Expanding the D&D brand?

[variant]

In the PAX panel it talked about how other products such as the boardgames allows them to reduce the number of RPG books they have to release. What would you like to see as far as the expansion of the D&D brand?

Think we could see more games such as maybe a D&D card game similar to say the old Spellfire game with iconic spells, monsters, magical items, etc? I know WotC didn't want to compete with Magic the Gathering back when they first got the D&D license, but I wonder if that's the case now. Most people I know who play D&D and used to play Spellfire never touch Magic and vice-versa.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I think there's a few more boardgamey things to do with the D&D license.

They've done D&D Lite, Worker Placement, Political Wargame, and Tactical Wargame.

They still have the following genres to do:

• Deck building (or maybe dice building, with all the different types of RPG dice?)
• Tile laying
• Resource trading
• Wilderness survival?
• another try at D&D Lite (they almost got it just right with the Adventure System)

 

[mkill]

Elminster brand men's socks, Warduke laudry detergent, Lolth baby diapers... the possibilities with such a broad IP are endless.

 

[Szatany]

What would you like to see as far as the expansion of the D&D brand?

Angry Beholders

 

[Incenjucar]

D&D-inspired dice and card games have come and gone.

What D&D's really missing to draw in an audience is compelling stories about groups of friends doing wonderful things.

All D&D seems to have anymore is Drizzt.

 

[Sunseeker]

D&D-inspired dice and card games have come and gone.

What D&D's really missing to draw in an audience is compelling stories about groups of friends doing wonderful things.

All D&D seems to have anymore is Drizzt.

Agreed, this was why I so enjoyed the D&D comic that came out...and then they went and did more Drizzt stuff in the comics....wooo...I don't care.

There's a lot of simple things they could do, a D&D-themed deck of cards(poker is how my group burns time till everyone gets there), some more awesome D&D dice, the "official" dice are pretty lame.

What about D&D Monopoly? D&D Clue? D&D puzzles?

There's no need to release a directly competing product, that'd just be silly, they'd be competing with themselves. And there's also a LOT of fantasy card-games out there that they'd have to go up against.

 

[Kzach]

A cartoon.

Transformers was started as a cartoon and now look at it. There is precedent for a D&D cartoon already so it's not a stretch to entertain the notion that it could be done again.

If it's done WELL, as in it's a decent cartoon with a decent story, decent illustration, decent characters, etc. and it's aimed at the young adult market (which is a bit of a misnomer because although technically a 'teenage' bracket, younger kids want in on what's cool for the older kids and parents tend to enjoy it as much as their kids and geeks of all ages tend to embrace it as well), then it could be huge.

It would also need to be done cleverly. There would need to be tie-ins to the D&D P&P game within the actual story. But it would have to be done in a way that's not obviously just a gimmick to push product. It would have to be done in such a way that was very well thought out and considered from many angles rather than just some writers brain-storming story concepts.

This would lead to all sorts of extra products. Figures, graphic novels, novels, collectibles and even a movie (that didn't totally suck). All the while growing the D&D brand and P&P game.

 

[Yora]

If.

But how much hope would there really be that it's good enough to be the next Avatar?

 

[Klaus]

Toys. Something to compete with Imaginext or Playmobil. D&D Kre-O to compete with Lego Castle.

And by "toys" I don't mean an endless supply of elves and orcs. I mean action figures for displacer beasts, beholders, owlbears, unicorns, griffons, Tiamat...

 

[variant]

Toys. Something to compete with Imaginext or Playmobil. D&D Kre-O to compete with Lego Castle.

And by "toys" I don't mean an endless supply of elves and orcs. I mean action figures for displacer beasts, beholders, owlbears, unicorns, griffons, Tiamat...

That would be interesting, especially if they contracted McFarlane Toys to create them. http://www.spawn.com/toys/