Dragon/Dungeon sold, Chainmail axed

[Ds Da Man]

Damn. Now I'm REALLY disappointed! I could've been playing a mass combat miniature wargame of D&D for the last 6 months! I've wanted one for SO long, and WoTC goes and screws it up. And from what I hear, they're gonna replace Chainmail with a MageKnight rip-off. I.E. Pre-painted plastic miniatures. ARRGH! If I wanted that then I'd be playing MageKnight! What a waste.

Actually, I think WotC have a lot of competion in the mini department, and their prices suck. If given a decent plastic prepainted mini, I will find a way to strip it back down, and paint it myself.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Actually if they go with a similar paint scheme to the current Mage Knight and Heroclix line you could easily get away with a little touch up here and there and some light highlighting. Surprisingly the paint jobs are not a bad as everyone led me to believe (IMHO, of course ).

Although since my FLGS started selling metal Mage Knight figures at 1/2 price I've been buying those as fast as they hit the bin!

BTW has anyone read Mote Cook's take on the news? Overall I think he hit on some key points - that WotC really doesn't seem to know what to do with a 'good' product. The hit and miss quality of the D&D line, to me, indicates a confused management that seems to think along the lines of 'OK well, that book didn't sell like mad so change the layout/artists/writers/focus of this book and maybe it will be the next 1000000+ seller!'.

I am glad that the core books are out and everything I want to buy for the next 6 months or so is being produced by 3rd party companies. WotC just seems a little disorganized in their 'vision' of what they want from the D&D line. Maybe they can straighten themselves out and get back to printing stuff like the Forgotten Realms CS - like the Realms or not that is a damn good product!

 

[Droogie]

Agreed with everyone- my interest in chainmail dropped into the toilet when I learned it was not mass combat.

Does anyone know if WotC will continue to make minis, tho? Hopefully they'll shift some of their resources to make minis for their other d20 games...more Star Wars minis. How 'bout some CoC minis?

As for mass combat and Kingdom building, i'm still waiting for Eden's Book of War.

 

[TBoarder]

Dang, now that was what I was hoping for from Chainmail. When I found out it was a skirmish game, my interest dropped to nil.

Usually I hate "Me Too" posts, but... umm... Me too.

 

[NemesisPress]

In tough economic times, companies return to their core business...By extension, role-playing games are not the core business...Bean counters like quick cash from businesses they don't understand.

You will probably see Dungeons and Dragons as we know it scattered to the four winds. All that will remain is the brand - attached to more and more simplistic, short-lived, and juvenile-oriented products. (Anyone for "Tickle-me-Gygax"?)

And, of course, Hasbro doesn't understand any product with a lifespan of more than three years. Toys are fad products whose audience outgrow them if nothing else - as opposed to roleplaying and wargames, which are a lifetime avocation.

 

[Storminator]

And, of course, Hasbro doesn't understand any product with a lifespan of more than three years. Toys are fad products whose audience outgrow them if nothing else - as opposed to roleplaying and wargames, which are a lifetime avocation.

Actually, Hasbro also has a games line, which includes some downright ancient games, such as Monopoly, Clue, and Chutes and Ladders. To say they don't understand long term sales is completely incorrect.

But D&D has never slod like Monopoly, and never will. It's very difficult for a company like Hasbro to care about a product line so small that they would make more money by outsourcing their janitorial services.

PS

 

[Lady Dragon]

IMHO WoTC will most probably retain the D&D IP but will rather sell only the rights to make RPG books based on D&D to some person/company then sit back and let the money roll in with no efforts of there own since all they will be doing is selling the rights to use it for computer games,movies RPG's and other products.Although they may continue to publish Novels since they make so much money.

They will also continue to sell the corebooks etc.Although if someone such as Peter Atkinson or White Wolf offered a big enough chunk of change they might actually sell the whole thing,

Also just like WoTC is slowly dismantling what was originally TSR Hasbro is likely to start dismantling what is WoTC. After all they bought it because of Pokemon and now that that is not doing as well as it used to they just don't care anymore.All they care about is pleasing there stockholders.They are in a luxury buisness and these types of businesses don't do as well in econimic downtimes so sacrifices are made.

However everyone is scared that D&D will just be cancelled Thats not true somebody will buy it and take over the only fear we have is that a new owner will want to start all over again with new corebooks and I'm not ready for that yet.

 

[Wormwood]

However everyone is scared that D&D will just be cancelled Thats not true somebody will buy it and take over the only fear we have is that a new owner will want to start all over again with new corebooks and I'm not ready for that yet.

Everyone scared? Bah. *I* couldn't care less if D&D was cancelled tomorrow.

What has Hasbro's support meant anyway? Sage Advice and a bucketload of Prestige Classes. *That's about it*.

If I want a module or a setting, I can go to AEG...or Necromancer...or S&S...or Kenzer...or (gasp) write one myself using the available rule-set.

As far as I'm concerned, WotC aready *did* their job with the Core rulebooks. Everything after that is fairly superfluous.

YMMV

 

[Buttercup]

I'm not so worried either. I want D20 Modern, MM2 and that's about it from WotC. Everything else I'm longing for is coming from Atlas, Kenzer, Necromancer, AEG or Green Ronin. Honestly though, if every one of these publishers went belly-up tomorrow, my gaming could still go on for years to come. I've got tons of reference material already, including the most important product, my own imagination.

But all that aside, D20 is vibrant and will remain so for years to come, IMO.

 

[HalfElfSorcerer]

I, personally, see very little change ahead at all. As far as I know, D&D is turning a profit. Chainmail apparently wasn't, so it was dropped. The magazines were marginal, so they were sold. I'm only thirteen, and started playing about a year ago, so for me, there was no D&D before Wizards of the Coast. I think they are doing just fine. It would have been better if they weren't bought by Hasbro, that's a given. If Hasbro begins to think WotC isn't making them enough money, they'll probably sell Wizards back to itself, assuming that's possible. As for D&D being snapped up by another individual, I think that's probably unlikely. D&D belongs to Industryland now; I doubt it's going back to a single person. I myself would prefer to see Wizards keep Dungeons and Dragons. If someone else got their hands on it, who knows what could happen--it could remain a big success, but there's always a chance it becomes a grubby little back room product stocked by those dirty little comic shops that no one goes into. Maybe I'm completely wrong. But if anything is changing right now, it's the fans, not the company. Those who have been playing for years may be becoming disgusted, but for people my age, making the stuff high-profile, glossy, and accessable is just what the doctor ordered. There was a point to all this when I began, but I've forgotten it.