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James Wyatt is on the Dungeons & Dragons Team Again
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8224329" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>As for the 'based on D&D' part, that sounds like a manager type of pronouncement, not a design decision made by people with any knowledge of what would actually work to build an RPG. Anyway, think about it from Hasbro's point of view: they imagine kids playing the RPG and thus buying more Power Rangers 'stuff', and maybe hankering for a Power Rangers movie, etc. To an extent, as long as the game works enough to be engaging to kids, it is fine in their eyes. It doesn't have to really sustain itself as a completely engaging game. This is also a good reason to have some 3PP write it on license. When sales barely cover development costs, WotC isn't stuck paying people to support it. If it has any traction then a few supplements or adventures will spin out, otherwise nothing is lost. In a sense the 'use 5e as a base' is simply a way of establishing control of the process with Hasbro, they can say 'no, that is not acceptable' and insure the thing cannot possibly damage any of their IP.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Right, this is the entire history of licenses. Name a single license game that has succeeded for long. The truth is that the number of RPGs which generated revenue sufficient to cover the paper they were printed on is a tiny fraction of all RPGs. The number that also covered a license fee, apparently zero. WEG d6 Star Wars seems to have done OK for a time in a day when the Star Wars IP was not being overly hyped and the license was probably dirt cheap. The original (FASA was it?) Star Trek RPG, likewise, the IP wasn't seeing a ton of action, so it must have been cheap to license (back then we also had the Star Fleet Battles games, etc.). Those were both good solid games, but once the studios decided to make more pictures, get back control, make real money, then that was the end of them, because a WEG or a FASA was making ALMOST nothing even with really good games.</p><p></p><p>All the various licensed supers games have met the same fate. In every case margins are so thin they cannot cover the license. There's always some other new guy willing to pursue the dream and shell out his life savings to give it a try, and a new incarnation of system is born, lives for 2-3 years, and then the money runs out. We can see a similar pattern with LotR games too.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8224329, member: 82106"] As for the 'based on D&D' part, that sounds like a manager type of pronouncement, not a design decision made by people with any knowledge of what would actually work to build an RPG. Anyway, think about it from Hasbro's point of view: they imagine kids playing the RPG and thus buying more Power Rangers 'stuff', and maybe hankering for a Power Rangers movie, etc. To an extent, as long as the game works enough to be engaging to kids, it is fine in their eyes. It doesn't have to really sustain itself as a completely engaging game. This is also a good reason to have some 3PP write it on license. When sales barely cover development costs, WotC isn't stuck paying people to support it. If it has any traction then a few supplements or adventures will spin out, otherwise nothing is lost. In a sense the 'use 5e as a base' is simply a way of establishing control of the process with Hasbro, they can say 'no, that is not acceptable' and insure the thing cannot possibly damage any of their IP. Right, this is the entire history of licenses. Name a single license game that has succeeded for long. The truth is that the number of RPGs which generated revenue sufficient to cover the paper they were printed on is a tiny fraction of all RPGs. The number that also covered a license fee, apparently zero. WEG d6 Star Wars seems to have done OK for a time in a day when the Star Wars IP was not being overly hyped and the license was probably dirt cheap. The original (FASA was it?) Star Trek RPG, likewise, the IP wasn't seeing a ton of action, so it must have been cheap to license (back then we also had the Star Fleet Battles games, etc.). Those were both good solid games, but once the studios decided to make more pictures, get back control, make real money, then that was the end of them, because a WEG or a FASA was making ALMOST nothing even with really good games. All the various licensed supers games have met the same fate. In every case margins are so thin they cannot cover the license. There's always some other new guy willing to pursue the dream and shell out his life savings to give it a try, and a new incarnation of system is born, lives for 2-3 years, and then the money runs out. We can see a similar pattern with LotR games too. [/QUOTE]
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