D&D General If you were made president of D&D, what would you do?

[Stormonu]

For me, it would be dividing D&D into 2 supported rulesets: 5.x as just "D&D" and B/X as "Classic D&D". For 5.x, keep things going largely as they have because it's working quite well. For Classic D&D, reprint most of the old D&D material while taking the time to clean up the print quality. Maybe make a deal with someone like Goodman Games to handle that since they seem like they'd do it right.


I'd love to know why WotC hasn't made more of an effort to keep the novel business going. I don't claim to know better than them on what will sell so maybe the market dried up, but if I was in charge I'd definitely want to look into whether this is viable in 2024 or not.

There used to be MtG novels too, but I haven't kept up to see if they're doing that any more. If anything, they probably remember that TSR imploded because of debt to Random House and they're probably gunshy about getting into a similar hole - or may have been blackballed by them after the bankruptcy.

I have seen a fair number of "young adult" books for D&D and other random books, but haven't seen the likes of the novels from back in the 90's, other than the recent two Dragonlance novels.

 

[Steampunkette]

Yes, there was 3 at one time.
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DM Guild

That bookshelf company got permission from Hasbro to use official D&D IP with limitations and DM Guild became D&D freelancer central. WotC get like 30% of everything sold there so the author only get 50%, while DTRPG an author get 70% but no access to D&D IP.

DM Guild is literally, serious business. It can earn some authors 6 figures a year.

They also require exclusivity. So there's no way any of my material is going up on the DM's Guild.

Yes it would be a wider audience for Paranormal Power, but the exclusivity, the 50% cut, knowing WotC could pull some "We liked your material so we're stealing it and putting it into our books going forward, thanks!" BS, and everything else..?

Can't risk that.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Weapon Speed is back BABY!

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

There was a Lankmarh setting in 1e or 2e, as well as a Conan "setting" that Hasbro does not fully own.

*Which could even propose problems to my ideas of "ALL settings on DM Guild". So I amend to the ones that Ritchie Rich got copyright for.

Those are not D&D settings.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Yes, there was 3 at one time.
DriveThruRPG
RPGNow
DM Guild

That bookshelf company got permission from Hasbro to use official D&D IP with limitations and DM Guild became D&D freelancer central. WotC get like 30% of everything sold there so the author only get 50%, while DTRPG an author get 70% but no access to D&D IP.

DM Guild is literally, serious business. It can earn some authors 6 figures a year.

IIRC, the Guild is a partnership between One and WotC. Though One runs it, but that is splitting hairs really.

However, very few people make serious money on the Guild. There are handful of people that have made good money and only one that I can think of that continues to do so. Even Ed Greenwood can’t make serious money on the Guild. That is why no big players in the RPG market are on the Guild

 

[Lanefan]

Those are not D&D settings.

Adventures in both settings (Lankhmar and Conan) were written for 1e, meaning TSR had some sort of license to use those IPs.

 

[bmfrosty]

Agreed - two rulesets is all that's needed: "Modern" and "Classic". Modern is for now a 5e variant; Classic is based on BX and 1e plus other ideas.

I'm planning on talking about these two and a 3rd when I do my post. Maybe tomorrow. Probably Sunday. I expect to be busy tomorrow. I think it's probably worth refreshing 3.x as well.

 

[bmfrosty]

Adventures in both settings (Lankhmar and Conan) were written for 1e, meaning TSR had some sort of license to use those IPs.

And Diablo II for both 2e and 3e according to Wikipedia.

 

[bmfrosty]

That is completely wrong, other than the part about pathfinder, which is irrelevant to this discussion. WotC gain ownership of all the settings that TSR owned when they bought the company and everything since.

For example, TSR purchased the forgotten realms from Ed. WotC now owns that setting. Eberron is fully owned by WotC, Keith can’t make supplements or sell stories about it without WotC’s permission. That is why he had to do that through the DM guild.

There may be some obscure setting where the original creator has control; however, all relevant settings are wholly owned by WotC.

I wouldn't take someone non-authoritative's word on that. Do you have some proof on that like a statement from WotC?

 

[Steampunkette]

I wouldn't take someone non-authoritative's word on that. Do you have some proof on that like a statement from WotC?

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