes!" headlines on Kickstarter campaigns.

Do you think the supply chain crisis is a Hasbro invention in order to oversaturate the D&D physical book market?

Or would a more reasonable position be that the near decade-long record sales at a time when the pandemic and other crises have overlapped created an environment where projecting sales became more difficult than at any point in modern history?

 

[Parmandur]

But you aren't going to start investing more money in your design and production teams. They're already underperforming. So you'll compromise on quality a bit in order to put a larger volume of products in front of your customers and hope they bite.

This is where your entire analysis falls apart: they've been beefing up their design team with extensive hiring. They are literally investing here.

 

[EpicureanDM]

Do you think the supply chain crisis is a Hasbro invention in order to oversaturate the D&D physical book market?

Or would a more reasonable position be that the near decade-long record sales at a time when the pandemic and other crises have overlapped created an environment where projecting sales became more difficult than at any point in modern history?

If you want to take WotC's press releases at face value, that's fine by me. I try to focus more on the products they're producing.

 

[AnotherGuy]

This is where your entire analysis falls apart: they've been beefing up their design team with extensive hiring. They are literally investing here.

Could this have anything to do with the 2024 golden anniversary core, a brand new starter set as well as their online tools?

 

[EpicureanDM]

This is where your entire analysis falls apart: they've been beefing up their design team with extensive hiring. They are literally investing here.

Throwing money at a problem isn't the same thing as investing.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's what I'd say, too, if my sales numbers were down and someone was asking me to explain myself. It's the same sort of tactic that gives us the "Funded in twenty minutes!" headlines on Kickstarter campaigns.

You don't think that the D&D design team is interested in selling to its existing customers? If that's true, this Spelljammer and Dragonlance stuff seems misguided.

I'm not convinced it's isn't.

 

[Rabulias]

They've said this will be the starter at launch for the D&D2024

Do you have a link to this statement? Not that I don't believe you, but I have heard people say this, and I have not seen it that I can recall. I would think a new 2024 Starter Set would make more sense, even if this one is compatible with the 2024 core rules. If nothing else, new branding in line with the 2024 editions.

 

[bedir than]

Do you have a link to this statement? Not that I don't believe you, but I have heard people say this, and I have not seen it that I can recall. I would think a new 2024 Starter Set would make more sense, even if this one is compatible with the 2024 core rules. If nothing else, new branding in line with the 2024 editions.

This is going to take a while. It was in replies to the Target launch

 

[Zaukrie]

They've said this will be the starter at launch for the D&D2024

So bad. Just way too short, and the DCs in the first adventure? Ugh.