Keith Baker asks about walking away from Eberron.

[Dungeonosophy]

I’d been wondering what folks like Keith Baker would say and do. Creators whose best-known works are owned by TSR/WOTC/Hasbro, and who still gain income (of some sort—DMs Guild, future novel contracts, etc.) via those IPs.

What I’d like to see Keith Baker do is:

-like he described: firmly ditch any Eberron work which directly brings even one cent of income to WOTC. But answering Eberron FAQs, etc. would be sweet.

-Go full on with your Frontiers setting.

-Strip out, salvage, and ‘convert’ all of your DMs Guild content and website lore that you can.

-For the contuinity buffs like me, throw in some deftly-worded pointers into your new setting which hint and affirm that the two worlds are related—like Gary’s conception of how Oerth and post-TSR Yarth and Aerth were a continuum of related parallel worlds. Of course do this in way that is not actually a copyright violation.

-Consider converting (or paying someones to convert) your things into multiple Open rules-sets. (A5E, PF2, etc.)

-Gather an alliance of any and all individuals who have ever done paid work for TSR/WOTC, and make a new shared Alumni Polyverse composed of all their fully owned settings. As an TSR/WOTC Alumni meta-setting which is complementary to the ORC initiative.

Just some ideas.
Thanks for your creative integrity.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Right here is the problem.

Eberron has a lot of fans. And a lot of people like Keith Baker.

Yet when he developed his own game, it ... well, how many people heard of it? And of those people, how many played it? Honestly, I bet that Phoenix Command (the 1986 RPG) has a much higher name recognition in the community as a whole simply because it's kind of a punchline.

What worries me about this is that we have a lot of people yelling to burn it all down. Well, cool. I think that there is this unstated belief that if we just burn it (D&D) all down, then somehow everyone will start playing all these other games. But ... where is the evidence of that?

TTRPGs has always been a discretionary hobby. Maybe people are happy with it going back to being a much smaller hobby. Maybe this 5e period will be looked back upon like the 1979-84 period. I don't know.

Who knows. Maybe there is a large market out there that just can't wait to play PF2e, and the FiTD games, and all the indie games and one pagers that our hobby has ... and they've just been waiting, pining, for the Death Star of D&D to get destroyed by the Rebellion in order to play! Or maybe not.

If I was Baker, I would release a rules-agnostic setting, or a generic (but D&D compatible) setting that he has control over. But I'm not.

While true, I think the timing now is right. The Hasbro debacle has created a situation where it's no better time to create your own stuff. And unlike 99% of 3PP, Keith has name recognition and a following to help as gamers are moving from D&D.*


*I'm not saying D&D is going away, or it won't survive, so calm down folks . I'm only saying now more than any other time (except maybe after 4e came out) a lot of fans are looking for something different.

 

[eyeheartawk]

-Strip out, salvage, and ‘convert’ all of your DMs Guild content and website lore that you can.

I think the terms of DMs Guild would stop you from re-purposing the DMs Guild content, right? Wasn't that one of the things that made the whole DMs Guild bargain "bad" in the first place?

 

[Dungeonosophy]

I think the terms of DMs Guild would stop you from re-purposing the DMs Guild content, right? Wasn't that one of the things that made the whole DMs Guild bargain "bad" in the first place?

Would be good to know the details of that.

 

[MGibster]

Maybe the top designers could pull an Image Comics and form their own independent publishing company where creators retain all the rights to their work?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Would be good to know the details of that.

Looks like you can scrub it, but anything you published can still be used based by WotC and other DM's Guild folks on the agreement you made when you first uploaded it.

 

[eyeheartawk]

View attachment 273849

Looks like you can scrub it, but anything you published can still be used based by WotC and other DM's Guild folks on the agreement you made when you first uploaded it.

Isn't there also a prohibition on offering anything you have for sale on DMs Guild anywhere else? Like, even if it contained no WOTC IP?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Isn't there also a prohibition on offering anything you have for sale on DMs Guild anywhere else? Like, even if it contained no WOTC IP?

I seem to recall that, perhaps in the original agreement, but I can't find it now.

 

[BrokenTwin]

It would be interesting to see what he would make after Eberron, and I hope that if he goes that route that it is successful for him. Eberron and Dark Sun were always tied for my favorite D&D settings.

 

[Haplo781]

Not sure if you were referring to the specific news in this post or in general - but for people who aren't aware he did write his own game with it's own system Phoenix Dawn Command

Haven't had a chance to play it, but I've been intrigued by the concept - PCs are people that have have died are returned to life - they can increase in power after additional deaths, but know they can only return a fixed number of times so there's tension of whether now is a time worth sacrificing. Also interesting to see as an alternative card based RPG.

I remember reading comments from Keith that part of the motivation of making Phoenix was to have a creative outlet independent of WOTC/Eberron back before DMs guild was an option. So it would be interesting to see if he goes back to do more with it again.

As for Threshold - I've been interested to see what comes of that project since I heard about it. It would actually fit nicely into my homebrew setting so if he ends up developing it more independent of Eberron it actually might be more useful to me as much as I otherwise love seeing Eberron get expanded.

Card based RPG? Why did nobody tell me?!