MoogleEmpMog
First Post
Simply dropping the D&D RPG would be bad for the health of the brand. It would be excising a reasonably healthy and inexpensive product line.
I think an excellent, simplified (from Descent) 'dungeon game' could make more profit than the D&D RPG and be good for the health of the brand. However, there's no good reason to drop the RPG line (specifically the PHB, DMG and MM1) just because this is a more prominent line; it wouldn't be out of the question to sell both lines and to make them mechanically compatible. Dungeon games and RPGs are largely synergistic.
Minis games and RPGs also have a great deal of synergy. With three compatible systems (D&D RPG, D&D Dungeons and D&D Minis), you could sell miniatures to three markets, dungeons (which would double as battlefields) to three, and RPGs to one and curious members of the other two. Dropping the core RPG makes no sense.
An MMORPG will inevitably end up playing second- or third-fiddle to World of Warcraft. D&D, frankly, doesn't have enough innovative mechanics or settings (not that would be used, anyway) to have a chance at unseating WoW. Even WoW remains a slow seller compared to a hit offline game. This is a genre that's great for ongoing profits and, in most cases, cultural footprint (the latter being the only reason it could help the brand), but not for volume sales.
Offline, D&D-branded CRPGs have been struggling pretty much since Baldur's Gate 2 and Planescape: Torment (and that latter, while critically acclaimed, wasn't exactly a blockbuster). Five years ago, I would have said Baldur's Gate was the cornerstone of the D&D brand - more important to its health than the tabletop RPG or even the novels.
The D&D novels are almost certainly the cornerstone of the brand at the moment. The RPG is synergistic with these or at least doesn't hurt them, and they in turn drive RPG sales more directly than they do minis or dungeon games (because novel readers are automatically readers and the lines are available at bookshops).
One thing that would probably help the brand is to publish ONLY the three core books and campaign setting books for the D&D RPG (the latter possibly being complete core books themselves). You don't see 'Monopoly 3rd edition,' nor 'Monopoly: Complete Boardwalk and Park Place.' Core book sales have a much, much larger margin than other products.
Essentially, I see the best use of the D&D RPG as follows: In one hand, as a product to push sales of minis boosters and dungeon game boxes (together, the only official D&D sources of adventures, monsters and other crunch), in the other hand as a cash-sink for people looking for advanced rules for the minis and dungeon games, and in the gripping hand as the source of extra world information on, and organized fanfic of, the novel series.
I think an excellent, simplified (from Descent) 'dungeon game' could make more profit than the D&D RPG and be good for the health of the brand. However, there's no good reason to drop the RPG line (specifically the PHB, DMG and MM1) just because this is a more prominent line; it wouldn't be out of the question to sell both lines and to make them mechanically compatible. Dungeon games and RPGs are largely synergistic.
Minis games and RPGs also have a great deal of synergy. With three compatible systems (D&D RPG, D&D Dungeons and D&D Minis), you could sell miniatures to three markets, dungeons (which would double as battlefields) to three, and RPGs to one and curious members of the other two. Dropping the core RPG makes no sense.
An MMORPG will inevitably end up playing second- or third-fiddle to World of Warcraft. D&D, frankly, doesn't have enough innovative mechanics or settings (not that would be used, anyway) to have a chance at unseating WoW. Even WoW remains a slow seller compared to a hit offline game. This is a genre that's great for ongoing profits and, in most cases, cultural footprint (the latter being the only reason it could help the brand), but not for volume sales.
Offline, D&D-branded CRPGs have been struggling pretty much since Baldur's Gate 2 and Planescape: Torment (and that latter, while critically acclaimed, wasn't exactly a blockbuster). Five years ago, I would have said Baldur's Gate was the cornerstone of the D&D brand - more important to its health than the tabletop RPG or even the novels.
The D&D novels are almost certainly the cornerstone of the brand at the moment. The RPG is synergistic with these or at least doesn't hurt them, and they in turn drive RPG sales more directly than they do minis or dungeon games (because novel readers are automatically readers and the lines are available at bookshops).
One thing that would probably help the brand is to publish ONLY the three core books and campaign setting books for the D&D RPG (the latter possibly being complete core books themselves). You don't see 'Monopoly 3rd edition,' nor 'Monopoly: Complete Boardwalk and Park Place.' Core book sales have a much, much larger margin than other products.
Essentially, I see the best use of the D&D RPG as follows: In one hand, as a product to push sales of minis boosters and dungeon game boxes (together, the only official D&D sources of adventures, monsters and other crunch), in the other hand as a cash-sink for people looking for advanced rules for the minis and dungeon games, and in the gripping hand as the source of extra world information on, and organized fanfic of, the novel series.
