Expanding the D&D brand?

[Greatwyrm]

I still can't believe they don't do Choose Your Own Adventure books. They hooked me on the idea of D&D years before I ever discovered it. Target them at 8 - 10 yr olds who'll be completely hooked by the time they're at the "recommended" age to get into D&D.

 

[Yora]

Well, that wouldn't be toys, but figurines.

I don't think action figures for kids would work. I don't know many little boys these days, but I don't think something like transformers or He-Man could simply be done again these days. You'd probably need to have something that the kids already like to get them to buy toys about it.

What about video games? There were some really good ones back in 2nd Edition and they tried with 3rd. But it suffers from the same problems as cartoons: You never know if the people you outsource it to actually produce something halfway decent.

 

[Kaodi]

While there are a lot of things that they could do to expand the brand, I am not sure how many of those things are best handled by an RPG development team. Board games, card games, dice games are the most natural fit, but there is other stuff that would be cool...

A D&D Night at Medieval Times would be awesome, but probably one of the least doable cool things, as Medieval Times has their own brand considerations.

A new cartoon would be awesome, and something that has been discussed severla times here.

What D&D really needs though is a new Neverwinter Nights; as in a new game that doubles as a PnP platform. For some reason I think that would be a better route to go to get digital campaign tools rather than just a straight application, which WotC has never seemed to have very good luck with.

What else might be adventurous, but cool, would be a licensed band or orchestra to make and perform fantasy adventure themed music.

A D&D line of tree fort plans, sold at Home Depot, Rona, Lowe's and the like.

 

[Klaus]

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

No McFarlane Toys, IMHO. D&D needs stuff for kids to play with, not for adults to put on a shelf.

The "action figure" age range has been quite reduced from its heyday in the 80s. Between observation at my son's school and at toy stores, action figures these days are aimed at 3-to-8 year olds.

The juggernauts are cartoon and movie tie-ins, such as Batman: The Brave & The Bold or The Avengers movie. Star Wars also has a big presence, with lots of Clone Wars action figures available. And then you have the generic kiddie toy sets, such as Imaginext and Playmobil, many of which already uses D&D-isms.

 

[CM]

Clearly wotc needs to cash in on the Brony-Gamer market with the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic campaign setting.

 

[Szatany]

There are already D&D comics being published by IDW right now. They are nothing special but fun to read. One series for Dark Sun, and another two set in Forgotten Realms.

 

[Klaus]

There are already D&D comics being published by IDW right now. They are nothing special but fun to read. One series for Dark Sun, and another two set in Forgotten Realms.

The Dark Sun comic was a mini.

There's one series set in the default 4e world, a Legend of Drizzt mini and an upcoming FR series co-written by Ed Greenwood.

 

[Sunseeker]

The Dark Sun comic was a mini.

There's one series set in the default 4e world, a Legend of Drizzt mini and an upcoming FR series co-written by Ed Greenwood.

Which I believe is a Drizzt series.

 

[hemera]

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.

Hey they rebooted the Transformers cartoon and it seems to be doing quite well. I wouldn't mind seeing a new cartoon.

Of course if it wasn't good, (or even if it is I still will) I'll just watch Adventure Time.

 

[Cobalt Meridian]

Considering that they've got every other licence under the sun, surely D&D Lego must be an option. You could build your own dungeons with the bricks and have Lego monsters.