D&D General io9: 2023 Should Have Been D&D's Best Year, Until It Wasn't

[Parmandur]

Thought it was interesting but somewhat skeptical.

Find out what the book says context is its a puff piece though.

Yeah, haven't gotten the book yet, it's on my Christmas list. But honestly sounds plausible. D&D has exploded onto the mainstream in the past decade.

 

[Parmandur]

Would be curious to know how he arrived at that

One of the reasons the book is on my Christmas list

 

[Parmandur]

I don't think we're looking at another singular behemoth. I think that what might (might) happen is that the stuff that arose in response to the OGL self-own are games that, collectively, will be as big as Pathfinder.

Like I said, I don't think anyone here thinks that Paizo is going to put WotC out of business or has any desire to. But they take enough market share to make someone at Hasbro (irrationally) freak out, which is why we had the whole OGL debacle. And that freak-out, in turn, then created the exact opposite effect they wanted: Instead of everyone clumping together under WotC's umbrella (something that consumer goodwill would likely have done to large part in 2024, with the 50th anniversary), they have spread players out at least a little more.

Is it a devastating or "behemoth" amount? Absolutely not. But Hasbro wasn't freaking out about a behemoth. They lost their minds over the proverbial molehill. Creating a bunch more (littler) molehills was a problem they created for themselves instead of just switching to decaft and using that Breathe app on their Apple Watches that no one uses.

Well, they weren't freaked out about Paizo, they were freaked out about Meta or Microsoft. And that is not necessarily unfounded, still:

Meta’s unethical AI makes Snoop Dogg the Dungeon Master of our nightmares

Don’t listen to Meta, you don’t need Snoop Dogg to play D&D

www.laptopmag.com

 

[ersatzphil]

Well, they weren't freaked out about Paizo, they were freaked out about Meta or Microsoft. And that is not necessarily unfounded, still:

Meta’s unethical AI makes Snoop Dogg the Dungeon Master of our nightmares

Don’t listen to Meta, you don’t need Snoop Dogg to play D&D

www.laptopmag.com

I genuinely suspect that 90% of the decision making around the OGL was a reaction to Lorcana, rather than anything in the TTRPG space.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I genuinely suspect that 90% of the decision making around the OGL was a reaction to Lorcana, rather than anything in the TTRPG space.

That would make a lot more sense than being scared of other RPG makers.

 

[mamba]

One of the reasons the book is on my Christmas list

which book? I thought we were talking about some YT video (I have not seen yet) with the 60M number… is that from Lore & Legends?

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, haven't gotten the book yet, it's on my Christmas list. But honestly sounds plausible. D&D has exploded onto the mainstream in the past decade.

Plausible yes but book is published by WotC and they're not supplying hard data eg PHB sales.

I think that's so they xan keep it as a nebulous "D&D is doing gangbusters" and letting peoples imaginations run with it.

5E is doing gangbusters but is the multiplier X2, X3,X5,X10 etc.

 

[Parmandur]

which book? I thought we were talking about some YT video (I have not seen yet) with the 60M number… is that from Lore & Legends?

Yeah, it was an interview with one of the authors of Art & Arcana and Lore & Legends (and the cookbooks, etc).

 

[Parmandur]

Plausible yes but book is published by WotC and they're not supplying hard data eg PHB sales.

I think that's so they xan keep it as a nebulous "D&D is doing gangbusters" and letting peoples imaginations run with it.

5E is doing gangbusters but is the multiplier X2, X3,X5,X10 etc.

I mean, they have supplied a hard number.

 

[Parmandur]

I genuinely suspect that 90% of the decision making around the OGL was a reaction to Lorcana, rather than anything in the TTRPG space.

Oh, no doubt Disney entering the CCG market seriously makes WotC and Hasbro executives sweat bullets. But, Kyle Brink did name Microsoft and Meta entering the RPG space as something making them lose sleep...and FaceBook now has an AI Dungeon Master. And Microsoft is investing several Hasbro's worth of money into AI.

I am not saying they are justified in their fears, but motivated by this fear? Yeah, I buy it. Way more than fear of Paizo and Kobold Press.