D&D Movie/TV Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves could change D&D forever

[Haplo781]

Oh, no. This means D&D is going to buy a sports car and start dating RPGS young enough to be its daughter.

Worse - hair plugs

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Interesting point. That could partly explain the push to "de-authorize" OGL1.0, since it's existence might diminish the dollar value of the D&D IP, at least in the suits' lizard brains?

I just don't believe suits even knew what the OGL really was before all this happened. Someone told them it was some minor obstacle to be swept aside, and then touched it and got severely electrocuted. They still don't understand it, they just understand that people are really mad and they don't seem to be getting less mad, and it's getting them a ton of almost-unprecedent negative press.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I dunno how much effect movies has on the popularity of RPGs. Otherwise Star Wars and Marvel games would be much bigger than they are.

It doesn't help that TTRPGs of movie/comics IPs have, with rare exceptions, been extremely poorly chosen for people who want an experience akin to the movies/comics.

WEG D6 Star Wars would have been great as "Andor Simulator", but it was what, nearly 40 years before Andor? Weirdly very influential on later Star Wars stuff, but not through the rules.
WotC's d20-based SW was just wildly inappropriate for anyone who liked SW. It was just D&D in low-rent cosplay.
The more recent SW game I haven't played, but the people I know who have thought it was a cool SF game, but not really a Star Wars game.

Marvel actually did start out decently with FASERIP, which, for '80s Marvel made sense, but got completely abandoned by TSR, just as comics were starting to get big again. MSHAG arrived after comics got big, and was an innovative design, and before its time, but totally failed to lean into what made late '90s comics big. I love Cortex but the Cortext-based Marvel game that was more recent was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too fancy for a general audience, conceptually, and the most recent Marvel game? It's explicitly not MCU (mistake, imo), and has a wildly overcomplicated and bizarre system.

There's been a persistent failure to engage with what people actually want out of games of those settings, I'd suggest. Marvel FASERIP was the only one that really got close, and was very much "of its time".

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I think they're both right and wrong.

If D&D:HAT is a good movie, and well-regarded, it will help cement D&D as a "solid IP", not of the Star Wars/MCU or even DCU level, but perhaps approaching the level of more mid-grade IPs, and would certainly help prevent any stigma returning to RPGs.

But honestly I think we're past the point where stigma of any kind can really be an issue for D&D, except possibly the dread "That's fun but it's for old people" or "That was fun when I was a kid". D&D is currently pretty well-positioned to avoid that, given the core audience seems to be about 15-29 buuuuuuut all it would take would be an '80s-like situation where a lot of people just drift away from the game for it to perhaps acquire that stigma. I know loads of 30-40-somethings currently teaching their kids D&D, but will those kids go on to play it as adults, or will they leave it behind as a game for kids? I think that's in the balance, and I don't think D&D:HAT or sequels will actually make much odds to that.

If it's a failure, things do become more uncertain, though because WotC have limited financial exposure there, I don't think that would cause big decisions to be made. I think it would take both a failure of the HAT and of the 3D VTT for big decisions to start getting made. I'd say the 3D VTT is far more likely to fail, too.

What would those big decisions be? Honestly they could go in a lot of different directions. The only commonality is Hasbro/WotC are likely to reduce investment in D&D and D&D-related products. History shows that can be a positive and a negative. My personal suspicion is that both fail, Hasbro will essentially want WotC to basically put D&D into "maintenance mode", which will be kind of good for anyone who likes D&D as it is at that time, but may set in stone issues people aren't fond of, and with the new OGL, may have damaged the ability of 3PPs to help out. It's also quite possible Hasbro would sell off either WotC or just the D&D IP, which could very well or incredibly badly depending on who bought it. Almost certainly it would be a videogame publisher which buy it. History tells us that doesn't go well - c.f. the fate of White Wolf (CCP really wrecked it and Paradox have been more gentle and positive but haven't achieved much).

There's another angle too - if HAT succeeds well (and the TV show does), but the 3D VTT Is a miserable failure relative to investment, it's actually possible Disney might buy D&D as a movie/TV IP. They'd probably keep the TTRPG going, but might make some weird changes.

Personally I'm inclined to hope it does well, because whilst I'm not hugely fond of the IP of D&D as lifestyle brand, I do think it would be better for the hobby, including non-D&D RPGs, if that happens.

James Gunn is nuking the DCEU from space, over the next few years it'll be deader then the Arrowverse.

A better comparison would have been MCU/Spiderverse (they are connected now as I count them as one), Wizarding World, Avatar, Star Wars.

I think DDCU could be competitive with early Phase 1 MCU, Star Trek, Transformers, DCU, and some others. If things go really well over a decade then maybe they can compete with the MCU Phase 3.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

James Gunn is nuking the DCEU from space, over the next few years it'll be deader then the Arrowverse.

Sure but they only got him in to even nuke it because it's so valuable it's better nuked and reborn than left how it is. I hope he preserves The Batman somehow though, that was great.

A better comparison would have been MCU/Spiderverse (they are connected now as I count them as one), Wizarding World, Avatar, Star Wars.

Sure, all of which are a lot larger than D&D for now. I expect if JKR doesn't cease her idiocy D&D will eventually pass WWoHP - at this point WB have to be praying she gets eaten by a crocodile or something, because it would literally significantly increase the long-term value of that IP (by allowing new material and for it to be rehabilitated).

I don't think D&D is even at F&F levels yet.

I think DDCU could be competitive with early Phase 1 MCU, Star Trek, Transformers, DCU, and some others. If things go really well over a decade then maybe they can compete with the MCU Phase 3.

I dunno. Some of those movies made incredible amounts of money, despite some of them being terrible. I think a lot rides on how much HAT makes, and it's kind of looking like might be a little tricky at the box office right then. Like the relevant movies I can see around it are:

March 10 - Scream VI
March 24 - John Wick 4
March 31 - D&D:HAT
April 7 - Super Mario Bros

So D&D:HAT kind of only has at best a week where it's clear, even assuming people pick it over John Wick 4 (it does have a broader audience but still), because I think Super Mario Bros' audience is going to cross over extremely heavily with D&D:HAT's, and that won't favour D&D. And Super Mario is one of those movies where people will go even if the reviews are extremely negative, whereas D&D:HAT could be impaired by anything but very positive reviews.

 

[Haplo781]

Sure, all of which are a lot larger than D&D for now. I expect if JKR doesn't cease her idiocy D&D will eventually pass WWoHP - at this point WB have to be praying she gets eaten by a crocodile or something, because it would literally significantly increase the long-term value of that IP (by allowing new material and for it to be rehabilitated).

"Say no more, boss."

 

[Clint_L]

I dunno how much effect movies has on the popularity of RPGs. Otherwise Star Wars and Marvel games would be much bigger than they are.

Yeah, I think Hasbro is hoping that the synergy goes the other way, like with Marvel. Way more folks watch the movies than read the comics.

 

[MGibster]

WEG D6 Star Wars would have been great as "Andor Simulator", but it was what, nearly 40 years before Andor? Weirdly very influential on later Star Wars stuff, but not through the rules.
WotC's d20-based SW was just wildly inappropriate for anyone who liked SW. It was just D&D in low-rent cosplay.
The more recent SW game I haven't played, but the people I know who have thought it was a cool SF game, but not really a Star Wars game.

You can check out some of the sourcebooks from WEG's Star Wars and see how they still continue to influence the franchise today. They had an Imperial Sourcebook that outlined how the ISB worked and it would fit straight into Andor with no problem. I skipped the d20 Star Wars because, as you say, it was low-rent cosplay, but I did go with the FFG Star Wars. One of my major criticisms of FFG's Star Wars is that there are so many separate skills and ability trees that you can't really make a good pilot/gun fighter like we see in the movies. The other is the obsession with equipment and upgrading them.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Sure but they only got him in to even nuke it because it's so valuable it's better nuked and reborn than left how it is. I hope he preserves The Batman somehow though, that was great.

Sure, all of which are a lot larger than D&D for now. I expect if JKR doesn't cease her idiocy D&D will eventually pass WWoHP - at this point WB have to be praying she gets eaten by a crocodile or something, because it would literally significantly increase the long-term value of that IP (by allowing new material and for it to be rehabilitated).

I don't think D&D is even at F&F levels yet.

I dunno. Some of those movies made incredible amounts of money, despite some of them being terrible. I think a lot rides on how much HAT makes, and it's kind of looking like might be a little tricky at the box office right then. Like the relevant movies I can see around it are:

March 10 - Scream VI
March 24 - John Wick 4
March 31 - D&D:HAT
April 7 - Super Mario Bros

So D&D:HAT kind of only has at best a week where it's clear, even assuming people pick it over John Wick 4 (it does have a broader audience but still), because I think Super Mario Bros' audience is going to cross over extremely heavily with D&D:HAT's, and that won't favour D&D. And Super Mario is one of those movies where people will go even if the reviews are extremely negative, whereas D&D:HAT could be impaired by anything but very positive reviews.

Wick is rated R and likely doesn't have a huge over lap in target audience, bit more over lap with Mario, but Mario skews younger I think, and I think looks to a very different audience.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Sure but they only got him in to even nuke it because it's so valuable it's better nuked and reborn than left how it is. I hope he preserves The Batman somehow though, that was great.

Sure, all of which are a lot larger than D&D for now. I expect if JKR doesn't cease her idiocy D&D will eventually pass WWoHP - at this point WB have to be praying she gets eaten by a crocodile or something, because it would literally significantly increase the long-term value of that IP (by allowing new material and for it to be rehabilitated).

I don't think D&D is even at F&F levels yet.

I dunno. Some of those movies made incredible amounts of money, despite some of them being terrible. I think a lot rides on how much HAT makes, and it's kind of looking like might be a little tricky at the box office right then. Like the relevant movies I can see around it are:

March 10 - Scream VI
March 24 - John Wick 4
March 31 - D&D:HAT
April 7 - Super Mario Bros

So D&D:HAT kind of only has at best a week where it's clear, even assuming people pick it over John Wick 4 (it does have a broader audience but still), because I think Super Mario Bros' audience is going to cross over extremely heavily with D&D:HAT's, and that won't favour D&D. And Super Mario is one of those movies where people will go even if the reviews are extremely negative, whereas D&D:HAT could be impaired by anything but very positive reviews.

Hogwarts Legacy is #1 on Steam and Playstation and #2 on XBox. For every person boycotting like 10 who aren't even Harry Potter fans buy the game.

The most effective tactic for dealing with her is to just ignore her if your unhappy with her, she feeds on your angry and profits from it. Don't let her use you as free advertising. Just friendly advice from a 3rd party observer whose not a Harry Potter fan who don't follow her on Twitter (I didn't buy the game, for my own reasons, not boycotting).